There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay
large sums of money to gangsters in return for protection. If they did not pay the money,
the gangsters would make it impossible for the men to run businesses. As a matter of
fact, the crime of obtaining 'protection money' can be traced back to Sir John
Hawkwood who, a fourteenth century Englishman, made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their work destroyed by
gangsters. While he settled down in Italy, Sir John Hawkwood and his band of soldiers used to fight for the princes of the Italian city-states who would pay them the highest
fees. In times of peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would ask for the protection money by destroying some farms of the city-states. In this way,
Hawkwood earned enormous sums of money and established a reputation as a hero
for himself. When he died at the age of eighty, the Italians gave him a state funeral and had a picture painted which was dedicated to the memory of 'the most valiant soldier
and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue'.
