Chicago to Springfield:: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) (8 page)

At Small’s trial in 1922, Norman Griffin, cashier for Grant Park Trust and Savings, testified that the records for his bank and the Grant Park Bank had been accidentally burned by the janitor in February 1921, just as the investigation was starting. Prosecutor James Wilkerson (pictured) could not believe it. He asked the whereabouts of the janitor. Griffin replied, “Uh, the janitor just died.” (KPL.)

Eastern Illinois Trust and Savings Bank in Kankakee became First Trust and Savings Bank when Len Small took it over in 1916. Len Small was able to buy a bank, a daily newspaper, a huge farm, and make countless other investments with the money he acquired while on the public payroll. Just before Small was elected governor, the rival
Kankakee Daily News
observed on September 2, 1920, “Twenty years he has spent in public office, and during all that time has been of benefit only to himself. A single object from which he has never deviated is that of lining his pockets with gold. His rapacity and greed have always marked his work as a politician. He has never denied taking interest money which belonged to the state.” (JR.)

Judge Claire Edwards presided over Small’s trial in Waukegan. After Small’s trial, Edwards became a candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court. Small supported him, but he did not win. Edwards went back into private practice, and among his clients was George “Bugs” Moran. (CHM-DN-0073720.)

While the jury was deliberating, Small’s newspaper reported he was “happy and laughing and confident” as he took his grandsons to a circus in Waukegan. It seemed he was not worried about the verdict. (KPL.)

Len Small’s trial began in May 1922. After six weeks, the prosecution rested, while Small’s lawyers put on no defense. The jury came back quickly with a verdict of not guilty. The jurors did not look at one of the 7,000 pieces of evidence, and they had their bags packed before the trial ended. It soon was revealed they had been bribed. Here, from left to right, Governor Small, wife Ida, and son Leslie cheer as the verdict is read; the person on the right is unidentified. (CHM-DN-0074686.)

State senator Rodney Swift of Lake Forest condemned the baking powder salesmen, the
Waukegan Daily Sun
stories, Chicago gangsters, and the jury tampering. Swift said, “The meanest, most disreputable band of assassins ever gathered together was brought in. I saw them in the streets of my town, laughing and arrogant. They bribed one of our men. They paid one of our editors. They debauched our county. The report is that $100,000 went into Lake County.” (KPL.)

Len and Ida Small drove home to Kankakee from Waukegan after his acquittal on Saturday, June 24, 1922. A victory celebration was waiting at their home. The governor and his wife shook hands for several hours. Then Ida said she wasn’t feeling well, and she went inside and sat down. She had a stroke and slipped into unconsciousness. She never woke up, and she died on Monday morning. She was buried in the family plot in Mound Grove Cemetery in Kankakee. (At left, JR; below, CHM-DN-0074961.)

After the trial, eight jurors received state jobs. An investigation showed that gangsters intimidated and paid jurors. Chicago gangsters Eddie Kaufman and Eddie Courtney and juror John Fields went on trial; they were acquitted. Mobster and union boss “Umbrella Mike” Boyle (seen here) and hoodlum Ben Newmark (below) were called to testify about jury tampering. When they refused to talk, they were ordered jailed for contempt of court. Governor Small quickly pardoned them. Small then appointed Newmark a state fire marshal. (CHM-DN-0067691.)

Newmark and Boyle were believed to have handled the money in the jury tampering. Also involved was Walter Stevens, called “the dean of Chicago gunmen” for the 60 murders he committed. In 1928, Newmark was killed by a shotgun blast through his bedroom window. The murder was never solved. (CHM-DN-0073676.)

This is the jury that acquitted Len Small, pictured with two bailiffs. John B. Fields, the only juror put on trial for fixing the jury, is second from the right in the back row. (Courtesy of Mary Haviland, daughter of John B. Fields.)