Empire of Deception
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16 rife with ethnic tension This overview of Bohemia in the 1880s and its Jewish population is based on Elizabeth Wiskemann, Czechs and Germans: A Study of the Struggle in the Historic Provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, 2nd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s, 1967), 1; Hillel J. Kieval, The Making of Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia, 1870–1918 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 13; and Wilma Abeles Iggers, ed., The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: A Historical Reader (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992), 13, 20, 25, 94, 213–14.
18 the delightfulest ship Wikipedia entry for “Rivers Class Ocean Liner.” Werra is described in Clas Broder Hansen, Passenger Liners from Germany, 1816–1990 (West Chester, PA: Schiffer Books, 1991), 34. The cargo of gold and silver is noted in “Gold Rolling In,” Sacramento Daily Record-Union, September 7, 1887.
18 settle in a black mass Charles Dudley Warner, Studies in the South and West with Comments on Canada (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1889), 185.
18 No city in the world Miller, City of the Century, 178 (see chap. 1 notes).
19 Chicago is the boss city Emmett Dedmon, Fabulous Chicago: A Great City’s History and People (New York: Atheneum, 1983), iv.
19 City of the Big Shoulders Carl Sandburg, “Chicago,” in Chicago Poems (New York: Dover, 1994), 1.
19 a macabre must-see for visitors The celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was among the visitors, struggled “to get rid of the horrible vision of the stockyards” when she performed in the city in the early 1880s. Dedmon, Fabulous Chicago, 169; Miller, City of the Century, 199 (see chap. 1 notes).
19 unbelievable depravity Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 2002), 246. The judge’s comment is noted on p. 123.
19 inhabited by savages Quoted in Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (New York: Crown, 2003), 52.
19 police were too overwhelmed See Richard C. Lindberg, To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 1855–1960 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998), chapter 6; and Asbury, The Gangs of Chicago, chapter 5. At any given time in the 1890s, Asbury estimated, there was only one patrolman on duty for every twenty thousand residents (93–94).
19 astonishing Chicago Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1901), 433–34.
20 first and only veritable Babel George W. Stevens, The Land of the Dollar (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1897), 144.
20 an accepted part of American life Thomas Sowell, Ethnic America: A History (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 77–78.
20 a German enclave Descriptions of North Town (now known as Old Town) and its history are drawn from the author’s July 2009 visit and street-side plaques that record the neighborhood’s past.
21 an immense epitome “The Opening of the Fair,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 2, 1893, reprinted in A Century of Tribune Editorials (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), 64.
22 Ad astra per aspera Descriptions of Lake View High are drawn from Fifteenth Annual Report of the Lake View High School for the Year Ending June 20, 1889 (Chicago: Stromberg, Allen, 1889).
22 the great money-raiser James Weber Linn, Lights and Darks, Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 3, 1924.
22 could get blood Ibid.
22 idealistic “‘As Your Personal Friend,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 18, 1923.
22 scrupulous character Ibid.
22 teamed up “High Schools in the Finals,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 5, 1898.
23 For Conquest or for Humanity Descriptions of the commencement exercises are drawn from “Many Get Diplomas,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1898; and “Programs: Commencement and Rhetorical Exercises, 1876–1926,” Lake View High School Collection, box 1, folder 20, Sulzer Regional Library, Chicago.
23 century of usefulness “The Passing of the Century,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 1, 1901, reprinted in A Century of Tribune Editorials, 71.
23 a man of small stature “The Peoria Infernal Machines,” New York Times, August 3, 1881. For Crowe’s Fenian ties, see Niall Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 77–78.
24 to momentarily terrorize and paralyze Newspaper article dated August 28, 1898, in the Peoriana Collection, vol. 15, p. 21, Peoria Public Library, Peoria, IL.
25 I never had any liking Quoted in Alvin V. Sellers, The Loeb-Leopold Case with Excerpts from the Evidence of the Alienists and Including the Arguments to the Court by Counsel for the People and the Defense (Brunswick, GA: Classic, 1926), 241.
25 a fan of pulp-fiction novels Ibid., 265.
