eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Debunking the popular idea of organized crime as a uniquely Italian enterprise, Corsino delves into the social and cultural forces that contributed to illicit activities. As he shows, discrimination blocked opportunities for Italians' social mobility and the close-knit Italian communities that arose in response to such limits produced a rich supply of social capital Italians used to pursue alternative routes to success that ranged from Italian grocery stores to union organizing to, on occasion, crime.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252096662 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 11/15/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 184 |
| Sales rank: | 700,207 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Neighborhood Outfit
Organized Crime in Chicago Heights
By Louis Corsino
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-09666-2
CHAPTER 1
CHICAGO HEIGHTS AND ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago Heights was a twentieth-century city. The defining movements of the century—urbanization, industrialization, and immigration—tell much of the city's history and provide an understanding of the social conditions leading to the emergence of organized crime. With this in mind, we take a brief look back at these historical developments as they played themselves out in the Chicago Heights context. Following this, we trace the history of the vice operations in Chicago Heights from their beginning in the early 1900s, to their union with the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s, to their ascendance and decline throughout the remainder of the century.
Chicago Heights: A Brief History
Urbanization came late to Chicago Heights. When it did, however, it came on suddenly and powerfully. Originally the home to a number of Eastern Woodland Indian tribes, this pristine prairie land did not have its first white settlers until the 1830s. For the next several decades, the settlement, then known as Thorn Grove, grew slowly as Scotch-Irish and German immigrants, as well as pioneers from the southern states, displaced the few Pottawatomi Indians still remaining in the area. Even when the village itself was invaded by the Joliet and Northern Indiana railroad line in 1853 and the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad in 1869, it remained "primarily rural and peaceful." Indeed, in 1884, Andreas characterized the area as a "happy rural village, contented, peaceful, and industrious."
Yet, as the combined forces of capitalism and industry took hold, the village would hardly be left "to the sole enjoyment of its present limited population." The crossing webs of rail lines, switching stations, and water tanks gave hints of a vastly different future for the area. While the population of the village stood just under 1,500 in 1895, by 1910, that number had increased to 14,525. And whereas not twenty years previous, one could stand downtown and view "nothing but a vast expanse of prairie in every direction, dotted here and there with a farm house," by 1910, residential neighborhoods, paved highways, street cars, and manufacturing plants dominated the area. "A hundred mammoth smokestacks rear their heads above 40 rumbling busy factories, while the hum of wheels and the grind of metal on metal rises all day long." In such a short period, the "bliss of country life" had been replaced by a far more concentrated collection of industrial plots, residential developments, and commercial establishments. As Candeloro and Paul put it, Chicago Heights experienced the rapid transition from "sleepy village to industrial city."
This increase in size and land use density was accompanied by a more diverse, residential population, at least in Eurocentric terms. Specifically, the long-time native, white settlers were now joined by an influx of immigrants from throughout Europe. And to a lesser extent, there was also a stream of African American residents from the rural south. Thus, by 1910, the city was more "foreign" and ethnically heterogeneous. Table 1.1 provides some indication of this new diversity. Immigrants or the children of immigrants—primarily from Italy, Russia, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hungary, and Sweden—were now added in large numbers to the mix of local residents.
In less than twenty years, then, the village of Thorn Grove (by this time, the name of the village had been officially changed to Bloom) had largely been reconstituted. In terms of the three-fold, classic definition of urbanization, it had undergone a nearly ten-fold increase in population size; it had become a compact, dense conglomeration of factories, businesses, and houses; and now there was a heterogeneous mix of residents with nearly three-quarters of the population foreign born or with at least one parent born in another country. Similar to other neighboring towns in the area, Chicago Heights had become an "instant city."
This urbanization, however, did not proceed on its own. It was also a product of the rapid rise in industrialization and capitalism at the beginning of the twentieth century, especially in the booming Chicago metropolis. As the fastest growing big city in the nation, Chicago was soon becoming an obstacle to its own growth. Industrial capacity in the central city was hampered by the lack of cheap land close to modes of transportation. At the same time, for much of the decades of the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago was the leading center of labor activism and radical, anticapitalist thought. For such reasons, a number of investors turned to the nearby suburbs in search of cheap, undeveloped land—away from the Chicago tenements and radical political organizing efforts. "All of these controversies and strikes that we have had here for some years ... have prevented outsiders from coming in here and investing their capital," complained one Chicago contractor. "It has drawn the manufacturers away from the city, because they are afraid their men will get into trouble and get into strikes.... The result is, all around Chicago for forty or fifty miles, the smaller towns are getting these manufacturing plants."
