Capone tried a different tactic; he would
push Touhy to see how far he could get before a shooting war broke out.
Starting in the early summer of 1927, he tried to work his way into Touhy's
territory by opening several whorehouses just inside Des Plains. That same day,
Roger and Tommy Touhy, backed by several truckloads of their men and a squad of
Cook County police, raided the bordellos, broke them up and chased the women
back to Chicago. All the while, Capone kept sending his beer salesmen into
Touhy's territory where they achieved a fair amount of success by drastically
undercutting Touhy's prices, but the ever shrewd Kolb recognized Capone's ploy
and refused to be prodded into a price war that they couldn't win. Instead, the
Touhys responded by sending a simple message to any saloon keeper who sold
Capone's beer inside their territory. If the bar owner sold Capone's brew, they
would wreck the place. If he continued, they would burn his place to the
ground.
