Who was Eddie O'Hare?

Early in his career, he entered a partnership with a local inventor named Oliver P. Smith, who in 1909 had developed a mechanical rabbit for use in dog racing. Over the next decade, Smith refined his invention and O'Hare took out the patent. Together, they toured the country and showed the running rabbit system, just as the sport of dog racing was catching on.

With time, they had great success, taking a percentage of the gate in exchange for use of their invention When the inventor died in 1927, O'Hare, the lawyer, cheated Smith's wife out of any rights she had to the invention, gained complete control of the rights to the rabbit for himself.

Flush with cash, Fast Eddie O'Hare dumped his long suffering wife, took his three children, Butch and his sisters Patricia and Marilyn, and moved to Chicago, where he hooked up with infamous gangster, Al Capone, also known as Scar Face.

Al Capones relationship with Eddie is still somewhat of a mysterey, but it is thought that Al took an instant liking to Eddie, and subsequently made him a major partner in his gambling industry - Specifically dog racing.

Eddie grew even more popular with the mafia when he figured out a way to fix the races. He fed seven of the eight dogs in the race a greasy hamburger just minutes before the race was to begin, and then placed the mob's money on the unfed dog. This made the mob and him very rich, and elevated his position.

Eddie went on to rule Al Capones gambling empire - an illegal buisness worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Some estimate that the actual profit of the gambling buisness was well over One Billion.

Who killed Eddie O'Hare?

Eddies son, Butch, whom he thought very highly of, told him that he wanted to go to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, which required the backing of a local representative in Congress.

At the same time, Capone was locked in the midst of his tax fight with the government, which was desperately trying to put Capone away. Because Capone had more than half of the police force under his power, as well as leading judges and even the mayor, this was becoming increasingly difficuilt.

It so happened that one day Eddie O'Hare ran into a reporter from the St. Louis Post Dispatch named John Rogers, who was also a friend of one of the prosecutors going after Capone.

Rogers knew that O'Hare wanted to get his son into Annapolis. Introductions were made and a deal was cut, Butch O'Hare would enter Annapolis if Eddie O'Hare would play ball with the government and inform on Capone, which he did and did well.

Eddie O'Hare informed the goverment, and Al Capone was locked up for eleven years.

Capone went away forever, Frank Nitti took over the outfit and Eddie O'Hare went on to make even more money at various mob related ventures.

Fast Eddie never did stop informing on the mobsters he did business with, but, unlike the legend that has grown up around him, O'Hare didn't inform on the mob for altruistic reasons, he did it for the money. Anytime a mob partner would lean on him for a higher percentage or cheat him out of a dollar, Fast Eddie O'Hare would drop a dime on the thug.

It was a great deal for Fast Eddie, or at least it was until the day he cheated Paul Ricca, the reigning mob boss at the time, out of his fair share of a deal they had worked together.

Eddie cheated Ricca

At the same time, Al Capone had been released from prison, but was very ill and expected to die very soon. He had previously vowed vengance on Eddie.

On November 8, 1939, Eddie O'Hares car was passed by another car, from which two men opened fire. Eddie was instantly killed. At the crime scene, police found a loaded gun belonging to Eddie, a crucifix, a religious medallion and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read: "The clock of life is wound but once And no man has the power To tell just when the hands will stop At late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still."

This indicates Eddie knew he was going to die that day, and that he may have been planning to kill himself.

Who killed Eddie O'Hare?

With the mob involved, we will probably never know. And the ones who might know value their lives or are dead, too.

had to be capone's hencheman,they were famous for leaving notes and poems behind on their victims.when they got machine gun jack mcgurn,they left a similar note on him.

Actually there are more than a dozen suspects in the murder, including Al Capone and Ricca.

Also, a little known fact- Eddies son, Butch O'Hare, is the subject of the O'Hare international airport - It was named after him.

maybe geraldo can find another vault to open and we'll have the answer finally!

You remember that?? What a hoot! I even got permission to stay up past my bedtime for that fiasco.

Well it all happened before I was born so...