The Village of Bloom was one of these smaller towns and proved especially attractive, given that it was already served by the Joliet and Northern railroad and the Chicago & Eastern Illinois line. However, Bloom (as well as other suburban locations such as Waukegan, Elgin, Aurora, and Joliet) became an even more desirable site with the completion of the Chicago Outer Belt railroad line in 1887. Built by U.S. Steel, this line ran a huge circle around Chicago, crossing and connecting every rail line entering the main Chicago Terminal. Passing just south of the Bloom Village center, the Outer Belt gave the area tremendous rail access to markets and industrial sites both locally and within the nation as whole.
But as the Chicago Heights Star was to state years later, "Chicago Heights didn't get to be an industrial city by accident." Nor was this growth simply a result of disembodied social and economic forces. This push toward an industrial community was driven by a group of investors (bank executives, real estate brokers, manufacturers, lawyers, and capitalists) who formed and were stockholders in the Chicago Heights Land Association. This association was one of the first to see the potential in the area for the establishment of a large industrial presence so geographically close, yet so socially and politically removed from Chicago. Engaged in the highly speculative but vastly profitable practice of land acquisition and town development, the association purchased 1,260 acres of land from a group of local promoters in 1891. Led principally by Charles Wacker, well-known Chicago developer, and Martin Kilgallen, the general manager and acclaimed "father of Chicago Heights," the association divided the land into industrial sites and four thousand residential lots. Over the next decade, Wacker and Kilgallen worked diligently to attract factories to the city under the exceedingly blunt advertising slogan, "Chicago Heights: The Men, the Land, the Money." These efforts included convincing local leaders to incorporate as a village, which they did in 1892, and to change the name of the village to Chicago Heights—this latter to promote the connection to Chicago and to emphasize the healthy, flood-proof qualities of the area. At the same time, Wacker and Kilgallen literally "set up shop" in the city and through a series of promotions and inducements in the forms of free water, free bricks, and favorable terminal transfer rates were able to attract a diverse collection of industrial plants—manufacturing everything from boxes, pianos, bricks, steel, pony wagons, chemicals, school supplies, cotton-baling machines, automobiles, mirrors, railroad cars, paint, horse collars, and zeppelins.
The rise of Chicago Heights as an industrial center was impressive. By 1909, Chicago Heights had close to eighty industrial facilities. Again, this is particularly noteworthy given that the first major industrial plant, Inland Steel, did not agree to locate within the city boundaries until 1893. Chicago Heights's reputation as a blue-collar, industrial city was also impressive in terms of local labor force participation. Though the total population of the city was only 14,525, the city's industrial plants employed 4,444 people. While these numbers are dwarfed in absolute terms by cities with larger populations, they nevertheless indicate the extent to which Chicago Heights had been transformed into an industrial city in such a short period. And if we leave aside the boosterism, we can understand why a common slogan in these early years proclaimed Chicago Heights "the best manufacturing city of its size in America."
As suggested, the industrialization of Chicago Heights was accompanied by a strong immigration surge into the city. The availability of factory jobs, on the one hand, and the forces of chain migration, on the other, combined to transform the ethnic composition of the city. In 1910, foreign-born whites constituted 42 percent of the city's population. What is particularly striking is the changing character of this immigrant population. Where previously the Scotch-Irish and Germany immigrants dominated the area and the local institutions, over 75 percent of this second wave of immigration came from Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Italy. And within these national boundaries, we find a complex mix of immigrants with Lithuanian, Polish, Jewish, Bohemian, and Slovakian ethnic and cultural ties. When the sizeable number of immigrants from Greece, Hungary, and Mexico and the beginnings of an African American presence are also accounted for, it is clear that Chicago Heights had become, if not a melting pot, then a culturally heterogeneous city.
In particular, the immigration of Italians to Chicago Heights was most pronounced and had the most long-term impact on the city. There were just a "handful of people" of Italian ancestry in Chicago Heights before 1890 (apparently a handful was too little to claim the existence of the Mafia, even for the Chicago Tribune). However, by 1900, this number had increased to just over 300 and, as already indicated in table 1.1, at least 3,224 residents (native white with parentage from Italy plus foreign born from Italy) were of Italian ancestry by 1910—a ten-fold increase. For Illinois cities over 10,000 people, Chicago Heights ranked only behind Chicago (72,846) in terms of the absolute number of residents with an Italian ancestry and well ahead of the next largest concentrations of Italians, Joliet (1,552) and Rockford (1,445). With respect to percentages, Chicago Heights was clearly the most Italian city in the state and one of the most Italian cities in the country.
