On the night of Dec. 12, 1926, two men rang the doorbell at the home of Joseph Adams, 300-pound mayor of West City, Ill. The mayor, incautious, unsuspecting, opened the door. His callers took hasty ...

Herrin, Ill., a town long kippered in a bloody solution of mining feuds, bootleg wars, Klan activities, last week developed some new reactions. Two gangs, one run by a man named Carl Shelton, the ...

Charles "Charlie" Birger was a Russian-born bootlegger in Southern Illinois during the prohibition era. A rival of the Shelton Brothers Gang, Birger waged war with Carl, Earl, and Bernie over the ...

BENTON, Ill. - Back during the days of prohibition this small town in southern Illinois was the last stop for gangster Charlie Birger and several members of his infamous mob. Birger met his fate on ...

BENTON, Ill. (KFVS) - Cleaning out old filing cabinets led to new information on a famous figure in Franklin County Illinois. “Wow, we’ve really uncovered something here because this is really a big ...