Founded in 1924 by homesteading veterans of World War I, the village was soon espied by Capone as a useful hideaway for illicit businesses, and it gained the nickname of ‘Caponeville,’ The Tribune reported in 1926. Newspaper accounts from the period refer to Forest View as a ‘mystery town’ run by ‘phantom men’ and detail how the mobster muscled his way into Forest View, driving out the veterans and their families.
Chicago Tribune, 1986. The tiny town of Forest View, Illinois is adjacent to my workplace—a library that’s located in a neighboring town but also serves the Forest View community—and I’m completely obsessed with this 1920s characterization of the town as “a mystery town run by phantom men.” That phrase is seriously like something out of Dashiell Hammett.
