Capone in my Neighborhood

For more History:
http://www.berwyn.net/berwyn/history.asp
http://www.berwyninformer.com/history.html
maps.google.com (60 famous chicago places)

I've known for years that Capone operated out of Cicero for many years. His old Cicero headquarters was a few blocks from my first teaching job (as I understand it). I taught in the oldest school in one of the oldest schools in the district, so kids were learning their reading, writing, and 'rithmetic while Capone was around the corner, planning his next massacre. I know there was a Capone bombing right on that corner on Cermak too. You would have been able to see it from my classroom with ease. I wonder if it occurred during school hours. And I wonder how they would have handled it - screaming and running for safety or a mere glance, then shrug of the shoulders. "Oh well, there's that naughty man, up to his silly antics again."

There's a page on google maps that marks 60 or so known mob sites. I decided to go and find the ones nearest and was shocked at how many of them lived in quiet, unassuming, everyday neighborhoods. They are mostly pretty, simple middle class homes that you would never notice. They appear genteel - a place where your American-as-baseball mother would cool pies on the windowsill. Frank the Enforcer Nitti's home is in Riverside on Selborne Ave, just off of Harlem. It's brick, petite, and darling. Someone lives in it right now. I wonder if they know?

Frank killed himself somewhat close by. One afternoon, he told his wife he was going for a walk, gave her a peck on the lips, and then strode around in the general direction of North Riverside Mall (it wasn't there yet). He walked along the train tracks toward Des Plaines Ave. He leaned against a white board fence in the full view of two railroad workers and shot himself in the head. I wonder why he went that particular direction and chose that specific spot? Was he too lonely too die alone? Did he want company while he offed himself? Or did he just meander until he got the courage and he happened to get it at that spot?

Mobsters owned homes in Oak Park, Forest Park, and of course, in Cicero. I've located three different mob homes that are 4-8 blocks from where I live. There was a mob murder in one of the houses in Oak Park. Did the mobsters go all Machine Kelly on him in the streets, or was it a quiet murder? Did they sneak in with silencers while he slept in his safe suburban home? I wonder how those Oak Parkies handled that one. Did they whisper about it over the fences the next day as the nurses dragged the white-covered body down to the morgue wagon? Or were they too terrified? Violence was rampant in Cicero but was probably shocking in these other suburbs.

It amazes me how, once established, how entrenched things can become. It is almost as if affluence or poverty, corruption or violence, once it takes hold - it sometimes becomes a living entity. And then it rules actively in an area. Riverside, IL was always the play-place for wealthy Chicagoans. And it still is. Cicero has been violent and corrupt since the days of Capone (and before too). He was only there for about 6 years, but it is as if he exuded such corruption that it settled into the very concrete of his demesnes. Cicero largely continues to be exactly what Capone made it. Which is such a shame, because Cicero also has many beautiful buildings and parks. Factories in Cicero were considered very progressive because they were some of the first to adopt the concept that a happy worker was a good worker, so they invested in safe practices and in building the community.

People wonder why Chicago is corrupt as they watch the laughable-yet-awful behavior of Blagojevich. And for those of you who might, just might be wondering if he's not guilty: please, just stop. He is. Corruption is endemic in Chicago. It always was. From the very beginning. Once it got started off on that path about 150 years ago, it just kept right on going. And Chicagoans learned that as long as the the basics are met, to just ignore it. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that after 150 years, you just kind of learn to cope.

And yet, it is strange how someone can be both wicked and good. I taught with a woman in Berwyn whose family was literally saved by Capone. Her grandfather ditched her grandmother, leaving the family destitute. Her grandmother made a meager living as a cook at an Italian restaurant. One day, Capone went out for dinner, liked the food, and hired her on the spot as his personal cook. He supported her whole family and paid for their education. She's alive and teaching today because of Mr. Al Capone, who not only gave the woman a job, but went beyond the call of duty for the whole family. Who would do that in this day and age? Who knows his motivation, of course, but it still matters that he did it.

Or there's my husband's friend. One day they were talking about Band of Brothers and he mentioned that he hadn't seen it. He hasn't seen any of the usual WWII movies. It makes him too uncomfortable. He grew up with an adoring grandfather, who took him everywhere and taught him everything; who used to quietly sing to him gentle songs from the motherland. Then one day, when he was in his teens, his grandfather drew him away from the rest of the family. Sequestered in a back room, he pulled out a box from a hidden recess in the closet. It was filled with Nazi paraphernalia. Not just any Nazi stuff either: SS regalia. After that, it became too painful to watch movies about those "dirty evil Germans" - those "slaughtering monsters" (you get that these quotations mean that I'm using those phrases ironically, right?). He couldn't reconcile those images of those acts with his loving and dear grandfather.

We like to make caricatures of most things, especially the things that bother us. We want people to be all of one thing. Maybe it makes the world feel safer. Or surer. We don't like to face the fact that all people have equal capacity for goodness and evil, and that people are constantly producing both of these, even simultaneously. I used to think that people fit neatly on a line graph from holy to evil. Now I'm not so sure. It is certainly true that some people seem to produce more good or more evil. How much joy did Jeffrey Dahmer produce compared with the pain he inflicted? How is your degree of goodness or your degree of vileness measured?

At any rate, there's Capone in my neighborhood. I've been trying to find out if there were any actual mob homes in Berwyn. I have a semi-confirmation that Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters had their headquarters here.