HORSE RIDE TO HELL

5/13/1923 - Bullets, stabbings, stranglings, beatings, even executions are thought to be standard endings for a plethora of mobsters and gangsters over the years, but Chicago hoodlum, Samuel Jules "Nails" Morton, finds a unique way of exiting the criminal underworld of the "Windy City," hearkening back to days of the Wild West, while riding a horse on the town's Lincoln Park Bridle Path, the hoodlum allows himself to be pitched off his mount and then kicked in the head ... dead at the age of 29 just as the city is about to explode in the bootlegging violence of the Roaring Twenties.

Morton

The oldest of seven children born to Russian immigrants, Sarah Goodman and tailor Frank Marcovitz, Morton will be born as Samuel Marcovitz to a New York City Jewish family on July 3, 1893 (when he changes his name to Morton is unknown).  Transplanted to Chicago by 1900, Morton grows up in the Maxwell Street region of the city, an area that produces U.S. Supreme Court justice Arthur Goldberg, world champion boxer Barney Ross (lightweight, light welterweight, and welterweight), and renowned U.S. Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover.  During Morton's time though, the area is known for its street violence, and as Morton passes from childhood into becoming a muscled teenager, the youth becomes known as "Nails" for being "tough as nails" and his prowess at street fighting and defending the neighborhood from other gangs abusing the local Jewish residents, policing the streets with friends while carrying a baseball bat (said to be studded with nails, another story as to how he came by his moniker).  On patrol, he is arrested in 1917 after almost beating several Polish hoodlums to death for trespassing into the region (the brawl will come to be known in the neighborhood as the "Battle of Humboldt Park").  Brought before a considerate judge, he is given the option of going to jail for assault, or joining the army, an army seeking aggressive men to help fight WWI in Europe against the Imperial German Army.  An easy choice, he enlists in the Army the next day.

Maxwell Street - 1917

Beginning his military service as a private in the 132nd Illinois Infantry, of the legendary Rainbow Division (one of its commanders will be Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur), Morton proves to be a natural soldier and leader.  Promoted to sergeant, during trench combat in France on the Western Front, when his company is pinned down by murderous machine gun fire, Morton leads a squad of men through no-mans-land and into the an enemy defensive position where in hand-to-hand combat, the German guns are silenced ... in the effort, Morton is wounded twice (a bullet wound in the arm and shrapnel in his leg), captures 20 German soldiers, and is the only survivor of the squad, which the French government deems worthy of his being awarded their Croix de Guerre medal for valor.  Also impressed, Morton's superiors note in dispatches that Morton possesses natural leadership abilities, is cool under fire, and has an unusual aptitude for handling all types of weapons.  When WWI ends, Morton is sent back to America as a first lieutenant.

Members Of The Rainbow Division

Morton - Far Right

Croix de Guerre

Adrenaline tasted and liked, Morton returns to Chicago and becomes involved gambling, betting thousands of dollars on favorite boxers, playing the local ponies, and being the proprietor of several gaming establishments, activities that bring him to the attention of an old friend, North Side Gang boss, Dion O'Bannion.  Brought into the organization just as Prohibition is beginning, working out of the cover of a flower shop (Scofield's, the same shop O'Bannion is invested in), Morton soon becomes O'Bannion's right hand man as the mobster's chief of liquor distribution and enforcement.  As such, Morton becomes an underworld celebrity, eating at the best restaurants in town, getting front row seats at sporting events, squiring beautiful women out for an evening of fun in his huge touring car, buying himself a home in Humboldt Park, giving expensive gifts to relatives, wearing custom-tailored suits (made to conceal pockets in which revolvers could be easily pulled from) and matching fedoras, sporting a diamond stickpin in his silk ties, carrying a ivory-handled walking stick (containing a hidden razor sharp sword of course), living large off a salary of $250,000 a year ... and doing whatever mayhem is necessary to line the pockets of O'Bannion's gang.

O'Bannion

Taking his work duties seriously, the former war hero is involved with gangster Herschie Miller at the Pekin Inn in a 1920 fistfight and shooting fracas that kills two crooked cops, Detective Sergeants James A. Mulcahy and William E. Hennessy Morton (an argument over the cut on a past liquor deal sets the festivities in motion ... pleading self defense, Morton and Miller will both be acquitted of the killings), and invents, along with Earl "Hymie" Weiss and George "Bugs" Moran, what becomes known as the "one-way-ride" (the quote, "take him for a ride" is said to come from Morton's lips), when the trio picks up rival bootlegger Steve Wisiewski, transports him to a secluded spot, and then executes the gangster for high-jacking an O'Bannion beer truck, helps Louis "Two-Gun" Alterie assassinate a New York hitman, Frank Constanza, that the Johnny Torrio mob has hired to kill O'Bannion (putting the corpse on an eastbound boxcar, Morton is said to remark to Alterie, "No the bum is headed back to New York where he belongs.").  Successful in his endeavors, when he needs to relax and get away from the carnage, the bachelor badman rides horses, a hobby he picks up after visiting the Colorado ranch, Moonridge, of his friend, "Two-Gun" Alterie.  A somewhat surprising voice of reason as O'Bannion begins expanding his bootlegging territory, the future seems bright for Morton until he encounters a frisky colt on a Sunday morning named Morvich (after a famous jockey of the time).
 
