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William Hale Thompson (May 14, 1869 – March 19, 1944) was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as " Big Bill ", [ 1 ] he is the most recent Republican to have served as mayor of Chicago .
Republican William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson, who had previously served as mayor of Chicago for two terms from 1915 to 1923, took advantage of the crime situation under his Democratic Party successor William Emmett Dever (attributed to Dever's strong enforcement of Prohibition causing increased competition among remaining bootleggers), and ran for a third nonconsecutive term, promising to end ...
Thompson would lose to Democrat Anton Cermak in the 1931 Chicago mayoral election [142] as his public approval fell victim to continuing crime and the Great Depression. [143] Historians generally consider Thompson one of the most unethical mayors in American history, in large part due to his alliance with Capone. [144]
The Pineapple Primary took place in 1928, during the administration of the notoriously corrupt Chicago Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson, a Republican.Thompson had served two corruption-marred terms as mayor in 1915 and 1919.
Secondly, Thompson had lost the 1918 Republican U.S. Senate primary. [3] Disappointed by his performance in the 1918 Republican U.S. Senate primary, and eager to revive his political capital by winning reelection, incumbent mayor William H. Thompson announced his campaign relatively early, doing so in the autumn of 1918. [3]
Ugly name-calling took place between Thompson and Lyle. [5] Thompson derided Lyle as a "nutty judge". [5] Lyle called Thompson "William Halitosis Thompson" and characterized him as having the "flabby jowls of a barnyard hog, two jackass ears, a cowboy hat and an empty space between."
Thompson accused Sweitzer of being the favored candidate of the city's criminal leadership. [6] Thompson sought to resurrect the, decades old, Ogden Gas Scandal, advertising the fact that Roger Sullivan had now made a significant profit from the company's 1913 sale to the city's local utility monopoly. [6]
Due to his poor health, there had been uncertainty as to whether two-term incumbent Republican William H. Thompson would run for reelection. [8] He was also seen as more vulnerable to being unseated by a strong Democratic opponent, as Thompson had severed ties with a number of key political allies, including Robert E. Crowe and Frederick Lundin ...