In as far as the
Touhy gang went, at least before 1927, there really wasn't any gang, not in the
traditional sense. Rather, the entire operation was run more along the lines of
any other prospering subur- ban-based business. Jim Wagner, Touhy's bookkeeper,
told the FBI that the Touhy gang had an average of twenty to twenty-five
members before the war with Capone, that the gang had no official headquarters
only an after work hangout, an old gas station "in back of Mrs. Kolze's
white house in Shiller Park."
Another hangout was
Wilson's Ford dealership in Des Plains run by Henry Ture Wilson, who, according
to the FBI, not only sold most of the Touhy gang discounted Fords, but also
dealt in stolen cars. Wilson's stockroom manager, Otto Rexes, ran a handbook
for Roger out of the place as well. Roger also purchased most of his beer
delivery trucks here under his garage's name, the Davis Cartage Company. On
most Saturday nights gang members could be found at the Dietz Stables, a dance
hall in Ivanhoe in Lake County.