Earl Weiss - Definition and Overview

Earl "Hymie" Weiss (1898 - October 10, 1926) was a Chicago mobster and rival of Al Capone. Weiss was born in Chicago to a Polish emigrants family as Earl Wojciechowski, the family having changed their last name upon emigrating to the United States in the early 1900s (he earned the nickname "Hymie" only later in his career). Many sources incorrectly have Weiss born in Poland, however his mother was born in New York.

Hymie Weiss began engaging in petty crime in his teens before ultimately befriending Chicago mobster Dion O'Banion. It was through O'Banion that Weiss was to meet Bugs Moran and become one of the preeminent leaders of the notorious North Side gang. The North Siders had frequent confrontations with Capone, which eventually led to the assassination of O'Banion by Capone's associates in 1924.

In early 1925, Weiss himself made an attempt on the life of Capone in retaliation for O'Banion's murder, but failed. In October of 1926, Weiss was gunned down from an upstairs window while crossing the road outside his headquarters in Chicago, a victim of an Capone hit. He was 28 years old.

External links

• http://www.hymieweiss.com