Name: Chicago's First Crime King
Brand: Kelly Pucci
SKU: 9781467140553
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Chicago's First Crime King

9781467140553

$21.99

Michael Cassius McDonald arrived in Chicago as a teenage scam artist who quickly sketched a blueprint for running the city through its criminal underworld. Chicago's original mob boss, he procured presidential pardons, stuffed mayoral ballot boxes and operated the town's plushest gambling parlor. But he was also a philanthropist who befriended Clarence Darrow, employed Theodore Dreiser, promoted the World's Fair and funded the Lake Street L. His scandalous private life mirrored the tumult of his career, with more than one marriage mired in a love triangle and a murder trial. Kelly Pucci charts the rise of Chicago's first kingpin.

Carson's:

9781609497347

$21.99

Carson Pirie Scott and Company always enjoyed a sterling reputation in Chicago, even among the merchant princes of State Street. For more than one hundred years, in architect Louis Sullivan's stunning commercial masterpiece, Carson's stood shoulder to shoulder with retail icon Marshall Field's, establishing itself as an anchor of contemporary style. It was a place that brought the world to the Midwest, from Parisian fashion to the authentic ambiance of the Mediterrenea dance numbers and the Santa's Village displays. Relive the friendly shopping experience that has kept the Carson's name alive for over a century and a half.

Old Joliet Prison

9781467147361

$21.99

In 1857, convicts began breaking rock to build the walls of the Illinois State penitentiary at Joliet, the prison that would later confine them. For a century and a half, thousands of men and women were sentenced to do time in this historic, castle-like fortress on Collins Street. Its bakery fed victims of the Great Chicago Fire, and its locks frustrated pickpockets from the world’s fair. Even newspaper-selling sensations like the Lambeth Poisoner, the Haymarket Anarchists, the Marcus Train Robbers and Fainting Bertha became numbers once they passed through the gates. Author Amy Steidinger recovers stories of lunatics and lawmen, counterfeiters and call girls, grave robbers and politicians.

Cover image for Old Joliet Prison, isbn: 9781467147361

Illinois' Haunted Route 66

9781626192522

$21.99

Route 66 is no longer the main thoroughfare between Chicago and St. Louis, but if local lore is to be believed, ghostly traffic along the Mother Road continues unabated. Janice Tremeear chases down accounts of a man executed for witchcraft, the demon baby of Hull House and the secrets of H.H. Holmes's Murder Castle." Native American legends place the piasa bird in the skies above the highway's southern stretch with the same insistence that characterize contemporary UFO sightings in the north. In between, spirits such as Resurrection Mary join the throng of hapless souls wandering the roadside of the Prairie State's most famous byway."

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's North Side

9781596296442

$21.99

In 1929, Chicago gangster Al Capone arranged a special St. Valentine's Day delivery for his favorite arch enemies: a massacre. Seven North Side mobsters were left dead. Yet random killings and bizarre murders were not unfamiliar in Chicago. Tales of the city's most violent and puzzling murders make this gripping work truly hair-raising: a deranged stalker kills his love object and then himself; a sausage maker uses the tools of his trade to rid himself of his wife; and a meticulous serial killer cleans his dead victim's wounds before taping them closed. Through accounts dripping with mystery, gory details and suspense, Troy Taylor brilliantly tells the twisted history of Chicago's North Side's worst.

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's North Side

Silas Jayne:

9781596299689

$21.99

His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six. Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach.

Lincoln and Chicago

9781467151665

$21.99

Abraham Lincoln and Chicago both generate countless books, but this is the first in-depth examination of the actual relationship between the Prairie State's biggest city and its most famous citizen.

The Illinois Rail Splitter's influence can be felt across the Land of Lincoln, but his relationship with Chicago was pivotal in his journey to the national stage. Lincoln first came to Chicago in 1847, a year before the Illinois-Michigan Canal opened and brought spectacular wealth to the region. The Midwestern metropolis is where Lincoln would meet the backers that ultimately propelled him into the White House. Tens of thousands of Chicagoans viewed his coffin at its last stop before its final destination in Springfield. John Toman and Michael Frutig explore how the people of Chicago managed to get their man into power on the eve of the greatest crisis the nation had ever faced.

