Speaker 1: You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking
Speaker 1: killers in true crime history and the authors that have
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Speaker 1: week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and
Speaker 1: infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your
Speaker 1: host journalist and author Dan Zufanski.
Speaker 2: Good Evening Murder. Molly and the Mob, a nineteen fifties
Speaker 2: shocking true crime story by Rod Cackley, delves into one
Speaker 2: of the most chilling, unsolved mysteries from the heart of
Speaker 2: nineteen fifties America. Set against the gritty backdrop of Joliet, Illinois,
Speaker 2: urban outpost of Chicago's criminal underworld, this true crime narrative
Speaker 2: follows the life and sudden disappearance of Mollizelco, a fearless
Speaker 2: journalist whose scathing pen became her weapon against corruption, organized crime,
Speaker 2: and the rampant gambling that threatened to poison her community.
Speaker 2: Mollie Zelco was no ordinary woman. As the editor and
Speaker 2: publisher of The Spectator, a small but fiercely independent weekly newspaper,
Speaker 2: she made it her mission to expose the sinister ties
Speaker 2: between local politicians and the Chicago mobsters were bringing gambling
Speaker 2: dens and criminal enterprises into Joliet. Her editorials were hard hitting, unflinching,
Speaker 2: and deeply personal, so much so they earned her powerful enemies.
Speaker 2: In an era where women were expected to remain silent,
Speaker 2: boldness stood out, and her voice became a rallying cry
Speaker 2: for those who shared her vision of a safer, more
Speaker 2: just community. But crusading against the mob came with a price.
Speaker 2: On the night of September twenty fifth, nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: Maliseelco left the offices of the Spectator, telling her colleagues,
Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow, but that tomorrow never came. Molly
Speaker 2: vanished without a trace. At its core, this is a
Speaker 2: story about courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Maliseelco
Speaker 2: knew the risks of standing up to the mob, but
Speaker 2: she never wavered in her commitment to her community and
Speaker 2: her principles. The story is also a gripping, suspenseful journey
Speaker 2: through one of America's most enduring unsolved mysteries, shining a
Speaker 2: spotlight on a woman whose legacy remains as powerful as
Speaker 2: the question surrounding her disappearance. Was she a victim of
Speaker 2: her own relentless pursuit of justice or did she know
Speaker 2: too much becoming a target in a game she couldn't win.
Speaker 2: The book that we're featuring this evening is Murder Molly
Speaker 2: and the Mob, a nineteen fifty shocking true crime story
Speaker 2: with my special guest author Rod Cackley. Thank you very
Speaker 2: much for this interview and welcome back to the program,
Speaker 2: Rod Cackley.
Speaker 3: Thanks Dan, How are you well fine?
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you so much, and congratulations on your latest book,
Speaker 2: Murder Molly and the Mob.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. I had a lot of fun writing it.
Speaker 2: It's a wild story. Certainly, let's get right to introducing
Speaker 2: you're talking about April nineteen thirty eight, but let's go
Speaker 2: back and talk about William McCabe. Tell us about his education,
Speaker 2: his background, and his political history.
Speaker 3: William McCabe Dan was born in Morris, Grundy County, Illinois.
Speaker 3: He worked for daily newspapers in Joliet and even briefly
Speaker 3: ran one. In his journalistic career, McCabe also found time
Speaker 3: to study law and was admitted to the Illinois Bar
Speaker 3: Association in nineteen fifteen. Now, his political career includes serving
Speaker 3: as a state representative from the forty first District from
Speaker 3: nineteen twelve to nineteen twenty two, followed by a term
Speaker 3: as a mayor of Lockport from nineteen twenty three to
Speaker 3: twenty five. After that he worked as an attorney general.
Speaker 3: He specialized in criminal law until nineteen thirty. He then
Speaker 3: served as the state's attorney of Will County from nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty two to thirty six, and it was during that time,
Speaker 3: from thirty two to thirty six, that he hired a
Speaker 3: seventeen year old secretary by the name of Amilia Joe
Speaker 3: malzelto When McCabe left office, he took control of the Spectrum,
Speaker 3: a weekly newspaper in Joliet, Illinois, and Molly followed him.
Speaker 2: Now, what was their editorial focus? What kind of newspaper
Speaker 2: was the Spectator? And who do they target specifically in
Speaker 2: this paper and their editorials?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was a time when weekly This is a
Speaker 3: weekly newspaper, okay, and it doesn't sound like much in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, But a weekly newspaper back in the thirties, forties, fifties,
Speaker 3: and even the sixties had a real voice. They were
Speaker 3: really big and McCabe and Molly did a lot more
Speaker 3: than just published school lunch menus and what was on
Speaker 3: sale at Sam's butcher shop. He really went after gangsters.
Speaker 3: They remember Joliet, Illinois. Remember al Capone. Of course al
Speaker 3: Capone the founder of the Chicago Syndicate. He brought the
Speaker 3: mob his outfit into Joliet. That was one of the
Speaker 3: cities that he took over back in the days of prohibition.
Speaker 3: And so Molly and Molly, following McCabe's lead, mccab really
Speaker 3: went after the gangsters who were in Juliet.
Speaker 2: You say that in his background he had mckayb had
Speaker 2: studied law in the Minister of the Bar in nineteen fifteen,
Speaker 2: and he was also, as you mentioned, the mayor of Lockport,
Speaker 2: and he was an attorney specializing in criminal law. So
Speaker 2: he didn't come into the journalism business without a background
Speaker 2: in the law specifically.
Speaker 3: I think that's important to realize. You're right, You're right, Dan,
Speaker 3: he had a real background in the law and he
Speaker 3: had a background in journalism. It was really quite a
Speaker 3: one two punch.
Speaker 2: Now let's get to introducing Liam Kelly, because again April sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty eight, and there's an incident between Liam Kelly
Speaker 2: tell us who Liam Kelly is and what happens that day.
Speaker 3: Liam Kelly was a county Sheriff's deputy, and he's a
Speaker 3: great example of what Juliet was like. He also ran
Speaker 3: a couple of outsits if you will, or cruised Liam Kelly.
Speaker 3: As I wrote the lead line here is there was
Speaker 3: a long line of people furious with William McCain. Liam
Speaker 3: Kelly had just stepped to the front of the queue.
Speaker 3: Liam Kelly was upset with what McCabe had written, angered
Speaker 3: by a Spectator editorial that suggested Liam Kelly be removed
Speaker 3: from office. Well that was you know, Liam Kelly's connection
Speaker 3: to the world of Joliet and the Chicago crime syndicate.
Speaker 3: So on April sixteenth, nineteen thirty eight, he walked up
Speaker 3: and punched McCabe in the eye, knocked in flat in
Speaker 3: broad daylight.
Speaker 2: Now what's reaction from the editor of the Spectator, McCabe.
Speaker 2: What does he do in response?
Speaker 3: McCabe? Now, remember this is a guy. You don't rise
Speaker 3: in politics back in these days without being able to
Speaker 3: handle yourself in a situation like this. He walked away
Speaker 3: from the encounter with the black eye, but he did
Speaker 3: not press charges. He told police, quote, I'll handle the
Speaker 3: matter myself en quote.
Speaker 2: Now tell us what happens the next day at the
Speaker 2: office of McCabe's spectator in Joliet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, In the next day, two men jump out of
Speaker 3: the car in front of the Joliet's headquarters in one
Speaker 3: thirteen Cass Street. They jump out of the car, they
Speaker 3: throw bricks through five plate glass windows, and then they
Speaker 3: speed off. Now McCabe was not shocked by this. He
Speaker 3: tells police that Kelly, after he punched him in the eye,
Speaker 3: he looked down at him on the sidewalk and said,
Speaker 3: I'll bust the rest of your windows. And the eye,
Speaker 3: of course the window back in that day was slang
Speaker 3: for your eyes. So he says, I'll bust the rest
Speaker 3: of your windows. So McCabe told police he was not
Speaker 3: surprised by the attack on his building. And again, though
Speaker 3: McCabe says, I'll take it up with him, it's Kelly
Speaker 3: rather says I'll take it up with him. It's silly
Speaker 3: to connect me with the window breaking.
Speaker 2: You're right that Liam Kelly does lose his job as
Speaker 2: court bailiff, but you say, needless to say he climbs
Speaker 2: the ladder in corruption in Joliet for nearly eight years
Speaker 2: raining as Will Counties jukebox king, also a powerful figure
Speaker 2: in the local Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the jukeboxes were controlled by the outstit, the mob,
Speaker 3: the syndicate, if you will. So that's a real important point.
Speaker 3: He was making a lot of money losing his job
Speaker 3: as a court bailiff when his mentor, if you will,
Speaker 3: the judge that McCabe was after, got knocked out. There's
Speaker 3: really an intricate story here. Kelly was also a powerful
Speaker 3: figure in the local Democratic Party and told the night
Speaker 3: of October thirteenth, nineteen forty six, he and his wife
Speaker 3: and his family. They're driving home from a restaurant. Somebody's
Speaker 3: following him. He can tell there's a car behind him,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't know if it's friend or full. So
Speaker 3: he pulls into the driveway of his house at five
Speaker 3: ho two Fourth Avenue and Juliet. His suspicions, though that
Speaker 3: it's the Full are confirmed. The car, carrying at least
Speaker 3: two men, possibly a third man, pulled in right behind him.
Speaker 3: Now Kelly's a big guy, as I wrote here, he
Speaker 3: sports a double chin, big enough to have its own name.
