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In this episode of Gangland Wire, I sit down with Salt Lake City author Flats to discuss his book, Ice Pick Willie: The Life and Times of Israel Alderman. We take a deep dive into the shadowy world of Israel “Icepick Willie” Alderman—a largely forgotten but deeply embedded figure in early 20th-century organized crime. Willie's criminal career traces back to Prohibition-era New York, where he began as a jewelry thief before evolving into something far more lethal. His nickname came from his preferred weapon: an ordinary household ice pick. In the 1920s, it was common, inconspicuous, and devastatingly effective. Flats explains how Willie's method allowed him to carry out murders quietly and efficiently, often avoiding the attention that accompanied more public gangland shootings. We follow Willie's movements from New York to Minneapolis and eventually into the orbit of Chicago's violent underworld. Along the way, he intersected with major figures of organized crime, including Meyer Lansky, Charles Luciano, and Bugs Moran. Flats outlines the shifting alliances and rivalries that defined the era, placing Willie within the broader context of gang wars that culminated in events like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The conversation also examines Willie's transition from violent enforcer to gambling operative as organized crime evolved and shifted westward. As Las Vegas rose with legalized gambling, figures like Willie adapted—moving from street-level brutality to more structured rackets under established mob leadership. Despite brushing against major historical events and powerful crime bosses, Icepick Willie faded into relative obscurity. Flats and I explore why certain gangsters become legends while others—equally dangerous and influential—slip into the margins of history. We also touch on Willie's odd cultural afterlife, including regional pop-culture references that keep his name alive in unexpected ways. This episode provides both a character study of a cold and calculated killer and a broader examination of how organized crime adapted from Prohibition chaos to structured syndicates. It's a detailed look at a man who operated in the shadows—lethal, efficient, and nearly forgotten. Flats' book, Ice Pick Willie: The Life and Times of Israel Alderman, is available now on Amazon. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. Transcript [0:00] Hey, welcome all you wiretappers. Good to be back here in the studio of Gangland [0:03] Wire. This is Gary Jenkins. As most of you, I’m a retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective turned podcaster and documentary filmmaker. I got a couple of documentary films you can rent on Amazon if you choose. I’ll have links in the show notes. Or just go to Amazon and search my name and you’ll find my stuff. But anyhow, today I have a friend of mine from Salt Lake City called Flats. And he’s just Flats, all right? And he’s written a book about a man named Icepick Willie. Now, Icepick Willie has got a great, cool nickname. I’m surprised that he didn’t last through history a little better because people had an easy-to-remembering cool nickname. His real name is Israel Alderman. Now, Flats has been researching him. He got a hold of me because I did a show on David Berman, who ended up in Las Vegas. He was a Jewish gambler from Minneapolis. And ice pick ends up out there connected to him somehow. And I didn’t really stumble. I stumbled a little bit across that, but I couldn’t remember what it was. But anyhow, welcome flats. [1:09] Glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me. All right. Go ahead. I’m sorry. I’m always open for any chance to talk about Ice Pick Willie, one of my favorite people. And if you guys out there know anything about Ice Pick Willie, get a hold of me and I’ll connect you up with Flats. And I’ll have his Gmail in the show notes. But either that or get a hold of me pretty easy. Any rumors or stories, lies, anything about him. [1:38] But in the meantime, in a couple of weeks, actually, by the time this podcast is out, that book’s going to be up on Amazon. But you can always go back. You can always pull those down and add more information in and then put them back up if you want. So that’s a good way to go. Nicknames are interesting. I once talked about doing a show on nicknames and how people got them, and I just never got around to it. And many times you can see how people get their nicknames. Al Capone, Scarface Al. He’s got the big scar on his face, right? Here’s one. One of Icepick’s Willie’s contemporaries, a guy named Albert, was it Tannenbaum? Yeah, Tannenbaum. And he was called Tick Tock. And I looked that up because, like I said, he was a contemporary of Icepick Willie’s. And he got the name Tick Tock because somebody said you move all the time. You’re always like a watch. You’re Tick Tocking all the time. And, of course, there’s Anthony Accardo, who they called Joe Batters. And his guys gave him that. They used to call him Joe. And that was because he beat up somebody with a baseball bat so bad that Al Capone said, you’re a real Joe batters. But he also, many times the press will give people these nicknames. And they gave Anthony Accardo the nickname of the big tuna because he was big. And they had a picture of him with a huge big tuna he had caught. There’s Joe Bananas Bonnano. That speaks for itself, Joe Bananas. And I think the press gave him that. First question, Flats, you know how Icepick Willie got his nickname? The nickname came… [3:06] From when he was in Minneapolis, he apparently picked it up. And this is something which he admitted to later on in his life. He claimed to have taken about 11, 12 victims out by using an ice pick in the ear. [3:27] And ice picks were actually really common back in the 20s everywhere. People had them. Everyone had them in their homes. and they were a real popular tool among Murder Incorporated members. It’s a handy thing, small, quiet kind of a tool. [3:49] Normally, a knife-pick killing was something that took maybe three or four people, not counting the victim. They’d crowd around him and grab his arms, whatever, and then somebody’d do him, they’d haul him off. Uh, Willie had managed to turn this into a one man operation. He’d take his victim. [4:11] He’d be up at the bar with a drinking buddy, get this guy really liquored up, and he’d slip his ice pick out of his jacket. Boom, real quick in the air, ice pick’s gone, the guy’s down on the bar. Not much blood because it’s an ice pick. Forensics wasn’t real hot back in the 20s, so a lot of times they would diagnose this as a brain aneurysm. But the guy would slump over the bar, drunk, dead drunk, and then they’d just haul him off. The story is they’d take him in the back room, he’d go down the coal chute, which everybody had back then, out into a truck, they’d haul off the body. The people that went down the coal chute, they were all pretty much forgotten. But Willie, he seemed to have stuck around. Now, in Minneapolis, apparently he’s still a real popular figure. Memorable, which is funny because Minneapolis, for all my research, is the place there is the least documented evidence about. [5:19] But that seems to be that and Las Vegas are where he’s best known. There’s even a company in Minneapolis that does a nail polish they named Ice Rick Willie. It’s a popular culture thing there. Yeah. Now, did he start out in New York with Erlansky? He started out in New York. He grew up on the Lower East Side. Like so many people, Benny Siegel and Meyer, everybody came from there. Early on, and back by the 20s, Meyer had hooked up with Charlie Luciano, and most of the serious Jewish gangsters came under Meyer’s umbrella, so to speak. And this Willie supposedly, according to another author, this is when Willie hooked up with Meyer, was early on during Prohibition. But Willie didn’t start out as a bootlegger. He started out with a bunch of jewelry store robbers, but they were pretty notorious at him. God, his first record of him was, oh, when was it? About 1925. [6:34] He got a charge for robbery. Not a lot of details on it. The charge was dismissed, and it seems to be a pretty common thing throughout his entire life as far as resolution of his legal issue. But anyway, then right after Christmas, that’s in year 25, he was going by Izzy Alderman back then. Israel, Izzy was his nickname. He didn’t get into Willie till later, but he went into with a couple other guys and they hit a jewelry store for about $75,000 worth of jewelry. Oh, wow. That’s a pretty good chunk of change back then. That’s a score, man. That is a real score back then. Oh, yeah. And then a few months later, along with a couple other people, he hit another jewelry store in the Bronx, William Sims Robbery. This one was pretty well publicized. And they go in, they take the, everybody there, the owner, employees, customers, tie them up, they’re in the back room, they grab trays full of gems, usually diamonds, they’re out the door, never even touched the cash register. So they got about a hundred grand on that. Got away. Next morning. [7:59] Another jeweler, Sam Candle, as he was opening up his shop to let a friend in, some guys come pushing into the door. Izzy’s with them again. Once more, the same M.O., everybody’s in the back room tied up. Another hundred grand or so worth the gems. So they’re doing pretty good by now. Wow, yeah. I assume that whenever they fenced them, did you find out much about how they fenced them? Did the Italians get a piece of the action? Did they make him pay up, or did Meyer Lansky get a piece of that? I’m sure that Meyer was somehow connected to this. He got a piece of everything that was going on in the Jewish world. And originally, at that point in time, there was not a lot of interaction between the Italian mobsters and the Jewish mobsters. They had their own little thing that they kept to themselves. They felt safer that way. They could trust everybody. It was actually pretty much Meyer and Charlie Luciano that moved things past that point. I see. But up till then, everything was coming under Meyer’s thing. So they were doing pretty good until they did a