From the International Herald Tribune
100, 75, 50 Years Ago
Published: March 24, 2011
1936 ‘Terrible’ Touhy Convicted
“Terrible” Tommy Touhy, 34, last of the six brothers who led Chicago’s notorious gang of kidnapers, today [March 24] faced a sentence of forty-seven years’ imprisonment. He was found guilty by a jury in Minneapolis last night of participation in a Minneapolis mail robbery in 1933, in which the gangsters escaped with $20,000. Touhy suffers from palsy, which is incurable, and though during his trial he sat shaking in his wheel-chair, he betrayed no signs of emotion until the verdict was delivered, when his body stiffened. Touhy was proclaimed “Public Enemy No. 1” on the death of “Babyface” Nelson in 1934. He was known as the “human bomb” because he was reputed always to carry a phial of nitro-glycerin with which to commit suicide in the event his capture seemed likely. He became famous for having evicted Al Capone from disputed territory during “beer” wars in Chicago, and, among the crimes for which he was sought, were a $425,000 bank holdup in Brooklyn and a $130,000 mail robbery in North Carolina.