"[2] Born in Chicago, Illinois, Frank McErlane was first arrested in 1911, aged 17, and sent to Pontiac Prison in June 1913 for involvement in a car theft ring.

Shortly after the start of Prohibition, McErlane began running a gang with partner Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis, operating in the "Back of the Yards" section of the South Side.

In 1922, McErlane and Saltis allied with the Johnny "The Fox" Torrio-Al Capone Chicago Outfit against the Southside O'Donnell Brothers.

The occupants of one, William "Shorty" Egan and Thomas "Morrie" Keane, were shoved into a car with Frank McErlane and Willie Channell, who drove.

I staggered along the road until I saw a light in a farmhouse…[5]Despite having nearly half his face blown off, Egan had amazingly lived to tell about his "one-way ride" and fingered Willie Channell as one of his attackers.

McErlane picked a random target at the end of the bar, attorney Thaddeus S. Fancher, and killed him with a single pistol shot to the head.

Frank McErlane was a prime suspect in the July 23 murder of George Karl and the September 3 killing of William Dickman.

The gang boss saw what was coming and hit the deck; a submachine gun began drumming from the car, stitching neat lines of bullet holes on the storefront before the would-be killers sped away.

Several days later, on October 3, McErlane used his Thompson to shoot up the Ragen's Colts clubhouse, killing a Sheldon gangster named Charles Kelly.

[8] He was also suspected of shooting up Martin "Buff" Costello's bar on February 10, 1926, wounding Sheldon gangsters William Wilson and John "Mitters" Foley.

Both Chicago Police Captain John Stege and gangster Al Capone commented on the power of the submachine gun; both of their respective organizations set out to arm themselves with the formidable weapon.

Another possible suspect was Polish-American organized crime figure John "Dingbat" Oberta (sometimes spelled "O'Berta"), with whom McErlane had been feuding over an alleged debt collection.

On the night of February 24, McErlane was propped up his hospital bed with his healing leg still in traction when two or three gunmen barged in and opened fire.

Just after McErlane was released from the hospital, on March 5, Oberta was found shot to death in his car on the outskirts of Chicago.

The dead body of Oberta's driver, Sam Malaga, lay face down in an icy puddle of water some feet away.

On June 8, 1931, an intoxicated McErlane swept a South Shore Drive block with shotgun blasts, shooting at imaginary foes.

Police ultimately filed a total of five simultaneous charges; drunk and disorderly, carrying a concealed weapon, firing a shotgun indiscriminately around his neighborhood, driving with forged license plates, and biting his sister on the cheek.

[10] On October 8, 1931, McErlane was driving his car with common-law wife Elfrieda Rigus and her two German Shepherds in the back seat.

After this episode, McErlane's remaining underworld associates raised a "retirement fund" of several hundred dollars in order to get rid of the dangerously unstable gunman.

In his delirium, he was convinced that rival gangsters were coming to his hospital room to kill him; it took four attendants to hold him down in his rage.