Along with skyscrapers, the Bean, and deep dish pizza, Chicago's became famous in the 20th century for its criminal underworld. In a new book, Gangsters & Grifters: Classic Crime Photos from the Chicago Tribune, the storied paper has opened its archives for a fantastic collection of largely unseen photos from the turn of the century until the 1950s. The collection places some of the city's most notorious criminals, like John Dillinger and "Leopold and Loeb" alongside some fof the lesser well known criminals from that violent time.
In this photo, John Dillinger, center, is handcuffed to Deputy Sheriff R. M. Pierce, left, during Dillinger's court hearing in Crown Point, Indiana during the first weeks of February 1934. Dillinger, one of the most famous gangsters of this era, was charged with killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934. His trail date was set for March 12, 1934. Dillinger would break out of the Crown Point, Indiana jail on March 3, 1934 with nothing but a wooden gun.
State highway policemen restore order in the circular cell blocks at Stateville Prison after 1,500 convicts rioted, lighting several buildings on fire, on March 18, 1931. Three convicts were shot during the rioting, one of them was gravely wounded with a bullet to the abdomen.
Richard Loeb, 18, left, and Nathan Leopold, Jr., 19, right, more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb," were two wealthy University of Chicago students who confessed to the killing of Robert "Bobby" Franks on May 21, 1924 in Chicago. Both Leopold and Loeb were sent to Stateville Prison in Joliet for 99 years for kidnapping and a life sentence for murder. Loeb was killed in prison on Jan. 28, 1936. Leopold was released from prison in 1958.
In this photo they can be seen staring at each other after each gave a separate confession for the killing of Franks. The confessions were given on May 31, 1924, after Leopold's glasses were found next to Franks body at 121st Street and the Pennsylvania railroad tracks. Leopold and Leob had said they were out in the remote area to bird-watch.
This photo tells the story which might as well be a plot from the film Chicago. Gertrude 'Billie' Murphy, 22, is shown here being brought in for questioning in the murder case of Michael Stopec, who was shot and killed in an apartment hotel, circa July 1927. Murphy had been friends with the married Stopec and his suspected killer Henry Guardino, 31. It is said that Stopec and Guardino were 'bitter rivals for the favor of Billie' and that Murphy had tired of Guardino and was going to stay with Stopec. Murphy was also married to a man in the Joliet penitentiary.
The photo shows John Dillinger arriving back at the county jail at Crown Point, Indiana on Jan. 30, 1934 after being caught in Arizona five days earlier, which was depicted in the first photo of the gallery. Authorities were fearful that Dillinger's gang would try to rescue their leader, so heavily armed guards surrounded the courthouse and jail. Dillinger was charged with killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934.
Chicago Tribune
Dillinger was finally taken out in July of 1934 during a shoot-out with federal agents. In this image, Betty Nelson and Rosella Nelson view the body of Dillinger, 32, dressed only in bathing suits at the Cook County Morgue. In the aftermath of Dillinger's death, hordes of people lined up outside the morgue to try and see the era's most famous public enemy.
This photo is an example of the less glamorous, but equally seedy, crimes beat reporters working for the Tribune came across. The photo depicts police removing 16-year-old Morton Stein's body from room 733 at the Stevens Hotel on May 11, 1945. Stein was murdered by his partner in crime, Donald Jay Cook, who was 15 at the time of the murder. According to Cook, the boys had been committing robberies and when Cook wanted out a fight ensued. Stein was bludgeoned with a blackjack and stabbed several times. Cook fled Chicago and was captured in Lousiana in September. He was sentenced to 7-14 years in prison after changing his plea from not guilty to guilty of manslaughter.
Joseph "Diamond Joe" Esposito, the Republican boss for the 19th Ward, was credited by the FBI as being one of the first known Sicilian mafia members to immigrate to the United States. He was involved in bootlegging, extortion, prostitution, and labor racketeering before being murdered in 1928.
Better known as "The Lipstick Killer," University of Chicago student William Heirens, center, was one of the more notorious serial killers of his era. He was convicted of kidnapping, strangling, and dismembering 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan on Jan. 7, 1946. In this photo he is flanked by Detective Chief Walter Storms, left, and Captain Michael Ahern as Heirens is taken to a detective bureau lineup on July 1, 1946. He was also convicted of murdering Frances Brown, 33, and Josephine Ross, 43, in separate crimes in 1945. On Brown's apartment wall the murderer wrote in lipstick, "For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself." This gave Heirens the nickname “The Lipstick Killer.”
These women were the original black widows. Tillie Klimek, right, and her cousin Nellie Stermer-Koulik, left, were accused of poisoning 20 husbands, children and friends with arsenic poisoning. Fourteen of the 20 died and six lived. In what can only be seen as a sign of her incredible skills or the shocking credulity of the men she ensnared, Klimek killed her first three husbands,. She was was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on March 31, 1923, for the death of her third husband in 1921. As the book recalls, at the time the Tribune reported he had in him "enough arsenic to kill four men." Klimek was described by the Tribune as the "Poison Widow" and the two cousins were called “High priestesses of the Bluebeard clique.”
Love, money, and murder--Chicago had it all. In this photo, police officers look over the body of the wealthy Rose Neary, 50, who was found strangled and hammered to death in her apartment on June 2, 1939. Neary was strangled with cord cut from her kitchen radio, a towel was placed over her head, and the back of it was bashed in with a claw hammer. The police believed it was her chauffeur and “sweetheart” Edward Donovan, and questioned him. They released him, however, due to lack of evidence. Donovan pursued Neary despite his own marriage, his own children, and despite owing her $2,000 from a loan. Her murder was never solved.
Chicago Tribune
Gangsters & Grifters: Classic Crime Photos from the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
