“All the records of
the hotel were destroyed and the only means at hand tabulating a list of the
patients was the remarkable memory of Harve Jackson, the day clerk of the
hotel.” – Attica Ledger, March 5, 1920
Almost 100 years later, I can attest to these words! There
aren’t a lot of resources on Mudlavia. After the hotel burnt down in 1920, what
survived were mostly memories, stories, rumors, and local lore.
Local newspapers reported that the fire burned down on
February 29, 1920, from a fire that started in store room 12. It was discovered
by a maid retrieving linens.
What is interesting to me is that there is a Mudlavia ad at
the Warren County Historical Society that claims Mudlavia was unburnable!
Mudlavia boasted of its technology, which included a state-of-the-art sprinkler
system with a steam whistle alarm. Some sources state that this was tested and
worked perfectly, but it did not work the day of the fire…
The Attica Ledger also stated that they did not know the
cause of the fire, so whenever I talk to people about Mudlavia, I always ask
how they think the fire started.
There are two main rumors. The first one is that the maid was
smoking in the store room and she left her cigarette on the linens, and they
caught fire.
The second rumor is that members of the mob were hiding out
at Mudlavia, and members from another mob found them, disabled the sprinkler
system, and started the fire.
If the second rumor is true, we have to entertain the idea
that gangsters hid out at Mudlavia... And oh, the local lore on Mudlavia's gangsters!!!
Mudlavia was situated in what Henry Kramer called “peaceful
valley” in Warren County, Indiana. The hotel was nestled away from the hustle
and bustle of the big cities, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, making it
the perfect place for the gangsters to flee to when things got “too hot” in
Chicago.
Some articles on the internet claim that famous criminals
like John Dillinger and Al Capone stayed at Mudlavia. In some ways it makes
perfect sense. Mudlavia was hidden away (they definitely would have taken
advantage of the secluded area), there was a train that went straight from
Chicago to the Attica Station, making for an easy escape, and even though Mudlavia
was in farm country, it was still extravagant and would fit the lavish lifestyle
of these criminals.
First, let's discuss John Dillinger. He didn’t start his life
of crime until 1922, and the original, luxurious hotel burned in 1920. By the time the hotel
reopened in October of 1934, Dillinger was already dead. When you study the
timeframe, Dillinger is out.
But what about Al Capone? That's a fascinating thought that he might have hid away at the extravagant hotel, possibly in a secret room with a secret tunnel!
When you study Capone, you'll find that he lived in New York until 1919-1920, depending on what source you read, and then
went later to Chicago at the request of mobster Johnny Torrio.
There’s a very small window between his arrival in Chicago
and when the hotel burned down. When he came to Chicago he was a twenty-year-old
bouncer, not the crime boss we all know him for. He did not take over the Chicago Outfit and become famous until
after the original Hotel Mudlavia burned down.
Okay, so there's a pretty slim chance Capone would have visited the first hotel... but what about the second one? The second very modest hotel was built in 1934, and Capone was prosecuted in 1931 for tax evasion, not looking good for Capone as a guest at Mudlavia.
The thing is, there are so many rumors about gangsters at Mudlavia... could there be some truth to those tales? And if so, who fits the timeline?
The mob was around during the glory years of the first hotel. Big “Jim”
Colosimo is credited to starting the Chicago Outfit, and ran gambling joints,
brothels, and drug rings from 1902 until 1920. He was nicknamed “Diamond” Jim,
because he wore white suits accented with diamonds. Mudlavia flourished from when it was built in 1890 to when it burned down in 1920, fitting Colosimo's timeframe exactly. He also had proximity to Mudlavia, and very expensive tastes, so it’s
plausible to entertain the idea that he could have stayed there.
He brought in his nephew Johnny Torrio from New York, who
became his second in command. Torrio was the one who brought in Capone in
1919/1920. When prohibition went into effect, Torrio wanted the Chicago Outfit
to get involved in the lucrative bootlegging business, but Colosimo refused to,
and was ambushed and murdered shortly after that.
I’ve also heard rumors about speakeasies and bootlegging at
Mudlavia, an intriguing thought if I do say so myself. The Wartime Prohibition
Act went into effect on June 30, 1919, which stated that liquor stronger than
1.28% could not be sold. The Volstead Act, which went into effect on October
28, 1919 carried out the 18th amendment, which prohibited the sale,
manufacturing, and transport of alcohol. The 18th amendment went
into effect at midnight on January 16, 1920. Considering that Mudlavia prided
itself on its fine moral reputation, and didn’t allow vices such as alcohol and
gambling, it’s hard to believe that the original hotel had any type of
speakeasy, especially since it burned down just a month after the 18th
amendment went into effect.
One of the last things that people love to talk about are the
secret tunnels. The rumor is that there was a secret tunnel system for the mob
to escape from if they got caught at Mudlavia. Some people say that the
tunnel went all the way from Mudlavia to the train station in Attica. That would have been over five miles of underground
tunnels! I can’t find any actual evidence that there were tunnels, but it is
brought up so often that I have to wonder!
So, are the rumors true? Did the mob hideout at Mudlavia?
Did Al Capone walk its halls? Were there tunnels beneath the hotel? Was there
illegal alcohol?
Primary sources don’t attest to any of these things, but
there are many tales, and as the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire…
especially at Mudlavia.