25 fluent talker “Crowe or Igoe? Both Are Young and Ambitious,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 17, 1920.
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26 As the country grows older “Degrees Given Young Lawyers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 9, 1901. Leo’s graduation year is confirmed in Chicago-Kent College of Law Alumni Directory, 1907, p. 25, preserved in Chicago-Kent College of Law—Miscellanea folder, Chicago Historical Society.
26 without distinction as to sex John Moses and Joseph Kirkland, eds., History of Chicago, Illinois, vol. 2 (Chicago: Munsell, 1895), 112.
27 In the practice of law “Degrees Given Young Lawyers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 9, 1901.
27 a local school with pretensions Robert Stevens, “History of the Yale Law School: Provenance and Perspective,” in History of the Yale Law School: The Tercentennial Lectures, ed. Anthony T. Kronman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 12.
27 the principles and rules Quoted from the Yale Law School catalogue in Laura Kalman, Legal Realism at Yale, 1927–1960 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 98.
27 docile enough and lazy enough Arthur L. Corbin, “Sixty-Eight Years at Law,” Yale Law Report 11 (1965): 21.
27 I paid more attention to Raffles Quoted in Sellers, The Loeb-Leopold Case, 265 (see chap. 2 notes).
27 spoke feelingly of the bonds “Winston Churchill at Yale,” New York Times, December 14, 1900.
27 the capable man “Bourke Cockran at Yale,” New York Times, June 26, 1900.
28 marched in company formation “A Yale Republican Club,” New York Times, October 6, 1900.
28 squared off over the sale The story is told in Edgar Lee Masters, Levy Mayer and the New Industrial Era (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927), 40–42. The firm is now known as Mayer Brown, with an international roster of 1,600 lawyers, and has ranked in the top twenty of American Lawyer magazine’s list of the world’s highest-grossing law firms.
28 a martyr to his work “Levy Mayer’s Burial to Wait Return of Wife,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 15, 1922.
29 The so-called trust “Corporations in Illinois,” New York Times, January 5, 1902.
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30 Here Lies Sleeping Beauty “Orders Her Epitaph in Gold,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 17, 1908.
30 Leo took the dog home “How Koretz Got His Start—Took Money Bequeathed to a Dog,” Chicago Evening American, December 15, 1923.
31 in partnership with Daniel Belasco Leo described being “associated” with Belasco in his “Answer,” dated December 28, 1920, filed in Maurice K. Over v. Leo Koretz, case no. 356959 (1920), Superior Court—Divorce, Law, Chancery files, Archives of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Cook County, IL, room 1113, Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago. Leo was described as Belasco’s law partner in “Belasco’s $100,000 Estate Lost in Koretz Swindle,” Chicago Daily Journal, December 14, 1923.
31 He always had ambitions “Reviews 20 Years He Has Known Koretz, Beginning in School,” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
31 I was a very poor Leo outlined how his fake mortgage scheme worked in his confession to prosecutors and at his bankruptcy hearing. See, for example, “Koretz Confesses
Life of Swindling,” New York Times, December 2, 1924; and “Koretz Tells Detailed Story of How He Worked Swindle,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 3, 1923.
32 radiated warmth “Mrs. Koretz Is Heroic as Her World Crashes,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 14, 1923.
32 Golden Ghetto Irving Cutler, The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 85; Edward Mazur, “Jewish Chicago: From Diversity to Community,” in Ethnic Chicago, ed. Melvin G. Holli and Peter d’A. Jones (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1984), 50.
33 one of the last agricultural frontiers Henry C. Dethloff, “Rice Revolution in the Southwest, 1880–1910,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (Spring 1970): 66.
33 we had a good rice country W. H. Fuller, “Early Rice Farming on Grand Prairie,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 14, no. 1 (Spring 1955): 72.
33 prejudiced against it as a food G. T. Surface, “Rice in the United States,” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 43, no. 7 (1911): 505.
33 many tillers of the soil “Koretz’s Rise to Wealth Reads Like Dime Novel,” Chicago Evening Post, December 13, 1923.
