Murder at Lunt and Clark, Part 4

 The Bookie Gang Comes to an End

Click here to read Part 1
Click here to read Part 2
Click here to read Part 3

Neal Summers

The gang responsible for the murders of Rogers Park Detectives George Hellstern and Charles Brady specialized in robbing the Chicago syndicate.  Which is to say they mainly robbed other criminals.  So while the Chicago police were gathering evidence and shaping their investigation to find who had murdered two of their own, the Chicago Mob had a parallel investigation into the same group.  In fact, the syndicate had their own internal police force with tactics similar to those of the legitimate police.  Arrest by one group would at least lead to a trial.  The other, not so much.

Virgil Summers

The first time the police became aware of this particular gang was after a February, 1945 robbery of the Surf Lounge, at Broadway and Surf in the Lakeview neighborhood. An informant notified them that the job was pulled by "two hillbilly brothers," who were partnering with someone known as "Bad Eye."  The hillbilly brothers were Neal and Virgil Summers, from Mount Vernon, IL.   Both Summers brothers had long criminal records.  After Virgil's release from Menard Prison in December of 1943 (for murder, if you were wondering) both brothers came to Chicago.

After the Surf Lounge robbery the Summers left town, only to return in August when they began to organize a gang for more ambitious jobs.

James Kelley

The police investigators began to put together a picture of the Summers brothers, visiting their preferred hangouts at Madison and Paulina.  This was Chicago's old Skid Row, which extended West on Madison from the river . They frequented saloons, questioned acquaintances and listened in to conversations.  They put together names and nicknames, and compared their findings with the records available at their bureau of identification.

The gang formed rapidly.  At Menard the Summers brothers had known James Kelley, and they invited him to join them.   Neal Summers met Renoro Lolli at a place known as "Banana's Saloon" soon after Lolli had quit his job as a bartender and made clear his plans to return to armed robbery.  Soon they were joined by Christ Perres, Steve the Greek (a relative of Perres), Richard Todd and Grover Dullard.  Most of these men had been in prison together.  The gang met at a north side hotel where Perres ran into Tiny Mazzanars (called "Tiny" because he weighed 250 pounds) whom he had known in the penitentiary.  Tiny joined up, bringing in his partner, the ill-fated Red Smith.

Richard Todd

The gang had plenty of members but needed a machine gun, which was not a weapon readily available to civilians.  Lolli has been drinking in Banana's Saloon when he met a coast guard sailor.  "I'm a farmer," said Lolli unconvincingly, "I need a machine gun to kill foxes and wolves on my farm."  A few days later the sailor returned with a machine gun, which he sold for $135.

Grover Dullard

When the gang robbed bookies they always took their trousers.  "They're cagey," Lolli later told police.  "They have secret pockets, so we took the pants and searched them when we had time.  Once we found $3,000 extra this way."  Lolli's ambition was to steal $100,000 and retire to a small town where he would marry a widow and become a businessman.  He had proposed a complicated plan to rob half a million dollars from an International Harvester plant in Fort Wayne, IN, but the gang felt it would require too many men.

Apparently you could be fired from a gang.  Neal Summers was dropped because had the habit of getting drunk along Madison Street and telling hostesses how tough he was.  Richard Todd was dropped after being sent to case a gambling place near 63rd and Dorchester, where he incorrectly reported a police presence.

In early November of 1945 Detective Smicklas saw Virgil Summers, Kelly and Dullard talking at Madison and Paulina.  He took them to the detective bureau where they were photographed.  They were soon released, but police kept checking on their activities.

On November 30th Mazzanars convinced the gang to hit the payroll truck of the Mars Candy company, where he had once worked.  But they were 5 minutes late and the truck had gone.  Punctuality is valuable in all professions...They made plans to return on December 7th.

Renoro Lolli

But on the afternoon of December 7th Detective Smicklas again saw Kelly walking down Madison with Lolli.  At that point he had a description of Lolli, so he stopped to question them.  Searching Lolli he found a laundry list with an address of 6311 S. Eggleston.  He dismissed Kelly and took Lolli to the bureau.  Apparently search and seizure had a lower bar in the 1940s.

