This story was a long time in the making and realistically too long for a blog post so I am including the link to the full story here. As a book lover myself, I was drawn to the story of Otto Funk, the most prolific book thief in Chicago history.  As most great stories, I had come across this one by sheer happenstance as I was researching an unrelated story concerning the Chicago Public Library.  It contains all the elements of a great play; obsession, mystery, tragedy and at times a darkly comedic tinge.  I could find very little written about Otto Funk with the exception of an article by David Hoyt which was published in the Summer 2012 edition of the University of Chicago magazine, “The Core”. The more I researched Funk, the more I wanted to know about his origins and motivations.  He immigrated to Chicago with his family at a time in which cheap labor was needed during the rebuilding of the city after the fire of 1871.  While the labor was needed, the influx of laborers, especially from Germany, were not necessarily given a hearty welcome and were for the most part mistrusted by the management and local government.  Keep in mind that Chicago’s Haymarket Affair had not occurred yet but was right around the corner. While many thought of Otto Funk as insane or a “crank”, as was the language of the time, it is impressive that somehow John A. Talbot as he later became known, pulled himself out of that life that his family found themselves in.   He had a propensity for learning and a literal obsession with books. Book Thievery Begins In 1878 Otto was arrested for stealing 200 valuable books from dealer Alex Klappenbach at No. 48 Dearborn Street, 1,300 volumes from Jansen McClurg & Co. and quite a few from bookseller L. D. Ingersoll in Arcade Court.  He was held to a Grand Jury where he was found to be insane and the case was dismissed.  It was in this case that the first clue to his original birth name of Anton was revealed by a handwritten note in the case file. Funk started to use the name of John A. Talbot or Talbut shortly after his first arrest for book theft.  He thought it necessary to change his name mainly because the Funk name was tarnished due to his recent larceny arrest and he also wanted to choose a name that was not quite so ethnic sounding (although he still spoke with a Polish/German accent).  It is under John A. Talbot that he was accepted at the University of Chicago in 1879 where he excelled in all of his studies and graduated as class Salutatorian.  He delivered the class oration on June 13, 1882, at 2 pm to a graduating class of 259 students (242 male and 27 female). [caption id="attachment_1117" align="alignright" width="300"] The first Chicago University that Funk graduated from.[/caption] In March of 1882 Funk applied to the Library for the position of night and Sunday reading room attendant and brought with him letters of recommendation from Mayor Harrison, the president, and one professor of the University of Chicago and one from a prominent physician.  Unfortunately, there were no openings at the time and Funk took a very short-lived teaching position in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He returned in the fall of 1883 and started working in the library reading room on September 4, 1883, and enrolled in the Chicago Medical College.   The Chicago Public Library during Funk’s tenure was a temporary location that existed inside of an empty water tower in the center of the temporary city hall.  The location was given the nickname “The Rookery” because of a large number of pigeons that would commonly roost there.  Later, in 1888, Daniel Burnham and John Root would create the still extant Rookery Building on the same site.  Funk seemed to have severe issues with social cues and relationships and was released from his position at the library on October 25, 1884, for “incivility to visitors”. Chicago Librarian William E. Poole became suspicious when a large number of medical books were unaccounted for and Funk was a medical student.   It was when an attendant mentioned seeing Funk with a large number of medical books that he was approached and a few were found on his person.  He was arrested for the theft on Wednesday, January 21, 1885, and taken to the Harrison Street Police Station. [caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="225"] A bust of Chicago Librarian, William Poole at the Harold Washington Library.[/caption] As the Chicago police were unloading the thousands of volumes of stolen books at the new city hall, one officer noticed a plain pine box and suspected it might contain explosives.  Detective John Bonfield, who would later gain national attention with regard to Chicago’s Haymarket Riots, brought the device outside to the empty space between the city hall and county building.  A chemist conducted an examination of the box and Bonfield after about 20 minutes very gingerly opened the box which contained a loaded and cocked .32 caliber pistol which was connected to a crank that if activated would have ignited the 10 to 12 bars of dynamite which could have taken with it many lives and most of the building. Funk was eventually released on $2,000 bond supplied by his brothers-in-law, Anton Kortas and Joseph Dudzik.  Kortas posted the property that he owned at 666 Dickson Street and Dudzik posted the property he owned at 47 Blackhawk. Funk Purports to be a Doctor At roughly the same time that he was being “let go” by the library he was also under investigation by the Illinois State Board of Health for violations of the Medical Practice Act. The board received a complaint that a “J.A. Talbot” was practicing medicine at 1915 State Street in Chicago and was in violation of the Medical-Practice Act.  It was found that he was a student attending lectures at the Chicago Medical College and claimed to be practicing only as the assistant of Dr. Otto Wegner.  Dr. Wegner and Talbot were both warned that Talbot could only assist under the supervision of Dr. Wegner and that he was not allowed to practice on his own. Funk’s Plan for Revenge It wouldn’t be long before the authorities were on the hunt for Funk again but this time for something quite different from a book theft.  It seems that Funk had been behind the excavation of trenches on the University of Chicago grounds at night without the knowledge of the University. Funk was arrested on Wednesday, April 22^nd not only on suspicion but on evidence that was unreported to the public.  A blue work shirt was found among the excavating tools and a handkerchief was found in one of the pockets bearing the embroidered name of J.A. Talbot. While many of the faculty believed, especially since an explosive boobytrap was found among his stash of stolen books, that Funk intended to do damage to his former school, many of the students had a different theory. In fact, the mathematics professor, Alonzo J. Howe, believed that based on his knowledge of Funk (Talbot as he knew him) his intent was to murder a young woman who had rejected his affections.  The woman’s name was Jennie Isetta Gibson and she was the daughter of a conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad as well as a member of the junior class at the University of Chicago.  After viewing the layout of the trap that was set, it became obvious to him that Funk planned on taking a position near the observation tower where it would have been difficult to detect him but would give him a good overview of the grounds and could pull the traps doors from a distance and would be able to close them quickly and remotely thereby giving him complete control over his victim. [caption id="attachment_1119" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Criminal Courts Building during the Funk hearings.[/caption] Funk appeared in court in front of Justice Foote on the charge of malicious mischief.   Present in the courtroom were Lt. Bedell, Detectives Kipley and Treharne of the Cottage Grove Station, Professor of Mathematics Howe, a group of students from the University of Chicago as well as the father of Ms. Gibson who was the target of Funk’s affection and revenge. After hearing Funk’s testimony Justice Foote announced, “too much learning hath made him mad!” The justice held him on a bond of $500 that Funk was unable to post. In June of 1885, Funk was acquitted of all criminal charges due to him being found insane and was sent to the Elgin State Mental Hospital. Funk Escapes from the Insane Asylum On Wednesday, September 15, 1885, Funk decided that he was not insane and left the Elgin Asylum through an open window in his apartment.  Funk lived in an apartment on the first floor and in the front of the Elgin establishment. There were no bars on the window so it was fairly easy for him to slip out undetected. [caption id="attachment_1120" align="alignright" width="300"] The Elgin State Mental Hospital where Funk was sent to after his crimes.[/caption] Funk Heads to Harvard Otto Funk had no plans to return to the Elgin Hospital and with money given to him by his attorney and advise to leave town, Funk headed for New York.  The authorities in Chicago made no attempt to retrieve him and realistically were, more than likely, relieved to have been rid of him. The Harvard Divinity School had recently opened and Funk applied for and received a scholarship to attend.  He had used the same documents from prominent Chicago citizens that helped him secure employment with the Chicago Public Library years earlier but had fraudulently changed the dates on the documents from 1883 to 1885. He managed to barely make ends meet while living in Harvard University’s Divinity Hall and attending religious studies.  The administration at the University of Chicago heard rumors that Funk was a student at Harvard and informed the University of Funk’s real name and character.  Funk was called into Harvard President Charles William Eliot’s office and asked to leave the school.  His name was also removed from the University’s Catalog. Funk tried to sneak back into the University’s Divinity Library by borrowing the keys but was denied.   Soon hundreds of books were discovered missing from Harvard’s Divinity Library and police were called when Funk stole the overcoat of a fellow student.   Funk was apprehended and on the way back to Cambridge he escaped and stole a horse and carriage from a Dr. Wesselhoeft.  Funk fancied himself a doctor of sorts and probably had made the acquaintance of Dr. Wesselhoeft at some earlier time.  Funk attempted to disguise the stolen horse by shaving its mane and tail and changing its markings using silver nitrate to stain the white horse’s face and legs.  Funk was apprehended a second time and interrogated by Sgt. Harriman of the Cambridge Police Department.  Funk admitted to everything and based on conversations the police found a stash of 150 books hidden in Norton Woods behind the Agassiz Museum.  In addition, a package of 25 books were found ready to be shipped at the Sawin and Co.’s express station in Harvard Square and a trunk at the Old Colony Station in Boston contained valuable surgical instruments stolen from Dr. Wesselhoeft of Cambridge along with more books, a bottle of silver nitrate purchased at a pharmacy in Waltham and a tricycle stolen from a J.W. Hodgkins of Boston. [caption id="attachment_1121" align="alignleft" width="300"] Harvard's Divinity School Library.[/caption] The End of Otto Funk Funk was transported to the jail at the Brattle Court Police Station in Cambridge where he spent the night.  He seemed to be in decent spirits given his situation and had been checked on a number of times by the jail watchman and by Captain Thomas Lucy. The next morning, October 30, 1885, a jail watchman entered Funk’s cell to find him not breathing and without a heartbeat.  His body was still warm.  His body was transported to the offices of H.D. Litchfield, the Cambridge City Undertaker and the Medical Examiner determined his death was a suicide caused by taking a fatal dose of morphine which had been concealed within a secret sewn-in compartment in his vest.   On the package of poison was an inscription that was dated Oct. 10, 1884, and read, “Alexander the Great, always looking to his fate, carried poison concealed on his person.” Also contained in his clothing was a note written on blue paper which read, “Mr. Peabody:  Will you please forward my trunk to my sister Bertha Topel, 47 West Black Hawk Street, Chicago.  Tell her what has happened.”  The Mr. Peabody that Funk was referring to was Professor of Theology Francis Greenwood Peabody of the Harvard Divinity School. It was obvious that Funk had planned for this type of contingency in case he ever faced incarceration in either prison or another asylum. The authorities in Chicago learned of Funk’s death through the Cambridge Police Chief and sent an officer to the house of Anton Funk, Otto’s Father, at 666 Dickson Street.  As the officer explained the circumstances of Funk’s death there was absolutely no emotion on the 75-year-old man’s face.  The only words spoken by the elder Funk was, “Well, what can I do about it?” [caption id="attachment_1122" align="alignright" width="258"] Francis Greenwood Peabody, Professor of Theology, Harvard Divinity School.[/caption] Bertha Topel, Otto’s sister, was also notified at 47 West Blackhawk.  She initially received the news very calmly but then started to break down.  She sobbed, “We did all we could for him when he was here.  The first time he was arrested we raised over $300 to help him through.  I gave $65 and another sister $120, and we are not rich people.” Even if the family wanted to they couldn’t afford to take custody of Funk’s body and he was given a pauper’s burial at the Cambridge City Cemetery.  He was buried under his alias of John A. Talbot in an unmarked grave and pretty much lost to history until now. Anton Funk died almost two years after his son on October 24, 1887, and was buried in a term grave in the “Polish Cemetery” now known as St. Adalbert’s Cemetery in Niles, IL.  His daughters Bertha Topel and Frances Kortas joined him after their deaths and daughter Agnes Dudzik was laid to rest at All Saints. If you would like to read the longer version of the story with transcriptions of letters written from Otto Funk to his attorney and the State Mental Hospital click here.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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So here we go again!  Another deranged person shoots up a school and 17 lives are lost in a matter of minutes.  The Facebook profile pics change, both sides of the political aisles throw up their gauntlets, there is debate, grandstanding, outrage, political ads, people scream at Congress and try to place blame on something and you know what?  It’s natural. Frustration and emotions run high when human beings want to help but feel powerless. I don’t claim to have all the answers because this is a complicated issue.  I do believe, however, that people want something done and we should do something but are we really at a point now to look at the problem without emotion and political bias?  Are we all really ready to put our hands, feet, and wallets in a place to do something or do we just get over it again and wait for the next tragedy. Some of the suggestions I have would be political suicide if I were a politician.  Some of the suggestions might sound extreme or a little crazy but then again we are in a battle with evil and crazy. So before we can even have a discussion we have to agree on some core issues.

1. You can’t prevent every tragedy.

I know this sounds very simple but you always hear politicians say things like, “What can we do to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again?”  The answer is simple, you can’t.  Evil and Crazy will find a way, it is our job to make it harder for them.  We know much about hurricanes and tornados and can even make them illegal if we want but people still die.  We can try to minimize the death but we can’t prevent it.

