Killed Cicero, IL, May 7, 1929.
In the mid-1920s, Anselmi and his perpetual companion John Scalisi appeared to pull away from the Genna Mafia and join an independent Sicilian underworld organization led by Samuzzo Amatuna and Orazio Tropea. Mike Genna was killed in a shootout with police June 13, 1925, while in the company of Anselmi and Scalisi. The two men subsequently became allies of Al Capone.
Between 1925 and 1927, Anselmi and Scalisi battled cop-killing charges arising from the shooting deaths of two Chicago detectives. After three trials, in which the defendants argued that they used deadly force against the police officers only in self-defense, the two men were freed.
Some believe that Capone used Anselmi, Scalisi and others to execute the St. Valentine's Day massacre of Bugs Moran's men. Scalisi was indicted for participating in the massacre, but he was never tried.
Just three months after that bloody event, Anselmi, Scalisi and Joseph Guinta were found dead in Indiana. The accepted legend is that Capone discovered the the three Sicilian men, all known as Capone supporters, were plotting against him. Capone reportedly held a lavish dinner in their honor at Hawthorne Inn in Cicero, IL, and personally beat them to death with a baseball bat.
The bodies of the three men - badly beaten and shot - were found within an automobile on May 8, 1929.
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