Badge Collection For Sale

Greetings, this splendid collection of authentic antique law enforcement badges was begun in 1917 and spans three generations, being passed down from father to son. From time to time collections will be sold on this site. If you are interested in having your badges sold please contact Jim Casey for more information.
Email policeguide@live.com

See Chicago page for more info on this badge.

S. D. Childs Co. In business since the 1860's. They were located at 117 1/2 Randolph Street in Chicago. During the Great Chicago Fire in October of 1871, their building was destroyed. They immediately re-built at 115 Franklin St., with temporary quarters at Orleans and Kinzie Street, while the re-building was in progress. Their hallmarks sometime reflect the address.

RESEARCH INFO

Cicero, IL Authentic Cicero police officer badge circa 1920, used until 1955
Not only used by policemen these Cicero badges were found on a few gangsters.
Chicago police badges were made by the C.H. Hanson company that was a competitor to Meyer and Wenthe.

Al Capone Hanson got the badge contract from the Chicago Police dept. Capone's American crew had a couple of these on them to fool the Moran boys when they had entered the 2122 North Clark street building, for what was to be known as the St. Valentine's day massacre. Many offcials had complained that too many badges fell to the wayside and into the wrong hands of the law. Some corrupt officials even had deputized certain gangsters as special police or court baliffs.

Meyer and Wenthe stamp in back of Cicero police badge. The Cicero police badges were made by Meyer and Wenthe company. It was a rubber stamp company that was founded in 1854. They made everything from official badges, rubber stamps, seals and transit coins etc... Meyer was the businessman and Wenthe was the master engraver. They were in operation right up to the mid 1980's until the were aqcuired by the Everson Ross company.

Eugene S. Pike - Lincoln Park Commissioner's Badge
Lived at 2101 S. Prairie Avenue. Al Capone lived at 7244 S. Prairie Avenue
Leading real estate person and model citizen of Chicago. He attended school in winters and worked the family farm in Lake County, Ohio during the summers. He worked his way through Case-Western University. In 1906, he erected the Mentor Building at State and Monroe Street in Chicago. He was Director of the 1ST National Bank, Trustee for the Home for Incurables, Trustee for Presbyterian Hospital, and Director for the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Edmund F. Dobbs, Cook County

Sheriff Richard J. Elrod yesterday named former acting Chicago Police Supt. Samuel W. Nolan as his interim police chief and revealed he "asked for" the resignations of his two top police officers.

Elrod, whose department has been hit by allegations of corruption, last week announced the resignations of Cook County Sheriff's Police Chief Edmund F. Dobbs and Deputy Chief Richard C. Quagliano.

Elrod said the pair offered to resign months ago when former vice unit commanders Lt. James Keating and Sgt. Bruce Frasch were indicted by a grand jury investigating suburban prostitution and gambling.

Chief Svoboda-Cicero Police

Capone era Cicero Police Captain Theodore Svoboda.

Along with Klenha, Svoboda was in Capone's back pocket when it came to letting things ride in Cicero.

Svoboda is the one who tried to smooth over newspaper editor Robert St. John's beating by Ralph Capone and thugs.

St. John had started a crusade in a Cicero paper against the Capone rule. After a couple of warnings, St. John was beaten to a pulp in the middle of the street while policemen looked on.

Svoboda arranged for St. John to meet Capone in his office at the police staion. Capone wanted to pay for St. John's hospital bill and apologize for Ralph's actions. The brave St. John stood to his convictions, refused the apology and the money.

St. John's newspaper, The Cicero Tribune, was bought up by the Capone interests and he moved out.

St John had the last laugh, he wrote 23 books and lived to the ripe old age of 100, passing away on February 6, 2003.

Like they say, "What doesn't kill you, just makes you stronger."

Captain John Connelly

Hearst's raucous Chicago Herald-American would love to revive the dear, noisy days of the Front Page era, if only it could remember how. Last week it made a loud try.

It started when two Chicago policemen, sad-faced Captain Thomas Connelly and natty Lieut. William Drury, were suspended from the force. Their superiors suspected them of being too gentle with gamblers. To Chicago's frenetic Hearstlings* this looked like an opportunity too good to be missed. The Herald-American forced a few crocodile tears down its face, and did its best to make martyred heroes of Connelly and Drury. Then it hired them as reporters. Oldtime Police Reporter Leroy ("Buddy") McHugh, a veteran of Front Page days, was assigned to help them out. Then Connelly and Drury were turned loose.

They interviewed policemen's wives, as part of a Herald-American crusade for pay raises for cops. But when they started snooping around the Case of the Murdered Bride, all the other news of the day was shoved back among the goiter-cure ads. The story was a natural: the victim had worked as a dice girl in a gin mill and she had been married just two days. When she was found dead in a ditch, the hunt for her husband was on. Connelly and Drury found him. While the Herald-American pulled out all the stops (HERO REPORTERS REVEAL HUSBAND'S OWN STORY), they kept him out of sight, gave him up to the police only after they had found out everything they wanted to know.

