CHAPTER 30 of THE COOLEST SPOT IN CHICAGO:
A HISTORY OF GREEN MILL GARDENS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF UPTOWN
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In the spring of 1922, an Italian man wearing flashy clothes showed up in Chicago, spending his nights at the city’s hottest cabarets and cafés, from Colosimo’s on the South Side to Green Mill Gardens on the North Side. He appeared to be a European nobleman of wealth and culture. People called him the Count.
The carefree Count liked spending money and drinking liquor.1 He walked with a cane, but not because of any infirmity—he always seemed to be twirling it for dramatic effect. The points of his moustache were finely waxed. He was often accompanied by charming women, including one who was said to be the Countess.
But when the Count visited Green Mill Gardens and 14 other cabarets on July 1, he wasn’t just flourishing his cane—he was also wielding arrest warrants. On this night, the proprietors of these establishments learned the true identity of this dandy. His name was William Yaselli, and he was employed by the United States government as an agent in the Narcotics Division of the Treasury Department’s Prohibition Unit.2
As Yaselli later put it, he “wielded a mean sponge in mopping up Chicago.”3 He led a sweeping effort by the feds to take down Chicago’s most prominent and popular cabarets and nightspots, accusing them of breaking the federal law against selling intoxicating beverages. But as it turned out, it would take a lot more than William Yaselli’s mean sponge to mop up Chicago.
As soon as Chicago’s newspapers learned about this outlandish character who’d descended on their city from the East Coast with an assignment to shut off the flow of illegal booze, he became the subject of much ridicule.
It’s highly doubtful that Yaselli had any legitimate claim on being called a count—it merely seemed to be a character he played. But Yaselli carried on the ruse, even after his identity as a prohibition agent was splashed all over newspaper pages. “He says that he’s a real count, but that his family is financially embarrassed,” the Chicago Daily Tribune reported.4
William Domenico Yaselli, who was 30 years old in 1922, was born in an unlikely place for a European count—Orange, New Jersey.5 His parents and his eldest brother had emigrated from Pietransieri, a mountain village in central Italy.6 Yaselli had two brothers who also worked for the federal government: an assistant U.S. attorney and an accountant for the Department of Internal Revenue.7
Yaselli had been employed by the Treasury Department since 1915, working as an investigator and a narcotics agent.8
Before coming to Chicago, he’d sleuthed in New York alongside prohibition agent Isidor “Izzy” Einstein,9 who’d made headlines by disguising himself in countless costumes—everything from a German pickle packer to a Black man in Harlem—as he raided drinking establishments that were supposedly unassailable by law enforcement.
Einstein uttered the same catchphrase whenever he caught someone: “There’s sad news here. You’re under arrest.”10
Like Izzy, Yaselli was said to be a master of disguise—the Tribune reported that he traveled with a wardrobe including an “adjustable Van Dyke beard,” 40 pairs of shoes, and 20 hats.11 But the Count seems to be the primary character, perhaps the only one, that he played. Yaselli may have simply enjoyed dressing up in fine clothing.
“Dressed in the height of fashion and acting the part of a foreigner of means and culture, the ‘count’ went the rounds of the cabarets for a month with charming women who, it seems, were on the federal pay roll with him,” the Chicago Daily News reported.12 According to the Daily News, Yaselli’s team included “two pretty, demure ‘white angels’ of the feminine prohibition squad.” Other prohibition agents in Yaselli’s squad reportedly posed as Boston clubmen.13
But Yaselli had only one companion who was mentioned in court affidavits. Wherever he went, he was accompanied by Laura P. McClaskey, a Chicago employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who was assigned to investigate and report prohibition violations.14 Presumably, she was one of those “white angels.” She reportedly posed as a countess,15 but in reality, this 36-year-old stenographer was born in Decorah, Iowa. However, this unmarried Midwestern woman had shown something of an adventurous side over the last few years, taking excursions to Jamaica, Panama, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.16
After arriving in Chicago on May 28, Yaselli had spent a few days investigating the federal prohibition officials stationed there—looking for any “irregularity” in their decisions to grant liquor licenses. He wanted to know if they’d been paid off. (Yaselli did not reveal the results of this investigation when he gave a sworn statement about his activities.)17
Yaselli and McClaskey began their tour of Chicago’s cabarets and roadhouses on May 31, when they visited the Broadway Drug Company at 4201 North Broadway, where they purchased a pint of whiskey, before heading up the street to Green Mill Gardens. According to Yaselli, he purchased a one-pint bottle of Old Taylor whiskey for $10 in the nightclub that night. Yaselli accused the venue’s manager, Henry Horn, of delivering the bottle to him. Yaselli recalled seeing other people buying “various kinds of liquor” that night at Green Mill Gardens. These customers ordered and paid for the alcohol. When waiters brought the booze to their tables, they drank it right there, Yaselli said.18
Throughout June, Yasselli and McCarthy went out four or five times a week, visiting Chicago’s highest-profile restaurants and cabarets, along with the most popular suburban roadhouses. In a sworn statement, Yaselli recalled visiting “a very large number of places.”19 Wherever they went, they seemed to have no trouble finding waiters who were willing to sell them a cocktail or a bottle of liquor.
On June 1, they trekked out to the House That Jack Built on Milwaukee Avenue, in what is now Northbrook, paying $1 for two straight whiskeys. The same day, they also stopped at Bella Napoli, an Italian restaurant at 850 South Halsted Street, paying $3.50 for two cups of wine and one bottle of Dago red wine.
The following night, they were at the legendary Colosimo’s, paying $2.70 for three highballs. A night later, they visited Ike Bloom’s Midnite Frolic, 18–20 East 22nd Street, where they had four highballs for $4 and a pint of whiskey for $12.
After taking off a couple of nights, they hit up Terrace Gardens, at 79 West Madison Street, in the basement of the Morrison Hotel, where they bought a pint of wine for $1.25. The next night, they were off to the Sunset Café, 313–317 East 35th Street, a black-and-tan cabaret known as a jazz hot spot, where they bought a pint of whiskey. And that was just how they spent the first week of June.
As they made their rounds, the purported Count and his “white angel” visited each of the targeted places at least two times.20 They returned to Green Mill Gardens on June 17—a day after the big Plantation Days show had opened at the venue. Yaselli bought another pint of whiskey from Horn, he recalled. And once again, he saw other people buying alcohol.
