The Wonder Bar/Bar Next Door - 232 E. Olin Ave.

Rumors

Employees and customers tell of cigar boxes moving around the display box as if moved by phantom hands.

Footsteps descending the staircase late at night after bar hours.

Some have claimed the spirit of the woman in the painting, whose identity is unknown, haunts the building.

Possible Connections

A Chicago gangster safe-house during Prohibition days. Roger “The Terrible” Touhy, leader of one of Chicago's Irish gangs built this place in 1929 for his brother Eddie as a distribution point to supply illegal alcohol in the Madison area and north. The Touhy brothers were rivals of Al Capone.

Purportedly, there's a body buried behind the fireplace in the second floor banquet room. One story claims these are the bones of one of the Touhy brothers killed in a shootout. Another makes them to be that of someone that crossed the Touhy brothers in their shady business dealings.

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