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
 
 
MID NORTH
 (John Dillinger's Neighborhood)
JOHN DILLINGER KILLED - On the afternoon of Sunday, July 22, 1934, Anna Sage called FBI agent Melvin Purvis and told him that she, John Dillinger, and his girlfriend, Polly Hamilton, would attend the Biograph Theater that evening at 2433 Lincoln Ave. Anna said she would be wearing a white blouse and a bright orange skirt. When Dillinger and the two women arrived at the Biograph about 8:30, more than 20 FBI agents including Purvis, were staked out in doorways and alleys around the theater.

It was 10:35 p.m. when Dillinger came out of the theater with Anna and Polly walking on either side of him. Purvis, who was standing in the first store doorway south of the theater, lit his cigar after Dillinger passed him, a signal to the other agents that it was indeed Dillinger. When the agents began to move in, Dillinger suddenly ran toward the alley in a partial crouch. Three agents fired at Dillinger after he refused to stop when Purvis commanded him to halt. One bullet went through his left side. Another tore into his back and came out just below his right eye. He dropped, his feet still on the sidewalk, his head in the alley. Purvis leaned over and spoke to Dillinger. There was no answer. Dillinger died five minutes later.
 
THE LADY IN RED - Dillinger, Anna Sage, 42, "The Lady in Red," her son Steve Chiolak, 23, and Polly Hamilton, 26, all lived together here in Sage's apartment at 2420 Halsted. It was from here that Dillinger and the two women walked to the Biograph Theater on July 22. Dillinger was a familiar figure in the neighborhood. He frequented the corner ice cream parlor and dined at the nearby Seminary restaurant.
 
MCGURN SLITS THROAT OF JOE E. LEWIS - On October 15, 1927, comedian Joe E. Lewis told the owner of the Green Mill Cafe that he was leaving to work at the New Rendezvous Cafe. The next day, gangster "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, part owner of the green Mill, met Joe outside the Commonwealth Hotel at 2757 Pine Grove Ave. where had Joe had lived for seven years, and told him "You'll never live to open." Joe grinned and told him, "I open on November 2, I'll reserve a table for you," then walked away.

About 10:15 on the morning of November 9, there was knock at the door of Lewis' 10th floor room here in the hotel. When Lewis opened the door, three men brushed past him and closed the door. One of the men hit Joe on the back of head with his gun, knocking him to the floor, where two men hammered his skull with the butt of their guns until he was unconscious. The third man pulled out a hunting knife and punched the blade into Joe's left jaw as far as he could, then ripped his throat from ear to ear. Then he sliced Joe's throat twelve more times.

Fifteen minutes later, Lewis was rushed to the Columbus Hospital three blocks away at 2548 .Lakeview. Surgery saved his live, but he lost his ability to speak. It was well known that the attack was ordered by "Machine Gun"Jack McGurn in retaliation of Joe's refusal to appear at McGurn's Green Mill night club.

UPDATE - Six days after Lewis was attacked, the thug who had sliced Lewis' throat, was found in a south side alley - shot to death. A few months later, the other two thugs were also found shot to death. Gangster Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, a friend of Lewis, lived on the eighth floor here at he time of the attack. In 1933, Dr. Harold Cassidy and Dr. Wilhelm Loeser were living here when they performed plastic surgery on the face of John Dillinger.
 
JOE E. LEWIS MAKES COMEBACK - On January 28th, less than eleven weeks after his throat was slashed, Joe E. Lewis opened again at the Rendezvous here at 622 Diversey while bodyguards stood on the roof across the street to protect him. The place was sold out. Ted Healy, of "Three Stooges" fame and Sophie Tucker canceled other engagements to be in the show with him.

UPDATE - In 1924, cornetist Bix Beiderbecke played here in the Charlie Straight band. He lived next door at the Rienzi Hotel. During this time, Louis Armstrong recorded some of his early records in the back room that was lined with burlap bags - it was called the "Potato-sack studio." Mugsy Spainer got started here in the band that played after 2 a.m., and Glenn Miller played here with the Ben Pollack Orchestra in 1925.
 
