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| 1896 |
Judge Goggin dismisses robbery charges brought against the "Kitty and Jenny Gang", Chicago prostitutes Kitty Adams and Jenny Clark. Goggin declares "Any man who goes down to the Levee [Chicago's red light district] deserves to get himself robbed." |
| 1898 |
Anonymous mailings of tainted Bromo-Seltzer poison two people associated with New York's elite Knickerbocker Club. Chemist and club member Roland B. Molineux is a prime suspect in the killings. |
| 1900 |
Butch Cassidy's "Wild Bunch" leaves a lasting impression in Winnemucca, Nevada. The gang, including one member who has been sprayed by a skunk, rob a local bank of $33,000. |
| 1901 |
 At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots President William McKinley. McKinley dies eight days later. |
| 1903 |
Spitting is punishable by arrest in New York City |
| 1904 |
 Smoking is also illegal in New York-if the smoker is a woman. |
| 1906 |
In a fit of rage over the alleged rape of his wife, model Evelyn Nesbit, wealthy socialite Harry K. Thaw shoots and kills architect Stanford White. |
| 1908 |
Police discover that widow Belle Gunness had killed not only her late husband, but as many as forty eligible bachelors she lured to her Indiana farm. |
| 1910 |
British evangelist Gipsy Smith succeeds in closing down the Everleigh sisters' brothel, the most luxurious bawdyhouse in Chicago and perhaps in the world. |
| 1916 |
Harry K. Thaw, who murdered Stanford White in 1906, is charged with the physical and sexual assault of nineteen year old Frederick B. Gump. Thaw's mother allegedly pays Gump family $500,000 to drop charges. |
| 1919 |
Chicago White Sox players throw the World's Series, earning the appellation "Black Sox" and lifetime suspensions from baseball. |
| 1920 |
 Following the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Prohibition begins. Within the borders of the United States, all forms of the demon rum are banned. |
| 1921 |
Famed Hollywood comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle arrested for the rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe. Despite an acquittal, Arbuckle's career is effectively finished. |
| 1923 |
Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior under Warren G. Harding, is accused of taking bribes in return for exclusive drilling rights to Teapot Dome, Wyoming federal oil reserves. Harding dies in August, his administration disgraced. |
| 1927 |
Despite international protest and allegations of perjury, evidence tampering, and judicial prejudice, Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for robbery and murder. |
| 1929 |
On February 14, Al Capone sends the most infamous valentine ever. Scarface Al's henchmen machinegun seven members of rival Bugs Moran's gang in a Chicago garage. |
| 1934 |
After a string of robberies in which they murdered more than half a dozen lawmen, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are shot and killed by Texas Rangers.
"Public Enemy Number 1" John Dillinger is shot dead outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.
"
Pretty Boy" Floyd, bank robber, is shot dead in Ohio.
Shortly after succeeding Dillinger as Public Enemy Number 1, Lester J. Gillis, AKA Baby Face Nelson, dies of wounds sustained in a gun battle with the FBI in Barrington, Illinois. |
