Shaking Hands Can Be Unhealthy

By 1925 the six Genna brothers, or "The Terrible Gennas" as they were known ran the illicit activities in Chicago's Little Italy. practically the whole neighborhood was on the Genna's payroll cooking alcohol. The Genna empire began to fall in spring of that year when, depending on who tells the story, either Al Capone or the North Side gang struck out at them.

The first to go was brother Angelo that spring, followed by brother Mike, both of whom were the muscle of the family. On July 8, 1925,  brother Anthony aka Tony the Gent, received a phone call from a former associate named Joseph Nerone, alias Anthony Spano, known in the underworld as Il Cavaliere because of his polished demeanor. Feeling that the Genna's didn't pay him his worth, Nerone had moved on to Chicago Heights, and a more lucrative bootlegging career.

Nerone asked to meet Genna at the corner of Grand Avenue and Curtis Street.  Genna arrived first and waited. A sedan pulled up and Nerone alighted. Genna went up to greet him. As the men shook hands, two men walked up and fired a number of shots into Genna's back before running off. Nerone too, fled the seen.

We know that Nerone set up Genna because Tony the Gent didn't die right away. Later at the hospital, he was overheard telling his brother Sam that the Cavaliere was behind the murder. 

With the death of Tony, the Genna family was all but through in the Chicago underworld.

Tony the Gent Genna