Mickey Finn and the Lone Star Saloon

A “Mickey Finn” is a drug-laced drink intended to knock out the unsuspecting victim.  Mickey Finn was also a colourful real-life character, owner of the sleazy Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden. The following is a condensed excerpt from The Best Team Ever, a Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs. 

Mickey Finn exemplifies Chicago and the times.  He was first reported in Chicago in 1893, the year of the World’s Fair, plying the trade of a “lush worker,” mugging and robbing drunks in two forsaken corners of the Levee District.  …Mickey Finn gained everlasting renown with the opening, in 1896, of his “Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden” on Dearborn near Harrison.  A Chicago police inspector described the saloon as “a low dive, a hangout for colored and white people of the lowest type.”  Finn sat down with Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse Coughlin to arrange for protection against any police interference.  Then he hired a string of prostitutes to work the Lone Star, and taught them the art of pickpocketing the sober and rolling the drunks. 

Mickey Finn put up signs in his establishment urging patrons to “Try a Mickey Finn Special.”   He directed the house to urge customers to order the Special, and it delighted Mickey to hear a request for the drink that would cost the victim dearly.  Eventually, Mickey started to slip the drug chloral hydrate in any drink ordered by customers, particularly those who exhibited any sign of prosperity.    Mickey Finn and his employees dragged the slumbering victims to one of two “operating rooms” off of the scrawny-palmed Palm Garden, where they laid them out on tables and stripped them of all clothing, taking everything of value.  The drugged victims usually woke up in the alley behind the Lone Star Saloon, their confusion hovering for several days. Mickey Finn did not, however, kill these victims. “I am a Christian man, you know,” he explained.

“Hinky Dink” Kenna & “
Bathhouse” John Coughlin

In the early 1900’s Chicago was a cesspool of filth, crime and corruption.  The Best Team Ever, a Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs is historical fiction that explores this degenerate era and legendary villains such as Mickey Finn.

To learn more about Mickey Finn and the rest of the 1907 cubs – get your copy of The Best Team Ever, a Novel of America, Chicago and the 1907 Cubs today!