Len Small: Governors and Gangsters

Len Small was governor of Illinois during most of the 1920s. Almost all of Al Capone's career in Chicago happened at the same time, and there definitely was a tie between the governor and the gangster. In his second term as state treasurer from 1917 to 1919, Small embezzled more than a million dollars in a money-laundering scheme by depositing state money in a bank that did not exist! After becoming governor in 1921, Small was indicted for the embezzlement. He had his lawyers argue in court that as governor, he was above the law, citing the Divine Right of Kings. Their argument was, The King Can Do No Wrong. Small ran from the sheriff to avoid arrest, threatening to call out the National Guard to keep the sheriff away at the point of a bayonet. When he went to trial, jurors were bribed and intimidated by Al Capone's gangsters. Small was acquitted. Most of the jurors soon got state jobs. Another grand jury looked into jury tampering charges. Two gangsters who had bribed the jurors were granted immunity but still refused to testify. They were jailed for contempt of court -- and Governor Small quickly pardoned them. And even though a jury acquitted him in his criminal trial, a civil lawsuit brought by the state resulted in the Illinois Supreme Court forcing Governor Small to repay the state $650,000 of the money he stole. Governor Small sold thousands of pardons and paroles, including pardons to gangsters, murderers, white slavers and even cop killers. Some were sold by Len Small and his emissaries to Al Capone and to other mobsters. Some of the more notorious gangsters who bought their way out of prison were Harry Guzik, Fur Sammons and Bugs Moran. Small's administration operated a pardon mill where thousands of convicts could buy their way out of prison. When Small became governor, he wrecked the civil service system and brought back the spoils system, giving jobs based on politics rather than merit. He changed the utilities commission for the same political reasons. He tried to change the tax commission so that he could trades bribes for lower tax assessments. Small thwarted attempts at impeachment, and in one instance, he successfully had his Republican majority ram through a bill that exempted the present governor from the constitutional quo warranto provision for removal from office. If that wasn't enough, Len Small was a favorite of the Ku Klux Klan, which endorsed his campaigns in 1924, 1928 and 1932. Governor Small failed to send National Guard troops to prevent the Herrin Massacre in 1922 because he was too busy bribing his jury. When he left office in 1929, he stole the silverware and other valuables from the governor's mansion. The research for this book settles some debate and corrects some myths which have been accepted since the 1920s. For example, it has been accepted that the attorney general obtained an indictment against Small as revenge because the governor cut his budget. This is false. In fact, the opposite is true. Small cut the attorney general's budget to cut off funds for an investigation that was under way. The questions and myths surrounding the phony Grant Park Bank and the Good Roads Governor are addressed. The book also includes a chapter about George Ryan, another crooked governor from Kankakee whose corruption was massive. INDEX includes Alpiner, Altiere, Armour, Bauer, Birger, Blagojevich, Boyle, Browne, Brundage, Capone, Carlstrom, Cermak, Chicago SunTimes, Chicago Tribune, Crowe, Curtis, Daley, Deneen, Emmerson, Esposito, Faherty, Fink, Giancana, Granady, Grant Park, Guzik, Herrin, Hochstein, Jenkins, Kankakee, Kass, Kennedy, Kerner, Ku Klux Klan, Lorimer, Lowden, Lundin, McBroom, McCormick, McErlane, Messlein, Miller, Ness, Newmark, Nitti, OBanion, ODonnell, Potz, Ryan, Sammons, Serritella, Smith, Sterling, Stevens, Thompson, Torrio, Weiss, Wilkerson and more.