Speaker 3: Didn't miss many meals. After the McCabe fight, he steps
Speaker 3: out of the car. He doesn't know yet what's facing him.
Speaker 3: He gets out of the car. His wife, Alice, and
Speaker 3: their four year old daughter, Mary Susan are inside the car.
Speaker 3: One of the men from the trailing car doesn't hesitate.
Speaker 3: He pulls out a pistol and fires six shots from
Speaker 3: a forty five caliber semi automatic. One bullet hits Kelly
Speaker 3: in the head in the temple. Four more tear into
Speaker 3: his left side, and the sixth bullet hits him in
Speaker 3: the left shoulder. Liam Kelly was dead before his body
Speaker 3: hit the blacktop, and his wife, Alice later told police
Speaker 3: she had no idea why anyone would want to kill Liam.
Speaker 2: So what happens with that investigation, as far as you know.
Speaker 3: The investigation goes nowhere. That investigation goes nowhere. You have
Speaker 3: to realize that in Joliet, Illinois at the time, jukeboxes
Speaker 3: and pinball games, so they called them pinballs at the time,
Speaker 3: they were critical revenue streams for the syndicate. So obvious
Speaker 3: if Liam got whacked in his own driveway, he had
Speaker 3: upset somebody, somebody was trying to take over. You wouldn't
Speaker 3: kill somebody like Liam without having the approval of people
Speaker 3: in Chicago, and if they approved it, then the tops
Speaker 3: were not going to go after him.
Speaker 2: Now you take us to April seventh, nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 2: and William McCabe is now sixty four years old, crusading
Speaker 2: publisher for The Spectator, and you write that he'd always
Speaker 2: believe the pen was mightier than the gangster's gun or
Speaker 2: the sword.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the gangster's gun in this case, and tonight
Speaker 3: he was about to test that belief. Now, not unlike
Speaker 3: Liam Kelly, he's driving alone, but he's driving, but driving
Speaker 3: alone on a lonely country road from the office of
Speaker 3: the Spectator in Juliet to one hundred and sixty acre
Speaker 3: farmy owns, just two miles outside of Lockport. He sees
Speaker 3: a car tailing him. Now, he's made a lot of
Speaker 3: enemies over the years. Both corrupt polock hissuons and gangsters
Speaker 3: are after him. They hate him, and the people who
Speaker 3: control crime in northern Illinois see McCabe as a real enemy.
Speaker 3: And he figures that one of those enemies is behind him,
Speaker 3: and he's exactly right. He accelerates, the car behind him accelerates,
Speaker 3: They speed up even faster. Mccab floors it. He pushes
Speaker 3: the pedal to the metal. His car is going faster
Speaker 3: than it's ever driven on this battered, bumpy road. He
Speaker 3: smashes into every bump, soars over every pothole that the
Speaker 3: dustry track can throw at him. The car chasing him, though,
Speaker 3: is faster. It pulls up alongside him and forces him
Speaker 3: off the side of the road into a ditch. Three
Speaker 3: men from that car that ran him into the ditch.
Speaker 3: They pull open the driver's side door of McCabe's car.
Speaker 3: Even though he's hanging onto the handle on the inside
Speaker 3: with all of his strength. He's no match for them.
Speaker 3: They drag him outside, They punch him, they blindfold him.
Speaker 3: They toss him into the backseat of their car, and
Speaker 3: they demand five thousand dollars. Well, mccab doesn't carry that
Speaker 3: kind of money. Five grand of those days with a
Speaker 3: heck of a lot of money. Tells him he has
Speaker 3: thirty five dollars in a watch. Not good enough, the
Speaker 3: men say. They pull them out, and they've got baseball
Speaker 3: bats spiked with roofing nails, and they were beating their
Speaker 3: crap out of mccab mercilessly. They smashed his head, fractured
Speaker 3: his skull, broke one of his arms and shattered both
Speaker 3: of his legs.
Speaker 2: They might have killed him, but a farmer happened upon
Speaker 2: the scene. Elmer Rowley.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Elmer Rowley, who's not only a farmer, but he
Speaker 3: was dean of Joliet Junior College. He drives up, he
Speaker 3: sees McCabe's body broken, bloody, hears him screaming. Elmer stops
Speaker 3: his car, gets out the attacker's flee. One of them, though,
Speaker 3: pull turns around, draws a revolver and fires have shot
Speaker 3: at McKay before speeding off. Then Elmer bills to McCabe's side,
Speaker 3: gets him into the car and drives him to Saint
Speaker 3: Joseph's Hospital and Joliette, where doctors list McCabe in critical
Speaker 3: condition and say that he'll be lucky to live the knight.
Speaker 3: To survive the.
Speaker 2: Night, you say, though, the next day, April eighth, nineteen
Speaker 2: forty eight, McKay does wake up in hospital and survives,
Speaker 2: and least visit him and he told them the attack
Speaker 2: was definitely from his political enemies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he says, as Mattabe put it, they sent their
Speaker 3: dogs after me. There's no doubt about that. But he's
Speaker 3: just remember he's just hanging on still. He's alive, but
Speaker 3: just barely. Casts on both of his legs. He's got
Speaker 3: a cast on his arm and bandages around his head
Speaker 3: from his fractured skull. He knows. He tells the police
Speaker 3: right then. He says it was orchestrated by those who
Speaker 3: feared what would be in the pages of the Spectator
Speaker 3: when it hit the Juliet's newsstand in a few hours.
Speaker 3: But he doesn't really think the cops are going to
Speaker 3: go after these guys, because he figures more than a
Speaker 3: few cops and Juliet are on the take, serving the
Speaker 3: interests of Chicago gangsters left over from the Capone era.
Speaker 2: He's also running in the primary in a few days
Speaker 2: for the GOP Precinct Committee man of the forty sixth
Speaker 2: district in Juliet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's running against the guy by the name
Speaker 3: of it. I mean, mccab is just an incredible character
Speaker 3: because he does have he's got this law experience, he's
Speaker 3: a publisher of a newspaper, and he still finds time
Speaker 3: to run in the GOP primary against a guy by
Speaker 3: the name of Alfred Shupp, a man that McCabe had
Speaker 3: been battling for years, Jack, who claimed to be shocked
Speaker 3: by the attack that left McCay bedridden. He's the chairman
Speaker 3: of the Illinois State Central Republican Committees Association and the
Speaker 3: incumbent forty six District precinct committeemen. So this is a
Speaker 3: powerful guy. This is where it gets really complicated because
Speaker 3: he's McCabe also alleged that he'd been ordered to drop
Speaker 3: out of the election by someone involved in the slot
Speaker 3: machine racket, another racket in will County. So was the guy.
Speaker 3: Were the guys who were after him because of the
Speaker 3: threat to throw him to get out of the election,
Speaker 3: or was it because of the Chicago mob they didn't
Speaker 3: want him talking about slot machines, tinballs and jukeboxes? Or
Speaker 3: could it have been something else? See, the police don't
Speaker 3: know either, and I shouldn't say that the cops might
Speaker 3: have backed off from this investigation. But there were some
Speaker 3: good cops on the force, and they'll come up later
Speaker 3: in the story. But again, mccave is still running for office.
Speaker 3: But he looks at Molly. Now, Molly. Remember he was
Speaker 3: forty two when he hired Molly at the age who
Speaker 3: was at seventeen, right, And he looks at Molly at
Speaker 3: his bedside and she'd been at the hospital all night
Speaker 3: with him. Mccave gives her the instructions, you'll be running
Speaker 3: the Spectator. So now it's up to her as really
Speaker 3: the lone voice in Juliet's wilderness now to battle the
Speaker 3: Chicago mob.
Speaker 2: And she's going to be writing the editorials, and she's
Speaker 2: going to be handling everything, not only as the editor
Speaker 2: but as the secretary. She has multiple tasks at this Spectator, doesn't.
Speaker 3: She she's running the paper? Yeah, she really is. For
Speaker 3: all intent and purposes, she's the publisher.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: He runs day to day and she runs the overall
Speaker 3: philosophy of the paper. Although still she's getting her instructions
Speaker 3: from mccab but he groomed her all the way up,
Speaker 3: so she knows exactly what to do, and she's on
Speaker 3: board with mccaby. She's after these gangsters as much, if
Speaker 3: not more than she was.
Speaker 2: Let's just as an opportunity to stop to hear these messages. Now,
Speaker 2: talking about suspects, the police do round up three men
Speaker 2: on April eighth, considered suspects from the Chicago area. Tell
Speaker 2: us about these three characters. Louis Juliani, John Nurcie and
Speaker 2: Anthony Noriano.
Speaker 3: Yeah, these guys were all taken to the Leonard Keeler
Speaker 3: Crime Lab in Chicago at three forty one East Ohio
Speaker 3: Street in Chicago. And I've seen pictures of these guys
Speaker 3: in the newspapers that I used for research on this story,
Speaker 3: and the cops did not treat these guys gently, okay.
