Sources and Footnotes
Sources
• The skywriting scenes were constructed from the April 28, 1923, edition of The Beacon News and the America's Greatest Brands Volume I newsletter.
• Background about the mood of the city comes generally from stories in the two-week mayoral election recorded in the April 4 through April 18, 1923, editions of the Beacon.
• The facts about the moonshine in city cars and the number of illegal distilleries is mentioned in the April 7, 1923, Beacon.
• The information about Warren Lincoln being followed by a mysterious stranger was repeated several times in The Beacon News and Chicago Tribune. Specifically, Aurora Capt. Fred Grass is quoted about being assigned the case in the May 1, 1923, Beacon.
• Warren Lincoln's relationship to president Abraham Lincoln comes from the summer 2000 edition of For the People, the newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association, volume 2, number 2. This same newsletter supplied most of the background about Warren Lincoln's time in Mount Pulaski, his law school and his decision to move to Aurora. According to the newsletter, Lincoln attended Kent Law School from 1913 to 1916. Lincoln's first wife, Blanche Rankin, died suddenly of an apparent heart problem in Mount Pulaski. Lincoln had one son with Blanche, John. John is not mentioned in this re-telling, although he was quoted often in the newspapers and reporters occasionally alluded to him being a suspect. Although briefly arrested, John Lincoln was never charged.
• Background on Michels came mainly from the June 30, 1927, and July 9, 1927, editions of the Beacon. His fights with Mayor James Hurley and the Tribune quote about "mysterious murders" comes from the Nov. 8, 1915, edition of the Tribune. The full quote is the "city of lights and mysterious murders."
• Much of the early parts of the story are set at the home of Warren and Lina Lincoln. At the time that house was on Indian Trail. So we're clear, that street is now Old Indian Trail, although the home was torn down in 1999.
• The scene of what was found in Lincoln's house was re-created from details in the April 29 through May 5 editions of the Beacon and Tribune as well as the July 1929 edition of True Detective Stories, written by Merlin Moore Taylor and obtained from the Aurora Historical Society. Taylor's rendition of the story contains some divergent facts about the murders and alternate theories about what might have happened. Many of the facts contained in the True Detective version are not supported in any other publication. Since it is not clear how the story was constructed and the magazine appears to sensationalize cases for added effect, most of the details in that publication were ignored. For items found in the house, only objects also mentioned in one of the newspapers were included.
• The Aurora Historical Society supplied a copy of Silent White and Beautiful.
• Although she never met him, Marcia Mount, Michel's granddaughter, recalls that he was known as "the boy chief."
• The quote, "Lincoln was not killed in the house," is from the April 30, 1923, Beacon.
