The Chicago Spirit

Organized crime is a dark yet fascinating aspect of human history, spread across the globe for hundreds of years, from pirates in the Caribbean to the triads of Hong Kong.

If there are laws, there are going to be people who break them, and if there is profit to be found in breaking those laws, they'll find it.

The city of Chicago has a very interesting history with organized crime,

especially during the Prohibition era in the 1920s and 30s,

in which alcoholic beverages were banned nationwide.

It's this location and mostly this period we'll be looking at today, in which a group of organized

criminals in Chicago utilize anomalies in their pursuit of power and wealth.

The leader of the group known as the Chicago Spirit was a man named Richard David Chapel, a reality

bender, who immigrated to Chicago with his parents when he was two in 1873.

The first recorded incident showing his anomalous capabilities was when he was 11, when a witness reported seeing Chapel somehow exanguinating a rival newspaper boy.

The boy's body was recovered in the Chicago River the next day, but police didn't pursue the case,

and Chapel would later claim the death to be an accident.

The Chicago spirit itself started as a bar in 1893, but made little revenue after two years of business.

So Chapel had the idea to start a side business on the second floor, selling unnatural novelties.

Many of these novelties would be created by Chapel himself, and it's believed that the Chicago spirit would sell over 600

anomalies during the subsequent years. This venture turned out to be quite a bit more successful

than the bar, and it attracted a number of wealthy collectors and members of Chicago's elite.

Chappell continued to keep this side of his business as much of a secret as possible, and

never used his own anomalous capabilities around others.

In time, the Chicago spirit became a more openly criminal endeavor, expanding into extortion,

robbery, and attacks on rival business owners.

...