Octavius C. Granady

Octavius Cato Granady (March 1, 1885 April 10, 1928) was a lawyer, civil rights activist, reformer, and Republican Party politician whose assassination by associates of Al Capone on the day of the Republican primary made national headlines and contributed to the defeat of the Capone organization and Chicago mayor William Hale Thompson.

Granady was born in the Danish West Indies in 1885 and raised in the United States, where he graduated from St. Lawrence University and Howard University School of Law. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Granady to raise the American flag following the cession of the Danish West Indies.

After serving in World War I, Granady returned to Saint Thomas, where he worked as a labor lawyer was active in the movement for self-rule and civil rights in the rechristened United States Virgin Islands. He was a leading figure in the opposition to military government under James Harrison Oliver.

In 1925, Granady returned to the United States to practice law in Chicago. In 1928, he ran as a reform candidate in the Republican primary for party committeeman from the city's 20th ward. While campaigning on primary day, he was assassinated by machine gun following an automobile chase.

He attended college at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, graduating in 1907 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. After graduating from St. Lawrence, Granady initially remained in New York, where he was a member of several local associations, such as the Cherubin Lodge and the West Indian Forum. In 1912, he graduated from Howard University School of Law.

By 1916, Granady was living in Chicago, Illinois, where he was admitted to practice law.

Virgin Islands activism (191725) On March 31, 1917, the Danish West Indies were transferred to the United States as the United States Virgin Islands, and Granady was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to pull down the Danish flag and raise the American flag. He served in World War I as a first lieutenant and was discharged with the rank of captain.

Although Granady had been associated with the transition from Danish to American rule on the islands, he soon became a leading critic of the military government under Admiral James Harrison Oliver, under which natives were not granted citizenship nor access to self-rule. His license to practice law was cancelled by the government in December 1917 in response to claims of fraud and exorbitant fees, and he was jailed on similar charges in January 1918. Although he was freed for lack of evidence, he was denied the return of his license under claims of clinical insanity.

Discontent on the islands grew as sailors and marines from the new American naval base disrupted the peace and treated native residents with disrespect, including harder forms of racial discrimination than the Afro-Caribbean majority had experienced under Danish rule. Around Christmas 1918, street fights between sailors from the USS Baltimore and the native population broke out. In response, Granady signed a January 1919 open letter titled "Virgin Islanders Resent Lawlessness" which protested "an outrage on our defenseless people hitherto unknown on this island" by the United States Marine Corps and sailors under Oliver. In February, Oliver wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels to share his suspicions that Granady was the primary author of the letter, along with a prior anonymous letter from his clerk, A. C. Burnet. Oliver also suspected that Burnet had given birth to Granady's child in July 1918 before leaving the island.

In 1921, he moved to Saint Croix and regained his law license, becoming counsel for the Saint Croix Labor Union. He assisted Ralph de Magne de Chabert in organizing a labor strike on the island's sugar plantations. Planters had cut wages by half due to an economic downturn, and Chabert called a strike demanding $1.25 a day in wages. After fourteen weeks, workers were reduced to near starvation conditions and the strike disastrously failed, leading to criticism from Marcus Garvey and D. Hamilton Jackson. He lost his law license again in January 1924, when the District Court of the Virgin Islands revoked its 1921 renewal.

In April 1924, Granady was represented Saint Thomas (along with Ralph J. Bough of Saint Croix and Frederick Gurty of Saint John) to travel to Washington, D.C. as a delegate to the United States Congress in support of Bill S2786, sponsored by George P. McLean of Connecticut, requesting United States citizenship and a civilian government for the Virgin Islands. Granady served as chair and spokesman for the delegation, arguing that the Colonial Council, which had opposed the bill, represented the interests of a narrow class of planters and landowners:The local press and a number of mass meetings virtually repudiated the Colonial Council for its recent opposition to Senate Bill 2786 granting the islands a civil government. The people of the islands are not citizens of any country; and they are not represented in the legislature. The franchise is so limited that out of 22,000 inhabitants only 800 have the right to vote, which is granted on the basis of property and income.

To rally voters in the face of intimidation, Granady embarked on a pre-announced tour of the ward in an automobile decorated with pro-Deneen flags. His car was driven by law student Euclid Taylor, and he was accompanied by friends Thomas Clark and James Huff. As they approached a polling location near 13th Street and Blue Island Avenue, the group came upon a small crowd of men. While Taylor attempted to reverse the vehicle, a man stepped forward and shot at the car with pistols. The group fled in the vehicle, but they were pursued by gunmen in a sedan, festooned with banners supporting Eller. Some witnesses reported that the pursuing car was joined by a police car. The pursuers, identified in newspapers as seven men, used a machine gun to kill Granady and sped off, leaving Taylor with three minor wounds and Clark and Huff almost unhurt. Granady was shot thirty to fifty times. Newspapers reported that "he last thing some witnesses to the murder saw was Eller’s own face prominently pictured on the backs of the receding cars.” He was buried in Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery in an unmarked grave.

Investigations and trials Because there were scores or even hundreds of witnesses to the car chase and murder, and the killers' vehicle had been prominently decorated with Eller campaign materials, most considered the motive of the assassins and the identity of their sponsors an open secret. The Granady assassination quickly became the focus of police and public attention. By April 14, the initial Chicago Police Department investigation had revealed that two volunteer poll watchers had been kidnapped earlier that day. The poll watchers had identified the house where they were kept prisoners and had given information connecting the kidnapping to Granady's murder.

