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August H. "Gus" Winkler — the family name apparently was originally spelled with an extra E, as Winkeler — was always a bit of an outsider after he moved to Chicago and became one of Al Capone's "American Boys."
"The American Boys" was Capone's designation for a crew he used for special assignments, such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Winkler and Fred "Killer" Burke were perhaps the best known; others included Bob Carey, Fred Goetz and Raymond "Crane Neck" Nugent.
They were not well-liked by other Capone associates, particularly Frank Nitti, who would take over the Chicago mob after Capone was convicted of income tax evasion in 1931.
Winkler was the least-trusted of "The American Boys" because he talked too much. Apparently he had no secrets from his wife, Georgette, who was five years older than he was, and would write a memoir about their life together, including everything he had told her about his career as a gangster.
Of course, when Capone went off to prison, neither he nor Nitti nor anyone else in the mob was concerned about Winkler's conversations with his wife. What began to bother Nitti were the conversations Winkler was having with police and federal authorities.
In early October, 1933, Winkler was spotted at the Bankers Building, the Chicago office of the FBI and special agent Melvin Purvis.
That was the last straw. |
Buffalo Courier-Express, October 10, 1933
CHICAGO, Illinois, October 9 (AP) — Gus Winkler, affluent and sinister power in the world of gangsters, was assassinated today as his hand turned the doorknob of a beer distributing depot.
Three killers motored down a north side street in an old green truck as Winkler strolled up to the door.
The truck slowed down. Guns were poked out, and a blast of buckshot poured into Winkler’s back. He fell, and the shotguns roared again. Sixty-five wounds had been torn into his body.
He lived just 40 more minutes.
“YOU'RE DYING," the police whispered to him at John B. Murphy Hospital. “Who shot you?”
Winkler moaned for water, for a clergyman. but in spite of a rumor he had been slain for betraying some criminal, he said not word about his killers.
Winkler’s assassination followed a series of swift developments in the war against crime by governmental and local officials, centering around the $250,000 post office robbery in Chicago last December. Edgar B. Lebensberger, night club owner and Gold Coast dweller, was found shot to death last Friday.
A few hours after the finding of his body, it became known Lebensberger had been indicted in connection with the post office robbery. Though a coroner’s jury held he committed suicide, some authorities ventured an opinion the possibility he had been slain.
ONE THEORY, that of Detective Captain Daniel Gilbert, directly linked the deaths of Winkler and Lebensberger.
“Winkler apparently was the contact man between the actual mail robbers and the peddlers of stolen bonds,” said Captain Gilbert. “It is significant that everybody but Winkler was indicted, and it seems obvious that Winkler was a government informer. He was the only man alive, apparently, who could put the finger on the gangsters who robbed the mail messengers.”
Agent and past heir of the Al Capone underworld power, Winkler’s career had flashed into prominence in recent years as a sort of go-between for bank robbers operating throughout the land. Because of that reputation, government agents hunted him down a fortnight ago to be questioned concerned the Urschel kidnapping, the search for George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and the killing of policeman Miles Cunningham by the gunners who had just robbed Federal Reserve Bank messengers of two sacks on a Loop street.
They found him inn a luxurious Lake Shore apartment, living in his tapestried abode as George Michels. They turned him over to the police and a jury acquitted him of a vagrancy charge a week ago. Another warrant was issued and he was out on bond when slain.
LEBENSBERGER was an associate of Winkler and of the slain Ted Newberry, and the circumstances of his death caused police to wonder and look around for Winkler. Then came word of Winkler’s death today.
Captain Thomas J. Callahan of the U. S. Secret Service asserted the belief the killers of policeman Cunningham in the recent Federal Reserve holdup had done away with Winkler to seal his lips.
But Winkler had plenty of other enemies.
One of his friends was Fred “Killer” Burke, now finishing his life in Michigan State Prison for the cold-blooded murder of a St. Joseph (Michigan) traffic patrolman.
Two years ago Winkler, driving, as usual, with a gun and a bottle of whiskey at his side, was accosted by police near St. Joseph. He elected to race. His car overturned and Winkler’s skull was fractured.
He was wearing a spare set of teeth over his own, as disguise, and carried several sets of spectacles. An aviator, Winkler gave his name as Jerry Kral, Chicago pilot, but he was recognized and taken on a tour of places in America where he was wanted for bank robbery, murder, kidnapping.
