100 Years Ago Today--The Death (and Life) of Earl J. Weiss

 

On October 11, 1926, Chicago was experiencing a normal autumn day. The sky was overcast, the wind coming off the lake made the crisp breeze feel even cooler and at four o’clock on State Street, the sun was already getting low enough in the sky to remind everyone that before long it would be dark at five. When a Cadillac pulled up outside Holy Name Cathedral, no one on the street thought anything of it. The five men getting out of the car certainly didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary. 

    Out of the car stepped attorney, W.W. O’Brien, his assistant, Benjamin Jacobs, the driver and bodyguard, Sam Pellar, a gangster named Paddy Murray and the head of the Northside Gang, Earl J. Weiss, known to the papers as “Hymie” Weiss. Weiss was in a good mood as he started to cross the street, making his way to his office above Schofield’s Flower Shop where he and before him, his best friend and mentor, Dean O’Banion had run the Northsider’s operations. But half way there, the peaceful, ordinary afternoon was shattered, the sound of machine guns tearing through the air as, from a nearby window, Capone gunmen open fired. 

Paddy Murray died instantly, O’Brien, Jacobs, and Peller were all hit but survived. Weiss, the target of the attack, somehow managed to initially survive the seven gun shot wounds, one of which pierced his skull. He was rushed to the hospital but died on the way. He left behind his mother, father, two brothers and a sister, a girlfriend and countless friends. He also left behind control of the Northside gang but he would not have been surprised. 

Earl J. Weiss had essentially baited Capone, between his attack on him as the Hawthorne Hotel and then again at the peace talks a few days later, where, insulted by Capone’s insistence that everything could be made better with power, territory, and money, and his refusal to hand over the two remaining killers of O’Banion, he told him there would never be peace and stormed out. He then proceeded to buy his girlfriend and her mother an apartment and fully furnish it, he re-examined his will, he settled certain accounts, and tried to behave outwardly normal. Or as normal as one can when they know they are running out of time.

In 1924, Weiss had been diagnosed with something, usually credited as arterial cancer, though his symptoms bare a striking resemblance to systemic tuberculosis, made worse by heart trouble inherited through his family history. For years, he had suffered debilitating migraines, fainting spells, and, in at least one case, a seizure. Whatever it was, it was terminal. He would have had somewhere around two years to live, if he was lucky. Or stubborn. By the way, other words for stubborn are willful and resilient. All three of those words don’t really encompass the sheer willpower of Earl J. Weiss. Because since he was a child, life had thrown everything it had at him and he had stood back up and kept going, the chip on his shoulder getting bigger and bigger.

Born as Henryk Wojciechowski January 25, 1898 in Chicago, Illinois to Mary and William, he was the youngest of six siblings. Joe, born in 1889 the oldest and then Bruno, in 1890 were born in New York. The family moved to Chicago shortly after Bruno’s birth and then in 1894, Mary gave birth to twins, Filix (who would, before long, become Fred) and Walter. The exact date is unknown but between 1894 and 1900, Walter passed away as Mary answered the census taker saying she had given birth to six children but only five were living. In 1896, the family’s only daughter, Walerya (soon to be known as Violet) was born. And then, two years later, the final baby arrived. 

William Weiss ran a saloon on Division Street and Mary ran one on Austin Avenue, next door to where the family lived. Earl would have lived with his mother on Austin, though, likely he traveled to the saloon on Division as well and, as most children in his neighborhood did, everywhere in between. He grew up around the saloon patrons and while most of them were likely not on the wrong side of the law, several most likely were. By all accounts, Earl was extremely intelligent, even as an adult he was considered to have a brilliant mind, loved reading, discussing history and religion, and in his pocket he would always carry a bible that had been given to him as a child. 

Growing up in the environment he did, with an ill tempered and mostly absent father, it’s no wonder he was a little jaded, but then at the end of 1912, his oldest brother Joe was arrested after shooting and killing a man, in an attempt to defend another man in his father’s saloon. He was acquitted in 1913, but Joseph Weiss, who had been suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis found his condition severely worsened from the stress and moved to a hospital in New Mexico for treatment where he died just days before Christmas that same year. The effect on fifteen year old Earl must have been immense, not just watching his brother go through a trial for murder and the stress his family would have gone through as well as the grief of losing him and how it would have devastated his already struggling family. 

Tragedy struck the family again in 1916 when on January 25, Violet gave birth a month early to a still born baby boy at the house she shared with her husband, Philip Monahan, and her mother, Mary.
There isn’t evidence of Earl being arrested before the year 1918. His brother, Fred, on the other hand, was arrested at least twice, once for robbing a post office in 1917 and another for stealing cars in February of 1918. Shortly after his arrest, before anything could come of it, he was drafted into World War I. 

All the while, Earl was working as a truck driver for the Seiban Breweries. What would have happened had he not been denied by the draft board for what they deemed to be a weak heart (he would never agree with them, thinking it shouldn’t have mattered) and he had followed his brother to war, we will never know. What did happen was that Earl J. Weiss, stayed in Chicago and at twenty years old and had faced more than enough hardship to bring much older men to their knees. Instead, he made the acquaintance of one Dean O’Banion and O’Banion’s mentor, Charles Reiser, who taught them the art of safe blowing, which Weiss suited to exact amounts and organization and being of a meticulous nature, was far more natural at than his new friend (Dean O’Banion once managed to blow the wall off a bank and leave the vault unharmed). 

