The Great Mokena Sandwich Heist: A Halloween Tale of 1919

   The season of tricks and treats is upon us. Ghosts, witches and black cats, our community has a long history with all of them on the All Hallows’ Eves of yore. Examining the pages of history, it can be found that Halloween in Mokena was once a rollicking time for joke playing, with the soaping of windows and privies disappearing and reappearing on rooves. In years past, the levity got so out of hand that certain residents were often deputized to reign in the day’s chaos, with more than a few of the larks stepping over the line into outright meanness and property damage. Parting the sea of time, we find a curious incident that took place in our village on Halloween 1919, one involving the excitement of a party and the temptation of its treat, which came to be the trick for some mean-spirited pranksters.  

    So it came that the Young People’s Society of St. John’s German Evangelical Church were hosting a Halloween bash at Mokena Hall, a roomy Front Street building that had already been the scene of countless hours of hometown fun.  As the youths got the Hall ready for their event that Friday evening, a tray containing a rich bounty of twelve dozen ham sandwiches was left in the basement, where it waited to be enjoyed by hungry revelers a little later. The party kicked off without a hitch, with “gayety and laughter” echoing through Mokena Hall. As the revelry carried on, some strange noises were heard at the front doors, some that would be described as a “commotion” taking place in Front Street. What started as a curiosity ended in pure confusion, when upon investigating the sounds, the young folk found the doors to be locked.   

 

Mokena Hall as it appeared circa 1913, having stood at today's 11020 Front Street. (Image courtesy of Richard Quinn) 

 

    As some were left scratching their heads, a few of the youths went downstairs to fetch their mid-party snacks. Expecting nourishment, they were shocked to find that the tray laden with sandwiches was gone, having been stolen by a Halloween trickster. As if to add insult to injury, some of the sandwiches had been torn to shreds and wantonly strewn all over the basement, flattened as if by a maliciously joking foot. Some amateur detective work was done by the Young People’s Society, and it was determined that the thieve(s) slipped in through a basement window while the distraction took place at the front doors. 

 

     Cakes were quickly brought out, and the party went on, although with a slightly downtrodden manner. Over the next few days, the youths wondered aloud if they had some starving friends in their midst, saying that had they known, they would’ve been welcomed to the soiree. Their party’s crashing made the front page of The News-Bulletin, the new paper serving the small town of about 475. Under the headline “Halloween Imps Swipe Food at Church Party,” quite a few townfolk were shown to be indignant over what happened, and in his reportage over the episode, editor William Semmler opined that “it is a pity that we have so much food in this country that we can waste it, while across the seas many thousands of humans beings are starving for want of it.”

 

   A letter was also published from an author who called him or herself “An Interested Spectator”, that paints a poignant image of sympathetic outreach to the guilty party, whoever they may have been. When pen in hand, the writer extended an empathetic hand to the thieves, writing “…Dear boys and girls of that group, the league also had delicious cakes, coffee, pickles, besides all those sandwiches and they would have rejoiced to feed you, for that is their great and good work – doing for others.” This anonymous Mokenian’s words reflect his or her belief that the escapade was not done out of misguided devilment but out of desperation, retreading over Editor Semmler’s words, “For shame, that Mokena should have in her midst hungry boys and girls whom must need go to Halloween parties and run off with the food. Is there no one who will feed them?”

 

   Happy Halloween Mokenians, be sure to feel autumn’s crisp bite, feel the crunch of leaves underfoot, and make sure that all ham sandwiches get to their rightful owners. 

 

Red Hot Escape: Mokena's 1909 Jailbreak

   Our fair village is generally a peaceful place, as it always has been. However, if one knows just where to look, provocative cases of crime can be found in the pages of our history. While stories of malice and violence are hidden in certain places, most of the stories of lawbreaking in Mokena’s long history are relatively small-time affairs. Nevertheless, in brittle newspaper clippings and long-forgotten memories, there is one tale of a treacherous burglary followed by a daring jailbreak under the cover of darkness. Let us turn the hands of time back to 1909, and set the stage in John A. Hatch’s general store on Mokena Street. 

