Gene Goolsby with Thompson
This photo was taken in 1995 by Jon Musgrave for the Marion History Edition of the Marion Daily Republican. Officer Gene Goolsby displays a 1921 Thompson submachine gun that was apparently confiscated during the gang wars era of the 1920’s. Policemen still test fire it on the shooting range periodically.
Judge W.O. Potter Slays Family, October 25, 1926
“The above title screamed across the entire front page of Monday’s paper. With so many individuals lost from such a prominent family practically all of the front and back pages (seven columns of print to each page) were devoted to the details of the this tragic event. Continue reading
Chorus Girls in Jail 1957
Six chorus girls thank patrolman Harry Thompson for a night’s lodging. The girls, part of a show troupe taking part in the Williamson County Fair, arrived here to find they had no hotel reservations. The girls were allowed to sleep in the City Jail.
(L-R) Carole Brodine, Chicago; Carol Mattille, Des Moines; Pat Kirk, Chicago; Deanna Hagberg, Chicago; Harry Thompson; Deanna Newman, Chicago; and Carol Frey, Des Moines.
(UPI photo dated 08/08/1957)
A mass law and order meeting was held on the public square in Marion on August 20, 1923, with more than fifteen hundred voices “raised in protest against vice and corruption in Williamson County.” A rousing cheer went up from the crowd when one speaker, the Reverend P.R. Glotfelty, Methodist minister from Herrin, promised the county would be cleansed of iniquity, even if they had to do it themselves. Glotfelty, was likely a member of the Klan, as were quite a few ministers at this time period.
Glotfelty was adamantly opposed to two things—Catholicism and violation of Prohibition laws—and maintained that intentions of Herrin Catholics to build a new church were evil because most of the members of that parish were “Italian bootleggers”. He vowed publicly that the Catholic Church would never be built. The church was built anyway, of course, and was completed in 1926.
(Photos courtesy of the Williamson County Historical Society)