OT: One of the Strangest - Yet Oddly Cool - Auctions I Have Seen

[esquirecomics]

Offered by MastroAuctions.com.

 

The Gallows of Cook County, Chicago

 

Already at almost $31,000 (after starting at $5,000) with four days to go!

 

 

LOT DESCRIPTION:

 

For 56 years, the Cook County gallows waited for one man: Terrible Tommy O'Connor. He was a robber, a murderer, a cop-killer, a death row inmate and—just four days before facing his fate at the hangman's noose on December 15, 1921—a prison escapee. Swiping a guard's gun and scaling the walls of the Cook County Jail, he disappeared into the night and was never seen again. In 1927, when the state legislature changed the legal method of execution to the electric chair, O'Connor was the last Illinois convict with a sentence to be hanged. Were it not for his absence, Cook County's suddenly obsolete gallows might have been reduced to firewood. But the county stored the timber structure in its Criminal Courts Building for more than a half-century, just in case Terrible Tommy should ever be apprehended and his sentence fulfilled. It never happened. Each year, on the anniversary of his escape, the local newspapers ran headlines asking "Where's Tommy?" One theory said he returned to his native Ireland and fought in the Black and Tan Wars; another that he turned Trappist monk; yet another that he fled to Mexico. O'Connor's infamous story became fodder for a Broadway play and three silver-screen films—His Girl Friday (1940), The Front Page (1974) and Switching Channels (1988). By the late 1970s, when all hope was lost of finding the 87-year-old criminal (were he even still alive), a judge ordered that the gallows be officially retired and sold to the highest bidder. A Wild West museum in Union, Illinois purchased the instrument of death for an undisclosed amount in 1977, and it has remained on display there ever since.

 

All of this is to explain the gallows' years of non-usage, but what of its history of executions? Amazingly, the immense structure, with its sturdy crossbar and trapdoor platform, was originally built to accommodate the cinched necks and kicking feet of four men convicted in the 1886 bombing of Chicago's Haymarket Square. The so-called Haymarket Riot began as a labor strike by employees at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company advocating an eight-hour workday. A few picketers were shot by the police after a fight had broken out, and a retaliatory bomb explosion succeeded in killing several officers as well as inciting further violence against the workers. Eleven people died and more than a hundred were injured in the incident. Although the bomb-thrower could not be identified, eight labor activists were convicted of the crime, seven of whom were sentenced to execution, and four of whom were put to death on November 11, 1887, at the Cook County gallows: Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel. (An engraving of the morbid scene appeared one week later in Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and can be viewed on-line at the Chicago Historical Society's "Haymarket Affair Digital Collection.")

 

Among Cook County's more than 40 documented executions by hanging between 1887 and 1927, other high-profile figures include Patrick Prendergast (7/13/1894), a deranged newsman who assassinated Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago; Johann Otto Hoch (2/23/1906), a "Bluebeard"-like serial killer who used various aliases to marry and murder as many as 50 different women; Thomas Jennings (2/16/1912), the first convicted murderer to be executed in the U.S. based on the forensic evidence of fingerprint identification; and Carl Wanderer (9/30/1921), a former World War I hero who hired a "ragged stranger" to rob his home so that Wanderer could impress his pregant wife by foiling the plan, but who instead murdered both the bandit and his wife.

 

Reams of accompanying paperwork feature a spreadsheet of the known hangings listed by name and date; numerous printouts describing the Haymarket riot and the nefarious lives of Terrible Tommy O'Connor and his fellow death row notables; and various pertinent newspaper articles from the past three decades (beginning with the Chicago Tribune's 1977 coverage of Cook County's public sale of the gallows).

 

As previously stated, this monumental and macabre offering currently belongs to an Illinois museum. While one might guess that another museum or historical society would be the winning bidder come auction night, it is entirely possible that a private collector, or even a crime-themed restaurant or amusement park, may be best suited to own the grim, ghostly gallows.

 

Dimensions: 14' wide, 12' deep, 6' to the top of the platform from the ground, 9' to the top of the crossbeam from the top of the platform. Overall height is 15'.

 

Please note: Only the beams constitute the original gallows. Also, due to its size and current location, this lot will not be shipped and must be disassembled and picked up by the winning bidder in Union, Illinois.

[shrunkenhead]

Wow....my wife's sleeping at the moment, but when I show her this she's going to freak. She's totally obsessed with the lore of the Illinois underworld (her family's got some bootleggin' ancestry).

[october]

Weird!

[sterlingcomics]

Dark...I love it.

 

I can see this being parked in somebody's yard with a no solicitation sign.

[squidmo2000]

[nearmint]

It'd look nice in the back yard, between the barbecue and the inflatable pool.

[Mad Dog]

Think of how many nice comics you could buy for 31K ..

[Mad Dog]

It'd look nice in the back yard, between the barbecue and the inflatable pool.

 

Would be great to have around at Halloween huh

[lizards2]

Great for the kiddies to play on. Give some ooomph to the cowboy and indian games...,

[Silvers24]

So, are the ropes original? Or have they been replaced?

It definatly would be a "fun house" for those young and innocent kids.

[Wally's Comics]

It'd look nice in the back yard, between the barbecue and the inflatable pool.

 

Would be great to have around at Halloween huh

 

you probably wouldn't get many trick or treaters...

 

 

[shadroch]

Be great to go with an inground pool. Swing off the ropes.....

[ShoNuff-migration]

Please note: Only the beams constitute the original gallows.

Wouldn't this mean that something like 80 to 90 percent of it is actually reconstructed/restored?

[ComicBookGuy]

Offered by MastroAuctions.com.

 

The Gallows of Cook County, Chicago

 

Already at almost $31,000 (after starting at $5,000) with four days to go!

 

 

.

