Images of America: Illinois

Series · 2 books · 1999-2010

By Dominic Candeloro, Jim Ridings

Books in series

#58

Chicago to Springfield

Crime and Politics in the 1920s

2010

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.

#164

Italians in Chicago

1999

Italians have been a part of the Chicago community since the 1850s. The city's Italian immigration rate peaked in 1914, and many of these new residents settled in neighborhoods on the north, west, and south sides of the Loop and in the industrial suburbs of Chicago. An intriguing visual tour, Italians in Chicago explores the lives of over four generations of the community's residents and experiences. In over 200 images accompanied by an insightful narrative, this collection uncovers the challenges of migration and ethnic survival as well as the trials and triumphs of daily life.

Authors

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).