Street Fight: The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s

by Anne Morrissy

Bricks and bottles of acid through the windshield. Bullets shot from the running boards of racing cabs, passengers screaming in the backseat. Bombs exploding in garages, beneath parked cars, on the front porches of jurors’ homes. Accusations of favoritism and collusion with city leaders and law enforcement; bribery and extortion and grand jury investigations. Mysterious accidents and brutal attacks and devastating fires, leaving a trail of widows in their wake. These were Chicago’s Taxi Wars, a violent and deadly battle for supremacy of the city’s new and lucrative taxi industry during the Jazz Age. In 1915, at the dawn of the automobile era, visionary car salesman John D. Hertz (better remembered today for his successful foray into rental cars) and his partner, Walden W. Shaw, founded Chicago’s Yellow Cab Company. This wildly successful venture would go on to inform and inspire the modern taxi industry as we know it today in Chicago and throughout the United States. But as the Roaring Twenties glamorized lawlessness on the city’s streets, Yellow Cab’s meteoric rise invited increasingly aggressive competitors. Cab drivers battled each other in the streets over fares, allegiances and turf claims, their skirmishes escalating from sophomoric pranks to cold-blooded murder, mass shootings, and acts of domestic terrorism. In the 1920s, one rival in particular ascended to pose a threat to Yellow Cab’s the Checker Taxi Company. Behind the scenes, pulling the strings at Checker, was Morris Markin, who was desperate to expand his influence even as Chicago’s gangsters attempted to wrest his control away. Working from extensive research and interviews with descendants and experts, author Anne Morrissy vividly recreates Chicago’s Taxi Wars, bringing to print for the first time this deeply compelling but nearly forgotten story. Buffeted by a supporting cast of colorful combatants and larger-than-life Jazz Age characters — including Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Joe Kennedy, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, and Chicago mayor William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson — Street The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s restores to history these deadly wars that played out on the city’s streets a century ago, endangering the lives of passengers and passersby, while at the same time forming the regulatory foundation that still governs cab, limo and rideshare transportation in the 21 st century.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2024

About the author

Anne Morrissy is the editor of At The Lake Magazine in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and the author of Running the Reds: The First 100 Years of the Water Safety Patrol 1920-2020. Her next book, Street Fight: The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s, is pending publication with Lyons Press.

Reviews

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first glance at the cover of this book, you would think we are dealing with gangland killings in Chicago. In reality, Author Anne Morrissy has dipped into a small slice of local history and tells us all about the Taxi Wars that occurred in Chicago from 1916 until about 1929. Have you ever heard of the Taxi Wars? I certainly hadn't, and I loved this book!! Morrissy, who is related to one of the figures in the book, has done a deep dive into her research and has pulled out a massive amount of information about the battle between Yellow Cab and Checker Cab. Yellow Cab was partially owned by John Hertz, yes that same Hertz that has a Rent-A-Car company. He began, with a gentleman named Shaw, delivering commercial items in the early 1910s, but then has motor vehicular traffic grew. It was obvious that people in Chicago needed to get from point A to point B and thus their delivery service became a taxi service. A highly successful taxi service and auto manufacturing company, and just like that there are competitors and the main competitor is Checker Cab company, that is portrayed in this book as the evil empire. I'm not sure that Yellow Cab was all that blame free, but compared to Checker Cab, they were angels. This is an amazing story that tells about the rise of the Yellow Cab company, and all that went into these taxi wars, including but not limited to arson, bombings, thuggery, murder, securities fraud, and one of the most vicious civil wars inside of a company that I have ever read about. This is a real slice of Americana that few of us know about and yet which affected so many people with rules and regulations being promulgated to try to reign in the actions of the cab companies, and many of these rules are still in effect today. We have lawsuits, criminal and grand jury proceedings, you name it it is there and is all for taxi supremacy in Chicago. Oh, let's not forget, the gangs do get involved a bit because they are involved with the union drivers of Checker Cab company who wanted to take over the company. It is an amazing book filled with priceless research and stories about so many individuals who gave rise to, and who died for the taxi companies. We also find out that John Hertz was an avid sportsman and maintained a stable of thoroughbred horses. How good were they? Well his horse Reign Count won the Kentucky Derby in 1928 and then his horse, Count Fleet won the Triple Crown in 1943 and is in the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga, New York. Even though Hertz and Yellow Cab, basically we're not involved in the taxi wars for the last few years, once ownership of Checker Cab was consolidated to one non-union/non-gangster ownership, all of a sudden there was a fire at Hertz's horse stables in which numerous horses were burned to death. That sort of broke the back of Hertz as a owner of the Yellow Cab company. He had sold his rental car company to General Motors, and bought it back after he sold his interest in Yellow cab, and the rest is history for Hertz Rental Cars. A wonderful book, filled with names and events that are two numerous to include in a review, but nonetheless played a huge part in the street fight for taxi supremacy in Chicago thart spiraled out of control for most of the 1920's!

