Friday, October 27, 2017

Salvatore “Sam” Cardinella - Daylight Savings Time

In the fall of 1920, the leader of a violent gang, Salvatore “Sam” Cardinella, was convicted of murdering a barkeeper. That year, Chicago City Council passed a daylight saving ordinance saying the city's clocks must adhere to the time change. Cardinella’s gang had a hand in at least 20 murders and hundreds of robberies.

Sentenced to death by hanging on April 15, 1921, Cardinella came up with a last ditch effort to save his neck from the hangman - daylight savings time. He got his extra hour, but was then hanged at 10:26 a.m. on April 15, 1921.

Edward G. Robinson shot to stardom in the role of Rico, loosely based on mobster Salvatore ‘Sam’ Cardinella, in Mervyn Leroy’s Little Caesar and Public Enemy (1931)