History in Lakeview

Notorious bankrobber John Dillinger had a brief romance with Evelyn "Billie" Frechette."  Billie's sister had an apartment at 3512 North Halsted Street where Dillinger would often come to hide from the authorities.

John Dillinger, notorious bankrobber and Public Enemy No. 1, frequented the Sheridan Billiard House that once operated at 3925 North Sheridan Road.

Top secret State Department cables published by Wikileaks revealed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, owned the Helmand Restaurant at 3201 North Halsted Street during the 1990's. (The restaurant, which specialized in Afghani cuisine, has since closed.) During meetings with American officials in September 2009 and February 2010, Ahmed Karzai gabbed about the years he spent running his restaurant near Wrigley Field. The top secret cables also noted that Ahmed denied allegations of drug trafficking and corruption, even volunteering to take a polygraph test, but that members of the State Department didn’t believe him for a second, reporting that “he is widely understood to be [both] corrupt and a narcotics trader.”

Wali (he was apparently known by his middle name) was shot and killed inside his heavily-fortified compound in Kandahar by his alleged close friend, Sardar Mohammad, as he was exiting the bathroom on July 12, 2011. Wali's bodyguards immediately shot and killed the assassin. The Taliban claimed responsibility for Karzai's death, although the Taliban often take credit for murders they don't commit, and there was reason to doubt that the Taliban were behind this particular attack.