Al Anselmi and John Scalise were two of the most murderous hit men in Mob history. They left Italy together, came to America together, worked together and died together. Hence, I write about them both together on this web page.

Anselmi and Scalise fled from their native home of Marsala when murder charges were brought against them and they came to Chicago. Here they sided with the Genna Gang who at the time were the leading producers of rot-gut moonshine in the Little Italy district of Chicago. The two hit men announced that they were in America to amass $1,000,000 each and then return to their home rich men where they could pay off the judges and escape the murder charges against them. The Genna's paid the pair well for the murderous work they did. Their work became the talk of the underworld. One story tells of a victim who begged for mercy, raising his hands in prayer as he did so. Anselmi and Scalise blew off his hands before shooting him in the head.

Anselmi and Scalise imported many techniques with them from Italy. One of these was to rub bullets with garlic before their use. The theory was that if the bullets did not kill the victim then the gangrene aided by the garlic would. They also introduced the 'handshake-hit' used so successfully in the Dion O'Banion murder. The stronger Anselmi would offer his hand in friendship and, once taken, would hold the victim in an iron like grip preventing him from reaching his guns. Then the taller Scalise would shoot the victim in the face. It was not unusual for the pair to open up on victims on crowded streets with machine guns regardless of the innocent by-standers.

Anselmi and Scalise eventually broke from the Genna Gang when they were ordered to hit Al Capone. They realized that even if they succeeded in killing Capone, the rest of the gang would eventually get them back. So, they went to Capone offering their services to him. Capone accepted them into his gang without the Genna's knowledge and the two of them were responsible for luring one Genna brother into a trap and personally killing another.

As mentioned earlier, the two were involved in the killing of Dion O'Banion. Later in the 1920's a peace agreement was almost worked out with the old O'Banion gang now under the leadership of Hymie Weiss but the completion of the agreement hinged on Capone handing over the murderers of O'Banion. Capone, always true and loyal to his gang members, refused to give up Anselmi and Scalise saying "I wouldn't do that to a yellow dog!"

The murderous pair eventually died at the hands of Al Capone himself. The two of them along with Joe Giunta were conspiring along with another Mob Boss, Joe Aiello, to kill Capone and take over the Outfit. Capone got wind of the plot but just could not believe his two top gunners were out to get him - especially after he had stood by them when Weiss had wanted them for O'Banion's murder. Frankie Rio, another top aide in the Capone camp, went to Al with a plan to prove the conspiracy. The two of them set up a heated argument in front of witnesses. Rio finally smacked Capone across the face and stormed out of the room. The next day, Scalise and Anselmi approached Rio and offered to let him in on the plan to kill Capone. Rio spent the next few days with Anselmi and Scalise and when he had all the details, went back to report to Capone. Capone set up a dinner party with Scalise, Anselmi and Guinta as guests of honor on May 7th, 1929. During the sumptuous banquet, Capone accused the honored guests with plotting to kill him. He then produced a club and proceeded to smash the heads in of Scalise and Guinta. When Capone finally turned on Anselmi, Anselmi pleaded with Capone saying it was all Scalise and Guinta's plan and he had nothing to do with it. Capone cut him off with a blow from the club. Capone then shot all three of them for good measure.