Gangster Charlie Birger Last in Illinois Legally Executed by Hanging

Southern Illinois bootlegger and gangleader Charlie Birger had the dubious honor of being the last person legally executed by hanging in the state. A museum in Benton is built around the old county jail where Birger was held and includes a scaffold behind the jail similar to the one where Birger stepped off after uttering his final statement, "It's a beautiful world".

Displayed in the museum are memorabilia from the era, including Birger's guns and bulletproof vest.

Bootlegging Empire

In the 1920's the Birger gang dominated bootlegging in the region from a speakeasy, the Shady Rest, in Williamson County, located in the central part of the Southern Illinois region. Birger lived in Harrisburg in neighboring Saline County and was known for his generosity. But Birger and his gang were also known for numerous gunfights, in alliance with the Shelton gang against the Ku Klux Klan which supported prohibition and then against the Sheltons later. The war with the Klan ended in a gunfight with shotguns and tommyguns in Herrin in April 1926.

During their alliance, the two gangs had suspended their own feud which smoldered until breaking out anew afterwards.

Despite the war against the Klan, the violence actually worsened during the turf war between the Birger gang and the Shelton gang of Fairfield, located several counties north of Birger's stronghold.

At stake was the lucrative coal country bootlegging business.

Armored Vehicles and Air Attack

Both fielded their own armored vehicles they had converted from trucks. The five Shelton brothers at one point actually hired a pilot to drop nitroglycerene bombs on Birger's fortified Shady Rest speakeasy, but the effort failed.

Over the years, dozens of people died including the mayor of the village of West City for which Birger was hanged. Birger denied that murder. He did admit that he had killed men, "but never a good one." No one knows how many deaths Birger gang caused.

Birger's Origins

The future Charlie Birger was born in 1880 to a Jewish Lithuanian couple in New York who named him Shachna Hzik. He spent most of his childhood in St Louis, was a newsboy, late served in the 13th US Cavalry, and returned to mine coal then later open a bar in Harrisburg.

Prohibition brought opportunities for an ambitious man and Birger had the amibition.

Arrest and Execution

Birger was arrested and prosecuted in Franklin County where his connections were weakest, for the murder of Mayor Joe Adams based on the testimony of two gangmembers who bargained for a life sentence, one of them the triggerman. Birger denied it to the end which, for him, came about a year later. On April 19, 1928, after Birger turned down an offer of morphine to ease the pain, Birger was hanged before a crowd of about 5,000 people. At his insistence, he was hooded with a black hood rather than white hood due to its resemblance to a KKK hood. He was 48 years old. He was buried under his original given name in a suburban St Louis cemetery.

Even without Charlie Birger, the Birger gang continued to battle the Sheltons through the 1950's, with three of the five Shelton brothers ultimately gunned down.

In 1999, the old Franklin County Jail in Benton, where the hanging took place, was put on the National Register of Historic Places. It also houses displays relating to hometown boys actor John Malkovich, and coach Doug Collins, who once lived in the jail when his father was county sheriff.

SOURCES:

Charles Birger, Wikipedia

Davis, Rich, Birger & His Boys, The Yesterdays of Hamilton County

Riley, Nanette, Charlie Birger - Last Man to Be Executed by Public Hanging in Illinois, Illinois Geneaology Trails History Group