robbery. [9:19] There was a jeweler, Aaron Roddark. Now, about 18 months earlier, he’d had an attempted robbery where he had shot and killed one of the robbers as they were running out of the store. So he got a bunch of publicity called the Fighting Jewelers in the press, a popular guy. About a year and a half later, another crew walks in. This is Izzy’s crew. [9:50] When they come in, same thing, the fighting jeweler, he goes for his gun. Doesn’t work out so well this time. This time, he’s shot and killed. But they didn’t get any jewels. They take off again. [10:05] But now they’re hot. This is big news. Fighting jewelers murdered. Big publicity, big public outcry. And cops are looking for them hot and heavy by now. [10:17] And by now, so a few weeks, couple weeks after the fighting jewelers murdered, one of Izzy’s crew was picked up, coming out of a doctor’s office, for a gunshot wound, where he’d been treated. Cots get word of this, they pick him up, and he immediately starts confessing to all the jewelry store robbers, giving up partners. They pick up a couple more people pretty soon everybody is just singing like canary it’s like the mormon tavern fire or something so the cops are looking for everybody they haven’t got they pick up almost everybody the two people are missing from the last robbery where the guy was murdered is Izzy Alderman and one of the other guys Robert Byrd. [11:09] So Izzy and Robert they know they’re hot They’ve got warrants out. They know the police are looking. They’ve got this information because they’re connected to whoever. So they leave town. They’re on their way to Chicago. They’re going to go there to hide out, take care of business for a couple reasons. One is Robert Berg has brother, Ollie, who is tied in with the Northside Bugs Moran gang in Chicago. Ago, Holly is also a jewelry driver and right about the time, right before. [11:47] His brother, Robert, gets to Chicago. Ollie and a couple guys are on an Illinois Central commuter train. They robbed three jewelry salesmen while they’re on the train of their jewels, managed to get off the train and get away. They got picked up about 12 hours later, though. So now his brother, Ollie, is in prison again, of course. But Robert is connected. They have connections to the Northside gang. Through the brother, through Ollie. And this is a safe place for them to go, relatively safe. At that point in time, Chicago’s got the beer wars going on, and so it wasn’t a real safe place to be. But they had out there, they’re there maybe a week or so. The cops raid a hotel room, they pick up Robert Burke. They also find a bunch of jewelry, which they trace back to the New York robbery. So they know this is all tied together now. They don’t get Willie. Izzy is still at that point. So Robert Berg, now he’s back to New York going to prison too. Izzy needs a new partner. Berg had a guy he was running around with, Red McLaughlin. [13:06] Red’s partner’s in jail, and Izzy’s partner’s in jail, so they came up a little bit. But now Red already at this point the cops are looking for him hot and heavy in Chicago a little while before they found him. [13:24] The cops saw him on the side of the road, Red was on the running board of the car, reaching through the window, choking the driver. The driver turned out to be, of course, a jewelry salesman with the jewelry in the car. Red explained to the cop that his friend was just having some kind of a fit, and he was trying to help him. The cop wasn’t going for it, and so Red was off to jail. He managed to get bailed out. And as soon as he’s out, he just goes off on all kinds of things. By now, the cops are looking for him for being involved in some kidnappings and bootlegging and murders. One newspaper article called him the man of a hundred brides. He’s like Lon Chaney of the criminal world or something. So now the cops are really hot after Red. He’s junk bail. He’s doing all this other stuff. There they raid a hotel, the Webster Hotel in Chicago. They’ve got a tip. That’s where they’re going to find him. Yeah. They don’t find Red, but they find his buddy in there. They find him, and he’s got a suitcase full of guns. [14:38] But no, he knows this is turned out to be actually Izzy Alderman, but he knows the cops are looking for Izzy Alderman. So he tells the cops his name’s Robert Lewis. They don’t know any better. Things are different back then. Yeah. He also told them that he was a bootlegger from Detroit. And that, I guess, would explain having a suitcase full of guns. And when they get ready to arrest him, he tells the cops they’re going to be wasting their time because he says he has some high connections in the illegal liquor business in town here. And apparently he was right because all of his charges were dismissed as soon as they haul him in once again. Back then, it seemed in Chicago, because of Al Capone, Bugs Moran. [15:30] New York with Meyer and Charlie, Prohibition contributed to it a lot. Corruption was just fantastic. So you could buy your people’s way out of everything, which was nice if that’s what you were doing. Yeah so anyway Robert Bird disappears and now Willie all of his partners all of his connections everybody’s locked up missing dead something he’s out of work again but he’s in Chicago since 1927 they’re in the middle of the beer wars he’s a starker a tough muscle man starker’s Jewish term so he hooks up right away They were Bugs Moran on the North side. Bugs is more, the Bugs Moran gang, they were people like Frank Foster, Ed Newberry. He had other Jewish gangsters working with him at the time. So Lizzie fit in pretty good. And it isn’t long at all, maybe a month later, he gets cops pull over a car. They find Frank Foster and Izzy Alderman in there. And they’ve got guns, of course. And once again, the charges just disappear. Everybody goes on their way. [16:51] So things are rolling along. The beer wars are going good. And now we get into the taxi cab wars. because in Chicago back then, that’s how you settled everything. You had a war. There were two cab companies mostly going on in Chicago at the time, and they were shooting up each other’s cab offices and throwing bombs and shooting up cabs. So the Yellow Cab Company puts out a hefty reward for the people involved, which leads to another made by the cops on this time. It was a Broadway apartment where there were supposed to be people involved in all of this. [17:30] Among the people they find, first off, Frank Foster, who at the time was a high-ranking member of Bugs Moran’s group on the north side. They also find another bunch of people, one of them named Harry Davidson. This was, again, Izzy Alderman, but he knew that the cops were looking for Izzy Alderman, and they were looking for Robert Lewis by then. So that was Harry Davidson, and that worked out. And, of course, everybody gets charged with concealed weapons, and then the charges are dropped, and catch and release. Yeah, catch and release Chicago. It was really interesting. So shortly after this, of course, this is 1929 in Chicago, and it’s Valentine’s Day. We all know what happened there. Now this brought major heat, major attention from everyone nationwide, the student. [18:30] And surprisingly, later in life, like I said, he used to almost brag about his activity as he got older. One of the things he would tell people is that he missed the St. Valentine’s Day massacre because he was in the bathroom. Yeah, I was going to say, he missed that. The bathroom wasn’t in SMT partage, if that was the case. They had an outhouse, Flats. They had an outhouse out back. That’s true. Yeah, he was close enough to do that activity. Yeah. He was just caught up in the middle of all the major things happening throughout Gangland at that point in time. Really? How does he end up in Minneapolis? It’s reasonably close to Chicago, and there are some connections. It is. [19:19] Before he ends up back in Minneapolis, first he ends up back in New York. What happens now in New York, they’ve got their own problems going on between the two gangs back then. Yeah, they had the Castle Marie’s War during that time, I believe, or sometime around then. It broke out. Actually, it happens right after he gets shot. But as he gets picked up, there’d been a shooting that they had. First, they had the Easter Massacre, where a few people get shot up. And then the Fox Lake Massacre. Like I said, everything in Chicago was wars or massacres. And by the time the Fox Lake massacre happened, it was after the Valentine’s Day thing. Izzy Alderman, Frank Foster, Ted Newberry, and probably at least 6, 8, 10 other people affected. They left the Northside gang, and they moved south and joined up with El Capote. [20:21] Obviously, they could see where everything’s going. I mean, everyone at the outside is winning. But the authorities were aware of it. So after the Easter massacre and the Fox Lake massacre, now the cops know there’s going to be all kinds of retaliation. Fox Lake thing, Al Capone’s people got shot up. So cops are out on the street looking for people. They pull over a car racing down the street. They find Frank Foster, Izzy Alderman again, out with their guns. Once again, they get hauled in, arrested, catching release. Shortly after this, now we get a reporter, Jake Lingle. Jake Lingle, he was crooked. He was on the take. He was one of these $65 a week reporters who vacations in Hawaii and has an apartment on Lake George Drive, that kind of thing. He even said he had a fancy piece of gold jewelry that was a gift from Al Capone. Anyway, he gets into trouble with people there. He gets killed. [21:32] Now, everybody knows you can’t. The people you don’t kill are cops and newsmen. Jake Lengel gets killed, and now, once again, it’s like St. Valentine’s Day all over again. Big public outcry. Cops are hot and heavy. They know somehow Izzy Alderman is somehow tied into this. Frank Foster’s tied into it. So they’re hunting them. And a few months later, a cop spots Izzy. He’s in a restaurant with another guy, Joe Condi. They’re eating dinner. Cop recognized Izzy because he was really, which is surprising, he was really well known then to the cops, to the press, to other gangsters. [22:19] And yet