Welcome to the Green Mill. This bar has been here since 1907. It's one of the only Prohibition-era establishments still operating in its original location, with its original decor.
Step inside if it's open. Seriously. It looks almost exactly like it did in 1927.
Al Capone had a regular booth here—the one in the back left corner, where he could see both entrances. It's still there. You can sit in it.
There's a trapdoor behind the bar that leads to tunnels connecting to the Aragon Ballroom next door. When cops raided, the booze went underground.
The Green Mill was owned by "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, one of Capone's top enforcers. He's widely believed to have planned the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
In 1928, a comedian named Joe E. Lewis was performing at the Green Mill. He was the club's star attraction. When a rival club offered him more money, Lewis tried to leave. McGurn visited Lewis in his dressing room and politely asked him to reconsider.
Lewis took the other job anyway.
A
week later, three men broke into Lewis's hotel room and slit his throat, cut out part of his tongue, and left him for dead. He survived, barely, and never testified against anyone. He eventually returned to comedy but spoke with a permanent slur.
Frank Sinatra later played Joe E. Lewis in a movie called The Joker Is Wild.
— From the tour: Bootleggers, Bullets & Baloney
