The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee Review

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The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee ReviewThis is a brisk and entertaining account of the infamous career of Big Jim Colosimo, an influential political fixer, restauranteur and career criminal who was murdered shortly after the start of the Prohibition Era. Colosimo preceded Johnny Torrio and Al Capone as one of the top racketeers in Chicago. His celebrated restaurant and night club was unique in that served patrons from all classes of society, professional athletes, crooks, celebrities, politicians and elite members of the city's social register alike.
Jim Colosimo rose to power as a leader of Chicago's sanitation workers and as a top precinct captain for the notorious political bosses of the 1st Ward, Democratic aldermen "Bathhouse John" Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Colosimo and his first wife, Victoria, owned and operated numerous lucrative brothels in the infamous Levee district. During elections, Colosimo turned out the pimps, cadets and whores to deliver their votes to the political machine. He was on good terms with the Everleigh sisters and collected payoffs from various Levee resort operators to be divided with the politicians and the police.
The key problem that I found in reading this book was that so much of the political and election data supplied in the text was clearly erroneous. I would have given this book a better rating if not for these errors: State's Attorney John Wayman did not conduct vice raids in the Levee as a prelude for a run for governor in 1913 (he had been an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1912 which was held months before the raids began in earnest); "Big Bill" Thompson was not the incumbent alderman of the 2nd Ward when he ran for mayor in 1915 (he had served in the city council more than a decade earlier) and he was not encouraged to make the mayoral race by Carter Harrison's decision to retire (Harrison was a mayoral candidate in 1915, but lost to County Clerk Robert Sweitzer in the nominating primary); Thompson testified on behalf of his former campaign manager, Fred "Poor Swede" Lundin, during the latter's trial for orchestrating corruption and wasteful spending at the Chicago Board of Education, but Thompson was not under indictment as a criminal defendant charged with participating in this particular scandal; William E. Dever defeated Arthur C. Lueder in the 1923 mayoral race (Thompson was not a candidate that year). Political events are an intregal part of the Colosimo story, but the book is quite careless in supplying the necessary details correctly.
The errors that I have referred to are merely a sampling of the mistakes to be found in the otherwise enjoyable text. There are several more, but space does not permit me to list all of the non sequiturs. One final example will suffice. According to the glossary, the Volstead Act was the popular name for the 13th Amendment which ushered in the legal prohibition of alcohol in the USA. In fact, the Volstead Act (the bill was named for its Congressional sponsor, US Representative Andrew J. Volstead of Minnesota) was the legislation that implemented the 18th Amendment; the 13th Amendment was passed during the Reconstruction era and formally abolished slavery in the United States immediately after the conclusion of the Civil War.
There is some good information in this book (the material related to Colosimo's second marriage to Dale Winters, his officially unsolved murder and his lavish funeral is well handled), but the presence of so many historical errors prevents me from rating the book as definitive.The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee Overview

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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone Review

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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone ReviewIf you enjoy books that have 1001 points of trivia in them, you'll love this. It's jam packed with facts. It's clear the authors researched exhaustively.
For me it was exhausting, too. Some true crime books have a tendency to deteriorate into an spider web of tangentially related facts and read like reports instead of narratives. This is one of them. I now know the street addresses of dozens of gangsters, a dozen pseudonyms for each as well as multiple spelling variants for those pseudonyms. I know the names of relatives. I know the names of various reporters and photographers and the paths they took to the crime scene. We got a seeming word for word recital of every meeting of the coroner's investigation, were told which meetings got postponed and by whom, were informed of the several addresses they were held at and even the exact room numbers. We got a roll call of who was present. After slogging through pages and pages of testimony that to me seemed banal and utterly uninformative, the author sums it up by declaring that the coroner's investigation yielded nothing much of interest.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. So why did we get the blow by blow instead of the few leads that actually contributed to the investigation? Why did we hear about every dead end in detail, only to be informed that... it was indeed a dead end.
And yet, with all that information, as another reviewer pointed out, Bugs Moran and the other North Siders were glossed over.
So that's my take on it. If you are fond of books that are like tossed salads of facts, this is your kind of book. It's a trivia lover's dream. If you like an author to sift out the important details and give you a sequential, streamlined narrative (that's me) this book will drag.The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone Overview

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Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife Review

