Anton (Tony) Joseph Cermák, Chicago Mayor, Biography, Assassination and Alternate Theory.

One of the most mysterious political assassinations ever took place occurred on February 15, 1933, when the Czech-born mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was mortally wounded. Anton, or Tony Cermak as he was known, was the 34th Mayor of Chicago, in office from April 7, 1931, to March 6, 1933.

Mayor Anton Cermak is sworn into office on April 7, 1931.

Biography of Anton Cermak.
Anton Cermak was born in Kladno, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic), on May 9, 1873. The following year his parents emigrated to the United States. After six years of formal schooling, Cermak joined his father as a coal miner in Braidwood, Illinois, at the age of twelve. 

Cermak developed a reputation for having strong views and was selected to be the miner's spokesman in a demand for higher wages. This resulted in him losing his job, and he decided to move to Chicago. He found work on the railways before starting his own business selling firewood. With his heavy-set physique and frightening temper, he was an imposing man with leadership qualities. 

Cermak became active in the Democratic Party and, in 1902, was elected to the state legislature. Seven years later, he became a Chicago City Council alderman. Cermak was able to use his inside knowledge of proposed government land purchases to speculate on real estate. He was also the founder of the Lawndale Building and Loan Association, director of the Lawndale National Bank, and a partner in a real estate company, Cermak and Serhant. 

Cermak became extremely wealthy and soon became the leader of the party in the city. His main opponent was William Hale Thompson, the leader of the Republican Party in Chicago and a man who was a close associate of Al Capone. Cermak maintained a reasonable relationship with Thompson, which allowed him to keep his patronage jobs and influence in the city. Even his enemies agreed that he was a hard-working politician who was "keenly aware of the most intricate details of the issues of the day."

In 1928 Cermak was selected as the Democrat candidate for the Senate. Although he ran a vigorous campaign, he was defeated. It was a good year for the Republicans, and Herbert Hoover had a landslide victory. Several states that had previously voted Democrat, such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, voted Republican for the first time. Al Smith won 40.8% of the vote compared to Hoover's 58.2%.

The Wall Street Crash in 1929 changed the political direction of the country. Cermak created what became known as the "Chicago Democratic Machine." It is claimed that Cermak was probably the first politician to use statistical analysis to evaluate political performance and develop a strategy. Members of the different wards were encouraged to compete with each other and success was rewarded with patronage jobs. Paul M. Green has argued that "never before had Chicagoans seen a political party so organized for battle."

Anton Cermak campaigned in the final days of April 1931.

In 1931 Cermak challenged William Hale Thompson, the Republican mayor of Chicago. Cermak accused Thompson of being under the control of Al Capone and other gangsters in the city. He campaigned for social reform and an end to prohibition. Thompson responded by calling Cermak a low-class foreigner. This was a dangerous tactic as, at that time two out of every three Chicagoans were either foreign-born or the child of foreign-born immigrants. In one speech, Cermak commented:

"Of course, we couldn't all come over on the Mayflower... But I got here as soon as I could, and I never wanted to go back because, to me, it is a great privilege to be an American citizen."

On April 7, 1931, Cermak defeated Thompson by nearly 200,000 votes. This included winning 45 of the city's 50 wards, giving Cermak the largest victory in Chicago's history. During his time as mayor, Cermak spent most of his time dealing with the consequences of the Great Depression. This included cutting services, laying off thousands of workers, and taking away vacation and sick pay from those who remained. To defend his policies, Cermak conducted weekly radio talks that he called "Intimate Chats."

Cermak appointed James Allman as Chief of Police. He had been in the force for 30 years and enjoyed a reputation of being untainted by corruption being described as "clean as a whistle." The Chicago Crime Commission reported: "During the 12 years that the Chicago Crime Commission has been observing the Police Department, there has not come to the notice a single adverse word as to Captain Allman's integrity, ability, efficiency, or independence." Allman was a great success, and Chicago's murder rate actually dropped in 1931 and 1932, whereas most other major cities saw their rates rise.

The 1932 Presidential Election.
Cermak attended the 1932 Democratic National Convention, which was held to elect the presidential candidate. Cermak favored Al Smith mainly because he was opposed to Prohibition. This issue was a problem for Franklin D. Roosevelt because much of his support came from traditionally dry areas in the South and West. In contrast, most party members and the general public favored repeal. Roosevelt told his supporters to "vote as you wish" and that he would be happy to run on whatever platform the convention adopted. In the vote for repeal, 934-213. Arthur Krock reported that "the Democratic party went as wet as the seven seas."

The first ballot showed Roosevelt with 666 votes - more than three times as many as his nearest rival but 104 short of victory. Roosevelt's campaign manager, James Farley, approached Cermak, who controlled most of the Illinois delegation, about changing his vote. Cermak refused because he was aware that if he abandoned the Irish-Catholic candidate, he would have trouble with his supporters in Chicago.