34 one of the first to realize Robert W. Chowning, The History of St. Francis County, Arkansas, 1954 (Forrest City, AR: Times-Herald, 1954), 118–19.
34 taught me farm values “Koretz Tells His Life Story,” Chicago Daily News, December 2, 1924.
34 did not exist Ibid.
36 a “tangle” of land titles “Koretz’s Rise to Wealth Reads Like Dime Novel,” Chicago Evening Post, December 13, 1923.
36 in some cases many times over “Koretz N.Y. Victims Found,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 17, 1923.
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37 one of the wildest David McCullough, The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (New York: Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, 1977), 22.
37 far-away, mysterious place David Fairchild, “The Jungles of Panama,” National Geographic 41, no. 2 (February 1922): 131.
38 Whenever we see Lester D. Langley and Thomas Schoonover, The Banana Men: American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 1880–1930 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995), 35–36.
39 I fell—fell hard Leo recounted his dealings with Nieto and Belasco in December 1924, in court testimony widely reported in the press.
40 a hatred for all strangers Henry Pittier, “Little-Known Parts of Panama,” National Geographic 23, no. 7 (July 1912): 648.
40 huge and numerous Image and text of stereographic photograph entitled “On the Bayano River, Interior Panama—Indians Supplying Panama Soldiers at a Frontier Pass.” Underwood and Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection 1895–1921, Smithsonian Institution Collections, RSN 21266, viewable online at http://collections.si.edu. The photo is not dated but was taken sometime between 1904 and 1910.
41 the big idea “Koretz Confesses Life of Swindling,” New York Times, December 2, 1924.
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42 It was a hard blow “‘Wizard’ Koretz Once Victimized in Deals Similar to His Own,’” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
42 “wild-cat” schemes “Koretz’s Climb Dates to Death of ‘Rich’ Dog,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 16, 1923.
42 It was a posh resort Descriptions of the Hotel Del Monte are drawn from Julie Cain, Monterey’s Hotel Del Monte, Images of America Series (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005).
42 Mae had quit her teaching “Koretz Panama Explorers Tell of Alligators,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 19, 1923; and “Canada Moves to Give Koretz Back to U.S.,” Evanston News-Index, November 24, 1924.
43 I got deeper “The Making of a Criminal as Told by Koretz Himself,” Chicago Evening American, December 2, 1924.
43 made the whole country seem safe David Howarth, The Golden Isthmus (London: Collins, 1966), 252.
43 vast supplies of timber “Big Plantation Bought in Panama,” Los Angeles Sunday Herald, February 20, 1910. See also “Californians Purchase Vast Tract in Panama,” San Francisco Call, March 20, 1910; and “Big Panama Land Deal,” New York Times, March 20, 1910.
43 stuck with me Leo described how he devised his Bayano swindle in “Koretz Confesses Life of Swindling,” New York Times, December 2, 1924; and “The Making of a Criminal as Told by Koretz Himself,” Chicago Evening American, December 2, 1924.
44 vast timber interests Mae described the 1911 Panama trip in court testimony. See “Arrest Mrs. Auerbach, Is Police Order,” Chicago Daily News, December 17, 1923; and “He Left Me Broke, Mrs. Koretz Says,” Chicago Evening American, December 18, 1923.
44 local color “‘Wizard’ Koretz Once Victimized in Deals Similar to His Own,’ ” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
44 a report extolling the resources The extracts and details of the report that follow are drawn from “Koretz Painted Bayano Lands as Paradise of Timber and Sugar Cane,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 14, 1923. The report was produced as evidence at Leo’s bankruptcy hearing: see “Koretz Tells His Life Story,” Chicago Daily News, December 2, 1924.
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47 met all obligations promptly Klein described his early dealings with Leo in court testimony. See, for instance, “Koretz Reported to Be within Day’s Train Ride of City,” Chicago Evening Post, December 19, 1923.
