One of Capone’s first gigs in Chicago was working at the notorious Four Deuces club, 2222 S. Wabash, which was Johnny Torrio’s headquarters. It was here that Torrio taught Capone what he needed to know before passing the empire on to him.
The Four Deuces club is long gone today – there’s a vacant lot on the site, but some concrete remains here and there along the edge that are sometimes said to be the old concrete foundations.
A few months ago, while scoping the space out, we found a bizarre little thing poking out of the ground. After digging, we found that it was this:
At first I thought it was a decoration of some sort, but the wiring made us think it might be a railroad signal switch (the label DOES say “Made for Union Switch and Signal Co. by Ward Leonard Electric CO). But it actually appears, according to some readers who seem to know their stuff, to be some sort of heating coil-type mechanism. Was this a part of the Four Deuces? Just some railroad junk?
We’re guessing the latter, but you never know….