In his affidavits, Yaselli explained “that he has drunk whiskey and other spiritous and vinous liquors on many occasions during the past year and at frequent intervals prior thereto; that he is familiar with the taste and smell of whiskey and other spiritous and vinous liquors and knows that they contained alcohol…” In other words, Yaselli knew an illegal intoxicating beverage when he tasted one. And by his own admission, Yaselli drank the whiskey he’d purchased in Green Mill Gardens.21
In her affidavits, McClaskey backed up everything Yaselli said in his stories. She also knew booze when she saw it. According to her statement, “she tasted and smelled of the liquors” at Green Mill Gardens, concluding that they were “intoxicating liquors containing more than one half of one percentum of alcohol by volume and fit for beverage purposes.”22
By the time they were finished with their month of undercover boozing, Yaselli and McClaskey had spent at least $200 (roughly $3,700 adjusted for inflation) of the U.S. government’s money buying—and drinking—alcohol at the Chicago area’s hottest night spots.23 That was the equivalent of about four weeks’ salary for Yaselli. Or to put it another way, if he’d been paying for his own drinks and entertainment, it would have taken his entire income to foot the bill.24
On Saturday, July 1, Yaselli’s team raided 15 cabarets and cafés.25 At Green Mill Gardens that night, Yaselli allegedly asked to speak with owner Tom Chamales and manager Henry Horn in an office, where he asked them some questions. Chamales and Horn said they didn’t yet know the true identity of this well-dressed man, but that they did recognize him from his previous visits. “Yaselli is a man of peculiar appearance who once seen could not easily be forgotten,” Chamales later recalled.26 In an affidavit, Horn noted that Yaselli “is a man of unusual appearance and one who is easily remembered and recognized.”27 Soon after those conversations in the Green Mill’s office, Yaselli and some U.S. marshals arrested Chamales and Horn.28
At least, this is how Chamales and Horn told the story. They didn’t offer any details about what exactly Yaselli asked them during this conference in the Green Mill Gardens office. When Yaselli told his version of these events, he didn’t mention the meeting. And he insisted that he didn’t even meet Chamales and Horn until days later.29
Henry Horn was 39 years old. His name had been Jacob Hirschhorn when he was born in Russia in 1883.30 He’d married German immigrant Margretha Reese in Chicago in 1909.31 For a time, they lived in Cleveland, where he worked as a hotel waiter.32 By 1918, he was back in Chicago, working as Green Mill Gardens’ superintendent of service. When he’d registered for the draft during World War I, he’d said he was still a citizen of Russia.33 He and his wife now had two sons, who were seven and 12 years old.34
The arrests at 15 cabarets on that Saturday night resulted in a slew of criminal cases, keeping a court commissioner busy all day Sunday at downtown Chicago’s Federal Building.35
When Yaselli appeared in the courtroom to present the charges, the Tribune’s reporter noted that the agent was wearing “a fawn-colored Palm Beach suit.” The reporter piled on more details about Yaselli’s fashionable attire: “A broad-brimmed rakish Panama jauntily sat on his curly hair. His shoes were calfskin with brown cloth tops. His sox were silk. The rest of his trousseau was not in sight. The only incongruous element in his attire was one big .45 revolver tucked in his waistband. He didn’t use it.”
According to the Tribune, Yaselli presented his evidence “with his cane twirling snappily.” Yaselli rattled off evidence about the various proprietors who’d allegedly sold intoxicating beverages: “I bought booze here. … This place sold me Scotch. … I had a good time here; they’ve got some fine wine.”
One of the accused men, Morrison Hotel owner Harry Moir, disputed the charges against his business. “They only found some grape juice,” he said. “They say there’s five percent of alcohol in it; I don’t believe it. Maybe one of the waiters let the cork out of a bottle and it soured; I don’t know.”36
A few days later, Yaselli was standing in a corridor in the Federal Building when “an unidentified Italian” passed him in the corridor, handing him a Black Hand warning that threatened him with death, the New York Times reported.37 Such threats had been common in Chicago’s Italian community a decade earlier.38
In the coming days, federal authorities launched two sets of litigation against many of Chicago’s most famous cabarets and restaurants, including Green Mill Gardens. There were criminal charges: 69 cases filed on July 12 against 84 people, including Green Mill Gardens’ Chamales and Horn,39 accusing them of selling alcohol—a crime “against the peace and dignity of the United States.”40
There were also civil lawsuits, known as equity cases. The U.S. government used these lawsuits to seek injunctions shutting down businesses or at least preventing them from selling alcohol. George T. Page, a federal judge in Chicago, issued temporary injunctions on July 10 against 17 cabarets and restaurants, including Green Mill Gardens.
The Daily News lamented that the judge’s order “puts out the city’s brightest night lights and leaves north, south and west sides without their most popular resorts.”41 But it’s questionable how much practical effect these injunctions truly had. The judge was essentially ordering alcohol sales to stop—in places where the owners said they weren’t selling any alcohol in the first place.
What the proprietors really needed to worry about was a permanent injunction. In each case, the government was asking for a permanent injunction ordering that the “premises shall not be occupied or used for a period of one year after the date of said decree.” A decree like that would shut the business down for a year—and possibly for good.42
Green Mill Gardens, which was attracting big crowds for Plantation Days, took out an ad in the Daily News on July 12, assuring people that everything was business as usual. “The Green Mill Stays Open as Usual,” the ad declared, “in spite of an erroneous report which appeared in an edition of The Chicago Daily News, July 10, to the effect that the Green Mill Gardens had been closed by federal authorities.”43
A deputy U.S. marshal named Andrew Olsen was assigned the task of finding the Green Mill Gardens owners and managers who were named as defendants: Chamales, Horn, property owner Catherine Hoffman, and William B. Wierz (sometimes spelled Mierz), the secretary of the Green Mill Gardens corporation,44 who was identified by feds as one of the nightclub’s managers.45
Olsen found these four defendants at various places on July 17, 20, and 24 and read a piece of paper aloud to them. The document, signed by a clerk, announced that the court had issued a temporary injunction against Green Mill Gardens. “You … are hereby restrained … from manufacturing, selling or bartering any intoxicating liquor,” Olsen said. Continuing, he said they weren’t allowed to remove any liquor they had at Green Mill Gardens, or any fixtures used to make or sell alcohol. And they were forbidden from “conducting or permitting the continuance of a common or public nuisance upon the said premises.”46
By the time Olsen read this document to Chamales and his codefendants, it was old news. They were already fighting the allegations in court. For one thing, they simply denied that anyone was buying booze at Green Mill Gardens.
Chamales said he’d made sure that his corporation “should always obey the law in every respect whatsoever.” As the corporation’s president, he said he was determined that federal prohibition laws “should be strictly enforced at all times.”47
In an affidavit, Chamales said he’d met with Charles F. Clyne, the U.S. attorney for Chicago,48 when prohibition laws took effect. Chamales said he’d told the chief prosecutor that he intended “to fully comply with all requirements of said laws, and to see that … Green Mill Gardens … also complied.” And ever since then, Chamales “has fully and at all times complied with this law,” the affidavit said.
Following his attorney’s advice, Chamales had posted notices in Green Mill Gardens:49
TO THE EMPLOYEES
The Green Mill Gardens will not violate “National Prohibition Act”, commonly known as the “Volstead Act”.
Employees must not carry any intoxicating liquor into the premises, either for their own consumption, or for the consumption of others.
Employees must not solicit or receive any order from or sell or give away any intoxicating liquor, either on or off the premises.
Employees must not obtain or help anyone else to obtain any intoxicating liquor, or give any information of how it may be obtained.
Any violation will result in immediate discharge from service, and prosecution.50
Chamales said he’d also required his employees to sign an agreement that they would abide by these rules.51
And Chamales said he’d never noticed any Green Mill employees acting suspiciously.52
Horn said these rules were strictly enforced. He said he didn’t know whether Yaselli had been at Green Mill Gardens on May 31 and June 17, but Horn said he was certain that he hadn’t sold any liquor—to Yaselli or anyone else. Horn said he’d never sold any alcohol to anyone at Green Mill Gardens.53
As forceful as these denials were, it’s questionable how much weight they would carry in a courtroom. Who would a judge or jury believe: the Green Mill Gardens owner and manager, who said they didn’t sell any booze, or Yaselli, the federal agent who said he’d bought some from them?
But the Green Mill team went on the attack, raising allegations that undermined Yaselli’s credibility. According to Horn, Yaselli had returned to Green Mill Gardens around midnight at the end of Sunday, July 2—a day after he’d arrested Horn and Chamales.
