Roger Touhy

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Roger Touhy (1898 - December 17, 1959) was a prohibition era gangster in Chicago.

1 Early years
2 Touhy the Terrible
3 Framed
4 External links

[edit] Early years

Born in Chicago, Roger was youngest of seven children of a poor but honest policeman, James Touhy, a native of Ireland. Roger lost his mother by an accidental stove explosion when he was still an infant. He enlisted in the U. S. Navy in World War I and was stationed at Harvard University as a Morse code instructor to Navy officers.

After his discharge, Roger went to Oklahoma, where he made money in the oil well boom. He then returned to Chicago, and married Clara Morgan in 1923.

[edit] Touhy the Terrible

After his marriage, Roger Touhy started a trucking firm with his brothers Tommy and Eddie. With the onset of prohibition, the Touhy brothers began distributing illegal beer and liquor. Taking control of distribution in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Touhy hired a top chemist to establish his own brewery. Touhy and his partner, Matt Kolb, produced what was considered the best prohibition beer in the Midwest.

In 1926, Touhy expanded into illegal gambling by installing hundreds of slot machines in saloons throughout the Chicago suburbs. By this time, Al Capone was ordering hundreds of barrels of beer from Touhy.

However, Capone soon decided to take over Touhy's operations and make them a part of his own. Capone sent two of his men, Frank Rio and Willie Heeney, to negotiate a takeover. While meeting with the Capone men at Touhy's headquarters, a parade of farmers and off duty policemen, all hired by Touhy, marched through Touhy's offices brandishing submachine guns and shotguns. Touhy himself spent most of his time on the telephone pretending to order "hits" on other gang members.

The show of force unnerved Capone's men, who reported back that Touhy's gang had hundreds of gunmen. Capone decided that any direct takeover of Touhy's saloons would come at too high a price in blood. It was during this time that Touhy gained his nickname, "Touhy the Terrible".

In 1931, the frustrated Capone ordered Matt Kolb kidnapped and killed. In 1933, Capone went after Roger Touhy, having corrupt law enforcement officers arrest Touhy for the kidnapping of William A. Hamm, a crime that had actually been committed by the Barker brothers. However, Touhy and three others were found not guilty.

[edit] Framed

Soon after being found innocent, Touhy was arrested again, this time for the kidnapping of Jake "The Barber" Factor, a brother of Max Factor, Sr, the famous makeup manufacturer. Jake Factor himself had set up the fake kidnapping so that Touhy could be wrongly convicted and sent to prison. With "Touhy the Terrible" safely in prison, Al Capone could move in and take over the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

This time, Touhy and three others were convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison. The testimony at his trial was later found to be perjured. Over the next decade Touhy filed appeals, spending his entire bootleg fortune on legal fees.

On October 9, 1942, Touhy and six other men escaped from prison. After being free for a month, Touhy and the others were discovered living in a Chicago Boarding house. Two of the prisoners tried to fight their way out and were killed. Touhy and the others surrendered peacefully. Reportedly, the reason for Touhy's peaceful surrender was the booming voice of the agent responsible for his surrender, Joseph Carroll.

In early 1943 Fox Studios produced a largely fictitious film called Roger Touhy, Last of the Gangsters. Touhy successfully sued the film makers for defamation of character, but Fox simply responded by distributing the film overseas.

In November 1959, Touhy was finally found innocent of all charges and released from prison. Just 28 days later, however, Roger Touhy and his bodyguard were gunned down by mob hitmen. Touhy's autobiography, The Stolen Years, was published in 1959.