So why were so many Checker Cab executives killed back in the day in Chicago? Whether is was the Chicago taxi wars, the milk wars or the union strike of 1937, violences was never far from Checker Cab in Chicago.
Below are to examples.
Items 1 Checker Cab Executive the Fourth Victim in Less Than a Week Killed By Gangsters, 1930
CHICAGO, Feb. 3. —The gangs are getting their eyes on the gun sights again. Four victims in less than a week, with Joe Cada,; “The Dude,” the latest. Cada’s killing was another of those ‘Tide” affairs, with Cada being his own chauffeur and his own machine being his death car. The busy uptown section, with its night clubs still ablaze though the hour was the dawn of a Sabbath day, was the murder scene. The roar of an elevated train, rumbling over the trestle across Broadway, served to drown the staccato of the assassins’ shots. A milkman saw the Cada car slide to a halt near an “L” support, and two men get out, but he heard no shots.
In some respects the manner of the murder was that employed in the killing last week of Barney Mitchell, Checker Cab company treasurer, and Glen Jackson, driver of Mitchell’s cab. In that crime the killers, probably two of them, sat in the tonneau with Mitchell firing several shots into his body and killing the cab driver with a shot behind the ear. Besides the Sobriquet “The Dude” Cada also was known as “Motor Joe”. He was formerly a professional automobile race driver and an expert mechanic. Police said he was affiliated with the Terry Druggan Beer syndicate.
Besides the Checker Cab double killing and the Cada slaying, police still have before them the mystery of Julius Rosenheim’s murder, and the gang gun attack upon Johnny Genaro. The latter still lies seriously wounded. Rosenheim for many years was known as a stool pigeon for police among gangsters. He was shot down on the sidewalk by two men. All these gun attacks have occurred within less than a week. Cada was married and the father of a two-year-old girl. Mrs. Cada said she did not know her husband’s business.
Item 2 Former Checker Cab Company President killed gangland style.
Chicago Bureau FORMER HEAD OF CAB COMPANY FOUND DEAD IN STREET Chicago; Robert E McLaughlin night club owner, and former President of the Checker Cab Company was found slain in street in typical gangland fashion, early Chistmas morning, on the near northwest side. He had been shot three times in head and neck. His brother, Eugene “Red”, was killed in 1930 during gang feud. PLEASE WATCH WIRES List 30 “credit Line (Acme) “DJH-AKR-NO-KCS 12-25-42
Header photo: Steve Sumner, a Milk Wagon Drivers’ Union Local 753 boss, standing guard on his armored Checker Cab Model M during the Chicago Milk Wars, 1932. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
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