Mulcahy & Hennessy

Chicago News

Weiss

Moran

Killer & Cowboy - Alterie

Celebrating the flowers and fresh air of springtime in Chicago, Morton and O'Bannion decide on going riding on May 13th in Lincoln Park, an outing that will include Mrs. O'Bannion and a local commission broker named Peter Mundane.  Arriving at the Brown Riding Stables, in immaculate riding attire of a green sports coat, cream colored riding pants, and spurred boots, Morton selects a horse named Morvich for his jaunt around the park, a mount that is described as being "particularly nervous and mettlesome" ... all the more fun though for the horseman to tame.  Mounted, Morton is given almost no time at all to ponder the error of his choice ... presiding down Clark Street, the horse sudden rears and then takes off at a gallop.  Trying to bring his ride under control, Morton stands in the stirrups to better handle the reins, an action that instead causes one of the stirrup leathers to part, spilling the gangster to the pavement, and further spooking the horse, which kicks backwards to free itself of Morton, still holding its reins.  One blow and the horse is off down Clark Street, and Morton receives a hood to his head that crushes his skull and kills him instantly (a hotel doorman and a park police officer are first to the scene, but can do nothing for Morton). 

Lincoln Park Postcard

Dead at 29 (on his death certificate his occupation will be noted as "florist"), Morton receives one of gangland's first grand funerals ... with O'Bannion, Weiss, Alterie, Moran, and other North Siders as actual and honorary pallbearers, before a crowd of over 5,000 people (including rival mobsters Johnny Torrio and Al Capone, and prominent politicians and city officials), Rabbi Felix Levy of Temple Emanuel presides over a ceremony at Piser's Roosevelt Road Chapel that extols the gangster's WWI heroics and efforts to protect the Jewish population of the city's West Side, full military honors from the local American Legion, and includes a parade down Maxwell Street before a throng of 25,000 that follows a hearse procession of 20 flower filled cars to the gangsters burial site at the Waldheim cemetery.  Quite the sendoff, the funeral serves as a goodbye template for what is soon to follow in Chicago.   

Gravesite       

But of course, the strange death gets even stranger soon after the funeral.  Upset at the loss of their friend, Moran, Alterie, and three other mobsters rent Morvich for the day, take him to the spot where Morton's skull had been crushed, and shoot the horse in the head four times (upset that the visit to his ranch started Morton down the path to his death, Alterie is said to be the gunman).  Revenge not quite complete, the equestrian assassins then haul the horse's carcass to a local dog food processing plant, informing the stable owner over the phone, "We taught that damned horse of yours a lesson.  If you want his saddle, go and get it!"  Or so the story goes ... a story which Hollywood will use in telling the tale of "The Public Enemy" in 1931.  The Warner Brothers movie that makes James Cagney a star, in the tale of the life and death of Tom Powers (played by Cagney), Morton becomes a character called "Nails" Nathan, and when Nathan is killed by a horse while out riding, afterwards, Cagney descends on the stable where the horse is being held and pumps it full of lead.

Movie Poster

"Nails" About To Go On A Fatal Ride

5/13/1923 ... Samuel "Nails" Morton says adios, just before things really get crazy in Chicago.

CLASH IN THE CORAL SEA

5/4/1942 - Deciphered communications provided by the Office of Naval Communications pointing the way, Admiral Chester A. Nimitz decides to blunt Operation Mo, the Japanese plans for empire expansion into the South Pacific, by ordering all four of the carriers he possesses (the USS Lexington, the USS Yorktown, the USS Enterprise, the USS Hornet and their supports ... too far away after supporting the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, Hornet and Enterprise will miss the clash) ... precipitating five days of action that will come to be known as the Battle of the Coral Sea ... a battle that makes military history for being the first time two fleets battle each other without any of the ships making actual visual contact with an enemy vessel.

Nimitz

USS Lexington - October, 1941

USS Yorktown - July, 1937

In the slugfest that follows, the Japanese will win a tactical victory by sinking more American tonnage than they lose (42,497 tons of American vessels), while America can claim a tactical triumph because the Japanese fleet retreats back to their base at Truk Island and they abandon their plan to invade Port Moresby ... decisions that allow the supply line from the West Coast of the United States to Australia to remain open, and that set the stage for one of the American Navy's finest moments the following month off a speck of Pacific coral and sand called Midway Island.  American losses in the battle include the death of the USS Lexington, the USS Yorktown being grievously damaged, the oil tanker USS Neosho going to the bottom, and the destroyer USS Sims going to the bottom ... additionally, 69 planes and 656 men are lost.

