John Looney Legend Tour
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HISTORY & ARCHITECTURE JOHN LOONEY LEGEND TOUR John Looney Legend Tour Map Legend Tour John Looney his geographic tour of John Looney sites in Rock Island could not have been Taccomplished without the guidance and inspiration provided by Richard Hamer, first when the Rock Island Preservation Commission sponsored the earliest John Looney Legend Trolley Tours in 2002, then later with the publication Citadel of Sin: The John Looney Story, co-authored by Roger Ruthhart. Both gentlemen were very generous with their time and resources. We cannot thank them enough. his is the story of John Looney, who ran prostitution, Rock Island and Peoria Railroad and as a T gambling, guns, stolen cars and illegal liquor in Rock Island for most eventually studied law and was admitted th century. superintendent for the telegraph office. He His exploits were infamous during the with two daughters, who were respectable, of the first quarter of the 20 andto the a sonbar whoin 1889. followed He was him a familyinto crime. man, retreating to the Southwest, he reemerged evenpre-Prohibition more vicious era, and and, murderous after briefly in the th Street storm drain scheme Looney’s first brush with the law was in a with Johnny Torrio, Al Capone and fraudulentthe 24 Illinois State Legislature as a Bugs1920s. Moran His name – Chicago is synonymous gangsters Democrat,in 1897. Soon but after, lost the he ranelection. for who never pushed their sphere of His defeat launched a career of Island, where Looney’s organized him for the rest of his life. influence 180 miles west to Rock crime operation reigned supreme. conflict with society that engulfed Because this is a geographic gangster in Rock Island’s tour of Looney sites, it does not underworld.By 1905, he was The an base established of his follow the chronology of his rise power was in control of liquor, to power, his two decades of gambling and prostitution in the control of vices in the city, and his eventual imprisonment. However, a brief violence and with his newspaper The synopsis of this complex man – playwright, Rockcity. He Island secured News his, which influence was thethrough epitome journalist, champion of the downtrodden, of yellow journalism. Looney routinely lord of illegal liquor and murderer - will used lies and slander in his newspaper help orient you on this tour. to blackmail community leaders. He John Patrick Looney was born in Ottawa, exercised brutality and intimidation to enforce his will. And he was very immigrants. He came to Rock Island in Illinois, in 1865, the first-born son of Irish and three “suicides” occurred in Rock successful. In 1922, a shocking 12 murders 1885n 1988, to work Muscatine, as a train Iowa dispatcher author Max for theAllan Collins wrote a graphic novel — an expanded Icomic book for adults — called, The Road to Perdition, that featured Rock Island’s John Looney and others as fact-based characters. Illustrated with many local settings by Richard Piers Raynor, the novel added Michael Sullivan and his family as fictional characters. In 2002, this novel was turned into a big-budget movie. Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks company produced the film, and Sam Mendes directed it. The film was filled with A-list actors, including Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, the Angel of Death; Paul Newman, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his inspired performance as John Rooney; and Jude Law, who played a character created for the film, Harlen Maguire. Location scouts were sent to Rock Island, and they were directed to the Highland Park area. Unfortunately, Rock Island was too distant from the downtown Chicago filming locations, so older Chicago suburban communities were substituted instead. The screenplay took Looney even farther from fact. The filmmakers changed his name to Rooney because they felt the name Looney was too over-the-top for a gangster. These fictionalized accounts in book and film form also created new endings for John and Connor Looney/Rooney. Although Collins mentions Rock Island and Rock Island landmarks, such as Long View Park and Sacred Heart Church in his novelization of the screenplay, Rock Island’s visual role in the movie is limited to a name on a business awning. Island, most of which were tied to Looney. Looney’s management of local vice and wanted a bigger piece of the action. On The most outrageous crimes began around Sherman Hotel in downtown Rock Island street gun battles with W.W. Wilmerton. October 6, 1922, they waited outside the 1909 with printing press explosions and to ambush him. When Looney got out of his car and saw Billburg’s black Maxwell a scandalous article which placed Rock parked across the street, he shouted to the Island’sBy 1912, Mayor the notorious Schriver Looney in saloons printed and others with him to