GANGSTER HOME - Gang leader Dion O'Bannon lived here in the Brewster Apartments at 2800 Pine Grove in 1929. O'Bannion also lived at 448 Surf at one time.
 
DILLINGER'S GIRLFRIEND - Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, girlfriend of John Dillinger was living here at 640 Wrightwood when police raided her apartment looking for Dillinger on March 15, 1993.
SON OF MA BARKER ARRESTED - Arthur "Doc" Barker, son of gang leader, "Ma" Barker, was arrested here in his apartment at 432 Surf on January 8, 1935.
 
DILLINGER PAL ARRESTED - Hilton Crouch, a member of the Dillinger gang was arrested in his apartment here at 420 Surf on December 23, 1933.
 
DILLINGER HIDEOUT - John Dillinger used an apartment here at 434 Wellington as a hideout after he escaped from the Crown Point, Indiana jail in 1933. He was living here with his girlfriend Evelyn Frechette.
 
HOME OF "BLOODY ANGELO" - Gangster "Bloody Angelo" Genna and his wife Lucille Spinola moved into the Belmont Hotel here at 3156-72 in 1925 after they were married. He was living here when he was shot and killed at the corner of Ogden and Hudson. Opera singer Mary Garden stayed here in the Belmont whenever she was in town.
MID NORTH
(Wrigley Field Area)
"UNTOUCHABLES" RAID CAPONE LIQUOR WAREHOUSE - In 1929, Elliot Ness and "The Untouchables," raided a garage here at 3419 N. Clark that Al Capone used to store his illegal liquor. Under a drainage outlet in the floor, they found a twelve-foot chamber that contained 100 cases of imported liquors worth $15,000.
 
THE LADY IN RED - Anna Sage, "The Lady in Red," lived here in an apartment at 3324 N. Clark in 1933. She also managed the Sheffield Hotel at 3504 N. Clark the same year.
 
DILLINGER HIDEOUT - John Dillinger, Harry Pierpont, and Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, hid out for a short time here in an apartment at 901 Addison in November of 1933.
 
CHICAGO'S TOP "26" GIRL MURDERED - On February 2, 1943, Estelle Carey, Chicago's richest and most famous "26 Girl," rolled snake eyes. The former ex-model was found murdered here in her third-floor, five-bedroom apartment at 512 W. Addison by firemen who came to put out a fire. She was naked except for a red housecoat that had been soaked with lighter fluid and set on fire. Evidence showed that she had been tortured with an ice pick, a knife, and brass knuckles. Her nose was broken, several of her teeth had been knocked out, and she had a cut across her throat that had been made with a razor. Estelle worked for her boy friend, syndicate big shot Nicky Dean. Dean and his friend Al Capone, owned the Yacht Club on Rush Street. Her killer has never been found. .
 
THE SWEETHEART OF CHICAGO - The Bismarck Gardens, a huge restaurant and beer hal, that featured European bands and 75-piece orchestras, was located at the southwest corner of Grace, Halsted, and Broadway in 1917. It featured European bands, 75-piece orchestras, outside dining with walks, bridges, trees, grass,and a miniature zoo. When WWI began, the name was changed to Marigold Gardens, a nightclub with floor shows.

Singing star Ruth Etting started her career here in 1919 as a chorus girl. In 1922, while married to gangster Moe "The Gimp" Snyder (she met Snyder here at the Gardens), she returned to the Marigold as a singing star, and was known as "The Sweetheart of Chicago".

Joe Louis fought one of his first fights here on July 4, 1934. Middleweight champ Tony Zale also fought here, as did Barney Ross. In 1942, Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, was a regular here at the fights.

UPDATE - The site is now a parking lot. The only thing left of the Gardens is the dance hall complex that has been converted to other uses. Ruth Etting went on to introduce the songs, Button Up Your Overcoat, Mean to Me, You're the Cream in My Coffee, Good Night Sweetheart, and Ten Cents a Dance. In 1955, Doris Day and James Cagney starred in the film "Love Me or Leave Me," the story of her life.
 