2. Criminals break laws.

Again, a very simple concept but something we all need to understand.  Criminals don’t care about gun laws or any laws for that matter.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have them.  The laws are what allow us to arrest people after a crime is committed.  “After a crime is committed” is a key phrase here that will figure into many of the suggestions.   Since this is a very complicated issue and touches on so many tangential issues I will try to break it into three components.

1. Criminal Justice Reform                Mental Health Care              3.  Common Sense Gun Laws

 

1. Criminal Justice Reform

  Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, Eddie Johnson, whom I admire, stated in a news article that the police know by name the people who are responsible for 90% of the shootings in Chicago.   The problem is that the police arrest them and they are back on the street in no time.    This is either because witnesses don’t show to court or they are convicted and receive a slap on the wrist. We have a ton of gun laws on the books but we don’t take them seriously.  In fact, our criminal justice system rewards individuals who are just bad shots.  If you shoot at someone and miss you get a slap on the wrist.  If you shoot someone and hit them but don’t kill them you get another slap on the wrist, If you shoot at someone and kill them and it is your first offense, you get another slap on the wrist.   It is just crazy. So first off, any crime committed with the use of a firearm, even if that firearm isn’t discharged is automatically a 10-year sentence, period.  No time off for good behavior, or probation.  10 years away from civilized society and that means 3,650 days plus 2 for leap years.   A second offense is natural life, period. (Again, are we going to take this seriously or not?)  Yes, this is also going to cost a ton of money to confine these individuals but I ask you again, Are we serious about this? On top of that, if you commit a gun-related offense or another violent criminal act in possession of a firearm you open yourself, your residence, your business and your vehicle to lifetime, random searches by law enforcement to ensure that you are no longer in possession of any firearms.  (The ACLU and many others will have a problem with this one but oh well, again, are we serious about this or not?)  My argument is that if you cannot conform to the just laws of a society then you give up certain rights to ensure the safety of those who do live according to the law.  This applies to the residence even if other people live there and if you are a convicted gun offender you would be required to register for life with law enforcement so that they always know where you live.  Failure to register or update registration would be another offense with similar sentencing.   (We will have to probably open new landfills to accommodate the volume of illegal guns and other contraband that would be collected during these searches)

2. Mental Health Care

Mental Health Care is a HUGE issue all by itself.  There is so much under that umbrella.  We have neglected mental health care in this country for way too long.  People do not want to spend money on this.  It is also a very complicated issue with regards to the medical privacy laws and such and I get that.  First, we need to have more money in our budget to enable there to be enough mental health services available for those who cannot afford it and are the most vulnerable period. As far as gun ownership and mental health issues there should be a nationwide database accessible only by mental health professionals and law enforcement of those people who have been adjudicated a danger to themselves or others.  Suicidal and homicidal individuals should not have access to firearms.  Can they find other ways to kill themselves or others?  Yes.  Can they purchase firearms on the black market?  Yes.  But then again there will be fewer available on the black market if we had those random searches right? Again, in some cases, you just can’t stop crazy but you can make it more difficult for crazy.  