run, while he ducked brothels in the company of a woman behind his car. Young Connor Looney, named Ethel. With the publication of this who had developed his story, Schriver had the own reputation as an police round up Looney unpredictable gangster and delivered him to city with excellent aim, drew hall, where the mayor beat a gun and turned to Looney so severely he face Billburg’s men. The required an extended stay ambush was only partially at St. Anthony’s Hospital. successful, and Connor The following day, Looney Looney died. followers organized a What eventually brought supposed political rally for Looney down were a Harry McCaskrin, a lawyer paper trail, a murder and and Rock Island News the relentless, furious writer running for state’s editorials of The Rock Island Argus. attorney. As it turned out, McCaskrin’s Saloonkeeper Bill Gabel had long been paying Looney protection money but Mayor Schriver, and two nights of rioting balked at increased fees. Gabel and Looney brokefiery speech out in becamedowntown a personal Rock Island. attack Two on ultimately worked out a payment deal, innocent bystanders were slain, eight but Gabel paid with checks instead of the people shot, and dozens others wounded. customary cash. When Gabel decided to hand evidence of these checks over to riot, phoned Illinois Governor Charles federal investigators, word of his betrayal Deneen,The sheriff, who panickedimmediately by the declared extent of the got back to Looney. Gabel met agents at the Guardsmen. The militia remained in Rock martial law and called out 600 National Later that evening he was waylaid in front ofComo his tavernHotel on and the slain. night of July 31, 1922. election. Island for nearly 30 days, until after the In the aftermath of the riot, Looney Rock Island to avoid prosecution for temporarily retreated to a ranch he owned Gabel’sSeveral murder.months later,One year Looney later, fled he was controlin New Mexico.of all his However, former illegal he returned operations. to apprehended in New Mexico, tried, Rock Island in 1917 and quickly regained Stateville in Joliet. There was no direct But while Looney had been away, others evidenceconvicted that and tiedsentenced Looney to to 14 Gabel’s years at formed their own gangs. Rival groups, murder, only the testimony of Looney’s headed by many of Looney’s former gang members, who traded Looney for associates, had tasted power and money. leniency. Sharing any of it with Looney caused resentment, jealousy and eventual he was released after nine years in prison. HeJohn retreated Looney wasagain nearly to the 70 Southwest, years old andwhen Billburg, George Holsapple, Dan Drost anddefiance. George Former Buckley lieutenants were frustrated Anthony with Texas. died in 1942 of a lung infection in McAllen, ich Hamer, local historian and co-author of Citadel of Sin: The John Looney Story, was Rthe detective who brought many facts of Looney’s life back into public memory. He started out telling the Looney story on trolley tours. As he chronicled the community, it was Looney’s narrative that generated most questions, and Hamer felt he needed to know the gangster’s story better. For 15 years, he researched the man’s life, but the location of Looney’s death always eluded him. Ten years into his research, a brief phone call from McAllen, Texas led him to an obituary, a death certificate and a burial location. At long last, Hamer had found Looney. 1. 1705 2nd Avenue 2. 121 16th Street Looney’s Era: Best Building Looney’s Era: Holsapple’s Place Today: VanDerGinst Building Today: Lewarne Law Office Looney’s time as the Best Building. This building was notorious as a house of locationThis tan isoffice loosely building tied to was Looney known through during prostitutionIn the 1920s, run this by Italianate George “Crimps” style office the suspicious death of a man named Holsapple, who called himself a Arthur E. Meader. Meader was the local manager of the Illinois Life Insurance lieutenant of Looney’s, had become his Company, located in this building. He enemy“bartender.” and rival. By 1922, The rivalryHolsapple, culminated a former in a shootout in Market Square. Anthony Billburg, one of Looney’s chief rivals, soonwas killed on the by scene a fall andfrom pronounced the fifth floor him on orchestrated an ambush with Holsapple dead.January Reporters 9, 1922. ofDr. the Joseph day noted DeSilva that was and others. Twenty-one-year-old Connor Meader had plunged from the insurance attorney Clarence Darrow defended Avenue and landed on the sidewalk in a Looney was killed. Nationally known mutilatedcompany office window facing Second Darrow could not prove Holsapple heap. It 1 innocent.Billburg and Two Holsapple years later in Darrow1923. However, would was become one of the most legendary lawyers specu- in the nation as he defended John Scopes, lated that a high school teacher arrested for teaching Meader, evolution.