The year was 1912, and the screaming headline in the Rock Island News, a so-called newspaper published by gangster John Looney, severely slandered the mayor.

Looney was involved in gambling, prostitution, guns and illegal liquor, and he routinely used lies and slander in his newspaper to blackmail and destroy the reputations of community leaders.

For example, there was this headline: "Schriver's Shame! Spent Night and Day in Peoria in Filthy Debauch with Ethel: Deeds that Would Shame a Dog!"

Mayor Harry Schriver was so angry at the made-up link to a Peoria prostitute that he had police deliver Looney to his City Hall office, where he beat the gangster so severely that Looney needed hospitalization.

Two nights of rioting in downtown Rock Island followed. Two bystanders were killed and eight other people were shot. The sheriff, panicked by the extent of the riot, contacted the governor, who declared martial law and called out 600 National Guardsmen who remained in the city for nearly 30 days.

From today's perspective, it may be difficult to believe events such as that actually happened in what is now the Quad-Cities. But they did.

To ensure such Illinois lore is not lost, and to help people interested in learning more, the Rock Island Preservation Commission has published a free, 35-page booklet titled the "John Looney Legend Tour." The publication describes 50 buildings/locations with ties to Looney. It's meant to be used as a driving tour, with all locations marked on a map.

The publication grew out of a smaller sheet hastily compiled in 2002 to accompany the release of the movie "Road to Perdition," starring the late Paul Newman as a character based on Looney.

"I can't tell you how many times I had to reprint (that brochure)," city planner Jill Doak said. "It was very popular."

Among the buildings featured in the booklet is Mayor Schriver's home, an 1869 Italianate-style gem that has been declared a city landmark. It's vacant now, but poised for restoration.

Other buildings include the VanDerGinst Building, where an insurance man who owed gambling debts to Looney died under suspicious circumstances; the former Villa de Chantal, where Looney's two daughters went to school; and several homes were Looney lived in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Doak wrote the text for the new publication with information from "Citadel of Sin: The John Looney Story," a book co-authored by Richard Hamer, a Looney expert, and Roger Ruthhart.

The Looney story, Doak said, tends to lure people in and makes them want to know more.

That is what happened to Hamer years ago as he first tried to separate fact from fiction in his search for the true John Looney. He pored over newspaper articles, court records and trial transcripts in several cities. He spoke to people who knew Looney and even traveled to Looney's birthplace in Ottawa, where he interviewed relatives.

Nowadays, at age 79, Hamer is working on a fictional story of the Looney years in which a real-life madam named Helen Van Dale plays a key role.

"She was a lot bigger character in this story than it appeared," Hamer said.

He also will try to get inside Looney's head and try to describe "why he was the way he was."

"That can be a stickler," he said.

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John Looney biography

John Looney remains a fascinating and enigmatic personality. Here's information on him from the brochure, "John Looney Legend Tour":

Born on Oct. 5, 1865, to Irish immigrant parents in Ottawa, he moved to Rock Island at age 18 to work as a train dispatcher and a superintendent for a telegraph office.

He eventually studied law, was admitted to the Illinois State Bar and opened a successful legal practice. He was a family man with two daughters, who were respectable, and a son, Connor, who followed him into a life of crime. (In the 2002 movie "Road to Perdition," the late Paul Newman played Looney and Daniel Craig played Connor.)

A man of contradictions, Looney ended up running a scandalous newspaper and immersing himself in prostitution, racketeering, extortion and intimidation.

His most outrageous crimes began about 1909. After a riotous period in 1912, Looney temporarily retreated to a ranch he owned in New Mexico, but he returned to Rock Island in 1917, where he quickly regained control of all his former illegal operations.

In 1922, he fled the city to avoid prosecution for the murder of a saloonkeeper who had balked at paying Looney increasingly higher protection money and turned state's evidence. A year later, Looney was apprehended in New Mexico, tried, convicted and sentenced to 14 years in the Stateville Prison at Joliet. There was no direct evidence tying Looney to the saloonkeeper's murder, only the testimony of his gang members, who traded Looney's prosecution in exchange for leniency.

Looney was nearly 70 when he was released after nine years in prison. He retreated again to the Southwest and died in 1942 of a lung infection in McAllen, Texas, where he is buried in an unmarked grave.

On the Web:

The "John Looney Legend Tour" brochure:

http://rigov.org/visitors/walkingtour.html