today, who was Izzy Aldenman? Who was Ice-Pick Willie? So time goes by. But the cop spots him, recognizes him, grabs, snatters him up, and arrests him. As soon as they come out of the restaurant, runs him in for questioning for the Lingle murder. They get him in. There’s nothing they can tie him to the Lingle case with. So they charge him with vagrants. This is a new deal, a new tool that prosecutors are using in Chicago. Yeah. We know you’re a gangster. We can’t prove anything, so we’re going to arrest you for vagrancy because you have no physical means of support. You don’t have a job. [23:07] When Izzy was arrested at this time, he had about $650 in his pocket. This is worth like over 12 grand today so yeah the economy’s good when vagrants are carrying that kind of money obviously but they get arrested charged with first they’re brought in before a judge one judge mccordy he says there’s nothing to hold them on the lingual thing so they’re free to go the minute they walk out of the court building they get arrested charged with vacancy taken in front of another judge, Judge Lyle. Now, Judge Lyle, he’s known, he’s a holy terror when it comes to gangsters. He’s just after them. And even he admits the vagrancy thing, I’m not sure it’s really valid, but we’re going to charge you anyway. First thing is, he says, is I want a lawyer. So the judge tells the court reporter, the defendant has no comment at this time. And then in what’s probably the shortest trial in history, Izzy and his buddy are found guilty. [24:21] And shipped away to jail in a matter of like 10 minutes or something. How long was the sentence for? How long was the sentence for? They were sentenced to six months in jail. Okay. Surveillance. Okay. So now their lawyer comes back, goes back to the first judge, McGordy, who had released them on the Lingle chart. [24:49] And he convinced her, I don’t know, for whatever reason, Judge McGurdy says, no, I have jurisdiction in this case because they were brought before me first. And so he issues a bond and sets them free again. As soon as they walk out of the courthouse, they’re re-arrested again for vagrancy. At this point, their lawyer, the lawyer’s upset. And he’s telling, he tells the cops, that’s it. If you’re going to take them in on this bullshit again, you got to take me too. So they all went down to the station, the lawyer with them, charged with vagrancy again, locked up. Judge Lyle, like I say, Judge Lyle was not a friend of these people. He missed their fail at $10,000 on the vagrancy charge. And then he immediately changed it to $20,000 a piece because he was afraid they might make the $10,000 bail. These vagrants, mind you. So they’re backed off in jail. [25:56] Late that night, the lawyer, who’s also out of jail at this point, finds another judge who is either totally unaware of this case or he’s very aware of it. Either way, this judge says, oh, no, that’s way too much bail for vagrancy. The bail should be $100 for that. And as he says, they’re bailing at $100. They’re out again. Boom. So the next day, they go to court facing the, vagrancy charge in front of Judge Lyle. Judge Lyle immediately says, no, your bond was issued falsely, charges him with another $20,000 bail, has him re-arrested. Oh, my God. So they get their bond reduced to $10,000. They bail out of jail. They go to court. [26:51] Finally, on the vagrancy charges, maybe a month later. They’ve been dealing with this now for almost two months. Vagrancy charge. First day of the actual vagrancy trial, Izzy goes in, they arrest him for the burglaries back in New York, charging with hoax. So now they’re ignoring the vagrancy charge. They’ve got him locked up. They’re holding him for extradition to New York. He fights this still. He holds out finally in December, just a couple days before Christmas. He ends up back in New York to face the vagrants. He’s charged with the robberies and the murder of the fighting jeweler. Finally, everything gets dropped back in New York. You know, this is Meyer and Charlie’s area. All the charges are dropped. He’s free and clear again. He’s back home, so he sticks around. and it’s just in time because, as you mentioned, the Castle Marie’s war breaks out like a month later. [27:57] There’s no actual evidence, a lot of evidence of his involvement, but coincidentally, he is charged with murder about a month after the war breaks out. And, of course, his charges drop again, too, like they are. And then as the war goes on, first, Charlie Luciano, he swapped, changed his sides, they whacked Joe the boss, and then they set up Maranzano. [28:27] And Salvador Marenzano gets shot and killed in a restaurant, supposedly by a hit squad of Jewish gangsters that Meyer organized, because Meyer and Charlie were pretty close at this point in time. It isn’t sure who all was involved in that. Benny Siegel was supposed to be one of the shooters. And there’s no mention of Izzy being involved in it, but once again, just coincidentally, he left for France a couple of weeks after the shooting, where he stays until the end of the year when they first held at a couple of conferences. The one where Charlie Luciano organized pretty much the Italian crime family And then a couple months later, Meyer had one where he organized Jewish people, except Meyer had more of a national thing, whereas Charlie’s was more of the New York Five family kind of thing. [29:37] So anyway, at this time, I guess moving along here, Dave Berman, as you’re familiar with, being a Jewish mobster out of the Midwest, he’d come under Meyer’s umbrella. And then in 1927, he gets called to New York. He ends up in New York. At the time, Meyer, the Bugs and Meyer gang, especially being Budgie Siegel and Meyer Lansky, had this thing going where they were kidnapping rival bootleggers. Bootlegging was big business. Meyer was taking control of all of that. It was coming, especially coming in from Canada, which is where the Midwest came in, coming in by boatloads from Canada. We were drinking Canada Dry. Yeah, good one. So Dave Berman, he ends up in New York. Another bootlegger named Abe Sharlin gets kidnapped. [30:45] And the family agrees to pay like a $50,000 ransom to get him back. So when the two guys show up to collect the ransom, instead of a pile of money, there’s a pile of cops waiting for him. Immediately, a shootout breaks out. The one guy jumps out of the car, pulls out his gun, big shootout, people running everywhere. One guy shot and killed. The other guy, he surrenders. That’s Dave Berman. So Dave Berman, it’s, doing this for Meyer, but the cops don’t know that for sure. But they arrest him. He’s off to Sing for seven years for kidnapping. [31:27] Actually, back then, Sing, the prison in Ossining, New York, sat on the river, and so most people sent there, prisoners were shipped up there by boat. That’s where the term sent up the river. I didn’t realize that. Cool. So he does his time while he’s locked up there there’s not a lot of Willie doesn’t show up a lot but there is one specific mention of him, B Kittle he was a nightclub singer back in the early 30s young girl goes to New York chasing her dream ends up working at the nightclub that just happens to be to hang out for the mobsters. She doesn’t know this, but… And actually, she ends up marrying Mo Sedway later on. And Mo Sedway was one of Meyer Lansky’s close people, Benny’s people. She does remark, though, that she remembers there were two guys she’d always see sitting over at a table in the corner drinking together. One of them, she said, was Izzy Alderman, who she said was a lieutenant for Moe Sedway, and the other was Fat Irish Green. [32:51] Fat Irish Green was Benny’s bodyguard, hang-around-everywhere kind of guy. We always see the same people popping up all through this thing. Izzy’s plugged into this bunch. So anyway, we jump ahead a couple years. Dave Berman gets out of prison. Gets out of prison immediately. Meets up with Mo Sedway and Meyer and Charlie, everybody there. Dave’s been a stand-up guy. He kept his mouth shut about everything. He took his beef. He was good about it. But the story goes, they offer him a million dollars in cash for his loyalty. Fire took the judge. More employers should be like him. [33:42] Dave said he didn’t want the money. He wanted to be, he wanted control of gambling in Minneapolis. His mother lived there. His brother, Chickie, was there running small-time gambling thing. That’s where he wanted to go. And they say, okie-dokie, which I think is a good example of the influence, shall we say, that the East Coast group had over the rest of the country. They can just, I’ll give you this city in the Midwest. But before A.V. heads there, interestingly enough, there’s a couple of treasury bond robberies, big treasury bond robberies that happened in New York. They need total like over $2 million. [34:31] Big bucks and the FBI tracks down some of the bonds to a Minneapolis gangster, so when they arrest him along with him the Minneapolis gangster his name was Royce Boris Royce not that it’s a big deal but with him they pick up Davey Berman Davey the Jew is what he was called at that time they weren’t quite as politically correct, They got Dave Berman, they got Moe Subway, and there was a guy that the newspapers called, one account called him Jacob Irish Greenberg, and another one called him Jack Green Greenberg. So this would have been Fat Irish Green, it was Jacob Greenberg. [35:21] Once again, by the time it was done, acquittals all the way around. Wonderful things for him. Now Davey Berman pays off to Minneapolis to join his brother in the gambling thing. He gets there. Brother Chickie was running gambling initially. Isidore, or Kid Khan, was in charge. Isidore Bloomfield was in charge of the Minneapolis thing. And his brother, Yiddy Bloom. Yeah. But, of course, Davey’s here now. Since Kid Khan and his bunch were also Jewish popsters, that means they are linked to Meyer. And when Meyer says, okay, here’s Davey, now that’s how it goes. Davey immediately starts expanding the gambling joints into horse booking and race wire and craft games and everything. And he’s a good businessman. He’s sharp. And he’s learned a lot, apparently, from Meyer because he