History of Gay Bars in New York City

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "investigators have identified Joseph (Joey Caesar) DiVarco as the crime syndicate's overlord of the growing maze of gay bars on the North Side"

An October 4, 1973 article ("Cops, pols, mob in gay bar payoffs") by Bob Wiedrich from the Chicago Tribune states:

Scholars seeking a textbook example of the unholy alliance between crooked police, politicians, and mobsters need look no further than Chicago’s North Side.  For there, in a network of 20 nightclubs and bars catering to the specialized recreational needs of homosexuals, the mutually avaricious interests of these groups are interwoven in a tragic tapestry of corruption.  In short, thieving lawmen and politicians have joined forces with crime syndicate gangsters to prey upon some of society’s most vulnerable—the gay people.  * * *  From the Chicago River to the northern city limits, the Justice Department men have spent two years probing a cesspool of extortions and blackmail, not only of tavern owners, but successful and prosperous homosexuals fearful their secret will be exposed to business associates.  Also involved in the inquiry is an estimated multi-million dollar rip off of state, local, and federal taxes thru the illicit "skimming" of profits from certain gay bar operations in which gangsters are known to have a hidden interest, plus a flourishing traffic in narcotics.  * * *  Probably the most tragic victims of the widespread shakedowns, investigators report, are the well to do homosexual businessmen who have submitted to continuing blackmail under threat of arrest on real or trumped up charges.  * * * The "skimming" of a fortune in profits from mob-backed gay bars has been of special interest to the government.  A tavern or nightclub grossing, for example, $1,000 a night in the heavily patronized gay market, may report for tax purposes only half that amount or less.  * * *  Thru two years of surveillances, investigators have identified Joseph (Joey Caesar) DiVarco as the crime syndicate's overlord of the growing maze of gay bars on the North Side.  Repeatedly, he has staged meetings with hoodlum backed tavern operators at the same locations at which he has also rendezvoused with corrupt police.  In addition, agents have identified the presence of other hoodlum groups in the gay bar business including members of the Boulahanis clan of mobsters who lost their lucrative rackets territory on the West Side in recent years.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: Dugan's Bistro: "the glitter scene"

An April 7, 1974 article (“Secure sexuality . . . and the scene sells”) by Lynn Van Matre from the Chicago Tribune states:

Once upon a time, the Bistro was a restaurant . . . .  * * *  The French fare, and the restaurant itself, vanished from the scene more than a year ago, replaced by a scene.  Lighted neon lips glow on the walls, the music starts at 10, and the dancing doesn’t stop 'til 4 – either on the discotheque floor or above, where a couple of male dancers, including a Bearded Lady decked out in dowdy drag for comic relief, ply their trade by turns.  The Bistro, or Dugan's Bistro as the bar and disco answers to these days, is unabashedly gay.  It is also the essence of hipness.  And in case you haven't noticed, the two have become synonymous to a certain degree.  * * *  Not that gay, of course, has always been synonymous with good.  Up until a few years ago, gay meant hassles, as the owners and patrons of earlier gay bars well know.  "I opened at a great time,” says Edward [Dugan] Davison, a very together 28, who lent his name to Dugan’s Bistro and spends 18 hours a day running the place.  “For the last two years, there’s been a very cool atmosphere as far as the law goes."  * * *  Now the gay scene pays off another way, in terms of American capitalism.  The Bistro does good business – just try to get in on a Saturday night around midnight , when the lines have been known to stretch a block back to Clark Street.  The same holds true for Tenement Square a few blocks north and east at 247 E. Ontario St., where a discotheque called the Bogart Room serves up much the same scene to a different clientele.  Together, the two comprise the downtown "glitter scene," tho there the similarities stop.  "Basically, it all started with the Bistro," says Tenement Square’s Mike Carlucci, who opened the Bogart Room last Halloween night to a glittering crowd.  "The Bistro was the first Chicago gay bar modeled after the New York discotheque thing.  * * *  At first, Bogart's was baciscally gay.  The gays came to check it out; they wanted to stay on top of what was happening and see if they were welcome.  They are.  But the room's 95 percent straight now, and the gays that come here come like everybody else – to be seen."  Like the Bearded Lady of the Bistro, who had a brief flirtation with the Bogart Room before moving back to dance at Dugan's.

