entered the garage where two Chicago police officers were securing fifty cases of seized beer. Claiming to be a federal agent, Drucci ordered the others to handcuff the officers and confiscate their guns, showing no interest in the seized beer, and left with the officers still handcuffed. The incident humiliated the Chicago police department, which was already more sympathetic to the North Sider's rivals the Capone organization. Conflict with South Side The North Siders found themselves undercut on the price of alcohol by rivals the Genna crime family, which was allied to the Italian American South side gang led by Johnny Torrio, who had pretensions of citywide overlordship. O'Banion at first tried to get Torrio to rein in the Gennas. When Torrio failed to do so, O'Banion started hijacking the Gennas' shipments. The Gennas wanted to kill O'Banion but Sicilian politician Mike Merlo, head of the Chicago chapter of Unione Siciliana and an underworld power broker due to his political influence, vetoed the killing. On November 10, 1924, days after Merlo had died of an illness, Torrio men John Scalise and Albert Anselmi arrived at O'Banion's Chicago flower shop ostensibly arranging floral tributes for Merlo's funeral, and murdered O'Banion. The North Side gang then moved against the Gennas and the South Side gang in retaliation. As a result of O'Banion's death the leadership fell to Hymie Weiss, who initiated a string of retaliatory attacks on the Gennas and Torrio. On January 25, 1925, Drucci, Weiss, and Moran ambushed Torrio's bodyguard-lieutenant, Al Capone, shooting up his car, but failing to kill him; his bodyguard was then kidnapped, tortured and murdered. On January 27, Drucci and the two other North Siders ambushed Torrio while he was shopping with his wife. While severely wounded, Torrio survived the attack. At one point, police brought Drucci and Weiss to Torrio's hospital bedside, but Torrio refused to identify them as the shooters. After his recovery and a short jail term, Torrio relinquished control of the South Side Gang to Capone and returned to Italy. On May 25, Drucci, Weiss, and Moran killed South Side ally Angelo Genna. On July 8, Drucci and a second gunman murdered Tony Genna. On November 13, they murdered Genna gunman Samuzzo Amatuna in a barber shop. The owner of his favorite restaurant was also kidnapped and murdered, and Capone began referring to Drucci as the "bedbug". Gang warfare On August 10,