Holy Name Cathedral & The Hymie Weiss Hit: Mobster Bullets in Stone

Why is it significant?

Walk up to the corner of State and Superior Streets and examine the limestone cornerstone near the entrance steps of Holy Name Cathedral. Look closely at the carved lettering: you can see a distinct, chipped indentation in the stone.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk up to the corner of State and Superior Streets and examine the limestone cornerstone near the entrance steps of Holy Name Cathedral. Look closely at the carved lettering: you can see a distinct, chipped indentation in the stone. You are touching an authentic bullet scar from the violent zenith of the Chicago Beer Wars of nineteen twenty-six.

On October eleventh, nineteen twenty-six, Earl Hymie Weiss, leader of the North Side Gang and the only man Al Capone truly feared, was walking toward his headquarters right across the street alongside his bodyguard. Suddenly, two hitmen armed with a Tommy gun and a shotgun opened fire from second-story windows of a nearby brownstone. Over ten bullets struck Weiss, killing him instantly.

Stray machine-gun rounds tore into the sacred facade of Holy Name Cathedral, leaving this bullet mark that church officials have deliberately left unpatched for a century as a solemn reminder of the city's turbulent past.

Step inside the serene Gothic interior: hanging high in the ceiling vault are the red galero hats of Chicago's deceased cardinals. According to Catholic tradition, when the hats eventually rot and fall to the floor, the cardinal's soul is released from purgatory.

Walk east toward the historic watering holes of the Gold Coast.