Module 3: The "Untouchable" Charlie Birger
Main Navigation
- Home
- Washington Crossing the Delaware
- UGRR in Southern Illinois
- Abraham Lincoln and Leadership
- Charlie Birger and Prohibition Days in Southern Illinois
- Rhetoric
- Wicked Problems
- African American History in Southern Illinois
-
Contact Us
Educating with Evidence
Wham, Room Number 323K
625 Wham Dr
Mailcode 4610
Carbondale, IL 62901
618-453-4250
gmiller@siu.edu
Main Content
The "Untouchable" Charlie Birger
On April 19, 1928, Charlie Birger was executed for the murder of Mayor Joe Adams. It was also on this day that Connecticut’s The New Britain Herald summarized the bizarre history of Birger’s interaction with law enforcement that had led to this point:
“Birger believed his machine gun rule was so strong that the law could not touch him. For weeks, after the warrant was issued for his arrest for the Adams murder charge, he defied authorities to arrest him. He said he was too busy hunting Carl Shelton, having bet $500 that he would kill him.”
In popular mob lore, gangsters were sometimes called “untouchables” because they seemed to roam free despite their alleged criminal activity. For example, infamous Chicago mob boss Al Capone was found guilty of tax evasion, not the countless murders he was likely responsible for committing or ordering years prior to his arrest. Was Charlie Birger also an “untouchable”?