 

Mark, this would go well in your backyard. It could give a whole new meaning to all those "swinging" parites at your house. Might also discourage potential thieves from "hanging" around...

[Comicdey]

I'd be adding a few tires to prevent unauthorized useage.

[esquirecomics]

Offered by MastroAuctions.com.

 

The Gallows of Cook County, Chicago

 

Already at almost $31,000 (after starting at $5,000) with four days to go!

 

 

.

 

Mark, this would go well in your backyard. It could give a whole new meaning to all those "swinging" parites at your house. Might also discourage potential thieves from "hanging" around...

 

This is one of those items that if you have cash to burn (which I don't unfortunately) you buy just for the conversation!

[lizards2]

This is one of those items that if you have cash to burn (which I don't unfortunately) you buy just for the conversation!

 

Your cocktail parties must be a blast!

[esquirecomics]

This is one of those items that if you have cash to burn (which I don't unfortunately) you buy just for the conversation!

 

Your cocktail parties must be a blast!

 

They can get interesting, especially when many of the guests have covert identities. You can usually figure out who is in the spy game when they only tell you their first name and won't say who they work for (which, in Washington, D.C., is a question everyone asks!).

[lizards2]

This is one of those items that if you have cash to burn (which I don't unfortunately) you buy just for the conversation!

 

Your cocktail parties must be a blast!

 

They can get interesting, especially when many of the guests have covert identities. You can usually figure out who is in the spy game when they only tell you their first name and won't say who they work for (which, in Washington, D.C., is a question everyone asks!).

 

Here, come play on my new swingset..........,

[esquirecomics]

Offered by MastroAuctions.com.

 

The Gallows of Cook County, Chicago

 

Already at almost $31,000 (after starting at $5,000) with four days to go!

 

 

LOT DESCRIPTION:

 

For 56 years, the Cook County gallows waited for one man: Terrible Tommy O'Connor. He was a robber, a murderer, a cop-killer, a death row inmate and—just four days before facing his fate at the hangman's noose on December 15, 1921—a prison escapee. Swiping a guard's gun and scaling the walls of the Cook County Jail, he disappeared into the night and was never seen again. In 1927, when the state legislature changed the legal method of execution to the electric chair, O'Connor was the last Illinois convict with a sentence to be hanged. Were it not for his absence, Cook County's suddenly obsolete gallows might have been reduced to firewood. But the county stored the timber structure in its Criminal Courts Building for more than a half-century, just in case Terrible Tommy should ever be apprehended and his sentence fulfilled. It never happened. Each year, on the anniversary of his escape, the local newspapers ran headlines asking "Where's Tommy?" One theory said he returned to his native Ireland and fought in the Black and Tan Wars; another that he turned Trappist monk; yet another that he fled to Mexico. O'Connor's infamous story became fodder for a Broadway play and three silver-screen films—His Girl Friday (1940), The Front Page (1974) and Switching Channels (1988). By the late 1970s, when all hope was lost of finding the 87-year-old criminal (were he even still alive), a judge ordered that the gallows be officially retired and sold to the highest bidder. A Wild West museum in Union, Illinois purchased the instrument of death for an undisclosed amount in 1977, and it has remained on display there ever since.

 

All of this is to explain the gallows' years of non-usage, but what of its history of executions? Amazingly, the immense structure, with its sturdy crossbar and trapdoor platform, was originally built to accommodate the cinched necks and kicking feet of four men convicted in the 1886 bombing of Chicago's Haymarket Square. The so-called Haymarket Riot began as a labor strike by employees at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company advocating an eight-hour workday. A few picketers were shot by the police after a fight had broken out, and a retaliatory bomb explosion succeeded in killing several officers as well as inciting further violence against the workers. Eleven people died and more than a hundred were injured in the incident. Although the bomb-thrower could not be identified, eight labor activists were convicted of the crime, seven of whom were sentenced to execution, and four of whom were put to death on November 11, 1887, at the Cook County gallows: Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and George Engel. (An engraving of the morbid scene appeared one week later in Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and can be viewed on-line at the Chicago Historical Society's "Haymarket Affair Digital Collection.")

 

Among Cook County's more than 40 documented executions by hanging between 1887 and 1927, other high-profile figures include Patrick Prendergast (7/13/1894), a deranged newsman who assassinated Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago; Johann Otto Hoch (2/23/1906), a "Bluebeard"-like serial killer who used various aliases to marry and murder as many as 50 different women; Thomas Jennings (2/16/1912), the first convicted murderer to be executed in the U.S. based on the forensic evidence of fingerprint identification; and Carl Wanderer (9/30/1921), a former World War I hero who hired a "ragged stranger" to rob his home so that Wanderer could impress his pregant wife by foiling the plan, but who instead murdered both the bandit and his wife.

 

Reams of accompanying paperwork feature a spreadsheet of the known hangings listed by name and date; numerous printouts describing the Haymarket riot and the nefarious lives of Terrible Tommy O'Connor and his fellow death row notables; and various pertinent newspaper articles from the past three decades (beginning with the Chicago Tribune's 1977 coverage of Cook County's public sale of the gallows).

 

As previously stated, this monumental and macabre offering currently belongs to an Illinois museum. While one might guess that another museum or historical society would be the winning bidder come auction night, it is entirely possible that a private collector, or even a crime-themed restaurant or amusement park, may be best suited to own the grim, ghostly gallows.

 

Dimensions: 14' wide, 12' deep, 6' to the top of the platform from the ground, 9' to the top of the crossbeam from the top of the platform. Overall height is 15'.

 

Please note: Only the beams constitute the original gallows. Also, due to its size and current location, this lot will not be shipped and must be disassembled and picked up by the winning bidder in Union, Illinois.

 

Bidding closed at $56,918.00 + 20% BP for a total of $68,301.60!