After spending his day in court, Yaselli had allegedly gone out partying. He arrived at Green Mill Gardens with “Ray O’Keefe, who has a reputation of being a ‘fixer’ and a ‘bootlegger’, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Johnson, and a woman … in a very intoxicated condition,” Horn said in his affidavit. The party was also traveling with Harry Mager, who “was in such an intoxicating (sic) condition that he could not come into the Green Mill Gardens, but remained asleep in the car.” 54
Who were these people allegedly partying with Yaselli? Ralph Johnson was the proprietor of a café at Clark Street and Wellington Avenue.55 Two of the others were well-known characters who’d made frequent appearances in the pages of Chicago’s newspapers.
Raymond T. O’Keefe, 33,56 was a professional bondsman who lived in the South Side’s Hyde Park neighborhood.57 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis had placed O’Keefe on a blacklist at the federal court after O’Keefe allegedly made questionable arrangements to get his clients out of jail.58
In May 1922, Chicago police had questioned O’Keefe as a suspect in a series of liquor robberies, linking him with the Druggan-Lake bootlegging gang, led by Terrence Druggan and Frank Lake, but O’Keefe was apparently not charged.59
O’Keefe was also reportedly a friend of bank robbery suspects connected with the legendary con man Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil,60 who was known to hang out at the Green Mill.61 But O’Keefe took umbrage at being described as a mob associate—he later sued an alderman for calling him “an underworld character” and a “racketeer.”62
The allegedly drunk man sleeping in the car outside Green Mill Gardens was a former federal tax collector who’d suffered a dramatic fall from grace.
In 1919, when Harry W. Mager was just 29,63 he’d been appointed as the U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue’s chief of revenue agents, supervising 2,500 agents—a job that made him one of the government’s key prohibition enforcement officials.64
Seven months later, he became the U.S. government’s top tax collector for Chicago.65 Newspapers often quoted Mager urging people—including bootleggers—to pay their taxes.66
But Mager quit his job in 1921,67 and months later, he was arrested on prohibition and disorderly conduct charges. Mrs. Lucille Hart told police that Mager had been hiding “a quantity of whisky” in her apartment, at 818 West Eastwood Avenue in Uptown. When she turned the liquor over to him, he allegedly caused a disturbance.68 A week later, police arrested him in the hallway of the same apartment building, where they found him carrying a couple of quart bottles and a pint flask of liquor.69
On July 2, while Mager reportedly dozed outside Green Mill Gardens, O’Keefe asked Horn to come over to the group’s table, where O’Keefe introduced Yaselli to the Green Mill manager. Yaselli and his friends stayed a long time at Green Mill Gardens that night—hanging out until 3 a.m. The whole time, they were drinking liquor, which they’d carried into the venue, according to Horn. They asked Horn if he wanted a drink, and he refused, according to his affidavit.
A few days later, Yaselli returned to Green Mill Gardens, arriving around 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 6, according to the affidavits of several Green Mill employees. This time, Yaselli and O’Keefe were partying with a man named E. Feldman and two women,70 Ruth Friedman and Ina Bergeren.71
Rudolph Schramm was working that night at the Green Mill Gardens entrance, selling tickets. When he asked Yaselli and his companions to pay the cover charge, Yaselli said, “We do not have to pay admission,” according to Schramm’s affidavit.
“I cannot let you through without tickets,” Schramm replied. “These are my orders.”
“All right, we will pay the admission, but we will get the $5.50 back from his joint,” Yaselli allegedly answered as he paid. Schramm said he noticed Yaselli was carrying a bottle of Johnny Walker Scotch.72
Two employees working in the coat check room, Martin Paley and Clara Johnson, said they overheard this conversation. Paley heard Yaselli declare, “We will get our money back.” And he heard Yaselli telling his companions: “What do you think of these cheap pikers? We will make them cough up for this.”73
According to Johnson, “Yaselli naturally attracted considerable attention among the employes, and particularly on account of his peculiar appearance.”74
A waiter, Robert E. Kneiss, seated the group at a table in the outdoor garden. O’Keefe ordered two quarts of White Rock club soda. Kneiss noticed a bottle of Johnny Walker under the table. As the waiter watched, O’Keefe served drinks from that bottle to Yaselli and the other people at the table.
When the outdoor garden closed at 1 a.m., the group moved into the main dining room. Feldman placed two orders for waffles, along with one club sandwich and two cups of coffee. They continued drinking, with their bottle sitting out in plain view. According to Kneiss, “members of the party, and particularly William D. Yaselli, showed signs of intoxication.”75
At some point, O’Keefe was standing apart from his companions, as he called Chamales to come over and speak with him. He allegedly told Chamales that he could “fix it,” referring to the federal litigation against Green Mill Gardens, if Chamales was willing to pay. Chamales asked O’Keefe who was making this offer.
“Never you mind, whatever I’m talking to you is facts and what I say goes,” O’Keefe said, according to Chamales’s affidavit. “I sleep with him, I drink with him and I know what he wants. He wants the dough and that is all. He is hungry for money, and that is all he is after. Leave it all to me. I know what I am doing and what I can do.”
Chamales asked O’Keefe how much money it would take to fix things.
“How much is it worth to you?” O’Keefe replied.
Chamales recalled telling O’Keefe that he’d done nothing wrong. And his business hadn’t done anything wrong, either. He said he didn’t believe that Horn had sold any liquor to the Count. Horn didn’t have any liquor to sell, Chamales told O’Keefe.
“Well, that’s all right,” O’Keefe allegedly replied. “What’s it worth to you? You’ve got an investment and a lease here. It ought to be worth $5,000 to stop the injunction and save your lease.”
“No, nothing doing,” Chamales said he replied. “We haven’t done anything, but you go back to ‘The Count’ and ask him how much he wants.”
“Well, if you won’t talk five thousand, there isn’t any use doing anything; they’re all going to come across; if anybody comes across, mark my words, they will be safe.” 76
Just after Chamales spoke with O’Keefe, waiter Robert Kneiss overheard Yaselli telling O’Keefe: “Did you tell him we were awful short last month?”77
Chamales went over to the group’s table, where he was asked to have a drink of “good liquor.” Chamales told Yaselli and his pals that he wasn’t drinking. But he said he’d take some White Rock. Drinks were poured for everyone else at the table.78
According to Kneiss, Chamales sat down with the group around 1:30 a.m. The waiter heard Yaselli remarking, “I am in the habit of smoking good cigars.” Chamales ordered cigars for the table, and Kneiss brought over some Perfectos. According to the waiter, Chamales talked with the group for 10 or 15 minutes. 79 Chamales recalled staying for a few minutes and then going home for the night.80
When the party was getting ready to leave, around 2:30 a.m., Kneiss handed the bill to O’Keefe, and O’Keefe told the waiter to take the check over to Horn, the Green Mill Gardens manager, explaining that Horn would “take care of it.” The waiter did as told, but Horn insisted that O’Keefe had to pay his bill.81
Kneiss presented O’Keefe with the bill for a second time, and O’Keefe allegedly said: “You go back to Mr. Horn and have him O.K. this charge.”
The waiter returned to Horn, who said, “You are responsible for that check and you collect it.”
When the waiter went back to the table, O’Keefe grabbed the check and tore it into pieces, throwing them behind a settee, and stormed off. (Four other Green Mill employees witnessed O’Keefe tearing up the check, corroborating Kneiss’s story.)
Around this moment, Maurice Greenwald, one of the producers of Plantation Days, overheard Yaselli remark: “There are a couple of pikers running this place and I will get even with them.”