knows how to keep his name and people out of the name. Back then in Minneapolis, they had a deal. It was called the O’Connor Existence. [36:41] For the it was a deal that the local police had with gangster you could come to our town, and we won’t bother you we’ll leave you alone three conditions you check in with us when you get here so we know you’re here you of course make various payments to the necessary police and city officials and it was an orphan’s fund to the widows and orphans fund the police, and you promised that you will not commit any crimes major crimes while you’re in twin cities minneapolis st paul and if they’d agree to that they could stay there safely no matter who was looking for them so this also made it kind of more attractive i think for dave burman and people like him because obviously all you got to do is pay people off you’re good to go yeah kind of like the hot springs of the north, huh? Oh, yeah. So, once again, with this kind of ability, you don’t find a lot of mention of. [37:52] Dave Berman or his crew, especially in Minneapolis, and some of the police records have been lost there over the years. So that made it a little harder, too, to track things down. There are a couple of interesting things. For example, now, part of the Berman crew, one of them especially was Slippy Sherr, a guy named Phillip Sherr. They went by Slippy. He was really an interesting sort of guy. He was definitely a violent person he was constantly charged with assaults and murders and of course the charges were always dropped there was one occasion he was out with some friends in a bar they end up in an argument with the bar owner turns into a fight the bar owner goes outside flags down a motorcycle cop who’s going by the motorcycle cop goes back in with the bar owner and they proceed to get in a fist fight with Flippy and his friends, they get lumped up pretty good. Later, when they go to court. [39:01] The officer made a remark in court about, he said, all in all, it was pretty fair fight all the way around. And he said, for the most part, they’re pretty nice guys when they’re not drinking. Yeah. So aren’t we all? He was that kind of the guy Flippi was bollocked, Oh, another example of that. Willie ends up, by the time he hits Minneapolis, he’s become Willie Alden. He’s given up the Izzy thing, trying to put that behind him. Now, his focus is gambling. He’s like Dave Berman. It’s a muscle, maybe, behind Dave Berman. But he’s mellowed out a lot, and you don’t hear a lot about him. In one incident, though, they were golfers of all things. They loved golfing. And this is the 30s. So, of course, they can only golf at the Jewish golf course. Jewish people weren’t allowed at the regular country club. They’re out golfing. Flippy, sure, he would always join them. We wanted to force them. They didn’t deal with golf well. They’d get upset easily. I know the feeling. I know. [40:19] So on one occasion, Flippi slices a ball over into a neighboring farmer’s field. There’s an 18-year-old kid over there farming his potato crop. And Flippi, being argumentative, is a problem breaks out over the ball, him and this kid. Pretty soon, Flippi’s over there in the field. First, he starts wailing on the kid with his fist. And then he starts beating on him with his golf club until he knocks him out. Oh, man. This is like a $30,000 golf club. Game for flippy by the time it’s over and probably got extra strokes on that hole while he was there. [41:03] That the berman crew ran in minneapolis was 613 hennepin this was they were regularly it seemed like it was an annual thing it’s probably a deal they hadn’t once a year the cops would hit 613 Hennepin, they’d raid it, they’d charge him with gambling, whatever, and they’d pay their fine, let it go. But like clockwork, if you check the newspapers, once a year, it’s 13 Hennepin. So finally, last time, 1940, they go in, and now their cops are hyped. Big, great, they ain’t got all these cops, they’re ready to get the door down, charge in. To get there, Doors are wide open. Cop belt all run in. There’s still hot coffee on the stove. There’s a chalkboard full of all the race results. Everything but people. The places. There’s nobody in the place. This upset him made more of an embarrassment, I think, than anything for the police. He finally got beat out on that one. [42:09] That was 613 Hennepin. Was that the address and the name of the spot, 613 Hennepin? Or was that Hennepin’s like a common name up in Minneapolis? It was called the TMA Club. Okay, and the address was 613 Hennepin. Yeah, it actually had a couple of different names, But the address, no matter what club was at that address, whatever they called, it was the same thing. Yeah, I got you. They just sold. Now, about this time, this is late 1930s, of course, I’m sure you’re familiar with the Silver Church thing, the support group, so to speak, in the States, right? Yeah, yeah. And Judge Perlman from New York got a hold of Meyer Lansky. Yeah. See if he could offer assistance. And among the people that Meyer called was Dave Berman, of course, in Minneapolis. And Dave said, sure, I’d be glad to help. And Willie would be glad to help, too. Dave was a little nervous about Willie’s assistance because they really didn’t want anybody killed. And he wasn’t sure about that with Willie. But as it turns out, they said that Silver Shirts held their meeting at the Elks Club in town. and J.B. Berman showed up with some friends and baseball bats. [43:32] It took him about 10 minutes to clear the place out. A couple more go-rounds like this and the silver shirts, all the… [43:42] Nazi groups, neo-Nazis, whatever, they changed their mind about having these kind of meetings there. Like in New York, when they had Nuremeyer brought his people in, they were not extremely friendly to the Nazis, which is understandable. So the Silver Shirts complained to the mayor, Mayor LaGuardia, demanding protection for their rallies and their marches. And the mayor is obligated by law to protect them, to provide them with the support. And he did. He rounded up all of the black and Jewish officers he could find and assigned them to that duty. His mother was Jewish. Yeah, crazy times. It’s hard to believe. If you don’t read it in history yourself, you wouldn’t know it. It’s really something that’s been a gift under the rug. We had those Nazi sympathizers right up to World War II. It was crazy. Oh, it was amazing. People like Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, who wrote The International Jew. At one time, if you bought a new Ford, you’d get a free copy of that book. [44:57] I read that somewhere, The International Jew, that Jewish conspiracy that’s supposed to take over the world and have all the money and everything. Yeah, that’s interesting. That’s ridiculous. They just want to take over gambling. It’s obvious. Yeah, really. Then they wanted to move all these guys you mentioned, Mo Sedway and Mayor Lansky, of course, and Buggy Siegel. They all end up out in Las Vegas. They take it all to Las Vegas, don’t they? Yeah, and like I said, right from the very beginning, you’ll see the same name over and over. Benny Siegel, Gus Greenbaum, Joe Stacker. They had an amazing bunch. And if you look at it, most of them died in bed. Yeah. [45:43] It was a whole different, probably, mindset than you’d see with the Italian gangsters at that time. These are people who managed to stay out of jail, stay out of the press, and stay out of the ground and make money. Yeah. A FBI agent here in Kansas City gave me a quote one time on a documentary I was doing. He was talking about this national crime syndicate. And he said, yeah, he said, the Italians provided the brawn, and the Jews provided the brains. Pretty much how well you got to Vegas, obviously the Jewish groups around the country had been running gambling. They were smart. Meyer especially was a visionary. This guy was a genius in Meyer’s mind. And he could see that, obviously, Prohibition, as wonderful as it was for them, wasn’t going to last forever. But he could see the future in gambling. And I’m sure he didn’t foresee Las Vegas back when Prohibition was repealed, but he did see the direction things were going. [46:55] He developed gambling all over the country. And then when Vegas came along, this was just a wonderful thing for legalized gambling. They had the expertise, the experience, the knowledge, all they needed. Because opening casino is an expensive venture, so they needed more money. The Italians provided extra cash, and the Jewish groups had all the experience and the knowledge to run there. That’s where, back in the one conference, the Fraconia conference that Meyer organized, where he organized the Jewish groups around the nation, at that time he convinced, both groups were convinced that it was time that they start working together and not be at odds with them. with each other. Yeah, no, it was actually, it turned out to be a real profitable agreement as time went on. Yeah, especially in Las Vegas, so. [47:55] I’ll tell you what, Flatsy, it’s a hell of a book. That’s a hell of a story you’ve got there, guys. [48:00] We’re not going to disclose everything because we’ve got to go on out to Las Vegas, but we’re not going to disclose everything. We want you to buy that book. It really sounds interesting. It’s really a walk through the history and the expansion of organized crime from the early days from the Castle of Racey War and Chicago and the Beer Wars to Minneapolis and on out to Las Vegas. It’s a hell of a story. and Ice-Pick Willie was there for all of it, it sounds to me like. That’s what I found so amazing is pretty much every major event in gangland history at that point in time, he would somehow evolve there. And yet, here like 50 years or so after he’s dead, nobody even remembers him. They will now. The people he knew, the people he associated with, the things he’s seen, what a life really guys the book is Ice Pick Willie the life and times of Israel Alderman and the author is Flats F-L-A-T-S and I will have a link to that book on Amazon when this comes out so thanks a lot Flats I really appreciate you coming on and telling those stories, you betcha thanks for having me.

