Second City Sinners: True Crime from Historic Chicago's Deadly Streets

by Jon Seidel, Frank Main Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times (Foreword by)

Overview

Countless criminals have made their mark on Chicago and the surrounding communities. Chicago Sun-Times journalist Jon Seidel takes readers back in time to the days when H. H. Holmes lurked in his "Murder Castle" and guys named Al Capone and John Dillinger ruled the underworld. Drawing upon years of reporting, and with special access to the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times archives, Jon Seidel explains how men like Nathan Leopold, Richard Loeb, and Richard Speck tried to get away with history’s most disturbing crimes.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493038459
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/20/2019
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jon Seidel has written about many of Chicago's most notorious crimes and criminals as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. He joined the newspaper's staff in 2012, and he was assigned in 2015 to cover the federal courthouse in Chicago's Loop. He is a winner of the Peter Lisagor award. Seidel was born in Pennsylvania but has spent the majority of his life in the Midwest, graduating from Indiana's Ball State University in 2004 before moving to Illinois.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Haymarket • Chicago's Bloodiest Day 3

Assassin • The Murder of Carter Harrison 25

Castle • The Legend of H. H. Holmes 39

Butcher • August Becker's Missing Wife 55

Bluebeard • The Many Wives of Johann Hoch 65

Letters • The Black Hand in Chicago 79

Tango • The Long Confession of Henry Spencer 87

Bomb • A Deadly Explosion at the Federal Building 99

Lucky • Tommy O'Connor's Getaway 107

Murderess Row 117

Part 1 "Dumpy" 118

Part 2 The "Chic" Divorcée 131

Part 3 "The Prettiest Woman Ever Tried for Murder in Chicago" 141

Part 4 "Beauty Is Happiness" 150

Kidnapped • The Thrill Killing of Robert Franks 157

Debonair • The FBI Suffers Its First Casualty in Chicago 181

Scarface • Al Capone, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and Taxes 199

Biograph • John Dillinger's Bloody End 221

Lipstick • The Tale of William Heirens 239

Hell • Richard Speck and Eight Innocent Nurses 263

Epilogue • "So Long, Chicago" 285

Acknowledgments 287

Sources 289

Suggested Reading 313

Index 315

Editorial Reviews

09/30/2019

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Seidel has gathered the stories of the Windy City’s most notorious 19th- and 20th-century murderers, from the Haymarket Affair in 1886 to Richard Speck’s horrific murder of eight student nurses in 1966, in this earnest, well-researched crime collection. The author covers a number of now obscure cases, including that of the merry murderesses Beulah Annan (“Chicago’s prettiest slayer”) and Belva Gaertner (the “chic divorcée”), whose crimes inspired police beat reporter Maurine Watkins’s 1926 play Chicago, which was subsequently turned into a perennially popular musical. Another highlight is “Terrible Tommy” O’Connor’s daring prison escape, which became the basis for the 1928 Broadway play The Front Page. Some readers may wish that Seidel devoted less space to such prominent gangsters as Al Capone and John Dillinger and more to lesser-known but no less deadly villains. Newspaper quotes from the 20th century’s early decades enliven the text, demonstrating “a style of crime reporting that is at once anachronistic and beautiful” and which gave way, later in the century, to much less colorful coverage. True crime buffs will find plenty to enjoy. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

If I’m reading about Chicago's most notorious crimes and criminals, I’m looking no further than veteran journalist Jon Seidel, the go-to writer if you want to delve deep into the Second City’s most violent and fascinating true-crime stories. We’ve heard of these sociopaths and read their stories before, but Seidel captures the era, vibe, and forgotten nuances in each case with the finesse of a novelist and verve of a journalist who knows his business. Exciting and fresh. A page-turner of high merit.”

—New York Times bestselling investigative journalist M. William Phelps

“Jon Seidel has covered Chicago crime long enough to know where the bodies are buried and, in most cases, who put them there. He’s the perfect guide for this bloody, smartly written history, which helps explain why the Second City has so often been first in crime.”

—Jonathan Eig, New York Times best-selling author of Get Capone

“Jon Seidel takes us on a rollicking journey through Chicago's annals of infamy. Second City Sinners is mesmerizing reading for those drawn to true-crime stories or tales of the Windy City. Thrills and chills await on almost every page."

-Tom Stanton, New York Times best-selling author of Terror in the City of Champions

“Jon Seidel delivers an exquisitely written, detailed account of some of the Windy City’s most notorious mobsters, infamous murderers and malevolent malcontents—a must read for all fans of true crime and true Chicago.”

—J. North Conway, author of King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878 that Shocked America

"In this gripping thrill-ride through the back alleys of Chi-Town, Jon Seidel utilizes the archives of the Chicago Daily News - and his keen sense of prose - to chronicle the stories of infamous killers H.H. Holmes, Richard Speck, Al Capone and many more. As thorough as it is captivating, Second City Sinners deserves a spot on every True Crime aficionado's book shelf. Highly recommend!"

- Jesse P. Pollack, author of Death on the Devil's Teeth and The Acid King.

From the Publisher