Bitter & Twisted
No, I’m not.
Bitter & Twisted is the name of the venue where I’m going to spend my birthday party this year!
I decided to celebrate with a 1920s-inspired cocktail party at a speakeasy in Phoenix, low light, whispered conversations, conspiratorial, craft cocktails, and bartenders who look like they know things they’re not telling. We’ll dress up, have fun, and pretend the world’s not a dumpster fire all around us.
This year, my birthday lands on a theme that refuses to behave quietly. The 20s!
But as I reflected on the 20s, I saw a theme quadrupled emerging…
- The 1920s, when Chicago rewired crime in America.
- My own decade of 20s, when I lived in Chicago and it rewired me as a young adult.
- My main protagonist, Emily Hartford, was living her twenties in Chicago when she pivoted from surgeon to coroner’s daughter, returning to her roots and stand up to evil and darkness.
- And now here we are, deep into the 2020s, in a turbulent decade that feels volatile, transitional, and loudly dangerous where ever you turn.
The 1920s: Chicago, Prohibition, and Organized Crime
When people picture the 1920s, they don’t imagine back alleys in small towns. They picture Chicago, Al Capone and organized crime.
The Volstead Act criminalized alcohol, but what it really created was a parallel economy, one with supply chains, territorial boundaries, enforcement arms, and profit margins that law enforcement couldn’t keep up with. Bootlegging was logistical. Organized. Scalable.
Speakeasies survived because police were paid, politicians were compromised, and violence was used strategically. People love to name Al Capone, but Capone wasn’t an anomaly. He was a symptom. Chicago had already been primed for organized crime through railroads, stockyards, shipping routes, immigration pressures, and political machines. Prohibition was the trigger point that handed criminals permission slip to commit the unspeakable.
Violence wasn’t hidden. It was normalized. Shootings happened in daylight. Bodies appeared in public places. Witnesses looked away. Cops were paid off. The system absorbed it because the city was moving too fast to stop. People could get away with murder. Often, forever.
Chicago In My 20s. The Mid-West Doesn’t Raise Soft People, Then or Now
I went to college in Chicago, graduated and then stayed. And I loved it. I spent my twenties there. Not the curated version. Not the one with skyline shots and clever captions. The real Chicago.
Record shops. Vintage stores. Festivals downtown. Bar hopping til four a.m. Long winters. Chilly springs. Sweltering summer. Lakeside runs. Cubs games. And the food. Oh, the food.
My pals and I were set on exploring every inch and sucking out its marrow. We were creating who we wanted to become. We were seeing clear-eyed about adulthood. And we were grounded by being unafraid to look where others shy away.
Yes, there were long work days. Hard schedules. Job changes. A master’s degree. Marriage. It was my playground for nearly a decade and I fell in love with every gritty part of that town.
I was deeply sad to leave Chicago when I was 28, but I was seeking new adventures, which, looking back, I do not regret.
But Chicago will always have my twenties… those glorious years.
Emily Hartford’s Chicago Years in Her 20s
I love that my heroine Emily Hartford left Freeport a broken teenager, and became formidable adult in Chicago. Maybe because I see that part myself in her. (Although I was not a broken teen. I was a teen seeking a big city adventure!)
Ditching her past, Emily had to learn some hard lessons in Chicago. She accepted discipline in classroom rooms that didn’t tolerate hesitation. She learned hierarchy of the medical community and how to navigate trauma without letting it hollow her out. She poured herself into her patients and her work, just as she had seen her coroner father do.
Chicago gave Emily Hartford the skills and precision she needed to round out her natural talents. It also gave her a break from emotional distress and a chance at laughter and love again. Away from her community of origin, she was able to lean into new experiences.
Emily’s twenties were formative. And Chicago helped this hollowed out girl find purpose over her pain.
The 2020s
One hundred years later, we find ourselves in the next century of twenties. While the human condition hasn’t changed, industry and technology look vastly different from 1926. As does the element of crime.
In the 1920s, crime wore pinstripes and carried guns. Territory was physical. Violence was direct, public, and unapologetic. Power announced itself loudly and dared anyone to challenge it. Often, crimes could be covered up more easily than today because technology wasn’t monitoring our every move.
In the 2020s, criminal activity hasn’t retracted or diminished. The core drivers of criminal activity haven’t changed. Sex. Greed. Power. Control. Money. But what has changed and evolved with the methods available to commit crime. A great deal of our crime today wears credentials and clean interfaces. Territory is often digital, financial, psychological. Violence is often delayed, systemic, or buried inside layers of bureaucracy (think Minnesota day care scam!).
I don’t mean to be a bluenose (wet blanket). There’s a real bright side to the 2020s! If you know your onions (have deep knowledge), you’ll know that current methods of tracking criminals have vastly improved in the past century. We can now lean on genetic genealogy, DNA, interconnected criminal databases, the internet, victim awareness, and more and more of us “common folk” paying attention as we help solve crimes and catch the bad guys.
So, yes, as I celebrate yet another anniversary of my 29th birthday… I will don my flapper dress, raise a smoky cocktail, and consider it berries (cool) that I’m not bitter and twisted. I’m grateful for every experience from my 20s and beyond! I love this adventure called life!
I’ll toast to all the places I’ve lived and loved… Fremont, Chicago, Newport, Phoenix, Los Angeles! They have sharpened me, humbled me, and given me depth.
I’ll toast to the speakeasy decade that reshaped crime in America.
And I’ll toast to Emily Hartford who I’ve spent sooo much time with over the past 2 decades. She has brought me places I never dreamed I’d be. And I sense there are many more adventures to have with Emily from Chicago.
Sante! Cheers! Chin-chin! 🍸
