Erroneous Abraham Lincoln Assassination Reports

ERRONEOUS ASSASSINATION REPORTS

While the account of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Sixteenth President, and the conspiracy to eliminate certain officials of the Lincoln administration may have been one of the most sensational news stories ever printed, it was also one of the most garbled. The suddenness of the events caught most newspaper editors flatfooted and the wire service out of Washington was terribly jammed with startling reports which were hurriedly compiled and inaccurately prepared. Then, too, harassed editors often read into local events a certain cloak-and-dagger significance, which for a time would share the national spotlight, only to fade into insignificance later on. 

Abraham Lincoln was shot on  April 14, 1865; Died on April 15th.

One newspaper even enjoyed the dubious distinction of making no mention, whatever, of Lincoln's assassination or death, which undoubtedly indicates that the April 15, 1865 issue of the New York Times was printed in advance of the tragic events. 

Of approximately fifty newspapers featuring the assassination reveals considerable misinformation. Some newspapers were quick to condemn the Confederacy, and even a Spanish firm and a French desperado were accused of being implicated in a deep-laid plot. Some reports erroneously stated that an attempt was made on the life of Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, and a great many newspapers stated emphatically that Secretary of State, Seward, was dead. Booth was reported captured alive in about a dozen different places, and John Surratt was generally accused of being Seward's assassin.

NOTE: Searching through newspaper archives immediately following the assassination date of Abraham Lincoln revealed many little-known topics of fact and fiction. Many minor details which were inaccurately reported, by accident or on purpose, were accepted as fact. Later editions of newspapers often tried to correct earlier editions, but many times with incorrect details again. Some readers likely never got an accurate newspaper account of the tragedy. Undoubtedly some of these short articles were used as filler stories. Only occasionally did they yield information of any importance. Nevertheless they reflect the hysteria that followed the great calamity of 1865. 

Contemporary Newspaper Accounts Following the Death of Lincoln

ERRONEOUS CONJECTURE

"The Funeral of the President: It is expected, though nothing has been decided upon, that the funeral of the late President Lincoln will take place on or about Thursday next. It is supposed that his remains will be temporarily deposited in the Congressional cemetery."

Springfield (Ill.) Daily Republican Extra

April 15, 1865

A CURIOUS INCIDENT

To the Editors of the Evening Post:

"On Wednesday night preceding the president's assassination, a little deaf and dumb girl in our institution got up in her sleep, went to a classmate, and after rousing her, spelled, with the manual alphabet, 'Lincoln is shot.' In the morning the somnambulist (sleepwalker) knew nothing of the circumstance till informed of it by her friend in the presence of others."

"The incident would probably never have been recalled but for the sad emphasis which after, events gave it. It now seems one of those cases of prescience which so often arises to puzzle mental philosophers. (Institution for Deaf and Dumb, April 18, 1865.)"

The Evening Post, New York, N. Y.

April 21, 1865

A NEW PROOF OF THE PREMEDITATION OF THE MURDER

"One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the assassination is that all the private boxes in the theatre had been engaged by unknown parties on the morning of Friday. They were unoccupied during the night so that when Booth jumped on the stage after the commission of the act he did not fear arrest from any parties who might have occupied them. This is but another, and one of the strongest evidences going to show the premeditation of the murder. The question now arises, who rented the boxes, and did it not naturally arouse suspicion on the part of somebody connected with the theatre to know that all the boxes were rented and yet not occupied? Events will soon determine these mysteries." 

New York Daily Tribune

April 24, 1865

THE REPORTED SEIZURE OF PHOTOGRAPHS

"The reported seizure of the photographs taken by Gurney & Son, the photographers on Broadway, during the lying in state of the remains of President Lincoln at the City Hall, is entirely, without foundation, a rumor being based on the fact that the Secretary of War, on hearing that Gurney had taken a series of pictures of the catafalque and the lineaments of Mr. Lincoln, as he lay in state, together with other accessories of the funeral, telegraphed to Gurney, at the request of Mrs. Lincoln, to destroy the presentiment of Mr. Lincoln's face, the features being in a distorted condition, which request was immediately complied with by Gurney & Son on receipt of the telegram from the Secretary of War." 

