Il Diavolo The guards at the old prison on Dearborn and Illinois weren’t afraid of much, but one prisoner really freaked them out: Sam “Il Diavolo” Cardinella, the head of a high insular, secretive gang that operated out of his pool room on 22nd Place. Their whole story was in a previous post: The Strange…
Tag: weird stuff
Henry Jumpertz and the Barrel Mystery of 1859
Jumpertz as he appeared inFrank Leslie’s newspaper In 1859, Henry Jumpertz was arrested for the murder of Sophie Werner. It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A barrel had arrived in New York that smelled so terrible that authorities had to open it up. Inside, the first thing they saw was a woman’s face. It was…
The Skull of Del Close at the Goodman Theatre
It’s pretty well established now that the skull in the artistic director’s office at the Goodman wasn’t really the skull of comedian Del Close when he was alive, but it’s his now! He donated his skull to the theatre so that he could play Yorick, and the skull they have serves as his, at least symbolically….
Human Heads at O’Hare
A package of more than a dozen severed human heads is currently being holed up at O’Hare. Officials are acting like this is no big deal, but I would have loved to see the TSA agent’s face when the coolers containing them went through the x-ray. See more from the Chicago Tribune. What can I…
The “Demon Bank” on North Clark
No, this isn’t one of those “occupy” posts. But there’s one bank on North Clark that seems to have demons carved right into the facade – at 2021 N Clark. Would you go to a bank with demons on it? Up close, you see that the thing actually has horns and everything. Is this supposed to…
The Disco Salad Bar
Hi, guys. You’ll never believe what I discovered today at the Holmes Murder Castle site. I was there all day with a TV show, including a trip into the basement. I’ll have more details and stories later (and LOTS of photos), but for now all I can do is tease. So, anyway, the mysterious discovery:…
The Chicken Man Strikes Again
To my knowledge, no other writer has better described Chicago than Daniel Pinkwater, who wrote about a thinly-disguised version of Chicago in The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, The Education of Robert Nifkin, and Lizard Music, which is now available ina gorgeous new hardcover. In honor of that long-overdue reissue, here’s a shot…
The Chiditarod!
When you’re walking down to the UPS store and see a bunch of guys in chicken suits crossing the road, you should pretty generally go see what’s going on. I crossed the road myself and saw a bunch of costumed guys and decorated shopping carts. I had stumbled onto The Chiditarod, which was described to…