The Secret Six, officially known as the Crime Prevention and Punishment Committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce (CAC), was a well-funded and powerful vigilante enterprise established by the Association (now the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce) in February 1930. The group inspired a movie by the same name, was credited by Al Capone for his downfall, helped launch Eliot Ness and his Untouchables, and briefly served as a model for vigilante organizations across America. The Secret Six investigated dozens of bombings, kidnappings, extortion cases, bank robberies, and other crimes, solving some of them and winning nationwide fame. However, after a series of mistakes and scandals, including accusations of bigamy, recklessness, and other improprieties against its agents, and a widely-publicized false-arrest lawsuit, the organization folded in January 1933.
Formation Although Chicago had been plagued throughout the 1920s by bombings, robberies, gang murders and other problems, the direct impetus of the Secret Six's formation was the shooting of construction superintendent Philip Meagher on February 5, 1930. Meagher had been supervising the building of the Lying-In Hospital (later part of the University of Chicago Hospitals) at 59th and Maryland Avenue, and was shot while walking near the site. Meagher, who survived for at least several days after the shooting, speculated the crime was the result of labor unrest. On February 7, 1930, two days after the shooting, and reportedly under pressure from Meagher's employer, Harrison Barnard, CAC president Colonel Robert Isham Randolph announced the formation of a crime prevention committee. Randolph said he would lead the effort and, according to some reports, would appoint six of his fellow businessmen to help run it. When he declined to reveal the names of the other officers, “Secret Six” emerged as the name for the committee. “U. of C. Shooting Puts Business on Gangs’ Trail,” Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1930, 3. “Chicago Crime War Is Revived; Business Men Start Campaign Of Their Own To Stop Killings,” Arizona Daily Star, February 8, 1930, 4. “Resolution Adopted by Executive Committee Offering $5,000 Reward in One Case; Committee of Six Appointed by Col. Randolph to Make Study of Problem,” Chicago Commerce (a publication of the Chicago Association of Commerce), February 15, 1930, 1.
Major Cases
Within weeks of the Secret Six’s nationally-publicized founding in February 1930, victims of crime in Chicago and beyond were turning first to the group instead of the Chicago Police Department, which was widely seen as underfunded and corrupt. The first major victory for the vigilantes came in the kidnapping and extortion of Theodore Kopelman, a wealthy Chicago insurance executive. After holding Kopelman for 60 hours at a cottage in Wisconsin, threatening him with torture, and getting $4,000 from his friends, Kopelman’s kidnappers (one of whom was his ex-wife) freed him on the condition he would quickly pay them another $21,000. Kopelman called the Secret Six, the vigilantes notified State’s Attorney Chief Investigator Patrick Roche, and a sting was set up in which the kidnappers were captured when they came to pick up the money. Three men were convicted in the crime and received 20 years each.“Tell of Queer ‘Kidnap’ Plot,” Vidette-Messenger of Porter County, June 7, 1930, 4.
Other notable cases worked by the Secret Six:
In 1928, Oscar Stanton De Priest became the first Black person elected to Congress in the 20th Century, and the first ever elected from the northern states. In September 1930, he received extortion letters threatening him with death if he didn’t pay $10,000. He called the Secret Six, who told him to pay a portion of the money as instructed while they set up a sting involving other law enforcement officials. Julius Link, a minor Chicago politician, was convicted of the crime.“Trap $10,000 De Priest Extortionists; Two Captured As Police Trail Plot Collector,” Chicago Tribune, September 14, 1930, 1, 2. Verner Daniels, the Black owner of several illegal stills in Chicago, called the Secret Six to complain that Chicago police officers were stopping by regularly to demand money in exchange for not shutting down his business. In a sting set up by the Secret Six, officers Oliver J. McCormick and Peter J. Lowery were arrested on federal charges.“Seize Two Cops, Hunt Six Others on Rum Charges; Still Operator Complains of Shakedowns,” Chicago Tribune, January 6, 1931, 3. After rumors surfaced in February 1931 that Chicago merchants were maintaining inaccurate scales in an illicit money-making scheme, the Secret Six paid women to shop at the suspect stores and bring back the purchased meat and other goods for accurate weighing. The investigation led to the conviction of Chicago City Sealer Daniel Serritella, who was responsible for the accuracy of city scales, and his chief deputy, Harry Hochstein, both of whom were found to have accepted bribes from the short-weighting merchants. Both received prison sentences in May 1932,“Serritella Sent to County Jail for Year’s Term; Hochstein Also Is Given Cell Sentence,” Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1932, 4. but those sentences were overturned in late 1933.“Serritella’s Conviction is Upset by Court,” Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1933, 3. In autumn 1932, when Patrick Carey of the Chicago tax assessor’s office asked for a bribe to lower the property taxes of the Story & Clark Piano Company, company officials called the Secret Six, and the vigilantes set up a sting in which the bribe was paid with marked bills. Arrested in the case were Carey and deputy tax assessor Art Hollaman.