Bible Study Thursday, October 8th @ 8:30pm - 9:30pm New York time Thursday, October 8th @ 8:30pm - 9:30pm New York time Michael Franzese is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Bible Study Time: Oct 8, 2026 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Every month on the 8 of the month, 36 occurrence(s). Check the calendar for the Zoom Link.

Upon his death from a torturous, four-day bout with pneumonia in 1932, Frank McErlane was described by Chicago Police as the “toughest gangster of them all.” His ruthless bootlegging peers in the Windy City feared him so much they reportedly paid him a “pension” of hundreds of dollars a week just to stay out of town. McErlane, with the Saltis-McErlane Gang of the city’s South Side, was as cruel and mean as any in gangdom and a maximum danger when blackout drunk and armed. Chicago lore credits him as the first mobster to use a Thompson submachine gun in an attempted gang hit, and with originating the term “one-way ride” to describe a doomed hit target. During his marathon pneumonia delirium, medical attendants heard him scream, “Don’t let them take me for a ride!” Born in Chicago in 1894, McErlane slid into crime by his late teens. During Prohibition in 1922, with his partner Joseph Saltis, he signed up with the Outfit bootlegging gang led by Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. McErlane proved himself a merciless killer during the Outfit’s “beer wars,” slaying three members of a rival liquor gang run by Edward “Spike” O’Donnell. McErlane’s ill-famed debut of the Tommy gun during the beer wars occurred on September 25, 1925, with O’Donnell his intended victim. The Thompson, created as a military weapon, could fire 100 .45-caliber shots in five seconds. O’Donnell, standing outside a drugstore at 63rd Street and Western Avenue, ducked below a nearby auto as McErlane’s burst shattered the store’s window. His next episode with a Thompson took place that October 3 at the Regan A.C. Clubhouse on 52nd Street. Again, his rata-tat-tat missed the wished-for gangster, “Dynamite Joe” Brooks, but killed an innocent bystander. As of 1926, McErlane’s liquor gang had murdered 15 people, beating the rap time after time as witnesses dreaded retribution — and robbed a mail train of $135,000. The gang at that time of open street combat controlled the South Side illicit beer and liquor racket. McErlane somehow avoided death while the object of a dozen shootings. In 1927, he and his gang member brother Vincent rebuffed attempts by police to undergo mental testing for a possible hold in a psychiatric hospital. The Chicago Crime Commission placed Frank on the city’s 28-member “public enemies” list, headed by Al Capone.

And look who”s in the Middle wearing our Mob Talk Social Club T Shirt. How cool is that!