Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) (9 page)

Just after bringing criminal indictments in 1921, Brundage filed a civil suit to recover the money Small embezzled. The Illinois Supreme Court (its building pictured here) ruled in 1925 that Len Small was liable and had to pay. The court also ruled that the Grant Park Bank was a sham. (KPL.)

Oscar Carlstrom was elected attorney general in 1924. He was friendlier to Len Small than Edward Brundage had been. Carlstrom was the machine’s choice because he promised to go easy on Small in the civil suit. However, the wheels were in motion, and he could do little once it was in the hands of the judges. The courts ruled that Small was liable for $1.025 million, and Carlstrom bargained that down to $650,000. Small paid the sum, raising the money by docking the pay of state employees and shaking down road contractors. (KPL.)

Otto Kerner Sr. (pictured) was elected attorney general in 1932 on the pledge he would have the Small settlement set aside and sue for more money, but the court would not allow it. Kerner’s son married Helena Cermak, daughter of the late mayor. Otto Kerner Jr. was elected governor in 1960, was convicted on bribery and other charges, and went to prison. (KPL.)

On the podium with Governor Small is Big Bill Thompson. With the Supreme Court ruling, Small’s opponents sought to remove him from office, citing constitutional ineligibility. But Governor Small had his Republican majority introduce an amendment in May 1927 giving the present governor immunity from quo warranto removal. The legislature passed the amendment, and Small signed it, and this nullified the constitutional remedy. Small’s lawyers now could argue that the constitution was unconstitutional. Len Small finally had written into law the fact that he was above the law. (KCMPC.)

Len Small stands in the center (above the two kneeling men) with a group of designated “Top Notch” Kankakee farmers. (JR.)

State representative J. Bert Miller, a Republican from Kankakee, argued against the quo warranto amendment. He told the legislature, “No one knows him better than I. I have lived in the same town with him for 40 years, and if there is a bigger thief and political crook anywhere, I’d like to see the color of his hair.” Part of Miller’s impassioned speech was quoted in
Time
magazine, “Caesar had his Brutus, Jesus Christ had his Judas Iscariot, the United States had its Benedict Arnold and Jefferson Davis, and Illinois has Len Small. And if the Judas of Illinois had the courage of the Judas of Jesus, he would return the 30 pieces of silver, get a rope and hang himself, and remove the withering blight which will remain upon this state as long as he is governor of Illinois.” (JR.)

Clyde Stone was one of the justices who ruled against Small. When Stone ran for reelection in 1927, Small put up Speaker of the House Robert Scholes against him. The governor also awarded state contracts to businessmen who were delegates at the state convention to pressure delegates to deny Stone renomination. When Justice Stone was renominated, Small then tried to decertify the nomination. The Supreme Court overruled the governor. Stone was reelected and served on the high court until his death in 1948. (JR.)

From left to right, state representative Reed Cutler, Governor Small, and state representative Robert Scholes are pictured conferring. Cutler supported the amendment to prevent Small’s removal, saying the court did not have the right to remove someone elected by the people. (KCMPC.)

With Mayor Thompson’s police on gang payrolls, and Thompson’s wide-open town policy for gangsters and bootleggers, organized crime was further aided by Governor Small’s pardon and parole policy. Small’s pardons had been scandalous from the beginning. The matter blew up into a huge scandal in 1926, when it was revealed the Small administration had been operating a pardon mill. For a price, anyone could buy his or her way out of the penitentiary. Spike O’Donnell and Bugs Moran paid their bribes and were able to get their gangs back together to commit more mayhem on the streets of Chicago. The scheme was headed by Will Colvin (left), supervisor of paroles, and Chauncey Jenkins (right), director of prisons. They are pictured here with Governor Small during Small’s trial in Waukegan. (CHM-DN-0080819.)

The pardons for bribes scandal broke in 1926 when Charles Duschowski, a Kankakee murderer, broke out of the state prison in Joliet (above) with five other prisoners after murdering assistant warden Peter Klein. It was revealed that the escapees were desperate because they did not have the money to bribe their way out as so many others did. Duschowski and other prisoners nearly got away twice in escape attempts from the Will County Jail in Joliet (below). Duschowski and two others were hanged in the jail yard in downtown Joliet on July 14, 1927. A third escapee, Charles Shader, was hanged there on October 10, 1928. Shader was the last convict executed by hanging in Illinois, as the electric chair replaced the rope in future executions. (Both JR.)