Charles "The Ox" Reiser (1878 – October 10, 1921) was a

safecracker Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or the key. Physical methods Different procedures may be used to crack a safe, depending on its construction. Different procedures are required to open different safes ...

and mentor to many of the organized crime leaders of the early 20th century including

Dean O'Banion Charles Dean O'Banion (July 8, 1892 – November 10, 1924) was an American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. The newspapers of his day made him better known ...

, George "Bugs" Moran, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, and John Mahoney.

Biography

He was born in 1878; very little is known of Reiser's early life. Reiser quickly started a

rap sheet A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

. In 1902, Reiser was arrested for safecracking. Released on bail, he reportedly killed the witness to this crime and the case was later dropped. In 1905, Reiser was again arrested and released, the witness disappeared, and the case was dropped. In 1907, he was convicted of

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 30 days in jail. In 1909, Reiser was arrested in

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and charged with

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. Yet again, the witnesses in the case were killed. The murderous

soon returned to Chicago. Around 1914, Reiser met O'Banion, the future leader of the Chicago

North Side Gang The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was an Irish-Polish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, also ...

. O'Banion and several friends started accompanying Reiser on some safecracking jobs. During this time, living under the alias Charles Schoeps, Reiser invested most of the stolen money in real estate. He eventually became the owner of a large apartment building in the Chicago area. Around this time, Reiser remarried. His first wife had died of

asphyxiation Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

(although Reiser allegedly bragged to friends that he had beaten her to death when she threatened to go to police). In 1920, one of Reiser's safecracking partners, Clarance White, told Reiser that the cops had questioned him about a job they committed. Reiser and White had stolen a

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Co. safe and taken its contents. To protect himself, Reiser murdered White and made it look like a suicide. Around April 1921, another Reiser associate, John Mahoney, was arrested while safecracking and started talking to the police. Reiser murdered him also. In 1921, while recovering in a Chicago hospital after an attempted robbery, Reiser's wife came to visit him. A staff member soon discovered her weeping over his dead body in his hospital room. Somewhat indicative of the state of Chicago law and politics at that time, the coroner's jury declared that Reiser – whose body had ten separate bullet wounds in it – had died as a result of suicide.

References

General references

*Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime''. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001.

External links

Unusual Guide to Chicago - The "Ox" Kills Pal's Wife
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiser, Charles 1878 births 1921 deaths People from Chicago American murderers Thieves Deaths by firearm in Illinois Murdered American gangsters People murdered in Illinois Male murder victims American people of German descent American gangsters of German descent