Black Hawk War Guide, A

9781467146098

$21.99

The Black Hawk War was the final conflict east of the Mississippi River between American Indian communities and the United States regular troops and militia. Exploring the museums, wayside markers and parks relating to that struggle is not just a journey of historic significance through beautiful natural scenery. It is also an amazing convergence of legendary personalities, from Abraham Lincoln to Jefferson Davis. Follow the fallout of the war from the Quad Cities on the Illinois/Iowa border, through the “Trembling Lands” along the Kettle Morraine and into the Driftless Area of southern Wisconsin. Pairing local insight with big-picture perspective, Ben Strand charts an overlooked quadrant of America’s frontier heritage.

Cover image for Black Hawk War Guide, A, isbn: 9781467146098

Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois

9781467147910

$21.99

Southwestern Illinois experienced a plethora of violence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Settlers and Native Americans clashed at the Wood River Settlement, while Abraham Lincoln dueled on a Mississippi River island. Racial strife led to the lynching of a Black schoolteacher in Belleville in 1903 and a deadly riot in East St. Louis fourteen years later. Benbow City was a latter-day Wild West town of saloons, gambling dens and brothels, and Pere Marquette State Park screened a cache of Nike missiles. From the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.'s killer to the mystery surrounding Jean Lafitte's grave, John Dunphy examines the bloody ledger of southwestern Illinois.

Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois

Chicago Artist Colonies

9781467143226

$24.99

For more than a century, Chicago's leading painters, sculptors, writers, actors, dancers and architects congregated together in close-knit artistic enclaves. After the Columbian Exposition, they set up shop in places like Lambert Tree Studios and the 57th Street Artist Colony. Nationally renowned figures like Theodore Dreiser, Margaret Anderson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan became colleagues, confidants and neighbors. In the 1920s, Carl Sandburg, Emma Goldman, Ernest Hemingway, Ben Hecht, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Clarence Darrow transformed the speakeasies and bohemian bistros of Towertown into Chicago's Greenwich Village. In Old Town, Renaissance man Edgar Miller and progressive architect Andrew Rebori collaborated on the Frank Fisher Studios, one of the finest examples of Art Moderne architecture in the country. From Nellie Walker to Roger Ebert, Keith Stolte visits Chicago's ascendant artistic spirits in their chosen sanctuaries.

The Chicago Water Tower

9781467144971

$23.99

Contaminated drinking water killed thousands of Chicago's original citizens, so the city took the unprecedented step of digging a tunnel two miles long and 30 feet below lake bottom. Since the facilities on shore included an unsightly 138-foot vertical pipe, famed architect William Boyington concealed it with a limestone, castle-like tower that soon became a celebrated landmark. Through the first 150 years of its existence, Chicago's iconic Water Tower has survived the Great Fire--the only public structure in the burn zone to do so--and at least four attempts at demolition. John Hogan pays tribute to the beloved monument that accompanied the evolution of Michigan Avenue from cowpath to Magnificent Mile.

Chicago Socialism

9781467141260

$21.99

In the United States, Chicago provided Socialism with a soapbox for firebrand speechmaking, a home for political exiles and a springboard for activism. When Josephine Conger-Kaneko began printing The Socialist Woman in 1909 and then ran for alderwoman in 1914, she could appeal to an audience and an electorate sympathetic to the Socialist Party in unprecedented numbers. Because Chicago was also a stronghold of the mercantile and political interests most dramatically opposed to the Socialist Party, the city frequently served as a pressure cooker for the nation's economic and ideological tension. That tension boiled over in incidents like the 1886 Haymarket Riot, the 1894 Pullman Strike and the 1919 Race Riots and continues to dictate the terms of engagement for contemporary protest movements and labor disputes. In this first comprehensive history of Socialism in the Windy City, author Joseph Rulli examines these major events through the largely unchronicled lives of the Chicago citizens who experienced them, from centennial garment workers to millennials with megaphones.

