The Sheldon Gang was a Chicago criminal gang during the early years of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

known for being the main rivals of the

Saltis-McErlane Gang Joseph Francis Saltis, (8 September 1894 – 2 August 1947), known as "Polack Joe", was a Polish-American Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition gangster who, with Frank McErlane, operated an illegal rum-running, bootlegging racket in the Ba ...

and the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. The gang's primary activities included bootlegging and

hijacking Hijacking may refer to: Common usage Computing and technology * Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth * Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand * Browser hijacking * Clickjacking (including ''like ...

of trucks and alcohol shipments.

History

The gang was founded by Ralph Sheldon in the months following the passage of the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress, designed to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919), which established the prohibition of alcoholic d ...

and it quickly became one of major liquor suppliers in Chicago's Southwest Side as well as a main supplier to Al Capone. The gang maintained an uneasy truce with the other rival gangs, until 1923, when a brief gang war broke out between the Sheldon Gang and the Southside O'Donnells until O'Donnell leader Edward O'Donnell was forced to leave Chicago after being severely wounded, by

Frank McErlane Frank McErlane (1894–1932) was a Prohibition-era Irish American gangster. He led the Saltis-McErlane Gang, allied with the Johnny Torrio- Al Capone Gang, against rival bootleggers, the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. He is credited with introduci ...

, during a

drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrator(s) to quickly strike their target and flee the scene before ...

on September 25, 1925. Once the O'Donnell's were eliminated, the Saltis-McErlane Gang, former allies of the Sheldon Gang, continued attacking the Sheldon Gang and by April of the following year the gang had lost their two top distributors, Frank DeLaurentis and John Tucillo. In October, a general amnesty had been ordered between Al Capone's

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, tha ...

and

Bugs Moran George Clarence "Bugs" Moran (; Adelard Leo Cunin; August 21, 1893 – February 25, 1957) was an American Chicago Prohibition-era gangster. He was incarcerated three times before his 21st birthday. Seven members of his gang were gunned dow ...

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 ...

. However on December 30 Sheldon Gang member Hillory Clements was killed by the Saltis-McErlane Gang and in retaliation the Sheldon Gang killed Saltis gunmen Charlie Hubacek and Frank Koncil on March 11, 1927. Joe Saltis soon went to Capone who, in exchange for a large percentage of his profits, would negotiate peace between the two. During the later years of Prohibition the Sheldon Gang was suspected of supplying liquor to Capone rival Bugs Moran's North Side Gang. In the closing days of Prohibition and with the emergence of

Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...

National Crime Syndicate The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to the multi-ethnic, loosely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian-American Mafia ...

the Sheldon Gang, like most of the remaining bootlegging gangs, were absorbed into the syndicate by 1932. Sometime in the 1930s, the Sheldons dropped a bomb from an airplane into an ice cream store, in Creve Coeur, Illinois.

References

*Binder, John. ''The Chicago Outfit''. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. *Kobler, John. ''Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. {{ISBN, 0-8160-5694-3 Prohibition gangs Former gangs in Chicago Irish-American gangs

History

Further reading

References