Case of Murdered Lawyer Who Had Informed on Capone Gets New Look
Chicago police will reopen a 70-year-old investigation into the murder of a Chicago lawyer who helped put Al Capone behind bars.
The lawyer, Edward O’Hare, was the president of Sportsman’s Park racetrack in Cicero and paid Capone a cut of the proceeds until the mobster went to prison for tax evasion, ABC News reports. A new book, Get Capone, says O’Hare provided information to the Internal Revenue Service that led to Capone’s conviction, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago Alderman Edward Burke asked police to reopen the investigation, saying he wanted to set the record straight. Burke is the city council’s unofficial historian, the Tribune says, and he contends it wasn’t Eliot Ness who sent Capone to prison. Instead, Burke says, another federal agent did the job, with information from O’Hare.
O’Hare reportedly became an informant to get his son, Butch, into the Naval Academy. Butch O’Hare became a pilot and was killed in World War II; O’Hare airport was named after him.