Chicago in 50 Objects

9781467146753

$21.99

When investigating the mysteries of Chicago's past, it's helpful to examine the physical evidence. From a fiddle played by a Chicago pioneer and a jersey worn by Michael Jordan to a relic of the Great Chicago Fire and the guns used in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, these talismans chronicle the city's tragedies and triumphs. Some heirlooms shed new light on familiar figures like Louis Sullivan, while others commemorate the contributions of less heralded visionaries like Frances Glessner Lee. Joseph Gustaitis explores Chicago's history through fifty carefully chosen objects, a collection that includes stockyard knives, the world's first portable radio and Nelson Algren's typewriter.

The Chicago Air and Water Show: A History of Wings above the Waves

9781596298378

$21.99

The largest such spectacle in the world, the Chicago Air and Water Show draws over three million people to the lakeshore for a weekend of low-key beach leisure and high-powered entertainment. Gerry and Janet Souter climb into the cockpit (and occasionally lean precariously out of it) to log the extravaganza's fascinating history. Even before the event became a beloved annual tradition half a century ago, visitors to the lakeshore had been treated to sights like the International Aviation Meet, attended by the Wright brothers and their daring competitors; World War II training maneuvers executed by pilots like President George H.W. Bush; and an ascension to world seaport status graced by a visit from the royal yacht Britannia. This book is for anyone who has ever participated in the show's glorious tradition and for those who haven't but who still would like to get a glimpse of the gut-thrumming majesty of the planes and learn what convinced comedian Bill Murray to jump out of one of them.

The Chicago Air and Water Show: A History of Wings above the Waves

Hidden History of Ravenswood and Lake View

9781609498672

$21.99

It's easy to get caught up in the hidden history of Ravenswood and Lake View, like the Harm's Park picnic that lasted fifty-four years or the political gimmickry of the Cowboy Mayor" of Chicago. Who can resist a double take over folk like the "Father of Ravenswood," who kept Chicago from falling to the Confederacy, or the "North Side's Benedict Arnold," who was sent to the electric chair during World War II? If you want to visit the days when the Cubs were the Spuds or debate whether Ravenswood is an actual neighborhood or just a state of mind, do it with longtime North Side journalist Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places."

Midwest Sweet Baking History

9781609493448

$23.99

Discover how the Midwest refined the nation's sweet tooth through a delicious mix of immigrant traditions and American ingenuity.

Chef Jenny Lewis dips a spoon into generations of homemade desserts and examines the inner workings of some of the biggest brands of the baking industry. Learn how to make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, witness the rise of Red Star Yeast, and plumb the secrets of the Kraft Oil Method, before sitting down to consume an engaging history in which Midwest beet sugar, vanilla cream and evaporated milk are mixed into a narrative of wars, social shifts, and politics. Encounter a rich medley of true stories and irresistible recipes from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan in this delightful collection.

Cover image for Midwest Sweet Baking History, isbn: 9781609493448

Lincoln's Old Friends of Menard County, Illinois

9781609497972

$14.99

At the age of twenty-two, Abraham Lincoln arrived in New Salem, Illinois, as a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy" (in his own words). He did not remain friendless for long. Meet the community that welcomed him: Bennett and Elizabeth Abell, the couple who guided him through heartache; Mary Owens, Elizabeth Abell's sister who helped educate him in the realm of the heart; Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster who helped teach him; Bowling Green, the jolly justice of the peace who allowed Lincoln to practice law before his court; and Slicky Bill Greene, who clerked with Lincoln at a frontier dry goods store. Making good use of primary sources overlooked by many historians, Dale Thomas helps flesh out the important story of Lincoln's formative years in Menard County."