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Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife ReviewLike gangster Gus Winkeler, this book is a real killer. William Helmer, who has been one of the true experts on Prohibition-era crime for four decades, hits the mark again with a well-crafted, beautifully written and researched work. Helmer rescued Georgette Winkeler's intimate memoir from FBI files and subsequently brought to light a wealth of first-hand knowledge that names the four shooters of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, who were not the usual suspects in Chicago, but imported, fresh faces, mostly from Saint Louis - now known as "The American Boys." Moreover, he has illuminated August "Gus" Winkeler, who stayed in the city after the killings in the Clark Street garage on Feb. 14th, 1929 to become a force in the Outfit until his own death in 1933.
Winkeler's widow, a shattered but nevertheless cogent and credible witness, wrote her rather dynamic manuscript after her husband's murder at the hands of the Nitti-run mob. Helmer, who in 2004 with Art Bilek wrote "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre - The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone," (another must read) has completed the historical deconstruction of the denouement of the Chicago Outfit of the 1920's with this latest treatise. Along with Georgette's recollections, Helmer has basically tied up the post-massacre gangland years with a culminating addendum of all the relevant players who have become household names, including Capone, Frank Nitti, and the rest of the infamous crowd who made Chicago rumble. Of all of the journalists who have taken on this epic, Helmer has added to his forty-years of contributions with his best and most revealing efforts in this book, defining the profile of the true historian.
For those of us who never get enough of the elusive truth and who ourselves research those hypnotic times, this book is, simply put, pure pleasure. Georgette's memory of seeing her husband and the other American Boys parading around in their Chicago Police costumes before mowing down George "Bugs" Moran's men in 1929, is the most scintillating solution imaginable to one of the world-changing crimes of the 20th century. Along with his 1969 history of the machine-gun (The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar) and his almanac of public enemies (co-written with the late, great gangsterologist Rick Mattix), William Helmer has once again proven himself as a premier authority on the Prohibition decade. This is an elegant book (buy it in hardcover - it's beautiful) issued by the University of Indiana Press, with no stone left unturned. I admit to being a great Helmer admirer; however, as a researcher myself, I must also say that he sets the standard for all of us. I give this one an unabashed five stars, but it deserves six. It is more fun than a barrel of booze.Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife Overview

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Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone Review

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Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone ReviewEven though I have read numerous other books on Chicago's infamous past during the prohibition years I found Rose Keefe's effort entitled Guns and Roses to be another fascinating read which is primarily devoted to Al Capone's North Side rivals. O'Banion's loss of his mother at an early age and subsequent move to a seedy section of Chicago contributed to Dean's alliance with the city's criminal element. The warring parties were driven by greed in invading each other's assigned territory during the beer wars. After the assassination of O'Banion in his florist shop in 1924 a number of his friends (Weiss, Drucci, and Moran) all had short terms heading the North Side mob. Weiss and Drucci being shot and Moran having his gang virtually wiped out at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929. If you have read other books on this subject you can prepare yourself to enjoy yet another offering on the subject with this book. In addition, this book has photographs I have not seen in other books. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone Overview

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The gang: A study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago Review

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The gang: A study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago ReviewThis landmark 1927 book by sociologist Frederick Milton Thrasher of the University of Chicago was considered a classic of its time. We read it for a college class, and it was pretty interesting despite a somewhat academic style. Thrasher illustrates the lifestyles of Chicago's then 1,300 street gangs (today it's about 200), most of whose members were of white immigrant stock (today its largely blacks and Latino's). As the author makes clear, 1920's gang members were known for toughness and delinquency. Still, the gangs of the 1920's weren't nationally affiliated, nor were they heavily into guns and illegal drug sales. It also seems that gang members of the 1920's were mostly teenagers - today many are well into adulthood.
This book was updated in 1963, and today there is an award in the author's name (set up in 1992) to honor leadership in the fight to make our society safer from violent gangs.
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Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone Review

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Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone ReviewNo, it wasn't Eliot Ness and his "Untouchables" who brought down Al Capone. It was Internal Revenue agents led by Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson and aided and abbetted by the Chicago Crime Commission and its vigilante arm, the "Secret Six." Professor Hoffman presents us here with a well-documented, and highly readable account of the victory of Uncle Sam and Chicago over America's first major crime lord. Forget The Untouchables. This is the truth.Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone Overview

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Dead Lee's Guide To Haunted Chicago Review