THE "SECRET SIX,"* and bankers’ associations of Nebraska and Illinois took him over at Chicago when his skull mended.
Winkler frankly admitted he was afraid of a jury in Lincoln, Nebraska, and would rather do what he could to recover the $2,870,000 stolen from the Lincoln National Bank and Trust Company than go out and defend himself.
The “Secret Six” and authorities agreed to let him try. They believed then he was a member of the directorate of the sinister Capone gang, and that he knew who the robbers were.
On January 5, 1932, Winkler stood by his bargain. He delivered to a Chicago bank $583,000 worth of the bonds taken in one of the most amazing bank robberies in history, and gave proof that $2,217,000 of the non-negotiable securities had been burned. All the time he asserted his own innocence of the robbery.
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* "The Secret Six" was the name given to a group of Chicago business men, who, in response to grave concern over Al Capone's power and police corruption, had launched their own investigation, hiring Alexander Jamie, a former special agent of the U. S. Department of Justice.
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Buffalo Courier-Express, October 11, 1933
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — The body of Gus Winkler, gangster overlord, 111 shotgun slugs removed therefrom, was transferred tonight from a stone slab in the morgue to a $10,000 silver coffin, and police announced themselves expectant of further gangster killings.
So fearful were authorities that the Winkler assassination might evolve into a vicious circle of shootings that federal agents profusely armed were assigned to guard witnesses in the $250,000 Chicago mail robbery of a year ago.
Suspicion that the shotgun pellets were sent into Winkler’s back because he had become, or was about to become loquacious with police officials about the robbery was admitted by the investigators concerned.
Forty odd suspects have been arrested about the country for dealing in the bonds stolen in the robbery, a nightclub owner has committed suicide, and police were searching diligently for Winkler when the assassins slew him.
His widow testified at the inquest today that during the height of the search, Winkler had made arrangements for a police escort to take him this morning to the office of United States Attorney Dwight H. Green.
It was Mrs. Winkler, blonde, plump, and named Georgette, who arranged for the ornate coffin. “The best is none too good for Gussie,” she said, adding that his large collection of diamonds would be buried with him.
Three suspects were arrested for the killing today, mainly because they were indiscreet enough to loiter in poolrooms and on street corners near the scene of the shooting at the front door of County Commissioner Charles H. Weber’s beer distributing agency.
All have police records, but police indicated no firm belief they were the actual slayers commissioned by higher-ups in gangdom to dispose of Winkler.
Winkler’s conduct had been exemplary during their twelves years of association, the widow said. He came home every night for dinner at 5 p.m., she said, except when Chief of Detectives William Schoemaker was looking for him.
“He must have gone there to meet someone,” she said when asked why Winkler was entering Weber’s establishment when he was shot.
Police Captain James Fleming also said he believed Winkler had an appointment in the place.
He pointed out that the green paneled truck from which the killers fired had been parked near the beer agency for some time. Police said they believed Winkler was searching for bond for one of the suspects held in the mail robbery.
Late in the afternoon police found David Goldblatt, former bodyguard of Winkler, as he walked along a street, and took him to the Town Hall station for questioning.
“Gus telephoned me yesterday morning,” said Goldblatt, “and told me to meet him. I met him at 1 p.m. He was nervous. He said he wanted to borrow my car and added that he was going down to the Federal Building.
Goldblatt said Winkler told him he had “business” to talk over with Mr. Waugh. It was believed he referred to his attorney, William P. Waugh, who later told police he was awaiting Winkler when he received word of the gangster’s death.
Waugh said that while he was waiting for Winkler, someone telephoned him, stating, “Gus won’t be able to keep that appointment. He has had an accident.”
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Syracuse Journal, October 16, 1933
CHICAGO (INS) — While she was in St. Louis attending funeral services for her husband, Gus Winkler, burglars entered their Gold Coast apartment and stole 10 sable furs valued at $3,000, Mrs. Georgette Winkler reported to police today. |
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New York Sun, October 23, 1933
CHICAGO (AP) — Was Gus Winkler’s widow marked for an underworld death?
