When researching organized crime murders, sometimes there are clues that tip us off to what may have really happened. We recently discussed the Wild Bunch, a crew of Chicago Outfit hitmen in the 1970s, and that touched back to an earlier series on Wild Bunch member and notorious killer Harry “The Hook” Aleman. Let’s look at one murder attributed to him.
Nick “Keggie” Galanos was a bookmaker who was shot nine times in the head in his basement on August 30, 1975 with a .45 caliber pistol. Outfit bosses likely ordered this hit because Galanos was taking bets in Forest Park, where the bosses lived—that was a big no-no. The Chicago Crime Commission puts this killing to Harry Aleman, but there’s a good chance he had help…
In 1975, there were really only two .45s on the market, the M1911 holding of 7+1 rounds, or the M1917 revolver, holding six rounds. Both were concealable, easily available, and fairly cheap, because of surplus from WW2. Lots of crimes throughout the 50s-70s committed with .45. After the 80s, there were 9mm.
Galanos was shot nine times in his basement, and the two .45s only hold eight and six rounds each, so there’s a good chance there was more than one gun…unless the shooter emptied the pistol into Galanos’ head, reloaded, then shot some more into his body on the ground. The killer could have used a MAC-10, they were available, but the problem is, they fire 1090 rounds per minute and are hard to control…there would be bullets everywhere.
So it probably wasn’t a MAC-10 sub-machine gun, and the killer probably didn’t take time to reload a random number of bullets just to keep shooting into a dead body. We know the Wild Bunch worked in twos or threes, so if we know all of that, it’s a good guess that if Harry killed Nick Galanos, he didn’t do it alone.
The mob has had a lot of practice keeping things hidden. Even when guys testify, they can’t always be trusted to tell the whole truth. We should try to use all of the details we can. This is just a theory though, perhaps Gangland Wiretappers have others?
This article was written by our new blogger Chicago based writer and Outfit researcher Camillus Robinson.
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This program starts on Saturday November 24 with a 1:00 PM screening of Gangland Wire, the story of the 
George Peter Metesky became known in the press as the Mad Bomber when he terrorized 
Dean O’Banion was born on July 8th, 1892 in Maroa Illinois. His father, Charles O’Banion was an Irish Immigrant. Charles was a house painter and took his family to Chicago and lived in a neighborhood known as Kilbubbin. Like Hell’s Kitchen in New York, it was called Little hell because its poverty and crime. Dean attended the Holy Name Parochial School and served as an altar boy at the Catholic Holy Name Cathedral.
for bootlegging and other criminal activities, he bought into Schofields Flower Shop at 738 North State Street. Dean, found he liked flower arranging and actually worked in the shop. He had married a beautiful young girl, Viola Kaniff and brought home many bouquets.
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