However, in 2 books I read the authors disagree with this theory:
Quote from Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era by Anne Fundenburg
Quote from 30 Illegal Years To The Strip by Bill FriedmanAccording to mob lore, O’Banion had set up the raid or at least knew about it in advance. His motive was to send Torrio to prison. O’Banion had no prior Volstead violations so he expected to pay only a small fine when his case went to court. Torrio, however, had been found guilty of liquor offenses in an earlier case. With those violations on his rap sheet, he would receive a substantial prison term at trial.
Although gangland gossips repeated this tale as gospel truth, they overlooked salient facts. Not only had O’Banion been arrested for hijacking liquor a few months earlier, he had even more recently been indicted on Volstead charges and was awaiting trial. When the police searched O’Banion during the raid, they discovered that he was carrying his “little black book” which listed the people on his payroll. The list included police officers, politicos, and federal Prohibition agents. If O’Banion had expected the raid, surely he would’ve left this sensational evidence at home. The bail situation added another question mark. After the liquor lords were arrested, Torrio paid $ 7,500 cash bail from a wad of whip-out. O’Banion didn’t have cash and had to wait for a bail bondsman to spring him. If O’Banion expected the raid, why didn’t he have the money to pay his bail?
and the author proposes another explanation:The facts are that the two gang leaders were partners in the large Sieben Brewery where they produced the beer that Torrio distributed in south Chicago and O’Banion disseminated in the north-east. Six months before O’Banion’s murder, 30 policemen burst into Sieben and arrested 29 underlings along with Torrio and O’Banion, who were working in unison side by side. The police closed the Brewery, but the two partners soon reopened the facility as the Milk Maid Brewery. Thus, it is nonsense that O’Banion ever sold his share of Sieben to Torrio and then created the raid to hurt his former partner because the Sieben partnership continued on as Milk Maid.
As a result of the raid, Torrio later did go to jail, but if O’Banion had been alive he would have gained nothing because the murderous Capone would have stepped forward to represent Torrio’s interest. Besides, Torrio went to jail because of a plan by reform Mayor Dever and his honest Police Chief Collins. These two officials were after all the gangsters including O’Banion and were never criminal allies of any of them.
In realty, Torrio and O’Banion had never threatened each other and were on excellent terms despite the inevitable disagreements that occur between two aggressive competitors. Torrio and his gang’s leaders all bought very expensive floral displays from O’Banion for high-profile gangland funerals, and key O’Banion gang members hung out at Torrio’s Four Deuces speakeasy and casino deep in his territory. O’Banionites came in unarmed and drank heavily with their backs turned to Torrio’s shooters. Clearly, neither feared or distrusted the other.
In your opinion, was O'Banion really responsible for Torrio's arrest or are the alternative theories more plausible?O’Banion’s gangland murder actually resulted from an argument over morals. While his killing set off a long-term conflict between the two gangs that became known as the “beer war,” it started as a disagreement over the morality of prostitution. Torrio’s primary business was pimping, so he had proposed placing brothels in O’Banion’s North Side territory and giving him a cut of the profits. O’Banion always bragged that what separated him from Torrio was his vocal denunciation of any man taking money from a woman. Thus, O’Banion was deeply offended by the proposal. Torrio tried to address this objection with his next offer to operate North Side brothels by not having O’Banion profit from them. Instead he offered to trade O’Banion the right to sell beer in some of his territories, but O’Banion would not allow any one to exploit women in his terrain. His strong idealistic conviction cost him his life. The resulting gang war may have started over brothel territory and it was popularly believed to have been fought over beer terrain, but it was actually a long-term ongoing battle for leadership of the Unione Siciliana Chicago branch.
