Police Reopen Capone-Era Cold Case

The suspects are likely resting in peace, but Chicago Police say they won't rest until they find out who gunned down the father of Chicago's most famous war hero.

The head of Chicago's cold cases agreed Tuesday to take a look at the 1939 gangland-style slaying of Edward J. O'Hare at the request of Ald. Edward Burke (14th).  They'll investigate until it's solved or until they determine there's nowhere to take the 70-year-old case.

Burke made it clear he didn't want detectives to spend too much time on the case, saying his intention was simply to set the record straight that it wasn't Eliot Ness who brought Capone to justice, the Chicago Tribune notes.

O'Hare was a businessman with ties to Al Capone. Burke says O'Hare has never gotten the credit he deserves for what Burke says was O'Hare's role as an informant who helped convict Capone for income tax evasion.

"We have the responsibility to set the record straight," said Burke before the hearing, comparing this effort to how the council in the 1990s absolved Mrs. O'Leary's cow of blame for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. "Millions fly into O'Hare (International Airport) every day and they don't know the story behind the story."

The new investigation comes in advance of a new book, "Get Capone," written by Jonathan Eig, who previously worked for the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Chicago magazine. 

According to Amazon.com, the book is based on "newly released government documents and wiretaps" and "tells the story how the nation's most-wanted criminal was really caught."

O'Hare's son -- Edward "Butch" O'Hare -- was the World War II hero for whom Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is named.