Claude "Screwy" Maddox (1901 – June 21, 1958), born John Edward Moore, was a Chicago mobster and head of the Circus Cafe Gang whose ranks included future Chicago mobsters Anthony "Tough Tony" Capezio, Vincenzo De Mora ("Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, one-time owner of the " Green Mill") and Antonino "Tony" "Joe Batters" Accardo. Maddox was a member of a gang called Egan's Rats in his hometown of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, which was absorbed by Alphonse "Big Al," "Scarface" Capone's gang, the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, th ...

. During Prohibition, the Circus Cafe Gang was the single North Side organization allied with Capone's

. A suspect in the

St. Valentine's Day Massacre The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang that occurred on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, ...

, Maddox was believed to be involved in at least the early planning stages of the attack. In January 1929, the police discovered Maddox hiding in a vacant building near his West North Avenue headquarters with a drum full of ammunition for

Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Sta ...

s as well as a dozen overcoats strewn about the room (inside one of the coats, a loaded .45 pistol was found). It was speculated that a nearby garage (at 1723 North Wood St.) was used to "torch cut" one of the getaway cars used in the massacre, however it later caught fire and exploded.Schoenberg. p. 221-2 Although initially held in custody, Maddox was later released, having been in court on an unrelated charge during the time of the massacre. Although the gang was reduced to a satellite by the end of Prohibition, Maddox himself held a high position in the Chicago syndicate until his death in 1958, in his

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural ...

home, from a heart attack. His funeral was attended by The Outfit heavy hitters and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

surveillance.

Notes

References

*Fox, Stephen. ''Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America''. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maddox, Claude 1901 births 1958 deaths Depression-era gangsters Al Capone associates American gangsters Prohibition-era gangsters Date of birth missing Place of birth missing People from St. Louis

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