Roosevelt won the nomination on the fourth ballot when he won 945 votes. William E. Leuchtenburg, the author of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (1963), summed up the situation that the Democratic Party found itself in: "Liberal Democrats were somewhat uneasy about Roosevelt's reputation as a trimmer and disturbed by the vagueness of his formulas for recovery, but no other serious candidate had such good claims on progressive support. as governor of New York, he had created the first comprehensive system of unemployment relief, sponsored an extensive program for industrial welfare, and won western progressives by expanding the work Al Smith had begun in conservation and public power."

Anton Cermak

Anton Cermak campaigned vigorously for Roosevelt in the 1932 Presidential Election and delivered a 330,000-vote majority in Cook County. The turnout, almost 40 million, was the largest in American history. Roosevelt received 22,825,016 votes to Hoover's 15,758,397. With a 472-59 margin in the Electoral College, he captured every state south and west of Pennsylvania. Roosevelt carried more counties than a presidential candidate had ever won before, including 282 that had never gone Democratic. Of the forty states in Hoover's victory coalition four years before, the President held but six. Hoover received 6 million fewer votes than he had in 1928. The Democrats gained ninety seats in the House of Representatives to give them a large majority (310-117) and won control of the Senate (60-36).

Roosevelt was elected on November 8, 1932, but the inauguration was not until March 4, 1933. While he waited to take power, the economic situation became worse. Three years of depression had cut national income in half. Five thousand bank failures had wiped out 9 million savings accounts. By the end of 1932, 15 million workers had lost their jobs, one out of every three. When the Soviet Union's trade office in New York issued a call for 6,000 skilled workers to go to Russia, more than 100,000 applied.

The Traditional Assassination Story.
Cermak traveled to Miami on February 7th to have a meeting to discuss who was going to be appointed to Roosevelt's government. Cermak did not want a job for himself but was keen to get some of his followers to have good jobs. He also wanted to make sure Chicago got a share of Roosevelt's promised New Deal. Negotiations with James Farley went well, and Roosevelt arranged to meet with Cermak on February 15th at Bayfront Park. 

Anton Cermak went to the meeting with James Bowler, another senior politician from Chicago. He later recalled: "Mayor Cermak and I had gone to the park twenty minutes before the President-elect was due to arrive, and we sat in the bandshell together. When Mr. Roosevelt's car came along, the President-elect saw the mayor and called to him to come down. Mr. Cermak said he would wait until after Mr. Roosevelt made his speech. Then Roosevelt spoke, and he waited until the mayor came down from the platform to go to the side of the automobile."

Roosevelt explained how, after the speech, "I slid off the back of the car into my seat. Just then-Mayor Cermak came forward. I shook hands and talked with him for nearly a minute. Then he moved off around the back of the car. Bob Clark (one of the Secret Servicemen) was standing right behind him to the right. As he moved off, a man came forward with a telegram... and started telling me what it contained. While he was talking to me, I leaned forward to the car's left side."

At that moment, an Italian immigrant, Giuseppe Zangara, pointed his gun at Roosevelt. At the critical moment, an alert spectator, Lillian Cross, hit the assassin's arm with her handbag and spoiled his aim. Zangara fired five shots, and they all missed Roosevelt but did hit others. This included Cermak, who received a serious wound in the abdomen. Rex Schaeffer, a journalist working for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, reported: "I stood twenty feet behind the car of the President-elect. Suddenly - I had given my attention to Mr. Roosevelt - a pistol blasted over my shoulder... Four more shots were fired, and at the left of the car of Mr. Roosevelt, I saw Mr. Cermak slump down."

Zangara was attacked by the crowd. "He was seized by men and women, dragged between the rows of seats, and then a policeman rushed through the crowd and swung on him with his blackjack. The Sheriff of Dade County, Dan Hardie, was on the platform, and as the shots rang out, he plunged into the crowd after the shooter and, with the policeman, jerked him erect and threw him on the trunk rack of an automobile which was carrying one of the wounded out of the park." Another witness remembers shouts of "Kill that man!" and "Don't let him get away."

L.L. Lee was standing next to Cermak when he was shot. He claimed that his only words were, "The president! Get him away!" Lee and W.W. Wood, a Democratic county committee member, grabbed his arms and walked him towards the president's car." The chauffeur decided to get away from the scene as quickly as possible. Lee then heard Roosevelt shout, "For God's sake, a man has been shot," and the "car jerked to a sudden stop."

Roosevelt told the New York Times: "I called to the chauffeur to stop. He did - about fifteen feet from where we started. The Secret Service man shouted to him to get out of the crowd, and he started forward again. I stopped him a second time, this time at the corner of the bandstand, about thirty feet further on. I saw Mayor Cermak being carried."

Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is helped after being shot in a Miami,
Florida park while talking to President-elect Franklin Roosevelt.

