Free Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) by Jim Ridings

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    Thanks go to the Herscher Area Historical Society and Museum; Mary Michals of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield; Betty Schatz and the Kankakee Public Library; the staff of the Kankakee Community College Library; Jeff Ruetsche of Arcadia Publishing; William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society; Nancy Fike and the McHenry County Historical Society and Museum; the Dwight Museum; the Kankakee County Museum in Governor Small Memorial Park; and to Nancy (Sawyer) Wagner, Mary Haviland, and Paul Roeder. Thanks also goes to Bill Schaub and Jeff Thompson, managers of the Walgreens stores in Kankakee; Jack and Paula Goodwin of Paperback Reader in Kankakee; the Villages of Campus and Herscher; Campus State Bank; and State Bank of Herscher for their continued support of local history. Thanks to top journalists Rich Miller, Tom Roeser, Chuck Goudie, Steve Sanders, Eric Zorn, Bernie Schoenburg, and others for their reviews and encouragement. Research came from books listed in the bibliography on page 127 and from the microfilm and online files of the Chicago Tribune , Kankakee Daily Republican , Kankakee Daily News , Time magazine, and other sources.
    The Kankakee County Museum and the Kankakee County Historical Society, other than providing research materials upon request, has not in any other manner participated in the preparation of this publication. It has not been consulted, nor had any part in formulating any interpretations or scholarly arguments that the author has felt justified in forming from any research materials acquired from the artifact, archival, and photographic collections of the Kankakee County Museum.
    Unless otherwise noted, the images in this volume appear courtesy of the following:
    ALPLM—Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
CHM-DN—Chicago History Museum- Chicago Daily News collection
HAHSM—Herscher Area Historical Society and Museum
KCMPC—Kankakee County Museum Photographic Collection
KPL—Kankakee Public Library
KCC—Kankakee Community College
JR—Jim Ridings collection

INTRODUCTION
    One might think this book is the story of bootleggers and gangsters in Chicago during the 1920s; it is not. It is the story of the crooked politicians who enabled and aided the bootleggers and the gangsters—allowing small-time gangs to grow into big-time organized crime.
    Al Capone became the biggest of all Chicago gangsters. But would Capone have grown as big without Mayor William Hale Thompson, Gov. Len Small, and thousands of other politicians and political workers from city hall to the state house who were anxious to take the mobsters’ money? Chicago police chief Charles Fitzmorris estimated that 65 percent of Chicago’s police were on gang payrolls in the 1920s, not just protecting bootleggers, but pushing the stuff. It also was estimated that the Capone organization took in $100 million a year at its peak in the late 1920s, and $30 million of that went to police, politicians, and anyone else who needed their palms greased. Without the help of crooked politicians and police, Capone might have been just another gang boss, like Bugs Moran, Dean O’Banion, Spike O’Donnell, or Roger Touhy. Without these politicians and police, organized crime might never have become so organized.
    There are many famous quotes regarding Illinois politics. Political boss Fred Lundin said it best and most accurately in the 1920s, “To hell with the public and our campaign promises, we’re at the feedbox now!” Chicago alderman Paddy Bauler famously said in the early 1900s, “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” One hundred years later, it seems it still isn’t.
    This book is about crime and politics in the 1920s and takes a special look at the four major political powers of the era: Chicago mayor William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson, Gov. Len Small, and bosses William Lorimer and Fred Lundin. The following pages give the background of organized crime