On this day, March 19, in 1943, Frank Nitti, the successful Chicago mob boss after Al Capone, committed suicide at an Illinois railyard.
Nitti had been indicted for extorting some of the largest Hollywood movie studios, and was scheduled to testify before a grand jury the following day.
Nitti, who was extremely claustrophobic, dreaded going to back to prison. He told his wife he was going for a walk, and then began drinking heavily.
At the railyard, two workers saw Nitti walking drunkenly across the tracks into the path of an oncoming train.
The gangster jumped out of the way of the train. He pulled a .32-caliber pistol from his pocket and fired. Two bullets went through his hat. Slumped against a fence, Nitti then shot himself in the head. The third shot was fatal.
-Scott McCabe