"I motioned to have him put in the back of the car... Cermak was half dragged across the few feet into the waiting car and pushed in next to Roosevelt. Mayor Cermak was alive, but I didn't think he was going to last. I put my left arm around him and my hand on his pulse, but I couldn't find any pulse... For three blocks, I believed his heart had stopped. I held him all the way to the hospital, and his pulse constantly improved."

After the shooting, Roosevelt remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami until Cermak was brought out of the emergency room. He spoke with him for several minutes and then visited the other shooting victims. According to the New York Tribune, an unnamed witness heard Cermak tell Roosevelt: "I'm glad it was me and not you, Mr. President."

On March 4th, Roosevelt was inaugurated. He called Cermak on the telephone immediately after the ceremony. “Tell Chicago I’ll pull through,” Cermak said from his hospital bed. “This is a tough old body of mine, and a mere bullet isn’t going to pull me down. I was elected to be World’s Fair mayor, and that’s what I’m going to be.”

Doctors thought the mayor would recover, but Cermak died at 5:57 a.m. Chicago time on March 6th, two days after Roosevelt took the first of his four oaths of office.

Giuseppe Zangara, an unemployed thirty-two-year-old bricklayer, claimed he acted alone. "I have always hated the rich and powerful. I do not hate Mr. Roosevelt personally. I hate all presidents, no matter from what country they come." After being found guilty was sentenced to death in the electric chair at the Florida State Penitentiary. When he heard his sentence he yelled at the judge, "You give me the electric chair. I no afraid of that chair! You're one of the capitalists. You is a crook man too. Put me in electric chair. I no care!" Guiseppe Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933.

The end came peacefully, the Tribune reported, with Cermak surrounded by members of his family, three daughters, their husbands, and children.

On March 6, 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak died weeks after being shot during an assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The outpouring of public grief and respect in the following week was immense. Crowds met Cermak’s funeral train at stops all the way from Florida to Chicago. Back home, thousands solemnly marched through the Cermak home at 2348 South Millard Avenue to view the mayor’s body.

The scene inside the mayor's residence at 2348 South Millard Avenue as mourners file past the bronze casket holding Mayor Anton Cermak in March 1933. Thousands entered the home during the afternoon and evening.

Then tens of thousands waited in line for hours in the bitter cold to pay their respects while his body lay in state in City Hall. Many had to be turned away then as mourners escorted his coffin to a packed Chicago Stadium for the service.

Flowers marking a large cross shape on the floor of the Chicago Stadium during Mayor Anton J. Cermak's funeral, full view, including mourners in the seating area.

Two lines of soldiers standing on either side of Mayor Anton J. Cermak's coffin during his funeral at the Chicago Stadium, within a large cross shape made with flowers on the floor.

Then the final march began.

The horse-drawn wagon carrying Mayor Anton J. Cermak's coffin was accompanied by two police during his funeral procession.

About 30,000 joined a somber procession from the stadium to Bohemian National Cemetery at Foster Avenue and Crawford Avenue (now Pulaski Road) on the North Side of Chicago.

A crowd of 50,000 attended the burial services for Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak on May 10, 1933.

A crowd of 50,000 was estimated at the cemetery. The Tribune summed it up: “Mayor Anton J. Cermak was buried yesterday after the most spectacular funeral demonstration ever seen in Chicago.” He was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery.

Five days later, the Chicago City Council voted to change the name of 22nd Street to Cermak Road. And less than a week after that, Zangara was executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Giuseppe Zangara sitting in court in 1933, was charged with the assassination of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak and the attempted assassination of President Roosevelt.

Zangara told officials: "I want to kill the President because I no like the capitalists. I have the gun in my hand. I kill kings and presidents first and next, all capitalists."

But another version of the story says that the Al Capone mob orchestrated the plot to assassinate Cermak (not Roosevelt) because he was trying to kick out the Capone gang.

The Crime Syndicate Theory.
Giuseppe Zangara deliberately fired wildly over FDR’s head to distract security guards while another hitman got in close and fatally wounded the mayor. The bullets that struck Cermak came from a .45-caliber weapon whereas the gun taken from Zangara was a .38-caliber pistol.

Assassin Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian immigrant with a ferocious hatred for politicians, strikes a defiant pose in a Miami jail. He was executed two weeks after the death of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who he killed intending to shoot Franklin Roosevelt.

Zangara was executed in Florida’s electric chair five weeks after the shooting. 

Giuseppe Zangara is in custody at Dade County Jail in Florida. When strapped in the electric chair at Florida's Raiford prison, he was asked by Sheriff Dan Hardie if he had any last words, Zangara replied, "Viva Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere!... Pusha da button!"

But what about the other weapon and the other shooter?

It’s been said that Zangara allowed himself to be used as a decoy in Cermak’s murder because he was dying of cancer and wanted to provide for his family after his death. Supposedly the Capone gang cut a deal saying if Zangara would take the rap, the mob would take care of his family after his death.

