Crime, Capone, Chicago Chamber of Commerce & the Chicago Crime Commission
The reader may ask what did the Chicago Association of Commerce (CAC), the city’s chamber of commerce do about crime, Capone their alleged linkage with Chicago municipal government. Plenty, actually. For this information I am indebted to Chris Mead and his “The Magicians of Main Street”.[1] It began in 1919 when the CAC set up a subsidiary, the Chicago Crime Commission (CCC). The motivation was the rather bad name Chicago was acquiring because of its alleged linkages with crime; it was a business climate issue, more than anything else in these years. The purpose of the CCC was to keep accurate statistics, and to do what it could to assist criminal justice officials to capture the bad guys—and while they were at it—to keep wary watch on the law enforcement agencies as well. The year of the CCC’s establishment was, in fact, a very good year for crime (Black Sox World Series Scandal) and the year the Al Capone © came to Chicago.
Prohibition as we know already was loosely honored in Chicago and we are also aware that social reformer, Mayor Dever commence a four year Beer War in 1923. The Beer War, among its many effects, drove bootleggers and speakeasies into a formal alliance with organized crime, which in order to better protect its clients, improved upon its informal relationships with law enforcement agencies. In other words, © prospered and his career took off. By 1925 © was in charge of Chicago’s crime scene. In response to a number of “hits”, including the killing of a assistant state attorney general (for which © was arrested, but released the next morning), a former Chicago businessman in 1926 publically called for a formal investigation. The former businessman, Charles Dawes by name, was at the time the Vice President of the United States. Dawes’s brother, Rufus, was President of the Chicago Commercial Club (CCC2), and his cousin, William, was President of the CAC.
Motivated by this substantial outpouring of support, the CCC, subsidiary of the CAC sprang into action. The CCC asked Dawes (the Vice President) to ask the President for help and in 1928 President Coolidge responded by authorizing the IRS to look into ©’s tax filings. Then an incident occurred at the empty C.M.C Carthage Company building on North Clark Street on St Valentine’s day in 1929; said incident prompted the CCC to go to Washington to see the President (now named Harding) who offered much appreciated sympathy and encouragement. The CAC upon its return authorized $50,000 of its own funds and gathered together $400,000 for rewards to identify the killers of the five men killed that night. In that to this day, we do not really know who did the killing, I suspect the reward is still available. But © was arrested (in Philadelphia) in May and sent to jail for ten months. Violence in Chicago, if anything, got worse. Pressured by CAC businesses unwillingly caught up in the violence, the President of the CAC, Colonel Robert Isham Randolph[2].
Randolph met with the Police Commissioner and the State’s Attorney General who inspired Randolph to use the CCC to set up a “secret service” that would uncover leads, payoff insiders, buy information, protect witnesses, and more or less crack down on criminals. On February 8, 1930, the CCC formed a subcommittee to fight © and crime; there were six members plus Randolph. They are known today as “the Secret Six”[3] (in the spirit of Dave Barry, I am not making any of this up). Randolph then made a pitch to businessmen at a lunch at the Mid-Day Club—and raised $200,000. Eventually they raised $1 million. The newspapers got hold of the idea and the Secret Six became front page. With permission from President Harding, a chief special agent, Alexander Jamie, from the Department of Justice was assigned to the CCC. Jamie’s brother-in-law, Eliot Ness, it is said, took notice of the CCC and the Secret Six. In short order, the Secret Six constructed a list of twenty-eight criminals to monitor—and that list was leaked to the Chicago Tribune who published the names of these “public enemies”, marking the first time Public Enemy was known to be used.
The Secret Six got to work. They wiretapped, bribed, illegally investigated, hired private investigators and in general really, seriously put the screws on © and his crime affiliates. They even set up their own speakeasy and joined in, gathering information and “contacts”. Randolph himself (remember he is President of the Chicago Association of Commerce) is quoted as having said “we resort to all sorts of devious and extra-legal methods of securing information. Dictaphones, telephones, deception, simulation, all the arts and artifices of the spy are freely used. … The current market price of betrayal ranges between a “C Note” ($100) or a Grand ($1,000)”.[4] At a presentation to students at Northwestern University Randolph claimed “I could have any man I designated killed for $200 or $300”. Now this is one heck of a chamber of commerce.
Well, all this got ©’s attention and in February 1931 Randolph and © met at a room in the Lexington Hotel. Randolph kept notes of the meeting, after he gave his revolver to © as a sign of good faith. The notes include comments such as L1)©: “Colonel what are you trying to do to me?; ®: “Put you out of business; (2) ©: “Why do you want to do that?”; ®: “We want to clean up Chicago, put a stop to these killings and gang rule here?” After several beers, several proposals were offered, and ® rejected them. As the meeting was breaking up Capone asked Randolph “Say Colonel, what do you think about the [1931] mayoral election? Should I come out for Cermak or ride along with Thompson?” Randolph replied that he thought Capone should “stick with ‘Big Bill’”. After receiving the advice, © returned the revolver to ®.[5] I assume Randolph billed the chamber for mileage to and from the meeting—and parking as well. Was the revolver paid for by the CAC? The auditor in me wonders?
The CAC closed down the CCC and the Secret Six in 1933. Jamie, the DOJ special chief agent reported that the Secret Six was involved with 595 cases, aided in 55 convictions with sentences totaling 428 years. Capone himself was quoted as publically saying “The Secret Six has licked the rackets. They’ve licked me. They made it so there’s no money in the game anymore”. How valid this all is, frankly, is anyone’s guess. But there were actual trials against the Secret Six for specific activities such as wiretapping the State Attorney General, or wrongful arrest. So they were clearly out there “doing their thing”. Randolph moved on when the CCC was closed down—he became director of operations for the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair. © went to jail. You be the judge who the winner is!
[1] Chris Mead, the Magicians of Main Street: America and its Chambers of Commerce, 1768-1945 (Oakton VA, John Cruger Press, 2014), pp. 296-305.
[2] Randolph’s father, a civil engineer was responsible for reversing the flow of the Chicago River, an engineering feat that discharged the city’s garbage and waste down the Mississippi River as opposed to Lake Michigan.
[3] Two confirmed members were Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears & Roebuck, and Samuel Insull the owner of several utility companies. Rosenwald died in 1932 and Insull’s utility empire went bankrupt. He was tried (and won) for mail fraud and embezzlement. He died, penniless, in 1938 riding the Paris Metro (See Mead, p. 305)
[4] Chris Mead, the Magicians of Main Street, pp. 301-302.
[5] Chris Mead, the Magicians of Main Street, pp. 302-303.
Ron W. Coan 