To prepare for the next season of The Bandwich Tapes, I am re-releasing some of my favorite episodes.  In this episode of The Bandwich Tapes, I sit down with my friend and fellow musician, Steve Ward. Steve and I met in 2011, and from that moment, we formed a friendship and musical kinship that has endured to this day. He is an incredibly talented guitar player, singer, producer, and engineer.Our conversation covers Steve's fascinating childhood, marked by frequent moves due to his father's military career. He shares some memorable stories from his time taking music lessons in California, his first band, "The Illinois Central," and his experiences with a traveling showband. We also reminisce about the day we met in 2011 and the magical moment when we first sang together.I hope you enjoy my conversation with Steve! Please share the show with your friends.Thank you for listening! If you have any questions, feedback, or ideas for the show, please contact me at brad@thebandwichtapes.com.The theme song, Playcation, was written by Mark Mundy. 

Former Illini All-American J Leman, now with the Big Ten Network, previews Saturday's Illinois/Central Michigan game and talks about early season struggles of top Big Ten Teams.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Greg and Dan Show welcomes Illinois Central College President Dr. Sheila Quirk-Bailey and former State Representative Mike Unes for an announcement to further ICC's educational advancement and job workforce development. In a newly created position and department, ICC announces Mike Unes as its new Vice President of Institutional Advancement.  Dr. Quirk-Bailey and Unes discuss the excitement behind the new position and the school's next steps towards the future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Jake LaMore as he explores the rich history of Kankakee and its transformative journey shaped by the Illinois Central Railroad. In this insightful episode, guests Jorie Walters and Jack Klasey from the Kankakee County Museum delve into the profound impact of the railroad on the town's development.Railroads and Economic GrowthDiscover how railroads, especially the Illinois Central, played a pivotal role in building America. The conversation unfolds, highlighting the intricate connection between railroads and the downtown development of Kankakee. Kankakee County's EvolutionJake and Jorie discuss how towns like Kankakee owe their growth to the strategic placement of railroads, emphasizing how the industrial base thrived, paving the way for economic prosperity.Immigration and Labor RecruitmentJack Klasey sheds light on the often overlooked aspect of the railroad's influence on immigration. Learn how the railroad recruited laborers from European immigrants, contributing to the diverse cultural fabric of Kankakee.Agricultural ImpactThe conversation details the profound effect the railroad had on the agricultural economy. Jack Klasey narrates stories of how the railroad expedited the transportation of crops, revolutionizing the way farmers operated in the area.Ethnicity, Churches, and ImmigrationJorie Walters shares insights into her research on the intertwining factors of ethnicity, churches, and immigration. Learn how certain areas developed specific ethnicities, echoing the cultural diversity that persists to this day.Legacy and Future EventsJake wraps up the episode by inviting listeners to explore the Kankakee County Museum, which stands as a living testament to the region's history. He highlights upcoming events, including the 75th-anniversary celebrations and encourages participation in various December events.ConclusionDig into Kankakee's roots, uncovering the profound impact of the Illinois Central Railroad, and gain a fresh perspective on the town's evolution. Don't miss this insightful episode that combines history, culture, and the enduring legacy of the railroad that shaped Kankakee.For more fascinating stories and events, visit Kankakee County Museum's website. Stay connected on social media for updates and follow Kankakee Podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe now for more engaging episodes, and a special thanks to our sponsors and Patreon supporters for making this episode possible.----Support the show

