" Maurine Watkins started writing Chicago, subtitled 'A Satirical Comedy in Three Acts,' as a project for a writing class she was taking at Yale University. The play opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on December 20, 1926. It was called 'an overnight hit' in New York, where it ran for 127 performances. In an era when theaters tended to turn over shows far more quickly, that was enough to be considered a substantial hit. The show earned as much as $20,000 a week--or

Exterior of the Cook County Jail. Photo found in Bob Fosse's collection at the Library of Congress "Cook County was established by the Illinois State Legislature in 1831. Chicago, an unincorporated settlement with fewer than 60 residents, held the county seat. The first county jail and courthouse was a small wooden stockade built in 1835, outgrown 15 years later. "The county built a larger court and jail on Hubbard Street for offenders awaiting trial for serious crimes [this

Sabella in the Cook County Jail Sabella Nitti was an Italian immigrant living outside Chicago in the early 1920s whose story became one of the most striking examples of injustice in American criminal history. When her husband, Francesco Nitti, disappeared from their farm in 1922, Sabella, and a younger farmhand Crudelle were accused of murdering him. With no evidence, they were released. But when her husband's decomposed body was found a year later in a drainage ditch, Sabell

Katherine "Kitty" Malm "Katherine 'Kitty Malm' was nineteen years old with a two year old daughter, estranged from a husband who she claimed verbally abused her. The young, poor, uneducated immigrant entrusted few others with her daughter's care. 'The only one in this whole damn world I'd let take care of her is my mother. She'd be good to her.' "After taking up with convicted murderer Otto Malm, who called her 'Sweetheart,' the two attempted to break into a sweater factory o

Belva Gaertner Belva Gaertner was a 40-year-old 3-time divorcee when she fatally shot her lover, Walter Law, a married man with a toddler at home, in the front seat of a sedan. When taken in to custody she claimed to have been too drunk to know whether or not she had killed the man. Her exact words were, "I don't know. I was drunk." "For three months, automobile salesman Walter Law, and Belva spent their nights together visiting Chicago nightclubs and drinking illegal liquor.

Albert Annan, husband to Buelah Annan , worked as mechanic at an auto garage. They were married in 1920 in Cook County. He worked long hours to earn $60 a week. They shared a small apartment in the 800 block of East Forty-Sixth Street, in today's Bronzeville neighborhood. Top Right to Left: Albert Anan, Buelah Annan, lawyer William Stewart. Bottom: Albert Annan testifies. While Albert was at work, Buelah was having an affair with her co-worker Harry Kalstedt. One evening he

Harry Kalstedt Buelah Annan [Roxie] met Harry Kalstedt [Fred Casely] at Tennant's Modern Laundry where they both worked. "On April 3, 1924, Harry 'invited himself' over to Beulah and Albert’s south-side apartment (Albert was at work). He brought two quarts of wine with him, which he and Beulah proceeded to consume. In this less-than-sober condition, an argument arose. Beulah later told investigators, 'We drank all of it [the wine] and began to quarrel. I taunted Harry with t

"Already twice married and a mother by the age of twenty-four, neither marriage nor motherhood seemed to satisfy Beulah Annan [inspiration for Roxie Hart]. She met Harry Kalstedt [inspiration for Fred Casely]—a married man who had a six-year-old daughter—at work. Walks together quickly progressed to drinks at her apartment while her husband, Albert Annan [Inspiration for Amos Hart], was away working. The pair were intimate on at least three occasions, she would later admit. "

Maurine Dallas Watkins. Photo by Florence Vandamm, 1926. "Maurine Watkins was hired as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune in February 1924--without any previous professional journalism work to her credit. For the next eight months, Maurine covered a string of sensational crimes, headlined by four murder ases perpetrated by women. These women, brought together under the tabloid glare, form the basis for what has become 'Chicago.' "The first time Maurine Watkins name appeared o

To learn about the history of the 1975 musical Chicago, we must actually look back over 100 years to 1924. Our story begins with two real-life murderesses, Buelah Annan (left) and Belva Gaertner (right), who were charged with killing their husbands in Cook County, Chicago. Their stories were sensationalized in the newspapers by journalists, including reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, whose articles highlighted the women's beauty and the unlikely prospect of either of them bei