The World, New York, N. Y. 

April 29, 1865

A NATIONAL MONUMENT TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

How shall the people of the United States testify their admiration, sorrow, and honest feelings? A good President who serves out his term with honor and retires is certain of the esteem and gratitude of his fellow citizens during life and of their respect to his family after death. But the sudden taking off of Abraham Lincoln requires a different testimonial. We, therefore, suggest that subscriptions be taken up in every city and town by the Mayor or chief officer, for a national monument to Abraham Lincoln, and a nation's gift to his family. This would be a noble tribute, shall it not be commenced at once?

The Philadelphia Inquirer

April 17, 1865

Some of the More Glaring Newspaper Errors:

Hour Lincoln Died

"One dispatch announces that the president died at 12½ p.m. Another hour later, states that he is still living, but dying slowly. We go to press without knowing the exact truth.

New York Tribune

April 15, 1865

Midnight

"Who the assassins were nobody knows, though everybody supposes them to have been rebels."

Boston Evening Transcript

April 15, 1865

More Evidence That The Act Was A Conspiracy

"During a conversation yesterday among the members of a Spanish firm in this city (New York) it was stated that today the greatest news would be received that had yet been made known to the public."

Boston Sunday Herald

April 16, 1865

Rumored Attempt On The Life Of Mr. Stanton

"Reports have prevailed that an attempt was also made on the life of Mr. Stanton."

The New York Times

April 15, 1865

The President Dead

"The President Dead: Probable Attempt to Assassinate Secretary Stanton."

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier

April 17, 1865

9:30 This Morning

"Dispatches just received from Washington say that Secretary Seward died at 9:30 this morning."

The Saint Paul Press

April 16, 1865

Latest Afternoon Dispatches

"The attempted assassin of Mr. Seward named John Surritt."

Buffalo Morning Express

April 17, 1865

Heart-Rending Intelligence

"Another patriot has fallen a victim, Secretary Seward, like the President, lies a corpse."

The Pittsburgh Evening Chronicle

April 15, 1865

Latest

"Secretary Seward has just expired."

Daily Milwaukee News

April 16, 1865

Special Dispatch

"The president died at 7½ o'clock this morning. Secretary Seward is just reported dead.

His son Frederick is dead."

The Boston Herald (3rd Evening Edition)

April 15, 1865

Death of Seward

"He (Seward) died at 9:45 o'clock this morning."

Cleveland Morning Leader

April 15, 1865

Messenger of State Department Died

"Mr. Hansell, messenger in State Department, who was with Mr. Seward at the time of the assassination has died."

Newburyport Herald Extra

April 15, 1865

Seward's Assassin Named Thompson

"New York:—The Commercial's special says: "The name of the assassin who entered Mr. Seward's house is Thompson."

Pittsburgh Daily Dispatch

April 18, 1865

The Supposed Assassin and the French Lady

"It was stated in a former dispatch that the person arrested this morning as the party who attempted to take the life of the Secretary of State was supposed to be Surrat. But there is reason to believe that the desperado is no other than Thomas, the so-called French lady, who, it will be remembered, captured the steamer St. Nicholas in 1861, and was subsequently apprehended, tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary, from which by some means he was released. Nothing positive, however, is known on the subject." 

The New York Times

April 19, 1865

Pennsylvania Offers a Reward

"Gov. Curtin has issued a proclamation offering a reward of $10,000 for the arrest of Booth, who is reported to have been seen in this state if arrested in Pennsylvania."

New York-Tribune

April 21, 1865

Taken Near Fort Hastings

"It is reported by a private dispatch, believed to be authentic, that Booth, the assassin of the president, was taken, Saturday afternoon, near Fort Hastings."