This question was brought up today by Colonel Henry Barrett Chamberlain, operating director of the Chicago Crime Commission, as a result of the finding of the 37-year-old widow, Georgette, unconscious in her apartment last night with burners of a gas stove turned on.
“It is not too fantastic to believe her suicide attempt was the result of gangland intimidation,” said Colonel Chamberlain, pointing out she was found on the eve of the reopening of a coroner’s inquest into her gangster husband’s slaying two weeks ago.
“I believe Mrs. Winkler has valuable information which I hope she will reveal at the coroner’s investigation,” he said. Colonel Chamberlain is a member of the jury.
Mrs. Winkler was found by a friend who hurriedly called police and firemen, who worked over her for a considerable time with an inhalator before she was revived.
“Gus, I want to die; I want to go with you” police quoted her as saying. A few minutes later she turned to Dr. Oscar Cliff, called to attend her, and said, “You’re not doing me a favor by letting me live. I want to die.” Had aid arrived a few minutes later, she probably would have.
The friend who came to her rescue was Miss Bonnie White*, who told police Mrs. Winkler, who had brooded since her husband was shot down on a street by a barrage of bullets two weeks ago, had telephoned her last night and asked her to come over in an hour, as “I’m going on a long ride.”
Suspecting something was wrong, Miss White hurried to the Lake Shore Drive apartment, detected the odor of gas in the hall, notified the manager and authorities, who entered with a pass key.
They found the blond Mrs. Winkler, attired in a black evening gown, unconscious over the gas stove in the kitchen. Most of the jets were turned wide open, and gas was pouring out.
Mrs. Winkler had been subpoenaed to appear today before a coroner’s jury due to reopen its investigation into her husband’s death.
A police guard was established at the apartment. |
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* "Miss Bonnie White" was the wife of Gun Winkler's partner-in-crime, Fred “Killer” Burke (nee Thomas Camp). Bonnie Porter had married Burke in 1930, thinking his name was Richard F. White, a business man who traveled a lot. (Information from myalcaponemuseum.com.)
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Joe E. Lewis, who turned to comedy after he lost his singing voice when a Chicago mobster slashed his throat, was a sometime friend of Gus Winkler, who lost an eye at some point in his career.
Lewis said the eye was shot out during a robbery; other sources say Winkler lost the eye in his Michigan automobile accident.
As for Georgette Winkler, she made no more suicide attempts, but tried to help police find her husband's killers. (Those three men picked up the day after the murder were soon released.)
To help expose the mob, the Winkler widow wrote a book, but publishers wouldn't touch it, which perhaps saved the woman's life. She turned her manuscript over to the FBI, but the agency shelved it. About 70 years later it was discovered by William J. Helmer, who writes about crime (and maintains the Al Capone website mentioned above).
Helmer edited the widow's manuscript and the result was "Al Capone and His American Boys," a book published in 2011. Much of what is believed today about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre comes from that book. Apparently Winkler called his wife, "Mother," and shared most of his ideas with her, including plans for various crimes.
 It's strange looking at photos of people from the 1920s and '30s. Winkler was born in 1901, which means he was only 32 when he was gunned down. Photos make him look about ten years older.
Georgette Bence Winkler was listed as 37 years old in the story (above) about her suicide attempt. Elsewhere her birth year is listed as 1898, which would have made her 35 in 1933. Again, photos make her seem several years older, and it's my hunch she was. Winkler married her in 1920 after meeting her at her parents' boarding house.
According to John William Tuohy in his piece on americanmafia.com, the Winkler marriage was interrupted occasionally during the next six years for arrests and some jail time. In St. Louis, Winkler and "Killer" Burke were part of a gang called Egan's Rats.
Winkler's Wikipedia biography says Winkler next went to Detroit and briefly joined The Purple Gang before he met Al Capone and moved to Chicago.
Which means Winkler moved very quickly once he arrived in the Windy City. It appears gangsters with the right connections could become very rich very quickly. Winkler probably would have remained rich a lot longer if he hadn't talked so much.
His widow overcame her grief and eventually remarried. She was Mrs. Georgette Marsh when she passed away in 1962.
As for the murder of this particular "American Boy," it was never solved. There isn't even agreement on how many shotgun pellets penetrated his body. The first story says 65, another story says 111, and most of what has been written in recent years says it was 72. It surprises me that Winkler survived for 40 minutes. |
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