Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) (3 page)
Authors: Jim Ridings
BIG BILL THOMPSON
BUILDING AND BLUSTER
William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson is considered to have been the most corrupt mayor in Chicago’s history. Thompson’s administration was marked with theft, corruption, and wide-open gangland violence. He was mayor from 1915 until 1923, when scandal forced him from office. He was elected again in 1927 with a lot of money and muscle from Al Capone.
Gangsters ruled Chicago during Thompson’s era. His 1927 campaign pledge was to reopen the closed speakeasies, and in a campaign speech he claimed he would “open 10,000 more.” Thompson took money from Al Capone, Bugs Moran, Spike O’Donnell, and any other gangster who wanted protection. All the way up the line, from the merchant who paid a cop, who paid his sergeant, who paid a politician, and so on, a piece went into the pockets of Thompson and his political machine.
He liked the name “Big Bill the Builder.” Much was built during his administration, a time of prosperity and boom. He was free with the taxpayers’ money when it came to public works, and his name can be found today on plaques on bridges, train stations, and other sites all across the city.
But he also was an embarrassment. His complicity with gangsters earned Chicago a reputation for gangland violence, and some consider this Chicago’s chief legacy all across the world. Business was done through overpriced contracts for city services, awarded to politically connected people who paid kickbacks, and the services were performed poorly or not at all.
The scandals in which Thompson was involved would fill a resume for a dozen other crooked politicians. When he was defeated in 1931, the
Chicago Tribune
editorialized:
For Chicago, Thompson has meant filth, corruption, obscenity, idiocy, and bankruptcy. He has given the city an international reputation for moronic buffoonery, barbaric crime, triumphant hoodlumism, unchecked graft, and a dejected citizenship. He nearly ruined the property and completely destroyed the pride of the city. He made Chicago a byword for the collapse of American civilization. In his attempt to continue this, he excelled himself as a liar and defamer of character.
When he died, he left two safety deposit boxes containing $1.5 million.
Big Bill Thompson was a colorful character who amused and outraged people at the same time. During World War I, Thompson was pro-German and anti-British. He once promised to hold a book burning on the shores of Lake Michigan for books of British history. He promised to punch the king of England “in the snoot” if he ever came to Chicago. While out of office in 1924, Thompson set sail on a “scientific” expedition to search for tree-climbing fish in the South Seas; his boat did not even get to the Mississippi River. Thompson held a debate between himself and two live rats, which he used to portray his opponents, in the 1927 election. Thompson is credited with coining the Chicago term, “Vote early and often.” (HAHSM.)
But not all was amusement. In his 1931 campaign, Thompson referred to opponent Anton Cermak as “a Bo-Hunk with a pushcart.” Campaigning for Len Small in 1931, Thompson told farmers that hog prices would drop if Henry Horner was elected, since Horner was Jewish.
Time
magazine quoted Thompson, “Furthermore, Jews run pawnshops, and the first thing Horner will do if he gets to Springfield is open a pawnshop.”
Time
added, “In the primary, Mayor Thompson employed ‘stooges’ in rabbinical dress to ridicule Judge Horner’s racial origin.” In 1937, Thompson spoke to a Chicago pro-Nazi group on “Reds and Jewish bankers.” (KCC.)
Thompson appointed several crooked police chiefs. Chief John Garrity was allegedly involved with pimps and bootleggers, while Chief Charles Fitzmorris admitted half his police force was involved in bootlegging. Chief Mike Hughes attended memorial services for slain mobster Dean O’Banion. Chief William Russell said, “Mayor Thompson was elected on an open-town platform. I assume the people knew what they wanted when they voted for him. I haven’t any orders from downtown to interfere with the policy racket.” (ALPLM.)
Gangster Jack Zuta contributed $50,000 to Mayor Thompson’s campaign in 1927. He said, “I’m for Big Bill, hook, line and sinker, and Big Bill is for me, hook, line and sinker.” Zuta reputedly ordered the murder of Mob-connected
Chicago Tribune
reporter Jake Lingle. A few months later, to take the heat off, Al Capone had Zuta murdered. (KCC.)
Fur Sammons was one of the Roaring Twenties’ most cold-blooded murderers. He went to prison, and when the state supreme court denied his appeal, shady Chicago lawyer W. W. O’Brien shopped for a friendlier judge. He found McHenry County judge Edward Shurtleff (right), who released Sammons in 1932—basically overturning the Illinois Supreme Court. Sammons went back to work, as a machine gunner for Frank Nitti, before being sent back to prison. Shurtleff was speaker of the house in 1909 when William Lorimer’s fraudulent election was engineered. When state auditor Oscar Nelson was brought to trial for financial malfeasance, Judge Shurtleff dismissed the case. Below is a postcard from a grateful Sammons to Judge Shurtleff. (Both McHenry County Historical Society.)
On the office wall of the mayor of Chicago, Thompson had portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Al Capone. And in his headquarters, Capone had portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Big Bill Thompson on his wall. Capone biographer John Kobler called Mayor Thompson “the hero of every pimp, whore, gambler, racketeer, and bootlegger in Chicago.” (JR.)
William Lorimer was the political boss of Chicago who helped Big Bill Thompson and Len Small become political powers. Lorimer built the first highly effective political machine in Chicago, becoming a sort of “kingmaker” who made mayors, senators, and governors. At the same time, Lorimer’s businesses benefited from his political connections by grabbing city contracts. (JR.)
William Lorimer was elected to Congress in 1894 and then to the U.S. Senate in 1909. In those days, senators were chosen by the state legislature, not by the popular vote. It was proven that Lorimer spent about $100,000 to bribe several state legislators to vote for him. The U.S. Senate held hearings and decided that Lorimer won his seat by “corrupt practices” and threw him out of office in 1912. Lorimer made his comeback into public life when Big Bill Thompson took office as Chicago’s mayor in 1915, and he helped build the Chicago Republican machine bigger than ever. (ALPLM.)