While Lolli was being held a squad was dispatched to the Eggleston address.  There, in  a suitcase, detectives found a machine gun, a shotgun, three revolvers, two automatics, two masks, several boxes of ammunition, and an army uniform.

Kelly, no legal slouch, telephoned attorney Louis Gould to petition Chief Justice Harold G. Ward of Criminal court for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Lolli, which would presumably force the police to release him.  But it was too late.  Confronted with the circumstantial evidence the police had gathered at his home Lolli confessed to various handbook robberies, and he began to name names.  Once the news was published in the papers the syndicate would know exactly how to find him and his confederates.  He requested no bond and no lawyer.  After being implicated Kelly was soon picked up by police again.

3402 W. Lyndale

Once he had decided to cooperate Lolli explained the gang's robbery procedure, first stealing a car and hiding it for a day or two, then using it in a robbery before getting rid of it.  He admitted that the gang currently had a car ready at 2230 W. Belmont, near where Tiny Mazzanars lived.  At that point Lolli was handcuffed to a detective and driven to Mazannar's apartment at 3402 W. Lyndale.  Lolli pointed out Mazzanars rooms on the second floor.  Two more police squads were dispatched to the building and they waited.  At 10:15 p.m. a car drove up and stopped in front of 3402.

Tools in the basement.

Tiny and Perres got out and walked south down the alley to unlock a garage.  The police followed them.  "Put 'em up," the detective said, "we're police."  Despite the element of surprise Mazzanars somehow got his gun out and fired eight shots, hitting nothing.  He ran north towards Lyndale with Perres close behind.

Detective Moss sat in the squad car handcuffed to Lolli.  Seeing Tiny emerge from the alley he pulled his gun and fired right through the windshield.   Tiny staggered, shot through the shoulder.  He managed to run a half block before collapsing.  Moss jerked Lolli out of the car and began to shoot at Perres as he emerged frm the alley.  Perres stopped short, bewildered to be fired upon from an unexpected direction.  Officer Pape then emerged from the alley, took aim and shot him through the head.  Perres fell to the street, dead.

In Tiny's apartment police found a nickel plated revolver and a rifle.  In the basement they found three sledge hammers and a pair of rubber gloves.  On a basement rafter detectives found an old salt bag with parts of a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver.  Remembering the weapon used for the murders in Rogers Park the officers questioned Tiny more closely.  Finally Tiny broke, naming Red Smith as the murderer of the detectives and admitting the gang later killed him out of fear he would give them up.  He agreed to lead the police to Smith's grave near Schiller Park in exchange for leniency.  Knowing this was good publicity the police invited Chicago Tribune reporters and photographers to join them.

A- Road that killers followed to get tow truck.  B- Killer's route of departure. C- Where gang stalled in mud.  D- Smith's grave.

When Tiny Mazzanars decided to talk he didn't stop.  He went on to describe how the gang has successfully raided a number of handbooks and gambling joints.  He told one story in particular, included here because of the vivid way it recalls the era:

From left: E. Smicklas, N. Juric,  Mazzanars (pointing to grave) and J. Alcock.

In October Lolli, Kelley and Perres set out to rob a west side handbook.  Kelley carried a sub-machine gun.  The door opened at their knock but was slammed shut when the attendants saw the guns.  Perres was in the lead and his shoe was caught in the closed door, trapping him.  Using a knife he cut off the top of the shoe and fled, leaving his shoe behind.  Ten days later Kelly was in a tavern at Madison and Laflin when four armed men told him to "Get your coat.  We want to talk to you."  They drove him to a west side house where  a number of customers and gamblers had been assembled.  They looked at Kelly, but weren't able to identify him.  "We have a shoe lost by a robber," he was told.  "If it fits you, you'll never wear another pair."   They then placed Perres' shoe on his right foot, but it didn't fit.  He was told him to watch his step and sent on his way. 

After these well-publicized collars the police moved to mop up the rest of the gang.  On January 9th the police picked up Neal Summers on the corner of Ashland and Madison. James Kelly was soon apprehended.  Several of the members of the gang remained at-large, but at this point the newspapers seemed to lose interest.

