Based on Richard Lindberg’s forthcoming book Citadels of Sin, the author takes us back to Gilded Age and Progressive Era Chicago to explore the infamous criminal “Levee” vice districts. Featured are notorious but colorful incidents and characters including the Everleigh Sisters and Big Jim Colosimo who were permitted to operate disorderly houses, gambling dens, illicit saloons, and dance halls within the confines of a “restricted” district just a few blocks from Prairie Avenue. The theory being that a sanctioned (“segregated”) vice district would not spread outward to threaten quiet, residential neighborhoods.
Modern organized crime – the Chicago “Outfit” and Al Capone – had its roots in the South Side Levee, although there were other nearby city Levees at the same time on the North and West Sides and in Hammond, Indiana. By 1920 however, most big city American vice districts were formally dispersed and closed by municipal decree.
In words and pictures, Lindberg provides intriguing stories and solves the 120-year-old mystery of the death of Marshall Field Jr., rumored to have been fatally shot inside the Everleigh Club in November 1905.
Richard Lindberg is a lifelong Chicagoan, an author, journalist, and research historian who has written and published seventeen books dealing with aspects of city history, politics, criminal justice, sports, and ethnicity. He is a past president of the Society of Midland Authors. Titles include Chicago Yesterday and Today, Chicago by Gaslight, and The Gambler King of Clark Street.
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