Having grown up in the Chicago area, I’ve always found complaints about vote fraud and political corruption pretty amusing. And as bad as it is now, it used to be worse.


So you think a politician is ripping off government property for private use? Bathhouse John Coughlin once absconded with an elephant from the Lincoln Park Zoo. (His excuse was the zoo had two elephants, and surely the taxpayers didn’t need to support both of them?). So he had one crated and shipped to his ranch in Colorado. Some governor messing around on the side? Well, ironically, most Chicago politicians were faithful to their wives, but Bathhouse John and Hinky Dink Kenna ran the notorious First Ward Ball every year, where the city brothels bought booths like vendors at a convention (puts a new light on the term “booth babe”). Rake-offs and kick-backs? Bathhouse managed to save around $20M from his $3/meeting salary as alderman. Vote fraud? The First Ward once managed to return twice as many votes as registered voters.


I found my copy of Lords of the Levee at a garage sale, and it’s an original 1943 hardbound, but the book has been reprinted in paperback. Because the original dates from 1943, it has some racist and sexist allusions that would never be tolerated in a modern book; but it is “authentic”. Full of interesting little anecdotes about why politics in Chicago is the way it is. ( )