As dice start to roll legally in Chicago, a look back at the city’s underworld gambling history
By Ron Grossman
Chicago Tribune
Published: Dec 03, 2023 at 5:00 am
With dice rolling across the craps table at Medinah Temple, it may be worthwhile to recall that unsanctioned gambling long flourished in Chicago, giving rise to Patrick Healy’s admonition when legal casinos in Chicago were discussed in 1983.
“You might as well bring back Al Capone,” said the head of Chicago’s Crime Commission.
Capone died in 1947. But the Tribune’s archives are replete with accounts of the illicit gambling and casinos over the decades when Capone and Chicago were synonymous the world over.
Capone came to Chicago in 1919 at the invitation of Johnny Torrio. They had shared a mobster’s apprenticeship on New York’s mean streets.
Torrio had moved here to be an assistant to Big Jim Colosimo, whose eponymous restaurant was a favorite of high society and the demimonde. Its origins were a humble joint on South Wabash Avenue where blue-collar workers gambled away their paychecks. In 1913, Big Jim remade it into a glamorous nightclub decorated in rose and gold and with an elevating stage where showgirls pranced.
“You saw thieves and gamblers and crooked coppers and lords and dukes of the badlands,” a Tribune reporter noted. “But you could see, too, millionaires and merchants and bankers and novelists and teachers of kindergarten.”
Torrio had moved here to be an assistant to Big Jim Colosimo, whose eponymous restaurant was a favorite of high society and the demimonde. Its origins were a humble joint on South Wabash Avenue where blue-collar workers gambled away their paychecks. In 1913, Big Jim remade it into a glamorous nightclub decorated in rose and gold and with an elevating stage where showgirls pranced.
“You saw thieves and gamblers and crooked coppers and lords and dukes of the badlands,” a Tribune reporter noted. “But you could see, too, millionaires and merchants and bankers and novelists and teachers of kindergarten.”
One was the Hawthorne Smoke Shop at 4837 W. 22nd St. in Cicero, and subsequently at other locations in that suburb. As its moniker suggests, it appeared to be a cigar store. But as an FBI agent’s deposition notes, the profits didn’t come from stogies and breath mints:
“The business consisted of taking bets on horse races, roulette wheel, craps and poker. There were approximately 40 to 50 people employed in the business.” There was a branch operation in the nearby Hawthorne Race Track, and no doubt about who the owner was.
The 22nd Street casino was raided on May 16, 1925, by sheriff’s deputies accompanied by the president of a Cicero citizens organization, a local man of the cloth. Capone showed up in his pajamas and threatened the commanding deputy: “This is the last raid you will ever pull.” He took the citizens’ leader aside.
“Reverend, can’t we get together?” Capone asked. “I give to churches. I give to charity.”
Rest of the Story can be found at Chicago Tribune here:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/hist...03-p4ujxyrberejrmah4khlysox44-story.html
