Jack McGurn
Meet Jack McGurn
Jack McGurn was born in 1902 as ‘Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi’ in Licata, Sicily. His family immigrated to the United States when he was a year old. He grew up in the slums of Chicago. Vincenzo was a boxer as a teenager and this is when he changed his name to ‘Battling’ Jack McGurn. This change was due to Irish named boxers receiving premium bookings.
Many youths during the early 1900’s in Chicago had their own street gangs. They were more of a neighborhood gang whose primary purpose was to protect their ‘turf’. When Jack was young, he didn’t participate in these gangs. This would change shortly thereafter.
When Jack was 21 years old, his father was killed by gang extortionists. Methodically, McGurn got revenge for his father’s death. He killed all three of his father’s hitmen. These killings led to his introduction to Al Capone during the latter part of 1923.
During Prohibition, Jack had a stake in a speakeasy which was located in the middle of famous rival ‘Bugs’ Moran’s territory. The manager of the club asked McGurn to ‘persuade’ Joe E. Lewis, a comedian/actor, into not moving his act to another club. McGurn slit the entertainer’s throat as well as cutting off part of his tongue and left him to bleed out. Lewis survived but his voice was never the same.
Jack is probably best known for help in planning the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Chicago police charged McGurn but never brought to trail because of his alibi that he and his girlfriend has spent the entire day together. This would later be called his ‘blonde alibi’.
A list of the Top 28 Public Enemies compiled by the chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission listed McGurn as fourth on the list. This was a list of people with whom the commissioner saw as corrupting Chicago. We know that Capone was number one on that list.
With Jack’s name now being publicized as a ‘bad guy’, many of his counterparts disassociated themselves with him as a guy with a target on his back.
McGurn then tried a career as a professional golfer. He was a silent partner in a Chicago area golf course called Evergreen. In 1933, during the Western Open golf event, Jack played as Vincent Gebhardi. Tommy Armour was playing in this event on that day.
Through the first six holes, Jack was 1 under par, matching the event leader, MacDonald Smith. McGurn’s first day round was 13 over par. The following day, Jack was playing much better though his day would get worse.
An alert police chief detective noticed the name Gebhardi as one of McGurn’s former aliases on the pairing sheet. He sent men down to arrest Jack for a warrant issued the day before. The officers found Jack on the 7th hole and tried to arrest him. McGurn asked if he could at least finish his round. The officers found this amusing and let Jack finish as they followed him though each stroke of the club. The presence of the officers started to get to Jack and he finished the round at 16 over and missing the final cut.
Within 3 years, Jack McGurn would be murdered. Three men with machine guns slaughtered Jack while bowling. He was 34 years old.
Dead Jack McGurn - The Last Gutterball
And we thought Tiger Woods was a bad boy…
