Chicago, Illinois, has a long history of organized crime and was famously home to the American mafia figure Al Capone. This article contains a list of major events related to organized crime.
Events – timeline
1830s 1837 – Chicago became incorporated as a city.Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 8
1850s 1850 – Chicago had a population of 80,000 people, but the city had no police force, only nine "watch marshals".Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 10 1855 – The city had a bare-bones police force. 1850s (late) – Because Chicago was built over a swamp, mud constantly oozed from beneath the city's wooden streets. It was decided the whole city would be mudjacked 10 feet (3 metres) and the city would rest on stilts, with stones at the base. This led to the beginning of the free-wheeling crime sub-culture that overtook Chicago. After the city was raised, criminals in the area began practicing their trades in rooms and tunnels beneath the city. English immigrant Roger Plant, who ran a brothel in the Chicago netherworld called "Under the Willows", became the chief of this criminal underworld.Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), pp. 9, 10 August 20, 1858 – Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, one of the two "Lords of the Levee", was born.
1860s 1860 – Chicago's mayor, John "Long John" Wentworth, serving two non-consecutive two-year terms, reduced his police force to 60 officers. Criminals from other states moved to the city's "underworld". August 15, 1860 – John "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, the second of the "Lords of the Levee", was born. 1868 - Sometime after the Civil War, gambler Michael Cassius McDonald moved to the city and later became what some consider Chicago's "first true crime lord". He began to appear in the newspapers of Chicago as early as November 1868, when The Chicago Tribune reported his arrest, along with national billiards champion John McDevitt and two other gamblers, for criminal conspiracy and the running of gambling dens after having apparently fleeced an intoxicated man out of more than $400 while playing faro."Billiards and Faro: The Champion McDevitt, and Three Gamblers Arrested for Conspiracy," The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13, 1868; "Faro and Billiards: Partial Examination of McDevitt, Page, McDonald and Swift," The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 14, 1868.
1870s October 8, 1871 – Much of the city's population lost everything, including for 300 people their lives, to the Great Chicago Fire that lasted 36 hours and brought rampant looting.Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 11 1879 – Michael Cassius McDonald, lived in the midst of what was called "Hair-Trigger Block," was a gambling kingpin who understood the power of a bribe. Also politically motivated, he brought his underworld friends and associates together to form "McDonald's Democrats" and got Carter Harrison IV elected as mayor. McDonald gained control of all of Chicago and the State of Indiana's bookmaking rights. His gambling joint, "The Store", was considered by some, whom the author of the book doesn't name, to be Chicago's, "unofficial City Hall". McDonald and his men are credited with the term: "Syndicate", because of the gang's "crime consortium".Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), pp. 10, 11
1880s 1882 – Michael "Hinkey Dink" Kenna opened a saloon in the 1st ward. 1882 – Chicago Police Chief William McGarigle, in the pay of Chicago crime lord Michael Cassius McDonald, was indicted for graft and later fled to Canada. 1882? – John "Mushmouth" Johnson opened the Emporium Saloon and gambling establishment, began his reign as Chicago's first South Side Policy racket king.John "Mushmouth" Johnson and the Policy Racket
1890s 1890s – The under-manned city police department totalled 1,100 officers, for a 2.1 million population with "more than a dozen" vice districts.Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), pp. 11, 12 1890s – The Valley Gang formed in the city, beginning with pickpocketing and armed robbery. August 21, 1891One reference notes as late as 1893; Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 252, 253 – Born in this year in Minnesota, future North Side Gang boss through gangland attrition George "Bugs" Moran grew up on Chicago's North Side. He and another North Side Gang boss-to-be, Dion O'Banion, became childhood friends. Moran "had committed 26 known robberies" and "served three incarcerations" before age 21. He hated the city's flesh trade and regularly attended church.Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 252, 253 1892 – Born in this year, future North Side Gang leader Dion O'Banion was raised on Chicago's Near North Side, in "Little Hell", a section of the city that was later used to build the Cabrini-Green housing project, now demolished to make way for urban renewal. O'Banion was a street tough, working for the Chicago Tribune, then Hearst newspapers, threatening and terrorizing those who sold competitors' newspapers. It is speculated that O'Banion committed more than 60 murders in his lifetime.Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 278–280Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 28 April 5, 1892 – "Bathhouse John" Coughlin was elected a First Ward alderman."Bathhouse John" Coughlin and Michael "Hinkey Dink" Kenna 1893 – Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna – "Lords of the Levee" – "form an alliance", ruling the First Ward, which, commercially, was the "most important ward in the city" until 1992, when the districts were redrawn.Roemer, William F. Jr., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, Ivy Books (1995), pp. 20–23 1893 – Chicago's South Side Levee District opened for business to serve customers who weren't only in the city for the World's Columbian Exposition. Business for brothel owners such as black madam Vina Fields boomed, allowing her to employ sixty women while giving meals daily to those unemployed by the Panic of 1893 1894 – Frank Brunell founded The Daily Racing Form in Chicago. 