Shotgun Man
{{Short description|American spree killer}}
{{missing information|the area's background, killer's victims, investigation, and suspects|date=July 2019}}
Shotgun Man is an alleged assassin and serial killer active in Chicago, Illinois in the 1910s, to whom murders by Black Hand extortionists were attributed.{{cite book|author=William Griffith|title=American Mafia: Chicago: True Stories of Families Who Made Windy City History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ZABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|date=1 October 2013|publisher=Globe Pequot Press|isbn=978-1-4930-0604-5|pages=15–}} Most notably, Shotgun Man killed 15 Italian immigrants from January 1, 1910, to March 26, 1911, at "Death Corner," a notoriously violent Italian immigrant neighborhood at the intersection of Oak Street and Milton Avenue (now Cleveland Avenue) in what was then Chicago's Little Sicily.{{cite journal |author= |date=2002 |title= The Black Hand - Terror by Letter in Chicago |journal=Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=397 }} The area was notorious for violence committed by Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans, both independently and as a result of Italian gangs, the Mafia, and Black Hand feuding and vendettas. In March 1911, the so-called Shotgun Man reportedly murdered four people within 72 hours.{{cite book|last1=Sifakis|first1=Carl|title=The Mafia Encyclopedia|date=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=0816069891|page=[https://archive.org/details/mafiaencyclopedi00sifa_0/page/415 415]|url=https://archive.org/details/mafiaencyclopedi00sifa_0|url-access=registration|access-date=14 March 2018}}
Background
Although the killings were witnessed by dozens of bystanders, the Chicago police were never able to identify the murderer. However, he was said to be well known throughout the Italian community and, with the political influence of the Black Hand, residents may have been hesitant to turn in the assassin.{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=Bernie|title=Families Who Kill|date=1993|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corporation|page=52|isbn=9781558177390|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqLyAAAAMAAJ|access-date=14 March 2018}} Although the fate of Shotgun Man is unknown, he seems to have disappeared from Little Italy shortly before Prohibition, as extortion operations of the Black Hand had faded away by the end of the decade.