Old Crime Statistics


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Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: Kchi (---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: November 18, 2013 11:21AM

Does anybody know of a resource for old Chicago crime statistics? What I am curious about is when the proliferation of drug and drug related crimes started to rise.

What brought this to mind, is that one of my other interests is listening to old time radio programs I download to ,my Ipod. Currently I have been listening to the old Dragnet radio series from the 50's. What surprised me are the number of stories dealing with heroin and even heroin being sold in schools.

I was too young for the anti Vietnam war and the Hippy culture, but I always assumed that it was in the 60s that the drug culture mushroomed.

Does anybody who may have been in high school in the 50s remember drugs being a issue?


Anybody who may be interested in old time radio and other digital public domain media can visit the archive at this website:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22Old%20Time%20Radio%20Researchers%20Group%22

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: Dunning1 (216.81.94.---)
Date: November 18, 2013 11:39AM

I have often heard that cocaine was quite a problem back in the 1930's, but the information I heard was mostly hearsay from people who lived back then. I was also surprised to hear that back during those days Prague was the cocaine capital of the world, not South America as is today. I heard specifically that there was a lot of cocaine traffic in and around the 22nd Street strip of Cicero, but again, it was hearsay from people who lived there back then.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: WayOutWardell (199.101.76.---)
Date: November 18, 2013 01:14PM

There's a great website via Northwestern that has homicide stats from 1870-1930 in a searchable database that might be of some help, as the police reports have been entered as they were originall written. I've poerd over this site for hours and hours. It would be interesting to see what would come up (and where) if you typed in something like 'heroin'.

[url=http://homicide.northwestern.edu/]Homicide In Chicago, 1870-1930[/url]

In regards to the illicit drug trade, the Wikipedia page for the 1917 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act says in part:
[i]'The act also marks the beginning of the creation of the modern, criminal drug addict and the American black market for drugs. Within five years the Rainey Committee, a Special Committee on Investigation appointed by Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo and led by Congressman T. Rainey, reported in June, 1919[15] that drugs were being smuggled into the country by sea, and across the Mexican and Canadian borders by nationally established organisations[16] and that the United States consumed 470,000 pounds of opium annually, compared to 17,000 pounds in both France and Germany.'[/i]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2013 10:52PM by WayOutWardell.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: nordsider (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 18, 2013 06:27PM

This may be of some help; it will give a summary of crime history at an address, or street intersection:

http://www.chicagoancestors.org/#tab-search



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2013 06:54PM by nordsider.

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Reefer Madness
Posted by: davey7 (---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: November 19, 2013 04:44PM

Fears of drug usage have been around for a while, witness films such as Reefer Madness or other, earlier, fears. The biggest of all was the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) which was against alcohol, among other things.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: GerryHonore (---.cust.wildblue.net)
Date: February 20, 2014 07:07AM

Back in 1972 when Chicago had around three times as many murders as nowaday, I was 11 years old and biked all around the south side. No cell phone, no problem. Did it often, biked from 55th ashland to midway airport, or to marquette park , whatever. Amidst 900 murders. Nobody thought my bike rides were dangerous.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: Richard Stachowski (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 20, 2014 08:10PM

[b]I went to Tilden Tech in the 50;s and drugs were not an issue.[/b]

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: davey7 (---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: February 21, 2014 11:54AM

I think the recent "hysteria" was the heroin epidemic in the early 70's, but that was largely perception, like the crack hysteria. I went to a CPS HS in the late 80's and, like Richard, drugs were a non-issue.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: tomcat630 (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 28, 2014 02:59AM

1974 was a record year with over 1000 murders. But, they were not as many drive bys or stray bullets. Population was still over 3 million, so per capita was about the same, [maybe].

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: Jamie (---.169.108.206.static.addr.dsl4u.ca)
Date: March 28, 2014 08:50PM

WayOutWardell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's a great website via Northwestern that has
> homicide stats from 1870-1930 in a searchable
> database that might be of some help, as the police
> reports have been entered as they were originall
> written. I've poerd over this site for hours and
> hours. It would be interesting to see what would
> come up (and where) if you typed in something like
> 'heroin'.
>
> Homicide In Chicago, 1870-1930
>
> In regards to the illicit drug trade, the
> Wikipedia page for the 1917 Harrison Narcotics Tax
> Act says in part:
> 'The act also marks the beginning of the creation
> of the modern, criminal drug addict and the
> American black market for drugs. Within five years
> the Rainey Committee, a Special Committee on
> Investigation appointed by Secretary of the
> Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo and led by
> Congressman T. Rainey, reported in June, 1919[15]
> that drugs were being smuggled into the country by
> sea, and across the Mexican and Canadian borders
> by nationally established organisations[16] and
> that the United States consumed 470,000 pounds of
> opium annually, compared to 17,000 pounds in both
> France and Germany.'


Well I took you up on that and typed in "cocaine" (someone mentioned it earlier in the thread) and got this:

Bunnell, Frank - 29 yrs. - Died from cocaine poisoning, at 2801 LaSalle St., rear; 3rd Pct. 8/6/14 Eugene Hueston (Col.) held by Coroner for murder together with Will Willams (Col.) & Henry Watson as accessories. Aug. 1914 No bills (3).

There is even a wee link to get more details. Super interesting! B)

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: rjmachon (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 04, 2014 08:10PM

That is true about the cocaine use back in the 1930's. My Mom told me stories about people she knew doing coke and pot back then. Let's face it, drugs has been around for a long time and people has been doing them as well. There was pot smoking going on when I grew up but there was never any issues about it. Coke got very popular around 1979 from what I can remember along with ludes, mushrooms,etc.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: nordsider (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: December 29, 2014 04:06PM

deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2014 11:03PM by nordsider.

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Re: Old Crime Statistics
Posted by: nordsider (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: December 30, 2014 02:15PM

deleted

My apology for the deletions; but I have had second thoughts regarding their appropriateness for this topic. :-)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2014 07:49PM by nordsider.

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