thumb|160px|alt=William Hale Thompson circa 1917|Chicago Mayor [[William Hale Thompson accepted campaign contributions from gangster Al Capone. Thompson led the faction that supported lax enforcement of Prohibition in the Illinois 1928 Republican campaign]]
thumb|160px|alt=Charles S. Deneen circa 1917|[[United States Senate|U.S. Senator Charles S. Deneen, a former state representative and governor, opposed Thompson's slate. Deneen led the reformist faction in the Illinois 1928 Republican campaign]]
The Pineapple Primary was the name given to the primary election held in Illinois on April 10, 1928. The campaign was marked by numerous acts of violence, mostly in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook County. In the six months prior to the primary election, 62 bombings took place in the city, and at least two politicians were killed. The term "Pineapple Primary" originates with the contemporary slang term "pineapple" to describe a hand grenade.
Underlying the violent campaign was the lucrative Prohibition-era bootlegging trade, a corrupt city government, politicians with ties to organized crime, and a deep-seated and bitter political rivalry between several of the Illinois Republican candidates. The threat of election day violence was so severe that Chicago's U.S. Marshal requested the U.S. Attorney General for authority to deputize 500 additional federal marshals to assure the electorate to cast their ballots in safety.
Background
The Pineapple Primary took place in 1928, during the administration of the notoriously corrupt Chicago Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson, a Republican. Thompson had served two corruption-marred terms as mayor in 1915 and 1919. Following exposure of several scandals tied to his political organization, Thompson sat out the 1923 contest, with the result that reformer William E. Dever, a Democrat, was elected mayor.
After four years away from City Hall, Thompson cast his hat into the ring for the 1927 mayoral campaign, capitalizing on public displeasure with the zealous enforcement of the Prohibition laws under Dever. The always-bombastic Thompson campaigned for a wide open town, at one time hinting that he'd reopen illegal saloons closed by Dever's police.
Once he returned to City Hall in the spring of 1927, Thompson turned the city's resources away from fighting the bootleggers, and toward fighting those who advocated reforming the city government. Thompson and Deneen had been rivals for control of the Illinois Republican Party, and the bad blood between the two politicians dated at least as far back as the 1904 state convention.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Republican candidates for key offices in the 1928 Illinois primary election
|- valign="top"
! scope="col" | Office
! scope="col" width="300" | Thompson candidate
! scope="col" width="300" | Deneen candidate
|- valign="top"
! scope="row" style="text-align: left" | United States Senate
| Frank L. Smith, twice denied his seat by the Senate
| Otis F. Glenn, downstate attorney
|- valign="top"
! scope="row" style="text-align: left" | Governor
| Len Small, two-term incumbent
| Louis Emmerson, Secretary of State
|- valign="top"
! scope="row" style="text-align: left" | State's Attorney for Cook County
| Robert E. Crowe, incumbent
| John A. Swanson, Cook County Circuit Court judge
|}
Neither Thompson nor Deneen themselves were standing for election to their respective offices during the 1928 campaign. Deneen's faction was considered less corrupt than the Thompson faction, but Thompson's faction had the advantage of his Cook County political organization. At the time of the campaign, Thompson's political organization controlled every office in the city, county, and state governments except for one municipal clerkship and the office of Secretary of State, the latter seat held by Emmerson.
Most of Chicago's newspapers supported the reformers in the Deneen faction. Some out-of-town papers were less sanguine; The Washington Post lamented that the primary was fundamentally a choice between "which particular gang [was] going to harvest the $100 million a year of graft" flowing from liquor bootlegging and gambling.
Esposito had received repeated warnings that he was marked for death unless he fled Chicago. Esposito was struck down after a day of campaigning within sight of his home while in the company of his bodyguards. While passing the house at 806 S. Oakley Blvd., a volley of shots rang out from a passing automobile. The shots were heard by Esposito's wife, who ran the hundred feet from her home to the side of her dying husband. Two double-barrel shotguns and a revolver were found at the crime scene. Almost at the same time as the Deneen house was bombed, a bomb was thrown at the residence of State's Attorney candidate Swanson, a Deneen ally, at 7217 Crandon Ave. The bomb caused severe damage but narrowly missed Swanson. State's Attorney Crowe responded that he was satisfied that the "bombings were done by Deneen forces, and done mainly to discredit Mayor Thompson and myself."
Response to the violence
As the violence heightened, the focus of the voters turned to crime and Prohibition. Chicago's violent campaign drew attention and scorn from out-of-town newspapers. In the days before the election, a Federal grand jury was sworn in with instructions that it would be called upon to protect the voters of Chicago under the federal statutes about intimidation or conspiracy to prevent a citizen from exercising his right to vote. Special federal Prohibition officers swarmed into the city after the Deneen and Swanson bombings, and a city court bailiff who was a Thompson supporter was shot and wounded by a federal agent during a raid on a saloon. He was an Afro Caribbean attorney from St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands who was running on a reform platform.
Outcome
The voters sided with Deneen's slate, with all three of his candidates winning the Primary. Louis Emmerson defeated Len Small by 400,000 votes and went on to win the Governor's office. John Swanson defeated Crowe by 120,000. The Tribune attributed his win to Democrats crossing over to vote Republican following the earlier bombings. Glenn's victory spelled the end of Smith's convoluted attempts to be seated in the Senate following an earlier appointment that the Senate denied.
See also
- 1928 United States Senate special election in Illinois