Flashback Friday and Gangsters

   For whatever reason, many of us are fascinated by gangsters. I don’t know why. They were truly horrible criminals, only out for themselves, making a lot of money in whatever why they could, breaking just about every law ever made, holding no regard for human life.

My only connection to the gangsters of the twenties and thirties, is that my dad was living in Chicago in 1934 when John Dillinger was shot in front of the Biograph theater. My nineteen-year-old dad was living just a few blocks away. He always told us that he, along with everyone else in the neighborhood, ran down to the scene as soon as they heard. All they saw was Dillinger’s blood on the sidewalk.

Northern Wisconsin is filled with gangster stories. I’ve been to Little Bohemia in Manitowish Waters, the location of a botched attempt to capture Dillinger. I’ve also visited the Hideout in Couderay, reportedly the retreat of Al Capone, complete with guard towers and an eight-stall garage which had been turned into a restaurant and ice cream parlor when I was there.

Two weeks ago, when I was staying at the resort with a similar name, The Hideaway, I heard the story of that place also having once been frequented by famous gangsters, including Capone.

I can’t vouch for the validity of any of these stories. Maybe that’s why we are fascinated by gangsters – the aura of tall tales. All I know is I was more fascinated by the architecture.

The original lodge. 

 

 It certainly looks old and certainly needs some work.

 But the bar upstairs is beautiful. 

  All that stunning wood. 

 Then our tour guide asked if we wanted to see the brothel. I was like, “what?” 

 The bed frame might be original, but not the mattress and surely not the fan. 

 There were two doors in the room. One probably led to a closet and the other to a room with a sink.

 This really kind of freaked me out. Our guide said this was where the prostitute would wash up between customers. Well, how very hygienic of her! Yikes! 

 Nope, give me the view out the window. It’s the wide open spacings of the great outdoors for me, not some tavern and surely not a house of ill-repute.

(Upon further research, I’m pretty sure that Al Capone himself was never at this resort. Their website says it was built in 1938, but Capone was in prison from 1931 to 1939. Upon release from prison, he was hospitalized in Baltimore for a while, and then moved to his estate in Florida where he died in 1947. Just wanted to clarify.)