This haunting file, assembled anonymously and found in a thrift store,
provides an intimate and unprecedented insight into the Chicago Mafia.
\nWriter, curator and gallery owner John Corbett has struck gold in a
Chicago junk store that was in the process of being abandoned when he came across a
browned and brittle manuscript detailing the Chicago Mafia in the early 1900s
1930s. The tone of these typewritten and hand-annotated pages suggests
immediately caught my attention: sensational and funny, they read like a
embellished police register, with names, addresses and crime reports.
However, despite the texture and personality of the file, Corbett was unable
find no clue as to the identity of its author. \n \nPresented here in
facsimile in order to capture its distinctive materiality, Bullets for Dead Hoods:
An Encyclopedia of Chicago Mobsters, c. 1933, offers a detailed overview of
Chicago Outfit through 140 portraits of black characters, ranging from
most famous - Al Capone, George "Bugs" Moran, the Everleigh Sisters - to their
lesser-known accomplices. The one who dared to put this will together was clearly
someone who had access to information - a cop? a journalist? a
embittered mafioso? but who would have taken the risk of sharing these details, and
why, is a mystery that will probably never be solved. What we
remains, it is this original introduction to a chapter of the history of Chicago
which unites the city in a new way. \n \nIn addition to the colored manuscript,
Bullets for Dead Hoods includes related materials, an introduction by John
Corbett, a compilation of over 400 places mentioned in the manuscript and
a detachable map of Chicago that lists hundreds of addresses.
