Chapter Text
Year 1921, Chicago, Illinois; friends Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump needed a break. Stump had lost his wife and young daughter in a fire in his home, and Wentz was hardly more than a bum, with no family nor any will to live. Stump had a low-paying job in a factory. Wentz hadn’t been able to hold down a job since adolescence. They lived in a homeless shelter a few blocks from Stump’s work, but it definitely wasn’t enough.
Walking the streets in silent company one day, Stump had piped up and suggested jokingly that they rob the bank on the corner - if only to get themselves a place by the time the weather grew cold again. While Stump laughed off the ridiculous notion, Wentz had actually considered the idea, and concocted a plan.
Buying a couple guns with what money they had, and fashioning two masks out of some spare fabric from old clothes, Wentz brought the idea back to his friend who had refused at first. After some more convincing, telling Stump that there was quite honestly nothing to lose, the two perfected the plans for their first ever bank robbery.
Their first raid was a success, and over the course of a few months, the two had not only acquired a comfortable new home, but a warrant for their arrest – though no one actually knew who it was that made up the infamous duo that was hitting banks all over the state of Illinois.
At some point in their career, the two picked up a guy named Hurley – Andrew Hurley – becoming a trio.
Hurley had come to them one day with crates of obviously illegal alcohol. He told them how other guys had made a boatload on distributing alcohol in illegal bars. He had then introduced them to the provider he’d met, Joe Trohman, a cool guy and a resident of Canada. Stump had hesitated, as per usual, finding the deal too similar to the drug trade and too serious and risky. Wentz, however, decided that this plan was more steady than that of robbing random banks that would probably up their security over time, making their current job more difficult. He convinced Stump once more to join him in the quest for riches.
The Fall Out Boys soon became one of the largest, most successful Chicago gangs in the business of distributing alcohol during prohibition.
Stump died in 1925 in a police raid of one of their illegal saloons.
Wentz and Hurley continued the operation with Trohman and other distributors.