Lake County, Illinois - History

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I did a little reading about the Great Depression Era Outlaws and I remember learning about some of this before. I kind of forgot about how many of them were from the Midwest area of America. Living most of my life in the Chicagoland area I know many of these places that they talk about. I grew up on the northside of Chicago not too far from one of the apartments that Dillinger lived. I actually walked past that building a lot when I was young. I been to the park where “Baby Face” Nelson had a shoot out with the Feds. I had been in the Mineola Hotel many times as it had a bar that I shot pool at. The Hotel was visited occasionally by Al Capone. It is odd to think all these places were hangouts or visited by these people in history. Although the Lake County area might have been a get away for those gangsters in 30’s, it continued to be a place the Mob operated in even up to the 90’s and maybe even today. In 1981 there was a shooting related to the mob just west of Fox Lake, IL on the boarder of Lake and McHenry Counties. In 1982 there was a van that exploded in Wauconda, IL. There were Casino gambling in places like Angie’s Harbor Inn in Antioch and The Green Mill restaurant basement in Grayslake, IL. The Gay Paree in Lake Zurich, IL was a place that featured nude female dancers that you could “meet privately” with if you bought them sparkling water for $140 a bottle. Lake County Illinois has seen it’s fair share of mob related activity over the years and that is where I spent the majority of my life. Such exciting things happening here.