Tag: Illinois
Someone Kept Poisoning This Chicago Family With Arsenic
A Chicago family was struck again and again by arsenic poisoning in the spring of 1907, leaving police to wonder who was trying to wipe…
Chicago Heiress Took Vows of Silence Hoping to Cure Her Deaf Brother
Mary Holway had wealth, youth, and a comfortable place in Chicago society. Then, at twenty-five, she gave it all up. Before the altar of a…
Dancing Teacher Found Dead on Illinois Railroad Tracks
In September 1913, the discovery of a mangled body on railroad tracks outside Chicago appeared at first to be a tragic railway accident. But a…
Poisoned Prison Liquor Kills Four Convicts at Joliet Penitentiary
Behind the walls of Joliet Penitentiary, the search for escape did not always mean files, tunnels, or midnight breaks across the prison yard. Sometimes it…
Illinois Farmhouse Fire Failed to Hide Double Murder
On a large farm near Mason City, Illinois, a wealthy elderly couple lived with money close at hand and suspicion close behind it. John P….
Escaped Joliet Convict Captured Near Chicago
In October 1912, an escaped convict’s run for freedom came to an end not because of a betrayal or a clever trap, but because he…
Suitcase Bomb Wrecks Chicago Federal Building Entrance
On September 4, 1918, as Chicago moved through another tense wartime afternoon, a blast tore through the Adams Street entrance of the city’s massive Federal…
When 84,000 Bottles of Milwaukee Beer Were Dumped Into the Sewer
When 84,000 Bottles of Milwaukee Beer Were Dumped Into the Sewer In 1919, as Prohibition tightened its grip across the United States, beer did not…
Three Die as Auto Hurtles into a Swamp
The following gruesome accident happened in Gary, Illinois, in 1915 when a car skidded from the road and into a swamp. The details at the…
Child leased and placed into servitude for $5 a year in Illinois
Below is a 1905 report about a nine-year-old girl who is placed into servitude for $5 a year. That money goes to her “father.” The…