In Chicago's ceaseless scuffle for the attention of newspaper buyers, ex-Cops Connelly and Drury were proving to be circulation pullers. "All you gotta do is use your head," said Reporter Drury.

Marshall Field's rival Chicago Sun went tabloid this week, dropped its price a cent, and found a neat answer to a perennial breakfast table question: Who gets the paper? The Sun sports and financial sections were contained in a "pullout," which husbands could take to the office, leaving the rest unmussed for the missus. For suggesting the idea, Sports Editor Dick Hackenberg got a $600 bonus.

Abner Bender

As with the first episode, there is extensive archive footage and interviews with 'primary source' figures such as Vincent Persiante, a retired detective, who expounds on the ingenuity of the bootleggers. Abner Bender was a young beat policeman during the prohibition era, and he recalls the kickbacks he received at street level. Pay off was so common, that as he said you did not have to seek them, money came to you as matter of course. But corruption ran all the way up the ladder of power. In fact many mobsters began as hired hoodlums for politicians, hired for intimidation at elections (such as Torrio, Capone's predecessor as boss of Chicago).

The most impressive interviewee is Roland Libanti, a chicago lawyer who was very familiar with Capone during his 'reign'. His personal accounts are very interesting and despite his obvious age on screen, believable and well-expressed too. Naturally, the St Valentines Day Massacre of 1929 is discussed in detail. Tony Berardi, a young photographer at the time, recounts his experience of the massacre, the aftermath of which he captured on film. Again this lends weight to the production. A coherent interviewee, Berardi, is one of the main contributors to this episode.

Despite the fall of Capone and the end of Prohibition, Chicago's mafia continued to flourish under a succession of bosses, including Tony Acardo, shown being interviewed by Robert Kennedy in the sixties. With this we are introduced to another infamous figure from the underworld - Sam Giancanna.
His story is told by Roemer and the usual abundance of contemporary footage. Roemer's accounts are fascinating. The documentary even has interviews with Judith Exner, Giancanna's former mistress, giving a further perspective on a hugely significant figure within the history of the mafia and a man who is intergral to the story of the Kennedys. As such, the election of Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis are explained in terms of their relationship to the mafia. This follows through to the death of Giancanna in 1975 and a bloody period in Chicago's history. Fratianni was at his peak at the same time, and recounts the problems with the Chicago mob in the seventies and how they affected him.

Dave Shiffers of the Chicago police summarises by saying that over the last 50 years, organized crime has increased dramatically, it is just better hidden with fewer high profile figures.

William Ganschow

Jim, also notice Captain of Police (below) for West Park

WEST CHICAGO PARKS.
Commissioners (appointed by governor with con-
sent of senate) John I. Bagdziunas, William
Ganschow, William F. Grower, Jens C. Han-
sen, Richard J. Powers, I. Shapiro, John F.
Smulski.
Officers John F. Smulski, president; Richard
J. Powers, auditor; William Ganschow.
treasurer; I. Shapiro, secretary; John A.
Pelka, confidential clerk; Jens Jensen, con-
sulting landscape architect ; Albert C.
Schrader, superintendent and engineer; Robert
E. Gentzel, attorney; Fred G. Heuchling,
superintendent of employment; Edwin S.
Prouty, captain of police.
Office Union park, Lake street and Ashland
boulevard.

The west park district comprises all that part
of the town of West Chicago lying between the
Illinois and Michigan canal and the Chicago riv-
er and the following described lines: Beginning
at the north branch of the Chicago river at Bel-
mont avenue, thence west to North Kedzie ave-
nue, thence south along Kedzie avenue to North
avenue, thence west on North avenue to North
Austin avenue, thence south along Austin avenue
to West 12th street, thence east along 12th street
to South Kenton avenue, thence south along Ken-
ton avenue to West 39th street, thence east along
39th street to the Illinois and Michigan canal.

The area of the west park district is 35.5
square miles. The total area of the parks and
boulevards is l,258.1 r acres, consisting of 19
parks and playground areas and 29.527 miles
of boulevard ; area of parks, 813.27 acres. The
following is a list of the parks and boulevards:
Humboldt Park Area 205.86 acres; bounded on
the north by West North avenue, east by Cali-
fornia and Sacramento avenues, south by Divi-
sion and Augusta streets and west by Kedzie
avenue: has rose garden with pergola and gar-
den hall and fountains: refectory building, also
a pavilion and boat landing; music court, a
wading pool and shelter for children; is pro-
vided with facilities for boating, has baseball
diamonds and tennis courts, and in winter skat-
ing is provided.

Robert Purcell

Y .O. R obert E . Purcell

Chief A. Hanebuth-Denver Police Series 5

Served January 1, 1939 to May 29, 1947. He stated that a patrolman’s job was on the street and that is where they were assigned.. There were too many records to keep. He handled the manpower loss during World War II and caused by the war by saying, “If a man volunteered for service, he was gone and his job would not be there when he returned. Civil Service over-ruled him.