By the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century, Chicago Heights was well on its way to becoming a city with a substantial Italian population and identity. Fueled by the dominant forces of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration, the development of Chicago Heights and an Italian presence went hand in hand. These forces, moreover, played a significant role in the daily lives of Italians once they came to reside in the city. Most significantly, choices about where to reside were largely molded by these social and economic processes. Upon entering Chicago Heights, Italians (and most other southern and eastern European, African American, and Mexican ethnic groups) were relegated to live in one of two sections of the city—namely, the East Side or the Hungry Hill areas. The East Side was located east of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad lines between Tenth and Twenty-first streets. The Hungry Hill (or the Hill) area was situated in the southeast section of Chicago Heights, with the dominant Italian presence along Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Twenty-third streets—dubbed by locals as "Macaroni Boulevard."
To suggest that Italians, or other ethnic groups, were relegated to live in these areas might be a bit harsh. There were certainly elements of choice based on kinship ties, a sense of campanilismo, distance from employment, and the like. Yet, these choices were themselves heavily circumscribed. Specifically, as the population of Chicago Heights increased dramatically at the turn of the century, affordable housing was in short supply. And as the city population "spiked" in the years immediately proceeding World War I, the housing shortage led homeless workers to hound "the Star offices in search of lodging for their families." Predictably, the costs of housing increased and new immigrants were forced to locate, whatever their preferences, in the most affordable housing located near the industrial plants on the east side of town.
At the same time, it may not stretch credibility to argue that the creation of these East Side ethnic enclaves was a part of the larger industrial plan of the Chicago Heights Land Association. Thus, the architects of this plan presumably were aware that building a residential community whose homes were intertwined within a maze of steel mills, chemical plants, and railroad switching yards would appeal only to those with the least amount of resources to live elsewhere. Somewhat benignly, these architects may have been aware that most immigrants needed to live close to work because of limited transportation options. More likely, they were oblivious to the housing needs of the immigrant population, especially if Goodspeed is correct in stating that "the policy of the land association has been to keep the factory district segregated from the residential part of the town." Apparently, the extensive East Side housing planned by the Land Association was not counted among the "residential part" of the town. For whatever reasons, then, the creation of the densely populated, immigrant-rich East Side and Hungry Hill areas of Chicago Heights were predictable, if not intentional, outcomes of the larger industrial objectives of the planning association.
Finally, the character and dynamics of the immigration process itself contributed to these enclave developments. At least in the early years, the majority of Italian immigrants were single men. Even by 1910, more than 60 percent were men. Many came to the city as classic "birds of passage" or immigrants "who would work until they either had earned enough money to bring their wives and families over to America or, if they were single, when they had earned enough to send for a pre-arranged wife." And some, no doubt, came for the sense of adventure and roguishness that America offered. Whatever the precise reasons, residential accommodations were most likely secondary. As Vecoli suggests, a number of these Italian immigrants in Chicago Heights lived in "barracks-like boarding houses." In the Hungry Hill area, it was not uncommon for as many as fourteen men to share accommodations on a round-the-clock basis such that while some were at work others slept in their beds.
The 1920s started out much like the previous decade. The city's population continued to expand from 14,525 to 19,653; the number of industries increased from 80 to 103; and the number of industrial wage earners increased from 4,444 to 6,621. And Italian immigration, after coming to a virtual standstill during World War I, experienced a postwar rush in the years immediately after the war. Optimism about Chicago Heights ran so high that city planners envisioned the emergence of Chicago Heights as one of Illinois's largest municipalities.
However, before the decade of the 1920s had run its course, the major social and demographic patterns established at the very beginning of the century changed dramatically. Population growth slowed, industrial development stagnated, and immigration, especially from southern Europe, came to a halt. A number of factors combined to bring about these changing fortunes. Thus, at the beginning of the decade, city fathers sought to moderate growth for fear that rapid change would destabilize the community and create a boom town with an inevitable decline. At the same time, the national Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924, and subsequent modifications, sharply curtailed the flow of immigrants into the country by establishing quotas for certain nationality groups, a good many of which were the southern and eastern European groups that had fueled the emergence of Chicago Heights over the past decade. And the Great Depression of 1929 set into motion a string of bank failures, factory closings, and job layoffs that continued until the beginning of World War II. Thus, between 1920 and 1930, the city population grew to 22,321—a 14 percent increase. However, between 1930 and 1940, the population increased to only 22,461—a less than 1 percent gain. In 1930, Chicago Heights vied with just a handful of Illinois communities (Melrose Park, Brookfield, and Chicago) for the highest rate of unemployment for cities over 10,000 people. And it was estimated that anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of the city's residents were on relief during the height of the Depression.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Neighborhood Outfit by Louis Corsino. Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.