 

An April 12, 1987 obituary ("Edward L. Davison, 40; Founded Dugan’s Bistro") from the Chicago Tribune states:

Nightclub owner Edward L. Davison, 40, who used the name Eddie Dugan, founder of the former Dugan's Bistro which was credited as being Chicago's first New York-style discotheque, died Friday in Illinois Masonic Medical Center.  Mr. Davison opened Dugan's Bistro in 1973 at Dearborn and Hubbard Streets when he was in his mid-20s.  Catering predominantly to a gay clientele with a minority of hip, straight clients, Dugan's Bistro became part of what was known in the 1970s as the downtown "glitter scene."  The Bistro had three bars and a dance floor lit from below with tiny rivers of lights and from above with spotlights and police-car flashers bouncing off revolving mirrored balls. On some nights the club drew more than 2,000 people. As the Bistro's reputation and the lines outside grew, it was visited by dancer Rudolph Nureyev and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.)  Before opening the Bistro, Mr. Davison had been a bartender at the now defunct Broadway Sam's lounge on the North Side.  In 1974, after Dugan's Bistro had become a big success, Mr. Davison said he was surprised "the way gay has caught on." He added, "It sort of puzzles me because gay people usually like to be left alone, and suddenly the whole scene's become fashionable."  Dugan's Bistro closed May 31, 1982, after the building was sold and was awaiting the wreckers.  Mr. Davison and a group of investors next opened the Paradise, a flashy nightclub with a mixed clientele that was a success for several years, but it closed in 1985.  At the time of his death, Mr. Davison and businessman Chuck Renslow were building Bistro Too, a new dance and video club on Clark Street in the Andersonville area which Renslow said will open in June.  Dan DiLeo, publisher of Gay Chicago magazine and a friend of Mr. Davison's, said Mr. Davison died of complications due to AIDS.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "the guys are making a fat, fast buck off the gay bars"

An April 21, 1974 article ("The old, gray mob") by Bob Wiedrich from the Chicago Tribune states:

Sure, the guys are making a fat, fast buck off the gay bars and pornographic book shops they own behind the façade of front men.  There is no doubt they are active in everything from used cars to scrap metal to insurance fraud.  But the bloom has vanished from the bloody rose that was once the Chicago contingent of the Mafia.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "Man's Country, hottest spa in town"

A February 14, 1975 article ("Man’s Country, hottest spa in town") by Bruce Vilanch from the Chicago Tribune states:

It may sound perverse, or at the least bizarre, but that is one of the unique features of Chicago’s latest watering hole, a steambath-cum-nightclub called Man's Country [5015 N. Clark St].  The most exotic nightspot for blocks and blocks—if not years and years—Man’s Country boasts hot and cold running showers and patrons, bedrooms, lockers, a sauna, a glass-walled steamroom, a mirrored shower that looks like something that got loose from a Stanley Kubrick set, a Jacuzzi, a multicolored parrot that views the proceedings with serene disinterest, and a gigantic disco-music hall with much of the ambience of the Oriental Theater lobby, which it distinctly resembles on a muggy night.  * * *  This week, Man's Country, which now sprawls over half a city block, three full floors from top to bottom, celebrates its first anniversary.  The big party is being held in the brand-new Man's Country Music Hall, the former Swedish Society recreation hall that has now been refurbished as an enormous discotheque, replete with deep-pile carpeting, overstuffed pillows, and a stage, lighting, and sound system that set the original owners back $100,000—capital they raised handily in their first year of operation.  * * *  Clearly, Man's Country is not the sort of place you’d want to take anyone’s mother, certainly not your own.  And that is just as well with the management.  In fact, that is their firm policy.  "We have toyed with the idea of opening the place to women," manager Gary Chichester says, "but it just wouldn’t be feasible.  We are a private club, and a private men’s club.  We started it that way and that is primarily what our business is."

      

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "2 policemen are subpoenaed in extortion of gay bars"

A March 13, 1975 article ("2 policemen are subpoenaed in extortion of gay bars") from the Chicago Tribune states:

A police lieutenant who once worked in the prostitution unit has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury probing shakedowns of gay bars, a high police source admitted Wednesday.  The lieutenant, now assigned to other duties in the police Vice Control Division, received the subpoena in January for his testimony regarding his activities from 1967 to 1971, the source said.  * * *  Considered of special importance in the investigation is testimony by Gene J. Benjamin, 43, a former Chicago policeman, who was ordered jailed Friday for contempt of court after refusing to testify before the grand jury under a grant of immunity.  Benjamin, who pleaded guilty to extortion of taverns, was sentenced to one year in prison last November.  He was recalled before the grand jury for testimony regarding gay bar shakedowns as well as shakedowns of massage parlors and pornography studios . . . .  Federal sources said Benjamin was believed to have been the bag man or collector in the gay bar shakedowns, and as such, could have provided testimony regarding other policemen involved.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: The Block: "the teenage boy prostitutes"

