Hymie Weiss

Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski, also known as Hymie Weiss (January 25, 1898 – October 11, 1926), was an American mob boss who became a leader of the Prohibition-era North Side Gang and a bitter rival of Al Capone. He was known as 'the only man Al Capone feared'.

Early years

Born Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski in present-day Poland, he grew up on the North Side with his Polish-American family. He was nicknamed "Hymie" and "Hymie the Pole", later in his career. He was Catholic, despite the "Jewish-sounding" moniker (he carried a rosary and a bible). As a teenager, Weiss became a petty criminal. After he upset a fragrance shelf during a botched burglary as a youth, police dubbed him 'The Perfume Burglar'. He befriended an Irish-American teen named Dean O'Banion. With Weiss and George "Bugs" Moran, O'Banion established the North Side Gang, a criminal organization that eventually controlled bootlegging and other illicit activities in the northern part of Chicago.

Personality

When Wojciechowski's brother Fred was questioned about him in 1926, he replied, "I've seen him once in twenty years...that was when he shot me, six years ago." When photographers tried to snap his picture, Wojciechowski would glare at them and say in a low voice, "You take a picture of me and I'll kill you."