Hinky Dink
September 23, 2009
Hinky Dink / (hink EE dink) / n. Nickname of one of the city's most notorious crooked pols, Michael Kenna. The saloonkeeper and "Bathhouse John" Coughlin were co-aldermen of the 1st Ward on the Near South Side beginning in 1897. The utterly corrupt "Lords of the Levee" took payoffs from gamblers, prostitutes, opium den operators and mobsters. They even brought them together for the annual 1st Ward Ball fund-raiser. Nickname referred to his small stature.