Boardwalk Empire - Dean O'Banion gets whacked

Frankie Yale's goons kill O'Banion.

Episode 4x09

[LeafsKiller]

Van Alden gains 100 speech when his life is threatened.

[ilovemanunited]

The way he terrified O’Banion out of killing him. He was so intimidating.

[elofkjellson]

I absolutely love when Van Alden lets out his true nature while held at gunpoint. You can really see how O'Banion is visibly shook by how serious and intimidating he is. Don't fuck with Nelson Van Alden...

[hitmanhatton]

I absolutely love Michael Shannon. He was perfect for this role. Whoever did the casting in this show deserved an award

[Bobbnoxious]

Notice how O'Banion puts his gun down when Van Alden starts spilling his guts. Definitely a "holy shit" moment for him.

[shrapnel]

"What's that Mr. O'Banion? I can have the rest of the night off and a bonus. Thank you, Mr O'Banion, thank you very much!"

[RobertBrown-bczy]

"What do you have that says 'I'm sorry and won't ever do it again?'- Roses are for my girlfriend. What do you got for my wife?" RIM SHOT

[anthonyc]

A guy comes home with a bouquet of flowers. His wife says, "I guess I'll have to spread my legs again." The husband replies, "Why? Don't you have a vase?"

[torontoBluejays]

Love how the corpses of the three iron salesmen are still out in the back. Maybe O'Banion was planning to use them as fertilizer...

[Mattraction]

I never understood why a mob boss like o banion didn't have guards in his shop

[maxcastle]

"I used to believe in god, but now I don't believe in anything at all. Oh, also, I come from a planet called Krypton"

[harrygallagher]

There’s finally been an historical depiction of O’Banion without an Irish accent. (He was born and raised in Illinois.) Also, in other scenes from this series, he’s correctly called “Dean, ” (or “Deanie, ” as a nickname), his middle name, which he apparently preferred to his first (Charles). He was not named “Dion” and no one but the newspapers called him that. There's very good historical research here.

[DanielHodgeVoice]

Wiki article: "On the morning of November 10, 1924, O'Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield's' back room. Yale entered the shop with Genna gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O'Banion and Yale shook hands, Yale grasped O'Banion's hand in a tight grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi stepped aside and fired two bullets into O'Banion's chest and two into his throat. One of the killers fired a final shot into the back of his head as he lay face down on the floor."

[victorzambrano]

The police are going to have a hell of a time investigating this. Dead iron salesmen and a dead mobster, what the hell was going on here?

[THE_BEAR_JEW]

I love how all these guys do such a great job of portraying what I would imagine these historical figures were like. Yes, there's a lot of liberties taken probably, but it is a show after all. I just appreciate that even a side character like O'Banion was done in a way that feels accurate.

[gregrock]

Van Alden was always one of the most interesting characters on the show. The other criminals were mostly steered into their profession by birth and circumstances; Van Alden a clearly a guy who wanted to be morally righteous and upstanding but wound up with an entirely different life due to his volatile and unpredictable nature. Cops and criminals generally have a code; Van Alden was both, yet didn't have one despite he much he wanted to think he did.


On the surface, he seemed to be disciplined, reserved, even a bit repressed; every once in awhile he'd blow an O-ring, and his true volatile nature would up into a mushroom cloud of violence. His unpredictability made for some of the best scenes in the series.

[Ginslice]

Love Van Alden’s transformation throughout the series….he just grabbed the money and bounced, what a Gangster 💰💰

[Jovenza]

O'Banion had a gun to his head, and STILL Shannon gave him the shivers. Great actor.

[abusepotential]

I love this show but it had a lot of unsatisfying deaths for the main characters. But Van Alden's arc is really outstanding. He's a psychopathic murderer and zealot, totally beaten by life, and every time he intentionally fucks up something kinda lucky happens to get him out of it, but it draws him deeper and deeper into a life he hates. But he's unkillable, no matter how he tries. And then, finally, he just can't take it anymore. Him dying screaming in Capone's face is just amazing because you know he's finally happy.

[reimuslocke]

dean o banion was a great character, great actor who played him too.