First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosimo and the Ladies of the Levee
THE FIRST VICE LORD is the story of the life and death of Big Jim Colosimo and Chicago's infamous segregated red-light district—the Levee. For the first time, the true story is told of the colorful characters who peopled the Levee from the time of the Columbian Exposition to the Roaring Twenties, clearly the most colorful period in Chicago's history. The product of five years of research through Chicago daily newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and books on the city's history, it...
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The First Vice Lord is the story of the life and death of Big Jim Colosimo and Chicago's infamous segregated red-light district-the Levee. For the first time, the true story is told of the colorful characters who peopled the Levee from the time of the Columbian Exposition to the Roaring Twenties, clearly the most colorful period in Chicago's history. The product of five years of research through Chicago daily newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and books on the city's history, it documents the story as it occurred, with all of the sights, sounds, and smells of that lusty, unruly era. The First Vice Lord is the story of an immigrant Italian lad who grew up in the tenements of Chicago, where he worked first as a lowly street sweeper, then as a brothel operator and vice lord, and finally as the owner of the most famous restaurant of his day. His story is told against the backdrop of an open red-light district so famous it was known to the crown heads of Europe. Here are the painted ladies, the smarmy pimps, and the tough madams in their duel with the reformers and crusaders, from journalist Reverend William Steed to fiery evangelist Gypsy Smith. Protecting and collecting bribes throughout are crooked police captains and their on-the-take patrolmen and detectives, all authorized by the greatest rogues in Chicago's history: Aldermen "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Both Jim Colosimo and the Levee die at the peak of their popularity, one to an assassin's bullet and the other to the relentless pressures of the reformers, civil leaders, ministers, evangelists, and headline-seeking newspaper editors of the city.
Acknowledgments 7Introduction 11Chicago-City of OpportunityOne Spectacular Funeral [1920] 17A Birth in Italy [1879-1891] 25Early Vice in Chicago [1857-1892] 29Growing Up [1892-1897] 33White Wings [1892-1902] 37Two Colorful Aldermen [1892-1902] 43The Levee [1893-1911] 51"If Christ Came to Chicago" [1893-1894] 57The Sisters Everleigh [1900-1912] 61First Ward Ball [1896-1908] 67Pimp to Vice Lord [1902-1912] 77Family and Business [1902-1912] 83Chicago-City of Vice and CorruptionFighting Vice and Corruption [1901-1910] 89White Slavery [1908-1909] 95Marchers and Hymns [1907-1909] 101The Battle for the Levee Continues [1910] 109Report of the Vice Commission [1911] 113Everleigh Club Closes [1911] 121Gangster from New York [1905-1912] 127State's Attorney Wayman's Raids [1912] 133Morals Squad [1913-1914] 143Shooting of Sergeant Birns [1914] 151Colosimo in a Cell [1914] 159TheLevee Closes [1914] 165Out in the County [1914-1915] 171Chief Healey Has Troubles [1914-1917] 177Chicago-City of Broken DreamsMetamorphosis of Big Jim [1917] 189Colosimo's Cafe [1918-1919] 195Singing Angel [1917-1919] 201Wartime Prohibition [1918-1919] 207Eighteenth Amendment [1918-1920] 211Divorce and Second Marriage [1920] 221The Clock Ticks Down [1920] 227Murder! [1920] 233Investigating in All Directions [1920] 243What Happened to the Cash? [1920] 253The End of the Levee and Big Jim [1920] 261Epilogue 263Glossary of Period Terms 273Notes 287Bibliography 305Index 311
