His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or
John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc
through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete
with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and
ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating
fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six.
Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of
the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely
untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the
Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen
Brach.