Weiss and O’Banion were a study in opposites. O’Banion was naturally impulsive at all times, jovial, friendly, and naturally charismatic. Weiss was, by nature, quieter and more thoughtful, unless provoked. O’Banion was smart, but not quite the same way Earl was, O’Banoin didn’t have the patience for learning that that the other had or the self control to not come in headfirst without thinking of the consequences. But they were natural business partners and the best of friends. Earl adored Dean and the feeling was mutual (though one can imagine the internal screaming when Dean decided to shoot Davey Miller in public for a perceived insult).

The two found great success in bootlegging. Dean, with his shares of the flower shop and his work with the flowers and customers was happy to run the more adventurous and outwardly visible aspects of the enterprise, while Weiss was in charge of the actual business parts of it. Their two friends Victor D’Ambrosio alias Vincent Drucci and George Moran rounded out the quartet that ran the Northside Gang. 

But in 1924, after a hundred insults and arguments with the Genna Gang and a lack of help from Johnny Torrio who was supposed to be making sure everyone stayed in their territory, The Northsider’s decided to put an end to their alliance with the other gangs and double crossed Torrio in the Sieban Brewery Raid. The plan was most likely Earl’s and so in November when Torrio okayed the murder of O’Banion, he felt not only an immense sense of loss but guilt as well. He collapsed in his mother’s bathroom and George Moran remembered him saying “All I have in the world is gone.” 

A few days later, he seemed to have recovered something of his defiance, when, while being questioned about his friend’s murder, he was asked by Detective Shoemaker of the Chicago Police, “If you knew anything about this case would you tell me?” 

Weiss looked at him and shook his head. “To be perfectly frank, I guess I wouldn’t.” Weiss even refrained from causing a scene at the funeral when Torrio and Al Capone showed up. It wasn’t until January 24, 1925, that they attempted to murder Torrio in front of his house as revenge for Dean’s death. 

It was a plan that was actually going well. Weiss and Moran waited for Anna Torrio, the Outfit’s boss, to be safely out of the way with their dog, before firing on him and as Moran ran up to fire a final shot, his gun jammed as a laundry truck turned the corner, causing Drucci to honk and the Northsiders to flee and giving Torrio his chance of survival. His wife saved his life, not once but twice, by giving strict instructions at the hospital that no one was allowed in except family. And it was a wonderful initiative because, in a burst of uncharacteristic impulsivity, Earl Weiss turned up at the hospital asking to visit him, with a car full of gangsters outside. The nurse told him to leave and threatened to call the cops. Swearing, he left. 

In May of that year, Weiss was imprisoned in McHenry County jail, though he still ran the Northside Gang from his cell. And for the next year and a half he would build it up into a bigger and better business with contacts all over the country. 

For a year and a half, and through the Hawthorne attack and the peace talks, all the way up to his death, Earl J. Weiss, kept picking himself up and pushed forward with an outward determination that most people will never be able to possess. He managed to add six months to his prognosis and it’s probable he could have added even more; he certainly wasn’t going to let illness take him out. And it’s why even after seven gunshot wounds, at least one of which would have been instantly fatal to anyone else, he held on to life for just a little bit longer.

Except even he, as stubborn as he was, would have been getting tired of fighting and wanted a rest. On the way to the hospital, one hundred years ago today, Earl J. Weiss, finally, finally, finally, stopped fighting his way forward and let himself rest. 

Binder, J. J. (2017). Al Capone’s beer wars : a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during prohibition. Prometheus Books.

Chicago Tribune. (1926, October 12). Hymie Weiss Slain. Chicago Tribune, 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/355134658/

Chicago history museum. (2017). Chicago History Museum. https://www.chicagohistory.org/

Hymie Weiss. (n.d.). Www.Myalcaponemuseum.Com. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from https://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id89.htm

Keefe, R. (2003). Guns and Roses. Turner Publishing Company.

Keefe, R. (2005). The Man who Got Away The Bugs Moran Story : a Biography. Cumberland House Publishing.

National Archives. (2024). National archives. Archives.Gov. https://www.archives.gov/

100 Years Ago Today: The Hawthorne Hotel Attack

 One hundred years ago today was the beginning of a short lived truce in the Chicago gang wars that had plagued the city, well, since the start of prohibition, yes, but for two years in bloodier and more brazen ways than the before. It is also the beginning of the end for someone else and I believe he knew it. 

On September 20, 1926, the infamous Al Capone was eating at the Hawthorne Hotel and Restaurant in Cicero. Outside a lone black car pulled up and fired wildly into the air. A warning possibly to bystanders and a way to get those dining inside to flee. Moments later, seven more cars, like a funeral procession, drove in front of the building. Each fired machine guns into the facade of the hotel. One man shot emptied his weapon from a spot on the sidewalk, unmissable and unmistakable in his boldness. At the end of the caravan, another man, Pete Gusenburg, got out of the car, and as carefully as he could fired so as not to hit a single pedestrian or bystander. His only aim was to hit Capone. Then, ammunition depleted, he returned to the car and the caravan shot off. 

The second man, Pete, is important to the story of Chicago. But the one who made himself the target of Capone’s hatred that day, the man who put himself at center stage for the sake of calling down hellfire, he is the one most associated with the Hawthorne Hotel Attack. And that's the way he wanted it. Earl J. Weiss, known to the press as Hymie Weiss, had a point to make and a score to settle.

