(2 of 2)
Many people came to believe his story that he had been framed. Miller, an ex-policeman who had been Factor's bodyguard, switched his allegiance to Touhy when he found what he called positive evidence that the kidnap story was fraudulent. In a 1954 rehearing of the case, Federal Judge John P. Barnes pronounced the kidnaping a "hoax," ordered Touhy released (he was jailed again after 49 hours, when a higher court overruled Judge Barnes). Ray Brennan, a Chicago reporter, gave Roger a florid assist in writing his bitter memoirs, The Stolen Years (TIME, Nov. 30). In 1957 Illinois' Governor William G. Stratton reduced Touhy's sentence to 75 years, and last month, after nearly 26 years in the pen, Roger the Terrible was paroled, and Reporter Brennan's book went on sale.
$3,000,000 Suit. On his last evening alive, Touhy met Bodyguard Miller, Reporter Brennan and a representative of his publisher in Chicago's Press Club to worry over the fact that many booksellers were afraid to sell his book because of a $3,000,000 libel suit brought by Jake the Barber. By coincidence, Factor and Tubbo Gilbert, both grown rich and living in California, were stopping in Chicago on the same night. After two beers, Touhy left with Miller in plenty of time to be in his sister's flat by curfew. The two killers were waiting for them in the shadow of a nearby clump of evergreens. As Touhy and Miller went up the steps of Ethel Alesia's porch, the gunmen stepped to the walk behind them, fired low with six blasts of 12-gauge, 00 buckshot pellets.
Police described the killing as a well-planned, professional job. They found evidence that Touhy had been under surveillance from a basement in an apartment house across the street almost from the day he was released. His movements and habits were well known by his killers. "I don't know exactly who did it, but I do know the Chicago mob was behind it," a shaken Ray Brennan told the coroner. "There are some other people you can bring here. Touhy had three enemies and he talked about them often. He regarded [ex-Cop Tubbo] Gilbert as his worst enemy. [Jake the Barber] Factor was Number 2, and [ex-State's Attorney] Thomas J. Courtney was Number 3. I'm not making any accusations; I'm simply saying what Touhy used to say."
In contrast to his classic, gang-style death, Roger Touhy was buried quietly, with no flowers, no eulogies, in Mount Carmel Cemetery, known as the Boot Hill of gangsters. Near by are the tombs of Frank ("The Enforcer") Nitti and Paul ("Needle Nose") La Briola. Dion O'Banion is also buried there, and near the Touhy plot is a grave site reserved for Anthony ("Tough Tony") Accardo, kingpin of Chicago's rackets, and present unchallenged boss of the Capone mob.
* The fourth of Ethel Alesia's six brothers to be shot to death by hoods or police.