A CHICAGO FUNERAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 17 January 1925, Page 3

A CHICAGO FUNERAL

FOR A BOOTLEGGER ASSASSIN

AMAZING UNDERWORLD IMS CLOSURES

NEW YORK, Nov. 20. Chicago is suffering from what the president of its recently appointed Crime Commission describes as an “alarming murder crisis.”

Its condition is illustrated in an amazing lasnion by the scenes at the funeral of Dion O'Bannion, the 32-year-old ruler of its underworld, who, according to the Chief ui Police, was responsible for 23 recent murders, and who himself was murdered early this week without anyone being convicted. More than 10,000 hoot loggers, crooks and professional murderers were. present at fhe cemetery when (lit* remains of file great and wealthy bootlegger H;-jacket'. or robber of bootleggers, and murderer were lowered in a silver coihn, which cost fhe widow more than £2OOO, into a, gorgeous vault. -Mourners—friends and enemies—of the deceased came armed to the fimera! in a thousand motor ears. Floral tributes filled 22 lorries. When ranged around the vault they covered ° acre of ground. lo tho great grief of the widow the use for the occasion of the Cathedral of tin; Holy Name, where the dead man I mice served its a choir-boy, was fovbidi don. So the services were held in the undertaker’s chapel. Inside this building, beside the gorgeous colli it, ranged many of the most noted assassins of Chicago. Tito master of ceremonies was Louis Alliere, the chief lieutenant of O-'Braiinion, who, after.the. murder, publicly proclaimed his wish to “shoot the quarrel out.” Bv his orders the windows of the chapel were opened so that, the vast crowds assembled in the streets and on the roots, where seats tor the ceremony were sold for 4s apiece, could hear the' hjmn.s played by a stringed orchestra composed of the most accomplished jazz aitisls in Chicago.

I he crowds do I fed hats when the cortege moved hi a. procession in whit n armed police in motor ears rode check-bv-jowl with noted criminals.

Ihe only disturbance occurred at the graveside when newspaper photographers tried lo take pictures of the unique scene. They were attacked and hunted away, and' their plates vwe smashed by mourners who hate (he camera worse than they do the Bertillon finger-print system. The floral tributes were covered with •pious and cenlimonta! inscriptions in violets and forget-me-nots. The biggest of them was a seven-foot wall of earnations bearing in gigantic letters the words, “To our pal; from the gang.” Amid the sobs of hundreds of spectators, the splendid eoflin was finadv lowered.

Even Chicago, the scene of the recent Murder for Sport, which retted a sensation throughout the world, a limits that the problem presented by those amazing scenes is an appalling one.

Luminous commentary is offered it; the shape of a “Survey of Gang Life” prepared by Professor Frederick Thrasher of the University of Chicago. He states that fully 100,000 boys arid young men in the city are organised into clubs and gangs, of which here now exist 1313.

Each gang lias its different orders its mysteries, and its secret signs and hand-shakes. One of the most, notorious gangs is called “The Rollers of the Dates. ’ Its members devote themselves to fleecing drunkards. Others are “The Riskv Night Hid ers ’ and “Gang Shags,who pounce upon people going home late at night. Many of these gangs have organisations throughout the country. The possession of great numbers of motor cuts enables them to extend fbeir operations in the rural districts and in outlying towns. Of the groups surveyed the professor reports that 573 meet in streets and alleys, 147 in vacant lots on the canals and river banks or Jake fronts, 368 in club rooms rented or given, 194 in ‘ soda-drink parlors.” “Strangely enough,” adds the professor, “the membership lists include the sons of reputable families in good neighbourhoods.” Many politicians. realising their power, seek to ingratiate themselves with the gangs. The rise of the criminals to wealth he attributes to iho • hibition and tho, opportunities created by hoof legging. The chief of police is dealing wTh the murder crisis in characteristic fashion. He has dismissed half (lie force of (lie detective bureau and organised special squads with orders “not to trouble about hiking gangs to court hut to mete out justice to them in alleys and soda drink parlours or whether they are found.” By these methods lie is quoted as saving, “Work will be furnished, rot for lawyers, but for the hospital.”