BUGS MORAN GAMBLING CLUB - George "Bugs" Moran and Julian "Potatoes" Kaufman opened the posh and elegant Sheridan Wave Tournament Club here at 653 Waveland on June 9, 1930. Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle owned 10 percent of the club. Two weeks before the club opened, Lingle demanded more - Moran refused. Lingle told him "If this joint is opened up, you're going to see more squad cars in front ready to raid it than you ever saw in your life." Two weeks later Lingle was dead. He was gunned down in the Loop on June 9, the day the club opened. (see the Loop section for details of the killing).
 
BUGS MORAN HANGOUT - The Wigwam Bar here in the Marigold Hotel at 817 Grace was a hangout for the "Bugs" Moran gang in the 1920s.
 
DION O'BANNION APARTMENT - Gangster O'Bannion and his wife Viola moved into an apartment here at 3600 Pine Grove after they were married on February 5, 1921. O'Bannion had a $15,000 piano in the living room.
 
1938 CUB HOME RUN CHAMP - During the 1930s, the Carlos Hotel here at 3834 Sheffield was the home of Chicago Cub player and home run champ Hack Wilson. Everytime he hit a home run, a local jeweler awarded him a wrist watch. Wilson would sit at the bar here and buy everyone drinks with the watches he received.
 
MA BARKER AND FBI SHOOT IT OUT - The Ma Barker -Alvin Karpis gang was hiding out here in an apartment at 3920 Pie Grove in January of 1935 when they had a gun battle with the FBI. One gang member was killed, another captured, but Ma and "Creepy Al" Karpis escaped.
 
MURDER MAN - "CATCH ME BEFORE I KILL MORE" - On December 10, 1945, William Heirens killed Francis Brown, 33, here in her apartment #611 in the Pine Crest Hotel at 3941 Pine Grove. Miss Brown was found draped over the edge of the bathtub face down with her legs parted, a long, slender knife had been driven straight through her throat from side to side and left in place. On the living room wall was a message written in lipstick: "For Heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself." In January of 1945, Heirens killed and cut up six-year-old Suzanne Degnan at 5943 Kenmore.
 
DILLINGER HANGOUT - John Dillinger hung out here at the Sheridan Billiard House at 3925 Sheridan in 1933.
 
DILLINGER'S MOUTHPIECE - Louis Piquett, Jon Dillinger's lawyer, died of a heart attack here in his apartment at 661 W. Sheridan on December 12, 1951. Piquet and his wife also lived in an apartment a6 659 Irving Park in 1934.
FAR NORTH
(Graceland Cemetery Area)
THE MURDER MAN STRIKES AGAIN - On June 5, 1945, William Heirens, 17, killed Josephine Ross, 43, here in her apartment #510 at 4108 Kenmore. While robbing her apartment, Miss Ross woke and began screaming, Heirens plunged a long, knife into her throat, slashing her from ear to ear. severing her windpipe, esophagus and main arteries. Offended by all the blood, he attempted to clean the blood from her body. Then he tried to bandage the gaping wound in her throat with small band-aids.
 
DILLINGER EMBALMED - After the FBI killed John Dillinger at the Biograph Theater in 1934, his body was taken to the county morgue where an autopsy was performed and his brain removed. The next day, Dillinger was brought here to the McCready Mortuary at 4506 N. Sheridan where he was embalmed. Thousands of people watched as the outlaw was carried into the building in a wicker basket. When Dillinger's father came here to pick up the body, a crowd of 5,000 watched as he was carried to the hearse.
 
DILLINGER'S FAVORITE HANGOUT - John Dillinger was introduced to one of his girlfriends, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette here in the Barrel O'Fun Tavern at 4541 Broadway in November of 1933. In June of 1934, he also met his last girlfriend, Polly Hamilton here. Hamilton, 26, was with Dillinger on the night he was killed at the Biograph Theater.
 
DILLINGER HIDEOUT - Dillinger and his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette, and gang member Harry Pierpont hid out here in a third-floor, six-room apartment at 4310 Clarendon in November of 1933. Dillinger also hid out in the apartment of Opal Long at 4631 Paulina in 1933.
 
