“Decades ago, Al Capone ran the booze business in Chicago. Part of the operation was run out of a brick building south of the Loop along the Chicago River.
The walls are tumbling down, allowing the sun to pour into a building that used to hide Chicago’s most notorious gangster. Ozinga needs the space for its trucks to get around more easily.
“Back in the 20s and 30s, it was used to Al Capone to brew and store bootlegged liquor,” said Brian Lutey, the Vice President of Ozinga. “The story is Al Capone and crew would hang out in the upper part of the building. Back in 32, Eliot Ness raided the place, confiscated 140 barrels of beer and whiskey. He had to break through three steel doors to get in.”
“We gave many tours here,” stated Lloyd Meyer, the President of Ozinga. “That was always the highlight. You can smell the history in here – stale beer, you can smell it.”
Former Al Capone Bootleg Brewery Gets Demolished, CBS 2 News Chicago, July 18, 2018 (TELEVISION)