Jerry Horan

Jerry Horan was born to John and Mary Horan McLeod in May 1886. He was one of eight children, and raised a Roman Catholic. He married the former Nonie Corbett, and the couple had a daughter, Helen. He became a lifelong member of the Loyal Order of Moose, the Knights of Columbus, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. ==Early organized crime involvement==

By the time he was in his mid 30s, Jerry Horan had been heavily involved in organized crime for several years. He owned a saloon near the corner of South Wood Street and West Van Buren Street in Chicago (the site is now a parking lot opposite Malcolm X College). Horan led a gang of bombers, gunmen and "sluggers" (men who would beat others to intimidate them) which was in the employ of various organized crime outfits and labor unions. His primary job, however, was to act as Quesse's chauffeur. On May 6, 1922, Horan, Shea, Murphy, and five other labor leaders and labor racketeers were arrested and charged with the murder of a Chicago police officer. Horan was accidentally released, and went into hiding—although the press reported that he had turned state's evidence and been freed for rendering assistance. On May 24, the state asked for nolle prosequi and the court agreed to withdraw the indictments. Horan was indicted a second time a short time later on the same charges. Although Horan was later identified by eyewitness testimony as a co-conspirator with Murphy, Shea and Mader in planning bombings, murders, and beatings, the state withdrew these charges as well. ==BSEIU presidency==

Oscar Nelson, who had succeeded Quesse as president of BSEIU in February 1927, resigned his union office for health reasons on September 3, 1927. Jerry Horan was formally elected Nelson's successor on September 6, 1927. By the fall of 1929, his political fortunes within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had risen to the point where he was named a member of the AFL delegation to the annual meeting of the British Trades Union Congress. Horan's political activity also continued. He took over the Cook County Wage Earner's League, a quasi-political action committee established by William Quesse in 1924 to promote pro-labor candidates for office. He was a prominent supporter of Republican William "Big Bill" Thompson during his successful run for Mayor of Chicago in 1927, and was elected chairman of the Republican Party's 27th Ward Committee in November 1929. and supported Charles W. Brooks in that candidate's unsuccessful run as the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois in 1936. However, Horan used the Wage Earners' League to not only promote candidates for office (allegedly through intimidation and vote-rigging) but also to run an illegal gambling operation near Chicago City Hall. He also established a council of trade union leaders to identify and respond to the open shop movement, In 1933, Horan was accused by former Illinois Attorney General Edward J. Brundage of consorting with gangster Al Capone and seeking to improperly influence James H. Wilkerson, the judge overseeing Capone's 1931 tax evasion trial. Horan, however, initially attempted to avoid being put under the influence of Capone and his Chicago Outfit. Capone sought control BSEIU in order to embezzle funds from the national union's treasury. But Big Tim Murphy had been gunned down in 1928, leaving Horan without protection. Horan could not turn to Chicago Mayor Bill Thompson, either, for Thompson was closely linked to the Capone mob. But after Wild Bill Rooney's murder in March 1931, a frightened Horan (who was terrified even of his own bodyguards) made peace with Capone. In 1934, the Capone mob forced Horan to hire George Scalise as a union organizer. a former Capone associate who had moved to New York City and joined what was then known as the Luciano crime family, Scalise had used his mob connections to establish several small union locals with the Teamsters. With Carfano's help, he then built several large locals of building janitors and elevator operators, began skimming members' dues and receiving kickbacks from employers, and then affiliated the locals with the BSEIU. In 1935, when the Fifth Vice President position on the BSEIU Board of Directors opened up due to a retirement, Scalise worked with Carfano and Horan to win appointment to the position. Because of Horan's mob connections, BSEIU grew tremendously during Horan's presidency. The union also grew through affiliations. Many of these affiliations were coerced, however. In one notorious case, Horan raided a Chicago local of the International Union of Elevator Constructors led by Matthew Taylor. Horan wanted the elevator operators to support strikes by building workers, and he wanted Taylor's union in BSEIU. Horan kept up the pressure on Taylor in various ways, and Taylor finally gave in. Horan arranged for Taylor to meet with Oscar Nelson, George Scalise, Harry Bates (president of the Bricklayers union), and AFL President William Green after a meeting of the AFL executive council in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in August 1937. At the meeting, Green told Taylor that the AFL also believed the elevator operators should affiliate with BSEIU. Convinced that Horan had managed to intimidate even the powerful AFL president, Taylor agreed to affiliate his local with BSEIU in September 1937. Although only 5,000 workers initially walked off the job, five days later another 11,000 BSEIU members had joined them. The strike was so important and widespread that Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia became personally involved in the negotiations. Horan attempted to fly to New York City on March 6 to personally take charge of the strike, but he was forced to divert his chartered flight to Boston after New York City authorities declared the city closed to him. The press, meanwhile, accused Horan of being in cahoots with Al Capone and recently deceased Louis "Two Guns" Alterie, forcing Horan to stay in Boston in order to avoid tainting the strikers' cause. Horan weakly claimed that he had purposefully flown to Boston to avoid any appearance that the strike was being run from Chicago and not New York. The strike spread to another 50 hotels on March 8 as Scalise announced that the union had signed another 1,814 apartment buildings to contracts. Local union officials said it would not look good if the strike were perceived to be led from Chicago. This time, Horan was at least consulted before the arbitration proposal was agreed to. But when the employers balked at LaGuardia's solution, the strike continued. Scalise struck all buildings and hotels around Grand Central Station and Times Square on March 10 (adding another 300 buildings to those struck, bringing the total to more than 2,500). and an agreement on the union's terms was reached on March 14. ==Death==

In April 1937, Horan fell seriously ill and was thought to be dying. The meeting had been called to decide who should be the next president of the BSEIU in the event of Horan's death. Burke had the backing of a majority of the mob figures, but the group felt he would be opposed by a majority of the BSEIU Board of Directors due to his public ties with organized crime. McFetridge was known for his scrupulous honesty, and although he had served on the Board for many years he was a figurehead and not part of the mob's inner circle of decision-makers. The mob council told Scalise he would draw a salary of $1,000 a month, and he was told to kick back $500 a month to the Chicago Outfit. On April 20, 1937, Jerry Horan was removed by ambulance from his apartment home at the Cornelia Apartments at 3500 N. Lake Shore Drive and taken to Passavant Hospital. Fifth Vice President Scalise; Secretary-Treasurer Paul David; and International Union Trustee Elizabeth Grady. Nelson put forward Scalise's name, and George Scalise was elected president of the Building Service Employees International Union. ==Notes==