Gangster in our Midst

Betty B Passick

Description

Marshal Sweeney Delaney was just a rookie in his small Iowa town when Congress ratified the 18th Amendment. Prohibition threw the whole nation into a tailspin. Even teetotaling Christians jumped on the bandwagon and began making panther piss in a still behind the barn. Then—a Chicago gangster came to town. His name: Louie La Cava. Sweeney followed the adage: Keep your friends close; your enemies closer. Two old friends are part of his inner circle: Walter Bierkoff, a farmer and man of keen curiosity, and the perspicacious Father John Halpin, priest at the I. C. Catholic Church.

Chapter One | Three Fingers 1

Chapter Two | Mystery Man 8

Chapter Three | Oxbow Village — 1928 14

Chapter Four | Marshal Sweeney Delaney 19

Chapter Five | Coffin Café 25

Chapter Six | Dirt Roads 32

Chapter Seven | The Arrangement 40

Chapter Eight | At The Opera House 51

Chapter Nine | Visitor At Three A.M. 58

Chapter Ten | Hayward 67

Chapter Eleven | The Drowning 75

Chapter Twelve | Kill The Sonofabitch 82

Chapter Thirteen | Winters Without Mercy 90

Chapter Fourteen | Landing A Sailfish 95

Chapter Fifteen | Christmas — 1931 105

Chapter Sixteen | Lucy Ann Dean Wiltse Minton 125

Chapter Seventeen | A Nickel An Ante 130

Chapter Eighteen | Even The Sparrows 140

Chapter Nineteen | The Duck Blind 150

Chapter Twenty | Morning Train 157

Chapter Twenty One | Storm On The Horizon 164

Chapter Twenty Two | Boxing On The Island Park 169

Chapter Twenty Three | Guilty Plea 175

Chapter Twenty Four | Epitome of Evil 179

Chapter Twenty Five | While You Were Gone 183

Chapter Twenty Six | Homecoming 189

Chapter Twenty Seven | Redemption and Grace 194

Chapter Twenty Eight | A Long Shadow 204

Chapter Twenty Nine | Face In The Crowd 209

Author’s Note and Acknowledgements 217

Comments 221

Sujets

• Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Great Depression
• Lawlessness
• Religious war
• Forgiveness
• Midwestern United States
• World War II
• Christianity
• Love Story
• Middle West
• Farmer
• Prohibition
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: BBPCOM
• Date de parution: 12 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780999263525
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

GANGSTER
in our
MIDST

an historical novel





Betty Brandt Passick

Copyright © 2019 by Betty Brandt Passick, BBPCOM, INC.
All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing.
Please contact “Permissions” at [e-mail].

First Edition: August 5, 2017, Book1One.com
Second Edition: April 10, 2018 (re-edited to accommodate additional stories)
Third Edition: January 15, 2019 (modified front & back book covers)
ISBN: 978-0-9992635-3-2 (CreateSpace)
ISBN: 978-0-9992635-2-5 (E-Book)
Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Printed in the U.S.A

Book cover and interior: Lance Buckley Design
Map by Betty Brandt Passick

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Read more about historical Fairbank, Iowa, the town that inspired Oxbow, at www.bettybrandtpassick.com.











Dedicated to the brave and courageous people worldwide who live, work and raise families amidst criminal elements and war.











Based on a true story.
Contents
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Author’s Note and Acknowledgements
Comments

