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

Thursday, February 26, 2015

This wasn't in the brochure

Ninety-two years ago today a busload of tourist witnessed a gangland killing first hand as their tour bus cruised through Little Italy. The victim was Joseph Marone. Mr. Marone was strolling down the street when a car containing four men pulled up behind him and fired a shot. Marone dropped to the sidewalk with a bullet in his thigh. Before any more shots could be fired the tour bus pulled up between the car and Marone and the shooters sped off.

The tourist thought they were watching the filming of a movie and didn't realize that Marone was actually hurt but a pedestrian who knew better went and fetched a cop. At first Marone's leg wound appeared superficial and he was taken to Bellevue hospital where he was arrested. But at midnight the police received word from the hospital that he had died.

During his interrogation Marone kept his mouth shut and said nothing about his affairs or the men who shot him but police believed he was part of a burglary gang and double crossed the other members when it came to divvying up the spoils. The police also said that Marone knew he was a marked man and only left his house in the daytime. The killers, they speculated had been staking out his house and that's how they got him.

2 comments:

John DuMond said...

Wow, usually you have to pay extra to see an actual murder on a tour. I hope those tourists knew how lucky they were.

Patrick Downey said...

Lucky for all involved,I understand that afterwards the gift shop sold out of gangster bobble heads.