| Nicknames | Fundelein, Mundeslime |
|---|---|
| Settled by | Provide info |
| Year infiltrated | 1989 |
| Crime impact | Part |
| Worst areas | southeast side |
As far as I know the village of Mundelein doesn’t have a history of having a variety of Chicago gangs which would normally not make for a good history piece for this site, but I have found that the few gangs that have roamed these streets in the past were heavily active at one time and these groups were so active that current gang activity seems like nothing compared to the past. The rumor on the streets will tell you that Mundelein is dead, and the gangs are gone but recent news articles say otherwise; however, the streets don’t totally lie it is “dead” compared to what went down in the past. I will present as much of the story as I can, but I don’t have a whole lot of info, just enough for a page. Hopefully, as time passes, I will come across more stories and I will update.
The start of Mundelein history is interesting to say the least. In the year 1833, the U.S. government took legal hold of this land from the Native Americans as they did most of Chicagoland. The Natives remained on the land following this agreement and in agreement with the U.S. government until August of 1836. In 1835, English settlers passing through the area couldn’t wait for the natives to leave and were already squatting this land as soon as the government took this land. The first of these squatters was Peter Shaddle who built the first cabin on these lands. Shaddle didn’t stay long and was able to sell his land in 1836 to Solomon and Pauline Norton. The Nortons would then raise their children on this land. The Payne family and the Clarks were among more settlers following the Nortons. These families were “mechanics” which is a term referring to millwrights, wheelwrights and ship’s carpenters before the term referred to auto mechanics. Since the families were surrounded by trees and they were mechanics by trade they named this area “Mechanics Grove.” This settlement drove several more settlers to come to Mechanics Grove turning this into a town with general stores and rooming houses east of Diamond Lake. This community even had a school by 1837. John Holcomb, of New York, settled in Mechanics Grove in 1847 and soon became the town’s largest landowner. Holcomb was so influential that the community agreed to change the name of the town to “Holcomb” in the early 1850s to pay homage to his large contributions to local politics, local religion and an office holder in multiple municipal offices. Just because this town was booming doesn’t mean it became a big community, it boomed but was a small town, but it was a town with many resources making for a decent life for its citizens. It remained small until 1885 when the Wisconsin Central Railroad laid tracks through the village. This was a good thing for the town of Holcomb and John Holcomb even donated 20 acres to the railroad company. Holcomb boomed again with grain elevators, more general stores, more hotels and more houses. This growth happened so fast and made citizens so happy that in the late 1880s the town name was changed again to “Rockefeller,” in honor of William Rockefeller, an important stockholder in the railroad company and the brother of the famous John D. Rockefeller (Fact source: www.cooklib.org).
In the year 1905, the town of Rockefeller experienced a second railroad, the Chicago-Milwaukee Electric Railroad. Now that there were two major railroad lines running through Rockefeller, officials decided it was time to incorporate the small town in 1909. This was not so easy of a task because the head count of the village was a meager 358 residents which would disqualify them from incorporation as a Lake County suburb; this is when Rockefeller asked the neighboring town of Diamond Lake to join them in incorporating as one. In July of 1909, Arthur Frederick Sheldon arrived from downtown Chicago seeking land for his growing Sheldon Correspondence School which taught the art of salesmanship as he taught students from all over the world. The school was located at State Street and Monroe in downtown Chicago and having 10,000 students and counting. Sheldon realized he didn’t have enough land to continue his dream. Sheldon came to Rockefeller and purchased some of John Holcomb’s old land and the original homestead of the early Norton family. Sheldon now built a new school that would employ local residents. Not only did Sheldon just move into Rockefeller and begin construction on his new school he immediately convinced the community to endure another bizarre name change to the town of “Area.” It is surprising to me that the community agreed to such a strange and bland name, let alone, that it happened so fast on July 12, 1909! “Area” stood for “Ability, Reliability, Energy and Action.” This proved how well Sheldon’s salesmanship methods were. The man moved from Chicago, convinced the town to let him build a big school while convincing them to change their name from an interesting and prestigious name to a bizarre and bland name like “Area.” Realistically, the new name only made sense to Sheldon as it coincided with his school teachings. This salesmanship impresses me, but it also makes me chuckle a little on how the town seemingly, and in my opinion, got duped into a silly name, but he was that good of a salesman. One could say, “I live in the area of area” when describing near where they live. All was well for a few years until the First World War quickly caused the school to suffer tuition rate drops as the international students were too busy fighting in the war that the U.S. was not even involved in yet accompanied by the loss of demand for salesmanship. The school became shuttered by 1915 leaving the town with the silly name and nothing to back it up. The community was not happy, and this brought in a new village President to replace Thomas Watson, Robert F. Rouse would now begin his long-time career as village Mayor. Luckily, the school was purchased in 1919 by Archbishop George Mundelein from the Archdiocese of Chicago (Fact source: www.cooklib.org).
