(In)Famous Mobster of the Week: Dion O’Banion

Dion O’Banion. Born in the Chicago area (there are conflicting reports as to where) in 1892, O’Banion (whose real name was Dean) grew up in Chicago and became a singing waiter at McGovern’s Saloon and Cabaret, a mobster hangout. Fellow Irish-American Gene Geary, a notorious gunman, took O’Banion under his wing and taught him gunplay and racketeering. Soon enough, O’Banion became the leader of the North Side Gang in Chicago during the bootlegging heyday of the 1920s. His chief rival was Johnny Torrio (Capone’s mentor), and after a perceived double-cross at O’Banion’s flower shop (a guise for his bootlegging operation), Torrio was sent to jail. Capone dispatched three underlings to murder O’Banion at that same shop in 1924.

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