On This Day in 1926 Hymie Weiss Attempted a Hit on Al Capone

On this day in 1926 Hymie Weiss and his crew ambushed Al Capone with a cavalcade of bullets during his stop at the Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, using 10 cars in a successive motorcade. Capone, being protected by his bodyguard Frank Rio, didn’t have a scratch on him, neither did Rio.

An innocent bystander was slightly injured in the attack, to which Capone gave $5,000 for her medical bills.

When Capone was asked who was responsible for that drive-by shooting, he reportedly said

“Watch the morgue. They’ll show up there.”

On the 20th of September, 1926, one of the most audacious assassination attempts in American organised crime history unfolded on the streets of Cicero, Illinois. Hymie Weiss, the ruthless leader of the North Side Gang and one of Al Capone's most dangerous enemies, orchestrated a brazen daylight assault on the most powerful mob boss in Chicago. The attack was a direct response to years of bloody conflict between the North Side and South Side factions, a war that had been raging since the 1924 murder of North Side founder Dion O'Banion — a killing widely attributed to Capone's mentor and predecessor, Johnny Torrio.

Weiss assembled a convoy of ten vehicles, each packed with armed gunmen, and sent them crawling in succession past the Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, Capone's well-fortified headquarters and base of operations. The motorcade unleashed a tremendous volley of gunfire into the building, reportedly firing over a thousand rounds into the restaurant and hotel. It was a military-style assault the likes of which Chicago had rarely witnessed, demonstrating just how far Weiss was willing to go to eliminate his rival.

What saved Capone's life that afternoon was the quick thinking of his loyal bodyguard, Frank Rio. Sensing danger when the first car passed firing what turned out to be blank rounds — a deliberate ruse to draw Capone into the open — Rio threw his boss to the floor and covered him as the real assault commenced. When the smoke cleared, Capone emerged without a single scratch. Rio, equally unharmed, had arguably just saved the future of the Chicago Outfit.

Tragically, an innocent bystander, a woman named Mrs. Clyde Freeman, was caught in the crossfire and suffered injuries to her eyes from flying glass and debris. In a rare display of public generosity, Capone personally ensured she received $5,000 to cover her medical expenses — a gesture that, whether motivated by genuine remorse or public relations savvy, became one of the more frequently cited anecdotes of his complicated public image.

When pressed by reporters about who was behind the attack, Capone's response was characteristically ominous: "Watch the morgue. They'll show up there." It proved to be an accurate prophecy. Less than a month later, on the 11th of October, 1926, Hymie Weiss was gunned down outside the Holy Name Cathedral on North State Street, cut down by Capone's assassins in one of Chicago's most notorious street killings. The failed Hawthorne Inn ambush ultimately sealed Weiss's fate and cemented Capone's reputation as a man who settled scores with ruthless efficiency.