Frank Gusenberg - Early Life

Early Life

Frank Gusenberg (akas: Gusenberger, Carl Bloom, Howard Morgan, Fred Gusenberg, Frank Gould) was the second oldest of three sons born to Peter Gusenberg Sr. Peter Sr. was a first generation emigrant from Gusenburg, a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and his wife who fled to Chicago during the outbreak of World War I. Frank was raised at 434 Roscoe Street in Lakeview, Chicago. Frank followed his brother Peter Gusenberg into a life of crime with the Bugs Moran. Frank was a polygamist and married two women, Lucille and Ruth, unbeknownst to them. He was first arrested for disorderly conduct in 1909 and from 1909 to 1914 was a suspect in numerous armed robberies and burglaries in the Greater Chicago area. In 1911, he was convicted of disorderly conduct and sent to the notorious Bridewell Prison in South Lawndale, Chicago.

In 1901 when Frank was nine years old, his elder brother, Peter, found their mother dead in the kitchen of their Roscoe Street home, leaving their upbringing to their father, Peter Sr., who was very much an absent father who was working all the time. Frank was later brought up on burglary charges by the state prosecuting attorney's office in 1926 but for some unknown reason the charges against Frank were never filed with the courts. His last known address was 5507 Beatrice Avenue in the Portage Park neighbourhood of Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from petty crime into more serious offenses, they teamed with Dion O'Banion, Hymie Weiss, and other members of the local mob scene. They became two of the gang's chief hitmen. After the O'Banion's 1924 murder, Gusenberg joined his friends, led by Hymie Weiss, in getting revenge on the Capone mob.