On this episode of The Bandwich Tapes, I sit down to talk with my friend and musician, Steve Ward.  Steve and I met in 2011 and immediately formed a friendship and musical kinship that has lasted to this day. He is an incredible guitar player, singer, producer, and engineer.We discuss his childhood and his family's many moves while his dad was in the military.  Steve shares some great stories of taking music lessons in California, his first band, "The Illinois Central", and his tenure in a traveling showband.  We also reminisce about the day in 2011 when we met and first sang together.  I hope you enjoy my conversation with Steve!  Please tell your friends about the show.Thank you for listening! If you have any questions, feedback, or ideas for the show, please get in touch with me at brad@thebandwichtapes.com.The theme song, "Playcation", was written by Mark Mundy. 

#lakeforestpodcast #lakeforestillinois #centralbusinessdistrict #parking #shorts Main Clip: https://youtu.be/VFLY3rcY6es ( go to 27:10 to get full context? Former Mayor Of lake Forest Illinois George Pandaleon Came on the Lake Forest Illinois Podcast with Joe Weiss, Rick Lesser and Pete Jansons to discuss his challenging two terms in office as well as in this short clip discussing improving the parking situation in the Central Business District of Lake Forest Illinois @EnjoyLakeForest --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/support

#lakeforestillinois #lakeforestpodcast #centralbusinessdistrict #shorts Main Clip: https://youtu.be/VFLY3rcY6es ( go to 27:10 to get full context? Former Mayor Of lake Forest Illinois George Pandaleon Came on the Lake Forest Illinois Podcast with Joe Weiss, Rick Lesser and Pete Jansons to discuss his challenging two terms in office as well as in this short clip reminds us that the Comprehensive Plan for Lake Forest Illinois Central Business District is not the zoning code @EnjoyLakeForest https://www.cityoflakeforest.com/news_detail_T7_R296.php --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/support

#lakeforestillinois #lakeforestpodcast #centralbusinessdistrict #BLM #2020 Main Clip: https://youtu.be/VFLY3rcY6es Former Mayor Of lake Forest Illinois George Pandaleon Came on the Lake Forest Illinois Podcast with Joe Weiss, Rick Lesser and Pete Jansons to discuss his challenging two terms in office as well as give his thoughts on the Lake Forest Illinois Central Business District and the issue with the empty store fronts @EnjoyLakeForest In this short clip Mayor George tells us what lead to all the windows being boarded up in June 2020 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/support

#lakeforestpodcast #lakeforestillinois #centralbusinessdistrict #subsidies #shorts Joe Weiss, Rick Lesser and Pete Jansons discuss the news and events going on in Lake Forest Illinois in this short clip they chat about the issue of subsidies for business owners who gets what and why main clip: https://youtu.be/jUqjq3E0Mmo --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/support

#lakeforestpodcast #lakeforestillinois Joe Weiss, Rick Lesser and Pete Jansons discuss the news and events going on in Lake Forest Illinois Key Moments: 0:001:44 Pre Show 3:58 Titanic Submarine 5:38 CBD and Illiad Epic Grow Rich Ruzich 6:00 Scooters 7:30 Lake Bluff should annex Knollwood 9:10 Future of Knollwood and Green Oaks 11:15 Taxpayers paying for unincorporated first responders 16:12 Scooters going 60 mph in Lake Forest Illinois 18:00 Sweets Deerpath parking spot 19:49 CBD Video 19:53 Lake Forest Transparency 20:22 Emory Moorehead 20:49 Anti Business Group 21:36 Mr Lopat Show 36:25 Ironic that the Liberal Transparency Group doesn't want Lake Forest to turn into Highland Park Illinois 40:00 The People Shouted at the Mayoral Election 42:00 Rooftop Deck haters 44:00 How do you get parking garage passed? 48:29 Lake Forest Illinois Post Office 53:08 Central Business District Issues 54:33 Number 1 Rule no acronyms 55:09 Market Circle 55:50 Marshal Fields 56:56 Small Business Can't afford rent 59:10 Chase Bank Parking 60:00 Subsidy for Small Business Rents? 1:05:32 Romy Lopat vs Paul Hamman 1:06:03 Alderman Joe Waldeck sworn in 1:10:10 Bears Practice Schedule 1:14:30 Bears Press Passes 1:16:00 Joe should reach out to Bears Social Media --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lakeforestpodcast/support

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and American entered the war, young men joined the military in droves leaving big holes in the work force. Women stepped up to fill those jobs traditionally held by men, helping out on the home front and showing what they were capable of in the process. For Women's History Month, We look back at this classic MSMO episode from February 1, 2016, featuring the story of Bonnie Stedman of McComb who went to work for Illinois Central right out of high school.  Stedman recalls typing orders for the trains, changing light bulbs, and even working as a switch man. Her memories of the challenging and sometimes hazardous work are compelling and heartwarming. 

Welcome back to Addtional History: Headlines You Probably Missed. I had a great summer, but it's time to get back to business. Today's mini episode is about to legendary folk heroes--Casey Jones and Johnny Appleseed. You know their names, but do you know their real stories? ___ SOURCES “Allen County, Indiana Genealogy.” Allen County Indiana Genealogical Society . Accessed August 12, 2022. https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/people/johnny-appleseed-of-allen-county-indiana.html. “Casey Jones.” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, April 15, 2019. https://www.biography.com/personality/casey-jones. “Casey Jones.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, July 27, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones. “A Disastrous Wreck on the Illinois Central.” Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), April 30, 1900. www.newspapers.com. Geiling, Natasha. “The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples-and Booze-to the American Frontier.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, November 10, 2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/. Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer. “Last Living Johnny Appleseed Tree Is Pride of Savannah, OH.” cleveland.com, May 6, 2018. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2018/05/tiny_towns_ohio_last_living_jo.html. NEA Service. “Casey Jones In Court Battle.” The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), December 20, 1928. www.newspapers.com. Nix, Elizabeth. “Why Was Casey Jones an American Folk Hero?” History.com. A&E Television Networks, December 2, 2016. https://www.history.com/news/why-was-casey-jones-an-american-folk-hero. “The True Story of Casey Jones.” Erie Railroad Magazinehttp://www.taco.com/roots/caseyjones.html, April 1928. SOUND SOURCES Al Jolson. “I'll Say She Does.” www.pixabay.com/music. Lucille Hegamin and The Dixie Daisies. “Cold Winter Blues.” www.pixabay.com/music. Sophie Tucker. “Reuben Rag.” www.pixabay.com/music.