Springfield Daily Republican

April 15, 1865

The Assassin Arrested

"Booth is in custody. The other assassin not yet arrested. The detectives are on his track."

Dayton Daily Journal

April 15, 1865

Booth Captured

"It is reported that Booth was captured this morning. The story is that his horse threw him and injured him so severely that he was obliged to seek relief in a house on the Seventh Street (Washington)."

The Indiana State Sentinel

April 17, 1865

The Herald's Special

"Booth has been captured near Baltimore, and will be placed onboard a monitor anchored in the Potomac, at the Washington Navy Yard."

The Indianapolis Daily Journal

April 17, 1865

Booth, The Assassin Arrested

"The Merchants' Exchange has a dispatch that Booth, the assassin of the President, is arrested, and is safe in prison in Washington. The dispatch is dated 12 M."

Boston Daily Journal

April 15, 1865

Arrest of J. Wilkes Booth

"Tribune special from Washington says J. Wilkes Booth was arrested at 9 o'clock A.M. on the Bladensburg road. He boldly approached our pickets, and was arrested, and has just been brought to this city." 

Boston Daily Evening Transcript

April 15, 1865

Boothe Captured

"A man who answers the exact description given of Boothe, the assassin, was arrested this morning on the accommodation train between Altoona and Greenburg."

The Pittsburgh Gazette

April 18, 1865

Booth Caught

"Booth, the murderer, was caught this morning, near Fort Washington."

The Pittsburgh Commercial

April 15, 1865.

About Thirty In Number

"A gentleman who was at Point Lookout yesterday A.M. was informed by an officer of one of our gunboats, that Booth and the other conspirators, about 30 in number, were in St. Mary's County, heavily armed, and endeavoring to make their way across the Potomac."

Galena (III.) Weekly Gazette

April 25, 1865

John Surratt's Brother

"Today, it was confidently stated that John Surratt, the supposed assassin of Mr. Seward, was captured. It is now reported to be his brother."

New York Tribune

April 18, 1865

A Prediction

"Sometime during last March, the New York Journal of Commerce stated upon what authority we know not, that the Confederates were about to do something that would astonish the nation. Little was thought of it at the time, but since the assassination of President Lincoln more than one has had his mind turned towards this prediction and wondered if it did not refer to the murder of our president."

LaPorte (lnd.) Herald

April 22, 1865

Oddities In The News Concerning Lincoln's Death and Funeral

Further Details

"For hours after the removal of the President's body from the house opposite Ford's, the building was regarded by thousands with the greatest curiosity. "Later in the day a little boy was discovered rubbing bits of white paper on the steps, and afterward carefully placing them in his pocket.

"On being asked to explain the reason for this singular proceeding, he said, with childish simplicity, 'Don't you see those dark stains on the board? It is the blood of the President,' and I want to save it.' In years to come how priceless will be those scraps of paper, darkened by the heart's blood of the great emancipator."

New York Tribune

April 17, 1865

The Dog Mourner

"Under the car (hearse) there is walking a dog, though invisible from the outside. It is 'Bruno' the great Saint Bernard dog belonging to Edward H. Morton, Esq. He was standing with his master at the corner of Broadway and Chambers-street, as the car passed by,

when suddenly, without warning, and in spite of his master's call to him to return, he sprang into the street, passed beneath the car, followed its motions, and is still there. By what instinct was this? For 'Bruno' was a friend and acquaintance of Mr. Lincoln's and had passed some time with him only a few days before his death."

The New York Times

April 26, 1865

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The 1897 Chicago Anti-Department Store Crusade.

A common feature of the expanding city in the latter half of nineteenth-century America was the development of a downtown central business area. These downtown sections usually contained retail and wholesale establishments, office buildings, banks, and financial houses. Invariably, by the 1880s, they also included a retailing innovation called the department store.

