Joe Touhy, Roger's older
brother, died, in June of 1929. Eyewitnesses said that Joe and his crew were
breaking up a speakeasy that the Capones had opened in Schiller Park. When a
waiter reached for something under the bar, Joe Touhy's own man, a hood named
Paul Pagen, fired off a warning burst from his machine gun, accidentally
killing Touhy.
Johnny Touhy, the third eldest brother,
didn't call it an accident. He killed Pagen in revenge for Joe's murder and was
sentenced to prison for ten years to life. However he was released in four years,
his brothers having purchased his freedom with bribes. "And that's what
money," wrote the Chicago Tribune of John's release, "well spent in
Chicago will do. "
A few months after his parole was granted,
Johnny was arrested again for attempted murder of a Capone goon. He was sent
back to StatevillePrison where he died of consumption in a barren hospital
room.