Education
Fred graduated from Lane Technical College Preparatory High School in 1914. After graduating Lane Technical, he went on to attend the University of Illinois and graduated in 1918 where he earned a degree in engineering.
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Fred Goetz
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Career
Ottillie bore Samuel two children: Fred and Sophie. Following his graduation at UOI Fred enlisted in the United States 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. 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 Doctor Henry R. Gross, in which the family chauffeur was killed. 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.
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 Saint Paul, Minnesota banking millionaire Edward G. Bremer. Goetz collected the ransom and released Bremer. Returning to Chicago, Goetz was killed in a drive-by-shooting while outside a closed Cicero, Illinois, restaurant, The Minerva, on March 20, 1934.
He was taken to the Frances East. Wlllard National Temperance Hospital but died from his wounds.
The culprit for his murder are unclear. However a number of his former associates had motives for his murder, including the Barker Gang.
Barker Gang leader Alvin Karpis believed that Outfit boss Frank Nitti had ordered Ziegler"s murder. He is buried at Irving Park Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.