Speaker 3: Robert reported seeing a car similar to theirs near mccave's
Speaker 3: Lockport home, and a local tavern keeper saw three men
Speaker 3: circling his establishment in the same building, so that's what
Speaker 3: led the cops to these three. They were hooked up
Speaker 3: to a light detector machine, a polygraph machine and grilled
Speaker 3: by lab examiner Alex Gregory. And Gregory concluded that the
Speaker 3: two men he interviewed first, that would be Louis Giuliani
Speaker 3: and John Nirschi. They seemed to know the identities of
Speaker 3: the attackers, but neither of them had actually laid a
Speaker 3: hand or a club on the cave, so they didn't
Speaker 3: have blood on their hands. Okay. The third man, the
Speaker 3: twenty seven year old from Chicago Heights, Anthony Notoriano, he
Speaker 3: also took a light detective test and it also told
Speaker 3: him Gregory the same thing, that he probably knew who
Speaker 3: did the attack, but he also did not have blood
Speaker 3: on his hands. So is that right after some intense
Speaker 3: quote unquote questioning, detectives determined that none of the three
Speaker 3: had blood on their hands. Still, they believed they knew
Speaker 3: who inflicted the beating, but getting them to write out
Speaker 3: their bosses proved to be an impossible task. And it
Speaker 3: could be that there were so many layers or buffers
Speaker 3: between these guys and the people who actually ordered the
Speaker 3: attack that they really didn't know who had ordered the beating.
Speaker 2: You say that that. Meanwhile, McCabe is focusing on his recovery.
Speaker 2: Molly decides as editor that a reward for information leading
Speaker 2: to those responsible needed to be offered.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, at the Spectator, Molly
Speaker 3: decides she's going to do her own. She's going to
Speaker 3: beat the cops to the punch. And she figures, now,
Speaker 3: no one's putting up any money, okay as a reward,
Speaker 3: So if she comes up with two hundred dollars to
Speaker 3: pay for our as a reward, and she finds a
Speaker 3: low level criminal thug, a real street guy by the
Speaker 3: name of the Lloyd Imbray, and he says that he
Speaker 3: can tell her. If she'll give him two hundred dollars,
Speaker 3: he will give her the names of those who attack McCabe.
Speaker 3: She turns over the two hundred, he hands her an envelope,
Speaker 3: but as soon as she takes the envelope, embrace smirks
Speaker 3: and confesses that it was all alive. The names in
Speaker 3: the envelope are alive. But if she'll give him another
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars, he'll tell her the real names. Oh,
Speaker 3: Molly's not going to put up with that. She may
Speaker 3: be young, she may be naive, but she goes right
Speaker 3: to the sheriff's office and files a complaint against Inbray,
Speaker 3: so they arrest him. But what does Inbray care getting busted?
Speaker 3: As part of his game, this is what he does.
Speaker 3: He quickly admits he has absolutely no idea who attacked McCabe,
Speaker 3: and he says, actually, the names in that envelope I
Speaker 3: got him out of a magazine. They were just like
Speaker 3: three names at random that he put together. He was
Speaker 3: just trying to flee Smiley. What she did, yea, But
Speaker 3: of course she got her money back.
Speaker 2: You take us to May seventeenth, nineteen forty eight and
Speaker 2: Judge James B. Bartley, and he has a decision to
Speaker 2: convene a grand jury of will County in will County
Speaker 2: and proceed with the investigation into the brutal assault on
Speaker 2: William McCabe.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now you got to realize. At this point, Cave
Speaker 3: is saying, I forgive them, you know, I don't want
Speaker 3: to get into this, but let this go. I'll take
Speaker 3: care of it, Bartley says. The judge says, h this
Speaker 3: is my courtroom and not even you William McCabe can
Speaker 3: control it from a hospital bed. So they do investigate it.
Speaker 3: There is a grand jury, two broken legs, a shattered
Speaker 3: arm or fractured skull. McCabe has no choice now but
Speaker 3: to watch from the sidelines as the truth is dragged
Speaker 3: into the light, whether he likes it or not.
Speaker 2: So what happens with that dragging these people into the light.
Speaker 3: Well, the police and the Sheriff's department, they maintain the
Speaker 3: assault on McCabe was nothing more than a viol robbery
Speaker 3: three guys who were after five thousand dollars. The Spectator, though,
Speaker 3: in editorials written by Molly and probably ghosted by McCabe,
Speaker 3: say the attacks stemmed from, as they put it, political
Speaker 3: intrigue because really now he's still up for election, and
Speaker 3: he loses. He lost that April thirteenth election for a
Speaker 3: seat on the County Republican Committee to his nemesis Alfred
Speaker 3: Shop So again it continues. About nearly a month after
Speaker 3: the after losing the election, McCabe informs Edward Powers, who's
Speaker 3: the investigator for Will County's State Attorney's office, that he's
Speaker 3: ready to move on as far as he's concerned. McCabe
Speaker 3: says it should be a closed case, even though no
Speaker 3: one has been identified or arrested. Judge Bartley is not
Speaker 3: ready to let it go. They convene a testimony a
Speaker 3: grand jury rather, and here testimony from one of the
Speaker 3: real characters in this story, Francis the thin Man Curry.
Speaker 3: They call him the thin Man because he is a
Speaker 3: thin man, but he's also kind of a classy guy.
Speaker 3: Remember the old movie The Thin Man, the series The
Speaker 3: Thin Man. He looks kind of like that guy. He
Speaker 3: could play that part in the movies. So they call
Speaker 3: him the thin Man. And he is said to be
Speaker 3: the head of Will County's slot machine racket, and he's
Speaker 3: a known associate of Paul Rica, a parole Capone era gangster.
Speaker 3: Now the grand jury testimony is kept secret. Reports indicate,
Speaker 3: though that Curry offered no substantial information about the McCabe case.
Speaker 3: McCabe himself denied having an argument with Curry in the
Speaker 3: days leading up to the attack. Still, the grand jury
Speaker 3: continued to hear testimony through May, keeping the case alive
Speaker 3: against McCabe's wishes. Molly says she has reason to feel
Speaker 3: optimistic the villains will be brought to justice. Molly, as
Speaker 3: young and naive. McCabe, however, shakes his head in size.
Speaker 3: His protoge just doesn't understand. He believes the depths to
Speaker 3: which the Chicago Syndicate and the politicians they own can
Speaker 3: sink love to see these behind bars. But he's smart
Speaker 3: enough to know it's not going to happen. And he's
Speaker 3: smart enough to know that you never bet more than
Speaker 3: you can afford to lose.
Speaker 2: Yes, you take us to December ninth, nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 2: and a character named John Irving Pierce, who's fifty five
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 3: He takes over. He's the new will County State's Attorney. Okay,
Speaker 3: the old guy got bounced out. The new guy is
Speaker 3: in and he sits down to look over the McCabe
Speaker 3: case and oh no, it's all gone, not a scrap left.
Speaker 3: Somebody threw all the evidence away. Believe it or not,
Speaker 3: he just disappeared. It vanished all the evidence. Now, so
Speaker 3: Pierce has got the problem. He's the first Democrat to
Speaker 3: hold this position since eighteen seventy six. He took over
Speaker 3: from James Burke, who launched the grand jury probe into
Speaker 3: McCabe's assault. So now he's faced with the situation of
Speaker 3: trying to investigate this with no evidence at all. It
Speaker 3: all disappeared. Now Pierce is not younger. Now he's a
Speaker 3: fifty five year old who clamsy knows the hoodlums running
Speaker 3: Chicago and expanding into Joliet all too well. He was
Speaker 3: born in Chicago's Sherman House Hotel. That's where his grandfather
Speaker 3: worked as a facility's manager. Now Capone made the Lexington
Speaker 3: Hotel his headquarters, but it was the Sherman House where
Speaker 3: Capone on October twenty one, nineteen twenty six, convened a
Speaker 3: meeting with the city's top gangsters to settle a feud
Speaker 3: between those controlling crime on the North Side and those
Speaker 3: running the south Side. So Pierce knew Capone, those who
Speaker 3: worked for him, and those left standing after the gangster's death,
Speaker 3: and he wants to drive them out of Will County.
Speaker 2: You talk about Pierce John Pierce, but he goes to
Speaker 2: his former state attorney and says, what's up with this
Speaker 2: information missing? John James Burke.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, and he says well. Berg says, well, I
Speaker 3: told Edward G. Foxy Powers Foxy and the chief prosecutor
Speaker 3: for every Will County state's attorney since nineteen ten. He says,
Speaker 3: Sureff Foxing cleaned out the files, but they take it
Speaker 3: back to nineteen ten and they weren't important. That didn't
Speaker 3: sit well with Pierce. He vowed to call in Burke
Speaker 3: and Powers, putting them up before a grand jury if necessary,
Speaker 3: to get to the bottom of the missing files. Burke's
Speaker 3: nonchalance was apparent in his response to the threat. I'll
Speaker 3: be glad to cooperate it with Pierce, Burke says, But
Speaker 3: all the routina reports are available from the police, the coroner,
Speaker 3: and the sheriff. The only pertinent thing that might have
Speaker 3: been dumped were some statements taking during crime investigations. Well,
Speaker 3: that's just what Pierce wanted. He wanted the statements taken
Speaker 3: during the McCabe and Kelly investigations. Kelly, of course, the
Speaker 3: guy shot down in his driveway. Okay, So now there's
Speaker 3: nowhere to be found and likely never will As for
Speaker 3: the grand jury investigation in McCabe's case, it looks like
Speaker 3: Juliet at this point, we'll never know the truth unless
Speaker 3: Molly can get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 2: Now, say from the beginning that William McCabe had bodyguards
Speaker 2: to bodyguards, but you talk about that, even with that
Speaker 2: threat for McCabe, Molly stayed late as an editor at
Speaker 2: the Spectator, and you take us to September twenty fifth,
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nineteen fifty seven, September twenty fifth. You got to
Speaker 3: remember that. Now, this is a weekly paper. And I
Speaker 3: kind of grew up in radio, okay, where if you
Speaker 3: made a mistake, it only had to be you could
Speaker 3: look with a mistake because fifteen minutes later you'd had
Speaker 3: another newscast and you could correct it, Okay, But in
Speaker 3: a weekly newspaper, if you get it wrong, it's going
Speaker 3: to be wrong until next Thursday. So Molly worked late
Speaker 3: proofing this edition of the paper that would go out
Speaker 3: the next day. She worked until eleven thirty at night,
Speaker 3: the night of September twenty five, nineteen fifty seven. That's
Speaker 3: the Spectator. Her office was by the way, about thirty
Speaker 3: five miles southwest of Chicago. She always worked long hours.
