"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Two Gun saga III

When we last left off Crowley had shot and wounded Detective Shaedel before making a getaway. He managed to elude the police while banging around the city and one of his hangouts was a taxi-dance joint called the Primrose Dance Palace. There he met a hulking lump named Rudolph Duringer and the two became pals.

Duringer was hot for a dancer at the Primrose named Virginia Brannen and would often buy up all her tickets so he was the only one with whom she would dance. Seventy-nine years ago this morning at 1:00am Duringer, or Fat, as he was called showed up at the Primrose with a friend and his date and hooked up with Brannen.

At some point Crowley arrived and after a couple of hours he and the two couples left. After hitting a few speakeasies and then breakfast they went for a drive. Crowley was behind the wheel with the one couple dozing in the front seat while Fat and Brannen were in the back playing around. During the ride Brannen let Fat know that she was going to marry some other guy. What was a jealous knucklehead to do? Duringer pulled out his gun and shot her.

The shot woke up the couple in the front seat. Brannen pleaded to be taken to a hospital and the couple in the front asked to be let out at a drug store. Crowley pulled over and let the couple out and told them he'd be back shortly.

Since Crowley was wanted by the police he didn't want to take Brannen to the hospital so he pulled over by a seminary and he and Duringer tossed the still alive girl over a wall into some bushes where she eventually died. He then returned to the drug store and picked up the other couple.

After a few days of investigative work detectives knew that Crowley and Duringer were behind Brannen's death and Two Gun was now the hottest criminal in the City.

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