Although they may not have had a headquarters, the Touhy
gang did have their own priest, Father Joseph Weber, who Roger had met back in
1923 when Weber was an Indiana State Prison chaplain while Tommy Touhy was
serving time for his role in an Indianapolis department store burglary. Roger
and his brother Eddie asked Weber to use his influence to get a parole hearing
for Tommy. Weber agreed, and by the end of the year Tommy was paroled and the
Touhys were indebted to a priest who ran one of the poorest parishes in
Indianapolis. Later, after the brothers were established in the bootlegging
business, they donated 10 percent of their business profits to Weber's parish.
'1 was," said Roger, "God's bagman."
The brothers benefitted the priest in other
ways. Weber had always been politically active in Indianapolis and argued
vehemently for the city's growing black population. Weber claimed that the Klu
Klux Klan, which had its regional headquarters in Indianapolis, included some
of the city's and state's leading families and politicians. As a result, Weber said,
the black citizens of Indianapolis were denied even the most basic of city
services.
One day as a passing part of a conversation,
Weber mentioned to Tommy Touhy that if he had the Klan's secret membership
files, he could confirm his suspicions and break their power. A few days later,
on April 1, 1923, a moonlit Easter Sunday, a burglar broke into the Klan's
headquarters and stole the organization's state membership list, some 12,208
names, which included some of the most powerful and well respected people in
the Midwest. The next day, parts of the list were published in the Catholic
newspaper Tolerance under the headlines "Who's Who in Indianapolis."
"The Klan offered me $25,000 for the
records, which I turned down," Roger wrote.
Weber didn't always stay above the fray himself.
John Sambo was a small time beer hall operator who managed Sambo's Place, a
Capone saloon next to the Big Oaks Golf Course on the extreme northwest edge of
Chicago. The problem was that the place bordered on Roger Touhy's territory.
Tommy Touhy paid Sambo a visit and he changed to Touhy's brand.
Sambo reported to the FBI that one sunny
afternoon, Roger Touhy and several of his men, including Father Weber, entered
the saloon at mid-day and drank until the sun went down. That night a young
Negro boy came into the bar room to shine shoes and the drunken Touhys pulled
out their weapons and fired shots at the boy's feet to make him dance.
Several months later, Sambo fell out of favor
with the Touhys when he stopped selling their beer and switched to Capone's
brand. An FBI report on Sambo states, "[On] one occasion Roger Touhy,
George Wilke and Leroy Marshalk came into his place of business and took him
down to the basement, stating that they had information that he was selling
other beer. Sambo stated at that time that he believed that Touhy would have
killed him, but that Marshalk, whom Sambo had known for some time, stopped
him."