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

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