The Pineapple Primary William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson 1928 Al Capone Violently Corrupt Republican Illinois Election Fiasco

The 1928 Illinois Republican primary was a struggle for control of the Illinois Republican party between the Al Capone backed faction of corrupt Chicago mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson and the faction of Illinois Republican Senator Charles S. Deneen. The contested positions were a United States Senate seat, the Governor of Illinois and States Attorney for Cook County. Al Capone financed Thompson in his 1927 successful campaign for mayor, making Thompson Chicago Mayor during the 1928 primaries. The city of Chicago and parts of Cook County Illinois experienced at least 62 separate bombings In the six months before the 1928 Republican primary for the state of Illinois. Read in this informative report how the Thompson faction used mob hoodlum violence to intimidate voters at the polls including when armed men attacked a precinct captain and also read why this primary was called the "Pineapple Primary" because members of the Deneen faction were having their houses attacked with grenades by hoodlum thugs deployed by corrupt Chicago Republican Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson, who is rated as one of the most unethical mayors in history due to his open alliance with Capone. A few days before this grenade attack occurred on the home of Deneen faction candidate for Cook County States Attorney, Circuit Court Judge John A. Swanson, in addition to the home of Illinois Republican Senator Charles S. Deneen, a political connection of Charles S. Deneen named Joe Esposito was murdered. "Diamond Joe" Esposito, a rival to Al Capone in bootlegging, extortion, labor racketeering and prostitution in Chicago, was Chicago Illinois 19th Ward Alderman, and was brutally gunned down in front of his 800 South Oakley Blvd residence on March 21, 1928.