Al Capone

Zangara insisted to the end that he wasn’t shooting at Cermak. But the rumors continued that it was Cermak, and not Roosevelt, who had been the intended target.

Cermak’s promise to clean up Chicago’s rampant lawlessness seriously threatened Al Capone and the Chicago organized crime syndicate. One of the first people to suggest the organized crime theory was reporter Walter Winchell, who also happened to be in Miami on the evening of the shooting.

Both Alphonse Capone and Anton Cermak came from families of the Old World. Capone, the son of a barber born in Sicily, and Cermak, the son of a coal miner from Bohemia. Both men were reared on the tough streets of big cities: Capone, the Five Points of New York, and Cermak, the southwest side of Chicago.

There the similarities ended, despite their common origins. Capone chose a life of crime, learning from and serving mentors that regarded all persons as expendable to their desires, while Cermak became a soul of industry and public service.

If Al Capone was a devil, Anton Cermak was certainly no angel, but assumed and affirmed an ideal that Capone would scoff at; there were solutions to problems that would not be found by a physical threat or the point of a gun.

Some political commentators, such as Walter Winchell, believed that Cermak was the real target. It was argued that Al Capone or William Hale Thompson had hired Zangara to assassinate Cermak. However, Blaise Picchi, the author of "The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara: The Man Who Would Assassinate FDR" (2003) argued: "Federal agents conducted an exhaustive investigation of the shooting and could not find a link between Zangara and the Chicago mob."

Cermak's biographer, Alex Gottfried, is also convinced that Zangara was not a hired gunman: "What actually seems to be the case is that, regardless of what connections might have existed between Cermak and Chicago gangs, the shooting was neither planned nor executed by gangsters. The one-way ride, machine gun tattoo, and shotgun blast are customary and foolproof methods. No plot similar to this shooting is recorded in the annals of gang murders."

Did the Mob Order the Hit on Cermak?
In his book Frank Nitti: The True Story of Chicago’s Notorious Enforcer, Humble contends that Cermak was as corrupt as Thompson and that the Chicago Outfit hired Zangara to kill Cermak in retaliation for Cermak’s attempt to murder Frank Nitti.

Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti is arguably the most glamorized gangster in history. He was an infamous Chicago wise guy who eventually rose to command the city’s premier underworld organization, The Outfit. Though he has been widely mentioned in fictional works, Humble’s is the first book to document Nitti’s real-life criminal career alongside his pop-culture persona, with special chapters devoted to the many television shows, movies, and songs featuring Nitti. Author Ronald Humble chronicles The Enforcer’s beginnings in New York’s Navy Street Boys to his position as Al Capone’s second-in-command and eventual leadership of the outfit, with bodies piling up along the way.

Was it Nitti versus Cermak? Humble seems to believe so.

There are a lot of conflicting stories and testimonials, and over the decades, there has been much speculation, misinformation, and even outright fabrication regarding the shooting of Anton Cermak. Several of the versions included statements from President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, L.L. Lee, Miami City Manager, Chicago Alderman James Bowler, Mrs. Walter Wright, and Reporter Rex Schaeffer.

Gunshot Wound, Injury, and Complications.
Cermak died on March 6, partly because of his wounds. On March 30, however, his personal physician, Dr. Karl A. Meyer, said that Cermak’s primary cause of death was ulcerative colitis, commenting, “The mayor would have recovered from the bullet wound had it not been for the complication of colitis.” The autopsy disclosed the wound had healed, adding, “the other complications were not directly due to the bullet wound.”

Half a million people stood along the streets in near zero-degree temperatures to watch Cermak’s body pass on its way to the old Chicago Stadium. Never in the city's history has a funeral procession been so grand. The service in the stadium was non-partisan and non-religious. 

Tributes came from around the country.

Chicago committeeman T.J. Bowler described Cermak as “the greatest leader the Democratic Party ever had,” and World Fair President D.F. Kelly stated, “Chicago has never had a man whose passing will be felt in so many directions.”

In the end, Mayor Cermak’s legacy was felt most intimately on the streets of the city he had devoted his life to and the place he loved the most, Chicago. In this truly American city, Cermak was a true American. An immigrant, a worker, and a leader. Upon his death, his city remembered him as their greatest benefactor, a champion of public service and civic pride.

In 1950 J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, was asked to report on the original investigation into the case: "The Secret Service files reflected that there were many allegations, most of which were in the form of anonymous letters, that the attempted assassination was planned by gangsters or some organized criminal group, and that Zangara had been sent to Miami expressly for that purpose. Subsequent investigation, however, indicated that he had been in Miami for several months prior to the incident. There is no indication that Zangara had any knowledge of the identity of Mayor Cermak of Chicago. There was no evidence that Zangara had been in Chicago nor had any relatives or associates in the city."

“I work from the same desk that Mayor Cermak sat at over eighty years ago. And a day does not go by that I don’t think about Tony Cermak’s legacy and what he did for his city.” – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Mobster, Johnny Torrio, and the Handshake Murder.

