![]() Click on the picture to see a larger version. The Alexandria Hotel where cab driver Robert Campion was attacked by the cab bandits. Built in 1891, the Alexandria was originally called the Granada. See Early Chicago Hotels by William R. Host and Brooke Ahne Portmann (Charleston, Chicago and San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing, 2006), p. 81 (preview in Google Books).
Source:
Alexandria Hotel Rush & Ohio St. Chicago, Ill., from Chicago History in Postcards.
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The Cab-Hold-Up Affair / 6
The Hold-Up / 2
The bandits relieved Campion of $25 and a gold watch. This was probably an unexpected windfall. Most cab drivers would not have been carrying anywhere near that amount of money, the equivalent of about two weeks' pay for a labourer, much less a gold watch.
Campion himself had been accused of assault and robbery in 1906. A young woman claimed he ran into her with his cab, took her back to the barn where he kept his horse, attacked her and stole a purse containing $300. Campion was ultimately acquitted of the charges.
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