The department store differed from other retail institutions in several ways. It was located in a central urban shopping center; it catered primarily to women; it carried a wide variety of merchandise under one roof. It depended upon a large volume of business. John Wanamaker, Philadelphia mercantile king, noted that the department store was a "natural product" made possible by "cheaper capital, better transportation, [and] more rapid communications." Indeed, the development of the department store was only possible with the technological innovations that stimulated the growth of large cities in the second half of the nineteenth century. Most important were transportation improvements: the successive urban adoption of the omnibus, the horsecar, the cablecar, and finally, the electric street railway. Construction developments such as the iron and steel frame made it possible to build large open stores conducive to the favorable display of merchandise. Central heating plants made the buildings comfortable in winter. Mechanical elevators enabled customers to move quickly from floor to floor for various kinds of merchandise. The rise of the daily mass-circulation newspaper also played a crucial role in department store growth, for the big stores were among the first to use wide-scale advertising to attract customers.

Although thousands of shoppers hailed the convenience of purchasing various goods under one roof, there was widespread opposition to the department store. It came primarily from small and middle-sized retail merchants outside the central business districts, real estate men with holdings in the outlying areas, and some labor unions that objected to department store labor policies. These critics of the big stores charged them with fraudulent advertising, monopolistic practices, driving the small man out of business, and pauperizing (impoverishing) labor. Organizations of retail merchants pressured legislatures and city councils to enact punitive legislation against their competitors.

The Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Wholesale Dry Goods building covered an entire city block, bounded by Monroe, Market, Adams streets, and the Chicago River. The main entrance was on Adams Street.

The movement against department stores was particularly intense in Chicago, where several department stores appeared during the 1880s and 1890s. Like Marshall Field and Company, Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company, the Mandel Brothers expanded stores formerly specializing in dry goods. For instance, Carson, Pirie, Scott &Co. originally featured imported dress goods and linens but expanded to sell shoes in 1881; Marshall Field introduced furniture in 1896. Mandel Brothers opened an art department in 1883. A wide variety of stores, such as The Fair Department Store and Seigel, Cooper and Company, which sold goods ranging from children's toys and kitchen equipment to fancy groceries and baby carriages, also began appearing in the downtown district in the 1890s.

As streetcar lines spread throughout the city, these downtown stores expanded their operations and volume of business. Correspondingly, there was a decline in the retail industry in other city sections, especially on Clark Street, Madison Street, Milwaukee Avenue, Blue Island Avenue, and Cottage Grove Avenue north of Thirty-ninth Street. From 1877 to 1896, land values in these areas decreased steadily while those in the central business area rose 700%.

During the Panic of 1893 (world financial depression), department store competition further hurt outlying retail businesses. Over half the state's depression business failures were mercantile and commercial enterprises, and the number doubled from 1892 to 1893. The peak year was 1896, when 817 Illinois trading and commercial firms went bankrupt (fewer failures among manufacturing concerns). The prominent Chicago department stores, however, continued to prosper. Significantly, many new urban transportation lines were built between 1894 and 1898, a development that undoubtedly related to the growth of the department store business.

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The "Loop" is the 1.79-mile long circuit of elevated rail that forms the hub of the Chicago transit 'L' system. The Loop opened for passenger service on October 3, 1897. ("El" referred to New York City's elevated transit system.)

Sorely affected by the depression and resenting continued department store prosperity, retail merchants and their associations were bitter about the big stores held responsible for the high failure rate among small retail businesses. "Department stores are slowly but steadily driving us out of business," complained one hardware dealer. "Making all allowances for trade depression, there is still a big scarcity of customers that we can trace directly to the department stores. Other complaints related to the advertising practices of department stores. Testifying before the Illinois Industrial Commission in 1900, S.W. Roth, secretary of the Cook County Retail Dealers' Association, blamed the decline in retail trade on "fraudulent advertising" by department stores. D.R. Goudie, the proprietor of a Chicago confectionary-cigar store, called department stores the "worst trusts" and noted that their "bargain" advertising has a serious "indirect effect" on small retail businessmen by making customers believe that the owner was making an inflated profit. 