A May 16, 1977 article ("Child sex:  square block in New Town tells it all") by George Bliss from the Chicago Tribune states:

At the corner of Clark Street and Diversey Parkway, the teenage boy prostitutes were making their usual rounds, on the lookout for lone male drivers circling the block.  Police call it Clark and Perversity because of the homosexual activity that goes on in the area.  * * *  “Some of the kids are runaways, but some of them are Chicago boys who come down here just once a month to turn a trick when they need some money.  The prices start at $20 and vary, depending on what the boys are asked to do.”  The boys hang out at junk food stands on Clark Street and occasionally walk around the block bounded by Clark, Diversey, Lehmann Court and Drummond Place.  The male drivers foillow the same circuit, wheeling around the corners one after the other like riders on a carousel.  * * *  [M]ost of the youngsters are in the 14 to 19 age group.  “When you hit that 19 to 20 mark, you’re too old,” [Officer Joe Bongiorno] said.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: Carol's Speakeasy at 1355 N. Wells St.: "Gays fear resumption of 'the raiding game'"

A May 20, 1979 article ("3 hurt, 11 arrested after cops close bar") by Monroe Anderson from the Chicago Tribune states:

Three men were injured and 11 arrested early Saturday during a brawl in the middle of North Wells Street in Old Town after a tactical police unit closed down a nearby homosexual disco.  The raid drew charges of "police harassment" and "undue physical violence" from members of Chicago's gay community.  Tactical police . . . went to Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St. at 1:15 a.m. Saturday to check for "underaged drinkers," and because there had been complaints from Old Town businessmen that the lounge was allowing "unlicensed and illegal acts" to occur on its premises, according to police.  Shortly before 2 a.m. police ordered the bar closed "for building and fire code violations."  The fighting began minutes later when an estimated 700 patrons were told by authorities to leave Carol's . . . .  * * *  [S]everal eyewitnesses charged police with instigating the fight by attacking patrons when they left the bar.  * * *  "They hit more people than they arrested," said Dave Veltkamp, a freelance photographer.  "I had two friends who got hit but weren't taken in.  One guy was covered with blood."  One of the injured men was hospitalized with a possible concussion.  * * *  The manager of the bar, Fred Farnham, said, "It looks like it was just police harassment completely."  He said that Carol's is a private club and that the one 20-year-old patron police discovered was a plant because the minor had no membership card.

A February 28, 1980 article ("Gays fear resumption of 'the raiding game'") by Bonita Brodt from the Chicago Tribune states:

Carol's Speakeasy is a private disco.  A homosexual disco.  It was raided twice last year, on May 12 and 19, during a campaign against gay bars by officers of the Chicago Avenue and Town Hall police districts.  At 1:15 a.m. on May 19, tactical officers from the 18^th Police District said they went to the Old Town bar with six squadrols and billy clubs to check for "under-age drinkers" and to respond to citizen complaints about activity in the bar, which included male prostitution and illicit sexual conduct.  But the gay patrons and other witnesses to the fighting that eventually broke out say the police came to the bar for other reasons—namely, harassment of the gays.  * * *  Carol's owner, Frank Kramer, admits there were some violations.  * * *  Eleven persons were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.  * * *  After the Carol's raid, and similar raids at the New Flight on Clark Street, there was an outpouring of protest against alleged "selective" police enforcement of building code violations at known homosexual bars.  * * *  After a few months without such a raid, officers last month raided Rialto's, a bar in the South Loop which has a heavy concentration of gay patrons.

A December 16, 1986 article ("Suit assails 1985 raid on gay bar") by William B. Crawford Jr. from the Chicago Tribune states:

Members of the Northeastern Metropolitan Enforcement Group and four Chicago police officers were accused Monday in a $1 million damage suit of engaging in wide-ranging misconduct against patrons of a gay bar during a raid last year.  The suit says that the police raiding party subjected about 50 men who were in Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St., on the night of Sept. 12, 1985, to threats of violence, illegal searches and confiscation of personal property.  Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the class-action suit charges that Frank Gomilla, director of the Northeastern Metropolitan Enforcement Group, and about 15 other MEG officers entered the bar without the necessary search warrants, ordered the patrons to lie on the floor, forced them to fill out forms disclosing detailed information about their personal lives, photographed them and then left after making only one arrest.  The Metropolitan Enforcement Group is an umbrella law enforcement agency that draws police officers from various municipalites and state agencies to investigate major narcotics rings.  The police officers allegedly referred to the patrons as "queers and faggots" and donned rubber gloves "as if they needed special protection before coming into contact with plaintiffs or others in the room," the suit charges.  At the time of the raid, the suit charged, the raiding party was armed with a single arrest warrant against an unidentified man who was tending bar. The man was arrested on the warrant, which charged him with possession of a controlled substance.

