The 1924 Cicero municipal elections were of special interest to the Chicago Outfit, as they sought to protect their base of operations both from reformist politicians and from rival gangs.
[1][2] Incumbent Republican mayor Joseph Z. Klenha and his administration were corrupt, and, before 1924, had run Cicero with little political opposition.
[1] Rival gangs, seeking to usurp the Chicago Outfit's local Cicero monopoly, aligned themselves with the Democrats.
[1] The Chicago Tribune declared that the elections were, "marked by shootings, stabbings, kidnappings, and other outlawry unsurpassed in any previous Cook County political contest.
[3] On March 31, the eve of the election, the first person struck was Democratic nominee for town clerk William K. Pflaum, whose campaign offices were ransacked.
They sent South Side gang members to the polling booths with submachine guns and sawed-off shotguns to make sure that local residents "voted right".
[4] A Democratic worker named Stanley Stenkievitch was kidnapped, blindfolded, and brought to a Chicago basement where he was held as a captive until after the Cicero polls closed.
[1][4] Up to twenty men were similarly kidnapped, driven to a basement of a plumbing store in Chicago and chained to pipes and posts.
[1] Klenha's Republican machine remained in power until the 1932 Cicero municipal elections, in which they were eviscerated by what the Chicago Tribune dubbed, "an outpouring of Democratic votes such as had never been approached in the town before.