An interactive online repository of legal and historical documents with a searchable database of over 11, 000 homicides.
The years between 1870 and 1930 marked the emergence of Chicago as a dominant American city, undergoing some of the most dramatic and extensive social, political and economic changes in our national history. Against this backdrop we present a unique record – the Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index – chronicling 11, 000 homicides in the city during those years.
Image of one woman carrying wooden planks in a lot outside a railroad depot in Chicago. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society, this is one of several hundred images gathered to provide context for the homicide record.
This is an image of a boy holding a girl on his back, with two smaller children nearby. This image was taken on Cleveland Avenue (formerly Milton Avenue) in the Near North Side community area of Chicago. This street was one of four, including West Chicago, North Cambridge Avenue, and West Oak Street that were the boundaries of one of Chicago's most overpopulated areas.