An August 18, 1989 article ("Accord reached in gay bar raid suit") by William Grady from the Chicago Tribune states:

The state and the city have agreed to pay about $227,000 to patrons of a gay bar on the Near North Side who contended that their constitutional rights were violated during a raid by state drug agents and Chicago police in 1985.  The payments-about $5,000 to each of the 45 or so patrons in Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St., at the time of the raid-are part of a proposed agreement intended to settle a class-action lawsuit and two other civil-rights suits pending in federal court.  * * *  The lawsuits charged that about 15 agents of the Northeastern Illinois Metropolitan Enforcement Group and a handful of Chicago police officers went to the bar on Sept. 12, 1985, with arrest warrants for two of its employees, only one of whom was there at the time.  The customers were ordered to lie on the floor for up to two hours, questioned, subjected to verbal abuse and photographed, according to the suits.  One of the customers was charged with resisting arrest but never prosecuted. None of the other customers was arrested, and no drugs or weapons were found, lawyers have said.  The Northeastern Illinois Metropolitan Enforcement Group is an umbrella law enforcement agency that draws police officers from area municipalities and state agencies to investigate major narcotics trafficking.  The role of the Chicago police officers in the raid was minimal, according to documents filed in connection with the lawsuits. The officers were detailed to guard the doors of the bar.

An October 27, 1989 article ("Agreement settles suit from bar raid") from the Chicago Tribune states:

A federal judge has formally approved an agreement that will settle lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other lawyers on behalf of patrons of a gay bar on the Near North Side who contended their constitutional rights were violated during a raid by state drug agents and Chicago police in 1985.  The state and the city have agreed to pay about $5,000 to each of the 45 or so patrons in Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St., at the time. The customers were ordered to lie on the floor for up to two hours, questioned and subjected to verbal abuse, according to the suits. No drugs were found and no one was ever prosecuted as a result of the raid.  Judge Suzanne Conlon of U.S. District Court ruled that the settlement was fair and adequate, according to Harvey Grossman, legal director of the ACLU here. He said about 30 people have filed claims since the proposed settlement was announced.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "since the beginning of the year there have been at least 12 to 15 raids on gay bars"

A May 23, 1979 article ("Chicago gays, cops talk over problems") by Jeff Lyon from the Chicago Tribune states:

"It has dropped off since 1974," says Tom Denney . . . .  "But since the beginning of the year there have been at least 12 to 15 raids on gay bars in the Chicago Avenue and Town Hall police districts."  * * *  The three most recent raids came in one week.  Two of them, one on May 12 and one on May 19, were at Carol’s Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St.; the third raid, on May 20, was at the New Flight on Clark Street.  * * *  Police said they were only responding to citizen complaints about activities in the bars, which they say include male prostitution and illicit sexual conduct.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "Gays protest raids"

A June 6, 1979 article ("Gays protest raids") from the Chicago Tribune states: 

A group of homosexuals marched Tuesday from Washington Square on the Near North Side in the Daley Center Plaza in the loop to protest police raids on bars and businesses patronized by gays.  * * *  The demonstration was to protest at least 12 recent raids on gay owned and patronized taverns and other businesses in the New Town area . . . .  A group estimated by police at 1,500—mostly men in their 20s and 30s—gathered in Washington Square at Oak Street between Dearborn and Clark Streets and marched to the Daley Center for a rally.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "about 100 men were arrested"

A January 1, 1980 article ("Byrne hits cops for raid on South Loop gay bar") by Robert Davis from the Chicago Tribune states:

The mayor, in her regular morning press briefing, said she intends to confer with police officials about the Friday night raid on the Rialto Tap, 14 W. Van Buren St., in which about 100 men were arrested, including one for prostitution and four for being keepers of a disorderly house.  The remaining men were arrested for being inmates of a disorderly house.  * * *  The raid at the Rinalto Tap was made Friday night after an undercover policeman reportedly was solicited for an act of prostitution by a patron of the tavern.  Police officials said they went to the tavern after receiving reports of strong-arm robberies and drug traffic there.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "tavern owner died . . . after an explosion ripped through the Haig Lounge, 800 N. Dearborn St."

