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Benjamin Gold
Born September 8, 1898(1898-09-08)
Bessarabia, Russia
Died October 3, 1954 (aged 56)
North Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Occupation Labor leader
Fur operator
Manager, New York Furriers' Joint Board
Secretary-Treasurer, Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union
President, International Fur Workers Union (later the International Fur and Leather Workers Union)
Spouse Sadie Algus

Jeremiah J. Horan[1] (aka Jerry Horan) (1887-April 28, 1937[2]

John and Mary Horan McLeod, one of eight children, Roman Catholic[1]

Married Nonie Corbett, one daughter, Helen[1]


He was hired by BSEIU international president William Quesse as an organizer in 1921.[3] His primary job, however, was to act as Quesse's chauffeur.[4]

Jerry Horan, who was then the President of the BSEIU, moved to the northwest suburbs to get away from Al from Capone.

  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.


the union faced attack from Al Capone's gang, the Outfit. Capone sought control of the organization, seeking to tap into the national body's treasury. Given the links between Mayor Thompson's administration and this same gang, BSEIU leaders could expect little help from their political allies this time around.

  • Biles, Roger. Big City Boss in Depression and War: Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1984. ISBN 087580098X
  • Bukowski, Douglas. Big Bill Thompson, Chicago, and the Politics of Image. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. ISBN 0252066685
  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.


The precise details of what occurred remain unknown, but conflicting, partial accounts do provide the broad outlines. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Roger Touhy was a bootlegger based in Chicago's northwest suburbs. According to him, one of Capone's associates, Marcus "Studdy" Looney, met with Touhy and his brother in 1929 to discuss a plan to strong arm a number of unions in the city. Looney brought with him a list of unions with the amounts held in their treasuries. As Touhy tells it, he and his brother chose not to participate, and in the months that followed a number of old-time leaders from the Teamsters, the Painters Union, and the Building Service Employees' Union came to him for protection from Capone's people. Touhy referred specifically to Jerry Horan, who was then the President of the BSEIU, as one of the leaders of this faction of unionists who moved up to the northwest suburbs seeking protection from Capone. And who had collected $75,000 from other union bosses in Chicago as a "defense fund" to present to Tuohy.

  • Touhy, Roger (with Ray Brennan). The Stolen Years. Cleveland: The Pennington Press, 1959.
  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.
  • Tuohy, John William. When Capone's Mob Murdered Roger Touhy: The Strange Case of "Jake the Barber" and the Kidnapping That Never Happened. Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 2001. ISBN 1569801746

According to Touhy, the union officials, who had originally come to him for protection, eventually came to terms with Capone's organization. Touhy claimed that BSEIU President Horan had been deeply affected by the killing of his brother-in-law, William J. Rooney, who was gunned down in front of his home in March 1931. An influential figure in both Building Service Union and the Sheet Metal Workers, Rooney had helped make Horan president of BSEIU.

  • "Hunt for Murder Clew in Past of Slain Union Boss." Chicago Daily Tribune. March 20, 1931.
  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.
  • Tuohy, John William. When Capone's Mob Murdered Roger Touhy: The Strange Case of "Jake the Barber" and the Kidnapping That Never Happened. Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 2001. ISBN 1569801746

After a couple of years of seeking shelter with Touhy up in the northwest suburbs, Horan had had enough of resistance and all that it implied. Touhy recalled, "He [Horan] was even afraid of the men who were supposed to be his bodyguards." In April 1933, according to Touhy, Moran and Art Wallace, a leader in the Painters Union, came to him and said they were going to give up the fight. Horan then went to a meeting that the Chief Investigator for the Cook County prosecutor's office, Daniel Gilbert, had arranged with Ted Newberry, one of the leading figures in the Outfit. With Gilbert officiating, Horan agreed to turn over control of his union. After that, Touhy explained, the Building Service Union president took instructions from Murray Humphreys, the Outfit's specialist in union matters.

  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.

Having spent time in Capone's organization in the early 1920s, Carfano, Scalise's Mafia sponsor, apparently still had strong ties to the Chicago Outfit and he used those connections to benefit Scalise. In 1932, Carfano helped Scalise get a charter for a local union of window washers. Scalise put his long term associate, Izzy Schwartz in charge of the local. Two years later, when the BSEIU's representative in New York City retired, Scalise asked Carfano to help him get the job. According to Schwartz, Scalise told him, "that he would get in touch with Augie [Carfano] and let Augie go to work out there [in Chicago] and see what he can do for him." A couple of months later, BSEIU's President Horan appointed Scalise to be the union's Eastern Representative. Scalise explained to Schwartz that a deal had been arranged with the Chicago mob for Carfano and Scalise to get fifty percent of the union's proceeds from any newly organized members in the East. They would be operating the BSEIU in the East on a commission basis.

  • "Scalise Sentenced to 10 to 20 Years." New York Times. October 8, 1940.
  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.