Kneiss turned to one of the other men in the party, E. Feldman, telling him he was responsible now for paying the bill. Kneiss said he’d call the police if they didn’t pay. Feldman handed him a $10 bill.
But O’Keefe saw what was happening. Coming back to the table, he grabbed Kneiss’s hand and demanded to know: “Where are you going?”
“I have to pay the check with this because I am responsible for it,” Kneiss said.
“Come here, give me that money,” O’Keefe said. “Give that money back to Feldman.” O’Keefe took the $10 bill from the waiter’s hand and threw it onto the group’s table.
At long last, O’Keefe relented. “I will pay the check,” he said, handing some of his own money to Kneiss.82 After paying, O’Keefe grabbed the Johnny Walker bottle and put it in his pocket. Another waiter, John Bredel, asked, “What is the matter, Mr. O’Keefe?”
“I will fix these fellows,” O’Keefe replied, as the group exited Green Mill Gardens.83
Clara Johnson, the check girl, recalled that “the members of the party had been drinking rather heavily and were under the influence of liquor.” According to her affidavit, “Ray O’Keefe carried a large dark bottle in his coat pocket as the party passed … when leaving they were talking among themselves and … O’Keefe remarked about the place and seemed to be in an excitable frame of mind.”84
As the Green Mill’s lawyers filed affidavits with these stories at the federal court, the accusations against Yaselli made headlines in mid-July. The Daily News reported that the affidavits painted Yaselli as a man who was “hungry for dough” and “out after the jack.”85 The Tribune said the stories painted Yaselli as a “knave in a soiled deck.”86
Chamales raised other allegations about Yaselli, going beyond his own experiences with the agent. Chamales said U.S. government officials had recommended that Yaselli should be fired for “defrauding the Government, by padding expense accounts, etc.” and “dishonesty.” The details of these supposed misdeeds are unknown (and nothing about them appears in Yaselli’s archived personnel file).87
After hearing all of this evidence, Judge Page declined to set aside his temporary injunction against Green Mill Gardens.88 But the Tribune reported that another local newspaper was shelving a series of articles authored by Yaselli.89
The Treasury Department launched an internal investigation of Yaselli, and he soon told his version of these events in a sworn statement, speaking to a special agent in Washington, D.C. Yaselli denied drinking any alcohol during these outings. He admitted that he’d visited Green Mill Gardens in early July, although he said the first visit time he’d gone there with O’Keefe was the night of July 3—not July 2, as Horn remembered.
Yaselli said that he’d actually he’d gone on July 2 to Colosimo’s, the notoriously mob-connected restaurant on the South Side, with Chicago Herald and Examiner reporter Riley Jadwin and a deputy U.S. marshal.90 Yaselli said that this visit was part of his investigative work, though it sounded like he had some fun while he was there. “I asked the manager of the restaurant to get a dancing partner for me which he did,” Yaselli recalled. He did not seem to regard it as strange that he’d go out dancing at a café he’d just filed charges against.
At Colosimo’s that night, Yaselli ran into Harry Mager, the former tax official, who introduced him to O’Keefe. After 2:30 a.m., Yaselli, Mager, O’Keefe, and Jadwin ended up hanging out in Yaselli’s room at the La Salle Hotel in the Loop. “We had nothing to drink in my room on this occasion,” Yaselli said.
The next day, O’Keefe telephoned Yaselli and invited him to go out for the evening, along with Mager and two women, according to Yaselli. They all went to Rainbo Gardens, where Ralph Johnson and his wife joined the group, and then they headed over to Green Mill Gardens, where they stayed for two or three hours, leaving around 2:30 a.m.
Yaselli insisted it wasn’t true that Mager was intoxicated that night, but he offered another explanation for why Mager stayed outside as the group arrived at the Green Mill.
“Mager refused to go in,” he said. “He advised me not to go into the place because he said there was a danger of my being ‘framed.’ He said in effect, ‘I know that Greek. He is a framer and he has made trouble before.’” When Mager said “that Greek,” he was talking about Chamales.
Did Yaselli now regret that he hadn’t taken Mager’s advice? He seemed to be implying that he’d been framed, suggesting that Chamales had somehow staged the events during Yaselli’s appearance at Green Mill Gardens to undermine his reputation.
A few days later, Jadwin “suggested to me that I should be very careful about associating with Mager for the reason that there was some prospect of the latter’s being indicted for violation of the Mann Act,” Yaselli recalled. (It doesn’t appear that Mager ever was indicted for breaking that law, which criminalized the transportation of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”)
Yaselli confirmed the story that he’d returned to Green Mill Gardens on July 6 with O’Keefe, Feldman, and two women. “We all entered the Cafe and took a table near the dance floor and had something to eat,” he said. “We did not have any intoxicating liquor with us and we purchased none while we were there.”
Yaselli said he met Chamales and Horn for the first time on that night. And he recalled the episode in which O’Keefe tore up the check, “indicating that he did not expect to pay the bill,” before eventually paying the tab.
But there was more to the story: After the party left Green Mill Gardens that night, they’d all gone to the Friars Inn, at Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street. After that, Yaselli went to Colosimo’s with O’Keefe, who asked for a bottle of liquor from a Colosimo’s employee but was refused.
“A short time later I was called to the telephone and some man who declined to give his name told me that I had better look out for O’Keefe because he was a man of bad character,” Yaselli recalled. “He said ‘I want to put you on your guard.’ … I think that the man who called me on the telephone in Colosimo’s was the man from whom O’Keefe attempted to purchase a bottle of liquor.”
Yaselli said he left Colosimo’s around 3:30 a.m. and never saw O’Keefe again. Another narcotics agent soon told him that “O’Keefe was a man who had a very bad reputation in Chicago,” Yaselli recalled. And so, Yaselli explained, “I decided to have nothing further to do with him.”
Throughout all of these episodes, “Nothing was said to me or in my presence at any time by Mager or O’Keefe relative to the ‘fixing’ of any case,” Yasselli said.91
Meanwhile, as the stories about Yaselli’s alleged boozing made headlines, federal authorities arrested Mager, accusing him of extorting the owners of three roadhouses in north suburban Morton Grove: the Lincoln Tavern, the Wayside Inn, and the Dells. When Mager had been working as a government tax collector in 1920, one of his deputies, Thomas J. O’Brien, had seized bottles of liquor from these places.
After that, the roadhouse owners received a message via a middle man, August W. Bruchman, the former owner of Rienzi Gardens at Diversey and Clark Street. Bruchman allegedly told them they could avoid prosecution if they paid $1,000 each. They were told to make these payments to a longtime Democratic state representative from Chicago’s West Side, prohibition opponent Benjamin N. Mitchell.92 The roadhouse owners allegedly paid Mitchell. Then they got their liquor back. And no prohibition charges were ever filed against them.
Now, the feds charged Mager, Mitchell, O’Brien, and Bruchman with a criminal conspiracy. Although the charges focused on those three roadhouses, prosecutors said their investigation would eventually result in more charges against other establishments in the Chicago area. The prosecutors promised “booze graft revelations involving more than $500,000.” But Mager vowed to prove his innocence. “You can count on it that I am not going to sit back calmly and let them frame me,” he said.93
Five days later, Mager was arrested yet again—this time on a disorderly conduct charge. Chicago police officers accused him of creating a disturbance early in the morning at Broadway and Glengyle Place (now Carmen Avenue), several blocks north of Green Mill Gardens. Ray O’Keefe was arrested in the same incident, as well as Mager’s 16-year-old twin brothers. This bolstered one part of the story being told by the Green Mill’s people: Mager and O’Keefe did, in fact, seem to be hanging out together—and causing disturbances—in Uptown.94
That December, a federal judge dismissed the conspiracy charges against Mager and his three codefendants. According to the Tribune, the charges were dismissed because of “technical flaws.”95 (The feds had also been prosecuting one of the proprietors whom Mager had allegedly extorted, Felix Rachbauer, on prohibition charges, but they dropped that case when Rachbauer was shot to death by a woman in his roadhouse, the Dells.96) In the end, prosecutors never filed any charges to back up their description of a wider conspiracy of payoffs allowing booze to flow at Chicago cabarets and cafés.
