Claude Maddox

Claude "Screwy" Maddox (1901 – June 21, 1958),[1][2] born John Edward Moore, was a Chicago mobster and head of the Circus Cafe Gang whose ranks included future Chicago mobsters Anthony "Tough Tony" Capezio, Vincenzo De Mora ("Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, one-time owner of the "Green Mill") and Antonino "Tony" "Joe Batters" Accardo.

Maddox was a member of a gang called Egan's Rats in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri,[3] which was absorbed by Alphonse "Big Al," "Scarface" Capone's gang, the Chicago Outfit.[4] During Prohibition, the Circus Cafe Gang was the single North Side organization allied with Capone's Chicago Outfit. In January 1929, the police discovered Maddox hiding in a vacant building near his West North Avenue headquarters with a drum full of ammunition for Thompson submachine guns as well as a dozen overcoats strewn about the room (inside one of the coats, a loaded .45 pistol was found).[5] It was speculated that a nearby garage (at 1723 North Wood St.) was used to "torch cut" one of the getaway cars used in the massacre, however it later caught fire and exploded.[6] Although initially held in custody, Maddox was later released, having been in court on an unrelated charge during the time of the massacre.

Although the gang was reduced to a satellite by the end of Prohibition, Maddox himself held a high position in the Chicago syndicate until his death in 1958, in his Riverside home, from a heart attack. His funeral was attended by The Outfit heavy hitters and FBI surveillance.

Further reading
  • Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
  • Hucke, Matt and Ursula Bielski. Graveyards of Chicago:: The People, History, Art, and Love of Cook County Cemeteries. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 1999. ISBN 0-9642426-4-8
  • Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
  • Parr, Amanda Jayne. The True and Complete Story of Machine Gun Jack McGurn: Chief Bodyguard and Hit Man to Chicago's Most Infamous Crime Czar Al Capone and Mastermind of the S. Valentine's Day Massacre. Leicester: Troubador Publishing Ltd., 2005. ISBN 1-905237-13-8
  • Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6

Notes
  1. Roemer, Jr., William F., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather (1995), p.138
  2. A Report on Chicago Crime. Chicago Crime Commission. 1966. p. 76. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  3. Binder, John J. (2003). The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 9780738523262. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  4. Friedman, Bill (2015). 30 Illegal Years To The Strip: The Untold Stories of the Gangsters Who Built The Early Las Vegas Strip. BookBaby. p. 130. ISBN 9780989685238. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  5. Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone (1992), p. 222
  6. Schoenberg. p. 221-2

References
  • Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
  • Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
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