Speaker 3: She held forty eight percent of the company stocks, so
Speaker 3: she was more than just a worker bee. She more
Speaker 3: than just the anointed publisher and the queen of the hive.
Speaker 3: Had skin in the game now, So she was there
Speaker 3: until eleven thirty. Finally, about eleven thirty pm, the other
Speaker 3: employees are all in there, still putting the final touches
Speaker 3: on the paper. But she's satisfied that her work is done,
Speaker 3: and she goes out to her car, waves goodbye and
Speaker 3: says see you tomorrow, see you later.
Speaker 2: What was the last editorial's focus? You write about targeting
Speaker 2: the pinball machine perpetrators. So tell us just what was
Speaker 2: going to be in the press and what was in
Speaker 2: the press just before we talk about this disappearance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was after jukeboxes, she was after slot machines,
Speaker 3: but also after pinballs. Pinball machines they called them pinballs,
Speaker 3: and pinballs back in those days were seen as really
Speaker 3: scary technology. People were there. There were stories all over
Speaker 3: the country about newspaper boys who lost all of their
Speaker 3: nickels playing pinball machines. There were men fathers who lost
Speaker 3: the monthly mortgage payment playing pinball machines. It was just
Speaker 3: there was so many. This is a day of black
Speaker 3: and a white TV if they had a TV. Okay,
Speaker 3: this was full of color, pinball machines, loud noise, music, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no. People were just fascinated by these pinball machines.
Speaker 3: And they were dropping nickels, nickels, nickels, over and over,
Speaker 3: and of course the nichols all went to the mob.
Speaker 3: The only thing you wanted one of these pinball machines
Speaker 3: was a free game. But it was just like so intoxicated,
Speaker 3: so addicting that people really wanted the pinball machines out.
Speaker 3: And Molly and McKay were leading a political effort to
Speaker 3: ban pinball machines from will County. So there was that too.
Speaker 3: And after she looked now shortly after eleven pm, she
Speaker 3: left the office at eleven thirty. Shortly after eleven PM,
Speaker 3: a phone in McCabe's office, where Molly had set up shop,
Speaker 3: started ringing. Yes, she did not answer it. The staff
Speaker 3: member looks up and says, Molly, your phone is ringing.
Speaker 3: Molly says, I know it. I know who it is,
Speaker 3: and I don't want to talk to him. Finally, thirty
Speaker 3: minutes later, she leaves, and the newspaper is ready to
Speaker 3: be put to bed, and she's ready to go to bed.
Speaker 3: That phone, by the way, is going to be very
Speaker 3: important later in this story. It is something on you.
Speaker 3: It has something unusual back in these days. It has
Speaker 3: an onlisted number, and Molly had it put in there.
Speaker 3: So that phone is going to be real interesting later
Speaker 3: on in this story. But the phone rings, Molly says,
Speaker 3: I know who it is. I don't want to talk
Speaker 3: to him. She leaves, She gets into her car and
Speaker 3: drives off.
Speaker 2: Now tell us what she is dressed like, and tell
Speaker 2: us the jewelry that she has on at that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, Molly doesn't make much money at all, okay,
Speaker 3: and I don't have it right in front of you
Speaker 3: how much she made. But she does not make enough
Speaker 3: to afford all of this. I'm telling you what. Molly
Speaker 3: stands on the sidewalk and Broat's visible in the cool air.
Speaker 3: She carried an of a lob style purse and wore
Speaker 3: a small black hat on the back of her head,
Speaker 3: along with a gray a dark gray suit and a
Speaker 3: figured white blouse and patent leather pumps. But that's just
Speaker 3: the beginning. Molly also wore a one thousand dollars diamond ring.
Speaker 3: This is one thousand dollars in nineteen fifty seven money, okay.
Speaker 3: She wore a one thousand dollar diamond ring and a
Speaker 3: bracelet set with thirty diamonds valued at five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: She got into her car and but she went for
Speaker 2: a drink. She went to a tavern. What did what
Speaker 2: was reported or what you write happened at that tavern?
Speaker 2: Other than that drink, we should say too.
Speaker 3: It was a fifty five Chrysler chrome trim. I mean,
Speaker 3: there's no way she could afford all this, but somehow
Speaker 3: she had it. Yeah. She goes into this tavern neon
Speaker 3: beer sign outside. I mean, it was just typical nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty seven stuff. There's some music inside. She opens the door.
Speaker 3: Nobody pays much attention to her. She makes your way
Speaker 3: to a corner booth, has a drink, quick sip, walk
Speaker 3: to the telephone, glances over her shoulder. To make no,
Speaker 3: make sure no one's watching, dials a number that she's
Speaker 3: obviously memorized, and speaks in a hushed whisper to whoever answers,
Speaker 3: and then finishes her drink, tips the bartender, and heads
Speaker 3: for the door. She looks down the empty street, slides
Speaker 3: back behind the wheel of that nineteen fifty five Chrysler,
Speaker 3: and pulls away, heading for home.
Speaker 2: You write that sometime after midnight, Missus Paul Petropolis and
Speaker 2: missus John Green heard a woman's screaming.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The two ladies lived in apartments on the first
Speaker 3: floor of a building at four point thirteen Buele Street.
Speaker 3: It's an avenue flanked by tall elm trees, large shrubs
Speaker 3: and bushes. It's the building that Molly lives in. Her
Speaker 3: home is on the second floor. Now, Missus Paul Petropolis
Speaker 3: and I loved the newspapers. They hardly ever put the
Speaker 3: first name of the woman in there. It's always the
Speaker 3: first name of the husband, right, which tells you a
Speaker 3: lot about life in nineteen fifty five through fifty seven.
Speaker 3: But anyway, so Missus Petropolis and this is Green. They
Speaker 3: hear someone screaming, other neighbors hear it. They all go
Speaker 3: to the windows to listen. They hear a woman cry out,
Speaker 3: oh no no, then silence. A few more seconds tick
Speaker 3: by neighbors hear more screams in silence, and then more screams.
Speaker 3: Did they call police?
Speaker 2: No? No?
Speaker 3: Why? Because crying out in alarm for no good reason
Speaker 3: had become a game for all the teenagers running up
Speaker 3: and down Vuell Street. They did always around midnight, so
Speaker 3: they figured it was just kids playing around with them. Again,
Speaker 3: the neighbors go back to bed, They turn off their lights,
Speaker 3: and they all go to bed.
Speaker 2: You take us next day. September twenty sixth, nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: US District Attorney John B. Starter Junior calling for a
Speaker 2: crackdown on pinball machines used for gambling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is where we're you know, this is an idea.
Speaker 3: This you know what I was leading up to with
Speaker 3: the pinball machine. Mean, this is how serious they saw it.
Speaker 3: A federal official. US District Attorney John B. Stoddard Junior
Speaker 3: on Leasha's a war, if you will against pinball machines.
Speaker 3: He finds nine gambling type pinball machines that were confiscated
Speaker 3: for failure to have a federal tax stamp. In Peoria, Bloomington,
Speaker 3: and Collinsville, Illinois disagreeing with it. Now, there were Illinois
Speaker 3: Supreme Court ruling to judge that are decided the pinball
Speaker 3: machines were not gambling devices, but Stoddard said that by
Speaker 3: their very nature, pinball machines are nothing but gambling devices
Speaker 3: and as a result, are illegal. So he goes out
Speaker 3: after these games, saying that the free game that you
Speaker 3: win is actually subterfuge for the slot machine payoff. And
Speaker 3: it was not only him that wanted to go after
Speaker 3: in the Chicago Crime Commission. Virgil Peterson, the director of
Speaker 3: the Chicago Crime Commission, wanted to go after them as well.
Speaker 2: Let's use this as an opportunity to stop to hear
Speaker 2: these messages talk about the Spectator's fight against pinball machines
Speaker 2: as part of the paper's crusade against gambling. We mentioned that.
Speaker 2: But now it's September twenty seventh, nineteen fifty seven. Molly
Speaker 2: didn't show up for work on Thursday or Friday. So
Speaker 2: now what is the reaction from her friends at work
Speaker 2: or co workers? And what did the police do?
Speaker 3: Now this is there's nothing on. You would think that
Speaker 3: this would send off alarms well, the first thing they do,
Speaker 3: obviously is called the police that Molly hasn't shown up
Speaker 3: for a couple of days. So they go to Molly's house,
Speaker 3: and outside of Molly's apartment of building, rather outside her
Speaker 3: apartment building, they discover that nineteen fifty five Chrysler parked
Speaker 3: at the curb. They find Molly's car, cheese under the
Speaker 3: vehicle's front seat, and a neighbor comes outside to tell
Speaker 3: police that's where Molly always put her cheese. So nothing
Speaker 3: seems unusual. Now. The police officer that the neighbor is
Speaker 3: speaking to is the only police detective, Captain John Dylon.
Speaker 3: He is going to lead the investigation. He is leading
Speaker 3: the investigation, I should say. So, they find your car,
Speaker 3: they find your keys, nothing unusual. But then at the
Speaker 3: rear of the car something ominous. They spot signs of
Speaker 3: a struggle, like Molly had been fighting for her life.
