The personal websight of Russ Williams  
Visit Historical Sites of Al Capone, John Dillinger, Roaring 20s, Panczko Gang, Sally Rand.
They're all here in Ken Schessler's Unusual Guide to Chicago.
 
An Unusual Tour of Chicago
 
 
NEAR WEST
HAYMARKET SQUARE MASSACRE - On May 3, 1886, the Central Labor Union and the Trade and Labor Union voted to go on strike demanding an eight hour work day. When August Spies, co-editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung spoke at a rally at the McCormick reaper plant, a fight broke out between strikers and strike breakers, police suddenly appeared and fired into the crowd of strikers, killing six of them.

Infuriated by the tragedy, Spies called for a rally on May 4, at the Haymarket, on Des Plaines between Randolph and Lake. 3,000 people showed up including Mayor Carter Harrison. It began to rain and the crowd dwindled to about 500. After the Mayor left, 200 police ordered the rally to disperse. At that moment, a dynamite bomb was thrown from the alley which ran east from Des Plaines. It exploded, killing eight policemen and wounding about 65 others. August Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel, Louis Lingg and Albert Fischer were arrested, tried, found guilty of the bombing, and sentenced to hang.

UPDATE - On November 11, 1887, Spies, Engel, Parsons and Engel were hanged. Lingg committed suicide. In 1889, a 9-foot bronze statue of a Chicago policeman was erected in the middle of Haymarket Square. In 1900, it was moved to Union Park at Randolph and Ogden. In 1957, it was moved the northeast corner of the bridge over the Kennedy Expressway at Randolph, 200 feet from its original location. After several bombings of the monument, it was moved to Police Headquarters at 11th and State in 1972. In 1976, it was moved to the courtyard of the Police Academy and can only be seen by making arrangements in advance.

The scene of the bombing was just west of the northwest corner of Des Plaines and Randolph where the Expressway begins. A plaque has been recently installed at what was Crane's Alley from where the hay wagon and the speakers were. The bomb was thrown from this area. The bronze plaque is flush in the sidewalk on the east side of Des Plaines, a few steps north of Randolph.
 
1870s RED LIGHT DISTRICT - In the 1870s and 1880s, a red light district was located between Sangamon, Halsted, Lake and Monroe. The pride of the area was the Diddie Briggs brothel on Halsted. The most popular girl in the place was a midget named Julie Johnson. She gave exhibitions with a negro nearly three times her height and more than twice her weight.
 
GHOST IN THE HULL HOUSE - In 1856, real estate dealer, Charles J. Hull built a mansion at 800 S. Halsted. Mrs. Hull died here in the house in 1860. When Hull died in the early 1880s, he left the mansion to a cousin, Helen Culver, who allowed Miss Jane Addams to move in and found the Hull House Institution in 1889. During the 1890s, A room of the Hull House was reported to be haunted by a mysterious figure who had been seen several times in a bedroom on the second floor. When distinguished visitors, who used the room from time to time, complained about having trouble sleeping, Miss Addams and Mary Smith then spent a night in the room, hoping to locate the trouble. They were awakened during the night and saw what appeared to be a woman in white. When Miss Addams asked who she was, the figure glided away, seeming to pass through a locked door.

Miss Addams had the room converted into a store room and then a dressing room for the Hull House theater. Later, some girls preparing for a Christmas party play reported that they saw a lady in white sitting on a box looking at them. That was the last appearance of the ghost, but on three occasions, fires had to be put out that had started in the room. 800 S. Halsted.

UPDATE - In 1920, a young Benny Goodman took clarinet lessons here and played in the Hull House band. Some of his fellow students included future jazz greats, bassist Matt Hinton and pianist Art Hodes. Miss Addams lived here until she died in 1935.

The Jane Addams houses were built in 1937 by the WPA at 1052 S. Lytle. The 52 houses of 4 and 5 rooms and the 975 apartments of 2 to 5 rooms, provided low-cost housing in the middle of one of the most poverty-stricken areas on the west side. The buildings were still there in 1947.

The Hull House settlement was torn down in 1963 except for the Hull House mansion, the dining room, and the Hull House Museum. The original furniture still remains in Jane Addams' old office. The Illinois University Chicago Circle Campus now occupies the site.
 
PAUL "THE WAITER" - The Bella Napoli Cafe owned by Diamond Joe Esposito, was opened here at 850 Halsted in 1913. It was famous for its cuisine and as a rendezvous for politicians. In 1922, 19-year-old Paul Ricca left his job as an usher at the nearby Dante Theater and went to work here as a waiter. It was here that Ricca, who later became a gangster, got his nickname "The Waiter." 850 S. Halsted.

UPDATE - The University of Illinois Chicago Campus is now on the site.
 
"THE ENFORCER" NITTI - Gangster Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti owned a speakeasy here at 901 S. Halsted in 1927. On November 4, 1930, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca was arrested here while in the company of three state legislators and several members of the Capone Syndicate. 901 S. Halsted.
 