After the murder of the first Northside Gang leader, Dean O’Banion, Weiss had taken over as the boss. While, for all intents and purposes, Weiss, Vincent Drucci, and George Moran ran the business together, Weiss was the final word. Vincent was the one who handled the press for him, he didn’t mind the spotlight like Weiss. That’s why in most newspaper articles of the time, you read ‘Drucci and Weiss,’ or ‘Weiss, a member of the Schemer Drucci gang.’ Despite what the press said, Weiss was building the Northside’s bootlegging business and growing it into one that, had he lived, could have rivaled that of the Capone led Outfit. But history didn’t play out that way.

In August of 1926, the body of Al Capone’s driver/bodyguard was found by two boys. The man had been tortured and then murdered with an axe. Because of the general reputation, the press jumped on the idea, in true 1920’s fashion, that it was the Northside gang who had kidnapped him in February, the aim being to get his schedule. The police, who really should have known better, didn’t do much to refute this, and so, the murder of Anthony Cuiringione has long been associated with Weiss and Drucci. Except, it doesn’t fit them–or the Northside gangs–in any way. The Northsiders, founded on friendship and loyalty because that’s what the four bosses were first, friends, followed a strict moral code. No unnecessary murder being one of the top rules. Torture was not done, it was needless and besides that none of them had the attention span or the patience for something like that. Spending hours watching a house and robbing their safe? Yes. Torture to get information that probably wouldn’t get the correct information anyway? No. 

But Capone with multiple people whispering in his ear, well and truly believed that Weiss had done or at least ordered this. And he was paranoid as it was, on August 10th, when Weiss and Drucci were walking down the street, Capone gunmen drove by and opened fire. Weiss ran. Drucci was arrested trying to ride off on the running boards of a passing car (Drucci was nothing if not stylish) and was later bailed out by Mary Weiss, Earl’s mother. Neither had been hit but the damage was done. Because there was nothing that Weiss cared about more than his friends and family. Drucci, who drove him crazy, pranked him, supported him, and had been through everything with him, was one of his best friends. Besides, anyone could have been injured when the men fired. What if a bystander had been hit? The Outfit might not care, but The Northside did. Besides, Earl hadn’t been bent on vengeance, not really, since he got out of jail, the previous year. He was busy with business, his girlfriend, Jo, his family, and the boat he had down in Miami. Not to mention he was dying of an illness on top of it. So, knowing that Capone would never agree to peace as long as he was alive, Earl did the only thing he could think of: put a giant target on his back. 

The Hawthorne Attack was doomed to failure. It’s clearly ridiculous. Bold, brash, brazen? Yes. Reckless, stupid, and most likely to completely miss the target? Also, yes. Unorganized and poorly planned? No. Because it was planned with failure in mind. Not wanted, no. He didn’t want to fail. But if it was going to, it was going to fail well. 

Earl Weiss got his start as an autobandit and then as a safecracker, specializing in nitroglycerine. And he was good at it. Much better than Dean O’Banion. He was meticulous, intelligent and when not caught up in his temper, efficient and terrifyingly brilliant. The Hawthorne Attack plan has none of the indicators that he came up with it. It doesn’t even seem like a Vincent Drucci scheme, once one really looks at it. It’s not nearly invasive enough for Drucci. No, this with its absolute ludicrous design sounds more like George Moran. But it was the perfect way for Earl to get the Outfit’s attention. 

There is no chance of an innocent bystander being hit (the woman who claimed to have been hit the eye wasn’t believed by police, having been just fine immediately after the hit and was most likely paid by Capone to make the Northside look worse). When The Northsiders, Weiss, Drucci, and Moran, famously attacked Torrio in 1925 they made sure his wife and dog were out of the way before they fired. That was the last of the revenge shootings that Earl would have a hand in until Ammatuna, towards the end of that year, when the gunman was none other than Frank Gusenburg, the gunman from the Hawthorne Attack’s brother. And no one except Ammatuna was shot, it was quick, efficient and to the point. Those two, most likely planned by Weiss, show that he didn’t have any desire for anyone unnecessary to get hurt. Hence, the first shooter. To get everyone out of the way. And all the other shooters, to get everyone out of the way. And then himself. He could control where he shot. As for the last gunman, Pete Gusenburg, he hated his job and would have done everything in his power to miss anyone that was not Capone or the Outfit. A fact Weiss would have known and taken into account.

Besides that, he didn’t hide that it was him and he didn’t hide after words either. He knew exactly what he was doing. He could not have been more obvious if he stood on the sidewalk, with a blowhorn and giant neon sign yelling “Hey! Fat man! Look what I’m doing! Come and get me!” But he got what he wanted. He had signed his own death warrant.

Despite one last attempt at peace talks, most likely begged for by Tony Lombardo, Earl Weiss would be dead in almost exactly three weeks. 

Which poses the question of how we remember that day? Was it a magnificent failure of a hit? Or was it a brilliant success of a trap laid for himself? I prefer the latter but you can make your own decision

Sources: 

Binder, J. J. (2017). Al Capone’s beer wars : a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during prohibition. Prometheus Books.

Hymie Weiss. (n.d.). Www.Myalcaponemuseum.Com. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from https://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id89.htm

Keefe, R. (2003). Guns and Roses. Turner Publishing Company.

Keefe, R. (2005). The Man who Got Away The Bugs Moran Story : a Biography. Cumberland House Publishing.