To obtain relief from the ruinous competition of the department store, merchants throughout the city began forming associations to push for punitive and regulatory legislation. In February 1897, forty organizations formed the Cook County Businessmen's Association, and C.F. Gillman, head of the West Side business group, was elected President. 

The Chicago Federation of Labor agreed to work with the association because of the anti-union stance of the department stores and their employment of child labor. Several real estate men, including Marvin Farr, President of the Chicago Real Estate Board, also participated.

Initially, the organized agitation against department stores was political; the retail business organizations sought protection through punitive legislation against their large competitors. The chief proponent of such legislation was Congressman William Lorimer, Cook County Republican boss. Some of the loudest complaints about unfair department store competition came from the West Side, Lorimer's main bailiwick. It was significant that a machine politician, rather than a municipal reform organization, adopted the issue. The reform-oriented Civic Federation discussed appointing a committee to investigate the problem but never acted. Lorimer's willingness to become involved in the matter reflects the local and particularistic base of the urban political machine, which rested upon ward and precinct institutions. Small retail merchants often ran for municipal office under machine auspices, while many others benefited from connections with the ward organization.

Municipal reformers had a different orientation and were concerned with eliminating the local and particularistic forces supporting the machine. They wanted to reorganize urban life, using the rationalized and systematized business corporation with a vertical administrative decision-making structure as their model. With its great variety of goods, the department store's ability to draw people from throughout the city and its efficient workforce and departments were undoubtedly attractive to the reformers and corresponded to their ideals of the city. It should not be surprising that among those active in the Municipal Voters' League, Chicago's chief reform organization at the turn of the century, were Henry G. Selfridge, second in line at Marshall Field and Company, and John V. Farwell, Jr., one of the city's leading dry goods merchants. It is also significant that the Municipal Voters' League consistently endorsed representatives of large businesses, rather than small ones, for seats on the city council.

Harry Gordon Selfridge, left, was associated with Marshall Field, center, from 1876 until 1904. That year, Selfridge went to London, where he founded 'Selfridge's Ltd. John V. Farwell, on the right, came to Illinois in 1838 from New York state. He was the founder of the John V. Farwell Company of Chicago.

In February 1897, the Illinois General Assembly introduced legislation providing department stores' regulation. The legislation called for classifying trade and commerce into seventy-five categories and licensing any establishment that sold goods from more than one category. Delegates to the Republican city convention endorsed the legislation. They passed a resolution that decried "the destruction of the profits of the small shopkeepers by the competition of the department stores, which, by the use of labor grossly underpaid, have succeeded in largely driving out of business the many smaller shopkeepers throughout the city." "We believe," continued the resolution, "that the theory of the Republican party in favor of protection goes to the extent that the local business of every neighborhood... should be transacted in that neighborhood, and we favor... the wiping out of the present system of big department stores." 

Department store owners fought back, defending their policies in full-page advertisements in the Sunday newspapers. The Fair Department Store stated, for instance, "There is no secret about the success of this business—Chicago consumers have simply bought where they could save the most money—the more we sell, the cheaper we sell." A. M. Rothschild and Company maintained that "no one has a right to object to our underselling if you, the consumer, do not. No bright woman will pay double at other stores for articles she can get here for half the cost." The spokesman for Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company said that while his firm did not approve of the department store bill in general, it welcomed the clause calling for honest advertising. Every shopper had a right to expect this.

John T. Pirie, born in Scotland, founded Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. of Chicago. Abram M. Rothschild, center, was born in Germany and arrived in Chicago in 1869. He founded M. Rothschild Company (dry goods) and was a partner in E. Rothschild Bros. Leon Mandel, German by birth, arrived in Chicago c.1852; he founded the Mandel Brothers.