3. Common Sense Gun laws

We all know that it is illegal to murder someone with or without a firearm but I would like to see some common sense gun laws that would help everyone.  I am a big believer in the 2^nd Amendment but I am also a big believer in common sense. Any device that converts a semi-automatic weapon to a fully automatic weapon should be illegal period.  You don’t need an automatic weapon unless you are in a military situation.  You could always join the military if you want to have that kind of experience, I did.  Now maybe if you just want to have fun you can go to specific ranges that are set up for that but none of the weapons or magazines leave that site.  Then you can spend all the money you want on wasting a bunch of ammunition shooting at targets.   You can convert a semi-automatic weapon to fully automatic without purchasing a device but that is illegal as well.  So remember the 10-year sentence and natural life sentence for violation of gun laws?  They apply here as well. There should at least be a national, minimum background check for every citizen to pass before they are allowed to purchase a gun and then the States could also have their own version as well.  All of these databases should be shared as well as the Mental Health Database.  (I guess this is what some are considering Universal Background Checks but I am all for trying to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them.) There should be gun training involved in at least the first firearm purchase.  You have to go through Driver’s Education to drive a car.  You should know how to use safely the firearm you are buying. Any convicted felon of any kind should not have a firearm and any firearms purchased before the conviction have to be surrendered.  Many states already have this legislation but very seldom there is follow-up to ensure that the felon is compliant. High capacity magazines are silly and nobody but the military really needs them.  I was at the gun range yesterday and this guy walks up to the counter and says,” I would like to buy some high capacity magazines.”  The guy behind the counter was a range instructor and answered him with, “Why don’t you just learn to shoot?”   I laughed out loud.  I was a police officer for many years and never needed high capacity magazines.  I carried a Sig Sauer P220 and if I couldn’t get the job done with three magazines or 21 rounds then I needed to call out the National Guard. I do believe that soft targets like schools should have armed security.  If there are three entrances to the school then there should be armed security at each entrance.  Yes, it costs money (Again, how serious are we?).  It doesn’t have to look like a war zone.  Three guys or gals in plain clothes making sure the mentally ill former or current student with the AR-15 doesn’t get very far.  Let’s be serious, anyone with a death wish can kill people but we don’t have to make it easy for them. Anyway, I didn’t want to make this article too long and there are many debates to be had but we shouldn’t let the extremes on both ends of the spectrum paralyze us into doing nothing.  Let’s use common sense, get serious about gun crimes, address our mental health system by getting people care, protect our constitutional rights and protect our kids in school. God Bless and Be Safe   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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Much has been written about Dr. Herman Webster Mudgett and his murderous escapades in Chicago while using the alias Dr. H.H. Holmes.  Thanks to Erik Larson’s best-selling book and many other books and shows, the murderous con-man will be forever linked to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. [caption id="attachment_320" align="alignright" width="277"] Dr. Herman Webster Mudgett (H.H. Holmes)[/caption] What many don’t know is that Holmes’ murders also have a link to our celebration of Flag Day on June 14^th. One of Holmes’ more probable victims was a young girl by the name of Emeline Cigrand.  Emeline worked as a stenographer at the Keeley Institute in Dwight, Illinois which was a commercial medical facility for the treatment of alcoholism.   It was founded in 1879 by Dr. Leslie Enraught Keeley and Ms. Cigrand was his stenographer.  As fate would have it, Holmes’ business partner and future victim, Benjamin Pitezel was a patient there. After Pitezel was discharged, Ms. Cigrand was made a very lucrative offer of $18 per week to come work for Holmes as a secretary for his A.B. C. Copier Company.  She accepted, worked for Holmes for a period of time, and then suddenly disappeared.  Her family was surprised by announcements that she was going to marry a man named Robert Phelps in Michigan.  Phelps was never found but was physically described as looking suspiciously like Pitezel. One individual very interested and skeptical about Emeline's "wedding" was her cousin Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand.  At the time of Emeline’s disappearance and very probable murder, Dr. Cigrand was a practicing dentist on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago.  He, as well as her parents, believed that Holmes had murdered her although a body was never found. Before Dr. Cigrand became a dentist, he was a school teacher at Stony Hill School in Waubeka,  Wisconsin.  On June 14, 1885, he celebrated the first recognized observance of “Flag Day” by placing a small flag in an inkwell and asking students to celebrate June 14th as the flag's birthday.  From that point on, he fought for the recognition of Flag Day at the local, state and national level and became president of the American Flag Day Association and the National Flag Day Society.   He claimed to have given over 2,000 speeches on patriotism and the flag and was a regular contributor to five Chicago newspapers including the Chicago Tribune. [caption id="attachment_1131" align="alignleft" width="197"] Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand, founder of Flag Day[/caption] In 1916, Dr. Cigrand saw his dream realized when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14^th as “Flag Day”.  Congress later signed the June 14^th recognition into law in 1949. The Cigrand family was never given closure by Holmes even after he was awaiting his execution for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel.   They pleaded with him to disclose what happened to Emeline via mail to his jail cell and their pleadings fell on deaf ears. Holmes was executed by hanging on May 7, 1896, at Moyamensing Prison in Philadephia and buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in an unmarked grave.  Dr. Cigrand passed away on May 16th (strangely Holmes’ birthday) in 1932 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Montgomery, Illinois.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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In honor of the lives lost 17 years ago, I thought it would be interesting to post an article on where you can find tributes or memorials in Chicago.  It is hard to believe that if you are a high school senior you would not have any memory of that day.  I did find three locations in Chicago where you can find references to the tragedy. Tribune Tower – 435 N. Michigan Avenue [caption id="attachment_1138" align="alignleft" width="300"] A piece of metal from the World Trade Center[/caption] The former home of the Chicago Tribune Newspaper was completed in 1925 as the result of an architectural contest started in 1922.  The architects are John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood.  It is modeled on the Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral and the outer walls are adorned with relics of over 150 famous buildings or locations from around the world including the Great Wall of China and the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Included in the collection is a large piece of actual steel from the World Trade Center Towers.  While it is not a formal memorial it is a tribunal tribute of sorts.   Chicago Fire Academy – 558 De Koven Street [caption id="attachment_1137" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Chicago Fire Academy sits on the site of the start of the Great Chicago Fire.[/caption] The current Chicago Fire Academy opened in 1961 and is on the site of the O’Leary Barn/House where the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 began.  Inside the building is a tribute to the to the 343 New York firefighters who lost their lives as a result of the attacks of September 11, 2001.  The memorial consists of a poster with a portrait of every New York City firefighter lost as well as metal castings of Fire Helmets.  The memorial entitled, “Heroes of 9/11, A Luminary Tribute” was dedicated on September 11, 2006. [caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignleft" width="174"] A luminary tribute to the New York City firemen lost at the World Trade Center[/caption]                     Livingston Field Park -  2139 W. Lexington Street [caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignright" width="300"] A stone memorial to the Little League coaches lost in the North Tower of the World Trade Center[/caption] The Illinois Medical District agreed to lease and convert a vacant lot into a baseball field in the early 1990s after the Near North Little League lost their field.  In 2009 the site was transferred to the Chicago Park District.  The park is named after David O. Livingston who was a Korean War veteran and an executive director of the Illinois Medical District.   [caption id="attachment_1141" align="alignright" width="300"] Listing of names of those coaches lost on September 11, 2001.[/caption]   In the park, you can find a memorial headstone dedicated by the Near West Little League which honors the former Near West Little League coaches and sponsors who were working in and died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  The names on the stone include Andrew Anthony Abate, Vincent Paul Abate, W. David Bauer, Timothy J. Coughlin, George William Morell, Michael James Stewart, and Michael A. Uliano.  The inscription on the stone reads, “In final tribute to our former Little League coaches and sponsors working in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, New York City.  So do not get tired of doing what is good.  Do not get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.  Galations 6:9”.   There are many 9/11 memorials around the world and there is a registry page to search for memorials by location or keyword.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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This is not one of my usual Chicago history related posts but after the recent verdict of 2nd-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm leveled at Chicago Officer Jason Van Dyke, I felt it necessary and also therapeutic for me to give my opinions regarding the Jason Van Dyke trial and verdict. I was a gang/narcotics officer, a trained police “use of force” instructor, a master police firearms instructor and a police officer who, unfortunately, had to take someone’s life in the performance of his duties. I will never try to “armchair quarterback” another police officer’s decision to use deadly force or try to critique a judge, jury, prosecutor or defense attorney because I was not in the officer’s shoes at the time and I was not sitting in the courtroom during the trial or served on the jury. All I can do is talk about my experience, Illinois law the way it currently is written and how my experience may or may not intersect with what happened in the Laquan McDonald / Jason Van Dyke situation. First, I would like to explain my situation and this is still extremely difficult to write about or discuss. [caption id="attachment_1149" align="alignright" width="300"] West Chicago Police Officer kills man with knife[/caption] Back in November of 2003, sometime after 10:30 pm, my partner and I were conducting a surveillance of a suspected drug house on the north side of the city of West Chicago, IL. I heard over the radio that a subject was threatening several individuals with a hunting knife at a house party.  I heard fellow officers responding to the call but we continued with our surveillance assignment. After a few minutes, I heard officers state that the subject was leaving the house with a large knife and was ignoring officers’ commands to drop the knife.  We decided that we should end the surveillance and start heading in the direction of the incident in case the other officers needed assistance. While in the vehicle, we heard “shots fired” come over the radio.  We activated our lights and siren and when we arrived at the last location given by officers we saw several police cars and nothing else. I have to admit it was really strange.  I was expecting to see ambulances, yellow tape and lots of activity but instead, we experienced two seemingly abandoned squad cars and a weird quiet.  We could hear people yelling in the distance and ran toward that location.  I first laid eyes on the subject at this point and he was yelling that he wanted to die and that he was not going to go back to jail.  I could see him, or at least a silhouette of him, as it appeared as though he was trying to cut his wrist with the knife.  He then got up and started walking down the street again and I could see no blood on either of his wrists.    We caught up to the other officers and one of the officers, who was also a firearms instructor, told me that the subject had rushed at him with the knife and he had fired at him and was astonished that he either did not hit him or he was hit but it didn’t affect him.  In his words, it reminded him a little of the killer Michael Myers from the Halloween movies. We couldn’t see any blood on him and he was continuing to walk down the street swinging the knife.  Multiple officers tried to convince him to drop the knife but he would just simply yell obscenities at us. At this point, I requested that an ambulance be standing by in case we had to use deadly force.  They staged close-by but, as was the procedure,  would not arrive until we requested or the scene was secure. I ended up walking behind the subject whose name was now known to me (I can’t remember if I learned of it over the radio or from one of the other Officers).  His name was Patrick. I remembered telling other officers to stand off to the sides and not mask any of our fire in case there was a necessity to shoot.  At this point, Patrick stopped and turned around looking at me.  I estimated he was probably about 20 feet away or so.   We were all being careful to stay a good distance away from him for our safety.  I had my gun drawn and pointed down at a 45-degree angle. Patrick looked straight at me and yelled, “I can kill you at this distance, you know that don’t you?”  I replied that I was aware of that but that he really didn’t want to do that.  I told him that if he simply put the knife down we could talk about it.  I told him that as far as I knew he didn’t hurt anyone and none of the police officers wanted to hurt him. At this point, my gun was pointed at him with my eye focusing on my front sight post and my finger off the trigger.  Officers are trained, especially in stressful situations, to keep their finger off the trigger because you could be startled by anything from a truck backfiring to fireworks which might cause your finger to jerk and shoot someone accidentally. I was also looking at the ground to count sidewalk squares because I knew that when your adrenaline spikes and your heart rate goes up you sometimes lose your ability to judge distances correctly.  I was also looking behind him because I needed to know if I had a safe backdrop and didn’t accidentally shoot an innocent bystander in case I did have to use my weapon.  I could see a clear backdrop and the next thing crossing our path was a bank parking lot about 2 blocks away. Patrick then raised the knife above his head and acted as if he was going to rush me but stopped short.  My finger flexed as I suspected but was not on the trigger so no shot was fired. Patrick was extremely angry now and yelled, “What the F*** do I have to do to get you to shoot me!”  I yelled back that I didn’t want to shoot him and I just proved it to him. At this point Patrick started walking toward me very slowly with the knife pointed at me and yelling, “Shoot Me!” while slapping his chest.  I told him to stop coming at me and police officers are not trained to walk backward with a gun in hand for safety sake. I again yelled at him to stop and he yelled back, “What are you going to do about it?” At this point your senses are in overdrive, I remember telling other officers who were advancing from the sides to stop and stay back that he was getting too close.   