The Camp Grant Museum and Command Post Restaurant was a treasure trove of interesting history, told through actual artifacts of the men and women who served at Camp Grant. The museum owned by Stanley and Yolanda Weisensel was open for nearly twenty years. Yolanda kept the business open for a few years after Stanley’s passing in 2017, but finally closed the museum and restaurant in 2020. Yolanda died in April of 2024.
The Weisensels spent many years scouring the area on a quest to build a memorial to the people who spent time training at the Rockford camp before heading off to serve our country in World Wars I and II.
The Camp Grant Museum was housed in a building that was originally one of three fire stations that made up the fire department for the Camp. The fire protection for the “military city” included two hundred and sixty-two fire hydrants throughout the camp and 18,000 fire extinguishers placed in the various buildings for emergency use.
The museum was fascinating enough on its own, but the Weisensels were gems themselves. Yolanda was quite a storyteller and spent uncounted hours over many years researching the whole area that once was Camp Grant. Yolanda and Haunted Rockford operator Kathi Kresol shared a passion for history and they co-sponsored many events at the location.
Kathi Kresol (left) with author Michael Kleen and Yolanda Weisensel
Kathi Kresol (left) with Yolanda Weisensel
Camp Grant Postcard
Camp Grant, Illinois under construction in 1917
Training at Camp Grant
James Ham (left) and Tina Weisensel at Midway Village Museum exhibit
Bob Buerger at the Midway Village Museum exhibit
Stanley and Yolanda Weisensel operated the Command Post Restaurant for nearly 20 years
Yolanda Weisensel (1937-2024) owner operator of the Command Post Restaurant and Camp Grant Museum
Construction for Camp Grant began in July 1917, and by November of that year, 1,100 buildings had been constructed. It was designed to be a training site for infantry, engineers, machine gunners and artillery, and both enlisted men and officers were trained there.
It was virtually a small city, and even had its own fire department and police force. It also included a base hospital, a photography studio, a movie theater, and a parade ground. It totaled more than 5,000 acres. In its peak time, July of 1918, Camp Grant supported a total of 50,543 officers and enlisted men.
In the fall of 1918, the devastating Spanish flu hit the Rockford area. This was a worldwide epidemic that killed millions. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the United States, and Camp Grant was hit very hard. The first case was reported on Sept. 23, 1918. Three days later, there were more than 700 cases reported, and by the end of the month, more than 4,000 cases were reported.
Not much could be done to help the patients who came down with this dreaded disease. It swept quickly through the camp, and there were some 24-hour periods where more than 100 men died. Within nine days, 1,000 men perished, and within two weeks, the number would swell to more than 2,000 dead. The colonel who was in charge of Camp Grant at the time was so overwhelmed with the loss of his men that he committed suicide.
The camp was re-opened for World War II, and in August 1943, started to house German POWs, most of whom were members of the German Afrika corps or U-Boat sailors. These men were paid to work in the fields and canneries to help ease the shortage of men in the local area. Later, many of these prisoners would claim they were treated very well at the camp. Some of them would actually return to the area to live after the war.
Stanley and Yolanda Weisensel are gone now, and I really miss them, and miss going to their place for lunch. But their work will not be forgotten. In February 2025, Midway Village Museum opened a new permanent exhibit “You’re in the Army Now: Camp Grant, Rockford’s Legacy.” Many of the pieces in the exhibit have come from the Weisensel’s collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the Camp Grant Museum.
Climb aboard our luxury bus and listen as local historian and author Kathi Kresol shares the results of her research into documented stories including ghastly crimes, suicides and ghostly encounters.
On each tour, we visit several locations to experience the spots where the stories took place.
Camp Grant was built in 1917, at the southern edge of Rockford Illinois, covered over five thousand acres, included over 1,100 buildings, and at its height housed over fifty thousand men. It was used as a training center for cavalry, machine gunners, engineers and artillery personnel during World War I. After the war, the camp was used for a variety of purposes, including as a temporary training facility for the Illinois National Guard.
In 1925, a very special training was planned, and the camp was expecting the largest number of soldiers since the end of World War I. Preparations for the huge encampment that took place in August 1925 had gone on for months. New mess halls and latrines were built, and other buildings were renovated. The Illinois National Guard units were expected to meet and conduct maneuvers at the camp from August 15th through August 29th.. Over eight thousand men were expected at the camp during that period.
City officials and the National Guard were expecting big crowds for the training. They had prepared for ten thousand visitors from all over northern Illinois. There was a variety of military maneuvers planned for the special training, including chemical warfare and artillery including howitzers and machine guns. All did not go according to plan.
On Sunday, August 24 1925, the training was to include a chemical warfare demonstration in the afternoon. Hundreds of cars containing civilians lined the field to watch the demonstration of simulated battle maneuvers. The gunners were laying down a smokescreen for a line of infantry when a volley of phosphorous gas smoke grenades exploded and came down in the midst of the spectators’ cars.
One newspaper reported the event: “One of the bombs exploded right on top of a car owned by Gary Flanders. The bomb tore its way down through the car roof and exploded directly onto Flanders and the other people in the car: The smoke from the grenade was so thick that even cars around the Flanders’ car were engulfed. The horrific scene was made worse by the sound of the children crying and screaming. Flanders exited his car and went running through the smoke with his clothing on fire. A soldier grabbed Flanders and threw him to the ground. The soldier rolled Flanders around until the flames were extinguished.”
Another bomb hit the running board of John Anderson’s car where his wife and three children sat. When the bomb exploded, it blew out the windshield and burned Anderson on his face and neck.
E.C. Hayes and his five-year-old son were injured when the boy’s clothes caught on fire. E.C. picked up the boy and ran to safety and then tore the child’s clothes off. Unfortunately, the child suffered severe burns on his head, and his father’s hands and arms were burned.
Camp ambulances rushed the injured to the camp hospital. Over seventeen people were injured from the grenades, mostly children. Over five thousand people were watching the military maneuvers on Sunday, and Major General Milton J. Foreman, commander of the Thirty-third Division, promised a thorough investigation into the accident. The newspaper also mentioned that only those spectators who crossed the guard line had been injured.
The war games continued the next day to an even more horrific event. The Eighth Infantry unit was demonstrating a type of cannon called a howitzer when it exploded during the battle drills. The accident occurred on the gun range below the Camp Grant Bridge over the Rock River. There were fifty-five men in the unit, and thirty-eight of them were wounded. The Eighth Infantry unit was part of the first all-Black National Guard Regiment. Seven men from the Eighth Infantry were killed immediately, two more would die later and thirty-one other men were wounded.
A list of the dead includes
• Captain Osseola A. Browning; Chicago. Illinois. He was the commander of the howitzer company. Osseola had both legs shattered and one torn off. and his chest was caved in.
• Corporal Henry Williams; Chicago. Illinois. He was in charge of the gun squad.
• Private Delmas Campbell; Chicago. Illinois.
• Private Herbert Durand; Chicago, Illinois.
• Private Benny Anderson; Chicago, Illinois.
• Private Charles Wright; Chicago, Illinois. Died at Swedish American Hospital at 1:30 p.m. His leg had been torn off, and he had a broken arm.
• Private Elmo Baynes; Chicago. Illinois. Twenty years old, he died at the Rockford Hospital at 2:25 p.m. on the operating table.
• Private Todd Moseley; Chicago, Illinois.
Several people were severely injured, including little Alan Williams, an eight-year-old boy who had his arm blown off. He was the nephew of Captain Browning and considered the “mascot” of the howitzer company. Little Alan was the only civilian near the howitzer when it exploded.
Medical units from the camp were sent immediately by Major General Milton Foreman. The injured men were brought to the camp hospital, and then the more severely wounded were delivered to Rockford’s three hospitals.