An April 27, 1981 article ("Tavern owner dies after fire") by Robert Benjamin from the Chicago Tribune states:

A tavern owner died early Sunday after an explosion ripped through the Haig Lounge, 800 N. Dearborn St.  Police said Aron Przanowski, 74, of 510 W. Belmont Av., died of an apparent heart attack as he hurried from the burning tavern.  * * *  The blast occurred at 4:35 a.m., as Przanowski was closing the Haig . . . said Ronald Gall, a Bomb and Arson Squad detective.  Gall said it appeared "somebody athletic" climbed to the roof of the single-story building, at the northwest corner of Dearborn Street and Chicago Avenue, and poured what may have been gasoline into a pipe leading to the furnace, located in the rear office.  The furnace was off at the time, Gall said.  As Przanowski, bartender Zander Dale, 39, and several customers prepared to leave, Przanowski went to the office.  Then there was an explosion, Gall said.  Przanowski ran into the bar area, said the place was on fire, and told everyone to leave, Gall said.  As the others fled, Przanowski returned to the office "to get a coat or something," and then went outside, where he collapsed on the sidewalk, Gall said.  * * *  Gall said it was not known what caused the explosion.  Przanowski might have lighted a cigarette, which ignited fumes, or someone else could have caused the blast, he said.  * * *  Police recovered two plastic containers that had traces of an "amber fluid" which Gall said might be gasoline.  The Haig was one of 53 Near North Side taverns which made payoffs to policemen in a 1972 scandal in the East Chicago Avenue District

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: Chatterbox Gayty Club at 744 N. Clark St.: "17 of them dressed as women"

An October 2, 1982 article ("37 men charged after raid on Clark Street nightspot") from the Chicago Tribune states:

Thirty-seven men, 17 of them dressed as women, were arrested early Friday in a police raid on the Chatterbox Gayty Club, 744 N. Clark St.  One of those dressed as a woman was charged with soliciting a male vice detective for prostitution.  One employee dressed as a woman was charged with being the keeper of a disorderly house, 15 customers dressed as women were charged as inmates of a disorderly house and 20 other customers accused of harassing police during the raid were charged with disorderly conduct.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "AIDS . . . Impact hasn’t sunk in on Chicago gays"

A June 26, 1983 article ("AIDS casts deadly shadow over homosexual communities:  Impact hasn’t sunk in on Chicago gays") by Clifford Terry from the Chicago Tribune states:

The bars and baths may be shuttering in San Francisco, and the mysterious disease may have put New York homosexuals on full alert, but as of now, acquired immune deficiency syndrome hasn’t prompted sweeping changes in Chicago's gay community.  * * *  As for local business, Albert Williams, editor-in-chief of Gay Life, says he thinks it's declined at places like bars and bathhouses.  * * *  "So the sex-market aspect seems to be decreasing.  But overall business here is not down the way it is in New York and San Francisco.  Nobody's closing."  * * *  "The upper-echelon gay bars like Sidetrack and Christopher Street, part of that cluster on Halsted between Belmont and Addison, are still crowded," says one North Sider.  * * *  "I’d say the bar and baths business has dropped off—I couldn’t estimate by what percent—because of AIDS," says Chuck Renslow, who is owner of Man's Country baths at 5015 N. Clark St. and the Gold Coast bar at 501 N. Clark St., as well as publisher of Gay Life.  * * *  "Our business hasn’t decreased in the last six months or a year but, in fact, has increased" says Ron Dale, manager of another bathhouse, the Unicorn, at 3246 N. Halsted St., adding that he hasn’t changed the format of his facilities.  "If people get to the point where they make the decision that AIDS is going to affect their lifestyle, putting in a health club is not really going to change their minds.  I don’t mean to negate the seriousness of AIDS, but people on the coasts are more afraid of it than we are.  For example, we haven't had any pressure to post health warnings—which boggles my mind."  * * *  Roger Nelson, manager of C.H.A.P.S., a bookstore and baths at 116 W. Hubbard St., says that his business hasn’t been hurt that much.  "But we’re a bookstore business basically, and that always gets down in the summer; so you can't really tell.  If business in the baths has decreased, it hasn't been where it's drastically boom-boom-boom.  And anyway, what are you going to do about it?  No one knows where AIDS comes from.  You can't sit in your house and be a hermit the rest of your life 'til they find a cure for it."