In American history, we were taught that pioneers and homesteaders moved from east to west settling the continent in the greater pursuit of “Manifest Destiny” -- killing and obfuscating the First Nations peoples' way of life.  However, another American pattern often overlooked is the migration from south to the north.  Starting less than a century after a Black man of Haitian decent named Jean Baptiste Point DeSable became Chicago's first non-indigenous settler; African Americans in large numbers began leaving southern States and moving to the north, which historians now call “The Great Migration”.  Their motives were that of people everywhere seeking jobs, opportunity, and a better life. Northern States offered jobs and a relief from the weight of Jim Crow. For many Chicago had became a beacon of hope as Black-owned newspapers and in particular the “Chicago Defender”, distributed by Pullman Porters, gave hope to generations of former slaves, farmers, and sharecroppers.  Beginning as early as the 1880s and then from approximately 1910 to the 1970, rural southern Blacks by the thousands made their way north throughout these decades. And, just as the journey changed them, their music, culture, and customs changed Chicago.  Northern cities, and Chicago in particular, were not always welcoming, as decent  housing was scarce as restrictive covenants and red-lining forced African Americans to live in "The Black Belt”. This tightly constrained strip of blocks on the city's south side, initially between 22nd and 31st Streets, later extending south to 39th and eventually to 95th Street and roughly sandwiched between the railroad tracks of the Rock Island on the west and Illinois Central to the east.  But even with forced segregation, many black businesses thrived, and a sense of place was established creating Bronzeville and its famous “Stroll”. Join the Windy City Historians as we delve into the Great Migration with Dr. Charles Brahnam, author and professor, and the perfect guide to take us on a journey into the Great Migration. A trip populated by famous brave and fearless black Chicagoans such as Ida B. Wells, Oscar DePriest, and Robert S. Abbott and into a better understand of this massive cultural shift for the nation and Chicago in particular. King Oliver Jazz Band "The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration", by Isabel Wilkerson for Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2016Great Migration from Encyclopedia of Chicago websiteDr. Charles Russell Branham interview on C-SpanSteve Green story from the Arkansas Encyclopedia websiteIllinois Gov. Len Small from Wikipedia (Please note in our interview we say he was governor, but at the time of the Steve Green story he was involved in Illinois politics but not yet governor.)Ida B Wells: WTTW Chicago StoriesIda B. Wells biography from the Black Past websiteIda B. Wells-Burnett biography from the Women's History websiteFerdinand Lee Barnett's biography from the Black Past websiteRobert S Abbott biography on WikipediaOscar Stanton De Priest biography on WikipediaEdward Herbert Wright biography on WikipediaJesse Binga biography on WikipediaCarter G. Woodson biography on WikipediaChicago Race Riot of 1919 on WikipediaJim Crow laws from Wikipedia"History of Lynching in America" from the NAACP websiteA recommended book, THE DEFENDER: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama By Ethan MichaeliBoll weevil devastation from WikipediaPullman Porters from WikipediaThe Jones Boys, "From Riots to Renaissance: Policy Kings" from WTTW's websiteThe Incredible History and Cultural Legacy of the Bronzeville Neighborhood from Chicago Detours websiteExplore Bronzeville from the Blueprint for Bronzeville websiteBooker T. Washington biography from WikipediaThe South Side's Last Remaining Jazz Landmarks article from Chicago Magazine Thomas A. Dorsey from the Gospel Music Hall of Fame websiteMahalia JacksonMahalia Jackson performs...

During WWII, Illinois Central Railroad started an apprentice program for McComb high school boys. In this episode, Edwin Etheridge recalls working at the railroad maintenance shop during the day while taking classes at night.  As an apprentice at the McComb railroad shop, Etheridge was expected to learn all aspects train car and locomotive maintenance. He remembers the older men who patiently shared their experience with the newbies. After turning eighteen, Edwin Etheridge left his job on the railroad to serve in the Navy during WWII. He discusses returning to his apprenticeship after the war and the different skills he was taught. During his forty-plus years with Illinois Central, Etheridge rose through the ranks to become shop superintendent. He describes working on the wrecker crew and the equipment they used to clean up after train wrecks and derailments.  

Today, The Two Mikes welcomed back Dr. Tom DiLorenzo for a discussion on Abraham Lincoln and to mark the anniversary of the battle of Antietam on September 17th. Dr. DiLorenzo has written three excellent, highly provocative, and deeply researched books about Abraham Lincoln, and they have influenced and begun to change the understanding of Lincoln among the public and in the academy. Dr. DiLorenzo explained that Lincoln was a lawyer for corporate interests and was the chief counsel for the Illinois Central railway, a career that produced a man who favored protectionism, governmental spending to assist railroad and other industries, and a view of the central government properly operating beyond its constitutional powers and reach. --Dr. DiLorenzo writes regularly at lewrockwell.com--His books about Lincoln are: The Problem of Lincoln (Regnery History, 2020; Lincoln Unmasked (Crown Forum, 2007), and The Real Lincoln (Crown Forum, 2003)Sponsors:- Our Gold Guy - Talk to IRA about whether investing in gold is right for you. Let them know Two Mikes sent you at http://ourgoldguy.com - My Pillow - Support a true Patriot in Mike Lindell by ordering pillows and sheets. Promo Code TWOMIKES http://mypillow.com - Freedom Phone - Break away from Big Tech and order a Freedom Phone. Promo Code COLONELMIKE https://freedomphone.com/?ref=toomikes- Freedom First Coffee - Drink the coffee of Patriots. Use code TWOMIKES for 10% off at http://freedomfirstcoffee.com - Freedom First Apparel - Look as patriotic as you feel. Use code TWOMIKES for 10% off at http://freedomfirstshop.com

Description: Bill and Kelley review primary source documents to understand the disastrous failure of the 1911 Illinois Central Railroad Shopmen’s strike and lessons it might hold for today. Links and notes for Ep. 354 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AFD-Ep-354-Links-and-Notes-Illinois-Central-Shopmens-strike-of-1911.pdf Theme music by Stunt Bird. The post Feb 28, 2021 – The Illinois Central Shopmen’s Strike of 1911 – Arsenal For Democracy Ep. 354 appeared first on Arsenal For Democracy.

