Put Another Nickel in, in the Nickelodeon

The evening of August 1, 1930 found Aurora, Illinois gentleman J.H. Goodman feeding a steady supply of nickels into the jukebox at the Lake View hotel in Delafield, Wisconsin. Outside dozens of people, done swimming for the day, were hanging out enjoying themselves. Inside a handful of  young couples continued to dance while the affable Mr. Goodman kept the tunes a-coming. Good music, good conversation and good company. All in all it was a lovely summer evening; and then the gunmen showed up.

It turns out the man with the endless supply of nickels wasn't J. H. Goodman from Aurora but Chicago crime boss Jack Zuta. Zuta started his criminal career by managing houses of prostitution. At one time he was allied with Al Capone but by 1930 his loyalties had shifted to the North Side of the city and he was in an alliance with George Bugs Moran and his gang as well as another Capone enemy Joe Aiello. By this time Zuta was a money man collecting and paying thousands of dollars to keep things on the North Side running smoothly. 

Things stopped running smoothly that spring. Jake Lingle, on paper a $65-a-week reporter but in reality a fixer who was "like a son" to the Chief of Police. With this relationship Lingle was able to tell gangsters what they could and couldn't do, tip them off to raids, and make things right for a price. In this position he had many enemies. That spring, a number of big shots, including Al Capone, were mad at him. But it appears that Jack Zuta was the only one to take his anger to the extreme. Reasons for Zuta's ire resulted from either having a North Side casino raided after receiving a payoff or taking a bribe to allow a dog racing track to open, then not following through, and, to add insult to injury, not give back the bribe. Zuta had had enough and had the "newsman" bumped off. The result was that the Chicago underworld was turned upside down. Every gang felt the pinch. Clubs and casinos were raided. All gangsters were losing money.

On behalf of gangland Capone took care of the Zuta problem. Knowing that Chicago wanted him dead, Zuta fled to Wisconsin circa July 2, after narrowly missing an assassination attempt.  By August 1, he was J.H. Goodman from Aurora, Illinois feeding nickels into a jukebox so the youngsters could dance. It was about 10 p.m. when two cars bearing Illinois license plates pulled up. Five men alighted from the sedans. All holding weapons. Two stayed outside and kept an eye on the vacationers. The other three, one with a shotgun, the tallest one, said to be Capone ally Danny Stanton, carried a pistol. The third man a Thompson. They walked into the bar and said, "This is a stick up!" the bartender laughed. Stanton fired a shot into the floor. The bartender stopped laughing. They walked through the bar without bothering any of the patrons and entered the rear dance hall where Mr. Goodman had just dropped a nickel into the slot and chose a popular song of the day, "Good for you, bad for me"

Mr. Goodman was facing the the jukebox as the gunmen approached. A young collegiate was in their path. "Out of the way, kid!" Stanton demanded. The kid hit the deck and the trio blasted Zuta into oblivion.

Jack Zuta