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On a cold morning in 1908, a 19-year-old Jewish immigrant traversed the unfamiliar streets of Chicago from his ghetto home on Washburne Avenue to the luxurious Lincoln Place residence of Police Chief George Shippy. Minutes after knocking on the front door, Lazarus Averbuch lay dead on the hallway floor, shot no less than six times by the chief himself. This is the most comprehensive account ever of an episode that stunned Chicago and won the attention of the entire country. It does not "solve" the mystery as much as it places it in the context of a nation that was unsure how to absorb the many immigrants flowing across its borders.
About the author
Walter Roth is a senior partner in the law firm of D'Ancona & Pflaum in Chicago. He is president of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society and has written many articles for
Chicago Jewish History, the
Sentinel, and
JUF News.
Joe Kraus is Chair and Professor of English at the University of Scranton where he teaches Contemporary American literature and creative writing. His work has appeared, among other places, in
The American Scholar,
Callaloo,
Quarterly Review of Film and Video,
Riverteeth, and
Moment. He is currently the president of MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States.
Summary
A sober analysis of a case, now little more than a historical footnote, that came to be known as the Averbuch Affair.