1895 – Unione Siciliane was created in New York City in the 1880s as a fraternal organization and a legitimate business to sell insurance, help with housing, help learn English, settle legal disputes (even with the Black Handers) and do a number of other tasks to equip immigrant Sicilians with their new lives in America. The Chicago branch was chartered in the mid-1890s; and, apparently from its beginning, 25,000 Sicilians who lived in the city and 500,000 Sicilians who lived in Cook County, Illinois, were under the umbrella of Unione Siciliane's Chicago branch, which was a tremendous influence on the people it served and therefore was highly coveted for control by so many of the city's gangs.Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), pp. 22, 23 1895 – Future master pimp Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo immigrated to Chicago, at about age 17, with his parents. Colosimo had no known criminal record when coming to America.Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 92, 93Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 16 1896 – The first of its kind "First Ward Ball", masterminded by businessman Michael "Hinkey Dink" Kenna and Alderman John Couglin, first made an appearance in the CityThe First Ward Ball 1897 – Michael "Hinkey Dink" Kenna became a First Ward alderman. 1898 – Future North Side Gang leader "Hymie Weiss" (Earl Wajciechowski) was born. A well-rounded crook, capable of accomplishing many criminal trades, Weiss was also a childhood friend of Dion O'Banion. Weiss has been credited with the gangland term, "take for a ride (a one-way ride)".Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 316, 379, 380
1900s 1900 – Because checking the immigration status of immigrants became so lax, more than two million unchecked people lived in the city by this year. 1900A second source reports that the Gennas came to America as late as 1910; Russo, Gus, The Outfit, Bloomsbury (2001), p. 22 – Six Sicilian brothers – ("Bloody") Angelo, Mike ("The Devil"), Pete, Sam, Jim and Tony ("the Gentleman") – the "Bloody Gennas" – immigrated to America. They settled in Chicago's Little Italy in a section called "The Patch". The brothers became the "Black Hand" extortionists. Two of the gang's earliest gunmen were Sicilians Albert Anselmi and John Scalise.Sifakis, Carl, The Mafia Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Checkmark Books (1999), pp. 150, 151 February 1, 1900 – The Everleigh Club, run by Madams Ada and Minna Everleigh" (Ada and Minna Simms), at 2131–2133 S. Dearborn Street, opened its doors in Chicago's Levee District. December 16, 1903 – The Lone Star Saloon, on south State Street, was shut down after the owner/manager, Michael Finn, was found to have been drugging patrons' drinks for years in order to rob them. This was an orchestrated effort with the help of his saloon workers. This practice became known in popular culture as giving someone a "Mickey Finn". April 28, 1906 – The Chicago Outfit's Boss-of-bosses for almost a half-century, Tony Accardo (Antonino Leonardo Accardo), was born in Chicago to a Sicilian-immigrant shoemaker and his Sicilian-immigrant wife, who both settled in America in 1905. At the time of Tony Accardo's birth, the family lived at 1353 Grand Avenue. The infant Accardo was baptized at Holy Name Cathedral, on Chicago Avenue and State Street. He was the second oldest of six siblings.Roemer, William F. Jr., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, Ivy Books (1995), p. 17, 18 1907 – With the country's "biggest handbook center" in Chicago, Mont Tennes was the nation's undisputed gambling "czar", under the umbrella and with the blessing of First Ward aldermen John Coughlin and Michael Kenna. Tennes also controlled the nation's race wire system, which was important for horserace betting across the country at the time. Control of the race wire led to a very maniacal public dispute between the interested parties in the summer of 1907, including bombings. Tennes' own home was bombed.Roemer, William F. Jr., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, Ivy Books (1995), pp. 21–24 1907 – A group of leading Italian citizens, prominent businessmen, several ethnic organizations and the Italian Chamber of Commerce formed the White Hand Society, a legal organization, to combat the Black Hand in Chicago. 1907 – Chicago gambling racketeer Bud White's controversial gambling boat City of Traverse was closed down after years of legally trying to stay afloat."City of Traverse" September 1907 – A grand jury convened concerning the violence which had taken place during the summer over Chicago's race wire business. Two of the findings were that Chicago's mayor, Fred Busse, and the city's police chief, George Shippy, were bought by Tennes' racket.Roemer, William F. Jr., Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, Ivy Books (1995), pp. 21, 22 1908 – The Chicago Coliseum sustained heavy damage from a bomb blast two weeks ahead of that year's "First Ward Ball", after the ball received increasing disdain through the years from the city's respectable and innocent citizens. Despite the blast, the ball was held there anyway. It's not known what, if any, information was found as to who was responsible for the bombing. 1908 – Future North Side Gang leader Earl "Hymie" Weiss was first arrested for burglary in Chicago. Weiss was caught robbing a perfume store and was immediately dubbed the "Perfume Burglar" by reporters.