Double-Crossing Capone - by Neil Root & Mario Gomes (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This gripping true crime narrative with truly international appeal will tell the story of Edward O'Hare (1893-1939), also known as 'Fast Eddie' and 'Easy Eddie', who made the foolhardy decision to double-cross Al Capone and the Chicago Outfit and paid the ultimate price.

O'Hare, born in St. Louis, making his lucrative way there as an attorney defending mobsters, before moving to Chicago in the late-1920's. In that city, O'Hare became the wealthy president of Sportsman's Park racetrack in Chicago, then the home of corrupt dog racing and later horseracing. He did much business with Al Capone and the Chicago Outfit from 1928, in and around Chicago at Sportsman's Park, and at Capone's Hawthorne dog track in Stickney, as well as at dog tracks in Boston and Miami. The association with Capone made O'Hare rich: at the time of his death, he was reported to be worth more than a million dollars (the equivalent of over $22.5 million in 2024).

But in 1930, as the authorities began to seriously go after Capone in the wake of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Capone's increasing public profile, O'Hare, to save his own skin, cooperated with US authorities against Capone, ensuring his conviction for tax evasion. O'Hare turned over a key Capone bookkeeper, Leslie A. Shumway of Miami, to Treasury investigator Frank J. Wilson, who led the team tasked with ensnaring Capone. O'Hare also aided the authorities in deciphering the codes in which Outfit financial ledgers were written.

The resulting trial in 1931, at which Shumway gave evidence, led to Capone being convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison. Frank J. Wilson later wrote that O'Hare was 'the best undercover man I have ever known.'

While Capone was locked away in the Atlanta Penitentiary and the notorious Alcatraz, the Chicago Outfit was fronted by Frank Nitti (real name Nitto), and Tony 'Joe Batters' Accardo was the head of enforcement. In the mid-1930's, there were a number of prominent mob hits in and around Chicago, including that of Capone's once No.1 gunman 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn, the killing of whom at a bowling alley is widely thought to have been carried out by the Outfit, as the down-on-his-luck McGurn was getting out of line. Accardo is likely to have lured McGurn to his death.

Then, eight years after Capone was convicted, Edward O'Hare was gunned down as he drove along Ogden Avenue near Western Avenue in Chicago, on 8th November 1939, a week before Capone was released from Alcatraz.

This incredible story has never been told in detail before....

About the Author

Neil Root was born in London in 1971, Neil Root has published seven non-fiction books including Crossing the Line of Duty: How Corruption, Greed and Sleaze Brought Down the Flying Squad (longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction, 2020) The Murder Gang: Fleet Street's Elite Group of Crime Reporters in the Golden Age of Tabloid Crime (longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, 2018), Gone: The Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence, Frenzy! How the Tabloid Press Turned Three Evil Serial Killers into Celebrities, Twentieth Century Spies and Cold-Blooded Evil.

Additionally, Neil Root has written news and feature articles on a variety of crime and justice topics for UK national newspapers and magazines including the BBC News Magazine, Press Gazette, The Justice Gap and Inside Justice, Sunday Mirror, Daily Star Sunday, Sunday People, Gay Times, Real Crime, Red Herrings, The New Voice, Police Professional, as well as on his Substack platform Crime Waves. He has also contributed to several true crime documentaries as a talking head, a podcast and a crime talk show.

Alongside his writing career, he has worked as an English teacher and lecturer in the UK, several European countries, and the Middle East.

Mario Gomes was born in Montreal, Canada in 1965, Mario Gomes always had a fascination with the 1920's era whenever it appeared on TV. He once fell upon The Untouchables and reconnected with the later 1987 movie. He was so enthralled by the characters that he decided to research real-life subjects. He was not disappointed, as this led to a longer than three-decade search uncovering new info, while busting myths along the exciting journey.

Whether it be images, information or collecting, his world-renowned website www.myalcaponemuseum.com has led him to being sought out for his expertise with the correct info relating to Capone and his era. Since its first inception in 2000, he has participated in scores of documentaries, books, newspaper and magazine articles through research and providing images, including for the seminal Ken Burns docuseries Prohibition in 2011. Mario Gomes has also personally appeared on History Channel documentaries such as History Hardcore Home and Bunker / Al Capone, 2005, and Man, Moment, Machine / Al Capone & The Machine Gun Massacre, 2006.

In 2020, he was mentioned in the New York Post when he uncovered that Al Capone had his own baseball team for a short while in Brooklyn. He came upon the new and exciting info as he was trying to uncover the real date of Capone's face slashing. He also corrected that myth of a story! Besides knowledge and expertise in this field, he has amassed many historical items from the Chicago gangster era with many of them personally belonging to the granddaddy of all gangsters, Alphonse "Scarface" Capone. Through his collection, he is often sought out for his knowledge and expertise in identifying real items connected to Al Capone and his era. His collection was mentioned in Centennial's 2022 magazine issue Al Capone, 75 years later. He is also a close friend to Al Capone's living relatives and Capone's rival's relatives which gives him a perspective from all sides.

He currently lives in Montreal and works as an optical technician.