Arrests The state investigation resulted in at least fourteen arrests, most of whom were known associates of Eller, Capone, and Thompson. John Armondo, an assistant precinct captain for Eller, was identified by Clark and Huff as the primary shooter. He was also charged with attempting to kidnap and shoot George W. Dowthard, a poll worker, who survived after six weeks in the hospital and identified Armondo as his assailant. He was arrested on July 2. Nine men were arrested for participating in the murder, including Harry Hochstein, James Belcastro, and Louis Clementi, who was identified by Loesch as firing the final shots; and two Chicago policemen, lieutenant Philip J. Carroll and patrolman Michael B. Shannon. Three men were separately arrested for kidnappings of poll watchers on the West Side. On July 31, Benny Zion, an Eller henchman who was identified in the killers' car, was shot to death and found under a pile of refuse hours before Morris Eller was scheduled to appear before the grand jury. Stege described Zion as having a "gabby tongue." In October, near the start of the first trial, key witness William Cephus was assaulted, and another witness was put on a bus to St. Louis and told to flee. On October 20, 1929, Shelby McDougal, a key witness against Lt. Carroll, was murdered by a love rival.

1928 conspiracy trial On August 3, 1928, Loesch brought forward charges against Morris Eller, Emanuel Eller, and 15 henchmen with 23 counts of general conspiracy, as follows:

Counts 1-7 were charges of malicious assaults on 7 victims, including poll watchers and attorneys; Count 8 was a charge of conspiracy to murder Granady with revolvers and deadly weapons; Counts 9-15 were charges of kidnapping of the 7 people above; Count 16 was a general count covering the assault of election day watchers and challengers to prevent them from performing their duties; Count 17 grouped all the assaults into a single count; Count 18 grouped all the kidnappings; Count 19 was a charge with intimidation of poll watchers; Count 20 was a charge of aiding and abetting 8 men in voting multiple times illegally; Count 21 was a charge of defrauding taxpayers by padding the sanitary district payrolls; Count 22 was a charge of defrauding the city by paying people for services that were not rendered, in return for election help; and Count 23 charged the conspirators with protecting vice dens, such as houses of prostitution, alcohol, and gambling, in return for election help. The charges against the Ellers were eventually dropped, and one henchman was found dead on the eve of Eller's testimony to the grand jury. However, Loesch was able to secure indictments, and the trial proceeded in October under Judge John M. O'Connor. On November 2, William Cephus testified that Eller had told him, "Winning this election is going to be a big job and we've got to win. You will have the police with you and a judge so you won't be bothered. If any of you boys don't have guns you can get them at Emanuel's house." Loesch also quoted from Eller's speech to rally his precinct captains on the morning of the primary, "Don't let anything stop you from winning this election, and use guns if necessary. ... You can get guns at Johnny Armond's house if you want them."

However, witnesses for the defense offered conflicting testimony, alleging that the defendants had been elsewhere during the crimes. Reverend Joseph C. McMillan testified that the shooter had been much taller than John Armondo and claimed that Bruseaux had threatened him and attempted to bribe him to get false testimony.

On November 23, 1928, fifteen of the sixteen defendants were convicted and assessed fines, although none received jail time.

1929 murder trial On October 11, 1929, Loesch persuaded a special grand jury to indict Carroll, four other Chicago police officers, Armando, Belcastro, and two criminal associates, Louis Clemente and Thomas Somnario, for the actual murder. The trial began on November 18, 1929 and lasted only eight days under hostile judge Joseph B. David. During the trial, Loesch's case crumbled as many witnesses changed their stories.

Carroll's defense rested on coroners' testimony that a shotgun was used to kill Granady rather than a police revolver. Loesch's theory of the case rested on multiple criminality, arguing that it did not matter who had fired the shot that killed Granady, as all of the defendants had pursued Granady's car and shot at it. "In Illinois," Loesch said, "they are all accessories and all guilty of murder."

Euclid Taylor testified that Armondo had shot at them from the mob at 13th Street and Blue Island Avenue before jumping on the running board of a squad car and continuing to fire. On the second day of the trial, Joseph McMillan was again called by the prosecution, despite his testimony against their case in the conspiracy trial. He again refused to identify Armondo as shooter and again accused Bruseaux of attempting to bribe him.

The third prosecution's third witness, Bryant McDonald, changed his story and swore that while he had seen a little man walk into the street and shoot at the car, this man was arrested by a uniformed police officer and three plain clothes detectives. He also testified that none of these men were present in the courtroom. Another witness picked out Carroll with uncertainty. A police sergeant, Marshall Couch, testified that he had seen Armondo firing from the running board, but he had actually arrested another, tall, armed man and released him upon being told by three men with badges that the shooter was a detective. Witness Helen Madigan became confused on the stand, and the defense produced two witnesses, one of whom testified that Carroll and his squad did not arrive until ten minutes after the killing.

By November 26, 1929, the murder trial had devolved into a farce, and Loesch and Judge David were engaged in yelling matches.

Legacy Despite Loesch's losses in court, most of the major candidates backed by Thompson lost the primary by a landslide. Voters appeared to be sickened by the violence and chaos, and reminded of the perpetrators by daily headlines about the murder and election conspiracy. Ultimately, none of Thompson's slate won in November 1928. The Chicago general elections of November 1928 are generally agreed to have been free of corruption and election interference, as Capone took a step back from politics. Furthermore, energized by their success in breaking Eller and Thompson's hold, civic leaders raised money to fund Prohibition investigators allied with the federal Department of the Treasury, leading to Al Capone's eventual downfall.

Although not all of his initiatives succeeded in his lifetime, Granady's work for a civil government in the Virgin Islands and higher wages for union workers in Saint Croix were eventually fulfilled after his death. In 2010, the fifth consitutional convention of the Virgin Islands included Granady in a list of native leaders who were persecuted by the military government, and he is mentioned in the historical section of the Proposed Virgin Islands Constitution.