O'banion was born on July 8, 1892 in Auro, about 25 miles west of Chicago. As a child he was extrememly competitive and had a ugly mean streak. His family eventually took an apartment in the North Side of Chicago called "Little Hell". Dion left school at an early age to sell newspapers and joined the market street gang of pilferers and election sluggers. At age 16 he became a singing waiter in a place called Mcgoverns. In 1909 he served his 1st of two jail terms in a Chicago correctional house for commiting burglary. When prohibition came along it made O'banion a very rich man. He quickly recognized the need for liquor and was quicker to provide it. He was one of Prohibitions first hijackers, he would hijack trucks of booze and then sell it to local brothels for 100% profit. Dion was a very casual and dangerous killer, he was said to have killed 25 people personally. As soon as Dion reached success he started his North Side Gang. The gang would come to include many men, perhaps none greater than
Hymie Weiss. Together Weiss and O'banion would become a lethal partnership. Dion's gang became a very real threat to Torrio and
Capone. But O'banion first real fight came with the deadly Genna brothers. The brothers began to make their own fortune selling booze and needed more room to run their operation. So the began to sell their liquor to many of O'banion's customers. The two gangs became bitter enemies and only avoided war when Torrio and Capone stepped in. O'banion would grow tired of his lifestyle and decidied to sell his brewery to Torrio. The problem with that was that the brewery had attracted the attention of teh law and was due to get raided soon. O'banion knew this when he sold Torrio the brewery. The brewery was raided and Torrio was taken to jail. Such a double crossing could never be forgiven. So on November 10, 1924, while Dion was in the back of his flower shop, three men walked in. Dion made his way up front to greet these men. As O'banion reached out to shake their hands, Frankie Yale grabbed hold of Dion's arm while John Scalise and Albert Anselmi put five bullets in O'banion's body, the last being at point blank range.