But Green Mill Gardens manager Henry Horn’s lawyer made more accusations against Mager and Mitchell, the state legislator. He said Mager and Mitchell “put the shake” on Green Mill Gardens during the last few days of 1921, half a year before the events involving “Count” Yaselli. Mager and Mitchell had supposedly demanded $1,000 from Chamales, telling him that this payment would allow Green Mill Gardens to run “wide open” on New Year’s Eve. Chamales had refused to pay Mitchell. And this reportedly angered Mager.
According to Horn’s lawyer, Mager and Mitchell retaliated. They decided to “sic” Yaselli on Chamales, trying to drive him out of business.97 There are reasons to be skeptical about this story. For one thing, Mager had already left his government job by this point. It’s not clear whether he actually had the power to sic anyone in the government against the Green Mill Gardens owner—or whether he had any power to let Green Mill Gardens escape prosecution for serving booze. But Mager seemed to maintain some connections with his former government colleagues. Yaselli himself mentioned that he’d seen Mager sitting in a prohibition official’s office in June 1922.98
On the witness stand, Yaselli and his fellow agent, Laura McClaskey, both denied that they’d targeted Green Mill Gardens as part of any vendetta. They said they’d visited the place “as a routine part of a sponge campaign in Chicago, directed from Washington,” the Tribune reported.99 Yaselli testified that his instructions were to “look the town over—just to see what’s there.”100
When Yaselli admitted that he’d gone to Green Mill Gardens in early July, Judge James Herbert Wilkerson asked, “Why did you go back to the Green Mill Garden after you had made your arrest there?” Yaselli replied: “Just to relax after the nerve strain of the last few days.”101
Ray O’Keefe, the bondsman who’d attended that July 2 gathering and allegedly tried to shake down the Green Mill, made a surprise appearance in the courtroom, volunteering to testify. Judge Wilkerson told him to “sit down for a few minutes.” He did. But then when the judge looked for O’Keefe later, he was nowhere to be found.102
When McClaskey was on the witness stand, she told a story that surprised prosecutors. She said she’d gone to Green Mill Gardens on yet another occasion—sometime in May 1922—with Yaselli as well as Alfred V. Dalrymple, who’d served in Chicago as the region’s chief prohibition officer in 1920,103 a distillery agent named McCann, and five friends.
McClaskey said they’d “stopped off at the Green Mill Gardens on the way home from a prohibition office dance at the Edgewater Beach Hotel last May and consumed three quarts of whisky, which McCann bought in the place.”
The Green Mill’s lawyers pointed to her story as an example of hypocrisy and corruption. They urged the court to “do something to clean out the local prohibition office.”104 Disturbed by McClaskey’s testimony, Judge Wilkerson arose from his chair in the courtroom to make a scathing statement.
“She told of helping consume liquor which, she said, she saw the distillery agent buy at $20 a quart,” Wilkerson said. “Was she not a part of a conspiracy, the penalty for which is two years in the penitentiary and a fine of $5,000? Does not such behavior affect the credibility of the witness when she openly shows her contempt for the prohibition law?”105
In the midst of all these legal proceedings, Yaselli got into trouble outside the courtroom. Sometime after 5 p.m. on February 7, 1923, a woman stopped into the Town Hall Police Station and suggested that the cops should pay a visit to the Beach View Inn, located at 804 West Wilson Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood. She said a “suspiciously acting man” had been spending most of the afternoon at this cabaret.
Detective sergeants Fred Able and Mathew Barden went to the place, where they found Yaselli sitting at a table with a fashionably gowned blonde.106 They saw two glasses, which looked like they contained high-balls, sitting on the table. But as the police tried to grab those putative cocktails as evidence, Yaselli knocked the glasses out of their hands. The glasses fell to the floor, shattering into pieces.107
And then the young woman, who was named Betty Johnson, did something unexpected. As a United News article observed, she “did what no other Chicago girl is ever known to have done. She reached down and lifted on high a half filled pint bottle and offered it to the cops.”108 The bottle or flask, which had been hidden under a table, was partly filled with whiskey.109
Yaselli claimed that he’d been framed. “They introduced themselves as ‘the law,’” he later said. “I, being on my guard, surmised that this was a frameup and therefore took two glasses, which had ginger ale in them, and threw them on the floor. To my utter astonishment, my companion produced a flask of colored liquid from a chair to the left of her and handed it to one of the officers and said, ‘Here it is. I make complaint against this man for violation of the state prohibition laws.’”
When Yaselli was booked at the police station, he gave his name as “Count William D. Yaselli,” according to the Tribune’s report.
“You’re an American citizen, ain’t you?” asked the desk sergeant.
At this point in the story, the Tribune offered a colorful narrative of the Count’s response: “Yaselli twisted the waxed ends of his mustache, flecked a speck of dust from his sleeve, stopped to shake some snow from one of his fawn colored spats, and nodded in the affirmative.”
“Well, we have no counts over here,” the desk sergeant said. “You go down on the blotter as Bill Yaselli.”
Betty Johnson signed a complaint charging that Yaselli “unlawfully and willfully did sell, possess, or give away to divers persons intoxicating liquor in a restaurant known as the Beach View inn.”
Yaselli said he’d met Johnson for the first time one day earlier, when she’d introduced herself, telling him she had important information that would help him obtain more evidence against Green Mill Gardens. He’d invited her to the La Salle Hotel, where they talked for an hour and a half. And then he’d made an appointment to talk with her some more, the following day at the Beach View Inn.110
Telling her own version of these events, Betty Johnson said she was suffering from a toothache when she’d first encountered Yaselli. “The first time I met him, he offered me cocaine to cure a toothache,” she said. She accused him of giving her that cocaine—adding that she still had some of it.111
“The ‘count’ told me that he made more money selling booze than any other man in Chicago,” Johnson said. “Of all the self-centered, egotistical persons I ever met, he takes the price. Can you imagine a man asking me whether I thought he was fat? Then he asked me if I ever went out on parties. I told ‘yes.’ ‘Wild one?’ he asked. ‘Not too wild,’ I replied, and he said that was lovely.
“When we got to the Beach View Inn, he asked me if I ever took a drink. I told him I did, and so he sent the cabdriver away to get a pint of liquor. The driver brought back $2.50 in change from a $10 bill. ‘I’ll get even with that bird for charging me $7.50 for a pint,’ he said.”112
And just who was this Betty Johnson? The United News called her “a vivacious and pretty but very wise young girl detective.”113 She was also said to be an artist’s model.114 According to one report, “Her employers are believed to be government agents.”115 And it was rumored that another prohibition agent had hired this petite sleuth as part of a scheme to “get the count.”116
Yaselli’s lawyer blamed the people Yaselli was testifying against—people like the Green Mill Gardens’ owners. The lawyer said Yasselli was the victim of “a conspiracy to obstruct justice.”117
Betty Johnson told police she was employed by David S. Groh’s detective agency at 4415 North Lincoln Street (now Wolcott Avenue).118
As it turned out, Groh had a connection with Green Mill Gardens manager Henry Horn. The two men were represented by the same lawyer, David Stansbury.
