After The Escape
O'Connor was last seen in 1921 during his escape. Because there was no Cook County Sheriff's Department during that time, he was able to make his way through miles of empty countryside and disappear completely. He then seemed to vanish forever with a fate unknown. Reported sightings continued into the thirties. One story labels O'Connor as the planner of a pharmacy robbery in 1927 where Detroit, Michigan police officer Stacy C. Mizner was shot and killed. A court order in the 1950s forced the city of Chicago to retain O'Connor's gallows sentencing and keep him on the death list until his fate was made known. The gallows were dismantled in 1977, but apparently O'Connor still remains scheduled to hang.
The gangster played by George Bancroft in the silent film Underworld (1927), directed by Josef von Sternberg was modelled on O'Connor. Playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht loosely based character Earl Williams in the Broadway comedy The Front Page (1928) on O'Connor as well.
Read more about this topic: Tommy O'Connor (criminal)
Famous quotes containing the word escape:
“At each minute we are crushed by the idea and the feeling of time. And there are only two ways to escape this nightmare, Mto forget it: pleasure and work. Pleasure wears us out. Work fortifies us. Let’s choose.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)