Chicago Democrats Killed and Assault To Sway Votes in the Year 1895
Democrat led Chicago gang fought citizens at the polling booths. They were driven to several locations in a carriage owned by Democratic Senator O’Malley. Here’s a snippet of a point of focus to uncover the murder of a man protecting the voting booth. – Chicago. In the year 1895.
The Market Street Gang were referred to as a North Side Gang, sometimes referred to as North Side Thugs. They were called “the most infamous band of criminals that ever disgraced an American city.”
They killed Gustav Colliander, who was referred to as Gus. The case lasted 10 days long at the request of the police.
Major Sampson was previously convicted but released, so everyone thought the lawyer would work his charm and enable John Santry to walk without being convicted.
On November 6th in 1894, the Market street gang murdered Gus at the location of “number 117 Oak street, which was a polling place. They also caused such an assault on E. M. Dickson, you can imagine how gruesome it was, that Dickson had become insane afterwards, and committed suicide a few months later. The Market Street gang was a very politically radical group that attacked anyone who believed differently from them. The market street gang attacked normal citizens who weren’t harming anyone, but the market street gang didn’t like who they were voting for, so they attacked them. They attacked these people at the 23rd and 24th wards of Chicago. No arrests were made until November 14th, which was 8 days later.
The Market Street gang wanted State Senator John F. O’Malley to be reelected, so they attacked whoever they could to make that happen. The night that O’Malley lost the election, he went out drinking his sorrows away with a couple of good looking women. These two women were notorious criminals. They went out on a debauch, and shot their cab driver named Charles Shepherd. Later they went to a saloon to where they shot a porter named Nicholas Virlas who was at the saloon on the corner of North Clark and Kinzie in Chicago.
The council offered $500 to any citizen who could give information that could lead to the arrest of the Market Street Gang.
The Market Street Gang wanted to steal the ballot box at the 9th precinct(24th ward). Officer Nicholas Nickels was first shot that day. Nickles was shot, but managed to pull his revolver and shoot John Sautry in the stomach. Everyone believed that Sautry had died from the gun shot and was secretly buried somewhere. Later information showed that Charles Shepherd got a cab and picked up Sautry at the corner of Oak and Market street. Hours later, John F. O’Malley shot the cab driver. The cab driver took Sautry to O’Malley’s home at 79 Ontario street, but other sources say that he was taken to a hotel at No. 64 and Wells street, which was a cheap hotel where his brother was staying(This hotel was found to have a lot of fraudulent registrations, that was discovered by the Republican club). Dr. Smedley took care of Sautry’s gun shot wound. After Sautry was fixed up, his friends carried him in a blanket back to the car to bring him to the suburbs of Chicago. After Sautry healed from his wound, he came back to Chicago and was arrested on a Tuesday night somewhere on the North Side of Chicago. Sometimes it is spelled Sentry or Santry Sometimes it’s Jack Sentry, other times it’s John Santry. The newspaper pointed out the misspellings or bad reporting.
A guy named Johnnie Dee was a Saloon keeper on Michigan street. Johnnie was a big supporter of the Market street gang and O’Malley on election day. He was one of the first people to say that Santry had died, but refused to say where the dead body was or where he was buried. The inspector heard about the death and the burial being at 11 o’clock in the afternoon. The inspector decided to go to the funeral to arrest the men who were of the Market Street Gang, who were going to attend the funeral, but when the police got there, there was no funeral.
Later that afternoon, 13 police were instructed to dress as sivilians and go to Kinzie and Wells streets, then go to all the saloons and lodging houses and search for the criminal gang members. It was initially thought that Santry was hiding somewhere in that neighborhood. The policemen marched doubled up down the street west on Chicago avenue to LaSalle to group up and talk tactics. In the meantime, loafers, and drunks were coming out of the saloons to investigate whatever was happening with the police. The police split into two groups, 8 in one group, and 5 in the other. They all met back up eventually to a spot where denizens of the dives were out on the sidewalks watching
The Marquette Club presented evidence to help with the prosecution of the Market Street Gang, who were arrested for intent to kill E. M. Dickson. The men that were arrested were :
George Maguire
John Santry
“Clabby” Burns
John McCagney
John Bingham
Charles Tindall
Mathew Riley
John Sampson
Thomas Muphey
Tony Lynch
Barney Birch
William Moffit
Philip Trimble
All these men were also indicted for the murder of V. Colliander.
It wasn’t until February 18 of 1895 that the case of E. M. Dickson was called for trial.
“Major” Sampson was found and arrested in New Orleans. Others were aressed in other cities. Other men of the group turned themselves in. The people held on trial for the assault of Dickson were :
“Major” Sampson
George Maguire
Mathew Riley
John Harrington
Dave McCormic
Bluch Gibb
Philip Trimble
Graeme Hamilton
The trial lasted until February 28th. It was said to have been worse than a farce. The defense offered an alibi, and said that the convicted were nowhere near Dickson at the time of the assault. The prosecution clearly showed evidence to put the men in jail, but friends and people who feared the gang stuck up for the criminals, allowing them to walk free. They were afraid of the gang, so everyone that attended the trial was persuaded by fear to allow the criminals to walk free in hopes that the other gang members didn’t come after them.
All of the men were freed from jail. Later, Tony Lynch surrendered to the police, and the indictment against him was also “nolle prossed” by the states attorney.
The men now under indictment for the murder of Colliander are nowhere to be found. Then they were found a year later. Clabby Burns walked into the East Chicago Avenue Police station with his lawyer on February 29th, told Inspector Schaack that he was willing to be arrested, but the inspector refused to arrest him, ascenting a scheme of the Market Street Gang to ascertion by a preliminary trial of Burns what evidence the inspector had against the others under indictment. The Inspector thought that he didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him. Although he did have enough to put the crime on Santry, along with another gang member.
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