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Beer Wars is a 2009 documentary film about the American beer industry. In particular, it covers the differences between large corporate breweries, namely Anheuser-Busch, the Miller Brewing Company, and the Coors Brewing Company opposed to smaller breweries like Dogfish Head Brewery, Moonshot 69, Yuengling, Stone Brewing Co., and other producers ...
- The Double Cross at Sieben Brewery
- A Short Truce at Mike Merlo's Family Home
- An Assassination at Schofield’s Flower Shop
- Plugged Bullet Holes at Holy Name Cathedral
- An Underworld Murder Under Michigan Avenue
The Sieben brewery and beer gardens at 1466 North Larrabee Street was the site of perhaps the most infamous double-cross in all Prohibition history. Dean O’Banion, mercurial leader of the North Side Gang, had started scuttlebutt that he was retiring from the rackets. He offered to sell the brewery to John Torrio, leader of the major South Side outf...
O'Banion's borrowed time was hitched to the lifespan of one Mike Merlo—chief of the influential Unione Siciliana—who lived with his family at 433 West Diversey Parkway. Merlo, a diplomatic man who believed so-called "underworld" business was better orchestrated in peace, is thought to have prohibited South Side gunmen from snuffing out O’Banion aft...
Two days later, three gunmen (believed to be Frankie Yale, John Scalise, and Alberto Anselmi) stopped at a small flower shop across the street from Holy Name Cathedral, ostensibly to collect flowers for Merlo's funeral. O’Banion was part owner of Schofield's, which doubled as his headquarters. Yale is said to have grabbed O’Banion in a tight handsh...
Don't believe the tour guides who say the drilled hole in the southwest corner of Holy Name Cathedral came from a Prohibition-era submachine gun. That aperture was used to hold a placard with the church service schedule. But if they point to four plugged, faded spots around the dedication year on the cornerstone and tell you that .45 caliber slugs ...
Four years later, Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle was executed in the pedestrian tunnel beneath Michigan Avenue. The public was dismayed: gangsters had put a .38 caliber slug into Lingle’s head to stop him reporting about their underworld crimes and misdemeanors, many thought. Lingle was toasted, lionized, and mourned, until the truth emerged....
Jun 25, 2017 · Fighting Al Capone’s Beer Wars. John J. Binder is an assiduous—and often contrarian—historian of the gang wars that plagued Chicago, and in a new book he sets the record straight on just who ...
May 18, 2017 · An exhaustively researched work based on 25 years of study, Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses the most notorious bootlegging gangs in the city...
Beer Wars begins as the corporate behemoths are being challenged by small, independent brewers who are shunning the status quo and creating innovative new beers. The story is told through 2 of these entrepreneurs – Sam and Rhonda – battling the might and tactics of Corporate America.
The Beer Wars were a series of Prohibition-era gang wars which occurred on the streets of Chicago from 1920 to 1933 as rival gangs, such as Johnny Torrio and Al Capone's Chicago Outfit, Bugs Moran's North Side Gang, and Joseph Saltis' organization, fought for control of the city's lucrative...
Jun 6, 2017 · His latest book, Al Capone's Beer Wars, is the only complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. Based on 25 years of serious research, it covers all the major gangs and the fighting between them from 1920 to 1934 as well as the battle by the better elements against organized crime.
