For decades my dad insisted that Hymie Weiss, the notorious Chicago gangster of the 1920s, was buried next to his aunt in a little Jewish cemetery in Broadview. Every year, at Thanksgiving, my dad relished telling the story: Tahti Weiss had met the infamous gangster as he waiting for my dad's great uncle (Tahti's father) to repair the bullet holes in Hymie's Lincoln, blah, blah, blah. My dad believed--or wanted to believe--the story was true.
All my life, I heard the story of Hymie and believed. Until last year, when I read a book about Chicago gangsters and discovered that Hymie Weiss wasn't a Jew! Furthermore, his final resting place is in a big, fancy mausoleum far from Broadview.
Last Thanksgiving, during the annually telling of the Hymie-Weiss-Is-Buried-Next-to-Aunt-Tahti story, I brought these troublesome facts to my father's attention. He became irate and bellowed, "Don't you think I know who's buried next to Tahti Weiss!"
So, I called the little Jewish cemetery in Broadview... Sure enough, there is a man named Weiss buried next to my dad's Aunt Tahti, except his first name is Morris, and he died 20 years after Hymie was gunned down by Al Capone's gang.
Rest in peace Morris Weiss. You may not have been a ruthless blood-thirsty killer--and my dad probably won't tell your story this Thanksgiving--but you're okay in my book.
Sometimes the old family legends are better left undebunked.
Posted by: Pete | November 22, 2007 at 11:56 AM