By Roger Ruthhart, Dispatch/Argus writer

(Part 2)

John Looney was a bad man, a very bad man. That's about the only thing that the soon-to-be-released Steven Spielberg movie ``Road To Perdition'' and the real-life history of the gangster have in common.

In the early 1900s, Mr. Looney built an empire of extortion, bribery, gambling, prostitution and moonshine-running that stretched from Missouri to Wisconsin and led Rock Island into an era of gangland violence and city hall corruption that made it known throughout the Midwest.

Mr. Looney's empire fell apart in the 1920s thanks in large part to the investigative reporting and crusading efforts of The Rock Island Argus.

Things began to unravel for the Looney gang when, on Oct. 6, 1922, his son, Connor, was gunned down. Then in 1925, Mr. Looney was convicted and sent to prison for the murder of Bill Gabel.

In the movie version, based on the Max Collins book inspired by Mr. Looney's life, Paul Newman portrays an older Looney whose name is Rooney. The movie is set in the 1930s. In real life, by the time the 1930s arrived, Connor Looney was dead and his father in prison.

B.J. Elsner, author of ``Rock Island: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'' joins many others in stressing that the movie is not a historical portrayal. She suggested viewers see the film as portraying what might have happened if the Looney empire had lived into the 1930s.

``Look at it as `what if' -- what if John Looney hadn't gone to prison and Connor Looney hadn't been killed and his father was preparing his son to take over his crime empire,'' she said.

With the long-awaited release of the movie this week, it is important to take a look at the real-life drama that was the life of John Looney.

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Patrick John Looney, or Patty John as he was known by friends and family, was born Oct. 5, 1865, son of Patrick and Margaret Looney of Ottawa. His parents had emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, and settled in an area around Marquette Street in Ottawa that came to be known as the Kerry Patch.

According to Richard Hamer, Rock Island, a Looney historian, the family's name originally was O'Lowney, but the ``O'' was dropped and spelling changed. Despite the changes, the name still is pronounced ``lowney'' by many family members.

Mr. Hamer is publishing a historical account of John Looney's life titled ``Citadel of Sin,'' expected out later this year.

Mr. Hamer has talked with family members in doing his research on Mr. Looney and categorized them as ``average, normal, nice Irish people who are a little embarrassed by this part of their history.'' Among his sources was Helen Crawford, Ottawa, whose great-grandfather was a Looney.

John Looney began working about the age of 12, Mr. Hamer said. ``So he didn't really enjoy himself as a kid. He just worked, although that wasn't so uncommon at the time, especially for immigrant families.''

His father was a drayman for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad and John helped him deliver goods from the railroad into town. His mother was a school teacher. John also worked for an Uncle Mike who owned a tavern and another uncle who ran a glass company. He had lots of relatives to provide him with jobs.

His mother's brother was Maurice T. Maloney, an Illinois attorney general and one-time mayor of Ottawa. Mr. Hamer said it was Mr. Maloney, who was friends with the Cable family which owned and ran the railroad, who helped young John Looney land a job as a telegrapher at the Rock Island train station in Ottawa.

The station was across the street from his home. That home, and one he later built for his wife, still are standing on Marquette Street just south of the old depot.

In 1887, Mr. Looney took a similar job at the railroad depot in downtown Rock Island, where Spencer Towers is today. Later, he managed the Western Union office at 18th Street and 2nd Avenue, according to Mr. Hamer.

He went back to Ottawa every weekend to visit his girlfriend, Nora O'Connor, who ran a millinery shop with his sister. According to files compiled by Ms. Crawford and shared with Mr. Hamer, Mr. Looney and Miss O'Connor had a surprise wedding in 1892 while serving as best man and bridesmaid at his sister's wedding. Mrs. Looney remained in Ottawa. Their first two children, Kathleen and Ursula, were born there.

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John Looney was a very smart man, Mr. Hamer said. At 5-foot-8, 125 pounds, he was not overpowering physically, but everyone was afraid of him nonetheless. When his gang went to collect protection money, Mr. Looney didn't even have to get out of the car. Just knowing he was outside was enough to scare most into paying.

One story told of him wearing twin silver-handled revolvers in holsters and a cowboy hat when he went to gamble. But there are more myths about Mr. Looney than there are true-life stories, Mr. Hamer said.

Among the stories describing Mr. Looney's appearance and personal habits are the ones claiming that he always wore rumpled clothing and ate liver on toast. That might have been partially true, but surely wasn't always the case, said Mr. Hamer.

Mr. Looney had stomach problems all of his life and ate a lot of different and unusual things to try to deal with it -- things like dates, cereal, ice cream and probably liver and toast. ``He'd try different things in bits and spurts,'' Mr. Hamer said.

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Mr. Hamer believes Rock Island attorney Adair Pleasants was responsible for getting Mr. Looney interested in law. He gave him law books and told him to study them until he was ready to take the bar exam. John Looney was admitted to the bar in 1889 at age 23. He became law partners with Frank H. Kelly.

Mathias Schnell was a well-known local builder who also took Mr. Looney under his wing and got him to join his literary society and become an actor. Mr. Looney wrote, produced and directed the play ``Emmet'' about an Irish rebel who was hanged for treason in 1803. He also played the part and earned great reviews from The Argus.

However, in 1897, Mr. Looney and his law partner Mr. Kelly were implicated in a scandal over construction of the 24th Street storm drain, along with Mr. Schnell and others they were defending.

They were indicted for having conspired to defraud the city by using inferior materials. Criminal prosecution involved more than a decade of court hearings. There were convictions, but they were overturned on appeal and the case never was retried.

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Mr. Schnell also was big in the Democratic Party and got Mr. Looney involved in politics. He worked his way up to become a leading figure in the local party. That went downhill quickly when The Argus, a Democratic newspaper at the time, started writing flaming articles about his crooked tactics for running the party and calling for his ouster.

His sister had married a member of the Pendergast political machine in Kansas City and Mr. Looney learned his tricks from them, according to Mr. Hamer.

Mr. Looney extended his involvement in politics to include a campaign for the state legislature in 1900, but lost.

``He thought with his connections he would win. But, at that time, if you weren't from the right family in Rock Island County, you couldn't win, and he wasn't from the right family,'' said Ms. Elsner. ``It was a moment of choice.''

Mr. Looney thought The Argus had undermined him. The clash would change the course of Rock Island history.

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He had tried to keep his family separate from his business dealings. Ottawa was another world where he was seen differently than he was in Rock Island, Mr. Hamer explained.

``Looney was a very complex man with the many personalities he had,'' Mr. Hamer said. ``He could be what he thought you wanted him to be. But he was very manipulative. He even manipulated his brothers and mother.''

His son, John Connor Looney, was born in Rock Island after Nora Looney insisted that she move here. Nora died of cancer in 1903 after an extended illness. By then, her husband already had had his first run-in with the wrong side of the law and in 1895 had begun publishing his own newspaper, The Rock Island News.

``She insisted on moving here,'' Mr. Hamer said of Nora Looney. ``She didn't know how dangerous a man he was. She didn't live to see what came about later.''

Monday: The birth of the Rock Island News.