I also realized that ultimately he was slowly leading us back to the scene of the original call, in a large circle, and might have plans to hurt someone back at the party. It was also a strange feeling because that morning I had just conducted a firearms training exercise for the department about the use of force against a subject armed with a knife. I could see Patrick’s face clearly and he stopped advancing but we were staring at each other’s eyes and the only way I could describe it, even then, was like a scene in an old western when an individual has made a decision and they squint.  At this point, he did rush me and I fired three shots in rapid succession. I didn’t hear the shots but I felt the pistol’s recoil.  It immediately got dark.  It was funny because even though I trained officers on the effects of “tunnel vision”, I didn’t immediately recognize that that is what I was experiencing.  Tunnel vision is your loss of peripheral vision because your blood is being immediately redirected to your heart, lungs and major muscles as a result of your body’s automatic response to a possible fight or flight situation.  Your heart rate goes from slightly elevated to over 200 beats per minute instantaneously. I saw him turn and fall almost immediately after I fired those shots and heard no noise from him and no blood was visible.  I told everyone to stay back because I had no idea if I had hit him and whether or not he was still a threat.  I did not continue to fire but covered him with my weapon as my partner kicked the knife away from him and we handcuffed him. We immediately told the ambulance to come out of staging and they were there very quickly they had only staged a block away.   The firefighter/paramedic, who I will never forget asked me if I was o.k. and I told him I was fine and it was the other person in custody who needed attention. I knew what was coming next because I trained others on what happens after a shooting.  It was now a homicide investigation and I was the perpetrator.  I surrendered my weapon and magazines because they were now evidence.  The subject was transported. (I had no idea what his condition was but knew if probably wasn’t good).  I was driven back to the station and I immediately called my wife to tell her what happened.  I told her I was ok but I was worried about the guy I had shot.  I went into a room where nobody else was and prayed to God that I hoped he would pull through.  I didn’t have any animosity toward him and I know even though he threatened me and tried to kill me that he didn’t know me and had no real animosity toward me. Any officer involved shooting that I hear about since then brings back terrible memories.  Anyone who thinks shooting someone is no big deal or killing someone even in the most justified situation is easy has never done it or is psychotic. I did not have to give a statement that night and rightfully so.  Even though I was supposed to be a tough guy, cop, former military I knew from my training that I was probably in shock and taking a statement from me at that time would be pointless.  I also knew that until the investigation was over I refused to read any media accounts and tried to avoid any conversation with any other officers that might cloud or affect my true memories of the incident.  Not all police officers are given that training. There were so many similarities between my situation and officer Van Dykes.  A subject swinging a knife and refusing to stop when there was a lawful reason to place him under arrest, his talking about stopping shooting to reassess the situation, the 45 degree angle of his gun at the time, his description of McDonald’s eyes and his concentration on the knife, the tears that he shed as he talked about the shooting and mine that are welling up as I am typing this. It is such a tragedy when someone’s life is taken by someone else.  I have no idea what Laquan’s mother, father or friends are going through.  I do have some idea what officer Van Dyke is going through but my situation was investigated by the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office and the DuPage County Major Crimes Task Force and my shooting was deemed justified with no charges being filed.  Van Dyke was just convicted of 2nd-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm but strangely not guilty of official misconduct.  After the investigation, I did look at media accounts and talked to other officers.  I was eventually told by one of the detectives who is still a friend of mine who told me that the ex-wife of Patrick called and told him that she wasn’t surprised by what happened and to tell the officer that he did what he had to do.  I openly started crying when I was told this. Unfortunately, this is the part of the article that is not going to be popular with most people who have seen the video of the shooting.  To be honest I have never seen a police shooting video that looks good.  No video ever of someone being shot looks good.  They all look bad. I remember being in the academy at the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois in Urbana.  We were covering the use of force and when you look at all the statutes and case law that surrounds a police officer’s use of force and especially the use of deadly force it can overwhelm and sometimes confuse a young officer enough for them to feel like they should never use deadly force which unfortunately for police officers could endanger their lives or their fellow officers’ lives. So, and I praise God for our instructors, they said that you could boil it all down to: "You use deadly force if believe your life or the lives of others are threatened and the threat is imminent or in other words the threat is “right now!”  This simplifies things pretty well and has helped so many officers to navigate the sometimes complex statutes that can confuse someone to the point of paralysis.  We were also taught that, generally speaking, if you act in a manner that is without malice and that you did what you believe a reasonable person would do that you would usually be in a good situation legally and civilly but not a guarantee. What some people may have a hard time understanding is that what Officer Van Dyke did was within the guidelines of a peace officer’s use of force in the Illinois Statutes.  While I believe that I may not have handled everything exactly the way that Officer Van Dyke did and I definitely wouldn’t have tried to cover up the shooting the way the City or other officials allegedly did I don’t believe that he should have been found guilty of 2^nd degree murder or aggravated battery with a firearm. Now, before the death threats start I want to clarify why I feel that way. Again, I wasn’t part of the trial so I don’t know what other information had come out during the trial that may have affected the verdict but this is what I understand and this is how the Illinois statute reads: PEACE OFFICER'S USE OF FORCE IN MAKING AN ARREST (720 ILCS 5/7-5) (from Ch. 38, par. 7-5) Sec. 7-5. Peace officer's use of force in making arrest. (a) A peace officer, or any person whom he has summoned or directed to assist him, need not retreat or desist from efforts to make a lawful arrest because of resistance or threatened resistance to the arrest. He is justified in the use of any force which he reasonably believes to be necessary to effect the arrest and of any force which he reasonably believes to be necessary to defend himself or another from bodily harm while making the arrest. However, he is justified in using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm only when he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or such other person, or when he reasonably believes both that: (1) Such force is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape; and (2) The person to be arrested has committed or attempted a forcible felony which involves the infliction or threatened infliction of great bodily harm or is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict great bodily harm unless arrested without delay. (b) A peace officer making an arrest pursuant to an invalid warrant is justified in the use of any force which he would be justified in using if the warrant were valid, unless he knows that the warrant is invalid. (Source: P.A. 84-1426.) ------------------------------------------------- There are quite a few “and” and “or”s which again can be very confusing but if you boil the whole language down to the parts that apply to Van Dyke’s situation it shows that even if Laquan McDonald didn’t pose an immediate deadly threat to Officer Van Dyke, although he seemed to be closer than the 21 feet that is generally considered to be a deadly threat with an edged weapon, I didn’t see at any point or hear at any point that McDonald was compliant or attempting to surrender. So if you take the portions of the Statute that apply it would read: A peace officer need not retreat or desist from efforts to make a lawful arrest because of resistance or threatened resistance to the arrest and is justified in using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm only when he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent the arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape and the subject is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon or otherwise indicates that he will endanger human life or inflict great bodily harm unless arrested without delay. Much of the statute covers the fact of whether or not the officer reasonably believes him to be a deadly threat but it is not, by statute, necessary.  Simply that a person is attempting to escape or evade a lawful arrest with the use of a deadly weapon qualifies as a situation where deadly force is justified. That is the confusing part to most people and why it is always better to set your “mental trigger” at the threat of immediate death or great bodily harm but the statute is meant to cover you in other situations and also in the case of Officer Van Dyke. With that, there are things that I don’t feel comfortable with such as the 16 shots that were fired.  In my case I only fired three and the person fell and I didn’t feel there was a deadly threat anymore.  I don’t know what Officer Van Dyke saw or thought from his perspective but the optics of 16 shots doesn’t look good I admit.  I had seen a video of a police officer running a suspect over with his car to keep an armed suspect from getting to a populated area and it looked bad but the officer could use deadly force and the suspect was armed with a rifle.  The officer was deemed justified and in the end the suspect lived. Do I think that the case was covered up for political reasons?  Absolutely.  But I don’t believe Officer Van Dyke was involved in the cover-up although who knows maybe he was and it was never proven. I do know a few things though and this is what bothers me.  Laquan McDonald, regardless of age or troubled life, was threatening at least one person with a deadly weapon prior to encountering police and was also burglarizing trucks.  He was not compliant when police on numerous occasions had tried to place him under arrest and was at times running away and at times swinging the deadly weapon back and forth and slashing police vehicle tires and windshields.  He was not acting the way a reasonable person would act and later it was shown that he was under the influence of PCP but it doesn’t matter because police were not aware of that fact at the time of the encounter. Would I have shot at Laquan McDonald in the same situation?  Maybe not, probably not, but I wasn’t there.  What I do believe is that according to the State Statute covering a peace officer’s use of force he was acting within that statute and I have a feeling that being thrown under the bus by your employer and becoming a scapegoat because of a pretty evident cover up for political reasons is going to have a chilling effect on the way current Chicago police officers do their jobs and proactive policing may be a thing of the past.  Unfortunately, that will embolden those who have no regard for the law and have a damaging effect on the vast majority of law-abiding citizens who live in the city of Chicago. I am thankful to God that the city did not erupt into violence and I will be saying a prayer tonight for the family of Laquan McDonald whose life ended entirely too soon regardless of his demons or issues and I would also like to say a prayer for Jason Van Dyke and his family because but through the grace of God, I could be sitting where he is sitting now.  To my brothers in law enforcement and other first responders, I pray that you stay safe and cherish the time with your families.     Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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A former partner of mine in the police force once told me over the radio during a very stressful time to imagine myself in a beautiful forest meadow lying beside a babbling brook.  It didn’t work but it did crack me up which may have been just what I needed. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but it seems that people, in general, become outraged extremely easily and lose all sense of composure and logic.  You would think it would be much easier with all the new psycho-active drugs at our disposal. Two very recent events come to mind and make me worried about how people tend to deal with disagreement and that many of us think the worst of people first and are never able to give other human beings (and yes people that look different than you, have different religious beliefs or have different political views are people) what used to be called the benefit of the doubt. The first case is that evil black-face robo-monkey character from Prada.  Now the last time I used the word Prada in a sentence was when I was watching a really hilarious Meryl Streep movie.  I don’t think I could afford to walk in the front door of a Prada outlet but it seems that many people were enraged because the robo-monkey (I don’t even know its real name), harkens back to the era of post-reconstruction use of racially offensive cartoons and vaudeville performers.  Now, I am a history guy and well aware of the use of the offensive cartoons to de-humanize and belittle an entire race of people and they are horrible! [caption id="attachment_1157" align="alignleft" width="300"] An example of a 1900 ad showing the use of blackface[/caption] I have to say that looking out of the corner of my eye it did quickly and very quickly remind me of them because of the very dark color of the robo-monkey and the oversized very red lips but after that, I realized what it was just one of a cadre of strange, overpriced, hybrid robot-animal keychains. I really don’t think that the executives at Prada were trying to make a racist statement and given the quality of some of our history classes, it might be that none of the executives or marketing people working there today even know what blackface is or was. What probably should have happened is that someone should have brought it to the attention of the corporation and mentioned to them how some people could perceive it and more than likely they would have pulled it.  Instead, all hell broke loose, they had to pull down their blinds, hide the robo-monkey and the media and bloggers all start talking about how racist Prada is. The second case is that of Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar supposedly making fun of Vice President Mike Pence’s Christian faith.  I would venture that Mike Pence is not even offended by what she posted on Twitter.  I am a Christian believer myself and like many people watched the spectacle of President Trump, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer sparring over funding of the border wall and at times it seemed to get pretty ugly.  I kind of laughed myself when I saw Vice President Pence sitting back, not saying much and for a short time close his eyes. [caption id="attachment_1158" align="alignright" width="300"] Tweet by Ilhan Omar about Mike Pence.[/caption] Representative Omar tweeted out a photo of Vice President Pence sitting with his eyes closed with the caption, “Jesus Take The Wheel”.  I thought that was really funny and the reason it was funny was that it was probably true!  I don’t believe that Representative Omar meant anything anti-Christian about it and if I was sitting in there, I would have probably been thinking that same thing and praying that we can all take a deep breath and recognize the humor in the world and not take everything as a personal attack or that our fellow Americans are our enemies. We should all pray that we don’t lose our ability to laugh at ourselves sometimes, hug people we don’t agree with, think before we speak and maintain our sense of humanity.  Oh, and by the way that robo-monkey is probably fetching a pretty hefty price on eBay. Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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It seems fitting that Illinois would be the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution since Illinois' adopted son, Abraham Lincoln, would become known as the Great Emancipator on January 1, 1863, by the executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation. [caption id="attachment_1164" align="alignleft" width="240"] Abraham Lincoln would be assassinated before he could see the 13th Amendment ratified.