Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia

2. The Gem of the Prairie

2 the gem of the Prairie In 1670 French trader Pierre Moreau built a cabin on the site where the Chicago River empties into Lake Michigan.1 The area was called chickagou (bad smell) by the Potawatomi Indians because of the aroma of the skunk cabbage that choked the bogs draining into the river. It was not until one hundred years later that Chicago’s first permanent settler arrived. In 1779 Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established residency at the intersection of the north and south branches of the Chicago River. The area, however, continued to be controlled by local Indians until 1794, when army general “Mad Anthony” Wayne won a six-square-mile tract of land at the mouth of the Chicago River in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. In 1803 Fort Dearborn was established there and a settlement grew up around the fort. By 1837 the Fort Dearborn settlement had grown to 4,000 people. It was incorporated as the city of Chicago in March of that year. Chicago’s real growth began in 1848 with the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The canal, connecting the Illinois River and the south branch of the Chicago River, provided Midwest farmers with access to Great Lakes shipping and eastern markets. The Illinois River also provided a direct route to the Mississippi River and the cities of Saint Louis and New Orleans. Chicago’s first railroad, the Galena and Chicago Union, also began operating in 1848. By the time of the Civil War, Chicago was the rail crossroads of the nation. It was the terminal for ten railroads and boasted a network of track that stretched four thousand miles. In 1860 Chicago’s population grew to 109,000 people, making it the largest city in Illinois.2 Chicago’s central location made it an important transportation and shipping center in the country’s westward expansion. During the 1860s more than thirteen thousand ships a year docked at the Chicago harbor. In addition , more than two million bushels of grain passed through Chicago an- nually. Packet boats that had traveled the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes unloaded settlers at the Chicago port. For $1.25 an acre, pioneers could buy land in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, and the Dakotas. Not all those who came to Chicago left. The grain trade, industrialization, and the growth of the Union Stock Yards created jobs. The demand for meat by the Union Army during the Civil War made Chicago’s meatpacking industry the largest in the world. Soon European immigrants began to arrive to fill the demand for labor. By 1870 nearly three hundred thousand people lived in the city of Chicago.3 Chicago’s ecological position as the gateway to the unsettled lands of the West also contributed to its involvement in crime. Many young bachelors spent their last nights in Chicago before heading out to make their fortunes in the vast western wilderness. Chicago was often their final chance for supplies and other needed items. Saloons, gambling parlors, and brothels quickly sprang up around the city to make these pioneers’ last night in “civilization” memorable. Dwight Moody, founder of Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute, commenting on the times, remarked, “If the Angel Gabriel came to Chicago, he would lose his character within a week.”4 One of Chicago’s earliest vice districts was an area known as the Sands. Located just north of the Chicago River and extending to Lake Michigan, the Sands was filled with gambling dens, brothels, and rooming houses. The Chicago Daily Tribune described the Sands as “the vilest and most dangerous place in Chicago” and “the hiding place of all sorts of criminals.” On April 20, 1857, newly elected Chicago mayor“Long John”Wentworth led a column of police and firefighters in a raid on the Sands. (Mayor Wentworth was referred to as “Long John” and “His Highness” because of his six-foot, six-inch height.) Former mayor William B. Ogden had obtained a legal interest in the property resulting in a court order to eject the inmates of the“Sand Houses” as the disorderly properties were called. This early crackdown on crime resulted in the eviction of a number of gamblers and prostitutes and the demolition of nine buildings and the burning of six others.5 Another of Chicago’s early vice districts was named the Willows. The Willows flourished during the Civil War and was the headquarters of one of Chicago’s first crime czars...