Happy Repeal Day: A Look At Untouchable Tours, Chicago's Original Gangster Tour

By Jacy Wojcik in Miscellaneous on Dec 5, 2008 8:40PM

Cheers to the 75th anniversary of Repeal Day, marking the end of prohibition and the beginning of the end of bathtub gin. To celebrate the occasion, we went on the often over-looked gangster tour of Chicago, The Untouchable Tour. This is not the architectural tour with its fancy building pointing out and cash bar. The Untouchable Tour is an old, black school bus, driven and guided by two middle-aged guys dressed up in suspenders and fedoras with thick Chi-caaaaa-go accents. Cheesy? Yes. Better than a herd of twenty-something aspiring actors spouting off memorized scripts (sometimes inaccurately) on a double-decker bus? Absolutely.

The two-hour tour takes you through the history of Chicago’s prohibition era, starting with the south side of town, namely Cicero and Little Italy, where the Italian mafia ruled, as well as the Irish-run north side, namely the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park area. The tour highlights dozens of landmarks including The Holy Name Cathedral, The Landmark Hotel, The Biograph Theater, several former speakeasies, one of Capone’s old liquor storage areas (now Room 21) and the most anticipated stop of the tour, the site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Much of the focus is on the history of high-profile Italian gangsters: Johnny Torrio, James Colosimo, Al Capone, Angelo Genna, Jack McGurn, and Herbert Dillinger, as well as Irish-born Dion O’Bannion, Earl Weiss, and George “Bugs” Moran. But it's more than just a history tour! Your twenty-seven dollar ticket also includes a raffle to win awesome gangster-themed prizes like coffee mugs and tie clips, an all bus sing-along to "Funiculi, Funicula", roses for the ladies compliments of O’Bannion’s flower shop, and a near-death experience underneath a bridge when the bus spins out of control and gunshots are fired from the, er, radio speakers. The costumed guides often yuk it up in their attempts to recreate the Jazz Age for riders and although it can get a bit schtick-y, they do have a dry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and are charmingly entertaining. Unlike this lady. We think visitors and Chicagoans alike will learn a little and have fun on this tour if they go along with the show.

Tickets are $27 and the tour runs every day of the week. For more tour information, visit their website or call (773) 881-1195.