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Visit Historical Sites of Al Capone, John Dillinger, Roaring
20's, Panczko Gang, Sally Rand.
They're all here in Ken Schessler's Unusual Guide to
Chicago
An Unusual Tour of
Chicago
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RIVER NORTH
(Rush Street Area)
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"TERRIBLE TOMMY" ESCAPES THE NOOSE - In
June 1921, "Terrible Tommy" O'Conner was arrested for killing a night watchman
and was placed here in the Cook County Jail at Dearborn and Hubbard next to the
County Courthouse. On October 15, 1921, he was sentenced to hang here on the
gallows. On December 21, he jumped a guard, took his gun, entered the jail yard,
and somehow scaled the twenty-foot wall along Illinois Street. He jumped into
the car of Harry J. Busch, who was parked at the curb, and ordered him to "drive
like hell." The car turned onto Dearborn, sped up to Chicago Avenue, raced west
to Sedgwick, north to Oak, then west to Larrabee, where O'Conner jumped from the
car and was never seen again. It was here in the jail yard, that the "Haymarket
Bombers" were hanged on November 11, 1887.
UPDATE - O'Conner's escape was made
legendary by Ben Hecht in his play "The Front Page." Harry J. Busch became a
well-known Chicago defense lawyer, who at one time defended Chicago's most
famous thief, "Pops" Panczko.
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835 DROWN ON CAPSIZED SHIP - On July 24, 1915, the steamship Eastland was booked
for an excursion by the employees of Western Electric. 2,500 men, women and
children boarded the ship while it was docked on the southside of the river just
west side of Clark Street. Minutes after the ship was loaded, the ship tilted
sharply to the dock side and then righted again. The captain ordered the sea
cocks opened to let in water for ballast. When the ship listed again and turned
onto its side in the river, hundreds of people that were on the top decks were
trapped under the huge ship and drowned. Others died below deck. The total dead
came to 835, including 22 entire families. |
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THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY - When Nathan
Leopold and Richard Loeb were arrested for the thrill killing of 9-year-old
Bobby Franks in 1923, they were held in the jail that was located behind the
County Courthouse on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Hubbard. The famous
trial was held in the fifth floor courtroom of the courthouse.
UPDATE - In 1990, the building was
renovated and is now occupied by lawyers. The jail was torn down in the early
1930s.
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THE "SCHEMER" KILLED BY POLICE -
Gangster Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, was
killed on April 4, 1927, by Detective Daniel Healy at the corner of Clark and
Wacker Drive. In 1926, Drucci became a celebrity among his gangster friends,
when he was being chased by police while driving north on Michigan Avenue. Just
as he reached the Michigan Ave. bridge, the gates came down and the bridge
started to part at the center. Stepping hard on the gas, he broke through the
gates, sped up the rising south half of the bridge and vaulted smoothly onto the
north half and escaped. |
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BABE RUTH'S FAVORITE HANGOUT - The Palace
Gardens Night Club at 623 N. Clark, was Babe Ruth's favorite Chicago hangout in
the 1930s. |
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JOHN DILLINGER LOVED FROG LEGS - For six
weeks in 1934, John Dillinger came here often to to dine on frogs legs in
Ireland's Oyster House Restaurant at 632-38 No. Clark. Famed attorney Clarence
Darrow ate his victory dinner here the night that Leopold and Loeb were found
guilty in 1924. |
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CHICAGO'S LARGEST STRIP CLUB - Before
Dion O'Bannion became a gangster, he was a singing waiter here in McGovern's
Saloon at 661 No. Clark. It was here that he became friends with Bugs Moran,
Hymie Weiss, and "The Schemer" Drucci. In the 1950s, McGovern's Liberty Inn was
the largest strip club in town. It had 25 strippers. |
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MORTUARY OF THE GANGSTERS - Sbabardo's
Funeral Parlor at 738 N. Wells, embalmed and held services here for many
gangsters, including Dion O'Bannion, Hymie Weiss, and Vincent "The Schemer"
Drucci in the 1920s. O'Bannion's services were the grandest Chicago had ever
seen. 40,000 people filed by his casket here. |
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DION O'BANNION KILLED IN FLOWER SHOP -
Gangster Dion O'Bannion was killed here in the Schofield flower shop at 738
No.State Street, on November 10, 1924 by Capone mob members, John Scalisi,
Albert Anselmi, and Frankie Yale.
