The Chicago star., November 02, 1946, Star Special Supplement, Image 10

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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St. Valentine's Day 1929.
ff you think our city is plagued by corruption today - and
it is ~ read about the days when the GOP ruled and ruined Chi
cago and a triple alliance plundered the people.
By CARL HIRSCH
DANIEL, A. Serritella is a link
with the past.
In this election year 1946, with
talk of a “Republican sweep,”
Chicagoans might well remember
the name of Serritella, who typi
fied the last period of Republi
can control of our city.
That 15-year period ended in
1931. It was an era of corruption
so scandalous that even the 15
years that followed failed to ex
punge the stench.
* # #
THE REPUBLICANS rede
roughshod over the city and its
people. Covered by the screen of
gangland gunfire and the blaring
of political trumpeteers, a band
of swindlers sucked millions out
of the pockets of Chicagoans.
In those days, the city was
ruled by a sinister trio:
Samuel Insull, utilities mag
nate;
A1 Capone, gang chieftain
extraordinary;
Col. Robert R. McCormick,
.. reactionary publisher.
* * •
THE YEAR 1931 marked the
defeat of Mayor William Hale
Thompson, who had long since
ceased to run the corrupt politi
cal machine he had helped build.
In that year, Daniel A. Serri
tella, the Thompson-appointed
City Sealer, was sent to jail for
his implication in a $54,000,000
conspiracy to defraud Chicago
ans through short weights and
measures.
That was the end of an era.
The previous article in this series
traced the rise of the Republicans
to power and showed how the
city was taken over by Capone
and Insull.
* * •
WE SHOWED how Chicago
was riddled with corruption and
violence—how the city paid in
blood and cold cash for the fa
bulous Insull empire and for Ca
pone’s vast booze-gambling-vice
syndicate.
The event, however, that ex
posed the rottenness of the set
up and the hidden power of Col.
McCormick was the gang-style
slaying of Jake Lingle on June
9, 1930.
Lingle was ostensibly a Trib
une reporter for 18 years and the
paper’s "specialist on crime.” He
was waylaid in the Illinois Cen
tral underpass at Randolph
Street and killed with a single
bullet through the head.
* # #
IHE UPSHOT of the Lingle-
McCormick disclosures that fol
lowed tlje killing made the Colo
nel regret that he had made such
a howl about this blow at “free
dom of the press” and had of
fered a $25,000 reward for the
finding of the killer.
It turned out that Lingle
was the chief go-between for
the Capone gang and Mayor
Thompson’s Chief of Police,
William Russell, hand-picked
by McCormick.
The public clamor over the Lin
gle scandal forced the resignation
of Russell and his Deputy Chief,
John Stege.
* * #
THE WHISPERING about Lin
gle’s real connections soon be
came an uproar that even the
Colonel could no longer ignore.
On June IS, the Tribune said
editorially:
“Rumors have arisen regarding
Mr. Lingle’s relations with gang
dom. It has been said that he
was, in one fashion or' another,
an ally and that he was killed for
violating in some manner the
code of . . In justice
to the memory of Mr. Lingle, we
can say that during his lifetime
Mr. Lingle’s honor was not ques
tioned by the editor of the Trib
une.”
* * *
• Chief Russell had known Lingle
intimately for 20 years, and had
frequently remarked, “Jake’s like
a son to me.”
# # *
LINGLE was intimate with Ca
pone. He wore a diamond belt
buckle which was a gift from Ca
pone. And he frequently traveled
with the gang chief to Florida
and other lush resorts.
It turned out that Lingle was
the medium through which the
Capone mob and the city ad
ministration worked together
to maintain control of the
gambling, booze and vice
rackets against the “Bugs” Mo
ran-Aiello gang which was try
ing to muscle in.
On St. Valentine’s Day of 1929,
seven Moran mobsters were mow
ed down by machine guns in a
North Side garage. In the ten
days before the Lingle slaying, 11
of Capone’s enemies had been
killed.
# * *
THE LINGLE murder probe be
came so embarrassing that Col.
McCormick stepped in and had
his own attorney appointed “chief
investigator.” The Colonel chose
a young prosecutor in the State’s
Attorney’s office to convict Leo
V. Brothers, an obscure hoodlum,
of the crime. Brothers got eight
years. The Colonel’s hand-picked
prosecutor was Wayland “Curly”
Brooks, presently Republican U.
S. Senator from Illinois and a
down-the-line Tribune man.
Lingle was on the Tribune’s
payroll for $65 per week. But his
bank book for the period from
1928 until his death showed de
posits totalling $64,000.
Lingle was also a heavy looser
at the track and usually bet from
SIOO to SSOO a day. It was also
revealed that he had spent more
than $60,000 in the year in which
he was slain.
* * *
THE TRIBUNE MAN was the
recipient of all kinds of fancy
gifts from politicians and from
big La Salle Street operators.
Corporation Counsel Ettelson,
“unofficial mayor of Chicago”
was reported to have “loaned”
Lingle $5,000. An investigation of
Lingle’s accounts showed that he
had a joint stock market account
with Chief of Police Russell
which at one time amounted to
more than SIOO,OOO. This was
after the crash, In which Lingle