The USS Lexington Explodes

The USS Neosho Under Attack

USS Yorktown Undergoing Repairs -

Pearl Harbor, 5/29/1942

On the Japanese side of the ledger are the loss of the light carrier Shoho (becoming one of the Navy's beloved catch phrases to go with stuff like "I have only just begun to fight!", "Don't give up the ship!", and "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!", upon completing the American attacks that hit the Shoho with fifteen 1,000 pound bombs and five torpedoes, Lt. Commander Robert E. Dixon radios home to the USS Lexington, "Scratch one flat top!"), the sinking of the destroyer Kikuzuki, three gunboats being destroyed, the carrier Shokaku being heavily damaged, a destroyer being damaged, two small warships suffering damage, the loss of 92 aircraft and the deaths of 966 Japanese fliers and sailors.  It is the first time in the war that a Japanese offensive has been stopped ... a window to what the future.

Shoho Hit

Shoho On Fire

USS Yorktown Planes Attack Shokaku

Cold numbers and names however do not provide the view of a clash that sometimes personal stories do, so for the Battle of the Coral Sea, here are the tales of three typical Americans that endured the Great Depression, and then after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, kept the world safe from Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo ... three winners of the Congressional Mead-of-Honor for bravery for their actions during the battle:

*42-year-old Chief Petty Officer Oscar Verner Peterson of Prentice, Wisconsin ... trying to save the USS Neosho, Peterson is in charge of a repair party that goes down when the tanker is hit by yet another Japanese bomb ... the only man able to rise from his wounds, despite his injuries, Peterson is able to close four bulkhead steam lines that keep the ship operational, but in the process suffers 3rd-degree burns to his face, shoulders, arms, and hands that take the life of the man on 5/13.

USS Neosho On Fire

American Survivors

Peterson

*29-year-old Lieutenant John James Powers of New York City ... from the USS Yorktown, attacking Japanese shipping that has invaded the island of Tulagi in his SBD Dauntless dive bomber, on 5/4, Powers destroys a large enemy gunboat, damages two other craft, and strafes another gunboat so badly that the vessel will be beached the next day ... on 5/7, he drops one of the bombs that sends the Shoho to the bottom ... and on 5/8, knowing the importance of the battle, after lecturing his group the night before on point-of-aim and diving techniques, and telling everyone to go as low as possible before bomb release to insure hits, Powers shows the way, releasing his explosive load on the carrier Shokaku below the recommended safety height (he starts his run at 18,000 feet and releases his bomb at 2,000 feet) ... he is last seen attempting to pull up and away from the carrier at 200 feet above the deck, flying through a sky filled with fire, smoke, and flying bomb and shell fragments.

Powers

Dauntless Flight

Shokaku Under Attack

  

Shokaku Bow Damage

*28-year-old Lieutenant Milton Ernest Ricketts of Baltimore, Maryland ... at his battle station below decks when Japanese planes hit the USS Yorktown on 5/8, Ricketts is mortally wounded, but manages to rise, open a nearby fire plug, let out a length of hose, and start fighting one of the critical fires that threatens the carrier ... pouring water on the fire, Ricketts eventually falls down dead next to the hose ... but not before he has helped the ship to survive ... and help win the the turning point Battle of Midway in June.

Damaged USS Yorktown

Ricketts

Both sides withdrawing from the area to lick their wounds and prepare for the next round for control of the Pacific, the significance of the clash will not become apparent until the Battle of Midway takes place ... once again, but in an even more devastating manner, code-breakers will give the United States a sneak view of Japanese plans, instead of attacking at Midway with six aircraft carriers, Admiral Yamamoto will go into the clash with only four (Shokaku is forced to go all the way back to Kure, Japan for repair work, and to have the planes and aircrews lost during the battle replaced ... hidden by a rain squall during the battle, Zuikaku escapes damage, but has its air section decimated in defending the Japanese fleet, and in attacking the two U.S. carriers and also goes back to Japan for replacements), and expecting only two U.S. carriers, will be horribly surprised that the USS Yorktown has survived to fight another day (limping north from the Coral Sea, the carrier will arrive for repairs in Pearl Harbor on 5/28 ... given an estimate the work will take two weeks, Admiral Nimitz orders around-the-clock work on the ship, and in a can-do manner, she is once more deemed sea worthy and ready to fight 48 hours later ... and fight she does, though sent to the bottom on 6/7/1942, before the USS Yorktown sinks, her fliers will launch attacks on three of the four Japanese carriers, and will send Soryu to the bottom of the Pacific).

The Hiryu On Fire - Note Blown Open Front Deck

Death Of The USS Yorktown

At Rest

Why today mattered?  5/4/1942 ... it mattered due the fortitude and bravery of the United States Navy's sailors and fliers in stopping the expansion of Imperial Japan during the five days of the Battle of the Coral Sea!

The Battle Of The Coral Sea

The Battle Of The Coral Sea

The Battle Of The Coral Sea

The Battle Of The Coral Sea