He was shot dead gangland-style in the underpass leading to the Illinois Central Randolph Street station on the afternoon on June 9, 1930, as dozens of people watched.

Lingle was initially lionized as a martyred journalist, but it was eventually revealed that he was involved in racketeering with the Capone organization and that his death had more to do with his own criminal activities than his journalism.

[6] In Chicago, on the afternoon of June 9, 1930, Lingle left the Sherman House Hotel, where he had conversed with some power brokers, to catch the 1:30 pm train to a racetrack in Homewood where he gambled on horses.

One of them, described as thin, with blonde hair, and blue eyes, raised his .38 caliber pistol and shot Lingle once directly in the back of the head, killing him.

[9][10] Lingle had initially been considered a martyr, and an immense crowd attended his funeral in the West Jackson Boulevard District, with mourners overflowing onto the street outside the Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica.

[9] The 1931 film The Finger Points was loosely based on Lingle's life and death, and starred Richard Barthelmess as the reporter, Fay Wray as his love interest, and Clark Gable as the gangster who corrupts him.

[12] The 1988 novel by Howard Browne, Pork City, depicts Lingle's murder and the subsequent investigation by the Cook County State's Attorney's office.