UPDATE- Schofield's is now a parking
lot.
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HYMIE WEISS SHOT AND KILLED - On October
11, 1926, gangster Hymie Weiss drove up and parked his car on Superior around
the corner from Schofield's flower shop where Dion O'Bannion was killed in 1924.
He was headed for his office on the second floor of Schofield's at 738 N. State
Street. As Weiss and four of friends turned the corner in font of the Holy Name
Cathedral, shotgun blasts exploded from a rooming house at 740 N. State, just
north of Schofield's, spraying the street. Bullets splattered the Cathedral's
cornerstone, chipping the the inscription. Weiss was hit almost at the curb in
front of the flower shop. He fell dead after ten slugs hit him.
UPDATE - The bullet holes on the church
are hidden today behind a remodeled stairway that leads to the church's front
door. The services for Cub announcer Harry Carey were held here at the Cathedral
in 1998.
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SALLY RAND AND HER FANS - Fan dancer
Sally Rand starred here at the Paramount Club at 16 E. Huron while creating a
sensation at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. |
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TRAGEDY OF THE NEWBERRY FAMILY - Julia
Newberry, daughter of wealthy banker Walter Loomis Newberry, was born here in
the Newberry mansion at the northwest corner of Rush and Ontario on December 28,
1853. She was 15, when her father died in 1868 while on a ship headed for
Europe. A year later, on June 9, 1869, Julia wrote in her diary:
"Here I am in the old house where I was born,and where I wish I could
always live. It is the dearest place on earth to me and worth all of London,
Paris and New York put together. It really breaks my heart to think of leaving
it and going to Europe again. I like Chicago so much, so much better than any
other place, and we have a beautiful home, and it is all associated with Papa,
and now we have to leave it all!"
A few days after the Newberry mansion was destroyed in the Chicago fire in
October of 1871, Julia wrote again in her diary:
"Not a thing was saved from our house, not a thing. Who could have dreamt
that when I drove away from the house on that beautiful June morning in 1870,
that I saw it, and all my Chicago for the last time, but they are all gone. Papa
bought the land. Papa built the house. Papa planted the trees. Papa lived here.
He died far away from us in mid ocean, with no one to care for him, no one to
learn his last wishes, no one to love him, and now all the few traces of him are
swept away forever."
UPDATE - Julia Newberry never saw her
beloved Chicago again. While vacationing in Rome, Italy, she caught the Roman
fever and died there on April 4, 1876. She was 23 years old. Walter Newberry,
his wife Julia, three infant children, and a 28-year-old daughter, Mary Louise,
are all buried together in Graceland Cemetery on the North side. The burial site
of young Julia is unknown. The Newberry Library at 60 W. Walton was built with
the Newberry millions in 1887.
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THE VILEST PLACE IN CHICAGO - Even the
worst of Chicago dives was a Sunday school compared with those in the Sands, a
stretch of Lake Shore north of the Chicago River, near Baptiste du Sable's first
cornfield. In 1857, the Sands contained between 20 and 50 ramshackle buildings
and a dozen shanties, each housing gambling dens, saloons, and bordellos. The
Chicago Tribune reported that it was "Decidedly the vilest and most dangerous
place in Chicago." Located between Erie and the river, and from Seneca to the
lake, the most beastly sensuality and darkest crimes had their home in the
Sands.
Margaret McGuiness, a prostitute in Freddy Webster's place, was said to
have been neither sober nor out of the place for five years, and did not have
had her clothes on in three years. She regularly entertained from 10 to 40 men a
night. She died on March 8, 1857, of excessive sex and alcohol.
UPDATE - On April 21, 1857, Mayor "Big
John" Wentworth and 20 policemen burned down the Sands.