While Stansbury was defending Horn against prohibition charges, he was also asking the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn Groh’s conviction for manslaughter. Groh had crashed his automobile into a streetcar and continued driving. When a South Park Commission police officer, Michael Collins, jumped onto the sideboard of Groh’s auto, Groh tried to knock him off, finally driving up against a parked vehicle and fatally crushing Collins. (The Illinois Supreme Court would soon affirm Groh’s conviction, sending him to prison in Joliet, although he inexplicably remained free for half a year, continuing to work as a detective.)119
Was it just a coincidence that Stansbury represented both of these men? Or was he helping out one of his clients, Henry Horn, by using the detective agency of his other client, David Groh, to tarnish the reputation of Yaselli, the government’s main witness against Horn?
Ten days after Yaselli was arrested at the Beach View Inn, Horn went on trial in downtown Chicago’s Federal Building, with Yaselli taking the stand as the government’s key witness against him.120 Out of all the people Yaselli had investigated for prohibition crimes the previous spring and summer, Horn was the first to go on trial. (By this time, Horn was no longer working for Green Mill Gardens—he’d become the owner of another garden venue, the Rendezvous, at Diversey Parkway and Clark Street.121)
As Yaselli testified in Horn’s trial, his notorious attire sparked a violent argument. During cross-examination, Stansbury, Horn’s defense lawyer, mentioned that Yaselli had worn a baby blue shirt with a matching collar on one occasion. Yaselli took this as an insult. As the Daily News explained, “It is well known that blue shirts, with collars to match, are neither de rigueur nor au fait. The count reddened angrily when questioned, but corked his wrath until the noon recess.”
When the court took that midday recess, Yaselli walked up to Stansbury and cried out: “I want you to stop talking about my shirts.”
“I’ll talk of what I please,” Stansbury said. “I’ll have you in jail before this trial’s over.”
Yaselli retorted by calling Stansbury some ugly names. Stansbury responded by hitting Yaselli—and hitting him hard.
According to the Daily News, Stansbury “laid his broad hand on the Yaselli face with such violence that face, mustache, count and spats were sent, in just that order, over the railing about the jury box.”122 The Tribune called it “a punch on the nose,” reporting that the blow “sent the ‘count’ spinning over the jury box railing.”123 Nearly 200 people, inside the courtroom or just outside of it, saw or heard Stansbury’s violent attack on Yaselli.124 But remarkably, Stansbury seemed to escape any legal consequences for assaulting a witness in the courtroom.
The following day, Yaselli showed up at court wearing what the Daily News called his “nattiest costume of the week”—an ice-cream suit, bright shoes, a striped shirt, and (of course) a waxed mustache. But the prosecutors kept Yaselli out of the courtroom, fearing that another fight might break out.
Stansbury gave his closing argument to the jury. “This so-called ‘count’ and his working partner, Laura McClaskey of the prohibition office, are the real offenders,” he said. “The government is employing for this work wretches so low that the flames of Hades will turn cold for shame at receiving them.”125
Before the jurors began their deliberations, the judge gave them instructions, including this advice: “You are to believe as jurors what you would believe as men, and there is no rule of law that requires you to believe as jurors what you would not believe as men.”126
After two ballots, the 12 men on the jury decided what they believed: Henry Horn was not guilty.127
Horn’s acquittal caused the collapse of the U.S. government’s entire sweeping investigation of Chicago liquor sales. The prosecutors surely realized they had a public relations fiasco on their hands. They couldn’t use the evidence Yaselli had gathered against dozens of Chicago cabarets and cafés. It was too much of a risk to put Yaselli on the stand again, after all of the bad press he’d received—and after he’d been arrested for allegedly violating prohibition laws himself.
A week after Horn was found not guilty, the U.S. government fired Yaselli. An official said he’d been “indiscreet.”128 Months earlier, officials had accused Yaselli of getting drunk during his outings to Green Mill Gardens. Federal authorities appeared to believe the allegations that the venue’s management had leveled against him. Officials accused him of “conspicuous” behavior, such as hanging out with “Ray O’Keefe, a man of questionable reputation,” and getting intoxicated at Green Mill Gardens, Friars Inn, and Colosimo’s Café. “The publicity resulting therefrom was such as to bring discredit to the Internal Revenue Service in general,” special agent P.F. Roche told Yaselli in a memorandum.129 Yaselli received a termination letter, which said he was being fired “for the good of the Service.”130
Yaselli’s personnel file doesn’t mention the allegations about boozing it up at the Beach View Inn, so it’s unclear if that’s what prompted his firing. When he later got his day in court on the criminal charges from that incident, a Chicago municipal judge threw out the case against him.131
Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney’s office asked the federal courts to dismiss criminal charges against 65 owners of Chicago gardens, cabarets, and cafés, including Tom Chamales.132 The government’s equity lawsuits against these establishments—built on the same evidence collected by Yaselli—also fell apart.133 “I am not convinced that the owners of the Green Mill had guilty knowledge of the sale of liquor on their premises,” Judge Wilkerson said.134 The lawsuit against Green Mill Gardens and Chamales was dismissed on April 9, 1923.135
In the midst of all this legal turmoil, big changes were happening behind the scenes at Green Mill Gardens. Tom Chamales stepped away from his role as the nightclub’s guiding force. And a series of strange transactions left the property’s ownership in a murky condition.
Postscripts
What happened to the various people who played roles in this story?
A month after the government fired William D. Yaselli, one of his brothers—former assistant U.S. attorney E. Paul Yaselli—was indicted in New York on federal charges of bribing a prohibition agent. His trial ended with a hung jury. Meanwhile, William spent the next six years as a self-employed building contractor in New York.136 By 1930, the three Yaselli brothers were living together in the Bronx, where they started a business advising restaurant owners how to avoid getting prosecuted for prohibition crimes.137 After changing his surname to Costello, William died in 1966, at the age of 74.138
Laura McClaskey, the “countess” who’d aided Yaselli on his undercover nightlife outings, continued working over the next three decades as a stenographer and office clerk for the U.S. government. In 1930, she was living at the Allerton Club Residences on North Michigan Avenue.139 By 1940, she’d moved to west suburban Geneva, sharing a home with her older sister, Theo.140 It doesn’t appear that either of them ever got married.141 Laura and Theo were killed in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1953, when their car collided with a truck carrying artillery shells and gunpowder, setting off more than 70 explosions. Laura was 68 years old.142
Alas, little is known about the future adventures of the femme fatale who allegedly entrapped the Count at the Beach View Inn. Assuming she actually was named Betty Johnson, that’s simply too common of a name to pinpoint who this woman was or what else she did.
Ray O’Keefe, the reputedly mob-connected bondsman who was accused of trying to extort Tom Chamales, ran for the United States Senate in 1926 as the Light Wines and Beer Party candidate, receiving only 0.26 percent of the votes in Illinois.143 But he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1930, pledging support for repeal of prohibition,144 and served in the office until 1943.145
Benjamin Mitchell, the state legislator accused of trying to collect a bribe from Chamales, continued serving in the Illinois House up until his death in 1927.146
Harry Mager, the former tax collector who’d allegedly tried to shake down Green Mill Gardens before spending a night drunkenly sleeping outside the place in a car, died from a sudden attack of acute indigestion in 1930, when he was 40 years old. The newspapers said it was something he ate.147
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Footnotes
1 “20 Cafes Face Closing,” Chicago Daily News, July 8, 1922, 1.