In the nineteen twenties, Johnny Torrio was one of the top Chicago gangsters. He was prominent in the underworld but small in size at only five feet six inches tall. 

Chicago racketeer James "Big Jim" Colosimo brings his nephew Johnny Torrio to Chicago in 1910 from New York. Big Jim owned several houses of prostitution but did not favor working with illegal liquor. 

With the advent of prohibition, Torrio decided that the illicit liquor traffic would be more profitable than Colosimo's brothels. 

Colosimo was shot dead on May 11, 1920. No one was ever convicted of the murder.

With Colosimo out of the way, Johnny Torrio was the leading mobster controlling Chicago's South Side and the Loop.

Torrio now needed a loyal friend. He had already imported Al Capone from New York around 1920 to help him run Colosimo's "businesses." He let Capone start working as a bouncer in one of the brothels and soon found that Capone was ready for bigger and more important things. He then promoted Capone to be his right-hand man.

All the Chicago gangsters were busy trying to invade each other's territories.

Charles Dean O'Banion (1892-1924), the florist and his wife, Viola Kaniff. The leader of the North Side gang was the victim of the Handshake murder.

Charles "Dean" O'Banion graduated from the violent newspaper wars of early 20th century Chicago to become the chief bootlegging rival of mobsters Al Capone and Johnny Torrio, who ran the South Side. Dean was the North Side boss. 

O'Banion told Torrio he was buying a ranch in Colorado and settling down to live the rest of his life peacefully. He said he would sell his brewery, Chicago's finest, to Torrio.

When Torrio went to the brewery to inspect his purchase, the police raided the establishment. Torrio knew that O'Banion had set him up. After Torrio had served the short jail term for operating a brewery, he decided that O'Banion should die for double-crossing him and ordered the hit.

Dean was in his North Side flower shop, a front for his Mob activities, when a Torrio associate from New York, Frankie Yale, visited, hand outstretched in friendship. With him were two known gunmen from the Genna organization. A few minutes later, O'Banion was dead from six gunshot wounds in his flower shop. This murder was nicknamed the "handshake murder." No one was pinned with the murder, but the police suspected that the hit was ordered by Torrio.

Johnny "Papa Johnny" Torrio, 1939

With O'Banion dead, Torrio figured he ought to get out of the way of O'Banion's men. He and his Anna Theodosia Jacobs Torrio returned to Italy for three years and then moved to New York, where he became involved in criminal activities again. He spent two and a half years in prison for income tax evasion, being paroled in 1941. Torrio died in 1957, leaving a legacy of one of Illinois' top 1920s gangsters. 

Dean's funeral was the biggest anyone could remember, and among those attending were Al Capone and the South Side Gang members. But there soon would be other funerals. Charles Dean O'Banion is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Chicago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Al Capone's Police Photo from New York City, December 26, 1925. The real story.

Twenty-six-year-old Al Capone's primary reason for being in New York was to bring his son, Albert "Sonny" Capone, to a specialist for a critical medical procedure. Sonny was suffering from a mastoid infection that threatened his life. The operation, thankfully, was successful and saved Sonny's life, although it left him partially deaf.

While Sonny was recovering, Capone took the opportunity to socialize and visit old haunts. He ended up at the Adonis Social Club in Brooklyn, a speakeasy with ties to his former boss, Frankie Yale. During the early hours of December 26, a violent altercation broke out involving the infamous Irish mobster Richard "Pegleg" Lonergan. Lonergan was shot and killed, along with two of his associates, in what some believe was a planned hit orchestrated by Yale and potentially carried out with Capone's involvement.

Following the Adonis Social Club incident, Capone was briefly detained by the New York Police Department. This was likely due to his proximity to the crime scene and his high-profile status. While in police custody, he was photographed as part of a lineup procedure, a standard practice for identifying suspects.

It's important to note that the exact details of the Adonis Social Club incident and Capone's role in it remain shrouded in some mystery. He was never officially charged with Lonergan's murder, but the incident undoubtedly added to his notoriety and cemented his image as a ruthless and powerful mob boss.

Copyright © 2024 Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

The Unbelievable Story of the Chicago Congress Plaza Hotel, and its Haunted History.

Originally constructed in 1893, the "Auditorium Annex" opened in 1893, featuring public areas using Chicago Street Paver Bricks, gaslights, and horse-drawn carriages. The hotel was built to accommodate the throngs of visitors expected from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. 

The first section is the north tower of the Auditorium Annex.

The original conception was an annex with a façade designed to complement Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building across the street, which housed a remarkable hotel, theater, and office complex at that time.

The Auditorium Annex was built by famous hotel developer R.H. Southgate. The first section, or the north tower, was designed by Clinton Warren, with Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler serving as consultants.

Peacock Alley, Circa 1908.