Cast of Characters

1928
Tuffy Adams (Evelyn, wife): Oxbow Creamery owners
Ed Allen: Bon Ton owner
Albert Anselmi: One of the Chicago Outfit’s most successful hitmen in Prohibition-era Chicago; he and Giovanni “John” Scalise were known as the “killer twins,” believed to have killed Capone’s gangster rival Dion O’Banion in 1924
“Baby”: Marshall Delaney’s Ford Model T car
Robert Bentley: Old Grist Mill owner
Emma Bierkoff (Walter, husband; sons: Leonard & Samuel): Farmers wife (with tuberculosis)
John Bierkoff (Onnallee, wife; brother to Walter Bierkoff): Farming neighbor to Walter & Emma Bierkoff
Leonard Bierkoff: Eldest son of Walter & Emma Bierkoff, brother to Samuel; I.C. school student/baseball pitcher
Walter Bierkoff (Emma, wife; sons: Leonard & Samuel): Farmer
John Bierkoff (Onnallee, wife; brother to Walter Bierkoff): Farming neighbor to Walter & Emma Bierkoff
Bill Biggs: Bon Ton employee-baker; baseball umpire
Billy Bundy (Gina, sister): I.C. school student
Alphonse “Scarface” Capone (Mary Mae, wife; “Sunny,” son): Chicago Outfit Don (1925-1931)
Frank Capone (Al Capone’s brother): Gangster (killed in 1924 Chicago election skirmish)
Ralph “Bottles” Capone (Al Capone’s older brother): Gangster (best known for his Cotton Club in Chicago)
“Fats” Arnold Coffin (Gert, wife): Barber Shop co-owner/barber
Aunt Gert Coffin (Arnold, husband): Coffin Cafe co-owner
Calvin Coolidge: 30th President of the United States (1923–1929)
Mrs. Crawley: Leehey’s Cash Store employee
Vera Cummings: Oxbow public school student
Phillip D’Andrea: Gangster (Al Capone’s private bodyguard)
Olivia Delaney (Sweeney, husband; Vanessa, daughter): Coffin Café employee; president of Phythian Sisters
Sweeney Delaney (Olivia, wife; Vanessa, daughter): Oxbow town marshal (1916-1949)
Vanessa Delaney (Sweeney & Olivia, parents): Oxbow public school student
Emmett Durham (Son of Frank Durham): Oxbow public school student; newspaper delivery boy
Frank “Francis” Durham (Father of Emmett Durham): Emerson Grain Co./John Deere Implement owner-manager
Dr. G. C. Eickelberg: Oxbow dentist
Clara Fenne: Oxbow pharmacist
Barney Finkle: Farmer (neighbor to Bierkoffs and Schumers)
John Gardner: Oxbow mayor (1927-1936); Stockyards owner
Charles Grantham (Bethel, wife): Oxbow Opera House owner; Oxbow View newspaper owner-publisher; boxing promoter: patent holder
Jake “Greasy Thumb” Gusik: Gangster (Al Capone’s most trusted advisor and brains of the Chicago Outfit, treasurer and financial genius)
Delbert Habercamp: Farmer
Fr. John Q. Halpin: I.C. Church priest (1915-1931)
Herbert Hoover: 31st President of the United States (1929–1933)
Mary Huegnot: Oxbow beauty shop owner
Capt. Michael Hughes: Chicago Police Department chief (promoted to chief following the gang murder of Dion O’Banion in 1924)
M. E. “Bee” Leehey (Georgiana, wife): Leehey’s Cash Store owners
Louie La Cava (Josephine “Jess,” wife; eldest son of Pasquale “Patrick” and Maria Tripol La Cava): Gangster (secretary, bookkeeper, lieutenant, and hit man for Al Capone & John Torrio)
Geraldine Lehmkuhl: Daughter of Melvin Lehmkuhl, whose family lived above family-owned Lehmkuhl Hardware
William “Bill” Lehmkuhl: Lehmkuhl Hardware owner; Marshal Delaney’s poker buddy
Joe Levendusky (Rose, wife): Josephine La Cava’s brother-in-law and sister
Jake Lingle: Chicago Tribune reporter (gang murdered in 1930)
Danny Little: I.C. school student/baseball pitcher
Dr. Paul T. Logue: Oxbow physician and surgeon (1926-lifetime)
Antonio “Tony the Scourge” Lombardo: Gangster (Chicago Unione Siciliana 3rd president)
Charles Luciana: Gangster (known for establishment of first Commission; also first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family, and instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate)
“Maggie”: Walter Bierkoff’s Ford Model T car
Jason McCuniff: I.C. school student/baseball catcher
William H. McSwiggin: Chicago Assistant State’s Attorney (gang murdered in 1926)
Louis J. Miller: Miller Blacksmith shop owner
Lucy Ann Dean Wiltse Minton (Husband, Jacob): Wiltse Hotel &
Minton Sinclair Gas founder-owners
George “Bugs” Moran: Gangster (Leader of what had been Deon O’Banion’s Chicago North Side gang; seven of his gang members were gunned down in St. Valentine’s Day massacre on the orders of Al Capone)
Adolph H. Nieman: Oxbow State Bank, president
Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti: Gangster (Director of Al Capone’s homicide squad, also in charge of whisky and alcohol operations)
Dean “Dion” O’Banion: Gangster (Founder and leader of Chicago North Side gang; he was murdered, reportedly by Frankie Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi)
John O’Conner: O’Conner’s Grocery owner
Lawrence O’Malley (Mary, wife): Josephine La Cava’s sister and brother-in-law
Gayle Peick: Oxbow public school coach
Walt Polege: Oxbow town maintenance man
Bill Rechkemmer: Oxbow Ford-Jewitt dealership owner
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945)
Giovanni “John” Scalise: One of the Chicago Outfit’s most successful hitmen in Prohibition-era Chicago, he and Alberto Anselmi were known as the “killer twins,” believed to have killed Capone’s gangster rival Dion O’Banion in 1924
Meryl Sharp: Local boxer (semi-professional)/winner of “Golden Glove” award
Ed Schumer (Noritta, wife; Victor, son): Farmer (neighbor to Bierkoffs)
Sister Keith: I.C. school teacher/Holy Ghost sister
Sister Mary Margaret: I.C. school principal/Holy Ghost sister
Alice Skinny: Free Will Baptist Society Church member
Charles Slutter: Farmer (south of Oxbow)
Dave Spankey: Oelwein Sacred Heart school student/baseball pitcher
Miss Lil Thompson: Oxbow Opera House pianist
William “Big Bill” Thompson: Republican mayor of Chicago for three terms (1915-1923; 1927-1931)
Tommy Thunker: Oelwein Sacred Heart school student/baseball best hitter
Fr. W. J. Torpey: I.C. Church priest (1931-1952)
Johnny “The Fox” Torrio (Anna, wife): Gangster (New York Mafia Kingpin who took over Chicago crime gangs, then relinquished the business to Al Capone before reestablishing his business in New York/ leader of Big Seven Cosa Nostra on the east coast)
Agnes Triggers: Oxbow Telephone Exchange operator
Dr. Lorraine W. Ward: Physician (office was above grist mill; served as company doctor for the CGW railroad in Oelwein)
George Weiland: Oxbow local; Marshal Delaney’s poker buddy
Earl “Hymie