[Paul Brenzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating account of the Taxi Wars, a little-known aspect of Chicago history during the 1920’s. Chicago played an important role in the rise of the taxicab industry, as it did in so many other things in that era, and two major companies emerged: Yellow Cab and the Checker Taxi Company. Conflict between the two companies often manifested itself in outright violence (not to mention violence *within* Checker between management and union members backed by organized crime).

Anne Morrissy does an excellent job of detailing the conflict from the creation of the two companies to the eventual peace, using newspaper accounts of the era. Along the way, the reader encounters familiar figures from 1920’s Chicago history, such as ridiculously corrupt mayor William Hale Thompson and Cook County state’s attorney Robert E. Crowe (prosecutor of Leopold and Loeb). The reader also encounters such architectural marvels as the Chicago Athletic Association and the La Salle Hotel, both of which played a role in the Taxi Wars.

All in all, an interesting history about the often violent development of the taxicab industry, a business that I’ve always taken for granted.

[Anthony Millspaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Chicago native, an historian of the city,I was surprised to have never had heard of the Taxi Wars. Of course, there were so many other sensational events occurring in the city that to rank their importance is impossible.

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hardest part of writing a review of Street Fight is resisting the urge to repeat all the outrageous stories within it. You will not think "wow, this book should be a movie." Rather, you will think "isn't this book already a video game?" This is far less Business History and far more True Crime, down to the Goodfellas ending.

But also labor history. And urbanism. And the Great Migration. In a recent review, I poked fun at a book of historical fiction for including too many shout outs, but this is the contrasting version, where it feels like the author is touching upon the ligature of Chicago history, something that might be mostly forgotten because of how many other, conventionally bigger stories it ties in to.

One of the problems then is the criminality. There's a drinking game to be had in reading this book of 'or maybe he just had it coming, you know,' where you take a shot at every time that the author has to admit that some act of violence has at least three credible reasons why it happened, first relating to the taxi war, second relating to some other criminal act the victim was involved in, and third an acknowledgement of the casual violence of the society at the time meaning the causation could be functionally invisible for historical purposes. (I'd love to know if the bear raid on the stock was actually real or not.) The other drinking game that I suggest for the book is whenever one of the major players takes out a big ad in the paper so as to use it like their twitter account.

The author leans towards a 'regulations are written in blood' sort of message about how the chaos that we see lead to the industry changing, and that story being repeated in the so called rideshare market, but I think that there are more interesting points of overlap with that segment of things. Specifically, so much about the development of these companies relates to what their relationship was with the workers in them, both outright and as triangulated with organized labor, who are just as often feuding with a sort of independent worker as they are with capital M-management. It speaks a lot to why things happened like they did, as well as shows some of the ways that regulatory capture happens. And it is interesting to consider if some of the subtle and not-so-subtle favoritism that sometimes happened in the political establishment relative to the ideologies they favored is something that works through into the text of the book, or whether that is only reflective of the sources and so what stories there are to tell with those sources.

A simple thing that I liked is that the author takes efforts to keep the geography straight, even in situations where things have changed, so that you always have a good idea of where things are going on in Chicago, and specifically in ways that make sense to a modern mind.

My petty complaint about the book is that whomever was writing the chapter titles and sub headings seems to have been working exclusively from Lytton's Book of Automobile cliches, and they are as cloying as they are uninformative. My more serious complaint, might not strictly be a complaint, but I worry about this book finding an audience. I love it that the author keeps things historical and doesn't try and make the admittedly outlandish events of the history into a carnival midway of gore and horror. But I worry that this ends up shelved in quirky history out of an uncertainty of where it should go, where it has some bang up stories.

Not that I really mind, just more opportunities to count coup at cocktail parties with stories from Chicago history, like where the witness testified to covering up a crime for the attorney cross-examining him or when the Chicago cop jumped on the sideboard of taxi like a marine in HALO: Combat Evolved so that he could participate himself in the gun battle the between the drivers. But all of that is not really why the book is so interesting, and I think that the author gets that. So even if not for everyone, this book will deeply satisfy a wide spectrum of wonkish interests.

Thanks to the author, Anne Morrissy, and the publisher, Globe Pequot Press, for making the ARC available to me.

[J Kromrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

In the shadowed alleys of 1920s Chicago, where the rumble of engines and the screech of tires echoed through the streets, a clandestine battle unfolded—one that would leave bloodstains on the pavement and shape the modern landscape of the Windy City. Anne Morrissy's meticulously researched and vividly recounted book, "Street Fight: The Chicago Taxi Wars of the 1920s," thrusts readers into the heart of this forgotten conflict, revealing a world of violence, intrigue, and cutthroat competition.

🚖 At the dawn of the automobile era, John D. Hertz—a visionary car salesman—joined forces with Walden W. Shaw to establish Chicago's Yellow Cab Company. Little did they know that their wildly successful venture would ignite a war for supremacy in the city's burgeoning taxi industry. But as the Roaring Twenties unfolded, so did the chaos. Competitors emerged, and none posed a greater threat than the Checker Taxi Company, masterminded by Morris Markin. Behind the scenes, Markin pulled the strings, desperate to expand his influence even as Chicago's gangsters lurked in the shadows, ready to wrest control away.