2 “‘Count’ Yaselli Gets Another Prefix From Dry Boss; It’s ‘Ex,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 2, 1923.
3 “Count Yaselli Dismissed on Booze Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 25, 1923.
4 “Gumshoe ‘Count’ Plays Havoc With Cafeland,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 3, 1922.
5 World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.com; Application for Position, February 3, 1936, William Domenico Yaselli, Department of Treasury Official Personnel Folder, National Archives, St. Louis.
6 E. Paul Yaselli, U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Ancestry.com; “Pietransieri,” Wikipedia, accessed November 10, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietransieri.
7 “Service ‘Protects’ Restaurant Men,” New York Times, January 10, 1932, 27, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/01/10/100683415.html?pageNumber=27.
8 Application for Position, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
9 “Gumshoe ‘Count’ Plays Havoc With Cafeland,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 3, 1922.
10 “Isador ‘Izzy’ Einstein,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, accessed November 8, 2023, https://www.atf.gov/our-history/isador-izzy-einstein.
11 “‘Count’ Yaselli, Dry Act, Sought Bribe, Is Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 19, 1922.
12 “U.S. Acts to Shut 17 Well-Known Cafes,” Chicago Daily News, July 10, 1922, 1.
13 “20 Cafes Face Closing,” Chicago Daily News, July 8, 1922, 1.
14 Criminal cases CR9716–CR9784, Equity cases 2827–2845, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
15 “Wet Nights in Dry Agent’s Life Exposed at Trial,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 24, 1923.
16 Steve Wheeler, Wheelers of Erie County, PA, family tree, accessed November 10, 2023; 1910 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago Ward 27, enumeration district 1180, sheet 29A; Ancestry.com; 1930 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago, enumeration district 1560, sheet 26A, U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Ancestry.com. “Laura P. McClaskey,” Find a Grave, accessed November 10, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86953725/laura-p-mcclaskey;
17 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 1, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
18 William D. Yaselli affidavit, July 7, 1922, 2, Equity 2842, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
19 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 1, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
20 Criminal cases CR9716–CR9784, Equity cases 2827–2845.
21 William D. Yaselli affidavit, July 7, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
22 Laura McClaskey affidavit, July 7, 1922, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
23 Criminal cases CR9716–CR9784, Equity cases 2827–2845.
24 D.H. Blair to William D. Yaselli, February 20, 1923, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
25 “Hunt Chicago ‘Dry’ Graft,” New York Times, July 6, 1922, https://www.nytimes.com/1922/07/06/archives/hunt-chicago-dry-graft-investigators-reported-to-have-evidence.html
26 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
27 Henry Horn affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
28 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
29 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 3–4, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
30 U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com.
31 Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871-1920, Ancestry.com.
32 1910 U.S. Census, Ohio, Cuyahoga, Cleveland Ward 22, District 0335, Sheet 1A, Ancestry.com.
33 U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com.
34 1920 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook (Chicago), Chicago Ward 27, District 1634, Sheet 8B, Ancestry.com.
35 Name and address: 1923 Chicago city directory, 2063, Fold3.com.
36 “Gumshoe ‘Count’ Plays Havoc With Cafeland,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 3, 1922.
37 “Hunt Chicago ‘Dry’ Graft,” New York Times, July 6, 1922.
38 “Black Hand (Chicago),” Wikipedia, accessed November 8, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hand_(Chicago); “Black Hand (Extortion),” Wikipedia, accessed November 8, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hand_(extortion).
39 “Writs Gar Sale of Liquor in Many Cabarets,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 11, 1922, 12; “20 Cafes Face Closing,” Chicago Daily News, July 8, 1922, 1.
40 Criminal Information, signed July 8, 1922 by Charles F. Clyne and William D. Yaselli, filed July 12, 1922, United States v. Thomas Chamales, CR9727, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago, case file, 3.
41 “U.S. Acts to Shut 17 Well-Known Cafes,” Chicago Daily News, July 10, 1922, 1; “Writs Bar Sale of Liquor in Many Cabarets,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July, 11, 1922, 12. Addresses: 1923 Chicago city directory, Fold3.com, and various newspaper mentions.
42 Bill for Injunction, July 8, 1922, 5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
43 Advertisement, Chicago Daily News, July 12, 1922, 32.
44 Annual report, February 28, 1921, Morse’s corporation papers, Secretary of State (Corporations Division): Dissolved Domestic Corporation Charters, 103/112, Illinois State Archives, Springfield.
45 William D. Yaselli affidavit, July 7, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
46 Notice of Temporary Injunction, July 10, 1922, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
47 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
48 “Charles Francis Clyne,” Find a Grave, accessed November 10, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39879703/charles-francis-clyne.
49 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
50 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, Exhibit A, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
51 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
52 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 6, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
53 Henry Horn affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
54 Henry Horn affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
55 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 3, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
56 U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com.
57 1920 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago Ward 6, enumeration district 0335, sheet 2A, Ancestry.com.
58 “Crook-Bonding Clearing House Hinted by Clyne,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 30, 1916, 3; “Ray O’Keefe, ‘Pro’ Bondsman, Again ‘In Bad’ With U.S.,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 19, 1922, 11.
59 “Nab U.S. Agent for ‘Shakedown’ of Saloon Man,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 9 1922, 21.
60 “Bank Robbers’ Gang Is Trapped,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 13, 1925, 1, 2.
61 “The Yellow Kid Is in Jail Again, Dapper as Ever,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 16, 1939.
62 “Ald. McDonough Is Sued for $100,000 by Attorney,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 7, 1928, 32.
63 U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com.
64 “Chicagoan Chief of Revenue Men to Back Dry Law,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 14, 1919, 4; “Harry W. Mager, Former Revenue Chief, Is Dead,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 29, 1930, 9.
65 “Expert Picked for Smietanka Job, Is Report,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 14, 1920, 17.
66 “Saloonmen Face Heavy Fines if Caught by U.S.,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 12, 1920, 17; “U.S. Demands $5,000,000 of Bootleggers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 8, 1920, 1.
67 “Palmer E. Anderson New Chief Deputy Revenue Collector,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1921, 13.
68 “Harry W. Mager Arrested on 2 Charges; Bailed,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 19, 1921, 1.
69 “Mager Repeats in Booze Grist,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 28, 1921, 1.
70 Henry Horn affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3–4, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
71 P.F. Roche to William F. Yaselli, September 29, 1922, 1, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
72 Rudolph Schramm affidavit, filed July 18, 1922, 1, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
73 Martin Paley affidavit, July 13, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1–2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
74 Clara Johnson affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
75 Robert E. Kneiss affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1–2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
76 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3–5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
77 Robert E. Kneiss affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
78 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
79 Robert E. Kneiss affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
80 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
81 Robert E. Kneiss affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 3, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
82 Robert E. Kneiss affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 4; Maurice L. Greenwald affidavit, July 17, 1922, filed July 18, 1922; John Bredel affidavit, July 13, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 1; Henry Horn affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 4; Clara Johnson affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
83 John Bredel affidavit, July 13, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
84 Clara John affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 2, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
85 “Dry ‘Count’ a Fixer, Liquor Suit Charges,” Chicago Daily News, July 15, 1922, 1, 3.
86 “‘Count’ Yaselli, Dry Act, Sought Bribe, Is Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 19, 1922.