DILLINGER'S GIRLFRIEND - Polly Hamilton, Dillinger's girlfriend worked here as a waitress in the S&S Sandwich Shop at 1209 Wilson in 1934. Dillinger would wait for her outside and make faces at her through the window trying to make her laugh.
 
DILLINGER PAL CAPTURED - Harry Copeland, a member of the Dillinger gang was arrested here in his apartment at 840 Montrose on November 17, 1933.
 
TWO-GUN LOUIE GUNNED DOWN - On the morning of July 18, 1935, when gangster Louie "Two-Gun" Alterie and his wife Irma were getting out of their car in front of their apartment here at 926 Eastland Terrace, shots rang out from a flat across the street at 927. Alterie fell to the sidewalk with a dozen slugs in his head, neck, and shoulder. He died a half hour later in Lakeview Hospital. Dion O'Bannion's principle killer gunman, "Two-Gun Louie" was shot down by the same technique he himself had used to perfection - by snipers with automatic guns from a flat across the street from his victim.
 
MCGURN'S GREEN MILL NIGHT CLUB - In October of 1927, comedian Joe E. Lewis worked here at the Green Mill Gardens at 4802 N. Broadway when he told co-owner, "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn that he was leaving. (See details of what happened to Lewis in the Dillinger neighborhood section near the top of this page).
Singer Texas Guinan appeared here in the late 1920s. The offices of Dr. Harold Cassidy and Dr. Eye were located here above the Green Mill. The two performed plastic surgery on John Dillinger in 1934. The Green Mill is still open today.
 
GRACELAND CEMETERY
 4001 N. Clark
Phillip Armour - Founder of the Armour meat company. In the middle of the east part of the Ridgeland Section, across the road from the lake.
Vincent Bendix. Founder of the Bendix aviation and appliance company.
Inez Clark. When six-year-old Inez Clark died in 1880, her parents had a life-sized marble statue of her placed on her grave. Later, the statue was sealed inside a thick, transparent Plexiglas box to protect it. According to legend, a watchman, while walking by her grave one night, saw that the box was empty - her statue was gone. the next morning, the little statue was back inside the glass box. Other persons have reported seeing a little girl wandering through the cemetery wearing a 19th-century dress. The statue is in almost perfect condition even though it is almost 120 years old.
Marshall Field. Founder of the Marshall Field department store. Four generations of Fields are buried here including his only son, Marshall Field Jr., who accidentally shot and killed himself at age 37. The Fields plot is near the middle of the Ridgeland Section.
Bob Fitzsimmons. The first black World's heavyweight champion, Johnson was killed in 1915 in a car accident. His headstone reads: "Johnson is Terrible Shape." He is in the southeast corner of the Bellevue Section..
Carrie Getty - The Getty mausoleum was built in 1890 by Henry Getty for his wife Carrie. The tomb is a designated Chicago architectural landmark. It was designed by famous architect, Louis Sullivan, who is also buried here in the cemetery., The Getty mausoleum is in the Ridgeland Section on the west side of the lake.
Carter Harrison. Mayor Harrison was assassinated in 1893 in his home on south Ashland Ave. He is in the northeast part of Section G, near the road.
William Hulbert - He founded the baseball National League. His monument is a large granite baseball in the south part of Section E -F.
Jack Johnson. World's heavyweight champion in 1897-99. He is in Section 12, near the east wall, across the road from the south end of the Bellevue Section.
William Kimball. Founder of the Kimball Piano Company. He is in the west side of the Lakeside Section, near the road and across the road from the southeast corner of the lake
John Kinzie. He was the first white settler in Chicago. In Section A, directly across from the "Death."statue.
Cyrus McCormick. Inventor of the farm reaper. An angry-faced man with a hair-trigger temper, McCormick wore a size 55 suit. His favorite food was milk and mush.
Walter Newberry. When Newberry, a wealthy Chicago banker died aboard a ship while going to Europe in 1868, his body was shipped back to Chicago in a barrel of rum. The barrel, with Newberry still inside, was rolled to this site and buried. Also buried in the Newberry plot are his three infant children, his 23-year-old daughter Mary Louise, and his wife Julia. The Newberry Library on Walton Street was built with the Newberry millions. In the northwest part of section D near the road across from section G. (For more on the tragic Newberry family, see the River North - Rush Street Area).
Potter and Bertha Palmer. The Palmers were the leaders of Chicago's society in the late 1890s Palmer was owner of the famous Palmer House Hotel. The burial scene from the movie "Damien-Omen II" was filmed just north of the Palmer monument in 6 Wiilowmere Lake.
Allan Pinkerton. The world's first "Private Eye" and founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He is surrounded by his family, several of his employees, also Timothy Webster, a bodyguard for Abraham Lincoln, who was hanged as a Union spy during the Civil War, Kate Warn, the first woman detective, and Joseph Whichner who was killed while chasing Jesse James. He is in the north end of Section C near the road.
George Pullman. Inventor and builder of the Pullman railroad car sleeper. When Pullman died in 1897, his funeral was held in his mansion on Prairie Avenue under heavy guard, and his body was brought here during the night. Afraid that his body might be kidnapped, Pullman ordered his coffin wrapped in tar paper and bolted with steel bolts, and embedded in a room-sized chamber filled with concrete and topped with bolted steel rails.
He left an estate of over $17 million, of which he willed only $3,000 per year to his twin sons. He once fired an employee for throwing a piece of paper on a street of his town of Pullman. He bought water from the city Chicago for five cents per 1000 gallons and sold it to his employees for ten cents. He is in the northeast corner of the Fairlawn Section, across the road from the lake.
Louis Sullivan. Recognized as the father of Chicago architecture, he designed many of Chicago's skyscrapers, as well as the Getty and Martin Ryerson mausoleums here in the cemetery. Sullivan died an alcoholic in a back room of a cheap hotel, owning only a single suit of clothes and his drawing board. He was buried here by the charity of a few friends including Frank Lloyd Wright. He lies behind his monument, in the Lakeside Section, to the right of the Kimball grave.
FAR NORTH
 (Uptown Area)
ROGER "THE TERRIBLE" CAPTURED - When gangsters Roger "The Terrible" Touhy, Basil "The Owl" Banghart, and Edward Darlak, escaped from the Joliet prison in December of 1942, they moved into an apartment here at 5116 Kenmore. When the FBI learned they were here, J. Edgar Hoover himself stood in the alley in back of the building with a portable public-address system and demanded that they come out with their hands up. Minutes later, the three fugitives meekly surrendered.
 