48 I always made money “Koretz Found, Belief of U.S. Authorities,” Chicago Daily News, December 19, 1923.
49 I’ll consult Mr. Fischer Ibid.
49 travelled quite a bit Descriptions of the syndicate’s principals are drawn from “Launch World-Wide Hunt for Koretz, Who Swindled Chicago Business Men Out of Millions,” Chicago Evening Post, December 13, 1923; and “Koretz Kept No Books in Office, Says Secretary,” Chicago Evening Post, December 18, 1923.
50 a hint here “Reveal Plan of Wizard to Buy Yacht ‘Speejacks,’” Chicago Evening American, December 18, 1923.
50 He never discussed his affairs “How He Did It Told by Friend Who Took His Word,” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
50 he utilized to a weirdly “Koretz N.Y. Victims Found,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 17, 1923.
51 I tried my best to buy “Here’s Story of Koretz, Business Hypnotist,” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
51 I have been trying to figure “How Koretz Made Them Eager to Buy,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 14, 1923.
51 I didn’t go out after prospects “Koretz Arrest Halts $1,000,000 Scheme,” Chicago Daily News, November 28, 1924.
51 I’m only letting my real friends “Hunt Rich Lawyer and $1,000,000,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, December 13, 1923.
51 Koretz was a brilliant student “One Victim Says Koretz Gave Loot to Poor,” Chicago Evening American, December 18, 1923.
52 would not lend you $5 “Here’s Story of Koretz, Business Hypnotist,” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
52 I never suspected him “More Participators Tell Experiences with Koretz,” Chicago Evening American, December 15, 1923.
52 I thought he was doing Ibid.
52 That is the whole secret “Koretz Secret—He Sold Shares Only to ‘Those He Loved,’” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923.
52 Every time I would get “Woman Gives New Clew to Leo Koretz,” Chicago Daily News, December 20, 1923.
53 My money was Leo’s “Koretz’ Brother Tells of $175,000 for Family,” Chicago Daily News, December 19, 1923.
53 I turned over every cent Koretz Found, Belief of U.S. Authorities,” Chicago Daily News, December 19, 1923; and “Koretz Reported to Be Within Day’s Train Ride of City,” Chicago Evening Post, December 19, 1923.
53 I never wanted members “Koretz Arrest Halts $1,000,000 Scheme,” Chicago Daily News, November 28, 1924.
53 The man had his own relatives Richman’s comments were widely reported in the Chicago press, including “Hunt Two More Women, Both in Society, in Koretz Triangle,” Chicago Evening American, December 19, 1923.
&n
bsp; 54 the bedroom of Chicago Michael H. Ebner, Creating Chicago’s North Shore: A Suburban History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 210, 241.
54 one of the show places “Rolls-Royces in Koretz Garage,” Chicago Evening American, December 14, 1923. Descriptions of the mansion that follow are based on press reports and bankruptcy court records.
55 Mr. Koretz was most sensitive “Koretz Book Lover, Conrad His Idol,” Chicago Evening American, December 19, 1923.
55 probably the most exalted position Time Capsule, 1923: A History of the Year Condensed from the Pages of Time (New York: Time, 1967), 213.
55 the hub of business activity Chicago Central Business and Office Building Directory, 1908 (Chicago: Winters, 1908).
55 I always have had a beautiful “Koretz Arrest Halts $1,000,000 Scheme,” Chicago Daily News, November 28, 1924. Other press reports described the layout and furnishings.
56 a striking specimen of skyscraper Leslie A. Hudson, Chicago Skyscrapers in Vintage Postcards (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2004), 53.
57 Leo sent over money His generosity was noted in an article published in the Chicago Daily News on October 26, 1917, which is referenced in research notes labeled “True: Koretz, Leo,” p. 9, Ms. Coll/Swanberg, W. A., box 58, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York (Swanberg Papers). The money was used to buy ice cream for the wounded soldiers.
57 also engaged in rice growing World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, Cook County, IL, card no. 3070 (serial no. 3637) for Leo Koretz, available online at ancestry.com.
57 the most wonderful woman “Mrs. Koretz to Go to Work,” Chicago Evening American, December 18, 1923.
57 The women were crazy “Koretz Liked the Ladies, but Liked ’Em Safely Married,” Chicago Evening American, December 15, 1923.