Captain Osseola Browning was a war hero and the pride of his unit. He was a lieutenant in the 370th Infantry during World War I. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery in action by the French government.
Tragically, his wife had arrived in the camp to spend the day with her husband. She collapsed after hearing of the death of her husband and was rushed to the camp hospital herself.
Browning was born in Chicago on June 18, 1896. He graduated from Wendall Phillips High School in 1914 and went on to study chemistry at Northwestern University. He attended arsenal machine gun school at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, in 1916 and the Infantry School of Arms at Camp Logan in Houston. Browning went to the First Corps School in France and served there with distinction during World War I. Osseola took great pride in serving in the howitzer division.
Stanley Jones, department sergeant, was delivering a truckload of shells when the explosion took place. Jones heard Captain Browning order Corporal Williams to fire the mortar. Jones was hit with a deafening blast that knocked him down. The next thing he felt was the body of one of the men killed in the blast landing on top of him.
The bodies of the dead soldiers were transported to the Cavanaugh and Cannon Funeral rooms on South Court Street. Coroner Fred Olson did not conduct a civilian inquest but did attend the military one. The commander of the Eighth, Colonel Otis B. Duncan, arranged for a funeral service in Chicago at the Eighth’s armory.
Witnesses described the scene: “The men of the ill-fated grouped about him [Colonel Browning] as he explained the workings of the instrument of death he was demonstrating. The load was inserted. The men stepped back a few paces, and Captain Browning ordered Corporal Williams to prepare to fire. Corporal Williams dropped shell into the mortar.”
Huge chunks of metal flew through the air, lore off limbs and penetrated stomachs and chests. The screams of the dying and wounded could be heard throughout the smoke-filled field.
Another nephew of Captain Browning, Rush Smith, ran and walked the miles front the field to the camp to fall at the feet of Master Sergeant Leon Cornick to tell him of the tragedy. Leon swept the boy into his arms and carried him to his tent. Rush sobbed as he told the tale of his “Uncle Os” and the other men being “blown to pieces.” Later, the scene between the little boy and the newly widowed wife of Osseola was heartbreaking to all who witnessed it.
A witness of the scene, Private James Hasty, came close to being another victim of the bombing. A piece of metal tore through his coat sleeve and embedded in the canteen that hung at his side. The hole it ripped into the canteen was over two inches in diameter.
A memorial service was held for the men at Camp Grant. The newspapers called it “a sacred service to the memory of the victims of the worst disaster that has ever taken place in Camp Grant since its inauguration as an army cantonment.”
Days later, a larger memorial service was held in the sport center of the Eighth Regiment in Chicago. Captain William S. Bradden spoke a moving eulogy to the men, who gathered to honor their fallen comrades.
Thirty-five thousand people jammed the Eighth Infantry armory for the memorial service on September 1. A guard unit was sent from Rockford. Buckbee Greenhouses designed a floral arrangement, and the citizens of Rockford donated money for the floral arrangement in a bucket drive. It was in the shape of a giant howitzer. The arrangement was five feet tall, and the barrel was seven feet long and carried a sign that stated. “Sympathy from the Citizens of Rockford.” It was made from red, white and blue flowers and weighed over 250 pounds. Major General Milton J. Foreman, commander of the Thirty-third Division, and Colonel Otis Duncan, commander of the Eighth Infantry; also attended the services.
Rockford judge Carpenter spoke for the 100,000 people from Winnebago County who sent their respects to the families of the dead men.
There was not a dry eye in the building when taps was played. The caskets were open as the families and friends filed past. The bodies were laid out in state under military guard Sunday night and were released to the families for burial the next day.
Even during the memorial service for the dead soldiers, other soldiers were still in Rockford hospitals fighting for their lives. One, Lieutenant F.G. Harris, had his abdomen punctured by a large piece of flying shrapnel and suffered a relapse at St. Anthony Hospital. His mother and his wife traveled to his bedside.
On September 12, the remainder of the seven wounded infantrymen were moved from Rockford hospitals and delivered home to Chicago. First Lieutenant H.A. Callis of the Eighth Infantry Regiment, medical detachment, would accompany the soldiers back to Chicago. Fortunately, Allan Williams, the little eight-year-old mascot of the Eighth, survived and returned to his school.
Major General Milton J. Foreman stated in his tribute to the fallen soldiers, “Not alone on battlefields are heroes found.” He emphasized the sacrifice that the eight men made while serving in the Illinois National Guard.
Bridget Hart held her extensive family of two girls and six boys together after the death of her beloved husband, John. That tragedy had taken place in 1891. The family lived on a farm outside Winnebago, Illinois on Wolf Grove Road, about six miles away from Rockford.
On September 5, 1893, around three o’clock in the afternoon, Bridget left her home to walk to the field to get some potatoes for dinner. When she left the house, her daughters, Nellie and Mary, were sitting in the front of house, one of them on a swing and the other in a chair. Her eldest child, named John after his father, who was about thirty-five years old, was in the barn. When Bridget returned a short time later, she came back to a very different scene than the peaceful one she had so recently left.
Bridget found her beloved daughter Mary lying face down on the steps of her house. She turned her over and noticed that Mary had blood running from her mouth and nose. Bridget screamed and started to look for her youngest daughter, Nellie.
She was shocked as she walked through the lower floor of the house. Bloody fingerprints on the doorways, blood smears on the walls and bloodstains on the carpet told a horrific tale. Bridget was becoming more frantic as she wandered from room to room with no sign of her youngest daughter. She rushed from the house to the barn, screaming Nellie’s name.
When she reached the basement in the barn, she beheld another horrendous sight. Nellie was staggering around the room, blood coming from her swollen nose and mouth. Bridget also noticed a green stain down the front of Nellie’s dress.
But Nellie was alive and conscious and able to tell her rescuer the unbelievable story. It was her own brother John who had forced her to drink Paris green from a cup. This chemical was found on most farms and was used as a pesticide during this period. It was deadly to humans if consumed because it contained arsenic. According to Nellie’s statement, John Hart had asked her to go out to the barn with him to assist with some task. When they reached the barn, John grabbed Nellie, forced her to drink green liquid from a cup and then shoved a gag into her mouth. She heard him leave the barn and then heard several gunshots; it was during this time that police surmised the killing of Mary took place. He shot Mary and then forced her to drink the Paris green. The blood stains found in the house indicate that Mary had gone inside and wandered through the rooms, perhaps looking for help. Finding no one, she returned outside and fell by the front steps of her home. It was obvious from her disheveled clothing and the blood found that Mary struggled with her attacker.
After John finished with Mary, he returned to the barn only to discover that Nellie was not yet dead. He then shot her once in the chest. One would not even want to imagine Nellie’s fear when she heard John’s footsteps as he returned to the barn.
Dr. W. Helm was called to do what he could for poor Nellie. While the doctor was caring for Nellie, her sister, Mary, was lifted onto a board and finally brought into the house. Three hours had passed since the attack. Mary was left in the front yard covered with a sheet under a lilac bush while word spread, and her neighbors came to stare.
It was only after they lifted her that the story turned more brutal. While they were shifting the board to make it through the doorway, something rolled off the board and hit the floor. It was a cartridge from a .32-caliber gun. Mary’s body was examined, and a gunshot wound was found in her neck. The gun was held so close to her that the flesh was burnt, and there was a hole burned in her dress. It was determined through autopsy that Mary had been forced to drink the Paris green and then shot four times at close range.
It was not until several hours later, when her brother William was helping Nellie change from her dress into her nightgown, that it was discovered that Nellie had also been shot.
By midnight, the doctor broke the news to Bridget that her youngest child would not recover. The Paris green she had been forced to drink had caused extensive damage to Nellie’s mouth and throat.