Despite opposition from the department stores, the Illinois Senate passed the anti-department store bill on March 24 by 39 to 4. Hundreds of small businessmen were on hand for the occasion. Lorimer's Lieutenant, Thomas N. "Doc" Jamieson, pushed for the passage of a similar measure in the lower house. Realizing the popular appeal of the issue, both Chicago mayoralty candidates, Republican Nathaniel C. Sears and Democrat Carter H. Harrison sent telegrams to assemblymen asking for their support of the legislation.

However, during the next two months, legislative interest in the anti-department store issue declined markedly as politicians and the press became involved in the struggle over controversial traction bills. Downstate opposition to the department store bills also began to develop. Although Cook County Assemblymen from both parties supported the measure, downstate members were suspicious of any legislation emanating from Chicago. The Chicago Dry Goods Reporter noted, "In no other city of Illinois does the department store exist as it is in Chicago, and nowhere else does the small merchant so severely feel its competition. Until this evil becomes more widespread, it is unlikely that many State legislatures will take it seriously."

Public opposition to the bill also appeared. "The great consuming public has no quarrel with an institution which it believes to have been instrumental in reducing the cost of living," commented the Dry Goods Reporter. Furthermore, the charges against the department stores concerning mistreatment of labor, fraudulent advertising, and false pricing were also applicable to the smaller retail specialty shops. And finally, rural legislators realized that, in many ways, the department store was merely a larger version of the country general store. Legislation that hit at one because of its variety of goods might conceivably be used against the other unless sheer size is made the determining point for condemnation, a matter of doubtful constitutionality.

On April 8, 1897, the anti-department store bill failed in the house by a vote of 63 to 77, with the bulk of nays coming from downstate representatives. State legislatures in Minnesota and New York defeated similar measures that spring. In Chicago, the leader of the Businessmen's Association blamed the bill's defeat on bribery. A more pertinent reason was given by one department store owner: "It is no crime to sell dry goods and shoes under one roof, and the department stores stand vindicated." People would go where they found the "better values for their money."

An English newspaper reporter observed that legislation like the Illinois anti-department store bill reflected "the widespread tendency of the American people to appeal to the legislatures the economic changes of the times." In the adverse effects of economic alterations, small businessmen turned naturally to the local political machine instead of community organizations.

In this case, however, the forces of localism could not block the centralizing tendencies at work in the modern American city. Downtown central business areas and department stores continued to grow, or at least to hold their own, until after World War II,  when suburban residential dispersal, spurred by the automobile, was accompanied by suburban economic and commercial distribution. Thus, the forces responsible for the downtown store's decline were demographic and technological, the same forces that had initially caused the department store to grow.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Commodore and Green Briar Apartments History, and the Story; "Ruby Dean Murders Dr. Louis Quitman at the Commodore in 1917."

German immigrant Ernst Johann Lehmann began his career in Chicago by opening a small jewelry store on Clark Street. By 1874 he had been so successful that he moved his business to the prestigious corner of State and Adams. He called the new store "The Fair," a name that assured customers that they would be treated fairly.

By 1882 The Fair store occupied every building along the north side of Adams between State and Dearborn Streets. But such amazing success did not come without some difficulty, and Lehmann's story does not end happily.

1890 could have been a better year for the great merchant. On April 7 at 2:00 in the afternoon, Lehmann was driving a "pair of spirited horses attached to a phaeton (a light, open, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage)," according to the Chicago Tribune. He got stuck in the mud on the south of Grand Crossing on the south side. As he urged the team to pull the carriage out of the mire, one of the horses flipped out, broke loose, and headed off into the marsh. Mr. Lehmann was dragged from the carriage but was able to chase after the horse. Neither the merchant nor the horse reappeared, and there was some concern for his safety.

A little over a month later, it was announced that the entire south half of the block bounded by Dearborn, State, Monroe, and Adams streets had been leased to The Fair in a deal amounting to a little over three million dollars. A great emporium would be constructed on the site, twelve stories high, costing two million bucks. The building would be the largest in the city and, in fact, the largest in the world devoted to merchandising.

