"Be a Chicago booster! Throw away your hammer. Get a horn and blow loud for Chicago!"

William Hale Thompson, also known as 'Big Bill' Thompson, was one of Chicago's most interesting, colorful and eccentric mayors. He was known as the Builder Mayor, taking the mayoral oath of office a mere three short months before the Eastland disaster. His corresponding actions and reactions impacted the immediate proceedings following the disaster and are irrevocably a part of the story of the Eastland.

William Hale Thompson was born May 14th, 1868 in Boston, Massachusetts. In the early 1870's his father, Colonel William Hale Thompson, moved his family from Boston to Chicago. 'Big Bill' was a powerful, athletic man, captain of the Chicago Athletic Club's water polo team and the Chicago Athletic Association football team. He first entered politics in 1900, becoming the 2nd Ward alderman as a Republican. On February 23, 1915 he defeated Jacob A. Hey and Harry Olson in the Republican primary, and on April 6, 1915, in the general election, beat Robert M. Sweitzer (Democrat), John H. Hill (Prohibition), Seymour Stedman (Socialist) and Charles Thomson (Progressive) to become the 33rd mayor of Chicago.

Thompson was a vocal supporter of the women's sufferage movement:

"You ladies! You know what goes on. You've been proving that and doing a fine job of it! I tell you I am going to clean up Chicago and I mean it! If I am elected mayor, I will protect the fair womanhood of Chicago!"

Big Bill was a larger-than-life demagogue who changed his image and his positions on issues several times during his long career. As brilliant chameleon of a politician, Thompson could move from pro- to anti-prohibition, from opposing the Chicago Teachers Federation to opposing a superintendent hostile to it, from being anti-Catholic to winning, in huge numbers, the Catholic vote. Thompson stayed in power by repeatedly altering his political image.

He also brought excitement and theatrics to the office and was quite a political showman. He once staged a "debate" between himself and two white rats, which he carried on stage to represent his political opponents. His speeches on many occasions provide a great insight into the period, the politics, and the mayor himself. The pressures of office and politics lead to two nervous breakdowns in his lifetime.

When the Eastland capsized, he was in attendance (representing Chicago) at the Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco. Upon being notified of the disaster, he arranged for a special section of the Overland Limited to return to Chicago. In the interim, the acting mayor, William R. Moorhouse, ordered eight foot tall wooden panels placed along the Clark and Wells Street bridges to discourage the curious. A mayoral committee rejected issuing a film permit to allow the public display of the footage taken before and after the disaster.

At the onset of World War I, Thompson was staunchly pro-German and anti-British. For this he was labeled "Kaiser Bill" and worse. He held public book-burnings to destroy pro-British books taken from the public schools. In spite of this he was reelected for a second term. He defeated Harry Olson and Charles E. Merriam on February 25, 1919 in the Republican primary; and Robert M. Sweitzer (Democrat), Adolph S. Carm (Socialist Labor), John Collins (Socialist), John Fitzpatrick (Labor) and Maclay Hoyne (Independent) on April 1, 1919 in the general election.

Things began to sour for Big Bill in 1923. Judges he backed were not elected, his "five cent fare" bill was voted down, he lost a libel suit against the Tribune, and he was investigated for fraud by the State's Attorney. Upon learning of this investigation, Thompson withdrew from the mayoral race. Reform Democrat William Dever was elected mayor.

The former mayor announced that he was leading an expedition to the South Seas to find tree-climbing fish. "I have strong reason to believe that there are fish that come out of the water, can live on land, will jump three feet to catch a grasshopper, and will actually climb trees." The yacht Big Bill got as far south as New Orleans, but Thompson had already jumped ship.

Thompson ran for mayor again in 1927. In the primary election he defeated fellow Republicans Edward R. Litsinger and Eugene McCaffrey, to face the incumbent Democrat, Dever, in the general election. Dever was firmly on the side of law and order and was fanatical in his enforcement of Prohibition. Big Bill promised to re-open taverns that Dever had previously shut down, and the thirsty town elected him to a third term as mayor on April 7, 1927.

Chicago in the twenties was ruled by gangsters - first Johnny Torrio, and then his successor Al Capone. Mayor Thompson was suspected of being on Torrio and Capone's payroll. During Big Bill's reign as mayor, the police were ineffective in combating organized crime. Bribery and corruption were rampant. As he had before, Thompson allowed the gangsters free rein over the city. He ignored crime, concentrating instead on his own issues - including more anti-British saber rattling, and threats to "punch King George in the snoot."

In 1931, to garner publicity and enhance his "cowboy" image, Big Bill brought horses into the City Council chambers. Instead of grass root precinct work, Thompson depended upon oratory, showmanship, and symbols to gain political victories. In the end, these were not enough to sustain Big Bill's power in the face of the depression, and he lost the mayoral election to Democrat Anton Cermak.

His legacy as mayor was the development of a political machine, later to be copied and perfected by the Democrats, which shaped the future political atmosphere of Chicago. Only now, through the Freedom of Information Act, do we know that: the Justice Department kept files on Thompson and bugged his hotel suite during World War I; that the Harding White House aided Thompson in a libel suit against the Chicago Tribune; and that Thompson was not the political puppet of Al Capone.

Thompson lost the race for governor in 1936 and a fifth campaign for mayor in 1939. On March 19, 1944, he died at the Blackstone Hotel at the age of 76. At the time of his death, he was worth $2.1 million dollars. He is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery, where with 8 Eastland victims are also interred.

Above: Mayor of Chicago, Big Bill Thompson (left) with his adversary William 'Decent' Dever (right) and their wives.

Top Photo: William Hale Thompson, mayor of Chicago, 5:20 A.M., June 16, 1915. The only photograph of that minute.
When Mayor Thompson closed his eighteen hour shirtsleeve conference, which brought an end to the street car strike
and restored transportation services to three million people, he had come upon the greatest moment in his career--
up to that time..." Photograph by Elmer A. Douglas, Staff Photographer, Chicago Tribune.