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: Gold Coast Leather Bar at 501 N. Clark St.: "featured bondage and other sexual activity"

A September 29, 1983 article ("Bartender, 7 men nabbed in North Side vice raid") from the Chicago Tribune states:

A bartender and seven other men were arrested early Wednesday in a raid on a Near North Side tavern that police said featured bondage and other sexual activity.  Officer Terence Pekara . . . said the raid took place after undercover investigators witnessed the seven men outfitted in black leather bondage clothing and carrying devices such as whips, chains and clubs, performing sexual acts upon one another in "The Pit," a bar in the basement of the Gold Coast Leather Bar Inc., 501 N. Clark St.  Pekara said that the bartender, Douglas Burrage, 47, of 450 W. Armitage Ave., was behind the bar, observing the seven men, and doing nothing to stop the activities.  Burrage was charged with being keeper of a disorderly house and the seven others were charged with public indecency.  * * *  The undercover officers said that when they entered the Gold Coast Leather Bar, they noticed a sign urging patrons to visit the downstairs bar.  Upon walking down the stairs, they said, they observed the activities of the seven men, and also noticed that a tunnel led from the bar to the adjacent Male Hide Leathers Inc., 66 W. Illinois St., where patrons could obtain the bondage devices along with the whips and chains.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "1 found guilty in gay bar shakedown"

  December 9, 1983 article ("Two mobsters indicted in tavern shakedowns") by Rudolph Unger from the Chicago Tribune states:

Two reputed mob bosses and three of their alleged henchmen have been indicted on charges that they conspired to extort at least $7,000 from Old Town and Near North Side tavern owners, it was announced Thursday.  Named in the indictments . . . were Joseph DiVarco, 72, of 4275 Jarvis Ave., Lincolnwood, and Joseph Arnold, 66, of 2724 W. Winnemac Ave.  DiVarco at one time was considered a top mob leader on the North Side but has since fallen from power.  Arnold reportedly has succeeded DiVarco as overseer of the Rush Street nightclub district.  Investigators said some of the information used to obtain the indictments came from Ken Eto, a former mob gambling boss who turned informer after he was wounded in a botched assassination attempt in February.  It is believed that the bungled hit on Eto was the reason for DiVarco’s fall from power, according to federal authorities.  The two men accused of attempting to kill Eto were later found murdered gangland style in July, their bodies in a car trunk parked near Naperville.  Also named in the indictment were Frank DeMonte, 55, of 5837 Monroe St., Morton Grove; Peter N. Dounias, 62, of 15 E. Ohio St.; and John Matassa, 32, of 1655 N. Nashville Ave.  All are accused of demanding money and receiving money on a monthly basis from the owners of four taverns – Glory Hole Tavernia, 1343 N. Wells St.; Carol's Speakeasy, 1355 N. Wells St.; Baton Show Lounge, 436 N. Clark St.; and Redoubt Lounge, 65 W. Illinois St. – during a 10-month period from December, 1978, through August, 1979.  * * *  The indictment charged that Dounias collected $300 from Robert Hugel, former owner of Glory Hole . . . and that Arnold received $5,200 in protection money in monthly payments between December, 1978, and July, 1979, from the late Robert Farnham, former manager of Carol's.  * * *  The indictments further charge that Dounia in June, 1979, told James Flint, former owner of Baton Show Lounge and Redoubt Lounge, that Flint had to pay $500 a month in "safety money."   

A September 18, 1984 article ("Defense denies bar shakedowns") by Maurice Possley from the Chicago Tribune states:  The owners of four taverns that catered to homosexuals willingly made payoffs for protection from thugs and police harassment and were not extorted by reputed crime syndicate boss Joseph DiVarco and four other men on trial, a defense lawyer asserted Monday.  Adam Bourgeois, attorney for one of the five defendants, told U.S. District Judge Prentice Marshall and a jury that federal extortion charges against his client, Peter Dounias, 62, were based on misinterpretation of conversations.  * * *  Patrick Tuite, lawyer for [Frank] DeMonte, said his client was a friend of one of the bar owners and was trying to help him keep undesirables out of the bar.  Bourgeois told the jury that, in 1978, homosexuals were beginning to "come out of the closet" in Chicago and homosexual bars were becoming popular as social gathering places for gay men and women.  But the public emergence of gays attracted attention from Chicago police, who continually raided the taverns, he said.  In addition, other individuals who disliked gays often gathered around the taverns at closing time and physically attacked patrons, Bourgeois said.  He said [Robert] Farnham [former manager of Carol’s Speakeasy] was "willing to pay for someone to intercede for him . . . for muscle . . . to keep these elements out of his bar."