Lincoln's Old Friends of Menard County, Illinois

The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy: The Golden Age of Aerialists

9781609497101

$21.99

Starting in the 1870s, the barns, icehouses, gymnasiums and empty theaters of central Illinois provided the practice sites for aerial performers whose names still command reverence in the annals of American circus history. Meet Fred Miltimore and the Green Brothers, runaways from the Fourth Ward School who became the first Bloomington-born flyers. Watch Art Concello, a ten-year-old truant, become first a world-class flyer, then a famous trapeze impresario and finally Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus's most successful general manager. The entire art of the trapeze--instruction, training, performance and management--became a Bloomington-Normal industry during the tented shows' golden age, when finding a circus flying act without a connection to this area would have been virtually impossible.

The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy: The Golden Age of Aerialists

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's South Side

9781596296978

$21.99

Lurking below the Loop, behind the industry-driven energy of Chicago, lies the mysterious criminal underworld of the South Side. Recounting criminal exploits of legends like Alphonse Capone, as well as lesser-known stories like the Car Barn Bandits, Troy Taylor captures the intricacies of the most infamous stories of Chicago's South Side. From the gruesome murders committed by the unassuming H.H. Holmes to the mysterious death of Marshall Field Jr., join Taylor as he revisits the South Side's prosperous middle-class days and vividly depicts the strange and horrific crimes that have cast new light on the character of these too often overlooked neighborhoods.

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's South Side

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's West Side

9781596296930

$21.99

Blazing from the West Side, the Great Chicago Fire left nothing but ashy remnants of the developing city, leveling its landscape but certainly not its spirit. While the West Side was home to the infamous O'Leary barn, it was also where news of some of the city's most gruesome and horrific crimes reverberated throughout the state and across the country. Read about the bloody end of Roger The Terrible"? Touhy, who, although he undoubtedly lived up to his name, met an ill-deserved fate. Troy Taylor also delves into the life of John Wayne Gacy, the depraved man masked by the clown costume, and yet again proves to be a master storyteller and historian of Chicago's criminal underworld."

Murder and Mayhem on Chicago's West Side

Murder and Mayhem in Chicago's Downtown

9781596296947

$21.99

In the company of author Troy Taylor, pull off the trick of coming back alive from some of Chicago's most infamous one-way rides." Meet the deadly womanizer Johann Hoch, who would propose to a woman within twenty minutes of meeting her and then poison her within a week. Follow "Terrible" Tommy O'Conner as he eluded the gallows for more than fifty years, until the city finally grew "tired of waiting" and dismantled them for the final time. Learn how even flower shops and cathedrals weren't safe from gangland violence, and relive the tragic fire at the Iroquois Theatre, where a "fireproof" curtain was made of cotton and did little to stop the blaze that killed more people than the Great Fire of 1871."

Cold War Illinois

9781467145022

$21.99

From Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan to chess matches and Nike missiles, trace the Illinois roots of prominent players in the longest and costliest conflict in American history. Discover a mobster's involvement in assassination attempts of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and how the nuclear age began at a college football field on Chicago's south side. Visit the graves of Communist Party leaders and the high-alert heritage of military bases across the state. Local author Christopher Sturdevant, chairman of the Midwest Chapter of the Cold War Museum, follows up his look into Cold War Wisconsin with its neighbor to the south in a fascinating tale of Illinois's role in the fight between East and West.

Haunted Macomb

9781596290976

$21.99

The Illinois town of Macomb is the perfect example of an old prairie town that has grown from an unforgiving frontier into a modern and diverse community in the twenty-first century. Since 1828, spirits of departed citizens have stubbornly remained dead above ground within the county. Meet the Woman in Black, who gave the coal-mining community of Colchester an additional burden of dread to the one they faced every day beneath the earth. Both kindness and suffering indelibly mark the old orphanage where the unselfish hands of Josie Westfall still care for unseen children. And then there's the presence of Belulah Wagle, the brutally murdered wife of a bootlegger, in the cemetery where her remains were finally laid to rest. Garret Moffett will guide you among witches and poltergeists in this expert tour of Macomb's haunted history.