John Hart’s doctor was summoned and questioned by the police. Dr. Miller stated that he had treated Hart for physical problems but not for any mental problems.
The police also questioned the other family members. A brother, William, gave testimony to the relationship between the girls and John. He stated they quarreled “an awful lot.” He explained that these arguments were because John wanted the family to buy out his portion of the farm. His family refused. They wanted John to stay and help them make the farm a success. It would take all of their combined effort to make the farm work. William went on to say that John had an ugly, irritable disposition and seemed to especially hate the eldest sister, Mary.
Coroner Agesen was called to begin the inquest into Mary’s death. Her uncle, P. Hart, identified the twenty-six-year-old girl’s body. The uncle also told the coroner that John, Mary’s brother, had been ill lately and acting insane.
The search for John Hart began. A posse was formed, and people began to search all of the towns in the area. Hart was seen riding off with one of the horses from the barn. The search spread to Rockford. Around 9:00 p.m., Hart was spotted going into Henry Sparring’s Barber Shop on Kishwaukee Street in town. As the police approached him, John remained calm and slowly took a bottle from his pocket. He raised the bottle to his lips and took a long drink. Later, the contents of the bottle were found to be laudanum.
Nellie fought for her life, spending hours in agony, but she passed away around two o’clock in the afternoon the day after the shooting. She was only twenty-three years old.
The family’s troubles had started years earlier. John was considered the black sheep of the family. He had left twelve years before, and the scandal was that he ran off to Chicago with a married black woman. George Lewis and his wife lived in Pecatonica, and it was Mrs. Lewis whom John ran away with, causing the breakup of that family’s home. John and Mrs. Lewis allegedly lived together in Chicago before he deserted her and left for California. John roamed around the South and West while working a variety of jobs. He worked on the railroad in Colorado and Arkansas and traveled back and forth to Chicago several times.
The father of the family, John Hart, died two years before the shooting. He committed suicide by the drinking the same poison that killed his daughters, Paris green. It took a while for the family to find young John to notify him of his father’s death. He returned to the family farm about fourteen months before the murders. It was upon his return that he started to quarrel with the family about buying him out for his share of the estate worth around $50,000.
After being arrested for the attack on his sisters, John Hart was put into the jail in Rockford. A doctor treated him for the laudanum he drank. The opiate did not really threaten Hart’s life since he had ingested such a small amount. There was some chaos outside the jail on the first night of Hart’s incarceration. There was a band of men determined to string Hart up without a trial. But cooler heads prevailed, and the men decided to let justice run its course.
The Hart family was both well known and well respected. The girls were described as lovely and tall. They were always well dressed when they attended church services at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
The newspaper also described how surreal the experience felt to the family. The sun continued to shine, the cows were in the field and all of nature continued on as if this terrible tragedy had never taken place. But the brothers left behind were in a daze, and their mother’s sobs were never-ending.
...the long funeral cortege, consisting of two somber-robed hearses and nearly one hundred carriages...
Mary and Nellie’s funerals were held together at St. Mary’s Church on Rockford’s west side. The crowd was huge; some estimates put it as high as two thousand people attending. The local newspapers stated, “The bright sunlight was eclipsed by the dark shadows of grief that spread over our city as the long funeral cortege, consisting of two somber-robed hearses and nearly one hundred carriages containing sympathetic mourners wended their melancholy way through Rockford’s streets on route to the Catholic Cemetery” People lined the streets all the way to the cemetery, not from curiosity but to show their support for the family going through this unbelievable tragedy.
When the crowd was passing the jail, some looked up and saw John Hart staring down at them. This enraged them, and a portion of the crowd went running to the jail in an attempt to bring Hart outside to lynch him. The police took the threat seriously and fell out in full force. They were able to quiet the crowd and convince them to continue on to the cemetery.
It was only a few days after the murders that John Hart started to talk to the press. He seemed almost compelled to try to convince reporters and others of his innocence. The story John first told to the reporters claimed that he was innocent and that it was the other five Hart brothers who killed the sisters and tried to poison him as well. Their motive was greed spurred on by the vast estate that their father left to the family.
John Hart
Shortly after his arrest, Hart made his first appearance in court. People who witnessed him during the proceedings describe him as cold, calculating and showing no signs of remorse for this “heinous crime.” He again placed all the blame for his family’s woes squarely on to his brothers. “Hart seems to possess a bitter hatred against the living and dead members of Hart family except for his father and mother and the energy used in cursing them was intense.”
In mid-December, John continued his insane behavior, which included frothing at the mouth and growling while refusing to eat. Hart was put in shackles and moved to a smaller, and thought to be safer, cell. On December 16, while he was awaiting trial, John Hart tried to commit suicide by slashing his own throat with a piece of glass from the window. The newspapers said the only shame was that he not successful. That act, had it been successful, would save the county the cost of a trial.
The trial began on Monday, January 22, 1894, and lasted fourteen days. The verdict of guilty was issued on Monday, February 5. The trial was quite a spectacle. When the doors were opened on the first day, so many people surged forward that they ripped the wooden doors off their hinges. Estimates in the newspapers said that the crowd numbered eight hundred souls inside and out.
Attorneys Fisher and Garver were the defense attorneys, and they did all in their power to save John Hart from the gallows. State’s Attorney Frost was the prosecutor, and he was assisted by his partner, Robert G. McEvoy. There were eighty witnesses called, with fifty-nine by the state and nineteen by the defense.
Hart’s defense strategy was that he was ill, suffering from malaria and some sort of mental anguish. Just for good measure, he also testified that his sisters conspired against him and he suspected they had also tried to poison him.
The girls, of course, were not there to defend themselves against this charge. But the town’s people were sickened by this display. Quite a few did not return to the courtroom. Nellie’s deathbed testimony was allowed into evidence, and many called it “the death blow” for Hart.
Then Hart turned on the rest of the family. According to John, all of his siblings had conspired first against his father, killing him and making it look like a suicide. Then, when John came home to collect his rightful part of the inheritance, they decided to get rid of him as well. He proclaimed his innocence to all who would listen, and for good measure, John claimed that a buzzing in his head had told him to kill both of his sisters.
The newspapers all raved about State’s Attorney Frost’s cross-examination of the defendant. They commented on how easily Hart could be mixed up and that this fine attorney showed every claim for defense to be completely made up in order to allow Hart to get away with murder.
Frost was able to also undermine the testimony of a very “learned” doctor who claimed that even if John Hart was the cause of his sisters’ deaths, he had mental issues probably brought on by the syphilis that John suffered from. It was this disease that caused him to commit such a heinous crime.
Attorney Frost brought up all the points that showed that Hart had tried to escape his fate. He ran away after committing the crime, used an assumed name, claimed insanity from syphilis and malaria and claimed he had bought a gun to protect himself from highway robbers but at the same time claimed never to own a gun. Hart also claimed to be a laudanum addict but also stated he never took the medicine. He apparently forgot the small bottle of laudanum that was found on him at the time of his arrest.
The jury was out less than an hour before coming back with the guilty verdict. The paper described it: “A whole lifetime was crowded into that moment of suspense, and the next instant he heard the stern words that would send him from this world forever and end a life that has scattered bitter sorrow and dark despair in its pathway.”
Winnebago County Courthouse with the crowd for the execution of John Hart.
Before the execution, a scaffold was built in the jail yard, and a stockade was built around it. The day before the execution, people came from all over to see the scaffold. John Hart could see the crowds through the bars in his cell. He talked bitterly about how sickening the people were who came with their morbid curiosity to view the instrument that would shepherd him to his death.
Seventy-five men were invited to watch the execution, but hundreds more pushed at the walls from the outside. Police officers were called to move the people back because the sheer mass of humanity threatened to knock down the stockade.