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Dead Lee's Guide To Haunted Chicago ReviewThis is by far the largest entry into the Haunted Chicago Legacy and has been years in the making...literally. While writing this book I called it the beast and was it ever. The final version contains 88 stories and the print version is 421 pages. I literally rewrote each and every tale from scratch and updated each one with tons of brand new and updated material.
This beast will be the last Haunted Chicago book I write for a very long time...no, I'm not out of ghosts, I'm just tired of writing them and want to write something else for a while. Don't worry, I will come back to it down the road.
This and the other Haunted Chicago title are my first attempts at an ebook, so for give me if they're not up to your standards. I have learned quite a lot since they were released and I have a feeling that the next ebook will be better.Dead Lee's Guide To Haunted Chicago Overview

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The Gambler King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) Review

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The Gambler King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) ReviewThe book shows how the Chicago Democratic Party of the 1870s was beholden to tavern owners, who wished to stop legislation that would close them on Sundays, and brothel owners who sought a lack of police enforcement. The Democratic Party also found support from laborers who patronized these establishments. The use of patronage built a political electoral machine. Thus, the leader of Chicago's Democratic Party, Mike McDonald, was seen as a protector of criminal activity.
Nationally, Martin Van Buren helped create a Democratic Party that appealed to Irish immigrants, freeholders, and rural yeomen.
Mike McDonald's travel agency was a front for gambling. A number of pro-Southern Copperheads plotted to liberate about 8,000 Confederate soldiers from a prisoner of war camp. Many of the plotters later became leaders of Chicago's Democratic Party. It is unknown in McDonald was involved or not, except he was friends with the plotters.
Joseph Medill was elected Mayor in 1871. He got the legislature to increase gambling penalties. The Police Superintendent was removed for his hesitancy to close gambling establishments. Elmer Washburn became the new Superintendent. McDonald's establishment was among those raided by the newly aggressive police. Washburn was an outsider distrusted by local police officers. The Police Commission fired him in 1873 claiming he made unauthorized raids. Illegal activities resumed operating un-raided. Mayor Medill suddenly resigned and left town right before it was disclosed over half a million dollars of city funds were diverted by Democratic City Treasurer Dave Gage to personal accounts. Political opponents spread a rumor that Medill was a coward who left to avoid a possible cholera outbreak. For here, a half century of strong machine and police corruption emerged that allowed illegal ventures to operation.
In 1886, it became legal to use taverns as polling locations. Bartenders in 8,000 taverns were deputized to naturalize foreign residents. Foreign residents were given a free meal, gambling chips, and instructions on how to vote. Voters received free beer. Groups of people went from polling place to polling place for free beer and multiple voting.
Jacob Rehm became Police Superintendent. He favored minimal enforcement of gambling laws in areas where the Democratic Party wanted the police to ignore. The leadership of Chicago no longer was controlled, as it had been in the past, by upper class, high moral Republican Party Puritan-ists.
McDonald, who had supported Democrat Horatio Seymore over RepublicanUlysses Grant, switched to support President Grant's reelection in 1872. In doing so, Democrat McDonald greatly influenced Federal jobs patronage during a Republican Administration.
McDonald supported Perry Smith for Mayor in 1877. Mayor Heath had named Michael Hickes as Police Chief. Hickes sought to drive illegal gambling operations, especially McDonald's. McDonald closed his gambling operations for awhile. Hickes, though, looked the other way in letting vice operations remain. Citizens upset over this sought to oust Heath and Hickes. Smith ran on education reform issues. Heath won by 11,000 votes. McDonald though had enough pull to get City Council to reject Hickes's reappointment by 22 to 11.
The McDonald machine rigged bids to overpay friends. It even rigged grand juries Bribes won public contracts. Some stole from each other. The private banks were made public. A few people were charged with crimes but were acquitted.
McDonald introduced the Lundberg Process, or a 13 year courthouse operation. It was noted for shoddy repairs of crumbling limestone. A fire demonstrated the building was not properly fireproofed and a person died. A whole new building was proposed by planner Daniel Burnham, which was built from 1906 to 1908 and still stands.
McDonald supported Carter Harrison for Mayor in 1879. Harrison ignored McDonald's illegal campaign activities yet had an independent streak. He disagreed with McDonald over appointment and which candidates to support. Plus, Harrison sometime supported raising gambling parlors. McDonald was fine with raiding competing gambling houses and running them out of town.
McDonald and some business friends paid bribes to a corporation counsel and alderman for exclusive building rights along a West Lake Street elevated line. The bribery scheme went before a grand jury that about 13 Aldermen had been bought. No indictments resulted.
By 1885, the Cook County Board of Commissioners was composed of McDonald's friends. Private companies paid Commissioners in order to be selected for contracts. A grand jury looked into these abuses. Once again, there was not enough evidence for an indictment for McDonald.
Reformers won brief control of the Cook County Commissioners. Yet the city government remained corrupt, a state that continued for many decades.
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After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" Review

