It Looked like a Raid on Mafia
Headquarters
It was July of '77, we were
at the Cray's Lake, Illinois Fair
with several shows. We had played it
for several years. Included in our
midway line was the freak baby show.
All week it had attracted steady
business.
On Friday afternoon while repairing
an air conditioner, I activated a
chronic back problem, so I was
resting in the trailer Friday night
and Chris was in charge of the
operations. About 8 PM several
police cars and a van pulled up to
the baby show. It looked like a
raid on Mafia headquarters. Chris
was arrested and the exhibit
seized. Marge followed Chris to the
police station and bailed him out,
charged with possessing and
transporting corpses without a
license. We had the show booked to
return to the Ohio State Fair, two
weeks hence. Not wanting to lose
out on this, we had a representative
waiting at the rubber factory on
Monday to have duplicate exhibits
manufactured.
Some of the seized exhibits were
real, some artificial. Chris
could have pleaded guilty and paid a
one hundred dollar fine. We were
certain we were legal, and decided
to fight, because we had presented
this display at the state fair and
other locations throughout the
state. A state owned museum in
Chicago had a similar display.
An attorney was retained and several
thousands of dollars was spent in
defense. In a few months he would
travel there for questioning. What
we thought would be only a local
incident was picked up by the news
wire services and received a lot of
space in the press. The sensational
slant the media placed on this was
unflattering. Due to the
unfavorable publicity, the fairs
asked us not to bring the show,
which certainly cut our income.
In October, while we were at the
Texas State Fair, Chris returned to
Illinois to stand trail. He was,
of course, acquitted, and
vindicated, which went virtually
unreported. Innocence and legality
was proven at great expense. In the
press we were guilty until proven
innocent, but innocence was ignored.
The harm had been done.
