In 1927, William O’Connor, the new chief of detectives in Chicago, went out on a limb. Gang wars were terrorizing the city, but the press and his constituents were unconvinced that O’Connor could stop the shooting.
What the situation called for, Chief O’Connor decided—and convinced corrupt Mayor Big Bill Thompson was necessary—was an elite unit, an armored car force that could match the gangsters bullet for bullet.
O’Connor picked volunteers from the police force who had fought in the war in Europe and could handle a machine gun. To this squad of super-armed men, he issued an order of almost unparalleled irresponsibility:
Men, the war is on. We’ve got to show that society and the police department, and not a bunch of dirty rats, are running this town. It is the wish of the people of Chicago that you hunt these criminals down and kill them without mercy. Your cars are equipped with machine guns and you will meet the enemies of society on equal terms. See to it that they don’t have you pushing up daisies. Make them push up daisies. Shoot first and shoot to kill. If you kill a notorious feudist, you will get a handsome reward and win promotion. If you meet a car containing bandits, pursue them and fire. When I arrive on the scene, my hopes will be fulfilled if you have shot off the top of their car and killed every criminal inside it.
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There was considerable hesitation by many persons to accept such a shoot-first-think-afterward program; they worried about innocent bystanders being cut down in the crossfire.
However, such worries by members of the public—and, perhaps, by the gangsters themselves—proved unnecessary. O’Connor’s Gunners turned out to be regular johnnies-comelately to crime scenes, hardly ever turning up in the right place at the right time.
