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Shotgun Man was an assassin and mass murderer in Chicago, Illinois in the 1910s, to which 38 murders of Black Hand extortionists were attributed. Most notably, Shotgun Man killed 15 Italian immigrants between January 1-March 26, 1911 between Oak Street and Milton Street of Chicago's Little Italy (known as "Death Corner"). In March 1911, he reportedly murdered four people within a 72-hour period, also at the intersection of Oak and Milton.

Although witnessed by dozens of bystanders, neither the Chicago police nor the "Whitechapel Society" were able to identify the murderer. However, he was said to be well-known throughout the Italian community and, with the political influence of the Black Hand, residents may have been hesitant to turn in the assassin. Although the fate of Shotgun Man is unknown, he seems to have disappeared from Little Italy shortly before Prohibition, as extortion operations of the Black Hand all but faded away by the end of the decade.

Further reading

• Asbury, Herbert. Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1940. ISBN 0875805345
• Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of Chicago. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002. ISBN 1-56025-454-8

References

• Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3

External links

• Organized Crime in Chicago
• The Black Hand: Terror by Letter in Chicago by Robert M. Lombardo PDF