87 Thomas Chamales affidavit, July 12, 1922, filed July 18, 1922, 5, U.S. v. Green Mill Gardens.
88 “Dry ‘Count’ a Fixer, Liquor Suit Charges,” Chicago Daily News, July 15, 1922, 1, 3.
89 “‘Count’ Yaselli, Dry Act, Sought Bribe, Is Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 19, 1922.
90 Riley name: 1930 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago, district 1190, sheet 9A, Ancestry.com.
91 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 2–5, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
92 “Benj. Mitchell Dies; 27 Years in Legislature,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 1927, 1.
93 “Seize Mager and Mitchell in Rum Deal,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 16, 1922, 1; “Four Are Indicted,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 25, 1922, 5; “Ex-Dry Agent Is Indicted in Hootch Fraud,” Milwaukee Journal, August 24, 1922, final edition, 1.
94 “Harry Mager Arrested on Disorderly Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 21, 1922, 1.
95 National Archives, record group 21, criminal dockets, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, vol. 18, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/152950813, 215 (PDF 136); “U.S. Seeks New Indictments for Mager and Pals,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 2, 1922, 2.
96 United States v. Felix Rochbauer, CR9762, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
97 “Charges Efforts at ‘Shakedowns’ by U.S. Officials,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 18, 1923.
98 William D. Yaselli, statement, July 26, 1922, 1, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
99 “Charges Efforts at ‘Shakedowns’ by U.S. Officials,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 18, 1923.
100 “Dry Agents Lifted Lid,” (Leadville, CO) Herald Democrat, February 10, 1923, 1, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=THD19230210-01.2.3&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA——–0——
101 “Dry Agents Lifted Lid,” (Leadville, CO) Herald Democrat, February 10, 1923, 1, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=THD19230210-01.2.3&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA——–0——
102 “Wilkerson Raps Dry Agents for ‘Liquor Party,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 24, 1923.
103 “A.V. Dalrymple, Ex-Dry Chief, Dies,” New York Times, July 27, 1938, 17, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/07/27/98170082.html?pageNumber=17; “Maj. Dalrymple Quits Prohibition Post,” New York Times, October 29, 1920, 9, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/10/29/102906032.html?pageNumber=9.
104 “Wet Nights in Dry Agent’s Life Exposed at Trial,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 24, 1923.
105 “Wilkerson Raps Dry Agents for ‘Liquor Party,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 24, 1923.
106 “Arrest Yaselli, Dry Ace, Under State Rum Law,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 7, 1923.
107 “Count Yaselli, Dry Ace, Pinched on Booze Charge,” Erie (PA) Times-News, February 8, 1923, 19.
108 United News, “Double Cross Works Ruin to Ace of Drys,” El Paso (TX) Herald, February 7, 1923, 2.
109 “Charges Efforts at ‘Shakedowns’ by U.S. Officials,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 18, 1923.
110 “Arrest Yaselli, Dry Ace, Under State Rum Law,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 7, 1923.
111 “Count Yaselli, Dry Ace, Pinched on Booze Charge,” Erie (PA) Times-News, February 8, 1923, 19.
112 “Dry Detective Out Sleuthed by Pretty Girl,” Rockford Republic, February 17, 1923, 11.
113 United News, “Double Cross Works Ruin to Ace of Drys,” El Paso (TX) Herald, February 7, 1923, 2.
114 “Count Yaselli Dismissed on Booze Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 25, 1923.
115 “Count Yaselli, Dry Ace, Pinched on Booze Charge,” Erie (PA) Times-News, February 8, 1923, 19.
116 United News, “Double Cross Works Ruin to Ace of Drys,” El Paso (TX) Herald, February 7, 1923, 2.
117 “Dry Detective Out Sleuthed by Pretty Girl,” Rockford Republic, February 17, 1923, 11.
118 “Charges Efforts at ‘Shakedowns’ by U.S. Officials,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 18, 1923; “Count Yaselli, Dry Ace, Pinched on Booze Charge,” Erie (PA) Times-News, February 8, 1923, 19.
119 “Groh Convicted in Auto Killing,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 8, 1922, 1; “Fisher Refuses Groh New Trial for Manslaughter,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 2, 1922, 6; “Take Groh to Joliet 6 Months After Mandate,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 27, 1923, 15; The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. David S. Groh, Plaintiff in Error, Samuel Pashley Irwin, Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Illinois, Vol. 307 (Bloomington, IL: Pantagraph Printing and Stationery, 1923), 165, 167, https://books.google.com/books?id=MqanGzqZQmIC&pg=PA165.
120 Criminal Dockets, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, vol. 18, 55 (PDF 56), National Archives, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/152950813.
121 “Wet Nights in Dry Agent’s Life Exposed at Trial,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 24, 1923; 1923 Chicago City Directory, 1590, Fold3.com.
122 “Slaps Dry ‘Count’s’ Face,” Chicago Daily News, February 19, 1923, 1.
123 “Attorney Punches ‘Count’ Yaselli on Nose in Court Row,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 20, 1923.
124 “Slaps Dry ‘Count’s’ Face,” Chicago Daily News, February 19, 1923, 1.
125 “Henry Horn Freed by Jury,” Chicago Daily News, February 20, 1923, 1.
126 United States v. Henry Horn, CR9741, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
127 “Henry Horn Freed by Jury,” Chicago Daily News, February 20, 1923, 1.
128 “‘Count’ Yaselli Gets Another Prefix From Dry Boss; It’s ‘Ex,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 2, 1923.
129 P.F. Roche to William F. Yaselli, September 29, 1922, 2, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
130 D.H. Blair to William D. Yaselli, February 20, 1923, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
131 “Count Yaselli Dismissed on Booze Charge,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 25, 1923.
132 “Yaselli ‘Bulls’ Compel U.S. to Drop Rum Cases,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1923; National Archives, record group 21, criminal dockets, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, vol. 18, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/152950813, 41 (PDF 49).
133 “Yaselli ‘Bulls’ Compel U.S. to Drop Rum Cases,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1923.
134 “Cabaret,” Variety, February 1, 1923, 36–37, https://archive.org/details/variety69-1923-02/page/n37/mode/2up.
135 Equity docket books, U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois, National Archives at Chicago.
136 Application for Position, Treasury Official Personnel Folder.
137 “Yaselli Indicted for Liquor Bribery,” New York Times, April 3, 1923, 25, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/04/03/105857664.html?pageNumber=25; “Service ‘Protects’ Restaurant Men,” New York Times, January 10, 1932, 27, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/01/10/100683415.html?pageNumber=27; 1930 U.S. Census, New York, Bronx, enumeration district 0171, sheet 17B, Ancestry.com.
138 U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Ancestry.com.
139 1930 U.S. Census, Illinois, Cook, Chicago, enumeration district 1560, sheet 26A, Ancestry.com.
140 1940 U.S. Census, Illinois, Kane, Geneva, 45-98, sheet 4B, Ancestry.com.
141 Steve Wheeler, Wheelers of Erie County, PA, family tree, accessed November 10, 2023, Ancestry.com.
142 “Ammo Truck-Auto Crash Kills 3 on West Dodge Road,” Omaha World-Herald, October 10, 1953, 1, 4.
143 “1926 United States Senate election in Illinois,” Wikipedia, accessed November 11, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois.
144 “Assembly for State Dry Law Repeal,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1930, 1, 10.
145 George Tagge, “State Senators Serritella and Mayole Beaten,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 16, 1942, 6.
146 “Benj. Mitchell Dies; 27 Years in Legislature,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 1927, 1.
147 “Harry W. Mager, Former Revenue Chief, Is Dead,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 29, 1930, 9.