DILLINGER CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY - John Dillinger and his girlfriend Polly Hamilton, celebrated his thirty-first birthday here in the French Casino Club at 4812 Clark. on June 21, 1934. Polly was with Dillinger at the Biograph Theater when he was killed on June 22. In 1940, Mike Todd opened Michael Todd's Theater Cafe here in the former French Casino. It was the world's largest night club.
 
GLENN MILLER APARTMENT - Band leader Glen Miller lived here in the Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel at 5550 Kenmore in 1924 while playing with the Ben Pollack Orchestra.
 
DILLINGER GANG HIDEOUT - Dillinger gang members John "Red"Hamilton and John Burns hid out here in an apartment at 1343 Argyle in 1933. Gang member Harry Pierpont hid out here in an apartment at 5510 Winthrop in 1933.
 
DILLINGER GANG KILLS FBI AGENT - When Dillinger gang member John "Red" Hamilton came to pick up his green roadster here in a garage at 5320 Broadway on December 14, 1933, he was met by he FBI, and in the gunfight that followed, he shot and killed FBI agent William Stanley.
 
THE LADY IN RED - Anna Sage, "The Lady in Red," once lived here in an apartment at 5542 Winthrop in 1933.
 
GIRLFRIEND OF NATHAN LEOPOLD - On June 2, 1923, just days after Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb committed the "Crime of the Century" when they murdered eleven-year-old Bobby Franks, Leopold picked up his girlfriend Susan Lurie here at her home at 923 Margate Terrace and took her to lunch.
FAR NORTH
 (Bryn Mawr-Devon Area)
THE MURDER MAN KIDNAPS AND CUTS UP SIX-YEAR-OLD - At one o'clock in the morning of Monday, January 7, 1946, William Heirens, 17, kidnapped little six-year-old Suzanne Degnan from her first floor bedroom at 5943 Kenmore. He carried the girl down the alley where he broke into a basement laundry room at the back of 5901-03 Winthrop. Placing here body into a laundry sink, he dissected her body with his hunting knife.

