On this day in 1925 the mobster known as ‘The Devil’ because of his explosive personality died from gun shot wounds. Mike Genna, was a member of the Genna Crime Family which operated from Chicago, and during the afternoon of June 13, 1925 he, Albert Anselmi and John Scalise were caught in a gun fight with Chicago Police Detectives at 59th Street and Western Avenue. Two detectives were killed and Genna died later in an ambulance that took him to hospital. He was hit in the leg which severed an artery causing him to bleed to death.

He didn’t go quietly though, true to his nickname ‘The Devil’ Mike kicked one officer in the face and shouted a string of verbal insults.

On this day in 1925, one of Chicago's most feared and volatile gangsters breathed his last, succumbing to his wounds in the back of an ambulance and leaving behind a trail of blood, chaos, and two dead police officers. Mike Genna, nicknamed "The Devil" for his hair-trigger temper and savage disposition, was just thirty years old when he died, but he had already carved out a reputation as one of the most dangerous men in a city that was drowning in dangerous men.

Genna was a prominent member of the notorious Genna crime family, a Sicilian clan that had established an iron grip over Chicago's Near West Side during the Prohibition era. The family ran a sprawling bootlegging operation, producing cheap, often lethally dangerous rotgut whiskey using poorly supervised home stills operated by Italian immigrant families throughout their territory. The Gennas supplied this inferior product to speakeasies across the city, undercutting rivals and ruthlessly eliminating those who stood in their way. It was a bloody and profitable empire, and Mike was one of its most willing enforcers.

The events of 13th June 1925 began as a police pursuit and ended in open carnage on the streets of Chicago. Detectives Michael Conway, Harold Olson, and William Sweeney gave chase to a vehicle carrying Genna along with two of the most feared killers of the era, Albert Anselmi and John Scalise. The pursuit ended at the junction of 59th Street and Western Avenue, where a savage gun battle erupted. Detectives Conway and Olson were shot and killed, making it one of the most brazen assaults on law enforcement in the city's already bloody history. Anselmi and Scalise, who would later become closely associated with Al Capone's outfit, were wounded and captured. Genna took a bullet to the leg that severed a major artery, and despite efforts to save him, he bled to death before reaching hospital.

Even in his final moments, Genna lived up to his fearsome nickname. As officers attempted to restrain him, he lashed out, kicking one policeman in the face and unleashing a torrent of abuse at those around him. There was no remorse, no surrender, only fury until the very end.

Mike Genna's death marked the beginning of the end for the Genna family's dominance in Chicago, with the clan rapidly losing power and influence in the months that followed. His legacy is that of a man who embodied the brutal, uncompromising violence of Prohibition-era organised crime at its most raw.