Leo Vincent Brothers, also known as Vincent Bader (1899 – December 23, 1950) was an early 20th-century American

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

who gained notoriety throughout the underworld after being convicted of the 1930 murder of ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' reporter

Jake Lingle Alfred "Jake" Lingle (July 2, 1891 – June 9, 1930) was an American reporter for the ''Chicago Tribune''. He was shot dead gangland-style in the underpass leading to the Randolph Street Terminal, Illinois Central Randolph Street station on the a ...

. Starting out as a low-level member of the

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

gang known as the

Egan's Rats Egan's Rats was an American organized crime gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1924. Its 35 years of criminal activity included Rum-running, bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery ...

, Brothers was once the manager and a

bouncer A bouncer (also known as a door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at licensed or sanctioned venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, strip clubs and casinos. A bouncer's duties are to provide security, to check legal ag ...

at The Green Mill in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Brothers soon graduated into labor

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

and contract murder. Dodging a 1929 murder indictment, Brothers fled to Chicago, where he found work in the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or the Organization, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family based in Chicago, I ...

under the notorious crime boss,

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-foun ...

. Leo was ultimately convicted of the Lingle murder and sentenced to 14 years. His attorney was Louis Piquett, who later became famous as

John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger (; June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He commanded the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing twenty-four banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprison ...

's lawyer. Most observers, then and now, believe that Brothers was handed up to the state by Capone as a sacrifice. Mario Gomes, Capone historian says that Frank (Frankie) Foster who was a triggerman for the North Side Mob and later the Chicago Outfit was most likely the man who pulled the trigger on the Jake Lingle contract. The contract was handed out and organized by

Jack Zuta John U. Zuta (February 15, 1888August 1, 1930) was an accountant and political " fixer" for the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang. Early life Zuta (also spelled as "Zoota") was born on February 18, 1888, in the Russian Empire to a peasant ...

. After his release in 1940, Brothers returned to St. Louis, beat his original murder case, and became hooked up with the local mob. Three months after an unsuccessful attempt on his life, Leo Brothers died of heart disease in St. Louis on December 23, 1950.

References

1899 births 1950 deaths Gangsters from St. Louis American gangsters of the interwar period Criminals from Illinois Criminals from Missouri {{US-crime-bio-stub