The Encyclopedia of Chicago
As coeditor James Grossman told the Sun-Times in September, most readers will start by looking themselves up in the book. I did, and the Reader wasn’t there–nor was any other alternative publication going back to and including the Chicago Seed. No biggie, the mainstream media ignore us all the time. But it did make me wonder what else might be missing. It may seem ill-mannered to crab about what Newberry Library president Charles Cullen has called “our gift to the city.” You wouldn’t tell Aunt Judy that her birthday present lacked a power cord. On the other hand, Aunt Judy probably wouldn’t charge you $65 for her gift either.
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Who John Wayne Gacy or Richard Speck were, though “White City” serial killer Herman Mudgett merits a mention under “Crime and Chicago’s Image,” which wraps up in the 1930s.
That any police brutality or torture has happened in Chicago since the 1960s, only that “postwar courts increasingly restricted police discretion.”
With help from Mark Athitakis, Martha Bayne, John Conroy, Jeffrey Felshman, Ted McClelland, and Elizabeth M. Tamny.