At 11:00 a.m., the south door to the jail opened, and John Hart walked the last few steps to where the executioner and the noose waited for him. Hart was dressed in a new suit that his brother William had brought for him the night before. The priest from St. Mary’s administered the last prayer, and then Sheriff Burbank led Hart to the trapdoor and offered him a chair. He refused, preferring to stand. The sheriff then asked Hart if he had any last words. “Upon the advice of my spiritual advisor, I have nothing to say.”
John Hart on the gallows.
The noose was placed around his neck, straps were tied to his arms and legs and then his head was covered with a white shroud. “There was an instant’s pause, awful in its intensity. Then there was a dull grating sound, the death trap fell at 11:04 with a loud noise and the body of the murderer shot downward.”
The rope cut into Hart’s neck and turned the white shroud crimson with his blood. Thirteen minutes after the trapdoor was sprung, John Hart’s heart stopped beating. After his body was taken down and the shroud removed, it was found that the rope had nearly decapitated Hart.
Those outside the stockade knew immediately when the trapdoor was sprung. It was heard from over a block away. As further notification, there was a man at the top of the courthouse who signaled when the deed was done.
Undertaker Bradley cut down the body and took it to his undertaker rooms to prepare it for burial. Much was said and written about John Hart after his execution. People were astonished that someone so well read and so well spoken could commit such a heinous murder.
He was young, tall, good-looking and very intelligent. This was not what people thought of when they spoke of criminals. No one doubted that he had committed the crime, but the debate was all about the motive. It seemed inconceivable to everyone that Hart would commit such a crime and would possibly have gone on to kill more of his family, all for the inheritance left by his father.
Sources: Chicago Daily Inter Ocean. “Mourners Become a Mob.” September 9, 1893.
________. “Slays His Sisters.” September 16, 1893. Rockford (IL) Daily Register Gazette. “Hart Hanged.” March 16, 1894.
________. “John Hart’s Past Record.” September 16, 1893. Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “A Batch of Crooked People.” October 10, 1893.
________. “Desperate Attempt to Break Jail.” November 1, 1893.
________. “Foul Murder.” September 6, 1893.
________. “Funeral for the Murdered Sisters.” September 9, 1893.
________. “Hart Declares War Against His Family.” September 11, 1893.
________. “The Murderer Attempts Suicide.” December 17, 1893.
________. “Proves to Be a Double Murder.” September 7, 1893.
Map depicting the path of destruction from the tornado.
The tornado that touched down on Friday, September 14, 1928, came in like a roaring train, leaving a path of destruction across Rockford. First, it touched down at the Rockford Chair and Furniture Company on the Southwest side, at the intersection of Peoples Avenue and Kishwaukee Street, destroying the building and killing six men.
The funnel went back up and damaged poles and trees until it touched the earth again at Eighteenth Avenue and Eighth Street, where the Mechanic Machine Company suffered broken windows. The twenty girls who worked at the plant that day were cut from the flying glass but were otherwise unhurt.
Men assessing the damage from tornado.
The last section heavily hit was the Elco Tool Company, the National Chair Company and the surrounding neighborhood, where houses were wiped from their foundations. It was on Eighteenth Avenue that the three-story Union Furniture Company was destroyed. On the same corner, a little neighborhood grocery store owned by Cy Johnson and his wife was spun around several times and finally swept off its foundation. Cy was quoted in the paper saying “We huddled behind the counter while the roaring noise was going on and the wooden benches flew over our heads. The Johnsons escaped with just a few scratches.
Along Fifteenth Avenue, seven houses and their garages were knocked down. The northeast corner of the National Chair Factory was completely demolished as the tornado’s devastation continued. Houses at the top of the hill of the Rock View neighborhood were untouched, but the hollow to the north was demolished. Nineteen houses on Nineteenth Avenue and Ninth Street were destroyed in the final fury of the twister.
A miracle look place in a house on Eighteenth Avenue that belonged to the Ebarp family. Little two-and-a-half-year-old Donald was sleeping in his crib when the tornado tore its way through the neighborhood. The wind uprooted a huge tree that stood next to the house and slammed it down on the roof. It knocked the chimney and the wall right down on Donald in the rear bedroom.
Mrs. Ebarp was in the basement with her daughter, and Mr. Ebarp was sleeping in another bedroom of the house. Mr. Ebarp was the first to reach the boy. and Mrs. Ebarp entered the room to find her husband tossing bricks, branches and boards off their smallest child. The father was terrified when he first saw his sons face covered in blood but he realized soon that the boy, while cut, was not seriously hurt. The family stood in the wreckage of their home and realized how fortunate they were.
Damage at the chair factory.
The city was also grateful that even though the tornado came within a half a block of one school and very close to two others, the thousands of children who attended the schools were unhurt. Brown, Turner and especially Hallstrom School students and their families were feeling blessed. A mere half block down from Hallstrom School was a scene of terrible devastation. Houses all around the school had their roofs torn off and their windows completely blown out. Furniture was deposited in the streets, and trees were blown over. The four hundred students who attended Hallstrom were all kept safely inside the building.
Tony Martinkas, fifty, was found dead in a chicken coop on a farm on Harrison Avenue, four blocks west of Kishwaukee. He was from Spring Valley and was cleaning up the chicken and pigeon yard at a neighbor’s home. Tony was busy working between two buildings and did not notice the tornado approaching. The wind slammed the poor man between the two buildings before moving on to the Chair Factory B. where it killed eight more men.
George Palmer, employed at the Mattison Machine Works, was one of the very first men to reach the destroyed Chair Factory B. He was stunned by the devastation but hurriedly grabbed an axe and started to chop his way into the building. He was able to bring three men out before others came to help.
Cars damaged by debris at furniture factory.
The first wave of responders was firemen and policemen who walked through the destroyed buildings calling out for some sign of where the survivors might be. Their calls went unanswered. They attempted to start removing the debris, but it was too heavy.
O.W. Johnson worked as the superintendent of the Chair Factory B and was buried in the debris from the storm. He was trapped under heavy timbers for three hours before his son heard his calls and found men to help focus on the rescue. He was rushed to Swedish American Hospital.
Building companies were contacted, and in an amazingly short time, the pleas for help were answered. Mayor Burt M. Allen, police chief A.E. Bargren and Sheriff Harry Baldwin, working with fire chief Thomas Blake and Captain Warren Aldrich of Company K of the National Guard, organized rescue efforts. This was the biggest response to a rescue operation ever in the history of the city. One newspaper article reported: “Scores of contractors and factory officials, unaffected by the storm, offered the officials of the Rockford Furniture and Chair Company, trucks, men, steam shovels, hoists, and other equipment yesterday in a frantic search to find the bodies of the missing men.”
Machines removing debris from a fallen factory
State police officers arrived to assist deputy sheriffs, police officers and soldiers involved in organizing equipment, handling traffic flow and gathering information about the missing men. They also helped with crowd control, as thousands of people rushed to the factory. Ropes and men kept the crowd under control for the two days of searching.
More than two hundred men from city and county building firms were involved in the rescue effort at the Chair Factory B. They all knew they were looking for bodies. When a body was located, all work would cease, and everyone silently watched as the mangled bodies were tenderly wrapped in a blanket, loaded on a stretcher and carried to an ambulance.
Forrest Lydden, a city building inspector, organized the crews. Tireless searching went on for two days. They recovered the body of Gunnar Ryden at 1:40 a.m. on September 17. He was killed on his twenty-ninth birthday. The other men who were killed in Chair factory B were:
Olaf Larson, twenty-seven years old. Herman Wydell, forty-seven years old. He left a wife and two children.
Martin Anderson, thirty-four years old. He left a wife.
August Peterson, fifty-two years old.
