Augie's Chicago

“I had in mind a boyhood friend from Augusta Street in Chicago of the mid-’20s.”
—Saul Bellow, Saul Bellow: Letters

Quicklinks: The Places | The People | The Information

The Places

Explore Augie March’s Chicago with an interactive map complete with quotes, background information and images from past and present.

The People

Aiello brothers – Led by Joe (1891–1930), the brothers owned a bakery and a candy shop and eventually became sugar suppliers to bootleggers. The brothers had a bloody feud with Al Capone and other Chicago gangsters.

• “Joe Aiello Slain in Ambush.” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 24, 1930, p. 1.
• “…one of the Aiello brothers had been found shot to death in his roadster. There was a big spread about it in the ‘Examiner’…” (p. 94)

James Colosimo (1877–1920) – Mob boss before Capone, he was murdered in 1920 by an unknown assailant.

• “Seek Colosimo Riches Today in Deposit Boxes.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 17, 1920, p. 17.
• “…keeping up with what was happening around Colossimo [sic] and Capone in Cicero and the North Side O’Bannions [sic]…” (p. 22)

Genna brothers – A vicious gang of six Sicilian brothers with a successful bootlegging business, they were major players in Chicago’s gangland wars of the 1920s.

• Sifakis, Carl. “Genna Brothers.” Encyclopedia of American Crime, 2nd edition, Facts on File, 2000.
• “He [Bluegren] could be rude and bitter, very shrewish sometimes, especially after an important murder of a Genna or Aiello. And a lot of guys were shot that winter.” (p. 52)

Dion O’Banion (1892–1924) – Charismatic bootlegger and North Side gang leader, he was an adversary of Al Capone and was gunned down in the flower shop he owned.

• Baughman, Judith S., et al., editors. “O’Banion, Dion Patrick, 1891–1924.” American Decades, v. 3 (1920–1929), Gale, 2001.
• “…that being about the time when O’Bannion [sic] was knocked off among his flowers by somebody who kept his gun-hand in a friendly grip…” (p. 22)

William Hale Thompson (1869–1944) – The notoriously corrupt Republican was mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and 1927 to 1931.

• Biles, Roger. “Thompson, William Hale.” American National Biography Online, Oxford University Press, February 2000.
• “Big Bill Sets His Big Rats on His Old Pals.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 7, 1926.

Johnny Torrio (1882–1957) – A saloon and brothel keeper, gangster and Prohibition-era bootlegger, he established the West Side syndicate and was a mentor to Al Capone.

• “Torrio Is Shot; Police Hunt for O’Banion Men.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 25, 1925.
• “…Dion O’Bannion [sic], who was a florist himself after a fashion and was knocked off in his own shop by three men said to have been sent by Johnny Torrio…” (p. 52)

The Information

Daily News – This evening penny paper was founded by Melville E. Stone and published by Victor F. Lawson.

Examiner – A morning paper owned by William Randolph Hearst that began in 1902, later changing its name to the Herald-Examiner in 1918. It ceased publication in 1939.

Jewish Courier – This Yiddish and English newspaper was founded in Chicago in 1887.

Tribune – Founded in 1847 as the Chicago Daily Tribune, this was the city’s most widely read newspaper.