Unique among great American cities, corruption is baked into the foundational lore of Chicago. It's a truth that every generation gets to rediscover at intervals spaced far enough apart as to make this revelation more demoralizing than it should be. It's true today, and it was true in a 1938 film set in 1871, about the most important historical event in the city's history that didn't involve a councilman, mayor or governor going to jail. "From the moment of its incorporation as a city in 1837," wrote Ovid Demaris in his 1969 book Captive City: The Startling Truth about Chicago...
