title: 999: A History of Chicago in Ten Stories
author: Richard B. Fizdale
description: <b><i>999: A History of Chicago in Ten Stories</i></b> is a terrific and fascinating book. --Rick Kogan --Author, Journalist, TV Reporter and Radio Host<br /><br />Fizdale's beautifully illustrated debut is a labor of love about his home, the architectural marvel 999 Lake Shore Drive in the historic Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville....Throughout, Fizdale's humorous tone adeptly guides readers: <i>John [Kraft] processed, packaged and sold cheese. Then he did it again and again and again....Even wife June got into the act. She was a cheese industry librarian.</i> As Fizdale states in his introduction, history never yields all of its secrets; yet here we have a reconstruction that, though small in scope, uncovers the secret texture of life in another age. Despite its specificity, this history is a small wonder, providing a fun but thorough look into one of Chicago's greatest homes. --<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br /><br />Demonstrating great storytelling flair, and unafraid to poke fun at the past century and a half's wackiest Lake Shore Drive residents, debut author Richard B. Fizdale...takes the history of one distinctive apartment building and broadens it into the tale of an epic fight...that forever changed the face of Chicago. The author's enthusiasm--personally fueled by that fact that he lives at 999--ultimately resulted in a...book packed with historical images, painstakingly researched detail, and rollicking writing. --<i>" --from ChicagoBookReview.com"</i><br /><br />"Chicago native and former CEO Fizdale offers up both a lively history of the Windy City and a somewhat ponderous biography of a condominimum at 999 Lake Shore Drive. ...this well-researched book--replete with archival photography and illustrations--provides an arresting depiction of the formation of Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood and the colorful characters involved in the process. ...for residents of Chicago, Fizdale's unequivocal affection for his home and city will be contagious." --Publishers Weekly Select
zlib_text: **Table of Contents**
  
    *  _PROLOGUE_
    * _1: THE CHALLENGE_
    * _2: A FOXY LADY_
    * _3: THE DEAL_
    * _4: STORM SIGNALS_
    * _5: JUNGLE LESSON_
    * _6: AND INTO THE NIGHT_
    * _7: THE COURSE_
    * _8: THE PENETRATION_
    * _9: ODD MAN OUT_
    * _10: A CALL TO BATTLE_
    * _11: INSIDE STRAIGHT_
    * _12: BATTLE SITE_
    * _13: WAR PARTY_
    * _14: GENTLE BUSINESS_
    * _15: WIPEOUT_
    * _EPILOGUE_
  
  **Chicago Wipe-Out by Don Pendleton**
  
   _Man's character is his fate_. —Heraclitus
  
    
  
   _ **PROLOGUE**_
  
  Mack Bolan knew what he was walking into at Chicago. There were no illusions
  of his own invincibility, and certainly no misjudgment of enemy power in this
  stronghold of organized crime. This was the city that the mob owned, the self-
  professed crime capital of the Western World, the locale of the mob's deepest
  entrenchment anywhere. And Bolan's challenge was knowingly hurled into the
  teeth of that vast empire which was characterized by _The Chicago Tribune_ as:
  
  A world in which wrong is right