Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn (born Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi; Italian: [vinˈtʃɛntso anˈtɔːnjo dʒiˈbaldi]; July 2, 1902 – February 15, 1936) was a Sicilian-American boxer, mobster, and eventually a made man and caporegime in Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.
Early life ~
McGurn was born in July 1902 in Licata, Sicily, the eldest son of Tommaso and Giuseppina (née Verderame) Gibaldi. Four years later, he and his mother emigrated to join his father in the United States of America, arriving at Ellis Island on November 24, 1906. McGurn grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn where he went to Public School 46 on Union Street between Henry and Hicks streets, according to underworld historian Bill Balsamo, author of Crime Incorporated.
McGurn moved to Chicago when he was 14 where he later took up a career in boxing as a teenager and changed his name to "Battling" Jack McGurn because boxers with Irish names got the better bookings. After Tommaso's death while McGurn was still young, his mother remarried to grocer Angelo DeMory, who was later murdered by Black Hand extortionists.
