Shelton Brothers Gang
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The Shelton Brothers Gang was an early Prohibition bootlegging gang based in southern Illinois and were the main rivals of bootlegger Charles Birger.
Formed by Earl, Carl, and Bernie Shelton shortly after Prohibition came into effect in 1920, the gang operated in Williamson County, Illinois making moonshine and other illegal liquor. They eventually dominated liquor distribution in East St. Louis, Illinois until former ally, New York gangster Charles Birger, attempted to take over the Shelton Brothers bootlegging operations in 1926 beginning a violent gang war, which saw both gangs use converted armored trucks and included one incident of a bombing raid by the Sheltons on Birger's Shady Rest headquarters, over control of bootlegging in southern Illinois.
Despite having over fifty gunmen, the Shelton Brothers were unable to compete against Birger and, by 1928, based on the testimony of Charles Birger and Art Newman, the Shelton Brothers were convicted for a 1925 unsolved mail carrier robbery of $15,000 and were sentenced to 25 years. Soon after the gang slowly disappeared as Birger dominated bootlegging in southern Illinois until he himself was hanged for the murder of West City, Illinois Mayor Joe Adams in 1928.
After their release, Carl and Bernie Shelton would be murdered in 1947 and 1948 respectively, by former gang member Frank "Buster" Wortman who would eventually take over the Sheltons operations dominating St. Louis's illegal gambling and other criminal activities until his death in 1968.
[edit] Further reading
- Paul M. Angle, Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1952. ISBN 0-252-06233-7
- Pensoneau, Taylor. Brothers Notorious: The Sheltons - Southern Illinois' Legendary Gangsters. New Berlin, Illinois: Downstate Publications, 2002.
- Theising, Andrew J. Made in USA: East St. Louis, the Rise and Fall of an Industrial River Town. St. Louis: Virginia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-891442-21-X
- United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce: Hearings before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. 1950. [1]
[edit] References
- Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
- Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
