Chicago's First Crime King: Michael Cassius McDonald

By Kelly Pucci

Michael Cassius McDonald arrived in Chicago as a teenage scam artist who quickly sketched a blueprint for running the city through its criminal underworld. Chicago's original mob boss, he procured presidential pardons, stuffed mayoral ballot boxes and operated the town's plushest gambling parlor. But he was also a philanthropist who befriended Clarence Darrow, employed Theodore Dreiser, promoted the World's Fair and funded the Lake Street L. His scandalous private life mirrored the tumult of his career, with more than one marriage mired in a love triangle and a murder trial. Kelly Pucci charts the rise of Chicago's first kingpin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Apr 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781439666722

Kelly Pucci

Kelly Pucci is a board member of the St. Joseph County Historical Society and a contributor to the Sturgis Journal. She specializes in subjects such as beekeeping, true crime and coming of age ceremonies in the South Pacific. This is Kelly's second book; Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison (Arcadia Publishing), published in 2007, is her first publication. She currently lives in Colon, Michigan, the Magic Capital of the World.