In June of 1945 the judge handed down a 30 year sentence to Lolli and a 25 year sentence to Mazzanars for the murder of Red Smith.  Both men had signed confessions.  James Kelly received one year for car theft. The Summers brothers were apparently never sentenced for their role in organizing and leading the Bookie Gang. But that's not to say they went on to have a long and profitable lives.

In 1946 Virgil Summers was arrested with Bugs Moran (an old-time rival of Al Capone) for robberies in Dayton, Ohio.James Kelly was shot and killed by police in 1952. Neal Summers was shot and killed in Chicago (probably by the mob) in December of 1962.

By this time the Bookie Gang had become just another chapter in the violent history of Chicago.

Murder at Lunt and Clark, Part 3

Click here to read Part 1
Click here to read Part 2

November 29, 1945

Cecil "Red" Smith

"Guys, where are we going?" asked Red Smith.  What's the plan tonight?" Everyone maintained an icy silence.  "Is this a suburban job?"  Silence.  He didn't ask again.

It was a cold, drizzly night in Chicago. Tiny Mazzanars was driving, and Red Smith was riding shotgun.  In the back were Renoro Lolli and Christ Perres.  All four were members of a gang specializing in handbook robberies, preferring to rob payroll and receipts of the gambling syndicate.  They weren't above a random armed robbery, which Red assumed was the plan for this evening. Tiny kept driving west along Irving Park.  The stores, apartments, and city street lights soon gave way to a dark road, made even darker by a thickening fog. Tiny turned north onto a narrow dirt road. Although it was just past Chicago's city limits, it felt a world away from the streets of Rogers Park.

Lawrence "Tiny" Mazzanars

Tiny Mazzanars and Red Smith had been working together when Tiny was invited to join the handbook robbery gang.  He vouched for his friend Red and brought him in, too. It turned out that Red already knew one other member of the group--James Kelley.  The men got acquainted in the Joliet Penitentiary, where Red had served 5 sentences since 1916.  Kelley knew Red was not above acting as an informant if it was in his best interests.  But that didn't matter too much until September 2nd, when Red shot two Chicago detectives on the corner of Lunt and Clark.

James Kelley

Red and Tiny had cased the drug store at the southeast corner of Lunt and Clark on Saturday, September 1st. It was a busy location, and the manager had a predictable schedule. He tallied the week's receipts on Sunday night, and, then, come Monday morning, he took all of the cash to the local bank. If they could catch him on Sunday night, just as he was locking up, they could escort him back into the store and leave with a week's worth of earnings. It was a perfect plan.

On September 2nd at 11 p.m. they parked their car on Lunt Avenue.  Tiny stood on the northeast corner, while Red waited across the street right in front of the drugstore.  Just as their setup was complete, Detectives Brady and Hellstern walked by looking for their Peeping Tom.  They immediately noticed Red acting suspiciously and identified themselves as police officers. Recognizing trouble, Tiny began to walk west on Lunt.  He was less than a block away when he heard the gun shots. Red had shot and killed both detectives. As a crowd began to gather, Tiny got into his car unobserved and drove away.

North Avenue Bridge, where they tossed the gun.

Tiny visited several bars in the area looking for Red, but he didn't find him until the next day.  Red had hidden the murder weapon in a backyard.  A week later, they both went to retrieve it. They dismantled the weapon and dropped the barrel and some other pieces into the Chicago River at the North Avenue Bridge.  Tiny took some parts with him as spares, and stashed them in the basement rafters of his apartment building on Lyndale.

Renoro Lolli

In the meantime, the police kicked their investigation into high gear.  Renoro Lolli and James Kelley were pulled in and questioned on unrelated charges.  Kelly knew that if Red were picked up there was a good chance he would confess to the shooting and "squeal" about his involvement in the handbook robbery gang, endangering Lolli, Kelley, and the other members of the group. It wasn't long before Red Smith saw Kelley, Lolli, and his good friend Tiny huddled together, talking quietly.  They fell silent when they saw him watching. As a joke, Kelley started to refer to him as "Squealer." Red pretended to find it funny, but he became increasingly nervous around the other members of the gang.

