A one-way ride, also known by the phrase taking someone for a ride, is slang in the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

for an

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

method. The usual plan is for the victims, who are lured or forced into a

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

, to be driven to a remote location where they are killed (either en route or after their arrival) where their bodies are dumped.

History

First coming into use during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, the phrase was reportedly first used by Northside Gang member

Hymie Weiss Earl J. "Hymie" Weiss (born Henryk Wojciechowski; January 25, 1898 – October 11, 1926), was a Polish-American mob boss who became a leader of the Prohibition-era North Side Gang and a bitter rival of Al Capone. He was known as "the only ...

who was last seen driving off with Steve Wisniewski, a local criminal who had recently hijacked a Northside beer shipment, in July 1921. This method was used in countless gangland executions throughout the period, particularly by the Northsiders and 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 ...

, as the bodies of mobsters and other underworld figures would be found in remote locations outside

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 ...

throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

In popular culture

* A one-way ride (Chicago Ride) has often been depicted in gangster movies such as '' The Godfather II'' (1974), ''

The Long Good Friday ''The Long Good Friday'' is a 1980 British gangster film directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, the film, set in London, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, inc ...

'' (1979), ''

Miller's Crossing ''Miller's Crossing'' is a 1990 American neo-noir gangster film written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J. E. Freeman, and Albert Finney. The plot ...

'' (1990) and '' Bullets Over Broadway'' (1994). It was also used in the television show ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...

''.

Footnotes

References

* Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. {{American Mafia American Mafia Murder Gangland warfare tactics

History

In popular culture

See also

Footnotes

References