Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) (17 page)

George Ryan rose from local politician to state representative to secretary of state and then governor. His brother Tom was mayor of Kankakee for 20 years, a period in which the factory town lost thousands of jobs and unemployment hit 22 percent. While secretary of state, George Ryan’s office sold driver’s licenses to unqualified drivers. One unqualified truck driver caused an accident in 1994 that killed six children. It was this accident that began a probe into Ryan’s corruption that led to his downfall. Ryan was forced to withdraw as a candidate for reelection as governor in 2002. He was indicted on 22 counts of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, tax fraud, and more. Ryan was convicted on all counts in 2006 and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. (KPL.)

George Ryan unveils a truck safety program in 1991 as his office sold driver’s licenses for bribes. (JR.)

Gangsters and bootleggers shot up Kankakee in the 1920s. Fred Strahl (left) was gunned down behind his speakeasy in 1929. In April 1925, gangster Sam Vaccero was found in his car under 30 feet of water with a bullet in his head. Two days later, retaliation came in a machine-gun battle in the streets of Kankakee, where bootlegger Frank Luppino and gunman Alessio Tortorici were killed. Mafia hoodlum Albert Sirota was “taken for a ride” and shot dead outside the city limits in 1932. Below is the Radeke Brewery in Kankakee, which continued making bootleg beer for several years before being closed by federal agents. (At left, Betty Schatz; below, JR.)

Michael Giusto found a way to hide his bootlegging at his Kankakee shoe shop—he poured homemade moonshine into quart milk bottles and then sold it in shoeboxes. Giusto was arrested in 1923 when a customer squealed after being arrested for being drunk. John Giusto, at right, was one of dozens of Kankakeeans arrested by federal Prohibition agents in raids during the 1920s. The picture below shows federal agents and local police gathering in front of the Kankakee Police Department on February 21, 1925. Some 65 federal agents, led by Charles Vursell, raided 33 places and arrested 33 people that day. Among those arrested were Bruno Matthews, a close political ally of Len Small. (Both JR.)

This was John Giusto’s tavern and his Club Roma and Garden City Club on Fifth Avenue in Kankakee, just north of the railroad tracks, in the 1920s. (JR.)

Stephen Small, the great-grandson of the governor, was kidnapped and murdered in 1987. He was renovating this Frank Lloyd Wright house in Kankakee when local hoodlum Danny Edwards took him at gunpoint. Edwards buried Small in a box with an insufficient air tube while waiting for a ransom. Edwards was convicted and sentenced to death, but his life was spared in 2003 when Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of everyone on death row. Stephen Small had been a close neighbor of Ryan, shoveling snow from his sidewalk and babysitting his children. (JR.)

Nell Clark is one of the most famous citizens in Kankakee’s history. She was a prostitute and madam who ran a brothel for nearly 50 years. Kankakee was notorious for its houses of ill repute, and Nell’s place operated openly. There were occasional busts, but Nell paid her fine and was out of the Kankakee Jail (pictured below) that night. Sometimes the police tipped her about an upcoming raid. Nell died in 1942. She is pictured to the right with her daughter Gertie, who also was in the business. (Both JR.)

Beside Len Small and George Ryan, there was a third man from Kankakee who became governor—Samuel Shapiro, in 1968 after Otto Kerner resigned to become a judge. As a state representative, Shapiro sponsored progressive mental health legislation. His work was real leadership and not just for show. That is why the state hospital at Kankakee was renamed for Shapiro in 1977. Shapiro and Horner, the only two Jewish governors of Illinois, are considered among the most honest and most respected governors. Here Gov. Shapiro (dark suit, shaking hands) campaigns in downtown Kankakee in 1968. (HAHSM.)