What Red didn't know that night in the car--but may have suspected--was that the location of his grave had already been chosen.  Shovels and pick axes were in the trunk. James Kelley, who had suggested the murder, decided not to get his hands dirty. "Three of you is plenty to murder one man," he said. "There's no need for me to go along."

Extrapolated Route, using 1939 Aerial Photo

As the car drove north along River Road, Christ Perres leaned forward from the back seat and placed the muzzle of his gun against Red Smith's head.  His gun jammed.  Renorro Lolli was ready.  Before he fired he said, "You're a rat and a stool pigeon, and we're going to let you have it."  Then he shot twice.  One bullet struck the back of Red's head behind his left ear, and the other went into the rear of the seat.

They continued to drive north, then turned west onto Lawrence Avenue.  After the explosion of bullets, the car seemed deathly quiet.  Red Smith slumped forward. They drove a block west on Lawrence and then pulled off into a corn field.  Tiny dug the grave, deep enough so that Red wouldn't be caught in the plow.  It was the least he could do.

Christ Perres

The unpleasant work done, they returned to their car, only to find that it was stuck in the cold, late November mud.  After trying to push their car out they flagged down a bus and rented a tow truck to retrieve their car.  A homicide, a corn field burial, a city bus ride, and a middle-of-the-night tow truck rental, and, somehow, no farmers, neighbors, bus drivers, or Schiller Park police officers became suspicious. Once their car was freed from the mud, they all headed back to Chicago. Perhaps they wondered whether the gang was truly safer now.  Or maybe they didn't think about it at all.  Soon, snow began to fall, covering Red Smith's grave.  He had outlived Detectives Hellstern and Brady by less than 3 months.

Part 4 will detail how the police solved the case and broke the gang.  And there's a shootout!

As usual, information was taken from historic Chicago Tribune articles.  Some literary license has been taken...

Murder at Lunt and Clark, Part 2

Click here to read Part 1

September 3, 1945

Brady Residence                 Hellstern Residence

The investigation of the double-murder at Lunt and Clark was immediately underway.  Based on the dying description of his victim, the murderer was 30 or 35 years old, about 5 feet 10 inches in height, with a dirty complexion, a slouch hat, blue shirt, and dark trousers.  He wore a single black rubber glove on his left hand, suggesting that he may have had an artificial or injured hand.

Three people claimed to have seen the killer.  Elmer Leitner, 22, of 1772 W. Estes, Paul Piro, 18, of 1908 W. Estes, and Opal Hamann, of 6959 N. Clark. They corroborated Detective Brady's description, but didn't add much new information.

Mrs. Brady                             Mrs. Hellstern

Police Commissioner Allman swore that the department would not rest until the killer was captured.  Five suspects were rounded up, two of whom wore gloves over artificial left hands.

As the police investigated, the families grieved. At that time, widows of police killed in the line of duty received $10,000, along with $1,800 per year until their youngest child reached the age of 18.  Converted into today's values that would translate to a lump sum of $132,000 and $24,000 per year. Of course, no amount of money could replace the loss of a husband or father.

September 4

Location of Inquest

At the request of Captain Michael Ahern, an inquest into the murders was held at the John E. Maloney Funeral Home at 1359 W. Devon.  The inquest was an opportunity for the police to explain their lines of investigation and discuss additional evidence, including a ballistics report.  Mrs. Brady and Mrs. Hellstern both attended this session, hoping to learn more about what had happened to their husbands.

The inquest pointed to a potential motive. At the time of his death, Detective Hellstern had over $3,000 in cash in his pocket.  His fellow officers noted that he distrusted banks.  Could his murder have been a hold-up that went bad?  Did the man with the black rubber glove know that Detective Hellstern would be carrying a large sum of money that night? What was he planning to buy? It wasn't clear, and his wife never gave an explanation of why he was carrying the modern day equivalent of $39,000 as he was walking down Clark Street.

