 NEWS FLASH (December 2006): a screenplay based on Guns and Roses has been created by a Chicago screenwriter. More on that as events develop!He was called "Chicago's arch criminal, who has killed or seen to the killing of at least 25 men." Edward Dean Sullivan, a Herald-Examiner reporter whose life he had once saved, pronounced him, "as valourous a person as I have ever encountered." A former employee, E Barnett (deceased), commented, "He was the best boss I had before or since. If I had trouble or needed money, he listened to me." Al Capone and John Torrio, his partners/rivals, called him a few things unfit for public consumption.Dean O'Banion led one of Chicago's most powerful Prohibition Era gangs. He and his followers controlled all bootlegging and gambling activities on the city's North Side (north of Madison Street and sandwiched between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan). By day he was a prosperous florist who made a fortune from the gangster funeral trade. By night he supplied liquor, cards, and dice to his territory's citizens (among whom were the wealthy Gold Coast residents). When the impulse took him, he also cracked safes and hijacked rival beer/alcohol shipments. A few times he even stole liquor deliveries intended for ostensible allies. The latter prediliction was a contributing factor in his death. O'Banion's murder in November 1924 plunged Chicago into a gang war that lasted over 6 years and resulted in 600 casualties. This bloody aftermath made him more of a celebrity in death than he had apparently been in life. He is remembered more today as a victim than a powerful gang boss who once commanded over 200 hoodlums and forced the traditionally Democratic 42nd and 43rd wards to vote Republican. He even inspired an election day ditty: "Who'll carry the 42nd and 43rd wards? O'Banion, in his pistol pockets."
Many books have dealt with his death. This site is an examination of his life. It is 100% official, thanks to kind permission granted by his descendents and the estate of Dean O'Banion. This site is dedicated to the memory of Louise Gentle, who died January 2000, aged 108. Her recollections of the boy O'Banion, and her personal encouragement to write his story, kept the project alive. Site designed and maintained by Rose Keefe. All rights reserved. Content copyright Rose Keefe and the Estate of Dean O'Banion. .
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Welcome to Dean O'Banion online! 
This site is a 'companion volume' to my Dean O'Banion biography, Guns and Roses . I became fascinated by his legend after reading Kobler's Capone in 1987. As they say in the A&E Channel commercial, "Every life has a story" , and I wanted to discover O'Banion's. He had inspired such extreme emotions in his associates, feelings that ran the gamut from blind devotion to violent hatred. Research and interviews with those who knew him revealed a complex individual who was neither saint nor Satan but a perplexing combination of both. He loved his family and supported his friends, while his enemies feared for their lives. The same dollars that he stuffed into the church poor box on Sunday were the fruit of gambling, bootlegging, and even liquor hijacking ventures. He wept bitterly over the death of his friend Nails Morton, and then killed Philadephia gangster John Duffy for murdering a woman.
