42 Skidoo

Eighty-seven years ago this morning, the body of Frank Battaglia, a member of Chicago's infamous 42 gang, was found face down in a frozen puddle with four bullets in his head, give or take. He had been taken to a spot that one paper referred to as "Gangland's Graveyard." a desolate stretch of road in Worth Township at 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, where a number of other Chicago gangsters supposedly met their demise. (We'll try to find a few.)

What exactly Frank did to deserve his one-way ride is unknown. Being in the 42 gang there was no depredation off limits. He did four months in 1926 on a burglary charge and in 1930 he got a year for carrying a gun. Police said that at the time of his death he was hijacking merchandise trucks and taking both the merchandise and the trucks. They felt he could have been bumped off by other members of the 42 gang, or perhaps it was a booze deal gone wrong, or perhaps he ripped off the wrong guys, or perhaps... There were no shortage of possibilities. Though Frank's gangland career was abruptly cut short, his younger brother Sam went on to have a long prosperous career in the Capone organization.

Frank Battaglia