An Explosion Rocks Seven Mile
Another installment of The Little Chicago Chronicles in which unknown ne’er-do-wells plant a bomb in the house of one of Butler County’s most dedicated Prohibition officers.
The time of the explosion was determined by the clock in the window of Ed Hunt’s Seven Mile barbershop, next door to Mayor Morris Y. Shuler’s house.
The clock stopped precisely at 12:48 a.m., May 14, 1924. Windows in the shop were shattered, as were the windows in the home of Homer Cunningham, just on the other side of the barbershop, two doors from the Shuler home.
“We were sure that the bank had been robbed when we heard the explosion,” said Mrs. Cunningham.
Edward Cracker, who lives four squares from the mayor’s home, reported that he had heard the explosion as though it had been next door.
The only people in Seven Mile who weren’t awakened by the blast were the family of Mayor Shuler, his wife and adopted ten-year-old daughter, Dorothea, who were asleep in the second story of their home. Even their normally-vigilant old watchdog, temporarily sleeping in the house recovering from having been struck by an automobile a few days earlier, did not rouse.
This is especially odd because the explosion that shook Seven Mile happened in the basement of the Shuler house.