Millionaire or Criminal?

Thursday, September 21st, 1922

Who was Jay Gatsby?

Recent photo of Jay Gatsby (left). Grant's Drug Store in Chicago where the crimes all started (right).

Bryanna Watt

The recent death of the local, Jay Gatsby has revealed his unknown underground criminal ring . There have been rumours going around about Jay's past involvement with bootlegging, and other serious crimes. Everyone around believes that Jay Gatsby inherited a good amount of money from his late family members. He was sent off to war and returned in 1919. However there was a short time period between when he came back from war and when he became noticeably wealthy. How did he come up with that much money in such a short amount of time? Could illegal activities have taken place?

According to one of our sources, Jay was in Chicago after the war selling over the counter alcohol in drug stores.

We tried speaking with some of Jay’s past partners, however none of them would confess to this activity or even knowing Jay. The only person with liable information was Walter Chase. Walter Chase helped Jay with the selling at the drug stores and was sent to jail for his crimes. He only confessed to being part of the over the counter alcohol selling because he needed money. According to Chase, this was not the only crime Jay was part of but he would not give any further details.

Was Jay Gatsby part of more than what was discovered? Was there something much bigger going on? Possible rumors suggest that Jay Gatsby might be linked to murder as well but the sources are not reliable. The Jay Gatsby people thought they knew about was not was he was cut out to be. Could there be more than just involvement in the prohibition?

The case is under further investigation but one question still remains. Who was Jay Gatsby?