“Peacock Alley,” a celebrated feature of the new hotel, was an underground marble passageway that connected the new hotel annex with the Auditorium Theatre.

The south tower, constructed between 1902 and 1907, was designed by the renowned architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. It included a magnificent banquet hall, now known as the Gold [Ball] Room, which would become the first hotel ballroom in America to use air-conditioning. 

Another ballroom, called the Florentine [Ball] Room, was added to the North Tower in 1909. These two famous public rooms, combined with the Elizabethan Room and the Pompeian Room hosted Chicago’s most elite social events.

Over the years, various owners have continuously updated the hotel to keep pace with the conveniences offered by modern accommodations properties. Even the name has been changed. By 1908, the hotel had created its own identity and boasted about its 1,000+ guest rooms.

To differentiate the Auditorium Annex Hotel from the "Auditorium Theatre" on the north side of Congress Street, it was renamed "The Congress Hotel." The new name was derived from its location on the southwest corner of Congress Street and Michigan Avenue and across Michigan Avenue from the Congress Plaza in Grant Park. 

The next fifty years brought a succession of owners and improvement programs to the Congress Hotel. A 1916-17 guestroom enhancement project altered the lighting scheme by substituting electrical outlets and desk lamps for hanging chandeliers

The original bathroom plumbing fixtures were replaced in a 1923-24 renovation. In the early 1930s, the former Elizabethan Room on the ground floor was transformed into a stylish nightclub featuring a revolving bandstand. Renamed the Joseph Urban Room, it would become the 1935-36 headquarters for an NBC Radio show featuring the legendary Benny Goodman.

Benny Goodman And His Orchestra, live from the Urban Room at the Congress Hotel In Chicago. Originally Aired January 6, 1936, 30 minute program.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the Government purchased the Congress Hotel and used it as a headquarters for U.S. Army officers. In 1945, a group of Chicagoans banded together to purchase the hotel and reopen it to the public. Five years later, Pick Hotel Corporation purchased the property and embarked on a multi-million dollar remodeling and modernization program. The 1950-52 renovation involved the creation of a mural-encircled lobby, a new front desk, new corridors, new third-floor public rooms, new Congressional and Presidential Suites, and a new supper club called the "Glass Hat."

The New Glass Hat — Congress Hotel, Chicago
Chicago's smartest Supper Club! A completely new room at the south end of the world-famous Peacock Alley offers the finest in luxurious dining, dancing, and entertainment. Michigan Avenue at Congress Street.

In the early 1960s, another modernization program included the construction of a new ballroom and the addition of escalators, a novelty for hotels during that era. Even though the hotel building boom during those years, the Congress Hotel retained its unique character by blending the old with the new. In contrast to many formulaic hotel chains and standardized property layouts, the Congress Hotel guest rooms and suites remain larger, with high ceilings, large bathrooms, and wider window expanses.

The abundant public spaces, large lobbies, and long corridors providing freedom of movement are rarely seen in the tighter confines of space-saving properties built as a place to sleep rather than a family destination, a business meeting, or a getaway spot.

Many famous people stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel, including several U.S. Presidents. In fact, the hotel was once known as the “Home of Presidents” among Chicago hotels. Presidents Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Roosevelt all rallied their partisans to discuss campaign strategies in the heart of Chicago.

"The White House presented this chair to the owners of the Congress Hotel. It was a favorite of Presidents Polk, VanBuren, Harrison, and Harding... and it's a favorite of ours too!"

The Congress Plaza Hotel has played a prominent role in some of Chicago’s most important and famous political conventions. Many memorable interviews, caucuses, and deliberations were staged here. In 1912, former President Teddy Roosevelt’s comment to the local media coined the famous “Bull Moose” nickname for his newly created Progressive Party. In 1932, the hotel was back in the limelight serving as the command post for President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.

During the summer of 1952, a national television audience was given a front-row seat with the Republican Credentials Committee as they gathered in the Gold [Ball] Room. In 1971, nearly 3,000 people packed the Great Hall when President Richard Nixon addressed the Midwest Chapters of the AARP and National Retired Teachers Association.

THE HAUNTINGS OF THE CONGRESS HOTEL

NOTE: There are a lot of versions of these stories all over the Internet. I did quite a bit of research on each one of the following folklore, myth, half-true, and fictional stories and presented the truth or the most plausible versions. This section is for entertainment purposes only.

AL CAPONE

The Myth: One of the most notable and notorious residents of the Congress Hotel was said to be Al Capone, supposedly residing in a suite on the 8th floor of the North Tower. Rumor has it that Capone and his cohorts ran their headquarters from the hotel, and at one time owned the hotel for a while. There have been whispers about Capone's Chicago Outfit committing gruesome crimes at the hotel. His spirit is said to haunt the halls. These claims have come under scrutiny.

The Truth: Al Capone never actually stayed at the Congress Hotel, at least not under his own name, but guests and employees claim to see Capone's ghost from time to time, walking the halls and hearing the clickety-clack of his two-tone wingtip shoes. Why would Capone haunt the Congress Hotel anyway?