George Mundelein, coincidentally, was another man to move to “Area” with a dream to build a large Roman Catholic Seminary on these 600 acres of land that was once the Sheldon School, this was the Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary, the seminary was opened in 1921. This seminary even had a bowling alley inside, which is highly unusual. Another unusual event happened in 1924 when the SOO Railroad came to village hall proposing to scrap the “Area” name and change it to “Mundelein,” thankfully, the village agreed to change the silly name to what it is known as today and the village of Mundelein was born. The author of this Cook County Memorial Public Library District peace named “Joe” found it strange that the SOO Railroad wanted to change the name to a Catholic Archbishop’s last name when the SOO Railroad guys were Lutheran and why they would even care to name it after Mundelein at all. I agree, it is bizarre, then again, this town’s history is a little bizarre anyway. When the seminary was completed in 1926, a large event was held that attracted around 500,000 people which was the 28th annual International Eucharistic Congress. People were so drawn to this event some came from over 40 miles from Chicago walking the whole way on foot! This event made the newspapers and attracted lots of attention to Mundelein, especially attention from Samuel Insull, one of the richest men in the United States at the time. Insull wanted to turn Mundelein into a commuter town. Insull installed paved roads, water lines, power lines, a new train depot and a model farm. The model farm was a showcase for the latest gas and electrical appliances. The town boomed incredibly in the late 1920s as a new firehouse, new village hall and several other amenities were built (Fact source: www.cooklib.org).
Once the Great Depression era began in the 1930s, the sustainability of Mundelein was truly tested, and it was an utter failure. As the early 1930s progressed residents lost their jobs and taxes fell behind. Plans for more subdivisions were immediately halted and the population was a mere 1,011 residents as of the 1930 census. The village went so broke they needed to shut off streetlights most of the time to save on energy. In the midst of this, Insull was nowhere to be found and in June of 1932 Insull fled to France because he went bankrupt and was being investigated for embezzlement. One business after another became shuttered leaving most of the town’s businesses closed. The State Bank of Mundelein was one of the few businesses opened still but it was robbed multiple times. A severe drought in 1934 bankrupted farmers and killed crops. A nasty winter in 1936 deprived the community of resources because snow drifts suffocated train lines, and the village could barely afford snow plowing. Later in 1936 and in 1937 major floods further hampered the village into further decline. The community continued facing hard times leading into the second world war. After the war, Mundelein began to rebuild, and the vacated properties were bought as new businesses and houses were built and by the 1950 census the new population was 3,186 (Fact source: www.cooklib.org).
Since the late 1880s, Mundelein was a tourist attraction because of the beauty of Diamond Lake. Many residents and non-residents had summer homes and boats near the docks at Diamond Lake and Diamond Lake was also a beach attraction. Many businesses were built to cater to this tourism, and this added much revenue to the village. By the 1950s and 1960s several new subdivisions were built in town often driven by the tourism which was key to Mundelein’s local economy. New subdivisions were platted until the town grew to over 10,000 residents as of 1960 then over 12,000 by 1962. Interest in Diamond Lake seemingly piqued in the 1970s from what I heard as many of Chicago’s elites and wealthy would plan getaways to Diamond Lake.
The stagnation and slight decline of Mundelein began in the early 1980s when the recession of the early 80s began, and local jobs were lost. The community mostly ceased major development but the most affected was the southeast side of town. The most affected areas of job loss were in the more affordable homes and apartments in the southeast side in the Poets subdivision (now known as Oaks Improvement Association), Diamond Lake subdivision, Mundelein Apartments (now known as Lakeside Village of Mundelein), and the Whitehall apartments (now known as Park Butterfield Apartments). This brought about a decline in the whole Diamond Lake area. Housing became increasingly affordable on the southeast side due to the decline in the area and this allowed lower income residents to move in from Chicago. Even after the early 80s recession ended by 1984 the southeast side still did not recover and the housing became cheaper. Hispanic migration from Chicago and Mexico began around 1984 and this sparked some racial conflict especially against the non-English speaking Mexican new residents.
