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Cicero, the Hawthorne Inn, and the Empire Capone Built
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Al Capone didn't just bribe a town — he seized one at gunpoint on election day, then built a hundred-million-dollar criminal empire from a bulletproof hotel in Cicero. This is the chapter where a Brooklyn apprentice becomes the most powerful gangster in American history.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
What does it take to turn a whole town into your personal property? Not to bribe a few officials.
Before we get to Cicero, the key point here is understanding how quickly Al Capone moved from nobody to everything. We covered the early arc in the previous episode.
Here's the situation Capone inherited, and the problem it created. Chicago itself was a delicate arrangement.
What happened in Cicero on April first, nineteen twenty-four is documented. It was witnessed by hundreds of people.
With the election settled, Capone moved his headquarters to Cicero. Specifically, to the Hawthorne Inn at four eight three three West Twenty-Second Street.
On September twentieth, nineteen twenty-six, the North Side Gang tested that infrastructure. The North Side Gang had been Capone's primary rival since the murder of their leader, Dion O'Banion, back in nineteen twenty-four.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre didn't happen in Cicero.
By nineteen thirty, the federal government had settled on its strategy. Not bootlegging.
Prison didn't rehabilitate Capone. It destroyed him.
There's a clean line running from the Brooklyn street corners to the Palm Island house, but the pivot point is Cicero. The election coup of April nineteen twenty-four wasn't just a power grab.
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