And a special thank you to Vanesa Montacuto for sharing her love of the Northsiders with me and for listening to me ramble about my theories about the Earl Weiss and Victor D’Ambrosio.

An Apology to Robert S Bader

To Mr. Bader,

At the end of 2024 (and I mean the 31st, it was the very last book I finished last year), I read and ranted to several people about your book Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother. According to me, it was clear that many people, including yourself, were quick to forgive Zeppo for all the absolutely horrible things he did. Now, you fully admit that Zeppo is your favorite Marx Brother, and I'll be honest, mine is the one who comes across as your least favorite, Chico. You can see that I was going to take some umbrage with your book from the start. However, the book was informative, it was very well written, and it was a wonderful biography of an unknown individual. My biggest complaint, and one that I railed against in my review and to others, was that you seemed so biased towards Zeppo. 

Now, make no mistake, Zeppo is still reprehensible to me. Chico was a compulsive liar, gambler, and womanizer, and Zeppo makes him look like a schoolboy who merely cheated on a test. Except I owe you an apology. I'm working on my own biography now, of a well-known gangster from Chicago in the 1920's, and according to newspaper reports and very exaggerated and fictionalized accounts from the era, he was a nasty person. Through my research, I have managed to find how inaccurate a lot of what is said actually is (in all honesty, Zeppo still makes this guy look like a saint. I really don't like Herbert Marx).

Anyway, this past year, I read History Matters, a collection of interviews, essays, and speeches done by David McCullough. In it, he talks about how he has never written a biography or been able to write about someone he wasn't able to develop a fondness for; he could never write about someone he disliked or write about someone without developing a fondness for. Mr McCullough was right (granted, I've never tried to write about someone truly evil like Hitler or a serial killer, so maybe he's not, because I definitely couldn't develop a fondness for them). To research someone, get to know them on a level to be able to write a book about them, you start to see them more as a friend, especially since you are spending a lot of time with them, so to speak. I could never write a biography about Johnny Torrio or Thomas Dewey. Two people from my same niche of history that I have an absolute disdain for and, in Torrio's case, a loathing for. But I have developed a fondness, more than I already had, for the current subject, and that's where this apology comes from.

It's weirdly parallel to you with Zeppo and Chico in a way. Earl Weiss, known as the only man Al Capone ever feared, was, according to reputation and history, a crazy, cold-blooded killer. Research hasn't backed this at all, but it did manage to hide his older brother, Fred. I can't stand Fred. Legend has it that after a simple 'joke' about Earl not being able to serve in WWI due to his heart problems (I say joke but mocking someone for a disability that they can't help and is causing them immense pain as well as stopped them from doing what many considered the only honorable thing at the time, serving in the military in WWI, is cruel), and Earl snapped, whipped out a gun and shot him in the chest. It's not this cut and dry, obviously. In fact, the argument seems to have been over more than a joke, and there are way too many extenuating circumstances after the fact for it to have been the main trigger (no pun intended) to Earl's temper. 

As you probably tell just from that paragraph alone, I am exceptionally biased towards Earl. Fred is...awful. But history remembered things differently, and as I am attempting now to write the chapter explaining, not just what happened, but my findings on it and giving enough background to help readers understand why Fred isn't the saint the Chicago Tribune made him out to be, I am having an exceptionally difficult time keeping my personal bias from slipping into the story. 

So, Mr. Bader, I am so sorry, not just for complaining about your bias towards Zeppo, but for not recognizing how hard you must have worked to keep it from showing as much as it did. I can't imagine what you have uncovered about Chico that you haven't told us (and part of me thinks I don't want to know), and how much you would like to scream it from the rooftops at people who say you are biased towards Zeppo. I am so sorry. You did an incredible job with your book and telling the facts. Personal feelings will always show through, and you managed to convey yours in a way that stayed true to the story without hiding the truth and not ranting about the unjustness of it all. For not realizing it last year and for complaining about it at all, I offer my sincere apologies. You did a fantastic job of not letting too much of your personal opinions slip through. For that, you should have been applauded, not scolded, for the few that did. 

Best Wishes, 

Erin

Not Surprised...just really angry.

  I think what is angering me the most, outside of you know…all the stuff that Trump has done in the last year, is that I’m not even surprised. That’s what this has come to…it’s not surprising. It’s alarming, it’s terrible, it should absolutely not be happening, but it’s not as if I can’t believe it’s happening. Not after everything that’s been going on.     

     This isn’t a Nevertheless. It’s not about my writing. Honestly, it’s not even about politics. It’s about being pissed off and completely and totally fed up with this crap.  ICE is still in Chicago, even though they are supposed to be leaving, but thank the higher power that the judges have finally started regulating that, I suppose. They are still a hate group. And just to let you all know, one was arrested in Minnesota in a sting operation to catch pedophiles. When he was arrested, he told them, “But, I’m with ICE.” Okay, so you are a bigot, a pedophile, and I hope you rot in hell for eternity. There’s really nothing else to say to you. ICE is also now in Charlotte, North Carolina, where kids are afraid to go to school, which, by the way, the Department of Education is also being dismantled. But we don’t seem to be able to notice that because of all the other crap that is going on. 

