Chicago Ride Job

In the early hours of July 15, 1931, Milton Winfield sat in his Chicago home. He heard a series of shots and ran to the window. Looking out, he saw two men jump from a sedan and the driver slumped over the wheel.

Another sedan pulled up and a guy climbed out, went over, and pushed the slumped body of the driver off to the side. Perhaps he was just making sure of the job. The men then drove away.

The police were summoned and the dead man turned out to be Edgar Smith, body guard of Al Capone confederate Danny Stanton. Both Smith and Stanton had been arrested the previous year when ballistic test proved that a gun found in their car was used in the murder of Jack Zuta.

At the time of Smith's murder, Stanton was at war with another South Side of Chicago gang headed by James Quigley. It was also hypothesized that friends of Zuta pumped the three bullets into the back of Smith's head.

Edgar Smith