Boundaries of the Search

September 5

In an effort to gather additional evidence, the police began a systematic interview of every individual in the Rogers Park community. Officers swarmed through the streets, the local Rogers Park force augmented by squads from the detective bureau, the homicide bureau, and even the park district.  All told there were 127 uniformed policeman and 10 plainclothes detectives working on this case.  These officers were sent on a house-by-house investigation throughout the neighborhood, interviewing local community members about the crime. Their search turned up Mel Ogren, who had been bowling that night at the corner of Lunt and Ravenswood, and witnessed the exchange of gunfire on his walk home.  He was positive there had been no glove, contradicting several eye witness accounts.

September 8

Sherwood Wolf, 19

A few days later, Sherwood J. Wolf, 19, of 7006 N. Paulina was arrested.  Mr. Wolf was supposedly the Peeping Tom that the detectives had been on their way to investigate.  Maybe he was a little creepy, but the police quickly discovered that he had nothing to do with the murders. It was a dead end. To share the killer's description more widely, the police generated a sketch based upon the statements given by witnesses. Since forensic artists were still rather uncommon, the portrait was drawn by an artist friend of Captain Ahern.  It
was displayed at the Rogers Park police station.

September 9

Eight additional witnesses identified in the canvassing of the neighborhood were interviewed by police. Paul McMahon of 1648 W. Lunt confirmed that the shooter had a glove on his left hand.

By the end of September, the police had little to show for their community-wide manhunt. After hundreds of interviews, the arrest of Sherwood Wolf, and some new eye witness testimony, all they had was an amateur sketch of the perpetrator, a half-baked theory about a robbery, and a fruitless search for a man with a glove on his left hand.  But the case would come roaring back into the headlines on December 14th when the events of that evening would finally be revealed, along with the identity of the murderer. 

Part 3 to follow.

Information above is taken from a series of Chicago Tribune articles accessed through the Chicago Public Library.

Murder at Lunt and Clark, Part 1

September 2, 1945

At 11 p.m. Detectives George Hellstern and his partner Charles Brady were walking down Clark Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.  Earlier that day, Japan had formally surrendered to the Allies, ending WWII, and, while the celebrations were more subdued than they had been a few weeks earlier, the atmosphere in Rogers Park was cheerful on that cool autumn night. A waning crescent moon could be seen in the cloudy skies.

Crosses indicate where the detectives fell.  The arrow shows the route of the assailant.

A- Police Station, B- Peeping Tom, C- Shooting

The detectives had been sent to investigate a report of a "Peeping Tom" at 7022 N. Paulina. Since the police station was then located at southeast corner of Clark and Estes (a topic of a previous blog post), the detectives walked south along Clark Street. It was the end of their shift, and they probably intended to head home after taking a statement.

At Lunt and Clark, they saw a man in front of the corner drug store with a dirty face and a glove on his left hand.  Detectives Hellstern and Brady crossed to the southeast corner and identified themselves as police officers.   In response, the man pulled out a revolver and began to fire.  Detective Hellstern was hit.  He managed to fire three bullets at the man before dying on the sidewalk.  Detective Brady was also hit.  He fired two shots at the man as he fled down Lunt Avenue.  In less than a minute the violent exchange was over. 

Unobserved at the time, a black car across the street started up and drove away.

Charles Brady, 36

Paul McMahon, a friend of Detective Brady, heard the gunfire and ran to the intersection.  Brady handed him his gun and told him to shoot at the suspect.  McMahon ran half a block east on Lunt and fired once into a dark alley.  He never saw the face of the assailant.

A district patrol wagon crew returning from another assignment was stopped by cries from a gathering crowd. Brady had time to give his account of the incident before he was rushed to St. Francis hospital in Evanston, where he received numerous blood transfusions.  He died 3 ½ hours later.

George Hellstern, 52

Witnesses remained to give their statements to the police, but the shooter was long gone.

Detective Hellstern left behind a wife and two daughters.  Detective Brady a wife and 9 children, with another on the way. 

Soon, the full force of the Chicago Police Department would be directed to this case, resulting in a massive manhunt for the murderer.  Eventually, their police work would reveal one of Chicago’s many networks of organized crime in the 1940s.

Part 2 forthcoming.

The above information is taken from Chicago Tribune articles accessed online through the Chicago Public Library.  Portraits are adapted from published Tribune images.