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James Ashley
Vol I When the Outfit Ran Chicago: The "Big Jim" Colosimo Era
Vol I When the Outfit Ran Chicago: The "Big Jim" Colosimo Era
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Chicago's Levee acquired its name in the mid-1800s and referred to a 16-block area on the north bank of the Chicago River next to the city's dockyards and warehouse area where four of the six railroads entering the city had depots. The saloons, gambling parlors, and bordellos were sustained by sailors, gamblers, and the city's riff-raff and quickly grew into the headquarters for vice in the city. The Levee offered everything a 'sporting man' might desire to satisfy his vice appetites, including: prostitution, homosexuality, gambling, 'circuses', peer shows, obscene magazines, slave actions, and opium dens. The 'sport' could wallow in the sewer by going to The Bucket of Blood in Bed Bug Row, where he could pay a diseased played-out, alcoholic whore 25 cents for sex on a filthy cot, or, at the other end of the scale, be pampered by a $200-a-night high-class prostitute at the luxurious Everleigh Club, who was specially selected for her beauty, good health, taste in clothes, social graces, and good manners.
If you wanted someone kidnapped, beaten, robbed, or killed you could either rent the weapons to do it yourself with at the Levee or hire someone there to do it for you. Drugs such as cocaine and morphine were openly sold at the front desks of many of the Levee flophouses or you could take your ease at a number of opium dens there. Just walking down the Levee streets was a fascinating experience. Neon signs advertising the various bordellos gave a Las Vegas atmosphere to the night-time Levee while piano music filled the air. Nude women performed lewd dancing behind plate glass windows and made obscene gestures to passerby's. Panderers (pimps) and prostitutes openly solicited on the streets.
Safety on the streets were guaranteed by constant police patrols out of the 22nd Street Police Station, located on the western edge of the Levee. However, once you entered one of the establishments there one never knew if he would be the next to be robbed, beaten murdered. The thrill of walking on the wild side was, nevertheless, irresistible to many thrill-seekers raised in the Victorian Era, which considered sex a perversion of human nature, to be limited to doing only what was necessary to produce children and drinking and gambling vices to be suppressed by self-control or prayer.
At that time, society generally believed that it was better to confine the city's prostitution, gambling parlors, and saloons to one area of the city, rather than seeing it fragmented throughout the residential neighborhoods. This would not only make it easier to police and control but would keep it out of sight of the 'decent' citizens. In effect, this was a public tolerance of vice in return for its isolation in a 16-block warehouse area. The problem with this theory was that the concentration of highly lucrative semi-legal vice operations would lend itself to economic exploitation, as the operators of those vice business would have no legal protection.
The Levee was located in the southern area of the 1st Ward. At that time, each ward had two alderman. In 1893, 1st Ward Alderman Mike McDonald convinced John Coughlin to run for the vacant 1st Ward junior alderman position. Coughlin had been elected four times to be the president of the First Ward Democratic Club to lead the Cook County Democratic Marching Club in its support of Democratic presidential candidates. Impressed with Coughlin's fighting ability against the Republican opponents and his not-too intelligent demeanor, which would allow him to be easily control and manipulated, McDonald put the word out to the precient captains to 'fix' the election; Coughlin winning the election by a two to one margin.
Although McDonald regularly 'shook down' the Levee from time-to-time it was neither well done or lucrative. He simply was not proficient at it and had no vision of the potential lying before him. Mike Kenna, who operated two saloons and a cigar store, had befriended Coughlin and had indicated his desire to run for McDonald's seat in the next aldermanic election. Kenna's motto of 'together we will rule the roost' greatly appealed to Coughlin and he agreed to support Kenna's run for the office. And although Kenna lost in his first try for the office, he would the second one in 1897. Kenna now proceeded to organize a democratic machine in the 1st Ward.
The Levee was where the money was but its southern boundary had been creeping south and now a portion of it lay in the 2nd Ward. Kenna meant to get it all back within the 1st Ward. A well known millionaire and athlete, Bill Thompson, was running for alderman of the 2nd Ward against democrat Charles Gunther. Sizing Thompson up as not the brightest light bulb in the pack, Kenna cut a deal with him; in return to supporting his election, Thompson would support a bill extending the 1st Ward boundary south in the 2nd Ward in order to incorporate the southern are
If you wanted someone kidnapped, beaten, robbed, or killed you could either rent the weapons to do it yourself with at the Levee or hire someone there to do it for you. Drugs such as cocaine and morphine were openly sold at the front desks of many of the Levee flophouses or you could take your ease at a number of opium dens there. Just walking down the Levee streets was a fascinating experience. Neon signs advertising the various bordellos gave a Las Vegas atmosphere to the night-time Levee while piano music filled the air. Nude women performed lewd dancing behind plate glass windows and made obscene gestures to passerby's. Panderers (pimps) and prostitutes openly solicited on the streets.
Safety on the streets were guaranteed by constant police patrols out of the 22nd Street Police Station, located on the western edge of the Levee. However, once you entered one of the establishments there one never knew if he would be the next to be robbed, beaten murdered. The thrill of walking on the wild side was, nevertheless, irresistible to many thrill-seekers raised in the Victorian Era, which considered sex a perversion of human nature, to be limited to doing only what was necessary to produce children and drinking and gambling vices to be suppressed by self-control or prayer.
At that time, society generally believed that it was better to confine the city's prostitution, gambling parlors, and saloons to one area of the city, rather than seeing it fragmented throughout the residential neighborhoods. This would not only make it easier to police and control but would keep it out of sight of the 'decent' citizens. In effect, this was a public tolerance of vice in return for its isolation in a 16-block warehouse area. The problem with this theory was that the concentration of highly lucrative semi-legal vice operations would lend itself to economic exploitation, as the operators of those vice business would have no legal protection.
The Levee was located in the southern area of the 1st Ward. At that time, each ward had two alderman. In 1893, 1st Ward Alderman Mike McDonald convinced John Coughlin to run for the vacant 1st Ward junior alderman position. Coughlin had been elected four times to be the president of the First Ward Democratic Club to lead the Cook County Democratic Marching Club in its support of Democratic presidential candidates. Impressed with Coughlin's fighting ability against the Republican opponents and his not-too intelligent demeanor, which would allow him to be easily control and manipulated, McDonald put the word out to the precient captains to 'fix' the election; Coughlin winning the election by a two to one margin.
Although McDonald regularly 'shook down' the Levee from time-to-time it was neither well done or lucrative. He simply was not proficient at it and had no vision of the potential lying before him. Mike Kenna, who operated two saloons and a cigar store, had befriended Coughlin and had indicated his desire to run for McDonald's seat in the next aldermanic election. Kenna's motto of 'together we will rule the roost' greatly appealed to Coughlin and he agreed to support Kenna's run for the office. And although Kenna lost in his first try for the office, he would the second one in 1897. Kenna now proceeded to organize a democratic machine in the 1st Ward.
The Levee was where the money was but its southern boundary had been creeping south and now a portion of it lay in the 2nd Ward. Kenna meant to get it all back within the 1st Ward. A well known millionaire and athlete, Bill Thompson, was running for alderman of the 2nd Ward against democrat Charles Gunther. Sizing Thompson up as not the brightest light bulb in the pack, Kenna cut a deal with him; in return to supporting his election, Thompson would support a bill extending the 1st Ward boundary south in the 2nd Ward in order to incorporate the southern are
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