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NEAR NORTH
(Gold Coast Area) |
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CHICAGO'S FIRST CEMETERY - When the old
Chicago cemetery (established in 1847) at the southern portion of Lincoln Park,
at North Avenue and the Lake was condemned in 1892, most of the bodies were
moved to Graceland, Rosehill, and Oakwood cemeteries. The Ira Couch family tomb
escaped removal when the family won a lawsuit against the city to keep it here.
Located near the statue of Abraham Lincoln, near North Ave. and Stockton Drive,
the tomb contains Couch, former owner of the Tremont Hotel, several members of
his family, and a stranger who died while staying in the Tremont.
During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, 75,000 people fled here to the
cemetery where they hid among the tombstones to escape the heat and sparks
overhead. .
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PLAYBOY MANSION - Hugh Hefner, publisher
of Playboy Magazine, bought this 1889 mansion at 1340 State Parkway in the 1950s
and named it the Playboy Mansion. |
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PLAYBOY BUILDING - When the 37-story Palmolive Building was built here
at 919 No. Michigan in1930, it included a beacon on top of the building named
after aviator Charles Lindbergh. Hugh Hefner bought it in the 1960s and named it
the Playboy Building. |
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REAL ESTATE TYCOON MURDERED - Wealthy
real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was murdered here by serial killer Andrew Cunnan,
in the garage of his townhouse at 22 E. Scott on May 5, 1997. |
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FIRST MONTGOMERY WARD STORE - Montgomery
Ward opened his first store here at 825 No. Clark in 1872. |
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DION O'BANNION IN "LITTLE HELL" -
Gangster Dion O'Bannion grew up here in an apartment at 841 Wells in a
neighborhood that was part of the infamous "Little Hell" area. |
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TOKYO ROSE - TRAITOR - World II traitor,
Tokyo Rose lived here with her father just before she went to Japan in 1940. Her
father, Jun Toguri owned a restaurant here at 1124-28 N. Clark. |
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OSCAR MAYER'S FAVORITE TAVERN - The House
of Glutz here at 1206 N. Wells was the favorite tavern of hot dog maker Oscar
Mayer in the 1930s. |
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OSCAR MAYER'S HOT DOGS - The original
Oscar Mayer meat plant was located here at 1241 Sedgwick. The plant was torn
down in 1995. |
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DR. SCHOLL'S FOOT FACTORY - In 1911, Dr.
William Scholl took over the Western Wheel Works bicycle factory here in the 300
block of west Division, and began producing his foot products.
UPDATE - D. Scholl's moved to Tennessee
in 1981. The factory was converted into the Cobbler Square Apartments in
1985.
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SINGER FRANKIE LAINE - A young Frankie
Laine attended the Immaculate Conception Church here at 1415 North Park in he
1930s. |
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DILLINGER GUN MOLL FOUND DEAD - After the
Dillinger gang was broken up in 1934, Pat Cherrington, girlfriend of Harry
Copeland, a member of the gang, was found dead here in her room at the Burton
Hotel at 1429 N. Clark on May 3, 1949. Cherrington had been working as a
waitress, tavern hostess, and a dice girl in the dives along north Clark Street.
In her possession were several love letters from Copeland, and $2.16. |
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HOME OF WALT DISNEY - Walt Disney lived
here at 1523 Ogden with his parents in 1917-18. |
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LITTLE ITALY'S DEADMAN'S CORNER - In
1871, the city built many long, low, barrack-like buildings here between
Division, Chicago Ave., LaSalle Street and the River, to house families whose
homes had been destroyed in the Great Fire. When the respectable residents left
after a few years, the "Barracks" filled with ruffians who spent all their time
drinking and fighting. The area grew to a population of about 32,000 and 400
saloons. The worst of these dives were in a poor Italian slum section called
"Little Hell," that centered around Oak Street and Cleveland. There were so many
murders at the corner of Oak & Cleveland, that it was called "Death Corner,"
or "Deadman's Corner." Between January 1, 1910 and March 26, 1911, there were 42
unsolved murders at this corner.
UPDATE - In 1941, the Cabrini Green
586-unit public housing project was built to replace "Little Hell." 1,900 more
units were added in 1958. Now a slum area once again, Cabrini Green was being
torn down in 1998 to build new housing for the poor.