[/caption] The 13th Amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Upon ratification in the Illinois Legislature, Governor Oglesby sent a dispatch to President Lincoln which read: [caption id="attachment_1165" align="alignright" width="220"] Illinois Governor Richard James Oglesby sent a dispatch to Abraham Lincoln.[/caption] Springfield, Feb. 1st, 1865 To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States: "The Legislature of Illinois has, by a large majority, ratified the amendment to the Constitution.  We suppose you have signed the joint resolutions of Congress.  Great enthusiasm prevails." Richard J. Oglesby, Governor. "Probably Illinois will prove to be the first State to ratify this second Magna Carta of human liberty.  Glory be to God." [caption id="attachment_1166" align="alignleft" width="300"] Governor Oglesby's dispatch was printed in the February 2, 1865, Chicago Daily Tribune.[/caption] Not only was Illinois the first state to ratify the 13th amendment followed closely by Maryland but one of its U.S. Senators, Lyman Trumbull, who was a close friend of Lincoln's, was the co-author of the 13th Amendment itself. [caption id="attachment_1167" align="alignright" width="149"] Illinois U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull was a co-author of the amendment and a friend of Lincoln's.[/caption] While Abraham Lincoln effectively freed the slaves during the Civil War by Executive Order he was assassinated on April 14, 1865, before he could see it officially ratified by the needed number of states on December 6, 1865. Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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Once upon a time, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, stood a very fun place, at least in the eyes of a nine-year-old kid from Cicero. Its founder was Californian Robert Brindle and the 500,000 square-foot building with almost 9,000 parking spaces stood roughly at the southwest corner of where IL Rt. 53 met I-55. The concept was new at the time but the theme was definitely late 1800s Chicago.  I, of course, was too young to appreciate the turn of the century theme. The concept was a combination of an indoor amusement park surrounded by an indoor mall of over 200 stores.  The building itself was huge and was basically a replica of the large neo-classical buildings present in Chicago’s Jackson Park during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.  The building had a white granite-style look with a dome in the center to make room for the roller coasters.  Two lions were present to greet visitors at the main entrance that looked suspiciously like two lions we are accustomed to seeing at the entrance of the Art Institute of Chicago.  In fact, Brindle attempted to purchase the actual Art Institute’s lions for his project but since they were not for sale he created two replicas.  Brindle’s concept came to life when “Old Chicago” opened on June 21, 1975.   [caption id="attachment_1172" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Old Chicago building was modeled after buildings like the now, Museum of Science and Industry which was the Palace of Fine Arts during the Columbian Exposition of 1893[/caption] I remember the smell of caramel corn and fast food when you entered the building.  There was a theater where you could see a variety of different acts to include, comedians, circus acts, magicians and the like.  antique street lights purchased from the city of Chicago lined the “streets” of the mall and small, specialty, retail shops seemed to go on endlessly in a loop around the amusement park.   There were two retail spots I liked the most.  One was a magic/gag shop where I bought my first whoopee cushion and trick deck of cards and one was similar to a funhouse where I remember you could talk to a live genie in a bottle who was lounging on shiny cushions and he would answer or should I say heckle you with rude responses.  It was behind a glass window and the person was obviously being reflected by mirrors or projected into the small bottle but it sure looked and sounded real to me! I wasn’t really big into the amusement park part of the whole thing mainly because I would get sick on the topsy-turvy type rides but I loved the log flume and the concerts that they would have in the amusement park.  I remember seeing Chuck Berry there live.  I researched Chuck Berry’s appearance and know now that I saw him live on either June 23^rd or June 24^th in 1979.  We only went to the amusement park twice during the time it was open because it was also pretty expensive.   It was a whopping $5.95 for unlimited all-day rides. [caption id="attachment_1176" align="alignright" width="184"] The indoor amusement park concept was something very new for 1975.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1175" align="alignleft" width="104"] I saw Chuck Berry at Old Chicago either on June 23rd or 24th of 1979.[/caption] But besides the amusement park and the very cool stores, one experience has really stuck with me all my life.  There was this old-time, Italian accented guy with an organ and monkey that just cracked me up.  The guy would crack jokes and his monkey would definitely attract throngs of young kids.  I remember standing pretty much in a large half-circle around him and the monkey while he cranked his musical organ and you held out usually a quarter or so.  The monkey would walk over to anyone and everyone with a coin in hand and would walk over to you and wait.  You would bend down and the monkey would take your coin, tip his monkey hat to you as a thank-you and return to his human cohort and drop the coin in a slot in the organ.  It was the greatest thing in the world!  I am sure I would still get a kick out of this today!  There was also a more sinister side to this guy and his monkey.  If you already gave up a quarter, the guy would tell you in his Geppetto-style accent that if you produced another quarter his monkey would tell you a secret!  Now, what kid isn’t going to produce their own quarter or ask their mom and dad for another? So, with the second quarter in hand, the monkey would go through the same routine.  I handed the quarter to the monkey, he tipped his hat but now the organ grinder told me to lean down toward the monkey and he would tell me the secret.  So I leaned in, placed my ear near the monkey’s face and the monkey quickly stuck his tongue in my ear! Seriously gross, but hilarious both to the violated and the others watching the violation!  The surprising thing was that everyone now wanted to experience the marsupial Wet Willy!  Now I actually started to feel sorry for the monkey! I never forgot the guy and his monkey and I felt like I wanted to find out who they were and I did. The act itself was called “Tony and Chris”.  Tony was the human and Chris was the capuchin monkey.   The old Italian-accented “Tony” was actually a long-time carnival and circus actor named Raymond Wesley Beebe who was born in Newark, Ohio on July 17, 1919, to Charles D. Beebe, a taxi-driver, and Minnie Esther Peak.  He had an older sister Cara, an older brother, Charles Jr., and a younger brother, Pat. [caption id="attachment_1173" align="alignright" width="300"] Raymond Wesley Beebe and South American monkey, Chris, had a 38 year career as "Tony and Chris"[/caption] On November 20, 1944, at the age of 25, Beebe enlisted in the Army for what would turn out to be a 6-month tour of duty during World War II.  He was discharged on May 19, 1945. Not too long after his discharge, Beebe, had started working with various carnivals and circuses as a hippodrome motorcycle rider and also owned a trained dog act.  In 1953, when he was on vacation in Florida, he visited a roadside animal show and the proprietor sold him a 2 month-old baby capuchin monkey which he bottle fed for a period of time.  He also sold him a hand organ or “hurdy-gurdy” which he said would be a great complement to his monkey.  Thus the act of “Tony and Chris the wonder monkey” was born. Chris was an extremely smart monkey and Beebe taught him many tricks to amuse the audiences and many times they appeared in matching outfits.  Beebe had an immense interest in the old organs and street pianos and actually had a working street piano made in 1875.  It was basically a crank operated player piano on wheels and bore Columbus, Ohio license plates that were dated from 1907 to 1912.  The city of Columbus used to require license plates for the rolling pianos but quit when there weren’t many left in existence. “Tony and Chris” played everywhere; county fairs, carnivals, circuses, undertaker conventions, lawyer conventions, veterinarian conventions, shopping malls, holiday parties, you name it. [caption id="attachment_1174" align="alignright" width="209"] Ray Beebe had an 1875 street piano that he took to different events with Chris his "wonder monkey"[/caption] By the time that Beebe entered into his 40-week gig at “Old Chicago”, he was already thinking about retirement and his crank organ was now simply playing recorded music.  It became harder to keep the old crank organs in working condition because they took some serious abuse from children who couldn’t resist trying to play with them. Beebe and Chris had a very close and loving relationship.  Beebe had told a reporter, “Humans can be rude, mean-spirited, inconsiderate and unpredictably violent, but a monkey you can figure”. Beebe and Chris had a 38-year career as a team which is astounding since a capuchin monkey in captivity is only expected to live about 15 years. In November of 1990, Chris stopped eating one day.  Beebe knew that capuchins will typically fast one day each year to cleanse their digestive system but when Chris didn’t eat the second day he knew there was a problem.  He started to feed Chris with an eyedropper to see if he could get some nutrients into him and it was while Beebe was doing this that Chris died in his arms.  A south-side Columbus, Ohio funeral home cremated Chris and Beebe kept Chris’s ashes with the intent of one day spreading them over a lake or woodland forest. Beebe himself died on May 3, 1994, less than four years after his friend Chris and is buried in the Beebe Cemetery in Athens County, Ohio. The “Old Chicago” amusement park and the indoor mall was not around nearly as long as “Tony and Chris”.  In fact, it really wasn’t around that long at all.  The enterprise was plagued from the beginning with financial problems due to a lack of expected financing and construction strikes during the building phase.  Other than the first year it was open, the attendance was never what was predicted by planners.  Traffic studies were not done and Rt. 53 could not handle the traffic necessary to turn a profit.  People soon grew tired of the two to three-hour backups that resulted from the heavy traffic.  Also, when the weather was bad people didn’t like to venture out and when the weather was good people liked to be outdoors which is not what planners had expected. The amusement park closed in March of 1980 and while the mall portion remained open for a few more years in different configurations the building itself was razed starting on February 28, 1986. Mr. Beebe, may you and Chris rest in peace knowing that you brought many a smile to young children everywhere including this nine-year-old from Cicero. Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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I, like many Illinois residents, have complained about the corruption that is rampant in our State over a beer with friends or on facebook but a couple of days ago I decided to see what was going on for myself. I had never volunteered to help any candidate for any office in my life.  I am an Army Veteran and a former criminal investigator and love my country so I make sure to vote in every election but that was about as far as I have ever gone. This was different.  I remember seeing the news reports about David Krupa and thinking wow!  Instead of just complaining about Mike Madigan and machine politics this 19-year-old (the same age I was when I joined the military) is doing something about it in a big way.  It is a real David Krupa and Goliath story only this Goliath holds much more power. I had also heard about the shady and criminal tactics that campaign representatives for Marty Quinn had used when they showed up with over 2,700 signatures of 13th ward residents who wished to revoke their signatures supporting Krupa.  Why criminal?  Well, let's just say that less than 200 of the signatures were actually of voters who signed Krupa's petitions.  You do the math. I had also read that Krupa has filed a recent suit because he has received death threats. I felt like I couldn't just sit back and simply complain any more and so I showed up at Krupa's Volunteer Day this past Saturday which started at his 13th Ward campaign office on 63rd Street. I was struck immediately by the ages and excitement of Krupa's team.  They all seemed to be barely 20 somethings but they were all smiling and all very positive.  There were probably only two old fogies who were over 50, me and another equally excited Hispanic gentleman. I had an opportunity to meet David and speak with him and his staff and volunteers for about an hour before we set out and they were all extremely grateful for the volunteers. We were briefed about what we were going to do as far as handing out door hangers, letting residents know that they had a choice this election, asking permission to place yard signs and asking residents if they had any concerns regarding the ward.  They were very cautious that everyone knew what the rules were. Armed with door hangers, flyers, business cards and clipboards we went out in groups of three.  I have to say that I was pretty much expecting to just have door after door slammed in my face but I was actually pleasantly surprised.  While many were not home or answering the door the ones that did were very receptive.  They actually seemed surprised and pleased that there was another option on the ballot.  Even people that had Quinn signs opened their door and they were pleasant.  It did strike me as troubling when a couple of Quinn sign houses told me they don't put signs in their yard.  I asked them about the Quinn sign and they looked puzzled and told me to take the sign away.  I told them that they could remove the sign if they want but I wasn't going to touch it. I was worried but not surprised by one resident's response.  She was very pleasant and said that she would definitely vote for Krupa but when I asked her if she would put a Krupa sign in her yard she leaned out, looked both ways down the street and then whispered to me that she couldn't because she was told that if she put a Krupa sign in her yard that bad things would happen.  She would not elaborate on who told her that or what the "bad things" might be.  I just smiled and told her I understood and that we looked forward to her vote. At one point we came across a couple of people who had clipboards and had Quinn pamphlets and were going up to the doors that we had just gone to which was fine because it is a campaign after all.  It was the tone and look on the face of one of the guys as he walked past me. He did not smile or even look me in the eye but said, "You be careful out there".  I just smiled and he didn't.  Now I am sure that he was just concerned about my safety as far as slipping on the ice and all and really appreciate his kindness.  Come on dude, I was a cop.  You are definitely going to have to try harder than that to be threatening. I was also told by some of the other volunteers that they had approached some of the businesses on the block and many of the owners seemed very supportive and actually said they were considering voting for Krupa but would not support Krupa publicly because they were afraid of repercussions if Krupa didn't win. Three hours later I had to leave but really enjoyed my time volunteering with the Krupa camp.  I enjoyed the conversation with residents and it was obvious that the long-time machine has many people afraid not to vote for them.  If I had to guess based on people's reactions and comments, I would say that Krupa has a fighting chance.  I can't vote for Krupa myself, I don't even live in the city of Chicago but I will put a sign in my yard which will confuse my neighbors because Krupa has given me and other Illinoisans some hope. [caption id="attachment_1182" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A 13th Ward sign in the suburbs. A sign of hope?[/caption] Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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This is one of those things that I thought HAD to be fake news.  