    The Epstein files are finally going to be released…hopefully. And no, those are not a hoax. Those are not made up. To call them such is an insult to the victims who have already suffered so much. And in those 20k pages, there are several things that stick out, things that need to be addressed, but I’m going to ask one question. Just one. Epstein was the scum of the earth. He was evil. What he did to people, children, young girls, women, what he did was absolutely abhorrent, and as far as I am concerned, there is no punishment great enough for him in the afterlife. He hated Donald Trump. It’s obvious from the emails and the way he talks about him. Now, how awful do you have to be for someone that awful to hate you? Not just hate you, but call you evil and murderous? Think about that for a second. Let it sink in. Epstein…a terrible person. He thought Trump was evil. That should tell you all you need to know. But clearly, it does not. Not for some people, apparently. Or they just have no empathy and compassion for the victims of Trump and Epstein. And yeah, I said Trump, too. He’s a convicted rapist. He was involved with Epstein. There’s no way he didn’t have a hand in all that. If you truly believe he wasn’t involved, clearly you aren’t paying attention.

Then, there is the whole “Quiet Quiet Piggy.” Bro, as a woman, I just want to say ‘fuck all the way off.’ And then I want to draw attention to the fact that this was a moment that, from what I have seen on social media, triggered so many women. Because it’s the moment he went from just a regular asshole to the abusive asshole we all know he really is, but he actually let it be seen. And because a woman asked him a question, he didn’t like it. This wasn’t condensation towards a female journalist; this was an actual attack on someone because he wanted to put her in what he believes is her place. God forbid anyone ask him an uncomfortable question, and a woman at that. Except, women are those pushing back against him. After this incident, Mary Bruce, a reporter for ABC News, asked a question at the White House that he didn’t like, and he called her network “Fake News. One of the worst.” Are you ready to hear the question he didn’t like, while he was sitting next to his good friend, Mohammed bin Salman (more on that wtf-ism in a moment), the crown prince of Saudi Arabia? 

“Is it appropriate, Mr. President, for your family to be doing business in Saudi Arabia while you’re president? Is that a conflict of interest? And, your royal highness, the US intelligence community) concluded you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President.”

Trump didn’t let her finish; he tried to talk over her, but Mary Bruce, like the amazing woman and reporter she is, finished her question before answering where she worked. Trump then threatened ABC’s broadcasting license…again. For actual reporting. Because someone was brave enough to stand up to him. Also, he said, 

“You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question. And you could even ask that same question nicely.”

Okay, now, let’s back the fuck up here (today’s blog is full of swearing, but I am livid). He just said she should have asked the question “nicely.” The hell does he want? A Please? No! Absolutely not. Because this man, whom Donald Trump went on to defend, is Salman. From NPR:

"You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial," Trump said, referring to Khashoggi. "A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it. And would you leave it at that? You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question.”

It doesn’t matter how controversial Khashoggi was. What matters is that he was murdered by the Saudi government in 2018. The operation was greenlit, according to the CIA, by Trump’s new bestie, the crown prince. You know the same guy and government who was also a supporter of the terrorists who crashed planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon on 9/11. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Trump just sold them war planes. Because he’s a fucking idiot, and most of those MAGAs who are still one hundred percent behind him were singing God Bless America the loudest. 

  

  And don’t get me wrong. I’m not a fan of George W. Bush or the War on Terrorism or any of that. My emo phase started with Green Day’s American Idiot, and you can pretty much track my journey to what is now termed “Antifa” or whatever, from there. But I watched those towers fall. And I’m only thirty-five. This isn’t like it was Pearl Harbor. It happened 25 years ago next year. Don’t be bitching about New York electing their new mayor, who had nothing to do with the attacks or the terrorists who supported them, who is a genuinely good person, and then turn around and say this is okay. Because you can’t.

    If all this wasn’t bad enough, on his stupid ass Truth Social, which has zero truth, by the way, he’s calling for the death of his political opponents. Why is this okay? Why was he not impeached TODAY? Why was he not removed from office today? We can’t keep following the proper procedure and protocol with this. Trump is dangerous. It’s only a matter of time before he gets someone killed. 

    I can’t…I walked away for an hour from writing this to try to calm myself down and see if I could do it without swearing, but no. Fucking hell, this is insane. I’m not surprised it’s happening, and that in itself is a problem. If you aren’t upset, that is a problem. Letting this continue is a problem. And I’m sick of waking up every morning worrying about what the hell the idiot has done now. That’s it. That’s the blog. I don’t even want to type up a conclusion because I’ve said everything I need to say. The rest is up to you to take away from this rant whatever you want. Hopefully, it’s a desire to see less of this awful mess, but I can’t tell you what to think.

Sources:

Bauder, David. “Trump Attacks ABC Reporter in Response to Khashoggi Question.” AP News, 18 Nov. 2025, apnews.com/article/media-trump-saudi-arabia-epstein-khashoggi-mbs-6cb0300433689c914250e475c4ae8483.

Grynbaum, Michael M. “Trump Berates Mary Bruce of ABC News after Question about Jamal Khashoggi.” The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/business/media/trump-reporter-khashoggi-saudis.html.

Myre, Greg, et al. “U.S. Intelligence: Saudi Crown Prince Approved Operation to Kill Jamal Khashoggi.” NPR.org, 26 Feb. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/02/25/971215788/biden-administration-poised-to-release-report-on-killing-of-jamal-khashoggi.

“Trump Defends Saudi Crown Prince over Question about Killing of Khashoggi.” NPR, 18 Nov. 2025, www.npr.org/2025/11/18/nx-s1-5612504/trump-saudi-arabia-mbs-khashoggi.