On May 6, 1922, Horan, Cornelius Shea, Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy, and five other labor leaders and labor racketeers were arrested and charged with the murder of a Chicago police officer. Horan was accidentally released, and went into hiding—although the press reported that he had turned state's evidence and had been freed for his assitance. On May 24, the state asked for nolle prosequi and the court agreed to withdraw the indictments. A new indictment was returned against Shea and the others in August (Shea was re-indicted on August 2, 1922), but this second indictment was withdrawn by the state as well.[5]


On September 6, 1927, he was elected president of the Chicago Flat Janitors' Union, Local 1.[3]

1932: 10,000 members 1936: 40,000 members 1939: 75,000 members

  • Slater, Joseph. Public Workers: Government Employee Unions, the Law, and the State, 1900-1962. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. ISBN 0801440120


In April 1937, Scalise got word that President Horan was ill, and thought to be on his deathbed. Schwartz later testified that talking with Scalise about it, he raised the possibility of Scalise becoming the next president. "Well, we laughed at it--he laughed at it for a moment and then he thought of the possibilities about it there, he would try for it; so he called Augie then. For his part Carfano agreed to help, but he was not hopeful. After hanging up the phone, Scalise told Schwartz, "that Augie told him 'O.K.' he will see what he can do, but not to bank on it."

  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.


Died on April 28, 1937.

In the end, Scalise became the top candidate because of the political problems that beset the candidate originally sponsored by the Outfit, Thomas Burke. Burke had gained power in a Chicago local after the murder of its previous leader, Louis Alterie, apparently by the Outfit. Burke's ties to the Outfit were a matter of common knowledge within the union and so several of the BSEIU board members, who would be the ones voting to pick Horan's replacement, viewed him with distaste. Then too another candidate from Chicago, William McFetridge, had greater seniority within the union, and he threatened to divide the vote of the Chicago officers. Scalise became a compromise candidate. Since his ties to organized crime were not well known, he did not raise the same objections as had Burke. An outsider, he offered a face saving alternative to the Chicago officers, and in the end he won the presidency by a unanimous vote of the board. Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1940, clipping in Dewey Scrapbook, v. 3-4, Roll 2, Dewey Papers; "Nelson Named in Inquiry on Scalise Union," Chicago Tribune, n.d.,


[edit] References

  • "'Big 3' Denied Separate Trials On Terror Plot." Chicago Daily Tribune. June 18, 1922.
  • "'Big 3' of Chicago Labor To Be Tried." New York Times. June 10, 1922.
  • Biles, Roger. Big City Boss in Depression and War: Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1984. ISBN 087580098X
  • Bukowski, Douglas. Big Bill Thompson, Chicago, and the Politics of Image. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. ISBN 0252066685
  • "Eight Labor Chiefs Indicted In Chicago To Block Release." New York Times. May 12, 1922.
  • Fitch, Robert. Solidarity For Sale. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. ISBN 189162072X
  • "Get New Evidence On Labor Bombings." New York Times. May 15, 1922.
  • "Horan Installed as Head of Flat Janitors' Union." Chicago Daily Tribune. September 7, 1927.
  • Kinsley, Philip. "Trial Nears Climax." Chicago Daily Tribune. July 29, 1922.
  • "Labor Chiefs Seized in Effort to End Murders by Gangsters." Chicago Daily Tribune. May 11, 1922.
  • "Obituary." Chicago Daily Tribune. April 30, 1937.
  • "Raid Bomb Factory in Chicago's War On Labor Terror." New York Times. May 13, 1922.
  • "Rush To Indict Chicago Laborites." New York Times. May 12, 1922.
  • "Scalise Sentenced to 10 to 20 Years." New York Times. October 8, 1940.
  • "Service Union Plans Drive." New York Times. May 4, 1937.
  • "Shea, Member of 'Big 3,' And Two Others Get Bail." Chicago Daily Tribune. June 13, 1922.
  • Slater, Joseph. Public Workers: Government Employee Unions, the Law, and the State, 1900-1962. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. ISBN 0801440120
  • Tuohy, John William. When Capone's Mob Murdered Roger Touhy: The Strange Case of "Jake the Barber" and the Kidnapping That Never Happened. Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 2001. ISBN 1569801746
  • Touhy, Roger (with Ray Brennan). The Stolen Years. Cleveland: The Pennington Press, 1959.
  • "200 Labor Chiefs Arrested in Chicago After Two Policemen Are Shot Dead And Industrial Plants Are Bombed." New York Times. May 11, 1922.
  • Witwer, David. "The Scandal of George Scalise: A Case Study in the Rise of Labor Racketeering in the 1930s." Journal of Social History. Summer 2003.

April Showers USA In Ratings Network Leads Primetime, Total Audience Ratings Last Month By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 5/1/2008 4:29:00 PM http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6556834.html?desc=topstory

Networks that struggled during the month include FX, Sci Fi Channel and TruTV (all averaging a 0.9 rating, down 10 percent since April 2007




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