Drug use became a major issue in Mundelein by the mid-1980s which attracted drug traffickers into the village. Youths soon found boredom is this simple community and began using drugs heavily as something to occupy their time. This is what began a very long ongoing drug use issue in Mundelein for many years that may persist presently. It was so bad that even the Chicago Tribune reported on April 24, 2003, that a night shift manager at a local Burger King was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling cocaine out of a drive thru window in Mundelein. Surveillance went on for 9 months in 2002 until four men were arrested in connection with it. Talk about getting “Coke” with your order. According to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald July 14, 1986, article two men shot and killed Stephen B. McNulty over $900 during a drug deal gone bad. The triggerman needed drugs himself which motivated him to kill. The shooter tried to kill McNulty’s partner in the car, but he played dead and escaped. This shows how bad Mundelein’s drug problem was. According to local legends Mundelein was big on drug use especially by teens. The demand for drugs easily led to gangs to move in seeking profit accept the Gaylords that moved in to oppose drug dealers from the city.
The racially motivated conflicts may have likely triggered the arrival of Chicago based street gangs as far back as 1984. In a January 24, 1985, Arlington Heights Daily Herald article school District 120 (Mundelein High School) approved a policy prohibiting gang activity. Even though they enacted this policy they also claimed they had no knowledge of gang activity in the school. Principal Marilyn Howell told the Herald “At this point it’s strictly a preventive measure. We are not aware of any gangs.” But then there was contradiction in the article because the whole reason for the creation of the policy was based on a fight before the holidays (of 1984) between two students in school. According to Superintendent Wayne Bottoni after the incident there were rumors of gang retaliation, so the school took quick action. The new policy prohibited weapons, soliciting students, staff or visitors to join gangs, wearing of gang insignias or promoting or defending gangs on school grounds or during school activities. Although the school laid claim that they were not aware of gang activity the very act of a gang induced fight leading to this policy makes me suspicious that there was something going on in Mundelein in 1984. Where else would these kids get the idea to make gang threats? Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Wauconda, Grayslake? All those communities have never been known for gangs and Waukegan and North Chicago is a good distance away; therefore, this gang activity was not coming from students from those towns, it could have only come from a Chicago to Mundelein connection. Now I am not going to go completely crazy and say that Chicago gangs came to Mundelein in 1984 based on this, but I will say I am positive Chicago gangs were here by then, but I have no proof yet in the form of either other articles or street legends. I have heard legends of Mundelein but not dates to match.
What is definite fact is that the southeast side was declining by the late 1980s, and many houses were deteriorated and looking bad, and the apartments were becoming rough as crime was increasing. In the November 9, 1991, issue of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald edition Libertyville Police arrested four teenagers for spraying gang graffiti on 10 buildings and entering Libertyville High School for a second time after being told not to return on an earlier occasion. When police confronted the teens, they fled police but were caught and arrested. Two of the boys were implicated by name and address in the article. The other two were 15 years old. The two 17-year-old boys named had addresses in the North Hills subdivision which is located on the far north side of the village which is Cambridge Road on the north to Salceda Drive on the south and from Midlothian Road on the west to Ambria Drive on the east. According to Sergeant Keith Kalodimos of the Mundelein police department the North Hills subdivision had been attracting extra police attention. One of the offenders was wearing a black leather Los Angeles Raiders hat that had gang insignias drawn on the inside of the hat. This was a thing Chicago gangs did in the early 90s, drawing gang signs underneath the brims. The Raiders hat would of course be black and grey which is the colors of the Gaylords gang of Chicago from the Logan Square based Palmer Street Gaylords branch. It is a known fact and legend that Gaylords were once big in Mundelein; therefore, these boys were Mundelein Gaylords. According to Kalodimos gangs started surfacing in 1989 in Mundelein. If there was gang activity in the mid-1980s it was underground or was short lived but in 1989 is when this real gangbanging began and the Gaylords were one of the gangs to arrive.