Ending My Relationship with the Goodreads Reading Challenge

 It is November…and I’m probably not going to finish my Goodreads goal. A goal that I had already changed once from its normal 100 to 80. And I have to keep reminding myself that that’s okay. It’s not that I couldn’t finish it if I really wanted to, because all it would take is finding a new Manga series that I get hooked on, but I’m going to be honest with you, nothing’s really peaking my interest in that department right now. In a sense, the reading challenge isn’t a challenge anymore. Not for someone who enjoys reading. It’s become another example for me of how everything has to be a competition or a sport. We are always comparing ourselves to each other or trying to achieve some pinnacle of something in our own minds, and it sucks the joy out of everything.  

I’m writing this on election day, which is a weird thing to think about. The entire country is in turmoil, and I’m talking about a reading challenge, but they aren’t completely separate. Let me start this by saying that I am, by nature, an extremely competitive person. Like, to the point where I won’t try certain things if I know I’ll lose. It serves me well in some areas. When I did NaNoWriMo to write Welcome to Chicago, it worked out great. There were benchmarks to make, and like hell was I going to miss one. It’s also going to get me a speeding ticket one of these days as I attempt to beat the time that the GPS originally set for reaching my destination (I will shave off those last five minutes, darn it). But in other ways, in a lot of ways, it’s detrimental not just to me but to everyone around me. I’m unhappy because I’m not meeting some invisible goal line that either I set for myself or someone that I have compared myself to hit, whether it be at the gym or on social media, in parenting, writing, reading, whatever, if I am feel like I am doing a terrible job from I am comparing myself to others I’m going to be a grouch. 

Politics has become another competition for most of the country, it’s treated like a sport. Just pulling up my Google news brings up, “Can Democrats mount a comeback? Look to Tuesday’s elections for clues.” (Politico), or “How each party wins Tuesday’s elections” (The Hill). And it’s not just the news doing it, this is coming from the government itself as well, which I guess is what happens when the president can’t differentiate his reality show past from the fact that he has actual people’s lives in his hands. From another Politico headline today, it’s clear that it’s all about him winning and losing and not at all what’s best for the people that he is hurting with his horrid decisions: “Trump urges Republicans to kill filibuster, warning they’ll lose if they don’t.” 

When a Hiroshima survivor is in Chicago, reminding us that nuclear bombs are bad, because apparently we don’t remember when our forbearers wreaked havoc on Japan with two nuclear bombs in a war that they had already pretty much won, we need to stop and ask ourselves, when did this get so out of hand? And why is winning and losing so much more important to the people in charge (on both sides, though really, when the choice is lose your healthcare or lose food…well, the side that has the power to give people food and healthcare needs to step the hell up). Which brings me back to my point about the Goodreads reading challenge. 

This year, I focused more on learning and growing, and reading books that I enjoyed and spending time with them to relax, because the world is a damn mess. I went from reading 303 books in 2023 to maybe eighty at the end of this year. And that’s okay, because I’m also trying to make the world a better place. I’m working to teach my son not just his second grade curriculum, but right from wrong, how to treat others, because that’s not something we stop doing when they’re four. It’s a lifelong journey and reading, as long as we don’t suck the fun out of it like we do everything else, can help with that. Life shouldn't be a competition, life should be fun and making the world better for everyone, so everyone can have food and healthcare, regardless of what political party is in power, because we’ve been here before, a little under a hundred years ago actually, we need to stop thinking about who is the best and thinking about how we can provide the best help to those who have less than us. 

Nevertheless...Shirley Jackson

 It’s October! And I couldn’t let October go without talking about the Mistress of Psychological Horror, the woman who persisted in the face of her mother ridiculing her via letters and her husband being well…awful. A woman who wasn’t perfect and was aware of it, but who used that to weave magic into the stories of her everyday life, the unrepeatable, the unmistakable, Shirley Jackson. 

Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. Don’t let her autobiographical details fool you, she hated talking about herself: 

“I very much dislike writing about myself or my work, and when pressed for autobiographical material, can only give bare chronological outline which contains no pertinent facts.” 

As an example, she regularly gave her birth year as 1919, making herself three years younger to fit with her husband, Stanley Hyman, who was actually born that year. Shirley wasn’t quite what her mother expected: unconventional, preferring to write rather than socialize and fit in with her peers. She and her mother had a contentious relationship, with her mother criticizing her love of writing and her appearance, including her weight, which would be a persistent issue for Shirley throughout her life. Shirley’s younger brother, the traditional son of a well to do family that fit their mother and father’s standards better, once said, according to Ruth Franklin in her biography, “A Rather Haunted Life,” 

“[Geraldine—their mother] was just a deeply conventional woman who was horrified by the idea that her daughter was not going to be deeply conventional.” 

And ‘not going to be deeply conventional’ was an understatement. But their mother was not going to give up easily. The family moved east during Shirley’s senior year of high school, and she graduated in 1934. Her parents insisted on sending her to a college close to home, The University of Rochester, to keep an eye on her. But Shirley transferred after taking a year off due to depression, and at Syracuse University, she started to become the woman who would write some of the most bone chilling horror stories of her time. Some that still will make your skin crawl today. She had friends, she wrote for the school literary magazine, and received a bachelor’s in journalism. One of the people she met while working on the paper would go on to become her husband and the father of her four children, Stanley Hyman. 