Speaker 3: They also find and this is key, they find a
Speaker 3: pair of Molly's shoes. One shoe is on the cars trunk,
Speaker 3: the other is on the ground. Now that shoes are
Speaker 3: important because a friend had said Molly told her once
Speaker 3: that if she was ever attacked like mcab had been attacked,
Speaker 3: she would kick off her shoes and run away barefoot.
Speaker 3: Could that be what happened? Is this her signal that
Speaker 3: you know her breadcrumbs if you will, her shoes? Is
Speaker 3: that her signal that she was being attacked and she
Speaker 3: had a run off. Did she get away? We don't
Speaker 3: know yet. Another friend, though, tells Dylan that Molly can
Speaker 3: fight it in her several months ago that she was
Speaker 3: deathly afraid something might happen to her because of the
Speaker 3: truth eight against the pinball machines. So the police go
Speaker 3: up to the second floor Molly's apartment. They knock on
Speaker 3: the door, pay her hard, They call it to Molly.
Speaker 3: No response, so they break it down and go inside.
Speaker 3: There's no sign of molli, no indication that she'd swept
Speaker 3: in that bed or even been in the apartment since
Speaker 3: leaving for work on Wednesday morning. There's nothing of Molly
Speaker 3: but her car outside and her shoes. Where could she be?
Speaker 3: We don't know. They don't know where she is. Then
Speaker 3: the next day, on Saturday, the phone rings inside her
Speaker 3: sister's home. Molly's sister on the line, a caller who
Speaker 3: sounds like an older man with a warning. He says,
Speaker 3: if you want to find Molly. You'd better be a
Speaker 3: good swimmer.
Speaker 2: Molly's sister is offully obviously shocked at this phone call,
Speaker 2: and her and her husband called police and Joliet police,
Speaker 2: and you write, and two FBI agents assigned to the
Speaker 2: case start searching and taking that message for literally and
Speaker 2: start searching for water fill quarries and also tell us
Speaker 2: about the extent of the search for Molly afterwards.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they searched for fifty water filled quarries, is what
Speaker 3: they do in the banks of the Displains River as well.
Speaker 3: They put everything they've got into it. They've got helicopters,
Speaker 3: they have everything. But they find nothing. But here's something
Speaker 3: you have to remember. They can't be sure that Molly
Speaker 3: was abducted. They don't know that she was abducted because
Speaker 3: years ago Molly vanished for two weeks before reappearing in Colorado.
Speaker 3: So she's not taking a surprise vacation. Is not out
Speaker 3: of the ordinary. But McKay told her our told police
Speaker 3: rather that story was bumped. Well, it was true that
Speaker 3: Molly went to Colorado seven years ago. He said, there
Speaker 3: was nothing mysterious about it. McCabe says he went to
Speaker 3: Colorado with Molly and a female friend and it was
Speaker 3: nothing but a vacation. Now he is convinced that she
Speaker 3: did not go off alone this time. McCabe is convinced
Speaker 3: that Molly, and his words, has been the victim of hoodlums.
Speaker 3: But you got to remember Molly was also seen as
Speaker 3: a dark, intense woman by her colleagues, And that's a quote.
Speaker 3: They say, she worked long hours and even went to
Speaker 3: a hospital to get a break from the spectator, and
Speaker 3: they wonder why would gangsters be after Molly. It's true
Speaker 3: McKay was beaten nearly to death and they got money
Speaker 3: out of his walling or anything. But no one people
Speaker 3: are saying, you can't really be sure that Molly was
Speaker 3: the target of gangsters. Maybe she was the victim of
Speaker 3: a robbery. She had all that jewelry on her, and
Speaker 3: it was well known that she had even more jewelry
Speaker 3: locked up in a bent vault, including a seventeen and
Speaker 3: a half carrot yellow Brazilian diamond wren. So perhaps they
Speaker 3: were just after her jewelry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you say that Captain Dylan decides Molly's wages, just
Speaker 2: doing that up you had said about meager wages with
Speaker 2: six hundred dollars a month. You write, so seventy two
Speaker 2: hundred per year over ten years. But she had a
Speaker 2: closet full of fine clothes and expensive jewelry. And like
Speaker 2: you say, that thirty seven thousand dollars ring in a
Speaker 2: bank vault. Now, who said that they had sold that? Interestingly?
Speaker 2: Had sold that ring to her for five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a friend of her. Now, this diamond
Speaker 3: ring was said to be big as a doorknob in
Speaker 3: the papers back then. It was locked in a bank vault.
Speaker 3: She wore to Governor William Stratton's inauguration in Springfield, then
Speaker 3: put it in the bank vault. Her, a friend of her,
Speaker 3: says she sold it to her for five thousand dollars,
Speaker 3: but never really explained where she got it from or
Speaker 3: why she was able to sell that big rock for
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Now, tell us about Molly's One of her brothers named Edward.
Speaker 2: He stopped in her office the first day she didn't
Speaker 2: show up for work. What did he tell the secretary?
Speaker 3: Yeah? He goes through the secretary, Charlotte French. She says,
Speaker 3: look for a package of letters and documents wrapped in
Speaker 3: a pink ribbon. Well, Charlotte says, so far, nothing like
Speaker 3: that has come into the office, and he tells her
Speaker 3: the twenty seven year old secretary. He says, well, when
Speaker 3: it does come in, make sure you destroy it immediately,
Speaker 3: because that's what Molly would have wanted. And when Dylan
Speaker 3: hears this story, captain villain, he says, now that's interesting. Now.
Speaker 3: So there are so many little subterfusions and links in
Speaker 3: this story. It's just an incredible story to tell.
Speaker 2: Tell us about the search of the safe deposit box
Speaker 2: that McCabe says, and he's there to open it up.
Speaker 2: He says, it hasn't been opened by him for four
Speaker 2: years since they had rented it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, nobody knows what's in this box. Molly and McCabe
Speaker 3: had rented this together in nineteen fifty three. This again
Speaker 3: shows you how a toure winked. And so this is
Speaker 3: kind of like tried to open Capone's vault on TV.
Speaker 3: You know, you have no idea what's going to be
Speaker 3: in there, but you want to open it up to
Speaker 3: see what's in there. So Dylan or McCabe's there, he
Speaker 3: turns the key, pops the top off the box. Dylan
Speaker 3: pushes ahead of everyone. He gets into the box and
Speaker 3: he finds a trust agreement and interesting data that showed
Speaker 3: Ally's career trajectory. It's the newspaper how She rose. There's
Speaker 3: a trust agreement between McCabe and Molly and shows her
Speaker 3: pick taking over the paper eventually. But it also shows
Speaker 3: her income too, a dividend in from of twenty four
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy five dollars from the Spectator stock in
Speaker 3: nineteen forty seven. That was part of her six thousand
Speaker 3: dollars income. The following year she had another sixteen hundred
Speaker 3: in dividends part of income of fifty two hundred. So
Speaker 3: you know, again there's not a whole lot of money
Speaker 3: coming in from normal venues or normal revenue streams. And
Speaker 3: it does also show that the Spectator is essentially worthless
Speaker 3: or it's losing money, but McCabe says, no, that isn't
Speaker 3: true either. So you know, there's all this question about money.
Speaker 3: Where's all this money coming from that Molly evidently had.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about al Pohler. You talk about that he
Speaker 2: had some information he gave to McCabe but denied it
Speaker 2: to Captain Dillon. Tell us about this information.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pohlar. McCabe says, Polar came al. Pohler is one
Speaker 3: of the interesting characters in this story too, local businessman
Speaker 3: and Joliet. He goes into McCabe. He goes to McCabe
Speaker 3: and Polls says, Pohler's knows something about Molly's disappearance. But
Speaker 3: Pohler's told McCabe that Molly's okay. He knows that she's
Speaker 3: all right. But at the same time he asked McCabe
Speaker 3: not to tell a soul about that conversation. Polers denies it.
Speaker 3: He says, I only went to the paper to console McCabe,
Speaker 3: and he refutes the story the publisher had anything that
Speaker 3: he told Molly. So I told the publisher anything about Mollie,
Speaker 3: but nobody. Somebody's not telling the truth here.
Speaker 2: You also write about hers calling this Auto Weber and
Speaker 2: what she has to say to him regarding him running
Speaker 2: for political office.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she calls Auto Weber. Now again, she's really getting
Speaker 3: involved in politics here, and this is such an intricate
Speaker 3: web of politics and Julia Illinois back in these days
Speaker 3: are according to Otto, she called well, she called Otto
Speaker 3: Weber at the Weber Dairy Company and told him to
Speaker 3: get out of the race, not to run for office.
Speaker 3: She didn't talk to him. She spoke to his brother John,
Speaker 3: So we're getting this second hand from John. He wanted
Speaker 3: to know what Otto was doing in the race. I
Speaker 3: have no background for the job. She didn't think I
Speaker 3: should be running, Otto says. She wanted to scare me
Speaker 3: so I wouldn't run. And she told him he couldn't
Speaker 3: afford the banned publicity that would be generated by this,
Speaker 3: but the Spectator would generate. So again she's really getting
Speaker 3: intricately involved in politics. More twist turns and puzzle pieces
Speaker 3: and the disappearance of Malizelco and Captain Dylan is finding
Speaker 3: out about all of this and trying to put it
Speaker 3: all together.
