When I lived in Chicago I found a book  by Gordon L. Hostetter and Thomas Quinn Beesley called “It’s a Racket†in the beautiful public library. The book from 1929 describes the practice of Racketeering –
It’s a gorgous book with chapter titles that tickle the imagination: “Cabbages and Kings”, “The ‘Daddy’ of Them All”, “Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree”. The first supplement, “Business by Bombs” features a detailed list of all the bombs that exploded between October 1927 and February 1929. With the date, address, business type, and the reason for the bombing.
I did a project – showing violent Chicago’s past in the streets – about this when I was at the Art Institute.
And today I started to explore the interactive / data visualisation opportunities.
.. To be continued.
