Chief of Police Charles Levy

Charles Levy

Chief of Police Charles Levy succumbed to gunshot wounds suffered three days earlier while he and three officers attempted to arrest one of Chicago's most notorious criminals.

The officers were conducting surveillance of a stolen car on 21st Street when they observed two suspects approach the vehicle. When the officers attempted to arrest the men, shots were fired, and Chief Levy was mortally wounded. The suspect escaped down an alley while the other suspect was arrested.

The suspect was wanted on a charge of shooting and wounding a postal inspector in a hotel on Chicago's North Side three weeks earlier. After shooting Chief Levy, he fled to Chicago, where he shot and killed an Oak Park druggist on June 18. Two nights later, he shot and mortally wounded a restaurant owner on Chicago's South Side, stole a car, robbed a drug store, and shot and wounded a policeman who pulled him over. On August 13, he was captured by Chicago police in an apartment on West Jackson Boulevard.

The suspect was convicted of the murder of Chief Levy and sentenced to death on October 25, 1929. The Illinois Supreme Court granted him a new trial on April 8, 1931. He was sentenced to life in prison on June 26, 1931, and later died in prison on September 29, 1955, of liver disease.

Chief Levy was survived by his wife and five sons.