Shirley and Stanley would go on to marry and eventually move to North Bennington, Vermont. Stanley was a teacher at Bennington College, a college exclusively for women. When they moved to Vermont, according to Shirley’s memoir, they had their three year old son Laurence, or “Laurie” as he was called, born in 1942, and a newborn daughter, Joanne, aka Jannie. In Vermont, their family expanded, and they welcomed Sarah, whom they called Sally, and Barry. 

In 1948, she published her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, and while it is not her strongest work, reading the story of a mysterious death troubling a town as they find that the highway is going to go through the wall around their town is a surreal experience. There is just something unsettling that, after you finish it, leaves you feeling like you saw something you shouldn’t have. 1948 was the year of unsettling stories for Shirley, because she also published the short story, which made her famous, The Lottery, about a small town that once a year stones someone to death. The Lottery was what put her on the map, and she became the primary income for her household, though according to all accounts, Stanley still controlled the purse strings. 

Shirley went on to write Hangman, The Bird’s Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in a Castle, all horror stories, and each was better than the next. Many consider We Have Always Lived in a Castle her best work. She also wrote for a women’s magazine, routinely publishing stories about her home life that eventually became two books, Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons. She called them a ‘disrespectful memoir of [her] children.” They added another layer to her fame, and through them, she was put into the public eye even more. 

Raising Demons, written and published in 1957, landed her a magazine spread, which, unfortunately, reached her mother in California. Her mother proceeded to belittle Shirley about her appearance and pointed out that millions of people had seen the same thing. Shirley replied with a sharply worded letter standing up for and defending herself, but her mother’s words had struck their mark, and Shirley became incredibly self-conscious. This was not helped by the fact that Stanley was cheating on her regularly (often with students and friends) and had, according to rumors, coerced her into an open marriage. 

Hill House, released in 1959, preceded a struggle for Shirley, both mental and physical. Having struggled with anxiety for most of her adult life and suffering from a heart problem, she developed agoraphobia. After We Have Always Lived in a Castle, she was plagued by writer's block as well. With the support of her family, she began therapy, which worked well for her, and her agent gave her the task of sitting down every day and writing whatever came to mind. For a while, it acted as a journal or diary experience for her, but eventually she began working on a new novel, Come Away With Me. Unfortunately, she died in her sleep at the age of 48 before she could finish it. 

Shirley, while remembered for being one of the masters of her genre, was also an incredibly strong woman. She dealt with her husband’s infidelity and her mother’s degrading remarks to write her novels, raise a family, and live her life as best she could. In a world where the outside can seem terrifying and the weight of the world can crush us, think of Shirley Jackson, described by her oldest son in the following quote:

“She was always writing, or thinking about writing, and she did all the shopping and cooking, too. The meals were always on time. But she also loved to laugh and tell jokes. She was very buoyant that way.” 

Sources

Cooke, Rachel. “Laurence Jackson Hyman on His Mother Shirley: “Her Work Is so Relevant Now….”” The Guardian, The Guardian, 12 Dec. 2016, theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/12/laurence-jackson-hyman-mother-shirley-jackson-dark-tales. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

Franklin, Ruth. Shirley Jackson : A Rather Haunted Life. New York Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017.

Jackson, Shirley. Life among the Savages. Penguin Books, 2019.

---. Raising Demons. S.L., Penguin Books, 2021.

---. The Letters of Shirley Jackson. New York, Random House, 2021.

School boards, opinions and guys named Chad

My roommate during my sophomore and junior years of college once told me that she didn’t believe you could appreciate the rest of the world if you look at what was going on in your own backyard. She was correct, of course. She was definitely the level headed one of us, and often said things like this, that I knew she had been thinking about for a long time before giving them a voice. This is one of those things she said that stuck with me over the years and for good reason. 

I’m lucky enough to live in a blue state, and my city also voted blue during the 2024 election. I am fortunate enough to live now in a more open-minded community where the majority believe in equal rights and also listening to other people’s opinions rather than telling them they are wrong and these are the reasons and acting as if their opinion is the law. And I deeply appreciate that. I also appreciate that I received a brilliant education (for the most part), even though I lived in what is technically considered a village and my graduating class had one hundred students in it. However, the drama unfolding on the school board in McLean County is absolutely laughable, as someone from a small town. For context, all but two towns in McLean County are small towns. (Bloomington and Normal are the only two cities in the county and the only two towns with a population above five thousand: Bloomington has a population of 79,232, and Normal has 53,304. The next biggest township is Randolph, with a population of 4,269 as of 2024.) I was technically in a different district, but it’s interesting to see how different things are now that it’s the other sides opinion being challenged.

I grew up in a town that, by most standards, is tiny. It’s technically a village. Fiction novels, at least contemporary fiction novels, and Hallmark like to paint small towns as these adorable, quaint, loving communities where everyone looks out for each other. If you play by their rules, sure, that’s probably accurate. But if you don’t march to the tune of the high school band (even if you are in the band—I can’t march in step to save my life), you’re probably going to be alone and depressed. A lot. And you’re definitely not going to enjoy the class that my high school offered called “Consumer Education.” And while it did teach us how to balance a checkbook and fill out a resume, the rest of it was one big lecture on why Republicans and white men were definitely the best and the rest of the world was wrong. I didn’t put my hand on my heart during the Pledge of Allegiance and rarely said it, which earned me the side eye, but for the girl next to me, who refused to stand for it, she was grilled about her beliefs in front of the class. I wish I had had that confidence in my beliefs that she had back then. Today I wouldn’t hesitate, but eighteen years ago, I just was content to sit in the back of the room and completely tune them out. On a couple of occasions, I did voice my opinion and tell them they were wrong. But to say they shoved their beliefs down our throat was an understatement.