I first heard of it through a facebook  group I belong to and my comment was “Please someone tell me that this is not real!”  It was so outrageous that I literally couldn’t believe it but sadly I checked the Illinois legislative website and you can read about House Bill 0186 introduced by none other than Representative La Shawn K. Ford who is also a candidate for Chicago Mayor. [caption id="attachment_1190" align="alignleft" width="296"] 2019 Mayor candidate and Illinois Rep, La Shawn Ford[/caption] If you want to read it for yourself you can simply click below: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=108&GA=101&DocTypeId=HB&DocNum=186&GAID=15&LegID=114047&SpecSess=&Session= Basically this bill takes away an officer’s ability to temporarily detain and question a person who the officer infers based on circumstances has committed, is about to commit, or is committing a crime. In other words, if the police officer gets a call about a burglary in progress at a particular location and arrives at that location and sees a person hanging around that location that matches the description of the person in the call the officer SHALL not detain or question that person without making an arrest.  In other words, it sets up the officer for false arrest because just because you match the description and you happen to be at the location it doesn’t rise to probable cause to make an arrest.  What the officer would normally do is stop the person, find out who they are and if they have a legitimate reason to be there.  Maybe it is the owner who heard someone rummaging around their home or business and decided to check it out themselves.  Unless you stop and question them temporarily there is no way for you to know. Under the new proposed change to the law the officer would have to monitor the individual until they have enough probable cause and then as to not violate the new statute, take the information to a judge who can then sign an arrest warrant for the unknown individual and then the officer can go back and make the arrest tomorrow if the same offender is there and he can positively identify that unknown person. Or, the officer can then simply rush the individual and place him under arrest with no temporary detention or questioning and then if it ends up being the owner he will be liable for false arrest and probably will be sued civilly. You have to read the statute to really understand the craziness of the bill.  First of all, in the second paragraph, the bill removes temporary questioning completely.   It is no longer an allowable procedure available to any officer in the state of Illinois. Then in the third paragraph is states: “prohibited.  A peace officer shall not stop any person in a public place based upon an officer’s inference from the circumstances that the person is committing, is about to commit, or has committed an offense as defined in Section 102-15 of this Code.” Not only can the officer not take action if he or she infers that an offense is about to be committed or that an offense has been committed in the past but even if the officer believes the offense is being committed RIGHT NOW! That should scare the daylights out of any law-abiding citizen and embolden anyone who is contemplating breaking the law. The bill completely removes the first stage of any investigation, a police officer trying to figure out if a crime is actually taking place. It will serve two purposes, increase the number of lawsuits against police officers thereby making them ineffective through intimidation and it will also change them into armed witnesses who will take notes and pictures and worry about the arrest later after a judge signs a document to protect them against those civil lawsuits. Every sane person in this state should be writing to their representative, senator and the governor himself to make sure that this bill is exposed for what it is, ridiculous.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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I try to call balls and strikes as I see them and I really hope that President Trump is watching this travesty of justice carefully. First off, I am not defending R. Kelly although he, like everyone else, should be given the presumption of innocence and due process before we execute him in the court of public opinion.  He is currently facing charges of allegedly having forced sex with at least 4 underage girls and there is supposedly video to prove it. What is scarier to me is the way in which power and money screws up the best criminal justice system currently on planet Earth.  Nobody can deny whether you work inside the criminal justice system or outside of it, that power, money, and influence can tip the scales of justice on the side of power, money, and influence. Case in point is brought to us by great investigative journalists at the Miami Herald.  You can read the whole story here and it is quite a story.  I am not going to repeat it here but give you the highlights or lowlights. The Miami Herald’s investigation centers around the crimes of multi-millionaire hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein.  Epstein is surrounded by a huge sphere of influence and friends who, according to the Miami Herald, include Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and Donald Trump to name a few. Epstein was suspected of having sex with over 100 middle school and high school-aged girls in his Palm Beach Mansion and other locations from approximately 2001 to 2006.  There are so many more horrible details to the crimes and again I encourage you to read the multi-part Miami Herald investigation if you have time.  It is horrifying. While the crimes were horrible enough, it was the illegal plea deal that was orchestrated by now Trump Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta that is just as horrible.  Acosta, at the time of the crimes, was the top federal prosecutor in the state of Florida. Before it even fell into federal hands, the Palm Beach Police Department was investigating the case and at one point, Epstein enlisted the help of the famed attorney and Harvard Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz.  It was after Dershowitz showed up that the local detectives and victims were being harassed and investigated to try to discredit any and all associated with the claims against Epstein.  Dershowitz denied any involvement in any of the shenanigans. [caption id="attachment_1196" align="alignright" width="225"] Epstein smirking in Palm Beach police photo.[/caption]   As soon as the lead Palm Beach detective realized that the local States Attorney was trying to minimize the charges against Epstein, he and the Chief of Police referred the case to the FBI which opened their own investigation in 2006. In October of 2007, Alexander Acosta met with Epstein’s defense attorney, Jay Lefkowitz in a Palm Beach Marriot and not at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  Epstein was the top federal prosecutor in the State of Florida and the deal he worked out for Epstein was abominable. [caption id="attachment_1195" align="alignleft" width="232"] Current Trump administration Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta[/caption]   Although evidence supported the sex abuse of very possibly over 100 under-aged girls, Acosta worked out a deal where Epstein would be immune to any federal sex-traffic prosecution which would have landed him in prison for life.  In exchange, Epstein would plead guilty to a single State charge of solicitation of prostitution (a misdemeanor) be sentenced to 18 months in the County Jail which really worked out to 13 months in a private wing of the jail, with his own paid security and 12 hours of each day spent outside the jail walls in “work release.” This deal that current Trump administration Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta worked out for Epstein in 2007 has very recently (On February 21, 2019) been declared illegal by federal judge Kenneth Mirra for violating the Crime Victims Rights Act.  The judge slammed Acosta’s team for failing to consult or even inform victims about the results of the plea deal.  The untold number of victims were kept in the dark so that nobody was aware of the extent of this predator’s crimes. In the interest of full disclosure, I consider myself a conservative by nature.  I am a U.S. Army Veteran and spent years after my military service as a law enforcement officer.  I have voted Republican, Democratic and even Independent over the years and I am completely appalled at the stink of this case and the stink of the prosecution. I am not blaming President Trump or former President Bill Clinton or Prince Andrew for having an association with this guy.  They may not have known about his disgusting practices but I do know who is President now and I do know that a big reason why this predator is not in prison where he belongs is because of the deal worked out for him by now labor secretary, Alex Acosta.  I personally don’t know how this guy can live with himself as a prosecutor and I have met some really good ones over the years. President Trump, I voted for you.  I believe that you have done great things for this country.  While you are in Hanoi hoping to minimize the threat of North Korea, could you please also help minimize the threat to our young girls and ditch Acosta while re-opening, if you can, the investigation into Epstein to help somehow bring some sort of justice to his many victims. By the way, if R. Kelly is convicted of only one of the crimes he allegedly committed his punishment will be 10 times as severe as this rich sicko from Florida and by the way don’t expect Kelly to get such a great plea deal, nobody should. Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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I never run out of things to write about when dealing with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  The Fair took place from May 1, 1893, through October 30, 1893, and changed the way the world looked at Chicago and vice versa. The date was Monday, October 9, 1893.  It was "Chicago Day" at the World's Fair and meant to pay homage to Chicago's resolve after the great fire of 1871.  The fair broke an all-time attendance record that day exceeding 750,000 attendees. [caption id="attachment_1202" align="alignleft" width="230"] Souvenir page of Chicago Day from the Chicago Inter Ocean.[/caption] The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition or "White City" as it became known, was a world's fair full of firsts.  One of the firsts was the world's first Ferris Wheel.  In fact, George Ferris designed the wheel specifically for the fair.  I have a hard time explaining how large this first Ferris Wheel was.  At approximately 256 feet high it was about 50 feet higher than our Centennial Wheel currently at Navy Pier.  I believe one of the Centennial Gondolas will hold eight people.  The 1893 Wheel would hold up to 60!  They looked like 36 trolley cars suspended over 250 feet in the air!  Fully loaded the wheel would carry close to 1,500 passengers on an hour-long ride. [caption id="attachment_1203" align="alignright" width="236"] Close up view of an 1893 World's Fair Ferris Wheel gondola that held up to 60 riders.[/caption] If you happened to be hanging around the Ferris Wheel in the center of the Midway Plaisance at about 1 pm,  you would have witnessed a spectacular sight. Colonel Edmund Rice, who had just been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor the year prior for bravery during the battle of Gettysburg, was in charge of the security of the fair.  He oversaw the fair's police of over 2,000 Columbian Guards and the plainclothed Secret Service. [caption id="attachment_1204" align="alignleft" width="211"] Colonel Edmund Rice who oversaw security at the World's Fair.[/caption] That day he happened to have been escorting his cousin, Maude Gill, a 21-year-old young lady from Lagoda, Indiana.  They were looking up at the grandeur of the Ferris Wheel, with the multitude of other onlookers when Ms. Gill asked, "Has any woman ever ridden on the top of the car?"  Rice looked at his young cousin and responded to the negative.   "Then I will!", she said. The brought Miss Gill up to an upper platform and both Colonel Rice and his cousin climbed a railing and were standing on top of one of the cars! As the wheel started it's two revolution, one hour trip, Miss Rice did not hang on to anything but rather walked back and forth waving an American Flag that she had taken with her. [caption id="attachment_1205" align="alignright" width="300"] What would have been the view of Maude Gill from the top of the Gondola[/caption] The crowd erupted in huge applause as others held their breath watching the young daredevil and medal of honor winner. When the ride finally came to a stop and both were assisted off the car. Miss Gill remarked at how splendid the ride was and that she wasn't scared a bit!   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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Is the Cubs “W” flag going to be the next symbol of racist hate? Come on people!  I had to write this blog because things are getting completely out of hand!  Mostly that is the media’s fault and not the general public’s fault but this latest thing about the “white supremacist” Cubs fan flashing some neo-nazi hand sign during the Cubs win over the Marlins is just plain stupid.   I spent most of my time as a cop in the gang and narcotics unit and there are a HUGE number of different hand signs as well as sports jerseys, logos, etc. that can be used to signify gang affiliation, racist meanings etc.   However, the use of those signs and apparel, as well as the way one would wear the apparel, has to be taken in context. For instance, The L.A. Kings hockey team used to have a five-pointed gold crown as their team logo.    One of the world’s largest and most organized street gangs, The Latin Kings, used to wear the jersey as a way of representing their gang.    Does that mean if you saw an elderly woman wearing an L.A. Kings jersey that you could assume she was a Latin King?  Ahhhhh…No. [caption id="attachment_1211" align="alignleft" width="260"] L.A. Kings old logo that was used by Latin Kings to signify membership.[/caption] The guy in the video is more than likely, playing an old game of “break the circle” or by its other names “A-hole” or “Gazer” It is a little childish and versions of this game are all over but all use the circle that you lower to your waist and if you catch someone looking at it you yell A-hole! or Gazer!   The person then has to stick their finger into the hole you created and if they don’t do it in time you get to punch them as hard as you can in the shoulder.  I told you it was childish.  I ended up playing this in the military and you come up with creative ways to catch people.  Maybe like flashing it during a Cubs game that you know your buddies are watching while you are on the phone with them so that after the game you get to go find them and punch them in the shoulder.  Again, childish but it is a real thing.  Now I don’t know who this guy in the video of the broadcast is so I can’t comment on his ideology but the Cubs organization is launching a full investigation to find this guy and ban him from Wrigley field without even knowing his intentions.  God forbid they actually release his name and he starts to get death threats or someone makes good on the threats. Of course, if you have a Cubs fan at a game dressed like Henry Gibson from the Blues Brothers and yelling racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic slurs while burning a cross in center field then chances are you might actually have a neo-nazi  on your hands. [caption id="attachment_1213" align="alignright" width="203"] "The Blues Brothers"
Henry Gibson
© 1980 Universal Pictures[/caption] All kidding aside for now, racism sucks, hate of any kind sucks but if we are not careful, every move we make, every color we wear could potentially get us into trouble. Take for instance the Cubs “W” flag.  There is a neo-nazi white supremacist group known as the Church of the Creator which was established by Ben Klassen in 1973, There is also a spinoff of the group called the World Church of the Creator which was established by Matt Hale in 1996 which uses, among other symbols, a large “W”. [caption id="attachment_1212" align="alignright" width="278"] The logo of the "World Church of the Creator" a notorious neo-nazi group.[/caption] Could it be that with all of the racist emails from Joe Ricketts and that evil racist fan flashing that upside down OK symbol that the Cub Fans’  beloved big white flag with the big “W” might actually mean something else?  If we are not careful and use a little common sense we will all have to burn our Cubs “W” flags and they will maybe have to issue a neutral gray color flag with a “V” for victory instead of “W” for? Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter

