A sober analysis of a case, now little more than a historical footnote, that came to be known as the Averbuch Affair.

On a cold morning in 1908, a 19-year-old Jewish immigrant traversed the unfamiliar streets of Chicago from his ghetto home on Washburne Avenue to the luxurious Lincoln Place residence of Police Chief George Shippy. Minutes after knocking on the front door, Lazarus Averbuch lay dead on the hallway floor, shot no less than six times by the chief himself. This is the most comprehensive account ever of an episode that stunned Chicago and won the attention of the entire country. It does not "solve" the mystery as much as it places it in the context of a nation that was unsure how to absorb the many immigrants flowing across its borders.