Introduction
You find yourself fascinated by the dark underbelly of American history, where organized crime and municipal corruption intersect. You want to understand how a thriving industrial city transformed into a lawless sanctuary for gangsters, madams, and murderers. Susan M. Guy investigates the violent transformation of Steubenville, Ohio, into a notorious hub known as Little Chicago.
Susan M. Guy chronicles the violent history of Steubenville, Ohio, a notorious industrial hub consumed by prohibition corruption, gangland warfare, and vice.
The book examines decades of unchecked crime, municipal failure, and notorious underworld figures across four distinct historical periods. You will explore these guiding questions as you read the text:
- How did Water Street transform into a permanent haven for vice?
- What role did corrupt officials play in the rise of bootlegging syndicates?
- Why did vigilante groups and extortionists gain power in the Ohio Valley?
1. Early Murders and Water Street Vice
The turn of the century exposed a violent underbelly in Steubenville's red-light district where resort owners and madams operated with impunity. You discover a city dominated by lawlessness along Water Street, also known as the tenderloin district.
The turn of the century exposed a violent underbelly in Steubenville's red-light district where resort owners and madams operated with impunity.
The Park House Tragedy
William May Horner operated the Park House resort on Water Street. In 1887, Mayor Henry Opperman imposed a thirty-two dollars fine on William Horner.
Resort owners and patrons faced impending workhouse sentences for operating houses of ill fame. On April 12, 1900, Horner shot his wife Barbara, known as Maude, inside the Park House while patrons drank downstairs.
Twenty-four-year-old Stella Gibson, a prostitute who witnessed the murder, watched the tragedy unfold. He later brandished a revolver at officer Ed Zimmerman during his arrest before being captured.
Eighty citizens were interviewed to seat a jury in the June 1900 trial. Horner was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Thirty-four years old when Horner was sent to the state penitentiary, he served fifteen years in prison before his release in 1915 after lobbying by his youngest daughter.
The Rise of Madam Jennie Good
Catherine Jane "Jennie" Good operated prominent houses of ill fame, including the Park House and the Ohio Valley House. She accumulated numerous violations under Section 85 of the city ordinances.
She received a fifteen dollars fine for her earliest recorded arrest on April 3, 1886. An additional one hundred fifty dollars fine and ninety days in the workhouse followed in April 1898.
Over decades, she repeatedly fled prosecution and survived tumultuous marriages to underworld figures. She eventually transitioned into running uptown hotels and developed a severe narcotics addiction.
In August 1922, Jennie Good and her associate Foxy Fuller were arrested for narcotics possession. She paid a two hundred fifty dollars fine in August 1922 for narcotics possession, reflecting her descent from a powerful madam into an active drug user. She died in a 1927 automobile accident.
Thugs including George Mackinaw, George Harris, and the Wind brothers capitalized on the decline of river freight by buying a riverboat in Pittsburgh. They converted it into an illicit floating saloon off the Ohio shore. Because it floated within West Virginia jurisdiction, local police and the WCTU were powerless to shut it down until it suddenly sank in shallow water.
On July 18, 1904, the illicit floating saloon mysteriously tilted and sank in three feet of water. Twelve men and women were arrested as they waded to shore where police immediately apprehended them.
Rosslyn Ferrell, an ex-messenger for Adams Express, found himself unemployed and desperate for funds before his scheduled marriage to Lillian Costlow. He boarded a train, murdered messenger Charles Lane with seven gunshots, and mailed the stolen money orders to himself under an alias before being tracked down by detectives.
On August 10, 1900, Charles Lane, twenty-eight years old, was found shot to death in express car 208 in Columbus. Ferrell was arrested after detectives traced a parcel he mailed containing waybills bearing Lane's signature and found a .38-caliber revolver in his hotel room. He gave nine hundred dollars to his fiancée before facing his execution in the electric chair on March 1, 1901.
2. The Prohibition Era and Gangland Warfare
National prohibition turned Jefferson County into a lethal battleground governed by corrupt federal agents and ruthless bootlegging syndicates. Steubenville earned the moniker Little Chicago as illicit markets exploded across the Ohio Valley. You watched federal laws fail to curb a relentless thirst for alcohol.