Speaker 2: He also she believes that he has some connection to
Speaker 2: gangster Francis Curry. And again Francis Curry has been associated
Speaker 2: with the three thugs that got away with beating McCabe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the thin Man, right, And now she really ticked
Speaker 3: him off because she Francis had the thin Man had
Speaker 3: a party at his house, a very respectable party, and
Speaker 3: Molly though blasted it in the Spectator, and so he
Speaker 3: was upset with her because of that. As well, so, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's a whole lot going on to the story.
Speaker 2: Now you talk. Take us to October fourth, nineteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: and Henry C. Peterson doesn't believe that Molly was alive.
Speaker 2: He's the chairman of the will County Republican Party, and
Speaker 2: he went right to the press. Tell us what he says.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he found a reporter and he told him that
Speaker 3: Molly told him that she feared for her life back
Speaker 3: in June, and she was very specific. Molly was deathly afraid.
Speaker 3: Peterson said that someone was going to attach a bomb
Speaker 3: to her tire starter and blow her the kingdom. Come now.
Speaker 3: Peterson couldn't imagine why anyone would want to do that,
Speaker 3: and he doubted that it would happen. But one of
Speaker 3: Molly's dearest friends of missus, Alice Bergan of Chicago, came
Speaker 3: up at that point and backed up Molly's fears. And
Speaker 3: Alice told the story of two men following her and
Speaker 3: Molly to the newspaper woman's office and parking close enough
Speaker 3: to the newspaper's building to watch the front door. Now
Speaker 3: she and Molly, Alice and Molly are in the office.
Speaker 3: They're crouching below an office window only their eyes are
Speaker 3: above the window sill. They're watching that car on these guys.
Speaker 3: And while they're being watched, the two women watch the
Speaker 3: men who followed them. So, staying below the windows, Molly
Speaker 3: and Alice sneak out of the building's back door and
Speaker 3: scramble off to Molly's car. They drive quickly to Peterson's home.
Speaker 3: Molly watched the road at the same time Alice kept
Speaker 3: the eye out the car's rear window, ensuring that nobody
Speaker 3: was tailing them. So that was really I mean, it's
Speaker 3: like out of a movie what they were doing. Can
Speaker 3: you imagine these women like, you know, crab walking their
Speaker 3: way or duck walking their way out of this building
Speaker 3: in their high heels and dresses, and that's how they
Speaker 3: were dressed at the time. And they go to Peterson's
Speaker 3: house and they tell him about this, you know, the
Speaker 3: Molly's convinced that she is going to be told by
Speaker 3: these guys. He tells her that maybe you ought to
Speaker 3: get stop working in the office late at night and
Speaker 3: get yourself some protection.
Speaker 2: This Captain Dillan, you write, he has three theories on
Speaker 2: the case. But at the same time you take us
Speaker 2: to October ninth, nineteen fifty seven, McCabe goes over the
Speaker 2: heads of Captain Dylan and other local cops when he
Speaker 2: sent a special request to who J.
Speaker 3: Edgar Hoover at the FBI. He sends him a letter
Speaker 3: via airmail special delivery saying that he should get the
Speaker 3: FBI involved in this case due to the underlying gangster
Speaker 3: and criminal background in this county. I am fearful that
Speaker 3: she has been kidnapped. That's what McCabe wrote in the
Speaker 3: letter to Lodge A.
Speaker 2: Edgar. Now, the FBI get involved if there is evidence
Speaker 2: of kidnapping. So he's hoping that he can convey them
Speaker 2: that there is sufficient evidence of kidnapping, but so far
Speaker 2: that there is none from law enforcement any evidence of that.
Speaker 3: Right, And remember this is back in Jay Edgar's day
Speaker 3: when he was really trying to downplay the idea that
Speaker 3: there was a mob or a syndicator, any kind of
Speaker 3: coordinated criminals in America. So he obviously did not want
Speaker 3: He was all about communists back in those days, so
Speaker 3: he obviously did not want to get involved in this,
Speaker 3: and he refused to get involved in this. As a
Speaker 3: matter of fact, the FBI sent some people out back
Speaker 3: when we had the rumor that Molly would be in
Speaker 3: one of the quarries or the river. They did send
Speaker 3: some FBI agents out then, but they did nothing more
Speaker 3: than function as observers. They really didn't get involved.
Speaker 2: That sessus has an opportunity to stop to hear these messages.
Speaker 2: Now they discover police discovered that there was some specific
Speaker 2: investigation by Molly at the Spectator government paving contracts involving
Speaker 2: Alfred Shuck and Edward Walsh. Tell us the significance of this.
Speaker 3: These paving contracts she got into. This is an example
Speaker 3: of how a weekly newspaper back in that day really
Speaker 3: got into being an investigative newspaper. She was really she
Speaker 3: got into some paving contracts here and totally three point
Speaker 3: four million dollars for the plant, another one point four
Speaker 3: million for a sledge digestion and sewage disposal plant. The
Speaker 3: bonds were sold to a Chicago brokerage from an April
Speaker 3: fifty five and because of Molly's work on this investigation,
Speaker 3: Joliet really responded in outrage and said that those bonds
Speaker 3: should have been sold locally and not to Chicago. So
Speaker 3: again Molly is really upsetting some connected business people who
Speaker 3: are connected to the mob. This is another reason that
Speaker 3: he thinks that Dylan and his team think that Molly
Speaker 3: might have gotten herself into a lot of trouble.
Speaker 2: Here, you said that Captain Dillon's team makes it discovery
Speaker 2: that opens new doors in Molly's investigation. Finally, and we
Speaker 2: go back to when you mentioned the phone that police find,
Speaker 2: but you call it a sea Molly's secret phone with
Speaker 2: his own private phone in her office that you shared
Speaker 2: with McCabe, unlisted installed July second, nineteen fifty seven. Tell
Speaker 2: us about the discovery of the two calls that she made.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was a private unlisted she had it put in.
Speaker 3: And so what they do. They discover that Molly had
Speaker 3: used the phone to make two intriguing toll calls on
Speaker 3: July twenty second and July thirtieth, nineteen fifty seven. The
Speaker 3: first call on July twenty second was made of three
Speaker 3: fifty seven in the afternoon to an unlisted number the
Speaker 3: Draanga phone in a construction field office of the S. N.
Speaker 3: Nielsen in Company. It was located in the yard of
Speaker 3: the Interlake Iron Corporation on South Burley Avenue, where the
Speaker 3: Nielsen Company was doing some work. The call only lasted
Speaker 3: a minute. Now, who could Molly have been talking to
Speaker 3: you for sixty seconds? And how did she get that
Speaker 3: on listed number? Well, Julius Brand, who's the construction superintendent
Speaker 3: for Nielsen and Company, said he was as mystified as
Speaker 3: the investigators. He maintained he didn't pick up the phone
Speaker 3: if it rang, and he's been unable to find anyone
Speaker 3: who answered Molly's call. Even without knowing who answered the
Speaker 3: phone and spoke with Molly for a minute, this phone
Speaker 3: call opens up a new window into the underbelly of
Speaker 3: Jolliet politics and the unsavory characters involved in the city's government. Now,
Speaker 3: this is where it gets really interesting. And I don't
Speaker 3: know if we have time to go into all of this,
Speaker 3: but there a lot of bells are ringing and lights
Speaker 3: are flashing at the end with Dylan's team because everything
Speaker 3: is so connected now. The second call who went out
Speaker 3: from Molly's phone was even more perplexing. It went to
Speaker 3: a number Dearborn two ninety six fourteen. That's another on
Speaker 3: listed phone, and it's in a booth inside the Black
Speaker 3: Hawk restaurant and one thirty nine North Wabash Avenue in Chicago.
Speaker 3: This call lasts eleven minutes, much longer than the call
Speaker 3: of the construction company field office, and even more mysterious
Speaker 3: because nobody knows who was in that restaurant booth at
Speaker 3: precisely that time talking to Molly for precisely eleven minutes.
Speaker 3: But Molly must have known who would answer. That means
Speaker 3: she knew who was going to be in the booth
Speaker 3: at that time. How would she know that? And that
Speaker 3: number is unlisted, so someone using that booth must have
Speaker 3: called her first and gave her the number. It's possible,
Speaker 3: even likely, that someone sitting in that booth called the
Speaker 3: newspaper switchboard and got Molly on a regular office phone.
Speaker 3: She could have told the unknown caller to hang up,
Speaker 3: and she'd called back from her unlisted number. At least
Speaker 3: that's what the cops are thinking. Dylan's people are thinking now,
Speaker 3: But they still have no idea why Molly called the
Speaker 3: construction site. They have no idea why or who she
Speaker 3: called at the restaurant. New puzzle pieces in this mystery.
Speaker 3: It's like puzzle pieces scattered all around your kitchen tables
Speaker 3: and you're still trying to figure out how to put
Speaker 3: them together. And we still at this point don't know
Speaker 3: if Molly is dead or alive. She could be alive.
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 2: You're right though, that after Molly's disappearance, gangsters, all of
Speaker 2: them were in a real good mood. But the rumor
Speaker 2: was that she was killed the knight of her disappearance
Speaker 2: and the body dumped and abandoned coal mines near Coal City, Illinois.
Speaker 2: So there was a search. He was a search. Then
Speaker 2: you say, of fifty of these mines and there was
Speaker 2: planes involved and volunteers on the ground. Then you take
Speaker 2: us to again Frank Curry, king pin of gambling. You right,
Speaker 2: what happens in Joliet regarding pinball machines in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Jolie of City council legalized pinballs in nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty five, but mcab and Molly supported a guy by
Speaker 3: the name of William H. Wilson for city council and
Speaker 3: he was against pinballs. His vote on the seven member
Speaker 3: handel in May shot down the ordinance permitting pinballs. As
Speaker 3: a result, will County officials were inspired to promise to
Speaker 3: follow suit and shut down pinballs, a major revenue stream
Speaker 3: for the underworld and Juliet and Chicago.