Hoffman Estates

9781467146067

$21.99

In just sixty years, Hoffman Estates blossomed from a small bedroom community into the kind of commercial destination that draws commuters of its own. And while it has retained many of the institutions that were present at its inception, its very tradition of committed growth means that every year brings dynamic change. As the Village assumed a crucial role in the recent economic development of the Golden Corridor that runs northwest of Chicago, its leadership has been charged with stewarding expansion without compromising community. Marcos Reynolds traces that ongoing transition through the remarkable people and events that embody its living heritage.

Distilled in Chicago

9781467152280

$23.99

Follow the trickle of alcohol through Chicago's history, starting with the town's first three permanent businesses: the Wolf, Green Tree and Eagle Exchange Taverns. Stir together stories from the Peoria Whiskey Trust and the temperance movement. The cocktails that lubricated the Levee District may have set up Chicago's first gangsters, but Prohibition-era bootleggers changed the city's identity forever. Post-Prohibition alcohol helped to create vast fortunes for Chicago-based families and corporations. Enjoy a thoughtful guide to Chicagoland's new wave of small-batch distilleries, which are adding a distinctive note to the city's well-established flavor profile. From the mash in pioneer stills to the Malört in a hipster's shot glass, David Witter explores how liquor has influenced nearly two centuries of Chicago's existence.

King of the Gold Coast:

9781609493202

$21.99

Chicago's breathtaking Lake Shore Drive, with its beaches and luxury homes, has its origin in a neglected marsh and a clandestine land development. Meet the uncrowned king of the disputed shore, George Wellington Streeter, the outlandish swindler, unlikely hero and self-proclaimed founder of the Gold Coast who tried to secede from the state of Illinois. Opposing him was the quiet vision of Potter Palmer and the full weight of his investment syndicate. With this keen piece of investigative history, Wayne Klatt uncovers the secrets that both sides of the conflict managed to keep in spite of lawsuits, state inquiries, a presidential forgery and two murder trials.

Remembering McDonough County

9781596298385

$21.99

Established in 1826, McDonough County, Illinois, has experienced fascinating changes since pioneer days, including the gradual disappearance of some small communities and rural neighborhoods. Remembering McDonough County focuses on the local tradition of notable storytellers and historians as it reflects the county's strange and colorful, poignant and meaningful earlier days--in Macomb, outlying communities, ghost towns, and wild areas. Award-winning author John Hallwas sketches memorable figures like pioneer storyteller Quintus Walker, Macomb newspaper editor W.H. Hainline, and Bushnell poet Marian Stearns Curry, and he depicts beloved, legendary, and sometimes mysterious places like Vishnu Springs, Gin Ridge, Ragtown, and Scott's neighborhood. Along the way, he portrays the racehorse and Civil War hero Chickamauga, the frightening Gooseneck Ghost, and the long-forgotten Crooked Creek Terror.

Hidden History of Uptown and Edgewater

9781626191433

$21.99

If any place in Chicago has been all things to all men, it has to be the corner of the city that is occupied by Edgewater and Uptown.

Babe Ruth and Mahatma Gandhi found a place of refuge at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, but the locale has also been a sanctuary for Appalachian coal miners and Japanese Americans released from internment camps. Al Capone reportedly moved booze through a secret tunnel connecting the Green Mill and the Aragon Ballroom, ""Burglar Cops"" moonlit out of the Summerdale police station, and a ""Kitchen Revolt"" by some not-very-ordinary housewives sent once-invulnerable machine ward boss Marty Tuchow on his way to Club Fed. Ferret out the hidden history of Uptown and Edgewater with veteran beat reporter Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places..

Chicago Magic:

9781626191273

$21.99

By the end of America's Golden Age of Magic," Chicago had taken center stage in front of an American audience drawn to the craft by the likes of Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Cashing in on a craze that rivaled big-band mania, magic shops and clubs sprang up everywhere across the Windy City, packed in customers and put down roots. Over the last century, for example, Magic, Inc. has outfitted magicians from Harry Blackstone Sr. to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield. Magic was an integral part of Chicago's culture, from its earliest venture into live television to the card sharps and hucksters lurking in its amusement parks and pool halls. David Witter keeps track of the shell game of Chicago's fascinating magic history from its vaudeville circuit to its contemporary resurgence."