By May 22, a Probate Court jury agreed to the following writ: 

“We, the undersigned jurors in the case of Ernst J. Lehmann, alleged to be distracted, having heard of the evidence in the case, find from such evidence that Ernst J. Lehmann is distracted and is incapable of managing and controlling his estate; that he is a resident of Cook County, and is aged about 41 years, and has been in such condition for the period of about three months prior to this date.”     —Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1890

The three witnesses at the hearing agreed that Mr. Lehmann's "special mania" seemed to involve spending money. "While walking along the street, he would stop and purchase a horse which happened to catch his eye, or drop into a jeweler's and buy valuable diamonds, and he would carry the jewels around loose in his trousers pockets."

Mrs. Augusta Lehmann was appointed as the conservator of her husband's estate, and he was carted off to the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane in White Plains, New York. Ernst Lehmann died of heart failure ten years later at the asylum.

With an estate of ten million dollars at their disposal, the Lehmann clan had become interested in real estate even before poor old Ernst passed on. In 1897, the swank "Lessing" Apartment building, designed by Edmund Krause, was finished on Surf and Evanston Street, now Broadway. Seven years later, the Lessing Annex was completed just to the south. 

The Commodore Apartments (formerly The Lessing), at Surf and Broadway, Chicago.

The Lessing is now the Commodore; the Lessing Annex is called "The Green Briar" today.

Exterior view of The Green Briar, a u-shaped, multi-story apartment building with a gated courtyard, located at 559-561 West Surf Street in Chicago on June 5, 1944.

The Green Briar Apartment Hotel

The Lessing was marketed to an upscale clientele and had 86 apartments, some of them with as many as eight rooms. Architect Edmund R. Krause broke the huge six-and-one-half-story complex into a series of projecting units with deep but narrow courts between them to provide light and ventilation. The Roman brick façade is organized into the classic three-part design of the Chicago School. Although there is a nifty oculus (a circular opening, especially one at the apex of a dome or structure), it is minimally decorated, centered at the top of each projecting bay.

The Lessing Apartments

The Commodore's Surf Street Entrance.

The Commodore Apartments

When The Lessing was completed, it boasted 86 apartments, some of which had eight rooms. The apartment building was marketed to an exclusive clientele, folks who had moved to the north side of the city, having discovered the peaceful quality of life in Lakeview and its proximity to the city and the lake.

Light Court at The Commodore.

Even an upscale apartment building has its troubles; trouble came five years after the building was finished. On January 26, 1902, a fire started in the basement and moved quickly to the second floor utilizing an air shaft. Smoke filled the building as residents fled in their nightclothes, finding safety in the frigid darkness of Surf Street.

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On the sixth and top floor of the Commodore was a ballroom, which, according to legend, was used by Al Capone as a speakeasy during prohibition. Unsubstantiated rumors exist about an escape tunnel between the Commodore and the Green Briar apartments across the street.

Chicago Tribune, Sunday, April 15, 1928 - News article excerpt:

"Realty Concern Adds Women to Rental Forces." Mc Menemt and Martin, Inc. announced the addition of a considerable number of women to their rental staff during the last few months. Mrs. K. Larimer is in charge of the Commodore and the Green Briar apartments.

The quiet apartment building was again disturbed in 1917 when a lurid tale of deceit and betrayal led to a murder that reads like a novel (see story below). 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

MURDER AT THE COMMODORE IN 1917.

Shoots When She Learns He is Married. 

Dr. Louis H. Quitman Wounded by Cabaret Singer, May Die.

Miss Ruby Dean is a divorcee, married when she was 16. Before taking up singing and dancing, she was a telephone operator in St. Louis. Ruby was also learning to play the pipe organ and often played and sang in churches on Sundays. Ruby met Louis at the Federal Inn in Chicago, where she performed, and he sent her a note from his table. She didn't know he was married with a child; he didn't tell her.

