1. Gus Winkler was an American gangster who headed a Prohibition-era criminal gang specializing in armed robbery and murder for hire with Fred "Killer" Burke.
11 Facts About Gus Winkler
1. 2.
Gus Winkler is believed to be the first member of the National Crime Syndicate to be murdered for talking to the FBI.
3.
In September 1917, at the age of 16, Gus Winkler enlisted in the US Army Ambulance Corps and served on the Western Front with the 91st Infantry Division.
4.
Gus Winkler later confessed to his wife Georgette to participating in the "one-way ride" murder of auto thief Wesley Smith in July 1923.
5.
Gus Winkler himself enjoyed Capone's complete confidence, even after Fred Burke was publicly named as a suspect in the massacre and the discovery of the murder weapons.
6.
Gus Winkler often told people that he worked as a 'contractor' which might have played on the undertone of the word and his career as a contract killer.
7.
The beginning of the end for Gus Winkler began upon Capone's 1931 imprisonment for tax evasion.
8.
In reality, Gus Winkler, who had been infuriated by the unnecessary violence of the Kansas City Massacre, was helping the FBI's manhunt for fugitive perpetrator Verne Miller.
9.
Gus Winkler died a half-an-hour later after arriving at a local hospital.
10.
Gus Winkler was buried at Park Lawn Cemetery in St Louis.
11.
Gus Winkler was one of the first casualties of a half-year-long purge where Frank Nitti eliminated the last of the so-called American Boys; including one of Gus Winkler's alleged killers, Fred Goetz.