CAPONE TRIGGERMAN - Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo was born here at 525 N. Armour in Little Sicily in 1906. At age 5, he attended the James Otis Elementary School nearby. In 1916, he was in the fourth grade at the Washington Grade School, also in Little Sicily. After he reached fifteen, he turned to crime, being arrested 27 times thereafter. He joined the Capone gang in 1926 as one of Capone's bodyguards, and later became the triggerman of the Syndicate. 525 N. Armour.
 
THE TERRIBLE GENNA GANG - In the 1920s, the area here at Taylor and Halsted was the center of the Genna brothers gang territory. It ran from the river to Western and from Congress to 16th. In 1924, the Genna's owned a three-story liquor warehouse at 1022 W. Taylor where they also produced raw alcohol. So many policemen came to the warehouse to be paid off by the Genna's, that neighbors called it "The Police Station." Five of the six brothers were savage killers, but they went to church regularly and carried rosaries and crucifixes in their pistol pockets.
 
MACHINE GUN JACK MCGURN KILLED - Born and raised on Halsted Street in Little Italy, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn was a favorite of Al Capone and was frequently seen at Capone's side during ball games and other social events. McGurn was a caricature of the Jazz Age. He strummed a ukulele, dated some of Chicago's most glamorous chorus girls, and fancied himself a homegrown version of Rudolph Valentino. McGurn is believed to have master-minded the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929. On the evening of St. Valentine's Day in 1936, while McGurn was bowling here at the second-floor Avenue Recreation Bowling Alley at 805 N. Milwaukee at Chicago Ave., he was shot and killed by two men with machine-guns. They left a note near his body that read:

You've lost your job,
You've lost your dough,
You're jewels and handsome houses,
But things could be worse, you know,
You haven't lost your trousers.

UPDATE - Sixteen days later, three gunmen walked into a pool hall where McGurn's half-brother, Anthony Demory, was playing cards and shot him to death. McGurn's widow married twice again. In 1940, she was arrested for possession of a gun. In the late 1980s, she was living in Northern California. The building where McGurn was killed was still there in 1991.
 
HINKY DINK'S BIRTHPLACE - Alderman Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna was born in 1858 in a frame shack at Polk and Carpenter (formerly Sholto). The home was just east of Halsted at the edge of an area called "Connelly' Patch." He was baptized at a little church at 11th and May Streets.
 
GANGSTER KILLED - Gangster "Smoots" Amatuna, 26, was killed here at Isadore Paul's barbershop at 805 Roosevelt Rd. on November 10, 1925. Just as he stepped out of the barber's chair, two men walked in and each fired four times at Amatuna. The killers were reported to the Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci and Jim Doherty. 805 W. Roosevelt Road.
 
GANGSTER KILLED - About two a.m. on May 11, 1922, gangster Anthony D'Andrea's bodyguard and driver dropped him off here at his home at 902 S. Ashland and drove away. As D'Andrea, president of the Chicago chapter of the Unione Siciliana, walked up the nine steps to the buildings porch, a shotgun exploded from an empty apartment bay window on the first floor to his left. Thirteen slugs tore into his body and he fell dead on the steps. The killers left through the back door to a waiting car. In the empty apartment, they left a new sawed-off shotgun and a size 7 hat with a $20 bill in the lining and a note that read "For Flowers." 902 S. Ashland.
 
MOB KILLS COURT BAILIFF - On March 8, 1921, three gunmen waited on a corner near the home of gangster Paul Labriola at 735 W. Congress, and two more waited at the corner of Halsted. Around nine o'clock, Labriola, a municipal court bailiff and a precinct captain for alderman John Powers, left for work and headed west. The two gunmen at Halsted, walked toward him and opened fire. The three behind him ran forward and also opened fire as he fell dead to the pavement. One straddled his body and shot him once more in the head. He was killed because of his opposition to the mob-backed Anthony D'Andreas, who was running against Powers. At 39, Labriola left a wife and two children 735 W. Congress.
 
THE "OX" KILLS PAL'S WIFE - When May Mahoney, wife of safe cracker John Mahoney, threatened to call the police on Mahoney in 1919, Charles "The Ox" Reiser, Mahoney's pal, beat her to death here in her home at 1137 W. Washington.

UPDATE - On April 30, 1921, John Mahoney was found shot to death in an alley at 1814 S. Peoria. When Reiser was wounded during a robbery attempt, on October 10, 1921, he was taken to the Alexian Brothers Hospital. On October 21, he was found dead in his bed with his wife leaning over his body sobbing hysterically. He had been shot ten times. A charge of murder was bought against Mrs. Reiser, but it was later dropped when a coroner's jury ruled his death a suicide.
 
