Part of Series

Images of America

Series · 145 books

By Kathryn W. Burke, Donald A. Wilson, Bill Twomey, and more

Images of America: Illinois

Series · 2 books

By Dominic Candeloro, Jim Ridings

The story of Chicago gangsters in the 1920s is legendary. Less talked about is the tale of the politicians who allowed those gangsters to thrive. During the heyday of organized crime in the Prohibition era, Chicago mayor �Big Bill� Thompson and Gov. Len Small were the two most powerful political figures in Illinois. Thompson campaigned on making Chicago �a wide open town� for bootleggers. Small sold thousands of pardons and paroles to criminals, embezzled $1 million, and was then acquitted after mobsters bribed the jury. This book is the story of those Jazz Age politicians whose careers in government thrived on and endorsed corruption and racketeering, from Chicago to Springfield. It complements author Jim Ridings�s groundbreaking biography, Len Governors and Gangsters, which was praised by critics and situated Ridings as a trailblazer among Chicago crime authors.

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Author

Jim Ridings

Author · 1 book

Jim Ridings was born in Joliet, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1976. He was a reporter for The Daily Times in Ottawa and The Beacon-News in Aurora. He won more than a dozen awards for investigative reporting at both newspapers, from the Associated Press, United Press International, Copley Press, Illinois Press Association, Northern Illinois Newspaper Association, Aurora Lions Club, SDX Society of Professional Journalists and other organizations. Jim Ridings was presented a Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council in 2006. Ridings has written and published more than 20 books of local Illinois history. Four of his books have won awards from the Illinois State Historical Society: County West: A Sesquicentennial History of Western Kankakee County in 2004, Cardiff: Ghost Town On the Prairie in 2007, Cardiff 2 in 2009, and Greetings From Starved Rock in 2012. His most popular books are Len Small: Governors And Gangsters (2009); Small Justice (2014); Cardiff: Ghost Town On the Prairie (2006); Wild Kankakee (2012); Kankakee County Confidential (2016); Kankakee County Stories (2019); Chicago To Springfield: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (2010); Greetings From Kankakee (2005); Kankakee Makes Good (2007).