Fred Goetz

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Fred Samuel Goetz (February 14, 1897 – March 21, 1934), also known as "Shotgun" George Ziegler, was a Chicago Outfit mobster and a suspected participant in the Valentine's Day Massacre, in 1929.^[1]

Early life[]

Goetz was born in Chicago to Samuel T. Goetz and his wife Ottillie Bensel who both emigrated from Germany and moved to 1338 Eddy Street in the Wrigleyville enclave of Lake View. Ottillie bore Samuel two children: Fred and Sophie. Goetz graduated from Lane Technical College Prep High School in 1914. After graduating Lane Tech, he went on to attend the University of Illinois and graduated in 1918 where he earned a degree in engineering. Following his graduation at UOI Fred enlisted in the US Army and after basic training was stationed at Langley Field, Virginia, during World War I, as a pilot in the United States Army Aviation Branch where he rose to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Crime career[]

By 1922, Goetz worked as a lifeguard at Clarendon Municipal Bathing Beach in the neighbourhood of Beach Park, Illinois until he was charged with sexually assaulting seven-year-old Jean Lanbert by an alley near her house where she lived in Edgewater, Chicago. Goetz denied the charges and jumped bail on June 10, 1925. Four months later, Roger Bessner implicated Goetz in a failed robbery of Dr. Henry R. Gross, in which the family chauffeur was killed.^[2] On October 20, 1925 the Illinois State Attorney had a lawsuit brought against Fred's parents, Samuel and Ottillie, who scheduled some of their empty real estate property to be used as collateral for their son's bond. They would later divorce, his mother moving to 1503 Ardmore Avenue in Edgewater, Chicago and his father Samuel relocating to Cincinnati.

During the next several years, Goetz would become associates with underworld figures such as Joseph Weil and Morris Klineman, as well as participating in several armed robberies, including the robbery of $352,000 from the Farmers and Merchants Bank, in Jefferson, Wisconsin, with Gus Winkler and four others, in 1929.^[3] He lived in an apartment at 7827 South Shore Drive in South Shore, Chicago with his wife 'Irene'. His landlady would describe Fred and his wife as "fine people" and that Fred was a "very brilliant and handsome man".

Barker gang[]

After the Valentine's Day Massacre, Goetz left Chicago and began bootlegging operations in Kansas City, Missouri before becoming associated with the Barker-Karpis gang. He later participated in several bank robberies with Alvin Karpis, Fred Barker and Doc Barker, as well as the 1934 kidnapping of St. Paul, Minnesota banking millionaire Edward G. Bremer. Goetz collected the ransom and released Bremer.

Murder[]

FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover later publicly accused Ma Barker of masterminding the Bremer kidnapping. According to Twin Cities historian Paul Maccabee, FBI files on the case reveal that it was Goetz, rather than Ma Barker, who directed both the Hamm and Bremer kidnappings on behalf of St. Paul crime boss Harry Sawyer and mobbed up former St. Paul police chief Big Tom Brown.^[4]

However, Goetz loved to brag over drinks to fellow wiseguys in Chicago pubs about his involvement in the Bremer kidnapping and even hinted about the names of his co-conspirators and the hiding place of the ransom money.^[5]

On March 20, 1934, Goetz walked outside a Cicero, Illinois, restaurant, The Minerva Cafe, and was shot in the face at close range by a shotgun. He was taken to the Frances E. Willard National Temperance Hospital, but died from his wounds. His body had to be identified by fingerprints.^[6]

Goetz's expensive coupe was found in Greater Grand Crossing, Chicago and it was believed to have been abandoned there by his wife Irene, who along with Fred was a wanted fugitive by the FBI.

The culprit, or culprits in Goetz's murder remain unknown. The newspapers suggested that the Barker Gang had murdered Goetz rather than pay him his cut of the ransom money. In his memoirs, former Barker Gang leader Alvin Karpis, while insisting that the Chicago Outfit was responsible for Ziegler's murder, also commented that Goetz had been, "getting kind of gabby", and might have led the FBI to his fellow kidnappers. According to FBI documents, soon after Goetz's murder, Irene Goetz spoke about her husband. Fred Barker overheard her and said coldly, "To hell with George." Louis Campagna, the Chicago Outfit's Caporegime responsible for overseeing criminal activities in Cicero, later told his friends that Fred Goetz got whacked because, "the St. Paul Outfit", likely meaning Harry Sawyer, "put him on the spot."^[7]

Fred Goetz lies buried at Irving Park Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.

See also[]

• List of unsolved murders

References[]

External links[]

• Fred Goetz at Find a Grave
• Fred Goetz
• TIME.com - Illinois' Goetz

Further reading[]

• Paul Maccabee, John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook's Tour of Crime and Corruption in Saint Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press.