PEG LEG JOHNNY

Other less notorious but just as notable names haunt the hotel halls. Hotel staff and guests have reported and named a ghostly figure of "Peg-Leg Johnny," who appears to be a hobo. Little is known about this vagrant. Sightings of him have been reported lurking around the South Tower, in guest rooms on different floors, in the hotel lobby, and in dining areas. The incorrigible spirit turns lights and electronics on and off and generally scares and causes havoc for guests. It's thought that Johnny had been murdered in the hotel sometime in the early half of the 19th century. 

Facsimile of Peg Leg Johnny

THE HAND OF MYSTERY

Then there's the workman who supposedly got buried behind the balcony of the Gold [Ball] Room in the plaster wall when the hotel was being built. The hand is called the "Hand of Mystery," referring to his gloved hand. It’s deteriorated enough that it’s clearly not just a work glove that was plastered over. For the record, the wall it’s coming out of isn’t nearly thick enough for anyone to be buried in it.

The "Hand of Mystery" appears to have fingers and a thumb.

THE FLORENTINE [BALL] ROOM 

Staff at the Congress Hotel report electrical appliances turning on and off on their own, whispering women, humming men, phantom gunshots, and Teddy Roosevelt's ghost has been seen in the Florentine [Ball] Room in the wee hours of the morning. Several security guards have sold stories about hearing music coming from the Ballroom. The piano plays itself (it's not a player piano either). Not a whole sonata or anything, just a few random notes, but a note or two is enough to give anybody the willies. It's also rumored that some of the bridesmaids at wedding parties who gather around the piano for photographs do not show up in the pictures. This is another place at the Congress Hotel where some employees don’t like to go near.

The Original Florentine Room.

THE GOLD [BALL] ROOM

Spookier-looking than the Florentine [Ball] Room, there’s really not as much ghost activity here. One guard reported that he’d seen Peg Leg Johnny here once. There are stories about the adjacent kitchen area, though. Disconnected equipment is said to start by itself—while unplugged.

The Gold [Ball] Room.

THE SHADOW GUY

The Shadow Guy gets reported by guests a lot—a shadowy figure who shows up and scares the bejeebers out of people. One security guard said he chased the shadow up to the roof one time, but then the apparition vanished. After searching the Chicago Tribune archives, I believe, with a high degree of surety, that I found out who the Shadow Guy was.

SUICIDE ON HIS WEDDING EVE.

Chicago Tribune, April 1900

Captain Louis Ostheim, First United States Artillery, was found dead in his room at the Auditorium Annex at 9 o'clock last night, Sunday, April 8, 1900. There was a bullet wound in his right temple. Under his body was a new revolver. The body lay on the side. Life apparently had been extinct since Saturday night. 

According to announcements in the Chicago papers Captain Louis Ostheim and Mrs. Eva Bruce Wood were to be married today at the residence of the bride's uncle, Walter B. Phister, 479 Kenwood Avenue. Only members of family were to be present. After the ceremony, Captain Ostheim and his bride were to leave immediately for the East, visiting Philiadelphia, the Captain's former home, and other cities. After May 1 they were to be at home at Fort Screven, Savanah, Georgia, where the Captain's battery is stationed.

Among the articles found in the Captain's room were two wedding rings. One was of heavy gold and inscribed as follows: "EVA TO LOUIS - April 9, 1900". — The other, was smaller and more delicately made. Inside was engraved: "LOUIS TO EVA - April 9, 1900."

The Captain was last seen alive on Saturday night at 9 o'clock, when he asked Clerk Arthur O'Connell for the key to his room. The cause of the suicide was a mystery. Nothing was left in the room to throw any light on the matter. This is the first case of self-destruction reported at the Auditorium Annex since it began business six years ago.

THE SEALED GUEST ROOM

The Myth: Guests that stayed in room number 666 in the North Tower (the room number kept changing until they, hotel staff and tour guides, finally settled on room 441 as the one being haunted) made more calls to security and the front desk than those staying in any other room in the hotel. People reported seeing the dark figure of a woman who kicks or shakes them awake while in bed. Reports of seeing objects moving and hearing terrifying noises have also been reported. The room inspired Stephen King to write his famous 1999 short story "1408," about a hotel room that is notorious for causing suicides (1408 was released as a full-length film in 2007). The room is so frightening that the door was sealed shut.

Room 666 Removed Door and Sealed Shut at the Congress Hotel, Chicago.

The Facts: The stories that one room is so haunted they had to lock it shut probably grew from old stories about room 666 being sealed off; a storage closet occupies the space where room 666 would be, as told to me on the phone April 15, 2021 by the hotel office. The stories about room 441 being the most haunted are fairly recent. For a long time, tour guides would just come up with a random room number when they talked about which room was the most haunted. It seems like they've settled on room 441 after it was written about a few times and ghost tour companies started repeating it on their tours. 