A September 25, 1984 article ("DiVarco freed on gay bar shakedown charge") by William B. Crawford Jr. from the Chicago Tribune states:

Crime syndicate boss Joseph DiVarco walked out of federal court a free man Monday after U.S. District Judge Prentice H. Marshall tossed out a charge against DiVarco that he had conspired to shake down owners of four taverns that catered to homosexuals.  Marshall threw out the government’s case against DiVarco after defense attorneys, in a surprise move early Monday, produced records showing that a tavern from which DiVarco allegedly extorted payoffs in 1979 had been razed three years earlier.  * * *  Marshall’s ruling had no effect on four codefendants who have been charged with conspiracy and extortion in connection with the alleged shakedown scheme.  DiVarco, 72, a convicted felon whose racket domain includes the Rush Street nightclub district, left Marshall's courtroom after the ruling and declined comment.  * * *  Prosecutors contended that DiVarco extorted money in April, 1979, from the late Joseph Gattuso, owner of Jaimie’s Lounge, a bar frequented by homosexuals.  Gattuso and Jaspar Campise were found slain gangland style in Naperville in July, 1983.  Both had been facing trial for the bungled assassination of Ken Eto, a former mob gambling boss who turned government witness.  As the Monday morning court session opened, Joseph Laraia and George Lynch, put Thomas Flahavan, a city Department of Inspectional Services employee, on the stand.  Flahaven produced city records that showed the lounge, once at 1108 N. Clark St., was razed in 1976, three years before the alleged payoffs.

A September 28, 1984 article ("3 freed, 1 found guilty in gay bar shakedown") by William B. Crawford Jr. from the Chicago Tribune states:

Three reputed crime syndicate figures were acquitted by a federal jury Thursday on charges that they shook down owners of taverns frequented by homosexuals.  A fourth defendant, Peter Dounias, 62, was found guilty of attempted extortion.  A jury in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Prentice H. Marshall acquitted Joseph Arnold, 72; John Matassa, 32; and Frank DeMonte, 55.  * * *  Douglas Roller, Chief of the Chicago strike force on organized crime, and coprosecutor Mitchell Mars, had contended in the week-long trial that the four defendants, and a fifth man, Joseph DiVarco, 72, a convicted felon whose rackets domain includes the Rush Street nightclub district, shook down owners of four taverns that catered to homosexuals.  * * *  The conviction of Dounias evidently stemmed from the testimony of Robert Hugel, former owner of the Glory Hole, 1343 N. Wells St., a bar once frequented by homosexuals.  Hugel, who agreed to wear a tape recorder after he learned of the payoff scheme, testified that Dounias told Hugel that he would be required to pay $400 a month.  Hugel testified that he feared for his life after Dounias told him on Nov. 30, 1978, "We got an association here in the district, you understand?  You’re not a member of the association, you got to come in."

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "extorting $5,000 in bribes from Jennifer Hammersmith . . . who was seeking a liquor license for the Club Victoria, 3153 N. Broadway"

A February 1, 1985 article ("Jury probes judge, 3 aldermen") by William B. Crawford Jr. from the Chicago Tribune states:

A federal grand jury is conducting a broad corruption investigation of a Cook County Circuit Court judge, at least three aldermen, several policemen and more than a dozen city employees in three departments, a federal prosecutor revealed in court Thursday.  The city employees work in the License and Liquor Control Office, the Department of Inspectional Services, and the Department of Zoning, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Duffy.  The aldermen were not identified nor was the judge. Much of the evidence was gathered through court-approved wiretaps, Duffy said.  According to Duffy and court documents, the six-month grand jury investigation focuses on allegations that liquor control employees took $3,500 in cash bribes from tavern owners in exchange for liquor licenses.  * * *  The investigation was made public unexpectedly Thursday at the sentencing of Victor Albanese, 49, of 815 S. Albany Ave., for extorting $5,000 in bribes. Albanese worked from October, 1982, until Oct. 15, 1984, as a $900-a-month investigator for the city council Finance Committee, prosecutors said.  * * *  U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur sentenced Albanese to eight years in prison. In December, Albanese pleaded guilty to extorting $5,000 in bribes from Jennifer Hammersmith, of Chicago, who was seeking a liquor license for the Club Victoria, a tavern she had purchased at 3153 N. Broadway.  * * *  "His job was to take care of the political considerations," Duffy said. "He received a call. He made the inquiries. He set the price of the bribe. He was able to accomplish all sorts of illegal things. In simple terms, Mr. Albanese was a bagman. His crime was a serious one, and it cries out for cooperation."