Two male teachers would take turns discussing why Hilary Clinton was a terrible person. Why the left was out to destroy America, and we were all communists. Why Barack Obama should not be president. I even remember them mocking climate change (that and the time they said women were too emotional to be in office were times I remember speaking up, they were just too obnoxious to block out on those days). Participation was part of your grade, so I had a C in the class because I only answered questions that had a factual answer, and they couldn’t twist it into a lecture. My notebook was full of doodles, and after school, I would go home, grab my iPod, and walk for miles listening to Green Day’s American Idiot, or The Clash, or Anti-Flag. 

We all complained, those of us who weren’t rednecks. But no one ever did anything. We just needed to learn about other people’s opinions, seemed to be the resounding mantra. If you were on a scholastic team, it was even worse since one of the teachers was the coach, and out of the classroom, he became even more sexist and racist. But again, since the guys on the team agreed with him, there wasn’t much that we could do since no one would back us up. Just deal with it, was what other teachers said, the ones that weren’t dealing with the bullying from the rednecks because they accused the beloved quarterback of plagiarism (god forbid he be held accountable for his actions…the sarcasm ought to be dripping from the screen now). And so we did. We put up with it until we graduated, which, since this was a senior class, was not too long, thank goodness. But I really wish someone had held these teachers accountable for pushing a far-right agenda on us. It did teach me that other people have opinions and how to ignore them if they are being waved in my face…so that’s nice, I guess…

Or it was. Until I saw some headlines and statements that teachers in Normal and members of the county school board are being called on to resign or be fired because the teacher was wearing an Abolish ICE shirt, and the president of the school board referred to MAGA as a cult. If you’ve been paying attention, you can probably imagine that I agree with both of these people, but that’s not my issue here. My issue is that because the views of the people involved are not supportive of the current administration, parents want these people removed from schools or offices. I’ve read quotes that politics has no place in schools and that teachers shouldn’t be telling their students their opinions. And, yes. A resounding yes. I agree with that. But at the same time, it’s only an issue for these people now because it’s not their opinion being supported in the classroom. But…what did the students have to say? Well, guess what! They supported the teacher!

One student said, “By wearing that shirt, he is sending a message to his students that regardless of immigration status, you are a cherished member of our community and our schools, and we all belong here,” she said. “…I’d strongly recommend those who support the proposed firing of Mr. Chapman reconsider the message they’re sending by doing so. There’s a teacher shortage already. Why fire one who clearly cares about supporting his students and our community?” And this isn’t even a student who has his class. 

A navy officer weighed in as well, “I know Matt to be a role model, an advocate for every player we coach. Except for the occasional referee, I have observed Matt to be one of the kindest and compassionate people I know. He genuinely cares about every player and student.” 

So, what does the other side have to say? Well, at the meeting, a man (I am not making this up) named Chad Berck, represented the McLean County Republican Party…look, we already know this isn’t going to be great, so let’s get his quote out of the way:

“The McLean County Republicans strongly condemn the continuing pattern of political indoctrination, bias, and disrespect for parental values within the Unit 5 school district. Our schools exist to educate, not to propagandize, and yet we continue to see examples of left-wing ideology being encouraged, facilitated, or tolerated at every level of the district’s leadership.”

Let’s be clear. I don’t have a problem with political opinions not being allowed in schools, but these are the same people who want prayer in schools and would have no problem with their own opinions being talked about. And this is all over a t-shirt. So, what about the president of the board? Well, not surprisingly, he mentioned Charlie Kirk in a less-than-flattering light and also called MAGA a cult and ‘deplorable.’ So, what did Chad have to say about this? 

“Equally alarming is the conduct of the Unit 5 school board president, who has repeatedly shown disdain for conservative parents and community members. Labeling them MAGA cultists and deplorable. Such language is unbecoming of any elected official, particularly one charged with representing all the families, regardless of their political beliefs.”

Now, yes, calling people names for their political beliefs is abhorrent…especially in an elected position. But until the Mclean County Republicans decide to show that same ire towards their fearless leader, Donald Trump, I would recommend taking a seat. Because you can’t possibly expect others to continue being bullied and not stand up for themselves. Oh…wait…but if we try, you get upset and ask to be removed from the office. Too bad we can’t do that to you. It’d be one thing if no one supported Alex Williams, the school board president. But I’m going to leave the blog with this quote from a parent at the meeting, Jade Lamar, because I think it sums it all up quite nicely:

“My objective today is to provide encouragement and support. Do not flinch at all at what is being stated by those who support all the ‘isms and the hypocrisy that is clear as day. It takes leadership courage to say things that make others uncomfortable, and the time is now to push. Silence is what leads to conformity of oppression.”

Sources

“Election Night Reporting.” Clarityelections.com, 2025, results.enr.clarityelections.com/IL/Bloomington/122759/web.345435/#/summary. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.

Howell, Ben. “Students, Community Members Largely Defend Teacher at Unit 5 Meeting over “Abolish ICE” Shirt.” WGLT, 16 Oct. 2025, www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-10-16/students-community-members-largely-defend-teacher-at-unit-5-meeting-over-abolish-ice-shift. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.

“McLean County, Illinois Cities (2024).” Worldpopulationreview.com, 2024, worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/illinois/mclean-county.