Inside Chicago's gangland empire: Eye-opening map details
exactly where the city's most notorious mobsters hid from the police and
carried out their crimes in the roaring 20s
A University of Chicago sociologist created the map covering
the entire city from 1923 to 1926
Every clubhouse and hideout used by the more than 1,300
active gangs is charted on the incredible map
Frederic Thrasher included the chart in his book about
mobsters, The Gang, a Study of 1313 Gangs in Chicago
Some of the most notorious gangsters in US history,
including Al Capone were active in Chicago in the 1920s
By Liam Quinn For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 13:43 EST, 24 January 2017 | UPDATED: 17:32 EST,
24 January 2017
An incredible hand-drawn map from the 1920s reveals just how
Chicago's infamous mobsters controlled the city.
To see the map and associated pictures go to the link below:
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4153246/Map-gives-detailed-look-Chicago-s-gangland-empire.html#ixzz4Xq7cl6Jl
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Every clubhouse, home base, and hideout used by the more
than 1,300 active gangs between 1923 and 1926 was marked down on a map spanning
the entire city by a University of Chicago sociologist.
Frederic Thrasher put the amazingly detailed map together
for part of a book he wrote chronicling the city's mobster scene, The Gang, a
Study of 1313 Gangs in Chicago.
Chicago is well known for its bloody history with gangs,
with the likes of Al Capone, George Moran, and John Dillinger operating in the
city at stages during the 1920s and 1930s.
This map from the 1920s plotted exactly where gang hideouts
and different territories were located across Chicago
A full map of the Second City is covered with hundreds of
red triangles and dots, which are used to identify clubhouses with or without
'clubrooms', respectively.
It then goes into even greater detail, marking out specific
areas where specific ethnicities were dominant, including: 'Jewish', 'Polish',
'Negro, Hungarian', 'German', and others
'No less than 1,313 gangs have been discovered in Chicago
and its environs!' Frederic Thrasher wrote at the time, according to Atlas
Obscura.
Some of the most infamous mobsters, including Al Capone
(left) and George Moran operated across Chicago during the decade. Capone and
Moran were rivals in the Chicago mafia
The map showed exactly where different mob locations were
across the city. Pictured is a group of men in the street in 1920
'Their distribution as shown on the accompanying map makes
it possible to visualize the typical areas of gangland and to indicate their
place in the life and organization of Chicago.
'Gangland is a phenomenon of human ecology. The gang
develops as one manifestation of the economic, moral, and cultural frontier
which makes the interstice.'
In his book, Thrasher claimed more than 25,000 boys and men
were involved in gangs at the time, and the crews grew to the extent they
became 'mini-societies'.
The mob expert then went on to write: 'No two gangs are just
alike. Some are good; some are bad; and each has to be considered to its own
merits.'
The Birger Gang poses for a group portrait at its hangout,
Shady Rest, Illinois. Many notorious gangs and mobsters operated in the city
Lester Gillis aka Babyface Nelson, a member of the Dillinger
gang and regarded as the most psychotic outlaw of the 1930s, on an undertaker's
slab as police stand over him
A wanted poster for Lester Gillis, the mobster who was known
as 'Babyface' is seen in June 1934
The map charted where different gangs operated for three
years between 1923 and 1926. Pictured in Chicago's Wrigley Field in the 1920s