A February 6, 1985 article ("Liquor control unit subpoenaed in probe of city employees") by James Strong from the Chicago Tribune states:

Another department of city government has been hit with a subpoena for records in the federal government's latest investigation of an alleged scheme of bribery and fixes involving city employees, it was learned Tuesday.  A grand jury subpoena was served Monday on the License and Liquor Control Commission seeking records of applications for liquor licenses and correspondence concerning such applications from Jan. 1, 1980, to the present, said Sidney A. Jones Jr., commission director.  * * *  Jones said he assumed that the subpoena served on the License and Liquor Control Commission was related to allegations of corruption involving a Cook County judge, three unidentified aldermen, and employees in several city departments that were made last week by a federal prosecutor in open court.  Jones said he assumed this because one of the federal investigators who came to inspect the records referred to newspaper stories on Victor Albanese.  Albanese, 49, is a former city employee who has been accused by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Duffy of being a "bagman" in the wide-ranging bribery scheme. Albanese pleaded guilty Thursday to extorting $5,000 in bribes from Jennifer Hammersmith of Chicago, who was seeking a liquor license for the Club Victoria, 3153 N. Broadway.  Albanese admitted that he accepted $1,500 in cash from Hammersmith in late 1983 to provide an ordinary tavern license, and later accepted $3,500 from Hammersmith in early 1984 to arrange for a special, 4 a.m. closing license.  However, Jones said Tuesday that the Club Victoria was turned down on its application for a 4 a.m. license.

BQ NOTE:  Prior to the gay bar Club Victoria, which opened at 3153 N. Broadway on March 28, 1983, another gay bar, the Other Side, which opened on September 28, 1980, had operated out of the premises.

History of Gay Bars in Chicago: "'Fixer' worked in shadows"

A February 10, 1985 article ("Jailed 1^st ward ‘fixer’ worked in shadows") by Robert Davis and William B. Crawford Jr. from the Chicago Tribune states:

Victor Albanese is not a name well known around Chicago's City Hall.  * * *  In Chicago parlance, Victor Albanese was a fixer, a bagman, an insider, a 1st Warder and, as of last week, an imprisoned felon. Albanese is a vital key in an investigation of alleged city government corruption that threatens to unravel a fabric of traditional wrongdoing that has given Chicago the reputation as the city that works . . . for a price.  Even while trying to shroud the investigation in secrecy, federal prosecutors have said in open court that it already involves as many as three Chicago aldermen, a Cook County circuit judge and a large number of city employees, including police officers.  The 49-year-old city worker, who has held a variety of government jobs in the last 20 years, looked like anything but a wheeling-dealing fixer as he sat last week in a Federal Building courtroom. His attorney was trying to free him from custody for 30 days so he could get his affairs in order before beginning an eight-year sentence he received after pleading guilty to a charge of extorting $5,000 from a North Side bar owner who was seeking a liquor license.  * * *  In a court hearing last week, James Allenson, who identified himself only as being in the jukebox and game vending business, said he had worked in partnership with Albanese in a scheme to fix liquor-license violations, traffic tickets and building-code citations for his "customers."  Allenson, it seemed, not only provided jukeboxes and vending machines for tavern owners but operated as a middleman for them when problems arose in the tavern business.  A city liquor license is a fragile thing. Tavern owners are especially vulnerable to city inspectors and police officers in bribery schemes because any violation, such as a late-night fistfight or an underage patron, can cause a revocation of that license and the right to do business. Tavern owners, for instance, were the targets of police extortion during a wave of federal cases in the 1970s when dozens of officers were found guilty of shakedowns.  Taverns catering to homosexuals are even more vulnerable and, in fact, the tavern that Albanese charged $5,000 for help in obtaining a liquor license featured female impersonators.  * * *  "I was told that members of his immediate family were very close to organized crime," Allenson testified, and then said that Albanese had told him many times that he was "part of the 1st Ward."  In City Hall parlance, "1st Ward" is, accurately or inaccurately, a code word for organized crime. The 1st Ward encompasses Chicago's Loop, running north along the Chicago River and south through Chinatown, bringing in Greek Town on the West and harboring Loop hotels, restaurants and nightclubs.