THIS IS Q & A DICTATION DONE IN TWO PARTS. PART ONE READ SLOWLY FOR ACCURACY AND PART 2 IS READ SLIGHTLY FASTER THAN THE FIRST FOR SOME SPEEDBUILDING. PLEASE READ YOUR NOTES! THANKS FOR SUPPORTING AND DON'T FORGET TO HELP ME HELP YOU BY SUBSCRIBING . PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED BELOW. FROM THE BOOK OF LEGAL DICATION Q: [BY THE CHAIRMAIN] Your residence? A: 625 Ferry St, Boston Q: What is your age? A: Forty-one Q: You were the builder of this bridge? A: A portion of it Q: Please describe as fully as you can, your whole connection to it, in your own words. A: It is so long ago that I don't know whether I can remember all that you would like to hear, but the contract required me to build a truss to be placed upon the east side of the bridge, and I was to furnish the floor system. That was done in the spring or early summer of 1876. Q: Go on and describe more in detail what you did. Were you in business for yourself or were you representing a company? A: I was in business for myself. Q: Go on and tell us about the bridge; where the work was done, how the work was done, the character of the bridge, the nature of its construction. etc. Perhaps you had better begin, and state , in the first place, your experience as a builder. A: My first experience in building iron bridges was with the Detroit Bridge & Iron Works, Detroit Michigan. Q: [BY MR. O'BRIEN] What year? A: I think it was 1863; and my experience has been from then until--I am not sure this bridge wasn't the last I built. Since then I have acted occasionally as a consulting engineer. Q: [BY THE CHAIRMAIN] Do you have a scientific education? A: Yes, sir, at the Lawrence Scientific School, at Cambridge. Q: Full course? A: No, sir. Partial. Q: What was your course then? A: I was there one year only. Q: What year was that? A: I'm not sure but I think it was 1862-63. From there I went to St. Louis. Q: How long were you with St. Louis Bridge & Iron Company? A: Well, I don't recollect; but several years. Q: What were you doing there? A: I designed their bridges, proportioned them, and I made some portions of the drawings. Q: Did you do that all the time you were there? A: Yes, sir. Q: Do you remember any bridges you designed at that time? A: Well, there was one drawbridge across the Mississippi River, where the C.B. & Q railroad crosses, --Clinton on one side and Fulton on the other. Q: How long did that stand? A: It is standing now, I suppose. That was at that time the longest drawbridge, I think, in the world. Some have been built longer since. There were a great many on the Illinois Central and the C.B. & Q and other words through the Western states. Q: Did you build any bridges in Massachusetts when you were with the St. Louis Bridge & Iron Works? A: No, sir. Q: Then you left the St. Louis Bridge & Iron Works at what time? A: I don't recollect the date. Q: You were there about three years, you say? A: I said several; but I don't recollect how many years it was; I could not tell even approximately. Q: What did you do after you left there? SOURCE: LEGAL DICTATION --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sandra-clay/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sandra-clay/support

When J.E. Yarbrough of McComb became a train engineer, Illinois Central was still using steam engines. In a career spanning several decades, Yarbrough witnessed many changes as the nation’s transportation demands evolved. In this episode, taken from his 2006 interview, he reflects on those changes. He begins by discussing the switch from steam to diesel in the 1950s. Before the development of two-way radios, railroads depended on synchronized watches to keep the trains running on time. Yarbrough explains the importance of keeping to a schedule. On average, there are 5,800 collisions between trains and road vehicles per year in the United States. Yarbrough recalls how people would risk their lives to avoid waiting for a train. After working for decades as a freight train engineer, Yarbrough was promoted to passenger trains, running the famous Panama Limited between McComb and New Orleans. He remembers how a near collision with a log truck convinced him it was time to retire. PHOTO: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Illinois_Central_Railroad_Panama_Limited_diesel_streamliner.JPG

A look at an integral part of CN’s North American railway, the Illinois Central

Johnny Balser’s grandfather moved to McComb in the 1880s and took a job with the railroad. In this episode, he discusses his family’s long history with the Illinois Central maintenance shop there and why there was never any doubt he would follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. When Balser graduated high school, his father insisted he follow the family tradition and work for Illinois Central railroad. He explains how that experience, as a machinist apprentice, kept him out of a foxhole during WWII. After the war, Balser returned to McComb and his job at the railroad maintenance shop. He reflects on how quickly the new diesel locomotives replaced the steam engines and how older workers resented the change. Balser eventually decided to leave the railroad and become a photographer.  He remembers Illinois Central became a steady customer after he opened his studio. PHOTO: McComb Railroad Museum

The Illinois Central railroad and eight affiliated Harriman lines had traditionally dealt separately with each craft union (boilermakers, blacksmiths, etc.) giving the companies an unfair advantage during contract negotiations in the minds of the unions. When the unions formed a "System Federation" in June of that year, the companies refused to recognize the group and began preparing for a system-wide strike. Harry Marsalis was a seventeen year old machinist apprentice working at the Illinois Central railroad maintenance shop in McComb when the strike began on September 30th.  In this episode, he describes how the company prepared in advance of the strike by building walled compounds and hiring northern strikebreakers.  According to Marsalis, when the strikebreaker train arrived in McComb three days later, 100 strikers responded to the rock-throwing strikebreakers by shooting the train cars to pieces before the train would escape to New Orleans.  Reports of 30 dead and 100 wounded strikebreakers were denied by the company Marsalis describes how the town became an armed camp as martial law was declared by the governor, complete with hundreds of state militiamen, machine gun towers and searchlights around the company offices. After two long years the strike was considered a failure and many of the strikers including Marsalis were forced to leave town looking for work.

“FATAL WRECK – Engineer Casey Jones, of This City, Killed Near Canton, Miss. – DENSE FOG THE DIRECT CAUSE – Of a Rear End Collision on the Illinois Central. – Fireman and Messenger Injured – Passenger Train Crashed Into a Local Freight Partly on the Siding-Several Cars Demolished.” Jackson, Tennessee Sun newspaper, april 30, 1900.

Prior to the development of passenger jet planes, Americans travelled by train.  In this episode, Sam Page remembers when the Panama Limited came through Summit, Mississippi for the first time. Years later, as ticket agent for the Illinois Central station in McComb, MS, Sam Page recalls being a very busy man selling tickets to destinations near and far. He discusses how many Mississippians rode The City of New Orleans to visit family members in Chicago, St. Louis and other northern cities. The streamlined passenger train known as the Green Diamond ran from Chicago to St. Louis until 1947, when it was moved to Mississippi and renamed the Miss Lou. Sam Page reminisces about riding the Miss Lou from McComb to New Orleans. PODCAST EXTRA: Page discusses his time with the railroad and the people who depended on the trains for transportation like legendary baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean.  PHOTO: The Illinois Central Green Diamond later moved to Jackson, MS and renamed the Miss Lou.

David Smetko the CN Dispatcher will be our guest this week on this prerecoded episode on LTT. You can not call the show during this interview. We will learn about what his job entails, What segments of railroad he dispatches and then his hobby of rare mileage train riding.  We willl go pack to his Illinois Central railroading beginnings and hear a story about him meeting Muhammad Ali. His days as a tower opertor with be discussed. A good show for sure!

Tracklist:01_Silo.OGG 9.7M02_Shutterhead.OGG 7.9M03_Car_Lung.OGG 5.2M04_My_Face_Your_Body.OGG 9.9M05_Loud_Tree.OGG 5.8M06_Peel_Face.OGG 5.8M07_Keenly_Varsilac.OGG 4.4M08_John_Nolan.OGG 8.7M09_Illinois_Central.OGG 10.0M10_All_Natural_Homestyle.OGG 7.5M11_Moosh.OGG 6.7MListen:StreamInternet Archive:http://archive.org/details/tpd041Download:[tpd041] Rumored High Speed Rail Hub - 04.04.29 The New You (ogg) [tpd041] Rumored High Speed Rail Hub - 04.04.29 The New You (mp3)

Tracklist:01_Silo.OGG 9.7M02_Shutterhead.OGG 7.9M03_Car_Lung.OGG 5.2M04_My_Face_Your_Body.OGG 9.9M05_Loud_Tree.OGG 5.8M06_Peel_Face.OGG 5.8M07_Keenly_Varsilac.OGG 4.4M08_John_Nolan.OGG 8.7M09_Illinois_Central.OGG 10.0M10_All_Natural_Homestyle.OGG 7.5M11_Moosh.OGG 6.7MListen:StreamInternet Archive:http://archive.org/details/tpd041Download:[tpd041] Rumored High Speed Rail Hub - 04.04.29 The New You (ogg) [tpd041] Rumored High Speed Rail Hub - 04.04.29 The New You (mp3)

Working on the railroad was always been hard, dangerous work.  Woodrow Addison of McComb recalls the frequent derailments he experienced during his 38 years with Illinois Central.