Speaker 2: So you talk about some of the people, the up
Speaker 2: and comers, the John Provenzano and others that came up
Speaker 2: after Capone's death, and what Molly Zelco represented to those
Speaker 2: people as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now, yeah, she Molly was a real threat to them.
Speaker 3: And these were the new food chain. Now, Sam Mooney
Speaker 3: g and Connor we all know who he is now,
Speaker 3: but he was just an up and comer at that point.
Speaker 3: We also had John Provenzano, Frank Murro, Frank Laporte, William
Speaker 3: Willie Potatoes to Donno, and of course Al Capone, the
Speaker 3: founder of all of this. Now, after Capone died, these
Speaker 3: new young guys took over. They were ambitious. They were
Speaker 3: the young bloods, you know, they were not the old gangsters.
Speaker 3: They were the young bloods, and they were breaking Dylan
Speaker 3: found all the old mob rules and writing new ways
Speaker 3: of doing business. And one of the old rules was
Speaker 3: you didn't kill reporters. Okay, reporters could be as much
Speaker 3: on your side as against you. You did not kill reporters.
Speaker 3: But these new young guys, they didn't see it that
Speaker 3: way at all. They went after reporters. As one gangster said, Zelko,
Speaker 3: Molli Zelko went into the pit so may others If
Speaker 3: Zelko went into the pit, so may others if they
Speaker 3: get in our way. So, in other words, if Molly
Speaker 3: was killed, that her death, her murder might have been
Speaker 3: as a warning to other reporters to stay out of
Speaker 3: the mob's way.
Speaker 2: You're right that a former undercover investigator, Angus Jost, traveled
Speaker 2: from his home in Toronto to show Joliette Police Chief
Speaker 2: Trisna a note from Molly. What'd that note say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, she wrote the note in nineteen fifty three. Everything
Speaker 3: since that night, the night of mccave's beating, Everything since
Speaker 3: that night seems terrifying, And not one day since can
Speaker 3: I say it's been a happy one. Everything in life
Speaker 3: seems to center around that night, and each day brings
Speaker 3: more sorrow and grief because of that night. Then, in
Speaker 3: the following paragraph, she writes it being close to identifying
Speaker 3: the Aide's attackers, who he claimed were all hired by
Speaker 3: the thin man Francis Curry. So the letter supplied by
Speaker 3: Jose gave police one more piece to the puzzle of
Speaker 3: her disappearance. But again, it's not proof positive that the
Speaker 3: mobsteries were responsible for Molli's disappearance, or even that she
Speaker 3: was kidnapped. We still have no idea what happened.
Speaker 2: You're right that October seventeenth, nineteen fifty seven, police give
Speaker 2: a have a suspect, Clifford Swearringer, and they give him
Speaker 2: a polygraph. What's the result, and as well, what's the
Speaker 2: result of him being considered a suspect in a.
Speaker 3: Word, inconclusive. We don't know that he's innocent, we don't
Speaker 3: know that he's guilty. But it's just one more disappointment.
Speaker 3: I tell you what. Captain Dylon is one of the
Speaker 3: most after these people, like a pitbull. I mean, he
Speaker 3: just doesn't give up. But it's just one more disappointment
Speaker 3: for him. It comes out he's an next con Clifford Sweaeringer.
Speaker 3: It comes out as inconclusive.
Speaker 2: Circumstantially, he did live next door to Mali for ten months.
Speaker 2: He was paroled in nineteen forty seven. Low level thug.
Speaker 3: But other than that, yeah, other than that, there's nothing
Speaker 3: that would lead you to believe that he was involved.
Speaker 3: They were just hoping, you know, pushing a prayer.
Speaker 2: What happens. August fourteenth, nineteen fifty eight. Regarding William McCabe.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sorry he died August fourteenth, nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 3: William McCabe is dead. He passes away. He passed away
Speaker 3: yesterday the thirteenth at Saint Joseph's Hospital. It was listed
Speaker 3: as natural causes, but really it was the beating he
Speaker 3: suffered more than ten years ago, the guys that got
Speaker 3: him in his car. He never really full of from that.
Speaker 3: He never went back to the office full time or
Speaker 3: even part time. So he was you know, he's dead.
Speaker 3: The cave is gone. Molly is still listed, is missing,
Speaker 3: and she's believed dead for the most part.
Speaker 2: And it take us to November nineteen fifty eight. There's
Speaker 2: absolutely no evidence, but now a confession.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here we go. Now this involves the Senate Select
Speaker 3: Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field,
Speaker 3: better known as the Senate Rackets Committee. And guess you there,
Speaker 3: General Counsel dates none other than Robert Kennedy, who of
Speaker 3: course would be senator, would be a Senator and then
Speaker 3: would become a presidential candidate tragically gunned down. This is
Speaker 3: when Kennedy is going after James Hoffe back in those days.
Speaker 3: He's going after the mob one of the mobsters. He's
Speaker 3: going after is a low level dog by the name
Speaker 3: of James Rennie who has one of the best nicknames
Speaker 3: in mob history, James the Green Hornet Rennie. Right, and
Speaker 3: ask me why he was called the green Hornet. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you because James Rennie was a second story
Speaker 3: man and a witness sees him coming out of a
Speaker 3: second story apartment window and said he was as smooth
Speaker 3: and athletic as the green hornet that I hear about
Speaker 3: on the radio, so they called him the Green Hornet.
Speaker 3: So now he's behind bared at Stateonville Prison in Illinois
Speaker 3: doing ten to fourteen for burglary robbery and using terrorist
Speaker 3: activities to support his superiors like Giancanna and Capone and
Speaker 3: Rennie who was he says. He goes to Kennedy and
Speaker 3: he says, look, I know who got Molly Zelto. He
Speaker 3: killed her. James Rennie confesses to kidnapping and killing Molly Zelto.
Speaker 3: He tells the whole story.
Speaker 2: You say that the couple FBI agents that spoke to
Speaker 2: him asked him some specific questions and they noticed some discrepancies,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: He said that he was given the job by William
Speaker 3: Willie Potatoes to Donno and at that time. The donna
Speaker 3: was a tough guy's tough guy, and he offers him
Speaker 3: three thousand dollars, he said, for the job. But then
Speaker 3: there are other things that you know, for instance, the
Speaker 3: shoes on the ground. Renney says that Molly was wearing
Speaker 3: her shoes when they threw her into the car that
Speaker 3: they took her a land. Rindy says, yeah, of course
Speaker 3: they wouldn't leave obvious evidence behind she had her shoes
Speaker 3: on her feet. But no, of course, the shoes were
Speaker 3: found near the scene of her abduction, one on the
Speaker 3: trunk of her Cadillac, on the other nearby. They also
Speaker 3: warn the cops, you know, Riddy warned Robert Kennedy that
Speaker 3: he's a two bit hood, nothing but a two bit hood,
Speaker 3: and he cannot be trusted.
Speaker 2: Now, he talks about the meetings with these gangsters to
Speaker 2: solidify his story to people like Kennedy and this machine.
Speaker 2: So what does he tell him about these meetings and
Speaker 2: why is he assigned to kill Mollie?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I said he was. Willie Potatoes gave him the job.
Speaker 3: He offers it on three thousand dollar contract for the kid.
Speaker 3: He says he didn't know yet who the target was,
Speaker 3: he told her return to the hotel at seven pm
Speaker 3: to learn more. When he goes back, he meets two
Speaker 3: other men, Sam Speary and one of Sam g and
Speaker 3: Connor's relatives, who Rennie refused to name. The third man. Now,
Speaker 3: they get into a Ford Sedan drive to juliet with
Speaker 3: Rinnie at the wheel. They park outside of the apartment
Speaker 3: building at four thirteen. They see Molly drive up. They
Speaker 3: grab her, they take her away. She fights, and they
Speaker 3: drive her off somewhere north of Juliette.
Speaker 2: And you say that, they shoot her in the head
Speaker 2: and bury her in a already dug grave and cover
Speaker 2: it with quicklimee.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they throw her in the grave. They go to
Speaker 3: a farm. They find the grave already dug. The hole
Speaker 3: was waiting for them. It's a farm. They go to
Speaker 3: the farm, they throw the body in, they cover it
Speaker 3: up quicklimee on top to of course, you know, to
Speaker 3: grade the body. And they take off. And that's that.
Speaker 3: You know, it's as simple as that. It was not
Speaker 3: any big, not any big conspiracy, not any you know,
Speaker 3: it was a very simple murderer. You kill her, you
Speaker 3: grab her, you killer, you thrower in the hole that's
Speaker 3: waiting for you. You bury her and you drive off,
Speaker 3: as simple as that.
Speaker 2: You write that the Senate investigators can't believe they're good
Speaker 2: luck with this confession, with people like the FBI noting discrepancies.
Speaker 2: Robert Kennedy and McShane are eager to go with Reenie
Speaker 2: and find this body that he's said he's testified that
Speaker 2: he has buried himself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Kennedy. Robert Kennedy and Jim McShane, one of the
Speaker 3: committee's top investigators on the Racket Committee. They go to Chicago.
