Charles "The Ox" Reiser (1878 – October 10, 1921) was an American safecracker and mentor to many of the organized crime leaders of the early 20th century including Dean O'Banion, George "Bugs" Moran, Earl "Hymie" Weiss,[1] and John Mahoney.
During this time, living under the alias Charles Schoeps, Reiser invested most of the stolen money in real estate.
His first wife had died of asphyxiation (although Reiser allegedly bragged to friends that he had beaten her to death when she threatened to go to police).
Around April 1921, another Reiser associate, John Mahoney, was arrested while safecracking and started talking to the police.
Somewhat indicative of the state of Chicago law and politics at that time, the coroner's jury declared that Reiser – whose body had ten separate bullet wounds in it – had died as a result of suicide.