"But the really important thing that happened to me—back then in 1915—was that a dark-haired Irish girl went to work for Western Union in the company's branch office in Chicago's finest hotel, the Blackstone.
She was sixteen, and fresh out of telegraph school. From the main office, I sent the Blackstone's messages to her and received the ones she transmitted. She sent better than she copied, but she wasn't so good at either. I tried to help her.
Since she worked from four P.M. to midnight, I could drop in and see her evenings after my day shift ended. The first time I called only to help her with telegraphy. After that I courted her by the Western Union's wires between the main office and the Blackstone. And in person, too. I'd take her home now and then when she finished work at midnight, but she always had a chaperon. Another pretty girl, Emily Ivins, was night telephone operator at the hotel and she made certain that everything was proper on those late-at-night-ride-home dates.
Miss Ivins, incidentally, was to be an important witness in trying, many years later, to keep me out of prison on the Jake the Barber hoax. She was to tell the truth, but it wasn't good enough against the screen of lies behind which Factor and his friends stood grinning." Roger Touhy, The Stolen Years
She was sixteen, and fresh out of telegraph school. From the main office, I sent the Blackstone's messages to her and received the ones she transmitted. She sent better than she copied, but she wasn't so good at either. I tried to help her.
Since she worked from four P.M. to midnight, I could drop in and see her evenings after my day shift ended. The first time I called only to help her with telegraphy. After that I courted her by the Western Union's wires between the main office and the Blackstone. And in person, too. I'd take her home now and then when she finished work at midnight, but she always had a chaperon. Another pretty girl, Emily Ivins, was night telephone operator at the hotel and she made certain that everything was proper on those late-at-night-ride-home dates.
Miss Ivins, incidentally, was to be an important witness in trying, many years later, to keep me out of prison on the Jake the Barber hoax. She was to tell the truth, but it wasn't good enough against the screen of lies behind which Factor and his friends stood grinning." Roger Touhy, The Stolen Years