Morrissy introduces us to a cast of larger-than-life characters: Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Joe Kennedy, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, and the indomitable Chicago mayor, William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson. These figures navigated a treacherous landscape where bullets flew from racing cab running boards, bombs exploded in garages, and passengers screamed in terror. The Taxi Wars were more than fare disputes; they were acts of domestic terrorism, leaving a trail of widows and shattered lives.

While other cities experienced taxi-related street violence during this era, Chicago's Taxi Wars stood out. Morrissy delves into the external factors that fueled this hyperbolic and long-lasting conflict. Organized crime infiltrated union leadership, using paid muscle to intimidate drivers. Accusations of political corruption swirled around Yellow Cab's meteoric rise, and racial tensions simmered. Yet, surprisingly, both Yellow Cab and Checker Taxi embraced racially egalitarian policies ahead of their time, thanks to their Jewish immigrant leaders².

"Street Fight" resurrects a nearly forgotten chapter of Chicago's history. Morrissy's meticulous research, combined with interviews and expert insights, breathes life into the battles fought on the city's streets a century ago. As you turn the pages, you'll feel the adrenaline of the chase, the tension of the turf wars, and the pulse of a city teetering on the edge.

Anne Morrissy's "Street Fight" is more than a historical account; it's a gripping narrative that transports readers to a time when taxi meters ticked alongside the beat of jazz. Whether you're a history buff, a lover of true crime, or simply seeking an enthralling tale, this book delivers. Buckle up, because this ride through Chicago's Taxi Wars is one you won't forget.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had so much information and history not just about Chicago and taxis but also about the men behind the beginning of the business. The name that stood out to me was Hertz, yes the man whose name would become famous for car rental, actually started with a taxi service. He and his partner Walden Shaw started the Yellow Cab company. The author takes you through the idea and then how they began, she also takes you through how they had the forethought of later starting to build their cabs with their specs. That was ahead of the times for the twenties. She then goes into other cab companies that started and fought them for power but mostly Yellow Cab always won, even when Checker Cab came into business. She goes into the few shootings and some deaths because of the fights and when you get to the end it still seems that Hertz and his partner were the ones on top because they walked away before the depression hit. It is a terrific story with many different characters. There were moments when areas were repeated but I understood because of the information.

[Kaylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating! As a Chicagoan, I had zero clue about this part of our history. (Probably was just overshadowed by the fact that so much was gang-related?)

I found myself returning to the thought, "why would people even use cabs when there was so much risk?" Then I remembered that people are always thinking, "It's not going to affect me, I'm not going to be that unlucky" and will generally choose the convenience over the safe but less convenient alternative. (Ahem - rideshare apps vs the slow rollout of Curb?)

Anyway, fascinating book. And thankfully not written like a damn novel! Morrissy does a great job of not adding shit about someone's unspoken feelings or otherwise flowering the prose to make it read like a fast-paced fiction. Only gripe (?) was the natural repetition of nonfiction -- but that's a genre thing (the assumption that someone might be using the book as reference and not reading linearly, so you need to re-explain some key points in each new section...).

[Jeremy Potratz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting book I read for book club. I didn't know a lot about the Taxi Wars in Chicago in the 1920s and this book did a really good job explaining the back story of many taxi companies and groups in the city. It was cool to read and hear about areas of the city where I live, work, and visit. My only gripe was the book was a bit speculative. It tried to connect a few too many unrelated deaths and incidents to the Taxi Wars when it reality it seemed like it was either very loosely related, or was really a gang related incident during prohibition. Overall though really glad I read it, cool information that provides an interesting back drop to the current Uber/Lyft war going on now.

[Vince C · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting read! This will be my book of the year. It’s about the Chicago “Taxi Cab Wars” of the 1920’s. I was under the wrong impression that The Outfit was mainly involved…. nope. It was just regular cab drivers setting arsons, blowing up cab garages, and shooting each other in the streets… sometimes with customers in the backseat. It was well researched and written. If your interested in this sort of thing, get in and enjoy the ride!

[Jes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently heard a pundit say "regulations are written in blood" - and one could certainly say that applies here. It's intense and wild and shocking to consider how many people were touched by the decisions and the violence.
The book has a distinctly humanized perspective and is an excellent slice of Chicago history, too. Now, someone should incorporate the key sites in a local tour.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely wild piece of history that was completely new to me despite my years spent in Chicago. Meticulously researched and artfully written, a must-read if you’re interested in gangsters, transportation, or Chicago history!

[Pat Salvatini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historically and geographically interesting. I found some of the sections a bit under edited, but overall I enjoyed the topic and learned quite a lot about the era.

[Jaceeeeee · Rating 4 out of 5]

book club book for January!