And Frank Strom, thirty-four years old. He left a wife and a child
All six of the bodies were found near the elevator shaft, dose to the heavy water tank, which plunged from the roof through the crumbling floors, crushing the men and causing their deaths. All of the men were working in the finishing department on the second floor when the tornado struck. John Brunski, forty-five years old, and George Fagerberg, fifty-one years old, were the two other victims in the plant.
Another damaged factory.
Other men working at the Chair Factory B were up on the fourth floor when they heard yelling that a cyclone was approaching the building. The group started to run down the stairs when the funnel hit the building, right in the area where they were. The men were all piled on top of one another, and everything was completely dark. They were trapped for several hours before being pulled from the debris.
The Union Furniture Company’s east end was demolished, adding to the city s death toll. Swan Swenson, forty years old, and Axel Ahlgren, forty-three years old, were found beneath the wreckage of the water tank. Ahlgren’s body was carried all the way down through the building by the water tank and buried under tons of debris. The men trying to rescue him had to cut their way through the shattered timbers of several floors.
Seventeen-year-old Virgil Cormesser, sixteen-year-old Everitt Cornmesser and fourteen-year-old Bernard Cornmesser were sent to a nearby gas station to buy a gallon of gas. The boys noticed the approaching storm and were racing to their homes before it hit. They reached the corner of Seventh Street and Seventeenth Avenue when, suddenly, an entire garage roof was blown off and came down right on lop of them. Everett and Bernard were killed instantly, and Virgil died later at St. Anthony’s Hospital. The family held a triple service for the boys in the home of S.O. Cornmesser at 1728 Seventh Street on Sunday, September 16, with Reverend O. Garfield Beckstrand officiating. Virgil and Bernard were brothers and the sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Cornmesser. Everitt was their cousin, and his parents were Mr. and Mrs. S.O. Cornmesser. Virgil and Bernard’s parents shipped the boys bodies back to Iowa with the help of some of the tornado funds donated by the city and Everitt was buried in Rockford.
A blinding rain started to fall right after the funnel hit the area, and ambulance drivers had trouble getting to the boys quickly because of the rain and debris that lined the streets. They loaded all three of the boys into an ambulance.
All of the other bodies were taken to the undertaking rooms of Fred C. Olson. Family members gathered there, anxiously waiting for some word on their missing men. Piercing cries were the notification that another man had been identified and another family’s hope shattered.
Besides the fourteen men killed, there were over 80 people injured that needed hospitalization. Over 360 buildings, 181 of them houses, were damaged, costing over $1,000,000. There were 1,200 people left homeless, and because most of them worked in the same neighborhood where they lived, they had also lost their place of employment. These families were in dire need of assistance.
The Rockford Chamber of Commerce kept busy collecting donations for the families of the men who were killed in the tornado and other families left homeless by the storm. The money just came pouring in, and the chamber was able to gather $25,000 in a very short time.
Committee members from several different organizations visited over 164 families to assess their needs and determine how to fund them. Agencies, including the Rockford Register newspaper, were busy collecting funds as well. The Red Cross was working with the other agencies to go into the affected area and assess the property damage. Wilbur J. Adams was the director of storm relief and in charge of getting the needed supplies to the people.
A family who lost their home in the tornado.
On Sunday, September 16, people from all over the state came to visit Rockford to view the damage. Estimates put the number somewhere near 150,000 people who came to town on that Sunday following the tornado. They surged into the area and stopped at local restaurants to eat. By the end of the day, most of the restaurants were running out of food. One estimate put the total served at 60,000. Some of the people were family members who came to help, and police and other rescue workers were very impressed with the crowds. There were issues with traffic, but everything stayed orderly. There was no looting or destruction caused by the visitors.
The theaters in town donated half of their proceeds on different days toward the relief fund. The Palace Theater showed motion pictures of the destruction during the Pathe newsreel. It featured three hundred feet of film highlighting the damaged areas.
Rockford has always been known for stepping forward during times of need, and this crisis was a perfect example of that. Many in the community
gave selflessly of either their time or money, even those who were themselves in dire straits.
Fred Machesney, manager of the Rockford Airport, gave a percentage of the proceeds of his sales for transporting passengers to the relief fund. The Women’s Society, headed by Jessie Spafford as its president, visited damaged homes and brought much-needed supplies. The Rockford Girls served donated food and drinks to the searchers and men working on the rescue efforts at the factories. Boy Scouts helped to maintain a line of safety for visitors and family members at different locations. E.A. Brodine, secretary of the local carpenters union, reported that local carpenters would be gathered to help with repairs on damaged homes. It was an incredible outpouring from everyone, and Mayor Allen was very proud that his city was able to care for its own without assistance from outside agencies.
The city bounced back, and even before the first night was done, plans were being made to rebuild the factories. Aid was given to the neediest families, homes were repaired and families were reunited. Because of the tireless searching by the men and donation of equipment by various companies, every body was recovered quickly. The families who lost their men were given extra aid to rebuild their homes. The community responded so quickly and so generously that many of the families felt grateful that they lived in such a caring community when disaster struck.
Sources: Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “Contractors Lend More Apparatus to Help Remove Wreckage.” September 16, 1928.
___________. “Movies of Havoc Caused by Storm Shown at Palace.” September 16, 1928.
___________. “Triple Funeral Is Arranged for Boys Killed in Tornado.” September 16, 1928. Rockford (IL) Republic. “Recover Six Bodies from Factory Ruin.” September 17, 1928.
___________. “60,000 Fed in Cafes Sunday; Food Runs Out.” September 17, 1928.
___________. “Storm Drops Violence on Three Areas.” September 14, 1928.
___________. “Storm Tore Freak Path Across City.” September 15, 1928.
___________. “Whole City Anxious to Aid Victims.” September 17, 1928.
Photo Credits: Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
Ted and Robyn are hosts for the annual Haunted Galena Conference and owners of The Haunted Galena Tour Company. They also operate The Dowling House Historic Site in Galena as well. They were co-creators of Galena’s first ghost tour back in 2001.
Robyn has an undergrad degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. She blends these two disciplines to study the history of past events that have led to hauntings and interpret the motivation of those involved. Ted has been fascinated (and occasionally confronted) by the paranormal since his arrival in Galena in 1995, He has spent the last 23 years researching Galena history and the paranormal.
Ted enjoys studying esoterica and proposing theoretical solutions to mysteries. Also a writer, Ted was honored to be named Galena’s first Poet Laureate in 2024. Robyn and Ted live in an 1892 restored schoolhouse with their Golden Doodle Winn-Dixie.
Conference Presentation: Haunting Tales From Galena, Illinois
Ted Williams and Robyn Davis are the owners and hosts of the Haunted Galena Tour Company in Northwestern Illinois. They are appearing at the Illinois Paranormal Conference for the first time and will offer a strange collection of haunted stories from three of the most notoriously haunted locations in the Galena area. Galena was founded in 1826 and is one of Illinois’ oldest and most haunted cities. It is said that even in death, no one wants to leave lovely Galena, so the spirits walk amongst you. After all it’s their home too.
Dave Schrader is a seasoned paranormal investigator, bestselling author, and award-winning broadcaster with nearly two decades of experience exploring the strange and unexplained. As the host of The Paranormal 60 Podcast and Paranormal 360 Radio Show, Dave blends insight, curiosity, and humor to uncover the truth behind hauntings, cryptids, UFOs, and supernatural mysteries. Known for his work on The Holzer Files, Ghosts of Devil’s Perch, and The Curse of Lizzie Borden, Dave remains a trusted voice in the world of the weird.
Conference Presentation: Fear, Frights, and Phantoms
Sit for a spell as Dave shares eerie true tales from decades of encounters with ghosts, shadow figures, and unexplained phenomena – both on the job and in his own life. But this isn’t just a scare-fest. Discover how fear, when harnessed correctly, can become a powerful tool for growth, awareness, and deeper connection with the spirit world.
Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum and Gardens is a beautiful mansion tucked away on Rockford’s west side. Quite a few Rockfordians know it is there, and some of them even know its history. What might surprise people is that the cottage has the reputation of being haunted.
The house is a very unique place for several reasons. It is located on a limestone bluff overlooking the Kent Creek, and there are signs of a definite Native American presence. Water, limestone and Native American influence are all said to be great conductors of paranormal activity
The bluff is located just above where Germanicus Kent, Lewis Lemon and Thatcher Blake landed when they decided to settle this area. It is definitely an important spot in Rockford’s history, both good and bad. The Tinkers sold the land to the railroad, and one of the area’s first cemeteries was once located across the creek from the cottage. The bodies were supposedly moved when the railroad was built. Rumors persist to the contrary, however. These stories state that when family members could not be found, the bodies were left there and the tombstones removed.
Robert Tinker. From Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, Rockford.
The area around the railroad was also a place of violence during the 1920s and 1930s, when there was a large amount of transient traffic as men traveled from place to place looking for jobs. It was right in the middle of the action during Prohibition, and there have been many unfortunate souls that came to a bad end in the area.
But the cottage rests above it all. It is filled with the Tinker family’s possessions. This is not a house that has been decorated with pieces brought in from sales or donations. The Tinker family not only gave the Rockford Park District their house but also included all of their possessions, creating a time capsule of the era when they lived there. They left clothes, dishes, diaries and furniture. This could be another reason why there is so much paranormal activity here.
The cottage was built by Robert Tinker and his wife, Mary. Mary’s first husband was John Manny, who, along with his cousin John Pels Manny, built the Manny Reaper Company. John died young from tuberculosis, and Mary, an extraordinary woman for her times, decided to take over the company after his death.
Mary and Robert Tinker met when he came to work for her company Robert traveled to Europe, and it was there that he first saw the Swiss chalets that he would use in the design of his own unique home. Mary and Robert eventually fell in love and were married.
Mary Dorr Manny Tinker. From Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, Rockford.
Robert served as mayor for a year and also became involved in the Rockford Park District. He was a master gardener and surrounded his lovely home with winding paths and beautiful flower gardens. He also built a suspension bridge across Kent Creek to connect with Mary Manny’s grand mansion. After they sold that property to the railroad, Robert designed gardens for the train passengers to stroll through while they waited for their connecting trains.
Mary and Robert had no children of their own, but they did open their home up to several of Mary’s relatives. Josephus Dorr, Mary’s father, became ill and came to stay in the upstairs of the home. It was here that he drew his last breath. Mary’s nieces Marcia and Jesse Dorr came to live with the couple as they attended the Rockford Seminary. Marcia would die in the home, and in 1901, Mary herself became ill and passed away in the house. Hers was one of the several funerals that were conducted in the parlor of the home. Robert designed a very impressive monument for Mary in Greenwood Cemetery in 1902.
Robert and Jesse were left in the home. During this time, a single woman and a man could not live in the same place, so as a matter of convenience, they were married. Jesse devoted her life to helping orphans and would eventually adopt a young son for her and Robert to raise. They named him Theodore. Robert died in 1926 and Jesse in 1942. Jesse gave the house and all of its furnishings to the Rockford Park District to be used as a museum.
Haunted Rockford has visited this unique place for several years now and has enjoyed working with first Steve Litteral, the former executive director, and now current executive director Samantha Hockman. Right from the very first tour, people had experiences they could not explain.
The first time we ever visited the cottage on one of the Haunted Rockford bus tours, we were joined by
a paranormal investigation team. We split the guests up into small groups, and different guides led them through the cottage. As we were loading the bus to head to the next stop, one of the ladies approached me. She told me that she had really enjoyed the tour. She loved that we used psychics,
that we shared the history of the house, that we had the team along and that we had the lady dressed in
clothes from the time period of the Tinkers. This last piece caught my attention, and I asked her what she meant. She explained that when her group was going out on the suspension bridge, they passed a woman with her dark hair in a bun and all dressed in white.
By now we had been joined by others on the tour, and there was a surprised gasp from several of the members when I explained that we had no one dressed up in a white dress. I wasn’t sure who the lady saw, but this mystery woman was not part of the tour. I can’t adequately describe the look on the woman’s face, but I can tell you that it was priceless.
Jess Tinker. From Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, Rockford.
That first encounter was a definite omen of things to come. Almost every time we have organized an event there, people have experienced something unexplained. One other time when we were there with a group, we were upstairs in the “red room” talking about Josephus Dorr, when all of a sudden we heard a woman’s voice from downstairs calling, “Hello?” I turned to Steve and asked if he had locked the doors behind us, and he stated that he had. I told him he better go make sure because we were all upstairs and someone must have come in.
Steve had a very funny look on his face when he joined us a few minutes later. He had checked the doors and found they were locked. He searched the entire downstairs, and there was no one else in the building with us. Everyone who was there that night confirmed that they heard the voice.
I had another rather startling experience in the cottage. I was going into the house during one of our public investigations to make sure all was well. I entered the basement from the outside door and was speaking to Sara Bowker, one of the psychics who assist with Haunted Rockford Events. She was explaining to me that there was a ghostly servant girl that was rushing up and down the stairs, apparently trying to serve dinner. As she said this, I was standing at the bottom of the stairs that went between the basement and the upstairs kitchen, and I saw movement from the corner of my eye. I turned to look up the stairs and saw the back portion of a lady in a long blue-patterned dress. I was quite startled and turned to look at Sara. She asked, “Did you see her?” I was astonished and must have shown it because my expression made Sara laugh.
At another paranormal investigation, there was a team member who happened to be in the basement. Mr. Tinker did not seem to like this person. I’m not sure if he was using provoking methods, but toward the end of the evening, one of the participants caught a very clear EVP on his digital phone. I heard the voice recording minutes after this incident took place. The hair on my arms raised when I heard a man’s voice clearly state, “Get out.”
There have been many incidents reported since by guests. They have heard children playing, been touched, noticed whistling and humming, and seen many full-bodied apparitions. In fact, the cottage has so much activity that it was featured on the Ghost Hunters show a couple of years ago.
During a tour right around Halloween, we had a number of people on the second floor. Steve Litteral was in Robert Tinker’s room while I was in what is now called Mary Tinker’s room. Suddenly, the lights shut off, and we were plunged into complete darkness. I had been co-hosting events in the building for years at this point and this had never occurred before. Steve went down to the basement in an attempt to determine what had happened. There were several members from a paranormal team attending the tour with their equipment. One of the young ladies that had joined us for the tour suddenly started to scream. I was in the same room and tried to maintain calm as I questioned her about what she was experiencing. She stated that something had touched her. I turned my flashlight on and saw that she was alone in the corner, eliminating the possibility of someone from the group having touched her.
It was at this moment that the lights came back on, and the girl stepped away from the corner she had been standing in. The investigators moved in with their equipment to see if they could detect any unusual readings. One of the men held an EMF detector, and when he stepped into the corner, his meter went off to indicate that something was causing the electromagnetic field in the room to spike higher. Some investigators believe that spirits manipulate energy in order to communicate and that these EMF detectors will signal when that is happening. Though most of the other participants were thrilled by the experience of that evening, the young girl was so shaken that she left the tour immediately.
The Tinker cottage has developed quite a reputation for being haunted over the years. Tinker Cottage still offers many events and invites Haunted Rockford to attend quite frequently. The paranormal investigations hosted for the public are always popular events and allow everyone who attends the chance to work with different paranormal teams to experience an actual investigation.
Some of the events have included psychics, and they all seem to agree that the Tinker family is still as much a presence today as ever in this home they were so proud of. There were no murders or suicides that took place here. They are just a family who loved their home and who still continue to occupy it.