The enactment of Prohibition on January 16, 1920, followed the passage of the Volstead Act on January 16, 1919. A beverage with an alcohol content level of .05 percent was not illegal to consume. You saw how lucrative illicit markets corrupted underpaid federal enforcers.
Prohibition agents faced immense bribery attempts and constant violence from organized crime syndicates looking to protect their bootlegging operations.
Jefferson County held the nationwide record for dry agent murders in 1922. Agents were offered bribes of up to 300000 dollars a month to look the other way. You found that enforcement came with deadly consequences.
Dry Agent Deaths
Dry agents operated with little training or backing. Local criminal gangs targeted them to eliminate interference. You witnessed execution-style killings become commonplace across the county.
On February 28, 1921, Mateo Mike Veltry went for a ride with Dominic Epifano and Frank Carducci. Veltry was known for carrying large sums of cash to make liquor deals before arresting violators. His body was found dumped in a ditch on March 1, 1921, after being shot and dragged by a car.
Despite compelling evidence collected by Sheriff Ed Lucas, grand juries failed to indict the suspects. Frank Carducci died in 1935 at age forty, while Dominic Epifano died of natural causes in 1971.
On February 19, 1922, dry agent Frank Perrin's bullet-riddled body was discovered between Piney Fork and Newell. He was thirty-five years old at the time of his death, suffering four close-range shots to the mouth from Piney Fork gangs. Joe Russo was later killed during a drunken brawl in 1929.
The Assassination of Dixie Blinn
Dry chief Charles Thomas Dixie Blinn was born on July 16, 1880. He utilized aggressive and high-handed raid tactics that alienated the local community and organized crime. You saw him engage in controversial searches without proper warrants.
On December 10, 1921, Blinn raided Pietro Bonitatibas's home without authority. Bonitatibas was hit with a fine of 100 dollars for the infraction. Blinn made numerous enemies through these heavy-handed methods before his violent end.
On Christmas night 1922, Dixie Blinn was shot three times after spending the evening drinking and making loud threats in Water Street resorts. He was forty-two years old at his death, and his murder remained officially unsolved. E.E. Enfield was subsequently killed in a train collision on May 23, 1923.
3. Vigilantism and the Black Hand
Public frustration with rampant crime fueled the rise of the Ku Klux Klan while Italian extortionists terrorized the Ohio Valley.
Klan Emergence
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan exploited public frustration with rampant crime and political corruption by staging theatrical displays and demanding political reform. Utilizing fireworks, burning crosses on hilltops, and sudden appearances in public spaces or funerals, the Klan gained massive local followings, intimidated corrupt officials, and eventually forced political reorganizations and vice squads.
On March 1, 1923, three massive crosses were burned across the river in Brooke County, signaling the Klan's firm establishment and drawing large crowds in downtown Steubenville. Estimated new members joining for every single cross burned reached 500.
A total of 2500 to 3000 people were involved in the August 16, 1923 Steubenville riot. Blind tigers operated openly while authorities ignored the illicit trade until public pressure mounted.
Black Hand Extortion
The Black Hand society terrorized Italian business owners and residents through extortion letters, bombings, and mafia-style hits. Extortionists demanded cash drop-offs under threat of destroying properties and murdering families, operating with virtual impunity as intimidated grand juries and prosecutors avoided issuing indictments.
On February 6, 1923, the Black Hand bombed the home and grocery store of Ascenzo D. Serafini in Yorkville after he refused to leave $2,000 in a poolroom restroom. Extortion letters demanded 2000 dollars in cash. A staggering 8 murders were committed in the downtown area in a seven-week period in 1923.
Certain corners in downtown Steubenville became extremely lethal for prohibition informants and agents, earning the moniker of the death district. Informants recruited by dry officers to execute undercover whiskey purchases were frequently targeted for execution immediately after completing their operations.
On August 23, 1923, former ironworker turned dry agent Phares Martin was shot and killed on South Sixth Street immediately after an undercover liquor buy coordinated with an informant. The 100 block of South Sixth Street witnessed multiple agents killed.
