Dean O'Banion

Charles Dean O'Banion (8 July 1892 – 10 November 1924) was an Irish-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 as Dion O'Banion, although he never went by that name. O'Banion was born to Irish Catholic parents in the small town of Maroa in Central Illinois. In 1901, after his mother's death, he moved to Chicago with... more

Charles Dean O'Banion (8 July 1892 – 10 November 1924) was an Irish-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 as Dion O'Banion, although he never went by that name. O'Banion was born to Irish Catholic parents in the small town of Maroa in Central Illinois. In 1901, after his mother's death, he moved to Chicago with his father and one of his brothers (a second brother, Frank, remained in Maroa). The family settled in Kilgubbin, otherwise known as "Little Hell," a heavily Irish area on the North Side of Chicago that was notorious citywide for its crime. Years later, Kilgubbin became the site of the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing project. As a youngster, "Deanie," as he became known, sang in the church choir at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. However, neither music nor religion held O'Banion's interest; instead the street life of Kilgubbin caught his... less