The story about Congress Hotel's most haunted guest room being the basis of Stephen King’s book and movie titled "1408" is outright fiction that author and parapsychology enthusiast Ursula Bielski [1] made up [2] for one of her books. Bielski claims in her book that “some researchers have come to the conclusion” that King used the Congress Hotel story as the basis for writing "1408," but didn’t say who the researchers were or how they arrived at that conclusion. Stephen King himself never mentions the Congress Hotel in his intro to “1408.” King says that it’s his attempt at the old “haunted room at the inn” story that every horror writer should eventually try writing.

THE LITTLE BOY

Not to be outdone, the spirit of a young boy has been reported running around the 13th floor of the north tower of the Congress Hotel. He and his brother were thrown out the window by their mother, followed immediately by the mother jumping to her death. 

Like Peg-Leg Johnny, the boy has spent decades being mischievous, but his shenanigans are largely limited to chasing guests, moving furniture, and the like. No sightings of his mother have ever been reported.

"ASKS ROOSEVELT TO AID REFUGEES; CITES 3 DEATHS."

Chicago Tribune, August 1939

Mrs. Adele Langer

An appeal to President Roosevelt to permit persecuted European refugees to remain in America beyond the time fixed in their temporary immigration permits, was dispatched yesterday by the Czech National Alliance of America.

The plea, contained in a letter signed by  R.A. Ginsburg, was prompted by the death plunge from the 13th floor of North Tower of the Congress Hotel in Chicago last Thursday, August 3, 1939, of Mrs. Adele Langer, 43, a Jewish refugee from Nazi occupied of Czechoslovakia, and her two small sons, Jan Misha, 4½, and Karel Tommy, 6. The Langers were in America with their husband and father, Karel Langer, Sr., 46 years old, on a six months' visitation visa. Karel Langer, who until Hitler's march on Czechoslovakia was owner of the $1.5 million ($28,408,000 today) Hynek Marprles textile mills in Prague. He sold the firm, the largest in the counrty, voluntarily, but for a nominal sum that they might escape, and escape quickly. "I practically gave it away to my oldest employes."

 

A coronor's jury decided that Mrs. langer plunged to her death with her sons while temporarily insane. The insanity arose from despondency at having been forced to leave her home and relatives in Prague to escape Nazi persecution of Jews.

A triple funeral for the Langers will be held this morning at the Bohemian National Cemetery [5255 N Pulaski Road Chicago] - (Pulaski Road was known as Crawford Avenue until 1935)

NOTE: The Nazi Germany occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the German annexation of Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the March 1939 invasion of the Czech lands and creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. WWII begins on September 1, 1939. Not a good time for Jews to be sent back to Czechoslovakia because their visitation visa is about to expire.

SERIAL KILLER H.H. HOLMES

While the Congress Hotel was clearly teeming with apparitions, the hotel’s creepiest legacy is connected to one of its real-life patrons, America’s first serial killer, Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (H.H. Holmes). Holmes is known to have loitered around the Auditorium Annex Hotel lobby in search of new victims. He was remembered most recently in the book "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, where a retelling of Holmes’ story reveals that the psychopath would lure young women back to his "Murder Castle" at 601-603 West 63rd Street and torture them to death.

H.H. Holmes Murder Castle on the corner of Wallace and 63rd streets in Chicago. The 63rd Street View. Circa 1890s

MISCELLANEOUS STORIES

Legend has it that a lone man roams the eighth floor, where the elevator is said to frequently stop and doors open and close, even though no one is inside or pushed the button to call the elevator from the floor foyer.

The Congress Hotel uses the stories of these hauntings as a marketing tool. No guests that I know of have ever been injured by a ghost or spirit.

NOTE:  Originally named "Auditorium Annex," then changed to the "Congress Plaza Hotel," then renamed to the "Congress Hotel," then the "Pick Congress Hotel," and today, it's called the "The Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center." You can call the hotel at (312) 427-3800 and hear how they answer their phones.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Ursula Bielski authored and co-authored these Chicago area historical FICTION books:

• Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City - 10/1997; 10/1998
• Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries - 11/1999; 10/2013
• More Chicago Haunts: Scenes from Myth and Memory - 10/2000
• Creepy Chicago: A Ghosthunter's Tales of the City's Scariest Sites - 8/2003
• Chicago Haunts 3: Locked up Stories from an October City - 8/2009
• Haunts of the White City: Ghost Stories from the World's Fair, the Great Fire and Victorian Chicago - 9/2019
• The Haunting of Joliet Prison: The Brutal Past & Paranormal Present of One of the World's Most Notorious Penitentiaries - 8/2020 

[2] On good authority from Author and Historian Adam Selzer, who worked for Ursula Bielski for a time. While he worked for her, Selzer called out Ursula about the fake Stephen King story, and Bielski said, “Well, it makes a good story.”