Book Description

In this important book, Virgil W. Peterson, Operating Director of the Chicago Crime Commission and for twelve years a special agent for the FBI, sums up the incredible history of crime in Chicago. He shows how the growth of crime has kept pace with the phenomenal growth of the city itself, and how politics and crime have meshed in an almost unbelievable web of corruption. Mr. Peterson, who at one time worked for more than a year exclusively on the Dillinger investigation, knows his criminals and does not hesitate to give names and facts. He was instrumental in providing much of the data which enabled the Kefauver Committee to investigate not only Chicago but also those cities whose crime is controlled by Chicago gangsters. But before lifting the lid on Chicago today, he traces the colorful—not to say lurid—picture of the past. Early in the city’s history, there was Mayor “Long John” Wentworth who, in a fit of rage, fired the entire police force. And the infamous “Bathhouse John” Coughlin who with “Hinky Dink” Kenna ran Chicago’s huge First Ward for more than fifty years, and who was once imported to New York to impress the Tammany forces. And Minna and Ada Everleigh who ran the famous Everleigh House in the red-light district. And, of course, there was the whole Capone crowd: Johnny Torrio who shot his boss, Big Jim Colosimo, to gain control of the rackets; Dion O’Bannion, the florist who made corpses and then provided the funeral decorations, and many, many others. Here, too, is the true story of the Kelly-Nash machine—one of the most efficiently corrupt political organizations Chicago has ever known. And the story of how the Chicago crime network now reaches high into the Federal government. Mr. Peterson also gives the complete story of the Kefauver crime investigation in Chicago. And finally the author presents his program for the elimination of corruption in Chicago and throughout the country.