Gus Catanzaro was the man police believed to be the target of the hit. The owner of the bar, Anthony Dattalo, was shot through the leg, the chest, and both hands. The bullet penetrated both lungs, and he died the next day. Another man named Joseph Rubino was shot in the right side of the chest. He was found dead with his head underneath the brass rail of the bar. The gunmen fled as quickly as they arrived.Īn innocent bystander named Frank Christian was hit in the chest and hip. When it was over, the floor of the bar was littered with spent shell casings, shards of broken mirrors, and blood. Gunfire exploded throughout the bar, bottles of liquor shattered, and wooden fixtures splintered as the gunmen fired indiscriminately. “A tornado of bullets” is how the next sixty seconds was described by a survivor.
A number of men walked through each door and pulled out blue steel pistols. Suddenly, the doors to both entrances of the bar swung open. Bartender Frank Mercurio looked on from behind the bar. What held their attention on the radio was the first title fight between heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and challenger Gene Tunney. As the men threw dice and listened to the returns of the fight, other patrons drank quietly in the dark corners of the bar. Dattalo was in on the action, as the cases of liquor stacked behind his bar suggested.ĭattalo was in his bar that night, along with his twin brother Michael and a few companions. Louis to control the manufacture and sale of illegal alcohol. It was during the time of Prohibition, and violent gangs waged war in the streets of St.
Located just steps from the Central Library, the men were drinking in the Submarine Bar, a “soda pop bar” owned by a man named Anthony Dattalo. On the evening of Thursday, September 23, 1926, a group of men stood huddled around a radio in the basement of the Western Manufacturers’ Building at the southwest corner of 14th and Locust in St.
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