According to street legends the Gaylords dominated Memorial Park near the Mundelein High School, and I can also say they ran the North Hills subdivision based on the Herald article from 1991. Gaylords likely moved to Mundelein not only to escape the racially changing neighborhoods of Chicago, they also likely came here in response to the growing Hispanic population and the growing crime in the community. Gaylords tend to seek out criminal groups and Hispanic or African American gangs that form in communities and oppose them. It is a fact that Latin Kings arrived in Mundelein at the same time and engaged in a fierce rivalry with Gaylords and that both gangs once dominated Mundelein.
North Hills is not exactly a rougher area but the area of the Diamond Lakes east of the actual lake is known to be a rougher housing subdivision. Don’t get me wrong, the subdivision is not a total nightmare and there have always been many good residents but rented houses and drug dealers purchasing houses caused some decline. Small apartment buildings that dot Longwood Terrace in this subdivision often would house section 8 or criminal elements that added to the decline of the area. The Diamond Lake subdivision is from Longwood Terrace on the north to Hickory Street on the south and from Diamond Lake Road on the west to Lake Street on the east. This area has struggled with gangs a long time. According to a report written by former Mundelein police Chief Raymond Rose the population of Diamond Lake in the April 12, 2002, submission to Herman Goldstein Award Selection Committee Diamond Lake community had a population of 1,401 residents according to the 2000 census in which 56.7% of the residents were Hispanic and that the area had become highly non-English speaking and low-income. The report stated the area had “run down” houses and gang graffiti. According to street legends this area was home to Latin Kings in the 1990s. The Latin Kings would have arrived in 1989 at the latest.
Next to Diamond Lakes subdivision and west of Diamond Lake Road was another troubled housing complex that consists of four main blocks right next to Diamond Lake. This area was formerly known as “Poets.” These are the streets of Oak Avenue, Maple Avenue, Walnut Avenue and Hickory Avenue in an area bounded by Lakeview Ave/Elmwood Ave on the north to Wiech Road/Acorn Lane on the south and from Maple Avenue on the east to Acorn Road and Route 83 on the west. This area was also identified in Chief Rose’s 2002 report as a once “quiet” area until gangs moved in and multiple shootings were happening especially in the summer of 1997 it was at its worst. In the report Rose stated the area had become 58.6% Hispanic and there was a divide between Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents in the area just like Diamond Lake which led to a disinterest in working with each other and the police allowing gangs to take over. I am not sure what gang was in Poets, but I believe the Surenos, a Los Angeles based gang, moved here in 1997, hence, the escalated shootings because Surenos and Latin Kings hate each other. If it wasn’t Surenos perhaps it was the Maniac Latin Disciples. I don’t know how far back in time Maniac Latin Disciples go back in Mundelein, but Surenos would not have arrived until the later 1990s at the earliest, but Poets could have been full of MLDs earlier in the 1990s.
Another troubled complex Chief Rose mentioned was the formerly known as Whitehall Apartments located on the furthest southeastern part of the village. This apartment complex is located at U.S. Route 45 and Butterfield Road intersection and more specifically from Canterbury Lane on the north to Sheila Lane on the south and from Shaun Drive on the west to Whitehall Drive on the east. In the 2002 report from Chief Rose the issues in this complex were not only heavy gang activity but also domestic disturbances, gang graffiti, groups of teens and grown men gathered in stairwells intimidating residents, women being whistled at and harassed by groups of men, public urination and children afraid to play outside. This was the scene of the 1990s Whitehall Apartments when it was at its worst between 1989-1994. I am not sure which gang dominated this complex, but it may have been Latin Kings but MLDs could have been here too. The apartment management team hired a security team to deal with crime and gangs in the complex; however, this plan severely backfired because the security team was abrasive toward residents and harassed them to the point where they were bitter and afraid to cooperate with Mundelein police.
The final troubled area was the formerly known as Mundelein Apartments. These are located on the southeast side just south of High Street on the north to Allanson Road on the south and from Hickory Street on the west to Walnut Street on the east. This complex made the newspaper once from what I found and I have no street legends to report on this complex but in an August 17, 1994, Chicago Tribune article Chief Rose once again was speaking about gangs in Whitehall and how they were being pushed out of Whitehall by police and relocating to Mundelein Apartments. This move caused complaints from residents of gang activity. According to the article, residents had become scared to walk or drive around that area at night. Chief Rose pointed to six or seven families causing all the trouble and bringing in “outside people.” New management was working to evict those families at the time.