They can get a little nasty when they are ready for their guests to leave, however. There have been reports of them throwing items at people. One story involved a young man who was in charge of a paranormal team at the time this story took place. He was exploring different techniques for this particular investigation. One thing he did prior to the start of the investigation was place several pennies around on different surfaces. Only he knew the year that was displayed on each of the pennies. He did this to ensure that no one else could sabotage his experiment.
He was investigating all alone in the house and decided to use some provoking techniques. He began making some not very polite comments about the family and their home while walking around in the downstairs portion of the library. Suddenly, he got a feeling that he was no longer welcomed in the room or the entire house, for that matter. He decided that it might be a good time for a break and walked through the house to leave by the kitchen door. Just as he reached the door, a penny sailed into the wall right by his head. He stated later that he scooped up the penny and tried to open the door. It didn’t open for a minute, and all the time, a heaviness was filling the room. By the time he got the door open and made it outside, he was very unsettled and shaking. He claimed that even though he did not normally smoke, he asked one of his teammates for a cigarette.
When he checked the date on the penny that flew at his head, he discovered it was the one he had placed in the upstairs portion of the library. The penny had somehow traveled down a flight of stairs and around several corners before slamming into the wall next to his head. The staff at the cottage no longer allows provoking techniques to be used during investigations. The staff have had several of their own experiences that they cannot explain. These experiences are usually playful in nature, except for a few times after a public event.
The Tinkers did so much for Rockford between their business and other pursuits. Their unique house still brings travelers to Rockford over 150 years after it was built. The fact that their spirits linger inside these walls is definitely a story worth sharing. I am often asked which haunted place in Rockford is the most active, and I have to say that Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum is definitely one of the top locations. Perhaps Robert himself put it best when he used a quote from a poem of Thomas Campbell on Mary’s headstone. It reads, “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.”
Tobias Wayland is a passionate Fortean who has been actively investigating the unusual for over a decade. The first several years of his investigative career were spent as a MUFON field investigator and following that he investigated independently prior to becoming the head writer and editor for The Singular Fortean Society. Tobias is a frequent guest on various podcasts and radio shows, has written several books and contributed articles to periodicals on the paranormal, has appeared on television and in documentaries, and is often invited to speak at paranormal conferences and events.
He was featured in season four of Unsolved Mysteries, the series premiere of Expedition X, and the Small Town Monsters documentaries Terror in the Skies and On the Trail of the Lake Michigan Mothman for his work investigating Mothman sightings in the Midwest. He and his wife Emily have been involved with the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation since its advent in the spring of 2017, and published a book chronicling the experience, The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest. His second and third books about unusual phenomena, Strange Tales of the Impossible and The Singular Fortean Society’s Yuletide Guide to High Strangeness, continue their work in investigating a variety of seemingly impossible events.
His years as an investigator have served him best by illustrating that when it comes to the anomalous, the preternatural, and the paranormal, any answers he’s found are still hopelessly outnumbered by questions.
Conference Presentation: Shadow Of The Mothman
Join investigator Tobias Wayland as he explores the strange phenomena often reported alongside winged humanoid sightings. From UFOs to poltergeists to shadow people, there is no shortage of high strangeness associated with the Mothman phenomenon. In this presentation, he’ll discuss a number of cases he has personally investigated and present hypotheses about what might be behind them.
Paul and Joe Giovingo and family. Courtesy of the Giovingo family.
The Police raids continued, and in 1930 a squad of federal agents was sent to the Rockford area. Agents from the United States Secret Service joined them. The Secret Service’s main interest was one of the gang leaders in Rockford, Tony Musso. They later learned that he moved out to California, and they followed Musso there. The leader of the task force, C. Edson Smith, who was a deputy prohibition administrator from Chicago, was kept busy organizing the raids. The gangs were feeling the pressure from the federal squad raids and the regular police. In the beginning of June, one such gang opened fire on the federal agents.
The federal agents were conducting a raid on a house on Sanford Street. It was a suspected distillery, and the agents were dismantling the equipment when they were almost “mowed down by a shower of machine gun bullets.” A car with curtains on the windows drove by, and suddenly there was the sound of machine gun fire. The bullets hit trees and the front of the house. No officers were hurt in this attack, but the act shocked the people of Rockford. “The mystery machine and the machine gunners were swallowed up by the night.” No arrests were ever made for this shooting, though police suspected that Dominick Rossi, who lived at 710 Sanford Street, was involved with the attempt on the officers’ lives.
On August 14, 1930, Joe Giovingo, a Rockford native, was standing on the curb by the corner of Morgan and South Main Streets talking to four men who were sitting in an automobile. One of the men was Tony Abbott. Abbott, whose real name was Abbatini, was reportedly part of Al Capone’s Gang from Chicago. Abbott allegedly killed one of “Bugs” Moran’s men, Jack Zuta, in Wisconsin and was in Rockford hiding out.
The scene of Joe Giovingo’s murder on South Main Street. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
As Joe was speaking to Abbott, two detectives standing on the sidewalk near the car called him over to question him. They wanted to talk to him about the recent raid at Giovingo’s home on Harding Street. The officers were Folke Bengsten and Roy Johnson.
Roy Johnson and Folke Bengsten inspecting the car Tony Abbot was sitting in when the shooting took place. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
They had just started to talk to Joe when a large “high-powered” Dodge sedan appeared on South Main Street. As it passed Abbott’s car, a shotgun was poked through the rear window, and shots were fired toward Abbott’s car and the three men on the sidewalk. The bullets struck the car that Abbott was sitting in. Abbott and the other men in the car scrambled out of the doors and hunched behind the car. Johnson hit the ground, and Bengsten ducked and then drew his gun to return fire. The car continued south on South Main and then turned onto Montague Road. Joe had seventeen wounds from the gunshot blast that had torn into his side. One slug hit his elbow first and then passed into his abdomen. He died a few minutes later.
The Dodge sedan was recovered the next day about a mile and a half from the city on Montague Road. This led the police to believe this was a premeditated hit. Bengsten and Johnson also reported that Abbott appeared nervous as he was sitting in his car prior to the attack. Abbott kept checking the rear view mirror as if looking for someone.
Deputy Chester Pence and Roy Johnson inspecting the car used in the Giovingo killing. From Midway Village Museum, Rockford, Illinois.
Police officers could not agree whether the bullets were meant for Abbott or Giovingo. Abbott and his bodyguards were taken into custody but later released. Family members of Giovingo would later say that Joe’s murder was a case of mistaken identity. They stated they knew that Abbott was the intended target because Al Capone actually called the Giovingo house to speak to Joe’s mother. Capone apologized that Joe had taken the bullet instead of the intended target.
Paul Giovingo, Joe’s brother, came to the station to speak to police and then left with Abbott. Paul and Abbott were apparently good friends. Paul hosted his brother’s funeral at his house at 1033 Montague Road. Joe’s funeral was one of Rockford’s largest, with over 1,500 people attending. There were 150 cars in the procession from the house to the Catholic cemetery. The scene was mass chaos, as police officers, gang leaders, city officials, police officials, friends and family all wandered around the yard, waiting to leave for the funeral. Joe’s mother and sister were hysterical, and their shrieking could be heard as the casket was loaded into the car. Members of the Italian Athletic Club acted as Joe’s pallbearers.
Paul Giovingo would testify in September at an inquest about his brother’s death, stating that Abbott was the true target of the assassin’s bullets. Giovingo also told the jury that Abbott had recently been killed by the same men who had shot Joe. Paul, suspected to have gang ties himself, would soon become the subject of the police’s interest.