After he had cut off her head, arms, and legs, he placed the pieces in a laundry tub and carefully washed the blood off of them. Putting pieces into shopping bags, he made several trips from the basement and disposed of the body parts in several sewers in the area.

The next day, police found her head in a sewer between the backs of 5900 and 5860 Kenmore, and a right leg and buttocks in a sewer behind 5838 Kenmore. In a catch basin in the alley behind 5907 Kenmore, they found Suzanne's left leg. Her torso was found in a catch basin at the corner of the same alley's intersection with Ardmore.

UPDATE - Heirens was arrested on June 26, 1946. Sentenced to life in prison, Heirens, now 71, is still in the Marion, Illinois federal prison. The building where Suzanne was kidnapped from, was built as the mansion for a man named Murphy. Murphy was the inventor of the Murphy In-a-Door bed.
 
HOME OF GANG LEADER - Two months after gang leader Dion O'Bannion and Viola Kaniff got married in 1921, they moved into an apartment here at 6081 Ridge.
 
ROSEHILL CEMETERY
 5800 Ravenswood
Lizzie Allen (Ellen Williams). Lizzie came to Chicago in 1858 when she was18 and worked as a prostitute on the southside. In 1888, she built a mansion at 2131 South Dearborn, opened a brothel named the "House of Mirrors" and hired the Everleigh sisters to run it. When Lizzie died on September 2, 1896, the Everleigh's took over the "House of Mirrors" and turned it into the most famous house of prostitution in the world. With the Everleigh sisters in attendance, she was buried here under a tombstone that read: "Perpetual Care."
Jack Brickhouse. Former announcer for the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Bobby Franks. The 14-year-old was the victim of the "Crime of the Century," when he was murdered by Leopold and Loeb in 1924. He is in the mausoleum.
Oscar Mayer. Founder of Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
Julius Rosenwald. Former president of Sears Roebuck, neighbor and close family friend of Bobby Franks.
Reinhardt Schwimmer. An optometrist, he was killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929.
Richard Sears. Founder of Sears Roebuck. He is in compartment H in the Community Mausoleum.
Montgomery Ward. Founder of Montgomery Ward's. He is in the Community Mausoleum.
FAR NORTH
 (Rogers Park Area)
MURDER MAN CAPTURED - On the evening of June 1946, a young man was captured here in the backyard at 1320 W. Farwell, while trying to burglarize an apartment. An off-duty policeman knocked him out by hitting on the head with a flower pot. He was identified as William Heirens, 17. Heirens later confessed to the murder of little six-year-old Suzanne Degnan on January 7, 1946 (See details of the murder in the Bryn Mawr-Devon section above).
 
HOME OF THE MURDER MAN - William Heirens, killer of little six-year-old Suzanne Degnan, was living here in his parents home at 4175 Touhy when he was captured in 1946.
 
DILLINGER GANG MEMBERS KILLED - Three gunmen, two of them fugitive bank robber suspects, were shot and killed here in their apartment at 1428 Farwell, during a gun battle with police. The raid was staged by twenty expert police marksmen. Firing their submachine guns, they stormed the apartment which they believed was the hideout of John Dillinger and his gang. When the shooting ended, the bullet-torn bodies of the men were found on floor of a room that resembled an arsenal. There were three machine guns, six shotguns, and twenty bullet-proof vest.
 
DILLINGER GIRLFRIEND JUMPS TO HER DEATH - Peggy Doyle, a girlfriend of John Dillinger, killed herself by jumping from a third floor window here at 1648 W. Lunt on August 17, 1934.
 
GRAVE OF CHARLES COMISKEY - Comiskey, former owner of the Chicago White Sox, is buried here at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery at 301 Chicago Ave. in Evanston.

 

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