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Alright, I am not squeamish by any stretch of the imagination but when I came across this little historic gem I have to admit it took a little while to get it out of my head. I was browsing through some nineteenth-century newspapers recently, as us history geeks like to do on occasion, and almost went right past an article about “Electric Light Bugs.” At first glance, I thought it was going to be something about “fireflies” or as some of us Chicagoans say, “lightning bugs” but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. I guess the installation of the first electric streetlights was not all rainbows and unicorns as we might have thought. The first electric lights brought out of hiding a carnivorous, cannibalistic, 4.5 inch, predatory, flying, swimming, biting, giant water bug known as Lethocerus Americanus. [caption id="attachment_1222" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Lethocerus Americanus can grow to 4.5 inches[/caption] It is difficult to determine the exact date that Chicagoans started dealing with these nasty critters because the introduction to electric public lighting was rather spotty in the beginning. I do know that the outdoor electric arc lamp was first tested in Chicago atop the Chicago Water Tower on April 25, 1878, and was met with mixed reviews. The outdoor test was impressive at times but the light sputtered and the experiment wasn’t planned all that well. Rumor has it that at its brightest it could be seen as far south as Hyde Park.  Oddly, even though they emit carbon monoxide, the lights were used more extensively indoor at first due to the fact that buildings were not insulated well and still circulated enough fresh air to keep them from becoming lethal. [caption id="attachment_1225" align="alignright" width="300"] Arc lights used carbon rods that were used up very rapidly and had to be changed almost every day.[/caption] I did read an 1895 article in the Downers Grove Reporter that mentioned that in 1893 Chicago was the originator of the “Electric Light Bug” but that is highly suspect since many towns were lit with electric light long before 1893 and other cities were reporting the nuisance before that. However, Chicago did have the World’s Fair in 1893 that was brightly lit and right on the lake so it would have been a pretty good target for the bug. There is a great website including videos of the arc lights in operation at the Edison Tech Center website. Regardless of when it started, many towns and cities across the country were reporting huge numbers of these critters hypnotized by the lights. They would accumulate in huge numbers. Many would fly into the arc of electricity and be killed, or worse, stunned by electricity. Stunned was worse because of a few reasons. First of all, one of the insect’s defenses was to “play dead”. It would even emit an amount of fluid from its anus which would make it appear as though it was smashed. An unsuspecting person would pick up one of these gross, cockroach-like behemoths and be stabbed by its “spear”. The spear would be its sharp 3/5 inch syringe-like proboscis or beak. Second, keep in mind that this “bug” uses this spear to kill and digest its prey which includes, fish, frogs and in the largest examples, small turtles or snakes! It usually hides at the bottom of rivers, lakes, under rocks and vegetation waiting for its prey to swim by. Then it can move faster than a fish in the water to snatch its prey using its raptor-like front claws and hold it in a death grip while injecting venomous saliva that kills and simultaneously digests its prey from the inside out. It then sucks out the liquefied insides at its leisure. “Blechhhh”. [caption id="attachment_1223" align="alignright" width="199"] That's right! That bug is eating a FROG![/caption] One of the craziest stories I read about these guys was out of Syracuse, NY. In the Chicago Tribune of June 7, 1891, the reporter was telling of a story that happened one month earlier on June 5th. It seems that along the Lackawanna railroad between Brighton Corners and Syracuse there were extensive limestone quarries. Workers wanted to load train cars at night to increase their productivity and in anticipation of the locomotive showing up, they placed arc lights over the darkest part of the track. When the locomotive showed up the men noticed that about 60 feet of track under the light was covered in a thick carpet of these nasty “electric light bugs”. Some were lying still while others were playing a continuously grotesque game of leapfrog. As the engine moved forward, and I quote, “…as the drivers rolled over the insects they died with a crackling sound like the successive explosions of toy torpedoes. As the iron monster plowed its way along the bugs became more numerous and the cracking grew to a monstrous din, as though some firecracker storehouse had been touched off in a hundred places, until the drivers [wheels] refusing to catch on the now slippery rails, greased by the crushed and slaughtered bugs.” These nasty things stopped a locomotive! Probably the funniest thing I read about these guys was in a government report from California in 1907. It seems that the male of the species is forced to carry the eggs of the female on his back until they hatch! In fact, a fight that can last for hours always ends up with the male losing the battle and being subjugated. In the Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Thirty-Seventh Session of the Legislature of the State of California, on page 74 an entomologist Miss Slater states, “An egg-bearer remains quietly clinging to a leaf with the end of the abdomen just out of the water. If attacked, he meekly receives the blows seemingly preferring death, which in several cases was the result, to the indignity of carrying and caring for the eggs.” Some good things to come out of the electric light attracting these nasty buggers are that wherever the lights were installed the fish population flourished due to the young ones surviving longer. Also, the lights attracted and killed huge numbers of these along with other pests and the arc lights were used as a first “bug zapper” to control insect populations rather than the arsenic-based poisons like “Paris Green”. Eventually, the reports of the bugs started dying out. Not really sure if that was due to the numbers being depleted by the lights themselves or whether the expansion of pavement over wetlands eventually pushed them further and further away from populations but do not fret because these guys affectionately known as “Electric Light Bug”, “Toe-Biter” or “The Strangler Bug” are still around in marshy wetlands all around the world. [caption id="attachment_1224" align="alignleft" width="300"] Yummm! Don't get me wrong, I like Thai food but...nope![/caption] In fact, in Thailand, you can eat them as a delicacy! Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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As Illinois taxpayers, we have become accustomed to the term “proposed legislation” translating to “how much more is this going to cost us?”   That is not the case here. I have been doing historical research professionally for about 15 years now and many times that research sends me to Cook County Coroner’s inquest records.  It could be an author, television show, or even a family member that wants to know more about how someone died in Cook County or elsewhere in the state.  Many of those research requests are historical in nature and go back decades.  Unfortunately, I have not had a history of great experiences requesting those public records for a number of reasons.   Not the least of those problems is the cost of receiving a copy of the records themselves. What is a Coroner’s Inquest? Cook County abolished the elected Coroner’s system and adopted an appointed Medical Examiner’s system on December 6, 1976. In fact, Cook County is the only county in Illinois that is not under a Coroner’s system.   A Coroner was an elected official who did not need any experience in the medical field and whose office conducted a public inquiry, or inquest, in order to determine a cause of death in questionable or suspicious circumstances.   It was conducted in much the same way as a public trial and depending upon the complexity of the situation, multiple witnesses might have been called to testify. The testimony can produce a treasure trove of information that is not available from any other source and is, or should be, covered under the Freedom of Information Act.  Unfortunately, there is an Illinois State Statute that somehow exempts these records and, by state statute, the cost of these records is $5 per page. In the case of one 1956 murder case where I was assisting a family with receiving information about the murder of their sisters, the cost of receiving the transcript would have been in excess of $1,200.00 which was more than the family could afford. [caption id="attachment_263" align="alignleft" width="300"] Loretta Grimes reads a statement at the Coroner's inquest of her daughters' murder in 1956 which was also attended by the mother of suspect Bennie Bedwell[/caption] Now all of this may change due to the work of a wonderful gentleman named Scott Burgh. Scott contacted me last year when he first started this process due to his and others’ frustrations with this system.  He retired as the Chief Law Librarian at the City of Chicago Department of Law in 2017 after 28 years and had worked in libraries for over 36 years.  He has an avid interest in history and original research, worked for the Illinois General Assembly and currently serves as Advocacy Chair for the Chicago Genealogical Society.   Enter House Bill 4210 HB4210, also known as The Coroner Fees-Inquest and Waiver Bill, is sponsored by Representatives La Shawn K. Ford  and Will Guzzardi . In short, the bill provides that the cost of an entire transcript of sworn testimony for a case over 20 years old would be $15.00.  The document would be stamped with “For Genealogical or Research Purposes Only”.  In this scenario it would have saved the family I was working with about $1,185.00 but more importantly, they would have more information about the death of their sisters. The bill also raises the fee of a human body cremation permit from $50 to $100. This would be a huge win for the ideals of open government records and public access. What can I do to help? Your support as an Illinois resident is needed.  HB 4210 is scheduled for a committee hearing this week on Thursday, February 20, 2020. As an Illinois resident, you can help by submitting a witness slip in support of the bill and get everyone else to do the same. It is easy to do online at the link below. And only takes a minute.  Simply enter your information, check as a PROPONENT and at the end of the witness slip, you can check "Record of Appearance Only."  If the form asks for a firm name you can simply reply NONE or SELF. Fill Out Witness Slip Online Here THIS MUST BE DONE BY FEBRUARY 20th. Let’s all work together for the sake of government record transparency and for the access to public records that we as citizens and taxpayers should have access to.     Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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My father worked for International Harvester, now Navistar, Inc., for 30 years and retired with a pension that he had to fight to receive at all as a member of the United Auto Worker’s Union.  He has been retired for 27 years. He worked as a machinist in the Melrose Park, IL plant since before I was born.  He would be up every morning at about 4:30 am and was out the door.  We didn’t see him again until 4:15 pm that day.  I don’t remember him EVER missing a day of work.   He was and IS a proud member of the United Auto Workers and I remember growing up they had to fight the management tooth and nail for every pay raise and every bit of a pension that they almost didn’t receive. Finally, he retired to Michigan in 1993 and has been receiving a modest monthly pension check until something horrible happened on February 24, 2020. My father and his wife of almost 54 years have battled and continue to battle significant health issues.  They were in a Ludington, MI Walmart on February 25^th and were paying for groceries with a check that was declined.   My parents have probably never bounced a check in their life.  Walmart said they would have to take it up with their local PNC branch. They immediately went to the Ludington, MI branch of PNC bank and they were told that their bank account was negative by over $33,000.00 Obviously there was some mistake!  Something easily corrected.  Nope. Navistar had, in the course of one day, tried to remove 45 monthly pension payments without any notification or authorization. Well, my parents obviously didn’t have that much money in the bank so they took everything they had including a $500.00 overdraft protection account that up until then they had never had to use.  Well that started a domino effect of other checks bouncing and more overdraft fees occurring until it had reached a grand total of $33,869.78 overdrawn. The manager of the Ludington, MI branch of PNC bank attempted to call a retiree hotline of Navistar to try to rectify the situation.  They called the Employee / Retiree Information Center  (E.R.I.C.) at 1-877-353-5100 and pressed the number for Retiree Benefits.  A woman from Northern Trust (The bank handling deposits) stated that they have nothing to do with Pension payments and they would have to dial 7 but there wouldn’t be anyone in the office because they are only part time.  The Bank Manager stated that my parents would have to come back in a week when there was someone in the office. My parents at this point called me about the problem and I assumed that it was probably a clerical error that could be easily fixed.  The people at PNC said that they would obviously reverse any overdraft fees or NSF fees and they would start a dispute of the debits to the account. One week goes by and my parents meet with PNC bank again to make a phone call to the E.R.I.C. which everyone assumed was some guy named ERIC. The person on the phone, who probably wasn’t named ERIC, said that Navistar showed by my father and his twin brother, who was also a Navistar retiree, as deceased.    My father and his twin obviously share the same birthdate and their social security numbers are only 1 number off.  My uncle did pass away five years ago on February 24^th which is coincidentally the same day and month that Navistar stole the money from my father’s bank account. The manager said that he was sitting with my father and he was very much alive.  The person on the phone stated that they would start an investigation but it might take a long time.  They did not have any idea when the mistake would be corrected. The bank manager told the person that it was unacceptable but that really didn’t make a difference.  All they received was an issue number. My parents asked how without authority or notification some entity can simply empty out a bank account.  They were told that if someone has your bank account and routing number they can remove what they want and the bank can’t stop them.   Hmmmm.   I don’t think that is true but since I am not a bank manager I can’t say for sure. The bank manager suggested they should set up another meeting in a week and make another phone call to the same E.R.I.C.  Meanwhile, the bank would start an investigation and dispute the charges to the account. [caption id="attachment_1261" align="alignleft" width="300"] E.R.I.C. Navistar Employee Retirees Information Center[/caption] My father called me in a couple of days when he received three letters from PNC bank on March 16^th that stated that the three charges of $818.71 on February 24^th were already returned on February 25^th so no further action would be taken.  WHAT?  I told my father to go to the bank (They don’t do online banking) and get a printout of the account and the balance.  Maybe the money was back in. He went to the bank and the account was still ridiculously in the negative.  He showed them the letters and they told him that no money was returned to the account. He also received a call from E.R.I.C. who said that if my father could mail them a copy of my uncle’s death certificate he might be able to get his money back faster!   In fact, he could mail the death certificate to their P.O. Box in Lisle and simply write their issue number on the death certificate. WHAT?  Death Certificates are government documents that are not public information.  If you are not the next of kin and do not have a legal interest in the document the County Clerk’s office will not issue you a copy.  Besides, why would proving my uncle is dead help prove my dad isn’t and why should we break the law and give a legal document to an entity that didn’t think twice about unlawfully emptying your bank account? At this point, I decided I needed to get involved.  Things weren’t making sense.  I drove to Michigan.  It only takes about five hours.   I have been telling my parents who are extremely susceptible to this virus to try to stay home and now I have to drag them out to try to get a power of attorney so that I can try to sort things out. I had the documents in hand and now had to find a notary.  That was fun.  No banks would do it unless you had an account and most government offices and courthouses were closed.   Finally, I found a wonderful woman at the Mason County Courthouse who said that she would come out to the car to notarize the documents so that my parents didn’t have to come inside. We drove the 30 minutes to the courthouse and had the documents signed.  I told my dad to drive my mom home and I would speak with the bank. At first, the teller I talked to said that they couldn’t talk to me even though I had a power of attorney until they sent them to their legal office for approval and that could take five days.  I told them that wouldn’t work.  I finally spoke with a woman who was not the manager but my parents remembered her fondly. She made copies of the powers of attorney but still couldn’t talk to me so I asked her if she could call my father at home and talk directly to him.  She did make the phone call and verified my father’s identity and made a printout of the statement. I asked her about the confusion regarding the three payments being replaced when they weren’t and she explained that only 3 of the 45 payments removed from the account were disputed because they assumed the first three were the correct ones.    She said that she would contact a local PNC branch as soon as she received confirmation from their legal department regarding my power of attorney and that I could work with my local PNC branch to correct the situation. Keep in mind that I had fully researched (that’s what I do for a living) the Electronic Funds Transfer Act  (15 USC 1693). In a nutshell, one protection the consumer has is that once a financial institution is notified of an error, either orally or written the institution must start an investigation that can take up to 30 days.  Once an error has been identified the bank has 24 hours to replace the money.  In the event they can’t figure it out within 10 days they have to at least provisionally place the money back until the investigation is complete.   None of this happened. So, I made sure that my parents had enough food and medical supplies for a little while and returned home to Illinois with my powers of attorney to attempt to speak with Navistar, Inc.  I mean how hard would that be.  Their world headquarters is 20 minutes from me in Lisle, IL. I gathered my documents and drove to Lisle on March 18^th (this morning)  I pulled into the parking lot and decided to speak with E.R.I.C. one more time before I went in.  I mean the woman on the phone and their website said that they would be in the office at this time.  I could wave to them from the parking lot. I called the number and pressed 7 to make sure I didn’t get the people from Northern Trust.  I was greeted with a recorded message about how important I was and that all the representatives were busy assisting other customers.   I could continue to hold.  I did.   After about 10 minutes I was automatically transferred to a voice mail instructing me to leave my information and that the phone call would be returned promptly in 7 days.     O.K. I decided to venture into the hot zone of Navistar corporate headquarters and see what type of runaround I would get there. [caption id="attachment_1262" align="alignright" width="300"] Navistar's spacious corporate lobby[/caption] I was greeted by an impressive lobby the size of a small town with a reception desk and a hand sanitizing station.   I spoke with a very nice lady and explained my situation.  She actually looked like she was going to cry.  I probably gave her way too much information about what was going on and she simply looked at me and told me that the only people who were working were facility services and they probably wouldn’t be able to help.  She gave me a Navistar brochure with their main corporate number.  She said I could have a seat and call the number and see what would happen.  O.K. I passed by an empty glass suggestion/opinion box on my 15-minute walk to the waiting room chair.  There were blank suggestion sheets and a pen.  A little voice in my head, probably God, told me not to. I called the number and a person answered!  I explained the situation and the person suggested I call E.R.I.C.  I told her I had and they would promptly call me back in 7 days.  She apologized and said if you give me your info and your father’s info I will have someone physically look for a human being to help you and call you back.  I told her I was in the lobby of the corporate headquarters and could wait for a little while.   The call never came in. [caption id="attachment_1263" align="alignleft" width="146"] Navistar Suggestion Box[/caption] Today my father’s and mother’s social security checks were deposited in their PNC account and are gone because the account was negative, to begin with.  The Pension has stopped their monthly payments and has stopped paying my father’s Medicare supplement insurance because he is supposedly deceased. So basically my parents who are not rich by any means but for the richness of their hearts have been without money since February 24^th (almost a month now)  checks have bounced, payments are late, and they are even more stressed out than most of us already are during this pandemic. If you are reading this and are in a position of authority in Navistar please respond.  If you are a member of the United Auto Worker’s Union (UAW) please give us some advice.  If you are an attorney with some advice please contact me at chicagohistorydetective@gmail.com   According to the ETFA your fees would be paid but there is no recourse for any big settlement so it might not be worth your time.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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Since I love Chicago history so much and we can learn so much about our current and future condition from studying the past, I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of the 1918 worldwide influenza pandemic and our current CoVid-19 pandemic through the Chicago looking glass. To be fair, a true side by side comparison is difficult because we are talking about two different diseases and 102 years of separation but there are still a great many similarities and luckily a great many differences. We have to keep in mind that at the time of the 1918 pandemic the term virus was not even in use.  The medical community referred to the disease as the “Influenza Germ” known as Pfeiffer’s Bacillus.  There were no antibiotics to treat secondary pneumonia infections because penicillin was not discovered until 1928.  There were no anti-viral drugs to slow it down and no ventilators so doctors were limited to supportive treatments.   Population Curiously, the population of Chicago today is virtually the same as it was 102 years ago.  Chicago currently has a population of 2.7 million which is what it was in 1918.  The population of the United States as a whole was about 103 million which is about 1/3 of what it is today.   The Start and Spread of both Diseases 1918 The first mention of the 1918 flu in the U.S. was in the spring of 1918 within the military.  There is some disagreement among scholars because the flu was so mild.   The flu that hit in the fall (whether mutated or new) in the U.S. was much deadlier.  The world was at war and the censoring of information coming from other countries made it nearly impossible to determine the geographic start of the virus but the first reports came out of Spain since they were neutral during the war and it thus became known as the “Spanish Flu”. The first accounts I could find in newspapers of the time referred to a steamer from France being quarantined at the port of New York with 25 people suspected of having the “Spanish Influenza”.  The article came out on September 11^th so the steamer had more than likely docked a few days before then. The first case in the vicinity of Chicago was at Great Lakes Naval Base.  It was reported that the epidemic started on September 9^th and by September 23^rd there were 7,000 cases and 100 deaths at the Naval Base. [caption id="attachment_1272" align="alignleft" width="501"] Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1918[/caption] In 1918 the worldwide spread was caused mainly by the thousands of soldiers moving by ship from place to place. 2020 The first patient to present in the U.S. with what is now called CoVid-19 was a 35-year-old male in Snohomish County, Washington on January 19, 2020. The first person in the Chicago area was discovered almost simultaneously due to the fact that this Chicago resident had returned from Wuhan, China (The supposed geographic start of the virus) on January 13^th.  She and her husband have since made a full recovery. One would assume, given the ease of travel internationally as compared to 1918 that the geographic spread of the virus would seem almost instantaneous.  In researching both eras the disease seemed to have spread extremely rapidly and almost simultaneously in different geographic regions.   Similarities in Reaction and Recommendations Recommendations While our medical knowledge today is well beyond that of 1918 the initial reactions and recommendations were eerily similar even with 100 years of distance. Some of the recommendations in 1918 seem very familiar