HOME OF BENNY GOODMAN - Benny Goodman's parents, David and Dora Goodman, lived here in 1902 when they first came to Chicago. 1227 S. Sangamon.
 
FAMOUS DEFENSE ATTORNEY - Attorney Clarence Darrow moved into a two-bedroom flat here at the corner of Des Plaines and Grenshaw (Formerly Bunker) in the Langdon co-op apartments in 1897.
 
MAYOR HARRISON ASSASSINATED - Mayor Carter H. Harrison was a happy man on October 28, 1893, his engagement to a young lady, who was to be his third wife, had just been announced and had returned to his home here at 231 S. Ashland Ave. after an enjoyable day at the World's Exposition fair.

He had dinner at 6 o'clock after which he lay down to rest on a couch in the back parlor. Shortly after 8 o'clock, the doorbell rang and the maidservant answered it. At the door was a small weazen-faced man who asked if the mayor was home. When Harrison appeared in the doorway, the man shot him in the abdomen with a .38 revolver, and as Harrison fell, the assassin fired a second time, hitting the mayor above the ear.

The killer then ran out the door onto Ashland Ave. disappearing in the dark toward Jackson Street. A neighbor, W.J. Chalmers of 234 S. Ashland rushed into the house, but Harrison died within a few minutes.

A half-hour later, Eugene Pendergast walked into the Des Plaines Street police station and confessed to killing Harrison. Pendergast, 25, told police that he killed the mayor because he had not fulfilled his promise to elevate the surface railroad tracks. Pendergast lived with his mother at 609 Jane street (east of Seymour).

UPDATE - Harrison's mansion stood on the east side of Ashland between Jackson and Van Buren. The mayor was buried in Graceland Cemetery on the North Side.
 
HOME OF FAMOUS DETECTIVE - Famed detective William Pinkerton lived at 189 S. Ashland in 1889. (On the east side of Ashland between Monroe and Adams, near the corner of Adams).
 
MILLIONAIRE KILLED - Real estate millionaire Amos Snell was killed while being robbed on March 3, 1888 here in his home at the northwest corner of Washington and Ada. Dr. J.P. Ross lived across the street. Snell's son Albert, lived nearby at 18 Bishop Court.
 
CHICAGO'S SECOND HANGING - The first official hanging in Chicago took place in 1840 in a prairie at what is now 29th and Martin Luther King Blvd. The second hanging occurred in 1857 at the corner of Ashland and Jackson. The new location was chosen so that more of the public could attend.
 
BEAUTIFUL UNION PARK - In 1850, Union Park with its rustic bridges and Minature lakes, was the Bois de Boulogne of the west side. Mansions, apartment houses and churches were built around the park at Ashland, Washington and Ogden. When Mayor Carter was assassinated in 1893, his statue was erected in the park. The home of Sister Carrie, the heroine of Theodore Dreiser's 1900 classic novel "Sister Carrie," was located in a flat across from the park.

UPDATE - Mayor Carter's statue was removed and placed in storage in 1960.
 
HOME OF MRS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN - When Mary Todd Lincoln, widow of Abraham Lincoln, bought a home here at 375 W. Washington (old address) in June 1866 near Union Park, it was in one of the city's new middle-class neighborhoods. She paid $20,000 for the stone, marble-fronted house which also had a stable. Her son Tad attended the private Brown Boys Academy School at Washington and Elizabeth Streets.He walked to school everyday. She moved out of the house in 1867 and boarded with the D. Cole family in their home at 460 W. Washington (old address) from October 13 to the later part of December, 1867. She rented out her home on Washington (west of Ashland) until 1874 when she auctioned off her furniture and sold the house for $10,000. Ashland Avenue from Washington to 12th Street would later be lined with mansions of the wealthy.
 
POTTER PALMER GETS MARRIED - Bertha Honore, 21, married Potter Palmer, 44, in her father's Ashland Avenue mansion (near Washington) on August 11, 1871. 700 guests attended the reception here in the home. Her father was real estate operator Colonel Henry M.Honore.

UPDATE - Bertha, Potter, and Henry Honore are all buried in Graceland cemetery on the North Side.
 
MAXWELL STREET - Once called the "Ghetto," the Maxwell Street Market was centered at Halsted and Maxwell Streets. The biggest days were Sunday morning when people came to bargain with the Jewish merchants for the varied goods.

UPDATE - The eastern end of the market was lopped off by the Dan Ryan Expressway in he 1960s.
 
STRIP JOINT ROW - In the 1950s, a stretch of west Madison Street was known as Stripper's Row. The following were the most popular.
Academy - On the corner of Halsted and Madison.
El Mocambo - 1519 Madison.
Flamingo - 1359 Madison.
Haymarket - On the corner of Halsted and Madison.
L & L Cafe - 1315 Madison.
Music Box - 932 Madison.
So Ho - 1124 Madison.
Star & Garter - 915 Madison. Gangster Willie Bioff was a former owner.
 
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