   The shop was a one-stop location for the Mokenian of the early 20^th century. From boots and shoes to groceries and even sewing supplies, Hatch had it all. One of the village’s founding fathers and a much-respected citizen, on October 8^th, 1909 he opened the store much as he did on any other morning. Inside though, something was amiss. Sometime during the night, burglars had struck the store, and plundered it of goods. After they climbed in through a window in his storeroom, Hatch figured out that that the thieves snatched 30 cents from a slot machine, as well as a hodgepodge of pipes, cigars, chewing gum and combs. To his relief, the storekeeper’s cash drawer was untouched. 

 

The former store of John A. Hatch, the scene of the 1909 burglary, at today's 19711 Mokena Street.

 

    When word spread through tiny Mokena that Hatch had been looted, some townspeople remembered having seen a pair of strangers milling around some neighboring coal sheds. Those who saw them remembered that they were young men, 16 or 17 years old, more like boys. Their light-colored suits and tan shoes stuck out and were noticed by Mokenians. On the same day of the burglary, the two were tracked down and arrested on suspicion of having been the thieves, and gave their names as Edward Clark and William Rhodes of Chicago. An early report of the arrest pointed out that the duo were “inveterate cigarette smokers.”

 

   John Hatch was a man known in town for his gentle ways with area youngsters, and after the boys were taken into custody, was willing to go easy on them. It was his wish that if their parents could come to town and make good for his losses, he would not press any charges. In the meantime, the teens were locked up in the village calaboose by constable Conrad Schenkel, Mokena’s one-man police force. The Front Street jail was barely more than a small wooden shack furnished with a potbelly stove. As the autumn night descended over the village, the two youths felt a chill in the air. They mentioned to the German-born Schenkel that they were cold, and a warming fire was built for them inside the lockup. Long after Mokena was asleep, they then patiently heated a fire poker to a red-hot glow, and used it to singe a wooden post upon which the shack’s door hung. After diligently working, the door had been loosened enough for them to slip away into the darkness. 

 

    That Thursday’s issue of the Joliet Weekly News heralded the escape by screaming “Use Red Hot Poker to Gain Liberty” from its headlines. The jailbreak was even said to have caused a “mild sensation” in the county seat. Back in Mokena, uncomfortable questions began to be raised to constable Schenkel, namely as to his whereabouts that night and why he hadn’t kept a better eye on the lockup. Firing back, he defended himself by proclaiming that there was never a poker in the calaboose to begin with. He suspected that some town boys may have slid it to the prisoners through a barred window without realizing the consequences. 

The tiny, historic Mokena calaboose is now prominently featured in the Will County Historical Society's Heritage Village at Lockport. It is occasionally open to visitors. Just leave your red-hot fire pokers at home. (Image courtesy of Sandy Vasko)

 

   Schenkel phoned neighboring towns with the names and descriptions of the suspects, hoping to catch them before they got too far from Mokena. The officer’s frustration with the entire situation only got worse when he followed up on the city addresses given to him by his arrestees, as they turned out to be fake, along with their names. His vexation reached a peak two weeks later, when he took a phone call from Orland. Schenkel learned that a similar burglary had taken place there, and that two males were in custody whose looks matched that of the boys. Upon their presentation to him, he was bowled over to see that these were not the two he was looking for. To add insult to injury, in the last days of October Schenkel received what was mildly called “a comic postcard” with a Chicago postmark referencing the whole episode, and some were of the opinion that it was from his fugitives.

            

    Luckily for Conrad Schenkel, he received word from authorities in the city that a Pinkerton detective had caught his suspects, whose real names turned out to be William Reel and Edwin Scott. They were shipped back to Mokena in handcuffs on November 5th, where they stood trial by magistrate Willard Owen. They admitted their guilt under little pressure. Before long, they were sent to Joliet to withstand sentencing by the grand jury. While there, their jailer made a comment to the Weekly News in which he cracked that any fire pokers “would be kept on the opposite site of the bars from them.”

 

     In the end, William Reel and Edwin Scott were given 100 days in the county jail for their theft of Hatch’s store. The juxtaposition of the two city boys and their crime against then rural Mokena was greatly enjoyed by the day’s media. The News editorialized that the “temptations and pitfalls…presented by the city of Chicago” were ultimately responsible for Reel and Scott’s immoral act. So it was, that they earned their place in our community’s history, a footnote among other stories of love, friendship, and memories. While some may not be fond of reminiscence of tales like this one, a full understanding of our illustrious story cannot be had without them.