• Avoid crowded areas like movie theaters and trains.
• Avoid people who are sick.
• Isolate yourself if you feel ill.
• Wash your hands frequently

Some may not seem all that familiar and some even humorous by today’s standards.

• Make sure to take laxatives and keep the bowels moving freely.
• Avoid getting your feet wet.
• Sleep with the windows open at night.
• Keep children warm and dry at all times.
• Eat eggs and milk every four hours.
• Wear a gauze mask and boil it often.
• Cough into a handkerchief and burn it.
• Get as much sunlight as possible (actually, sunlight tends to kill viruses so maybe not such a bad idea)

Once both the 1918 and 2020 viruses started to spread, the governments of both time periods enacted ordinances that closed non-essential businesses and large gatherings and actually threatened arrest of those who would violate the orders.       Misinformation and rumor Human psychology really has not changed much in 100 years and probably for much longer than that.   Just as in today’s viral crisis, the people of 1918 also had to contend with misinformation, rumor and bogus cures. [caption id="attachment_1274" align="alignleft" width="1024"] Listerine advertised to prevent the flu, The Pantagraph, October 18, 1918.[/caption] It is somewhat human nature to want to cling to whatever hope we can.  We have to be cautious, however, and make sure that the “cure” is backed up by science and is not worse than the disease itself. In 2020 we have seen things appear on social media such as the rumor that snorting cocaine and bleach can cure the coronavirus and we have even seen people die from eating fish tank cleaner because they recognized an ingredient in the cleaner that sounded similar to a malaria treatment that has been mentioned as showing promise as a possible therapeutic for CoVid-19. (chloroquine) During the 1918 virus,  many “patent medicines” were touting their ability to cure the flu.  This resulted in many sales and few positive results.  It wasn’t as if the government didn’t warn people back then.  They did.  Unfortunately,  panic and desperation can cause people to act in desperate ways. Chicago doctors in 1918 started prescribing oranges as a cure. The prescriptions caused the price of oranges to skyrocket to .60 cents per pound. (huge by 1918 standards) It was later learned (in January, 1919) that Chicago physicians had written over 400,000 prescriptions for medication for the flu with 25% or roughly 100,000 prescriptions for opium, morphine, codeine, heroin, and cocaine. Vick’s Vapo-Rub, that many of us remember being slathered with as kids, touted its ability to help with the flu as well as Listerine. There were car dealers that claimed their cars contained the cure for the flu because they brought your spirits up. Sulzer’s Bran Bread was advertising that it could help with the flu by keeping your intestines clear of waste matter. Kolynos Dental Cream out of New Haven CT claimed that it stood sentry at your mouth preventing the entrance of the flu and that the country of Spain had tripled its demand for their product. However, The 1918 Darwin award goes to French Lick Springs Hotel Co. in French Lick, Indiana that advertised during the height of the flu in Chicago for people who had the flu to get a room at their hotel where they could recuperate in luxury!  Wonder how that worked out for them? [caption id="attachment_1273" align="alignright" width="666"] French Lick Hotel advertises for Spanish Flu Victims, Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1918[/caption] The Deadly Differences While we have been dealing with coronaviruses for some time, we are still learning more every day about this new coronavirus. According to the CDC, 95% of those exposed to CoVid-19 have an incubation period of roughly 5 days although 1% can have an incubation period of two weeks. (Hence the two-week quarantine recommendations) with symptoms coming on slowly.  A March 10^th investigation by the American College of Physicians agrees.  Most cases of flu, including the 1918 flu, have an incubation on average between 2 to 4 days with intense symptoms coming on very quickly. We have the luxury of 100 years of hindsight with the 1918 flu. The 1918 influenza was extremely deadly.  Estimates of lethality worldwide are somewhere around 2.5 to upwards of 10%.  That means that of the people infected 2.5% to 10% died of the disease.  Most people died within four days of contracting the 1918 flu with quite a few dying the same day that symptoms showed up.  There were many reports of people waking up more or less healthy and dying the same day. It was also different in that your average flu is worse for the very young and the very old.  The 1918 flu was actually deadlier for those between the ages of 20 and 35!  The reason for this is that the 1918 flu caused such an extreme immune response in those with healthy immune systems that it flooded the lungs.  People who had healthy immune systems literally drowned in their own mucous.  Victims would cough up a blood-stained foam from their lungs and lack of oxygen would turn their faces and hands blue earning it the nickname, “The Blue Death”. October 1918 was the single deadliest month of all in Chicago.  Roughly 6,700 Chicagoans died in the month of October alone!  The estimates of death in the two months of October and November of 1918 was over 10,000.  Some of the speculations are because death certificates didn’t usually state that the cause was Spanish Flu.  The cause of death was listed usually as pneumonia or bronchial pneumonia. Chicago had over 625,000 cases from September through November of 1918 which was about 25% of its total population.  Ten thousand deaths during that period would put the lethality rate for Chicago at roughly 6.25% Historically the average influenza death rate is about .1% and an average of 8% of the population is affected.  Of course, this is taking into consideration the fact that we also have vaccines for the flu. Right now the numbers on CoVid-19 vary greatly because we are still in the midst of the pandemic and actual statistics will need time to shake out.  These numbers will be different based on age group, geography, and other factors.  Most medical experts agree that CoVid-19 will end up being a more lethal disease than your average flu but many are anticipating a final number somewhere around .2% compared to .1% with the flu but again these numbers are still being compiled. One thing that could hurt our medical system is that while people generally recover fairly quickly or die fairly quickly from influenza the length of time of recovery with CoVid-19 can be quite a bit longer which results in longer hospital stays and less turnaround which is a big reason that the country is trying to flatten the curve as to try not to overwhelm our medical systems. There is some consolation if we look at CoVid-19 numbers from the perspective of 2019 – 2020 seasonal flu numbers as compiled by the CDC. According to the most recent estimates as of the date of this article, there have been between 38 million to 54 million cases of the flu, 18 million to 26 million flu medical visits, 400,000 to 730,000 flu hospitalizations, and 24,000 to 62,000 influenza deaths. If there is something positive to say at this point (albeit the jury is still out) the current numbers after roughly 10 weeks or approximately 2.5 months of dealing with the onset of U.S. cases the number of cases and deaths are still relatively low as compared with the seasonal flu and if we continue to listen to the medical professionals we may have gotten ahead of it.   As of the date of this article, the number of total U.S. confirmed cases is 85,356 with 1,246 deaths.  (Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this article ages well.) You can see the daily totals on the CDC’s website here.   Why was this 1918 influenza so much more deadly than others? The research conducted to come up with this answer is so fascinating and yet terrifying at the same time.  I could not do it justice so you can read the whole story on the CDC’s website here. In a nutshell, researchers brought the old 1918 flu back to life using frozen samples of tissue from victims.  They recreated the pandemic using mice in a secure facility at the CDC.  The injected some mice with the 1918 flu and others with various other strains of flu. The researchers found that the 1918 flu went directly and aggressively to the victim’s lungs.  In fact after fours day of infection they found that the amount of virus in the lungs of the mice exposed to the 1918 flu was 39,000 times that of those infected with other strains of the flu!   That is not a typo.  39,000 times!   How did it all come to an end?  In 1918 Chicago the flu epidemic came in quickly and violently and left just as quickly.  The first case was reported in Great Lakes on September 9^th.  The peak of infections took place toward the end of October and early November.   Levels of disease returned to baseline by the end of November.  From beginning to relative end was about a 3 month period. One thing that I found very interesting about the treatment of the sick today was something that was touched upon by our leaders in this crisis.  Currently, they are using antibody-rich blood plasma from CoVid-19 survivors in hopes that the antibodies will help fight off the virus. In 1918 they did almost the same thing.  They didn’t call it plasma but rather a serum made from the blood of Spanish Flu survivors.  I don’t know if this was plasma or direct transfusion but there were personal ads run in the newspapers looking for donors. [caption id="attachment_1275" align="alignright" width="1024"] Personal Ad for blood of recovered flu victims, Chicago Tribune, October 20, 1918[/caption] The final numbers for the 1918 flu are staggering.  The estimates are that over 500 million people or one-third of the population of the world at the time were infected with the virus with the number of deaths being at least 50 million.  675.000 of those deaths were in the United States.  27,000 deaths reported for CoVid-19, as of the date of this article, still sounds much better than 50 million for the 1918 flu. (Let’s hope it doesn’t get to be much more) We don’t yet know what the final numbers will be in the battle against CoVid-19 but we do know that what we do as individuals can make a huge difference with not only CoVid-19 but will the other respiratory viruses including the flu which can be just as deadly to the most vulnerable.  We know by looking at historical data and listening to the medical professionals that while this is a very serious threat we are probably not looking at an apocalyptic outcome or not even anything close. By using proper hygiene, avoiding crowds, social distancing and staying home if sick when possible and taking care of those most vulnerable we will make it through this as well. In addition to the CDC website, there is also a very nifty website put together by the University of Michigan that is specific to the 1918 pandemic.  It is called the Influenza Encyclopedia and I highly recommend it.   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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Since we are all still working to limit the effects of this pandemic as much as possible, I wanted to let everyone know about something that I personally am doing this Friday that everyone can take part in. I have been running free walking tours through my non-profit "Friends of The White City" since 2014 in conjunction with the Jackson Park Advisory Council. The tour is meant to showcase Chicago's 1893 World's Fair also known as The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and nicknamed "The White City".  Anyone who has read Erik Larson's amazing book, "Devil in The White City" can attest to the significance of this world's fair on the city of Chicago and it was important enough to be represented as the third star on the current Chicago Flag. [caption id="attachment_1018" align="alignright" width="640"] Court of Honor from the Chicago 1893 World's Columbian Exposition[/caption] The tour will take visitors to the sites in Jackson Park and The Midway Plaisance where the fair was held and where visitors can still see relics of the fair in the park and at different locations. Unfortunately, the walking tours have been put on hold during the Covid-19 crisis but Vamonde has been kind enough to feature the tour as one of their Happy Hour Virtual Tours.  So I have been working with them over the last week to put together the visuals and materials for the tour and we are planning to go LIVE this Friday! This Friday, May 15, 2020, the virtual tour will start at 4:00 pm.    The tour is FREE but you must register for the tour at the link below.  This would be a great experience for those who are homeschooling as a virtual field trip.  There won't be any walking involved but it will be fun just the same.   Great thing is that we don't have to worry about getting rained out! Date:  Friday May 15, 2020 Time:  4:00pm Register at:  https://www.bigmarker.com/vamonde/Virtual-Tour-1893-World-s-Fair   Hope to see you all there!   Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+

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This article is not legal advice.  Please consult an attorney with regard to questions concerning legal advice. By now everyone has seen the video footage and endless memes regarding the St. Louis couple who guarded their property using firearms. Some on the side of 2^nd Amendment rights have hailed the McCloskeys as heroes while some on the other side of the political spectrum see them as poster children for white privilege. I see their situation as a number of different things.    I see them as targets of malicious prosecution.  I see them as showing gun owners the need for gun safety training.  But most importantly I see them as a dire warning to all legal gun owners. If you are a legal gun owner, you NEED to understand all of the gun laws in your jurisdiction and know them WELL.  If you don’t, those same gun laws can and will be used against you to confiscate your firearms and land you in jail. The state of Missouri has some pretty relaxed gun laws when you compare them to Illinois for example.   Without going into extreme detail, you can pretty much carry, open or concealed, any rifle or handgun anywhere you want with some exceptions such as schools, government buildings, hospitals, airports, etc. In the case of the McCloskeys, you had a group of protestors who entered a private street without permission and broke through a closed gate in order to do so.  Say what you want about 1^st Amendment rights (and I am a big proponent of such rights) it doesn’t allow a person to commit criminal trespass to land or criminal damage to private property. Now, I have not seen the entire video of the situation or all of the videos that were probably taken of the incident or interviewed any witnesses or even spoken to the McCloskeys directly so there may be more evidence coming forward so I can only speak on what has been reported in the various media outlets. As far as I know, there were no arrests of protestors and the McCloskeys were not arrested at the scene.  I don’t believe they or any protestors were harmed and I believe that the mayor was the ultimate target of the protest and the McCloskey property was just one property that was on the route to the mayor’s residence. So basically at the end of the protest, there were no arrests made for the crimes of criminal trespass or criminal damage and the McCloskeys were legally defending their property and lives according to Missouri state law, or so they thought. Shortly after the incident the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, Kim Gardner, issued this statement: “I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault. We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated. My office is currently working with the public and police to investigate these events. Make no mistake: we will not tolerate the use of force against those exercising their First Amendment rights, and will use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable.” Keep in mind that the 2^nd Amendment was never mentioned, the crimes committed by the peaceful protestors were never mentioned and the part that should send chills up the spine of every legal gun owner was, “..will use the full power of Missouri law to hold people accountable”. The Attorney General of the state of Missouri came out and said that the McCloskeys did not violate any laws.   Or did they? The answer came on July 10^th when authorities issued a search warrant for the search and seizure of the two guns that the McCloskeys were holding in the video.  The pistol that Mrs. McCloskey was holding was already in the custody of their attorney and was allegedly a non-working gun. (Why someone would be holding a non-working gun is beyond me but o.k.)  The rifle that was held by Mr. McCloskey was seized by authorities. In order for a judge to sign a search warrant, at least in Illinois, there has to be shown probable cause that a felony violation of the law has been or is about to be committed.  So what law was possibly violated in defending yourself and your property? Is it possible that either Mr. McCloskey or Mrs. McCloskey were people who were not legally entitled to possess a weapon in the state of Missouri?  It is possible.  If either of them is a convicted felon or not U.S. citizens, or if either of them is addicted to illegal compounds or have been deemed mentally incompetent or have been committed to a mental institution are just a couple of reason.  It is possible but if any of these were true there probably would have been an arrest warrant issued as well. What then?  Well they could be looking to charge them with a violation of Missouri’s Unlawful Use of Weapons statute under Missouri Statute 571.030 subdivision(4) Subdivision (4) states that A person commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons, except as otherwise provided by sections 571.101 to 571.121, if he or she knowingly exhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner. Well, the video shows them pointing weapons at one or more people with their fingers on the triggers and they don’t look very happy and might actually be considered “angry” so yep I would say that they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed so yes a judge would sign a search warrant for this. But wait, if you look further down the statute you see that in paragraph five it states that subdivision (4), along with others, shall not apply to persons who are engaged in a lawful act of defense pursuant to section 563.031. Hmm… it seems like they were acting in defense right?  Well, that might be for a jury or a judge to decide after they are indicted for the felony but let’s look at it anyway. Section 563.031 talks about physical force and deadly physical force to protect persons.  The McCloskeys did not use physical or deadly force but they did, conceivably, use the threat of deadly force by brandishing their weapons or by “displaying them in a threatening or angry manner” So what does it say about deadly force? Well in paragraph 2 (3) it states that a person may use deadly force against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering,  or attempts to unlawfully enter private property that is owned or leased by an individual. Well thank goodness they didn’t actually use the deadly force but it seems that if they did actually shoot someone they may have been justified with one caveat and this is the important part that could land you in prison. In paragraph 5 it states:  The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of justification under this section.  If a defendant asserts that his or her use of force is described under subdivision (2) of subsection 2 of this section, the burden shall then be on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not reasonably believe that the use of force was necessary to defend against what he or she reasonably believed was the use or imminent use of unlawful force. Summary: So what does all this mean?  It means that if you consider yourself a legal and responsible gun owner then you better understand all of the gun laws in your country, your state, your county, and your municipality and realize that even in a state like Missouri, which has some pretty relaxed gun laws, you can have your house searched, your guns seized, and even be indicted for a felony for not keeping the muzzle of your weapon pointed downward until needed. In fact, two simple gun safety rules can prevent most malicious prosecution.   These were two of many taught to us at the police academy.

1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Don’t let the muzzle of your weapon cover anything that you aren’t willing to destroy.

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