Jack DeMarco was the next man to fall victim to the gang’s retaliation. Jack DeMarco was born in Italy on November 28, 1891. He immigrated to the United States around 1917 when he was twenty-five years old. A suspected bootlegger, Jack DeMarco was in and out of trouble during the early part of the 1930s. He was arrested on suspicion that he was the leader in a stolen car ring and also several times for bootlegging and fighting. In 1928, he and the suspected leader of one of the bootlegging gangs, Tony Musso, were arrested when they were caught fighting in the street in front of the cafe where Joe Giovingo would later be killed.
In June 1930, DeMarco was operating a still from his home on Romona Avenue when he was arrested and sent with other defendants to Freeport to stand before Stanley M. Vance, United States deputy commissioner. The trial would be one of the most “spectacular trials in the history of Northern Illinois.” Eighty men and one woman were charged with “conspiracy to violate the Prohibition Act.” Fifty-nine of those arrested were sent to trial. The trial, conducted in Freeport, Illinois, started on January 12, 1931, and lasted until February 2. Thirty-six men were found guilty, twenty-eight of them were sentenced to prison and the rest were either given short-term sentences or placed on probation. The names of the men sentenced are: John Alto, Joe Baraconi, Joe Bendetto, Joe Fizula, Frank Theodore, Andrew Saladino, Tony Giovingo, Paul Giovingo, Frank Rumore, Theodore LaFranka, Louis Verace, Joe Stassi, Thomas Rumore, Tony Musso, Joe Domino, Alfred Falzone, Lorenzo Buttice, Tony Carleto, Frank Buscemi and Peter Sanfillipo. DeMarco would be sent to Leavenworth to serve twelve months of an eighteen-month sentence. It was while serving his time at Leavenworth that rumors started to spread about one of the twenty-eight men talking to the federal agents.
Rockford woke on January 20, 1932, to headlines that announced that gunfire had once again been heard in the southwest neighborhood. “Gangland guns, still in Rockford for the last year, roared a leaden greeting of death to Jack DeMarco, forty six, a local bootlegger at his home at 7 o’clock last night.”
The story went on to say that DeMarco, who had been released from Leavenworth penitentiary the day before, was killed in his own home on Romona Avenue. Jack’s family and friends were hosting a welcome home party when three well-dressed men knocked on the kitchen door and asked to speak to Jack. They flashed badges and were admitted into the home.
Jack was in the dining room placing another record on the Victrola when the men entered the room. All three pulled guns, stated they were the police and asked to speak to Jack alone. One of the men shepherded the family members into a bedroom while another watched the kitchen door. The third man walked DeMarco into the living room. Jack had just enough time to state, “You’re no sheriff or police” before the man opened fire. Three shots roared from the gun in quick succession followed by two more. The next sounds the family members heard were running feet and a car roaring away.
They crawled out of the bedroom window and ran for safety. Sam Gorrenti, a neighbor and friend of the DeMarco family bravely poked his head into the living room.
The autopsy revealed that Jack had been shot once in the back, once in the back of the head, and then after he fell, he was shot twice through the left ear. One bullet lodged in the floor next to DeMarco’s head. All shots came from a .45-caliber revolver.
Jack had only been home for ten hours. His wife, Fannie, was devastated by the loss of her husband. She was too hysterical to be questioned by police. Coroner Walter Julian and State’s Attorney Karl Williams read the letters that Fannie received from Jack during his time at Leavenworth looking for clues about who might have wanted him dead.
Undertaker F.S. Long conducted the funeral inside DeMarco’s home on January 22, 1932. The little band of mourners made its way to the cemetery, where the coffin was opened for a final goodbye. Fannie DeMarco, who spent most of the funeral moaning, suddenly hurled herself into Jack’s coffin and, for the last time, kissed his lips. Sobbing uncontrollably, she was carried back to the car by her family.
The Register Republic article stated, “A lone sexton silently lowered the casket into the grave. The last tragic chapter had been written to Jack DeMarco’s ‘home-coming’ from Leavenworth, a brief celebration terminated by five bullets from the guns of gangland’s executioners last Tuesday night.” DeMarco’s murderers were never caught.
Paul Giovingo was another of the Rockford bootleggers to be sent to the Leavenworth penitentiary. He was sentenced to two years and was released in the fall of 1932. A lot had changed in Rockford during the time he was away. Since th3 1931 indictment had cleared many of the small dealers out of way in the illegal liquor business, the much larger, better organized and more powerful liquor syndicates from Peoria, Springfield and southern Wisconsin swept in to take control.
Giovingo was using strong-arm “buy your liquor from me or else” tactics and kept running into resistance from the local speakeasies. The tensions were building, and trouble seemed imminent. Things came to a head on February 12, 1933. At around 7:00 p.m., Giovingo went to get his shoes shined at Midway Shoe Shine Parlor on East State Street.
When Giovingo left the parlor, he stopped at his house at 1033 Montague Street to visit with his wife and children. He shaved and changed his suit before he left his house on the way to his “exclusive” speakeasy on South Main Street.
Paul never reached his destination. He must have suspected that something bad was coming because when police found his body, his gun, though unfired, was in his hand. There was supposedly a letter that had been delivered to the house the day before, warning Paul that he should stay home that night. Giovingo was only a block from his home on South Winnebago Street when his time finally ran out. His car had been forced against the curb between Loomis and Montague Streets and was riddled with shotgun and revolver blasts on the driver’s side and back of the car. Paul’s body had eight slugs in his left side and there were four gunshots to his head. His car was found next to the curb with the ignition turned off and the emergency brake set.
The killers must have wanted to ensure Paul’s death because evidence showed they stopped the car and fired several revolver shots to the back of his head. Powder marks indicated that these were contact wounds.
Even though a large crowd of people gathered at the death scene, no one could or would tell the police anything. The police talked of it like coming up against a wall—a wall of silence. The assistant chief of police, Homer Read, and police captain Charles Manson involved themselves in the investigation right from the beginning, but nothing could penetrate the wall. The investigation that started out very slow quickly ground to a complete stop.
The motive for the shooting was very clear. The Morning Star newspaper stated, “Giovingo’s career has been linked closely to the rise and fall of the liquor industry in Rockford. Paul was first known in Rockford as a barber, affable and efficient, and with a large following. Then the easy profits of the liquor business became apparent to him and he abandoned his trade to become a bootlegger.”
This was a decision that he would not live to regret. The regret would be carried by his family, a mother who had already buried one son due to violence and his wife, who was left to raise their two young sons, Sam, seven, and Elmer, five.
Even before Paul Giovingo died, the illegal booze racketeers were feeling the pressure from within and without. The rival gangs had just about killed each other off, and the police were taking advantage of the fact that the people of Rockford were tired of all the violence on their streets. The writing was on the wall.
The Twenty-first Amendment that repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (also known as the Prohibition Act) was submitted to the states on February 20, 1933, and was ratified on November 7, 1933. The illegal liquor business was, for all intents and purposes, finished. The violence in the streets of Rockford, unfortunately, was not.
Sources:
Rockford (IL) Morning Star. “Federal Seize Still and Owner in Beloit,” June 13, 1930. ___________. “Gang Dictator Slain Here.” February 12, 1933. ___________. “Jack DeMarco Shot to Death Here.” January 20, 1932. Rockford (IL) Register Republic. “Smiles Mingle with Tears as 21 Go to Prison.” February 21, 1931. Rockford (IL) Republic. “Hunt for Owner of Death Car Here.” August 16, 1930. ___________.”Local Man Slain from Death Auto.” August 15, 1930. ___________.“Murder Marks New Chapter in Old Liquor Feud.” January 20, 1932. ___________.”Paul Giovingo Is Victim of Alky Gunmen.” February 13, 1933. ___________.”Wife of Gangland Killer Victim Collapses at Grave Site.” January 22, 1932.
