Tag Archives: al capone

Dr. Paul George walking tours offer a Miami history lesson

Miami-Dade professor Dr. Paul George is an iconic figure in the Miami community thanks to his popular walking tours of the city’s historic neighborhoods.

For more than two decades, Dr. George has shown tourists and locals alike what makes the Magic City tick when it comes to places like Little Havana the home of famed Calle Ocho, the Miami Cemetery where legendary Miami figures like Julia Tuttle are buried and the Miami River cruise along the historic body of water that meanders through the now skyscraper-like landscape of Downtown Miami.

His tours touch on the architecture of the area as well as the historic figures responsible for developing it; local black history; the influence of Al Capone and other mafia figures and historic events like the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The tours usually depart from History Miami located at 101 W Flagler St. 305-375-1492, www.historymiami.org

Chicago Mob History 101 at the Green Mill Jazz Lounge

If there’s one place in Chicago that oozes its quintessential jazzy charm that dangerously flirts with a heavy history of mafia, then the Green Mill Jazz Lounge is your place. Not having changed much since its opening in 1907 (yes, 1907), the place is dark, smoky (even still, post no-smoking laws somehow) and sexy.

Back in the day the place had an outdoor dancing and drinking garden lit by lanterns, where people arrived by horse and buggy. The garden was complete with horse-hitching posts. It soon transpired to be a mobster hangout when some of Al Capone’s henchmen became part owners. So much drama went down here that Sinatra himself played a singer whose throat and tongue were once slit in this club over good ol’ mobster issues. Alas, Sinatra had to spend some quality time for “research” at the Green Mill as well.

It survived prohibition as a speakeasy and the decor of that era remains. Today, you can catch killer jazz there any night of the week, Mondays being a favorite for the Patricia Barber quartet. It’s all about the music and history here so don’t get too glammed up unless you’re trying to live vicariously through its history by transporting yourself in an immersion of jazz notes, strong cocktails and a big black booth that maybe Capone himself sat in: in which case, you just may be able to pull it off.

Channel Mobster Untouchables Johnny Depp-err Dillinger in Chi-Town

Long before Johnny Depp portrayed bad-boy gangster, John Dillinger in Public Enemies, visitors to Chicago have always been enthralled with the gangster and mob history of the Windy City. After all, here’s a place where you can take in jazz music sitting in Capone‘s favorite old booth or where restaurant genius Jerry Kleiner’s attempt to open a new restaurant on the south side had him discovering hidden passageways and making speakeasys. Outside the movie theater where Dillinger, so perfectly played by Depp, was taken down, there are still plenty of bullet holes over which to ponder.

Alas, The Untouchables Tour is the tour for you if mob and gangster history is your fancy. Promising motto, “it was a blast” is supposed to evoke a double entendre.

With insight into the Windy City’s politicians, the secrets of the mob masters and secrets of life during prohibition, this tour is a fun favorite for both Chi-town locals and tourists alike. Bullet proof vests, not included.

See the Cells of Alcatraz on this Double Decker Combo Tour