Speaker 3: They pick up Rennie before dawn at Stateville Prison, put
Speaker 3: him into a car, and they go out to a
Speaker 3: farm where he says the burial site is so Then
Speaker 3: Kennedy and McShane and several guards, I mean Kennedy had
Speaker 3: a pickaxe, Shane McShane had a shovel, and they start
Speaker 3: digging in the frosty ground. Well guests. Who shows up
Speaker 3: The guy who owns the farm, Mike Covid. He comes
Speaker 3: outside and says, hey, what are you guys doing? Who
Speaker 3: are you guys, and what are you doing well. Kennedy
Speaker 3: did not want to say that he was with the
Speaker 3: federal government and the General Counsel of the Rockets Committee.
Speaker 3: So he and McShane tell Covid that they work with
Speaker 3: the state of Illinois and they're searching for precious medals.
Speaker 3: Of course, why wouldn't they be doing that early in
Speaker 3: the morning in November, So Covid he can't believe it.
Speaker 3: He goes back into his house, sits down with another
Speaker 3: cup of coffee, and they keep digging outside. Finally, around lunchtime,
Speaker 3: they give up. There's nothing there. They're deep, They're six
Speaker 3: seven feet deep, nobody not even the signs of a grade.
Speaker 3: They admit defeat. They've got nothing but dirt under their
Speaker 3: fingernails and blisters on their hands. And Rennie smiling his
Speaker 3: return to prison. We just picked the wrong spot, he
Speaker 3: tells Kennedy Momley Bill goes out there somewhere. I'll help
Speaker 3: you find her. Now, doesn't read. He sound like he's
Speaker 3: having a great time. He gets out of prison, he
Speaker 3: gets to you know, watch these guys did and they
Speaker 3: can't find anything.
Speaker 2: Now to Leep lend credence to the story being false completely,
Speaker 2: he has to explain how he did it and why
Speaker 2: he went to this extraordinary efforts to tell this lie.
Speaker 3: Because he had to tell them something, you know, he
Speaker 3: was being drilled on a lot of things, and this
Speaker 3: is like in the Godfather. This is just like a
Speaker 3: Godfather too. When they bring the gangster up before the
Speaker 3: Senate panel, he sees his brother come in, so he
Speaker 3: doesn't want you to declare that Michael Corleone is the gangster.
Speaker 3: He says, I had to tell the FBI something. And
Speaker 3: then basically is what James rennies is. He said, I
Speaker 3: had to tell the FBI something. They wanted something. They
Speaker 3: kept asking me a lot of foolish questions, so I
Speaker 3: gave them a bunch of foolish answers. That's what he says.
Speaker 3: He's a small gangster. It looks like he could be
Speaker 3: a horse racing jockey more than a gangster. I finally
Speaker 3: told them, he said what I figured. I finally told
Speaker 3: Kennedy what I figured he wanted to hear, and so
Speaker 3: there you go. So he pulled a scam on Robert Kennedy.
Speaker 3: I brought up the Zellko thing. He says. I figured,
Speaker 3: if McShane and Kennedy got three to got me three
Speaker 3: to five off of this. So he figures they'll do
Speaker 3: him a favorite too. He figures if he leaves them
Speaker 3: to me makes them believe the Zell Coo thing, he
Speaker 3: can shave like three to five years off his sentence.
Speaker 3: So I figured if McShane and Kennedy got me three
Speaker 3: to five years off, I'd be ahead before they found
Speaker 3: out my confession was alive.
Speaker 2: Very interesting. When he was asked how he was not
Speaker 2: afraid of repercussions by dropping all of these fearful mafia names.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he said. Yeah. I figured I threw a
Speaker 3: lot of big names at him, they'd eat it up
Speaker 3: even more. Hell, I never bring them saw Willi Potatoes
Speaker 3: in my life. They were counting me. I was counting them.
Speaker 3: And was he Should he be afraid of Willie Potatoes
Speaker 3: and these other guys and really lasts, he says, Nah,
Speaker 3: they all know I'm crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Now you write that. September twenty eighth, nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty four. Finally, Molly Zelko is declared dead Circuit Court judge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Molly's Elko is declared dead. September twenty eighth, nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty four. No, her body has not been found. You know,
Speaker 3: nobody has come forth with an explanation of what happened
Speaker 3: to her. It's likely that nobody ever will. But Molly's
Speaker 3: Elko is declared dead. It's been seven years now, and
Speaker 3: that's it. The mystery's over. Well, the mystery continues, but
Speaker 3: you know, she's declared dead.
Speaker 2: Investigation over what happens to the Spectator newspaper.
Speaker 3: The Spectator newspaper is taken over by McCabe's daughters. They
Speaker 3: don't do well with it, They sell it and the
Speaker 3: company that bought it they go broke, and it's just
Speaker 3: closed down. It's just shut down. It goes in journalism history.
Speaker 3: I guess you could say.
Speaker 2: Now officially, what did law enforcement say likely has happened
Speaker 2: to Molly?
Speaker 3: Well, they hadn't had a solid lead in five years,
Speaker 3: they've been exhausted. Everything. Nobody really knows. But Joey at
Speaker 3: Police Sargeant Archie Kerr, who we kind of took over
Speaker 3: this investigation, says, all I can say is that now
Speaker 3: she's legally dead. They do believe that, you know, in
Speaker 3: their heart of hearts, they believe she was kidnapped and murdered,
Speaker 3: but beyond that they can't prove it. They have no idea.
Speaker 3: All they can say is that she's now legally dead. Now.
Speaker 2: I was very curious after I read this, what did
Speaker 2: they make of all the fine clothes and this budget
Speaker 2: that she couldn't have couldn't have possibly had with the
Speaker 2: money she earned at the spectator? What could explain all
Speaker 2: this jewelry? What could explain all of this money? And
Speaker 2: also is there a possibility I think, is there a
Speaker 2: possibility that she was involved in some chicanery herself to
Speaker 2: explain these funds that mysteriously she had. But also, of
Speaker 2: course I believe that the crusade against Francis Curry and
Speaker 2: people specifically involved in pinball machine operations were responsible. But
Speaker 2: is there a possibility that she was also involved in
Speaker 2: some chicanery herself?
Speaker 3: I don't think you can doubt that. I mean, how
Speaker 3: else would she come up with this? And I mean
Speaker 3: her friend Alice, the one that she drove away with,
Speaker 3: you know, being chased by the bad guys. Alice is
Speaker 3: the one who gave her that thirty seven thousand dollars
Speaker 3: diamond for five thousand dollars, And she won't explain except
Speaker 3: she just said personal reasons. So she had to be connected.
Speaker 3: I don't see how you could live in Joliet back
Speaker 3: in those days without being connected in some way or another.
Speaker 2: And how do you explain the relationship with McCabe and Molly.
Speaker 2: Would McCabe be not immune to some sort of chicanery
Speaker 2: as well? And then could you see the murders or
Speaker 2: the attempted murder of McCabe certainly would have been a murder,
Speaker 2: you right, and Molly herself the murder certainly that was
Speaker 2: part of the ultimate insult in terms of targeting Francis Curry.
Speaker 2: But also that they were hypocrites.
Speaker 3: Maybe, yeah, you know, that could be. That could be.
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I didn't think about it like that.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of stuff going on there.
Speaker 3: You just know there is, I mean, and then there's
Speaker 3: McCabe and Molly's relationship too. He signs her on at
Speaker 3: the age of seventeen when he's forty two. Now we
Speaker 3: didn't cover this, but there was a time too when
Speaker 3: he was hospitalized for an illness and she got a
Speaker 3: hospital room right across the hall, right across the hall
Speaker 3: from him, and she was there every night, and they
Speaker 3: said that she had the flu.
Speaker 2: Interesting, So what does your take on why she was killed?
Speaker 2: What is your conclusion?
Speaker 3: Agree with what her brother said, doctor Zelke, her brother,
Speaker 3: the dentist. He said she was a courageous newspaper woman.
Speaker 3: We tried to warn her to take it easy, but
Speaker 3: she had so much nerve. And with a sigh, he added,
Speaker 3: I think she stuck her neck out too much. I
Speaker 3: guess in the end it was just too far. And
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, when you talk about the
Speaker 3: diamond jewelries and jewelry and whatnot, maybe she accepted those
Speaker 3: as gifts. You could call them bribes, but maybe she
Speaker 3: accepted those as gifts. You know, she was an attractive woman,
Speaker 3: She was very attractive. She was like a special person.
Speaker 3: Maybe they were gifts. I don't know. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I think in the end, she was just a
Speaker 3: newspaper woman who stuck her neck out too far and
Speaker 3: misjudged the quality of the people that she was attacking.
Speaker 2: Now we haven't mentioned this, but other than the Spectator itself,
Speaker 2: how was her story treated in other press?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, now, you know, when I looked at the
Speaker 3: Chicago Tribune, for instance, the Daily Tribune, it was known
Speaker 3: as at that point she was all over the front pages.
Speaker 3: And you know, you didn't write Molly Zelko in the headline.
Speaker 3: All they did was mal All they wrote was Mollie.
Speaker 3: If they put Molly in the headline. People were reading
Speaker 3: it and this was news all over northern Illinois and
Speaker 3: it really became national news too.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you very much, Rod for coming
Speaker 2: on and talking about your latest true crime book, Murder
Speaker 2: Molly and the Mob. Shocking true crime story for those
Speaker 2: that might want to take a look at the other
Speaker 2: works and this book, Murder Molly and the Mob. Can
Speaker 2: you tell us about a website?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Rodcackley dot com is a great way to go.
Speaker 3: Or simply go to Amazon dot com and my author page.
Speaker 3: You'll find it there. Yeah, either way you can read more.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Rod Cackley or Murder Molly and
Speaker 2: the Mob. You have a great evening and good night.