Civic leaders and religious figures openly condemned the community for tolerating rampant lawlessness and earning a national reputation as a criminal hub. Steubenville's failure to provide adequate parks, health supervision, and honest municipal governance created an environment where vice flourished and future generations inherited the consequences.
On June 10, 1926, Rabbi William F. Rosenbloom delivered a scathing speech to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, denouncing the city's stigmatization as a Little Chicago. The population of the industrial community at the time of the speech stood at 36000. Blind patriotism prevented many residents from confronting the reality of municipal corruption.
4. The Dirty Thirties and Lasting Vice
The repeal of prohibition failed to dismantle criminal syndicates as gambling, prostitution, and political assassinations persisted into the 1930s.
In December 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Prohibition Law. Criminal syndicates maintained their cash flow through established vices, continuing illegal operations for decades. Prohibition acted as a catalyst that permanently embedded underground operations into the region's economy, paving the way for the Dirty Thirties.
Political figures and reformers who crossed paths with local criminal elements during the Prohibition era were frequently targeted in gangland-style drive-by shootings that often went unpunished. You find that Little Chicago developed a reputation for fatal violence where law enforcement struggled to secure convictions.
On October 25, 1933, thirteen-year-old Paul Briggs witnessed a small blue sedan with West Virginia plates pull up and fire five shotgun shells at Benjamin Oliver as he took an after-dinner walk.
Benjamin Oliver arrived in the United States in 1904 as Benjamean Oliverinski. He became a US citizen and married Minnie Lewis in 1912. He won election to the Yorkville board of education in 1917, city treasurer in 1921, and city councilman in 1923. He began his first of three consecutive terms as Yorkville mayor in 1926, retiring in January 1932. He won a lawsuit to block off Martha Street in 1933 and was subsequently murdered in October. He left his home for his fatal walk at 8:30 p.m. on October 25, 1933, and former mayor Oliver was declared dead at Martins Ferry Hospital at 8:45 p.m.
Persistence of Underground Economies
Illegal gambling syndicates in Steubenville continued to operate sophisticated operations equipped with fortified hiding spaces well after the end of the federal alcohol ban. Local authorities repeatedly raided establishments operating hidden gambling dens equipped with heavy security measures like bulletproof offices and hidden weapon caches.
In 1940, law enforcement raided Cosimo Quattrone's gambling room behind the Rex Cigar store on Market Street, discovering a bulletproof rear office with a short flight of stairs, sawed-off shotguns, and arresting six men including Joe Quattrone. Cosmo Quattrone paid a 300 dollar fine after a 1938 raid on his Market Street gambling room. Joe Quattrone paid a 50 dollar fine after pleading guilty before Judge Downer, and the other men arrested in the 1940 raid paid 25 dollar fines.
10 Key Ideas
- The turn of the century exposed a violent underbelly in Steubenville's red-light district where resort owners and madams operated with impunity.
- Catherine Jane "Jennie" Good accumulated numerous violations under Section 85 of the city ordinances, eventually transitioning into running uptown hotels and developing a severe narcotics addiction.
- National prohibition turned Jefferson County into a lethal battleground governed by corrupt federal agents and ruthless bootlegging syndicates as illicit markets exploded across the Ohio Valley.
- Jefferson County held the nationwide record for dry agent murders in 1922 while agents faced immense bribery attempts and constant violence from organized crime syndicates looking to protect their bootlegging operations.
- Dry chief Charles Thomas Dixie Blinn utilized aggressive and high-handed raid tactics that alienated the local community and organized crime before his violent end on Christmas night 1922.
- Public frustration with rampant crime fueled the rise of the Ku Klux Klan while Italian extortionists terrorized the Ohio Valley.
- The Black Hand society terrorized Italian business owners and residents through extortion letters, bombings, and mafia-style hits while operating with virtual impunity.
- The repeal of prohibition failed to dismantle criminal syndicates as gambling, prostitution, and political assassinations persisted into the 1930s.
- Former Yorkville mayor Benjamin Oliver was targeted in a gangland-style drive-by shooting and murdered in October 1933 after crossing paths with local criminal elements.
- Illegal gambling syndicates in Steubenville continued to operate sophisticated setups equipped with fortified hiding spaces well after the end of the federal alcohol ban.