I was born in Chicago ten years after this murder took place.   My mother was about the girls’ ages when they were murdered, and she lived in the Back of the Yards neighborhood that bordered the McKinley Park neighborhood where the girls lived.  I remember how protective my mother was with us, but I didn’t really know why until she told me the story.  A crowd of investigators can be seen at the location on German Church Road where the bodies of Barbara and Patricia Grimes were found on January 22, 1957. Barbara and Patricia Grimes were 15 and 13 years old respectively.  ..read more

One of my favorite Anne Rice quotes. Saturday, December 11, 2021, was a sad day for many including myself.  The novelist, Anne Rice, passed away at the age of 80.  Her son Christopher posted on her Facebook fan page that she passed due to complications from a stroke.  She was most well-known for her Vampire Chronicles series of books which started with “Interview with the Vampire” in 1976 and ended with “Blood Communion” in 2018.  You can read an obituary with interesting excerpts from past interviews here. I didn’t necessarily want to write an obituary but rather a thank y ..read more

Listen to the full interview by clicking the play button above On June 23, 2021, I had the opportunity to speak with Illinois 2022 U.S. Senate Republican Primary hopeful Tim Arview. I had previously interviewed candidates Alison Salinas and Peggy Hubbard. My goal with these interviews is not to endorse any Republican candidate but to give each candidate a chance to get their message out to potential Illinois voters. It is my belief that a voter who has as much information that they can get about all potential candidates makes the best voter. You can listen to the full 39-minute interview by p ..read more

Last Wednesday, March 31, 2021, I had the opportunity to interview Peggy Hubbard. Peggy has thrown her hat into the political arena as a Republican candidate in the upcoming primary race for the U.S. Senate for the State of Illinois. According to her campaign website, PeggyHubbard.org, Peggy Hubbard is a pro-God, pro-life, pro-Trump, pro-veteran, pro-first responder conservative who will put America and Illinois first. She also claims to be a bit of a "spitfire" and believe me she isn't kidding! I have actually been following Peggy Hubbard for quite a while on social media and she seems very ..read more

Allison Salinas for US Senate 2022 On the evening of March 19, 2021, I had the chance to interview Allison Salinas. Mrs. Salinas has announced that she is throwing her hat into the political arena and is running as a Republican. She is hoping to be the victor in the Republican primary of 2022 and ultimately is looking to unseat Illinois Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth in the 2022 U.S. Senate Race. My immediate takeaway from the interview is that Mrs. Salinas is very approachable and available to talk to anyone about her views. (after all she agreed to speak to me) I don't want to say too muc ..read more

In 1881, in Buffalo, N.Y., former steam-boat engineer, dentist, and inventor Alfred P. Southwick witnessed an intoxicated man die instantly after inadvertently touching the terminal of a large generator.   Southwick had been thinking about a more humane way of executing condemned criminals and electrocution he thought could be the answer. After David B. Hill was elected governor of New York in 1885 there were a number of publicized botched hangings and Southwick saw the opportunity to approach Hill with the idea of electrocution as a more civilized means of execution. [caption id="at ..read more

This article is not legal advice.  Please consult an attorney with regard to questions concerning legal advice. By now everyone has seen the video footage and endless memes regarding the St. Louis couple who guarded their property using firearms. Some on the side of 2nd Amendment rights have hailed the McCloskeys as heroes while some on the other side of the political spectrum see them as poster children for white privilege. I see their situation as a number of different things.    I see them as targets of malicious prosecution.  I see them as showing gun owners the ne ..read more

Since we are all still working to limit the effects of this pandemic as much as possible, I wanted to let everyone know about something that I personally am doing this Friday that everyone can take part in. I have been running free walking tours through my non-profit "Friends of The White City" since 2014 in conjunction with the Jackson Park Advisory Council. The tour is meant to showcase Chicago's 1893 World's Fair also known as The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and nicknamed "The White City".  Anyone who has read Erik Larson's amazing book, "Devil in The White City" can attest to th ..read more

Since I love Chicago history so much and we can learn so much about our current and future condition from studying the past, I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of the 1918 worldwide influenza pandemic and our current CoVid-19 pandemic through the Chicago looking glass. To be fair, a true side by side comparison is difficult because we are talking about two different diseases and 102 years of separation but there are still a great many similarities and luckily a great many differences. We have to keep in mind that at the time of the 1918 pandemic the term virus was not even in ..read more

------------------------------- UPDATE:  03/21/2020 Since the posting of this article, I was contacted by Navistar's Benefits Group.  They acknowledged that the money removed from my father's account was in error.  All the money removed from my father's account was posted to his account this morning.  I want to thank Navistar's benefit group, the wonderful members of the UAW and former employees who have reached out in support, and all of my friends and family who have reached out and supported us during this most stressful time.     My father worked for Internati ..read more