“Trap Employe of Assessor as Tax Fixer,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 6, 1932, 1. After serving stateside as a U. S. Marine during World War I, Jacob Karchmer was repeatedly accused of fraud while collecting money for veteran’s causes, unemployed girls, the blind, and other groups.“Police Seize Karchmer for Charity Fraud,” St. Louis (MO) Star and Times, July 15, 1925, 3. He moved his operation to Chicago sometime in the early 1930s, where he founded the Chicago Infants Free Milk Depot. The Secret Six assigned Florence Johnson to investigate. She got a job as a clerk at the charity, kept meticulous records, and was the primary witness at Karchmer’s March 1932 federal fraud trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. “Girl Exposes Charity Racket,” Decatur (IL) Daily Review, March 11, 1932, 17. “Girl Operative for Secret Six Gets Defrauder,” Times (Streator, Illinois), March 10, 1932, 9. “Jake Karchmer Given 2 Yrs. For Charity Racket,” Chicago Tribune, March 13, 1932, 7. Gustav Miller, 23, of Joliet, Illinois, was kidnapped in April 1932, and the Secret Six were brought into the case at some point during his nine days of captivity. The vigilantes told the family they knew who four of the kidnappers were and proposed a plan to get Miller back and capture the criminals. However, someone in the Miller family, while negotiating with the kidnappers on what was originally a $50,000 ransom, told them of the Secret Six’s involvement. The kidnappers, apparently wary of the Secret Six’s reputation, subsequently freed Miller for $2,500, foiling the Secret Six’s plan.“Kidnapers Return Gustav E. Miller, Former Student; No Ransom Paid; ‘Secret Six’ Charge Parents With Refusal To Co-operate With Police,” The Daily Illini, May 8, 1932, 1, 2. “Kidnapers Sought by ‘Secret Six,’” Riverside (CA) Daily Press, May 5, 1932, 1. “Ask ‘Secret Six’ To Extend Help,” Imperial Valley Press (El Centro, California), April 30, 1932, 1. “Kidnapers Sought by ‘Secret Six’” Riverside (CA) Daily Press, May 5, 1932, 1. “Kidnapers Return Gustav E. Miller, Former Student; No Ransom Paid; ‘Secret Six’ Charge Parents with Refusal To Co-operate with Police,” The Daily Illini, May 8, 1932, 1, 2. “Charge Victim’s Family Spoiled Kidnaping Trap; Blamed by Secret 6 Men for Escape of Gang,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1932, 8. Like Gustav Miller, wealthy Chicago banker Norman Collins was freed when his kidnappers learned of the Secret Six’s involvement. He and his wife Alice Colllins were abducted on the way to the train station on the morning of October 10, 1932. Released later that day to collect the $5,000 ransom, Mrs. Collins called her husband’s colleagues, who called the Secret Six. She’d been instructed by the kidnappers to drive her car repeatedly around a set path in Chicago until someone showed up to take the money, so the Secret Six drove the path instead, one of them disguised as Mrs. Collins and others, heavily armed, following in a second car. A third team of Secret Six operatives patrolled the area as “clerks, conductors and street laborers.” That night, presumably because they’d learned of the Secret Six’s involvement, the kidnappers released Mr. Collins unharmed and without a ransom.“Kidnapers Foiled by Publicity; Chicago Banker Freed after Being Captive 12 Hours,” Journal Gazette (Matoon, IL), October 11, 1932, 1.
The Secret Six and the Third Degree
The “third degree,” common slang for an intensive police interrogation featuring unconstitutional abuse or even torture, was publicly endorsed by the founder of the Secret Six, Col. Robert Isham Randolph, in an article that began on the front page of the August 7, 1932, edition of the New York Herald Tribune Magazine. In the article, Randolph wrote that “The purpose of the ‘third degree’ is not primarily to compel the defendant to testify against himself, but to disclose the truth. . . . No innocent man could properly object to telling all he knows about the crime of which he is accused, and any means that is available to test the truth of his testimony ought to be properly and legally admissible.” Randolph advised against the use of “the fist, the rubber hose or any other weapon,” but only because such an item was “too likely to leave its mark.” Instead, he wrote, “I have known of a telephone book being used very effectively as a weapon. In the hands of a strong man it can knock a victim silly and not leave any mark.”
Randolph proposed that third degree methods practiced by contemporary American police departments surely didn’t match the “inquisitorial horrors” of the Middle Ages and were “probably nowhere as cruel as the public imagination pictures it.” He added, “I doubt very much that it ever amounts to more than a beating or continued questioning to wear down a physically and mentally tired victim to the point of non-resistance and confession of the truth or something sufficiently near it to satisfy the inquisitor.”
Randolph implied but did not explicitly state that these methods had been used by the Secret Six. “In a recent kidnaping case,” Randolph wrote, “the two ringleaders in the criminal conspiracy were apprehended after their guilt had been definitely established by their own conversation, heard over tapped telephone wires and a cleverly concealed Dictaphone in the room of the chief conspirator. This information was not evidence, and it was necessary to get an admission from one or both of them to complete the case against them and arrest the other parties to the conspiracy. One of them finally broke down and confessed.” The second suspect was confronted with the evidence, Randolph wrote, and “he admitted his part, and the two confessions aided in the apprehension and conviction of the rest of the gang.”