Born in Marsala, Sicily, Anselmi became involved with the local Mafia at an early age. In 1924, Anselmi fled Sicily to avoid murder charges. Entering the U.S. illegally on the Gulf Coast, Anselmi eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois. Anselmi soon began working for the Genna brothers, one of Chicago's top bootlegging gangs. Anselmi soon met John Scalise, another hitman who would partner with Anselmi on many famous murders.
On June 13, 1925, Anselmi and Scalise killed two Chicago policemen and wounded one other during a gun battle. Anselmi and Scalise were tried for the murder of one officer, Charles Walsh. Both men were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Four months later, they were acquitted of the murder of the second officer, Harold Olsen. Nine months later, Anselmi and Scalise were granted a retrial for the Walsh murder. They were acquitted. A second trial in 1927 also led to an acquittal.
After the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929, Anselmi's long time friend and partner Scalise was indicted on charges relating to the massacre, as they had now been working for Outfit boss Al Capone. However, a short time later on May 8, 1929, Anselmi, Scalise, and a fellow gangster named Joseph Giunta were found dead on a road near Hammond, Indiana. It is now suspected that they were murdered by Capone when he heard that they were planning to betray him.
External links
- Albert Anselmi and John Scalise
- GanglandNews.com - John Scalise and Albert Anselmi
- Albert Anselmi at Find-A-Grave
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday May 17, 2008 at 19:02:50 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.