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After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" ReviewIn a way the title of After Capone is misleading. This work not only covers history after Capone's exit from the Chicago Outfit, but deals with the early history of the Chicago Mob as well. Mars Eghigian has done an awesome job with this first bio of Frank Nitti. Everything to the last detail has been carefully researched and noted. He has utilized primary source records that others have neglected, such as actual court transcripts, birth, death and marriage records, immigration records, city directories and of course, all of the major Chicago newspapers to write the definite work on the life and death of Al Capone's successor. Not only that, but the prose maintains the reader's attention. This is a book that no historian of organized crime and Chicago history can do without. Researchers can thank Eghigian for having done a wonderful service.After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" Overview

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Chicago Assassin: The Life and Legend of Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and the Chicago Beer Wars of the Roaring Twenties" Review

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Chicago Assassin: The Life and Legend of Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and the Chicago Beer Wars of the Roaring Twenties" ReviewVincenzo Gibaldi was born in Licata, Sicily to loving parents who wanted a better life for him, and brought him to the United States. However, after first his father and then his loving step-father were killed in gangland hits, something in Vincenzo snapped. Taking on his boxing name of Jack McGurn as his nom de guerre, he became an assassin par excellence, and rose to be one of Al Capone's lieutenants. However, after rising to dizzying heights of fame and wealth, Jack McGurn fell far and fell fast, until he too became just another victim of Chicago violence. This is the story of the brutal rise and brutal fall of one of America's top gunmen - "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn.
Overall, I did not know what to expect when I picked this book up. Having grown up in Chicago, I had heard about "Scarface" Al Capone, "Bugs" Moran, "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, "Hymie" Weiss, and all of the other famous mobsters. But, I must say that this book surprised me with its excellence. The author does a great job of bringing that era to life, and really letting you get a good understanding of the people involved and what they did.
There's never a dull moment in this book, as the author eschewed the temptation to pad out the narrative, making a great medium-sized book into a tedious big book. Plus, I liked the many black-and-white pictures included, and the final chapter that answers the question, "Whatever became of...?" This is a great book on Jack McGurn, and Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. If you want to read the best book on this subject, then take it from this Chicagoan, and get Chicago Assassin by Richard J. Shmelter.Chicago Assassin: The Life and Legend of Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and the Chicago Beer Wars of the Roaring Twenties" Overview

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Chicago Ghosts Review

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Chicago Ghosts ReviewLoved this book. Lots of great stories about ghosts and hauntings in Chicago and many of the suburbs. Some of my favorites included in this book are Resurrection Mary, Al Capone and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, the Gate, Cuba Road, and La Llorona. There are a ton more stories in the book, and they're all worth checking out.Chicago Ghosts Overview

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Historic Photos of Chicago Crime: The Capone Era (Historic Photos) Review

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Historic Photos of Chicago Crime: The Capone Era (Historic Photos) ReviewI didn't even know about this book until I stumbled upon it. If you are a gangster/Chicago history buff, then this book is a must have! I applaude Mr. Russick for his efforts and kudos to the Chicago History museum for graciously letting him put out a book on some of their great shots. Many rare unseen photos.
I'm sure they have many more in storage and it would be great to see them in a possible second volume? Hopefully to include many other missing Chicago gangsters such as O'Banion, Mossy Enright,Lombardo, Lolordo,Merlo, Ammatuna, Drucci, Gusenbergs and more photos on the Gennas, Moran, O'Donnells.
The only minor irritants to this book are mislabelled or erroneous captions, which is not at all the fault of Mr. Russick, but is more a case of the Chicago History museum not expanding and correcting the original erroneous photo descriptions, which are now mistakenly accepted as fact.
Examples are; Page 135, Hymie Weiss lying dead on the ground, in actuality it is the body of Patrick Murray. Hymie Weiss died enroute to Henrotin hospital and his body wasn't left there to be photographed at the scene. On page 136, there is mention of a crowd gathered at the scene of Hymie Weiss' murder, when in fact, it's a crowd gathered outside Sbarbaro's funeral home. Hymie Weiss was killed in front of Holy Name Cathederal. Page 140 photo of Hymie Weiss' widow. Records show Hymie Weiss was never married to Montreal born Josephine Simard,which is why she lost her bid to acquire his estate.
Other typos are Frankie Yale being killed in 1927.(Frank Yale was killed in 1928). The caption for Anselmi and Scalise state them being the killers of Frankie Yale, when in fact, Al Capone had sent out his American boys( Burke, Goetz, Winkeler) along with Louis "Little New York" Campagna in tow as a directions expert in the New York city area. Scalise and Anselmi would have been like fish out of water in New York.
Page 145 has Jack Zuta's photo caption of him being killed in 1931.(He was killed in 1930).
Okay! okay! Maybe I'm too much of a damn stickler for details!! But don't let my little found errors dissuade you at all from getting this book.
It's a total feast for the eyes, especially if you love Chicago. A great book and a must have! I'm glad it's in my collection.
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For Members Only: A History And Guide to Chicago's Oldest Private Clubs Review

