Edward Joseph O'Hare (September 5, 1893 – November 8, 1939), a.k.a. "Easy Eddie", was a lawyer in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and later in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where he began working with

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-foun ...

, and later helped federal prosecutors convict Capone of tax evasion. In 1939, a week before Capone was released from

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco in San Francisco Bay, California, near the Golden Gate Strait. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fo ...

, O'Hare was shot to death while driving. He was the father of

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

recipient Butch O'Hare, for whom

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the primary international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, Loop business district. The airport is ope ...

is named.

Early life in St. Louis

Edward Joseph O'Hare, known to friends and family as ''E.J.'', was born on September 5, 1893, in

to first-generation Irish-American parents Patrick Joseph O'Hare and Cecelia Ellen Malloy O'Hare. On June 4, 1912, E.J. O'Hare married Selma Anna Lauth, a native of St. Louis, born on November 13, 1890. She traced her heritage to Germany. E.J. and Selma started their family in an apartment above Selma's father's grocery store in the Soulard neighborhood. They had three children:

Edward Edward is an English male name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortunate; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-S ...

("Butch"), born in 1914, Patricia, born in 1919, and Marilyn, born in 1924. E.J. passed the Missouri

bar exam A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...

in 1923 and joined a law firm. From 1925, O'Hare operated dog tracks in Chicago,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. O'Hare, as a lawyer, represented the inventor Owen P. Smith, high commissioner of the International Greyhound Racing Association, who patented a mechanical running rabbit for use in

dog racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of the greyhounds o ...

. In 1930, his profitable work for Smith enabled O'Hare's family to move into a brand-new home in the Holly Hills home that included a swimming pool and a skating rink. The O'Hare family used to spend the summers at river camps on the Meramec and Gasconade rivers to escape the heat of St. Louis. Butch, who had received a .22-caliber rifle from E.J, developed shooting skills by plinking in the river at cans and bottles that were thrown. E.J. became fascinated with flying, even hitching a ride in

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

's mail plane. O'Hare took his first job as lead pilot of an air mail route operated by Robertson Aircraft Co. of Lambert Field in St Louis. E.J. then flew commercially whenever possible, and he found chances for his teenage son to briefly take the controls. As a result, his son Butch, the later

recipient, best known for his extreme bravery as a U.S. naval aviator in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, became a competent marksman and familiar with planes. When Owen Patrick Smith died, O'Hare represented the administratrix of Smith's estate, Hannah M. Smith. E.J. began to expand his business interests from the St. Louis levee to Chicago. One day in the 1920s, E.J. came home to find his son, Butch, sprawled on a couch reading books and eating banana layer cake and doughnuts. The father decided that his boy was showing signs of laziness and enrolled him at Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois.

Chicago

Divorced from his wife Selma in 1927, O'Hare moved to Chicago. Selma stayed in St. Louis with her two daughters Patricia and Marilyn, while Butch went to Western Military Academy. In Chicago, O'Hare met

, whose dominant

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 Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family based in Chicago, I ...

ran Chicago rackets and bootlegging during

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 b ...

. O'Hare and Capone began collaborating in business and law. O'Hare made a second fortune through his ties to Capone. O'Hare became engaged to Ursula Sue Granata, a secretary, the sister of a Mob-affiliated Illinois state representative. The engagement went on for seven years because they were Catholics, and the Church would not recognize O'Hare's divorce. Thus they could not have a church wedding. However, O'Hare was hopeful that a request for a dispensation from the Vatican would be granted by 1940. But in 1930, O'Hare turned against Capone. He asked John Rogers, a reporter for the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'', to arrange a meeting with the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

(IRS), which was trying to convict Capone of tax evasion. Rogers organized a meeting with IRS agent Frank J. Wilson. O'Hare subsequently played a key role in Capone's prosecution and conviction. Agent Wilson (also Chief of the U.S. Secret Service between 1937 and 1946) said later:

On the inside of the gang I had one of the best undercover men I have ever known: Eddie O'Hare.

It is believed O'Hare directed investigator Wilson to the Capone bookkeeper who became a key witness at the 1931 trial, and also helped break the code used in the ledgers by Capone's bookkeepers. At the start of Capone's trial in the court of Judge James Wilkerson, O'Hare tipped the government that Capone had fixed the jury. Thus alerted, Judge Wilkerson switched juries with another federal trial before the Capone trial began. (This incident was depicted in the 1987 film ''The Untouchables''.) Capone was found guilty and sent to prison in 1931.

Assassination

O'Hare was shot and killed on November 8, 1939, while driving his 1939

Lincoln-Zephyr The Lincoln-Zephyr is a line of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars that was produced by the Lincoln Motor Company, Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company, Ford from 1936 until 1942. Bridging the gap between the De Luxe Ford, Ford V8 DeLuxe and the Li ...

coupe in Chicago. When he left his office at

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on t ...

racetrack in

Cicero, Illinois Cicero is a town in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, the population was 85,268, making it the 11th-most populous municipality in Illinois. The town is named after Marcus Tullius Cicero, a R ...

, in the afternoon, he was reportedly carrying a cleaned and oiled Spanish-made .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol, something unusual for him. Two

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

-wielding gunmen in a dark sedan drove alongside O'Hare as he approached the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Rockwell Street. Both fired a volley of big-game slugs, killing O'Hare instantly at the age of 46. His Lincoln crashed into a roadside post while the killers continued eastbound on Ogden Ave and were lost in traffic. No arrests were ever made. In 2010, Chicago Alderman Ed Burke asked the Chicago Police Department Cold Case Squad to re-examine O'Hare's murder in light of a new book, ''Get Capone'', which made allegations about the crime.

In popular culture

*In the 2010-2014

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter for the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. The series sta ...

,'' the character of Mike D'Angelo played by

Louis Cancelmi Louis Cancelmi is an American stage and film actor. He is a frequent performer in productions by the Public Theater, both at their Astor Library home and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. He is best known for appearing in '' Boardwalk E ...

is based on Edward J. O'Hare. In the last season he is shown to be an undercover agent who helped gather evidence to convict Al Capone on Tax evasion. *The story of 'Easy Eddie', and his son, are mentioned in the "Payback" chapter of the novel '' Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror'', by American author

Steve Alten Steven Robert Alten (born August 21, 1959) is an American science fiction, science-fiction author. He is best known for his ''Meg'' series of novels set around the fictitious survival of the megalodon, a giant, prehistoric shark. Biography Alt ...

, published 1996.

References

External links