Blue Island Bang-Up

The life, career, and kidnapping of James Hackett.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Posted by Ann Walton at 4:06 PM

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Frances at the Greenwood Ave house

Frances Hackett Walton 1914-1981

My grandmother took me travelling with her when I was a young teenager. We went to Virginia, Montreal, New Mexico, California, and Tijuana, Mexico.
Grammy had a chow chow named Cindy who ate rare hamburger and large curd cottage cheese out of a crystal dish, and a half chow named Victoria who attacked people when they sneezed.

James Hackett came to Chicago from the small western New York town of Allegany, Cattaraugus County where he was born in 1874. When he was 15 he left home, joined a travelling theater troupe, acted as a spear-holder in Shakespeare plays. I wish I knew how he went from supernumerary to slot machine saloons in Chicago.

In 1931 and 1933 Hackett was abducted by a group of kidnappers called the College Gang led by Theodore "Handsome Jack" Klutas.

Jim and the children at Happy Hollow, Hot Springs, Arkansas

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Navajo Fields

Jim Hackett and daughter Frances 1919

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