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For Members Only: A History And Guide to Chicago's Oldest Private Clubs ReviewOne could walk down a Chicago street and pass many of them, never knowing they passed an important part of Chicago's history. Knowledgeably compiled and expertly written by Lisa Holton, "For Members Only: A History and Guide to Chicago's Oldest Private Clubs" looks at over a century of secrecy and how it is not always a bad thing. Identifying these clubs and their contributions, examining how they were formed, and revealing how they exist in the modern world which frowns on exclusionary practices, "For Members Only" a solidly informative and educational study. Highly recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in American History in general, and the city of Chicago in particular, "For Members Only" is a great piece of history and a welcome addition to library reference collections.
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Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America Series) Review

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Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America Series) ReviewThis is a valuable addition to the materials contained in the recent biograpy of Governor Len Small, "Governors and Gangsters" by Jim Ridings. While the the title refers to the Roaring Twenties, in truth, the photo selections cover almost a full century of Illinois political corruption at the state capital. Some notorious Chicago politicians are included as well.
The vintage photographs include a few familiar ones, but what I enjoyed most of all were the many rarer and more revealing pictures that the author chose to incorporate into this book. Space limitations must have caused some of these photos to be omitted from the biography of Small, who was one of the most corrupt public officials imagineable. Naturally enough, Small never spent a day in prison. He even stood accused of stealing the silver from the Executive Mansion in Springfield when his term expired!
The photos are accompanied by brief chapter summaries and captions that will assist the reader even if you have not looked at the Small biography yet. Every Illinois citizen and voter ought to read the biography as a civics lesson!Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America Series) Overview

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The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) Review

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The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) ReviewI enjoyed reading this book, but it was written some time ago. The original copyright is 1940. In fact, it was written at a time when investigative journalism was still colored by the author's blatant opinions, details considered too gruesome were left out (although there are some), and fact and fiction blended without too much trouble.
It covers the time from the Chicago area's first settlement up to about the time of prohibition, but gang activity during prohibition is not a huge part of the book.
The problem with this edition of the book is that my copy was missing a significant section. Pages 187-218 were missing and they hadn't just fallen out. If they had fallen out, there would be a gap on the paperback's spine. There is none, so I would say there was an error at the printer's. My copy abruptly stops toward the end of the story of H.H. Holmes, the World's Fair serial killer, and then goes 30+ pages ahead, picking up at the end of the story of Buff Higgins. I have no idea what subject matter is missing, only that my page numbers skip and there is no continuity.
If you do get this book, check those pages immediately to see if my experience was isolated or there was a problem with the entire print run.The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) Overview

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Historic Photos of Chicago Review

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Historic Photos of Chicago ReviewThis beautiful book is a product of the Chicago History Museum, showcasing many excellent pictures from throughout Chicago's history. The pictures are arranged chronologically, all of them black-and-white, and all of them sharp and interesting to look at. Every subject is covered here - Chicago statesmen and famous celebrities, great disasters (the Great Fire and the Eastland disaster), famous landmarks, and even common people.
This is a great book, one that I am really glad to have found. The pictures are all crystal clear, and have short and well-written captions. I am a fan of history and genealogy, and as such, I love seeing the sites that were looked upon by my parents, and their parents, and their parents before them. I love this book, and give it my highest recommendations!Historic Photos of Chicago Overview

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