Mundelein had developed a bad reputation in the 1990s as a scary place to live and visit and from the sounds of it that was likely accurate. Brutal gang fights between Gaylords and Latin Kings once were common on these streets and Latin Kings shooting it out with Surenos and MLDs was another reoccurring issue. From the start, Mundelein police attacked the issue with gangs swiftly in this Lake County suburb as crackdowns soon began in the early 1990s. According to the November 9, 1991, Herald article Mundelein police were taking classes on how to handle gangs which seems to be the first step they used to crackdown then in the following years they were very busy. Mundelein indeed got very tough on gangs with a method that involved the community. This methodology was detailed in the 2002 report written by Chief Rose and is lengthy to say the least, therefore, I will focus on the main accomplishments and summarize them.
According to the report, the Whitehall Apartments were especially paid notice to by police as they identified the issues with the security team and had them removed as new ownership was taking over. In the report it was mentioned that this area had many section 8 residents and many non-English speaking residents as well. The area was 86.7% Hispanic as of 2000 making this complex a very Hispanic community. This usually is a recipe for a community that will not know how to deal with issues with gangs, especially from the non-English speaking community. Mundelein police collaborated with citizens and sent in bilingual officers to communicate with residents. Mundelein police then organized a task force and project C.A.P.E that was a partnership with residents of Whitehall. Officers then opened a substation in a vacant apartment to keep themselves close to the gangs. A social services and community center was also opened in another vacant apartment with cooperation of Whitehall management. This happened in the early 1990s and by 1994 that August 17, 1994, Tribune article had already talked about the substation and that gangs were retreating from the complex and moving to Mundelein Apartments.
In the Diamond Lake subdivision, this single-family home complex had developed a large non-English speaking populace according to the report; however, Mundelein police managed to bring English speaking and non-English speaking residents together to cooperate for a neighborhood watch program which eventually led to lower crime coinciding with tapered off police calls reporting crime.
In the Poets single family house complex, Mundelein police called for several meetings with residents, and this triggered an increase in calls reporting crime for a period. Police executed many search warrants and raided known gang member homes. Police patrolled the area heavily and security surveys were given to residents. Phone patrols and phone trees were established and residents were even able to voice their concerns in the “Poets Voices” newsletter.
Mundelein police identified a racial conflict in town and worked to squash negative perceptions of the Hispanic community which led to cooperation between residents of other races and Hispanics. Community watch became big in Mundelein and police worked with these residents until the gang influence weakened heading into the 21st century. Police also arranged for landlords to receive training about apartment complex laws, lease laws and lease writing to prevent landlords from moving in the wrong tenants and how to get them out if they did. Police also worked closely with landlords and property managers.
By 1994, Whitehall was cleaned up heavily and never became nearly as bad as it was in the early 1990s. Whitehall would still have gang issues up to present years but not nearly to the intensity as the late 80s and early 90s. I didn’t find much more on Mundelein Apartments accept a shooting in recent years, but that can be anywhere. Just like Whitehall, Mundelein Apartments are not the most ideal places to live and little shabby, but these are decent enough low-income housing complexes that are mostly safe. Diamond Lake area was heavily cleaned up heading into the 2000s but still has some gang activity. I found more recent articles with some gang shootings including the shooting death of a gang member a year or two ago. The intensity and craziness is not to be compared to before as the 1990s were insane over there and it is now a mostly quiet area. Poets got taken over by an improvement cooperative group which is attached to the federal government as this is an organization that helps rebuild and monitor communities that were once troubled. There was a recent gang killing in that area a year or so ago but nothing much more than that, not even close to the 1990s. Mundelein is still a basic town, but it is safe and a decent place to grow up for kids. Mundelein reminds me of Romeoville, the town I grew up in and this is why I write this piece. Romeoville had much of the same story being a former resort community for hunting, fishing and a beach. Just like Romeoville, when the beach life faded and the resort aspect vanished by the 80s Mundelein, like Romeoville, became dull towns where kids just did drugs and got into fights. Just like Romeoville, Mundelein started gangbanging in 1989-1990, the exact years Romeoville went nuts. The 90s were terrible in Romeoville just like Mundelein and both communities are hard-working blue-collar towns. Mundelein had the Gaylords and Latin Kings, Romeoville had the Latin Kings and Gangster Disciples as the main combatants, very similar stories. Both towns lost far more than half of their gang culture once the 20th century left us; therefore, I feel a slight connection.