Miss Ruby Dean, a cabaret singer living in a second-floor flat in the Lessing apartments at 550 Surf street, learned from "a lady Friend" that Dr. Louis H. Quitman, 34, a veterinarian, is married. Last night (Thursday, September 6, 1917) at 9:30, when Quitman called at her flat, she shot him, and he is not expected to recover. Miss Dean is in the Sheffield Avenue Police Station, where she wailed her forgiveness and grief last night.

Quitman lives at 1904 West North Avenue. He has a wife and child. In a statement to an attaché of the state's attorney's office last night, Miss Dean said he had been paying attention to her as a single man. But she protested that she loved him and implored the fates to permit him to recover.

Loves Him Still

"I was wild about him," she said. "I love him still. He told me he wasn't married and that he was going to marry me. He was always in my apartment, and he came there often, and he came there tonight. But a friend of mine told me he was married, and I asked him about it, and we quarreled."

At some point in the quarrel, the girl seized a revolver and fired once. The bullet struck Quitman in the stomach, and he fell without a word. Policeman Edward Olson heard the shot. He found the girl in hysterics beside the form of Quitman. An ambulance was called, and the wounded man was taken to the German American hospital. His wife hurried to his side. The girl was taken to the Sheffield avenue police station.

— Chicago Tribune, Friday, September 7, 1917. 

Verging on hysteria, Miss Ruby Dean, the cabaret singer who Thursday night was accused of shooting Dr. Louis H. Quitman, a veterinarian of 1904 West North Avenue, spent yesterday in a cell in the Chicago Avenue police station and declared she could remember none of the details of the shooting.

"There was no quarrel," she said. "We had been good friends. We were scuffling over the revolver he gave me, and it discharged. I did not know he was married, but I loved him." 

In the German-American hospital, an operation was performed on Quitman, and the bullet was removed. It was said he has a good chance of recovery.

— Chicago Tribune, Saturday, September 8, 1917. 

Dr. Quitman died on Saturday, September 8, 1917, at 10 o'clock in the morning.

A charge of murder was placed against Ruby Dean, on Saturday, September 8, following the death of Dr. Louis Quitman. She is being held without bail in the East Chicago avenue station pending the coroner's inquest next Thursday.

She was being arraigned before Judge Caverly in the Chicago avenue court when word of the death was sent to the courtroom. The judge had already fixed bonds of $20,000 on the original charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, but upon being informed of the death, he decided to hold her without bail.

"It can't be true that my Leo is dead," she cried. "Oh, my poor Leo. No one knows how he cared for me. I simply can't stand it. I'll go mad," and she flung herself on her cot. The matron tried to quiet Miss Dean. "Go away," the girl screamed. "You don't know. Oh, if people only knew how he cared for me." 

"I want to be alone — alone," she moaned. The matron, the doctor, and the newspapermen departed, leaving her sitting on the cot, crooning Quitman's first name.

With his unexpected death, the police are confronted with a puzzling situation. In his first statement, immediately after the shooting, Dr. Quitman accused the cabaret singer of shooting him. But in an antemortem (before death) report, he absolved her from blame, asserting that he was shot accidentally while they were scuffling for possession of a revolver. 

Miss Dean will be kept in custody for the coroner's inquest.

Friday, September 14, 1917

Ruby Dean was found guilty of slaying Dr. Louis H. Quitman. She will be taken to the county jail to be held by the grand jury.

Saturday, May 4, 1918, 

Ruby Dean Free; Jury Takes Less Than An Hour. One ballot acquits her of the slaying of Quitman. 

After eight weary months of fear and uncertainty, which intervened after the fatal shot was fired, "twelve good men and true" gave her life and freedom yesterday in Judge Sullivan's courtroom. A quick, low laugh, which was half a sob, burst from her as the words "not guilty" were pronounced.