From the September 19, 2021, Chicago Tribune "Chicago's history is punctuated with devastating fires" by Rick Kogan.
Only, this was O'Leary, the son of Kate and Patrick O'Leary who had the famous cow, Daisy, who supposedly kicked over the lantern and started it all.
He was only two when the fire took place. His parents and he moved south to the rough-and-tumble neighborhood around the stockyards. His parents became virtual hermits, shamed by their connection to the fire, he became one of the city's first big-time crime figures.
In the early 1890s, he built a palatial gambling mecca at 4183 Halstead Street which included a billiards room, several bowling alleys, a saloon, a barbershop and a sauna. He had his name- O'Leary- set in giant electric letters proudly emblazoned across the massive ironbound oak door.
Steel plates covered the outer walls, and the inner walls were made from heavy oak covered with zinc. It was, O'Leary said proudly, "fire-proof, bombproof and police-proof."
"Big Jim," as he was known, died in 1925, but his gambling house continued to operate. It was destroyed May 19, 1934, when the second-biggest fire in Chicago history blazed, taking out nearly 90% of the Union Stock Yards, injuring 50 firefighters and killing hundreds of cattle.
A large crowd stood watching the blaze, and one insensitive fellow was heard to say, "Them cows, they had it coming."
Steak Tonight, Fellows!! --Cooter
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