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AL CAPONE'S BREWERY RAIDED - A few days
after Dion O'Bannion sold Al Capone and Johnny Torrio his Sieben Brewery here at
1464-78 Larrabee, for $500,000, Federal Agents raided it on August 29, 1923, and
arrested Torrio, Louis Alterie, and Hymie Weiss. It was one of the largest
breweries during Prohibition. |
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NORTH
(Lincoln Park Area) |
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ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE - On
February 14, 1929, it was 15 degrees below zero when a black Cadillac disguised
as a police squad car, pulled up in front of the "Bugs" Moran S-M Garage here at
2122 N. Clark at ten-thirty a.m. Shortly after five men, dressed in police
uniforms, got out of the car and entered the garage, machine gun blasts could be
heard coming from the building. Two minutes later, the men came back out,
climbed into the Cadillac, drove south on Clark to Ogden, then southwest on
Ogden to North Avenue, where it turned west.
Inside the warehouse, seven men lay dead at the foot of the rear wall. All
had been drilled with bullets. Blood slopped down the brickwall. Some of the
bodies were held together only by shreds of flesh and bone. The dead were
identified as gangster brothers, Frank and Pete Gusenberg, gangsters James
Clark, Adam Heyer, Al Weinshank, and Johnny May, and an optometrist, Reinhardt
Schwimmer. Moran blamed the massacre on Al Capone.
UPDATE - It was later learned that three
of the killers had cased the garage from rooming house windows at 2119 and 2125
N. Clark. The garage was torn down in 1967. The blood-stained wall was
dismantled and rebuilt in Canada. The site is now a small park next to a senior
housing home.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
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HOME OF BUGS MORAN - Gangsters George "Bugs" Moran, Henry
Gusenberg, and
optometrist Reinhardt Schwimmer all lived here at the Parkway Hotel at 2100
Lincoln Park West at the time of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.
Schwimmer was one of those killed during the massacre. Just before the shooting
began in the garage on Clark Street, Moran left his apartment here and headed
for the garage by taking a shortcut through the alley. But he turned around when
he saw a police squad car sitting in front of the garage. . |
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BUGS MORAN KILLS "BLOODY" ANGELO - On
March 25, 1925, while driving his shiny, new, $6,000 roadster south on Ogden
Avenue, "Bloody Angelo" Genna was followed by gangsters Hymie Weiss, "Bugs"
Moran, and Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci. When Genna's car ran into a lamppost
here at the corner of Ogden and Hudson, the trio blasted him with sawed-off
shotguns. He died with $30,000 in his pocket that he was going to use to buy a
home for his bride of five months. |
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FAN DANCER LEAPS TO HER DEATH- In 1930,
Faith Bacon was the toast of Broadway. Her act consisted if two swirling ostrich
fans and a smokey spotlight. She sometimes used flowers and bubbles. In 1933,
Faith competed with Sally Rand as fan dancers at the World's Fair. Her star
faded after the Fair, and by the late 1930s she was a has-been. In 1954, she
tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. In August of
1956, Faith came to Chicago from Erie, PA., and checked into the Alan Hotel here
at 2004 Lincoln Park West.
She looked for work, but could not even find a job in the sleazy strip
joints on skid row. Shortly after midnight on September 26, 1946, as a depressed
Miss Bacon, 47, was walking down the stairs of the hotel between the fourth and
third floors, she suddenly opened a window, and as a friend grabbed at her
skirt, she tore loose and jumped out the window. Her body landed on the roof of
a one-story saloon next door.
UPDATE - Besides a pair of rented fans,
her effects included 85 cents and a train ticket to Erie, PA. When relatives
could not be located, the American Guild of Variety Artists claimed her body and
arranged for burial
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DILLINGER'S GIRLFRIEND - Polly Hamilton
was with John Dillinger at the Biograph Theater on the night he was ambushed and
killed by the FBI in 1934. She fled the scene of the shooting, left the city and
went into hiding. She later returned to Chicago to work as a waitress, and
married a Chicago salesman named William Black. Going by the name Edythe Black,
she lived here at 1942 N. Mohawk with her husband until her death on February
19, 1969. |
HAUNTED CHICAGO- GHOSTS OF THE WINDY CITY
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