MENTION Chicago to most people in 90 per cent of the world and they'll point a finger at you and make a machine gun sound. Every time they do, city fathers probably feel nerves twinge.

The Capone era and any negative word about the city's colourful past sends them close to cardiac arrest. It's no accident that a parade of landmarks associated with that notorious bootlegger fell victim to the wrecking ball.

Rather than taking a lemon and making lemonade with it, there's been almost zero tolerance. We once suggested to tourism officials they assemble a collection of vintage black Packards for a speak- easy tour retracing Capone sites. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? You don't want to know the reaction.

If the Tower of London was in Chicago, it would have long since been demolished . . . just like the St. Valentine's Day massacre site whose infamous wall was torn down and bought by a British Columbia bar owner. Efforts to restore the Capone-associated Lexington Hotel met a similar fate, as have a long list of Capone locations city-wide.

Few Chicagoans seem to realise it was which originally imported the young Sicilian-born hoodlum from Brooklyn during Chicago's bloody newspaper wars. Things got very out of control as enforcers attempted to keep competition papers off the streets. Woe to anyone caught in the crossfire. Tales told us by old-time staff were lively as any segment.

Elders who remember those days first hand are fast dying off. My father, a young deputy states attorney at that time, shared his very colourful memories with us before his death.

And interestingly, the grandson of Capone's bodyguard and "banker" is now a neighbour with whom we're on very friendly terms.

Public fascination with the prohibition era continues despite the city's efforts to squelch what could be a major attraction. On one hand, it's understandable in the interest of promoting a thriving, prosperous image there are things some would prefer to forget. But when you're presented with a tarnished image that can't be erased, why not turn it to your advantage.

Look how other areas handle Blackbeard the Pirate, Jack the Ripper, the Medicis, Vlad the Impaler and Rasputin . . . they're often used for tourist promotion!

Yes, they all really existed and aren't the creation of late-night television and movie producers' imagination. Names like "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (and my father said he wasn't the only one whose machine gun he saw in the trunk of a car), "Baby Face" Nelson, Dutch Schultz, Bugs Moran, Frank (The Waiter) Ricca, Jake (The Barber) Factor, Tony (Big Tuna) Arcado and on and on, along with crime fighter Elliot Ness. When asked who shot him at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, dying Frank Gusenberg said: "Nobody shot me." Dion O'Bannion, like Capone a graduate of the newspaper wars, was shot down in his flower shop across from Holy Name Cathedral. Twenty-six flower cars followed his $10,000 casket to the cemetery.

When Michael Merlo, head of Unione Sicilane, died, friends ordered a $25,000 floral tribute, including a wax effigy of him for the funeral cortege. O'Bannion had been working on Merlos' flowers when he was shot. The flower shop is gone, but the cathedral which was riddled with 38 machine gun bullets when O'Bannion's lieutenant Hymie Weiss and chauffeur were murdered is still there.

By the time Capone assumed power, the Better Government Association wired the US Senate: "Chicago politicians are in league with gangsters and the city overrun with a combination of lawless politics and protected vice."

In the first four months of 1926 there were 29 gang murders in Chicago . . . at the end of four years more than 200, with no convictions. Capone's income in 1927 was estimated at $107 million and income tax evasion ultimately sent him to prison.

incidentally, need not worry. These fellows were only interested in killing each other off and went about it very professionally. But use the same caution as in any major city . . . don't wander around parks after dark, ask your hotel doorman about neighbourhoods to avoid. Every place in the world has them and sometimes the very good and bad neighbourhoods can be very close together.

One last personal reminiscence about those days . . . Francis Clow came to Chicago from Iowa with her friend Velma and both became "chorus girls" during the roaring Twenties. Velma married Ralph Capone, Al's brother, while Francis married a member of the Clow plumbing manufacturing family and later became a much respected journalist still writing headline articles well into her eighties. Sound like a plot based on the play and film ?

Widowed and childless, the incomparable Francis became "dean" of local journalists, so much so we all joined in honouring her memory by organising a memorial dinner after her death.

"Why don't you write about your memories of that era?" my brother Jim and I used to ask as the otherwise very conservative Francis demurely fluttered the longest false eyelashes outside Las Vegas.

"How many writers sat in the Capone family kitchen visiting with their mother . . . saw that whole family up close under unusual circumstances . . . who knew about the casino on the top floor at the old Davis Hotel (now the Millennium Knickerbocker) where the windows were almost in the ceiling and as the city's tallest building no one could look down into it?"

Her tales were fascinating and confided only to a very few. But no amount of coaxing could get her to write about it. Velma and Ralph Capone were still alive.

Most places covered in my "gangster tour" segment of the Fodor guidebook are gone now. But there's plenty to see that has a very definite Chicago stamp. Drop anyone there blindfolded, unmask them and certain sites stand out as unique.

For sports enthusiasts, it's the Cubs and White Sox (baseball) . . . Bears (football) . . . Bulls (basketball) . . . Blackhawks (hockey) and Chicago Fire for major league soccer. Would it surprise you to learn it's also popular with fishermen, with tackle supplied for charter fishing for salmon and trout? The elder Mayor Daley used to stop along the lakeshore to fish on his way to City Hall.

The Chicago Park District maintains golf courses along the lakeshore, with the City's dramatic skyline as a backdrop, and there are numerous other area courses welcoming visitors.

For flower lovers, the city has two beautiful conservatories ? Garfield Park and Lincoln Park. There are lush gardens everywhere. Especially notable is Grant Park's Rose Garden just steps from lake-front Buckingham Fountain donated by Kate Buckingham in memory of her brother in 1926. It's said to be the world's largest, twice the size of the Versailles beauty that inspired it. Special music, light and water shows run from dusk to 11 p.m. every hour, lasting 20 minutes.

Near here, also set in the City's lakefront park area, is the world-famous Art Institute. Built in 1892, its entrance is guarded by two large bronze lions who get dressed up with Christmas wreaths at holiday time.

An architectural treasure, it has an exceptional collection of French impressionists, Renaissance oils, works by El Greco, Goya, Rembrandt, and just about any other major artist. Many special exhibits . . . one of this writer's personal favourites is the incredible weapons collection spanning the centuries. Linger over lunch in the shaded courtyard there. It's a very popular spot.

Where else to dine? Chicago has more than 7,000 restaurants, so you're faced with a major challenge. There are lots of very worthy possibilities. Let me tell you about three that are unique.

The Ninety-Fifth on the top floor of the John Hancock building is a conversation-stopper with its panoramic view of city and lakeshore. Sunday's brunch has been a standout on my visits there . . . and the view breathtaking.

When a Bermuda friend visited once over the July 4 weekend, Jim and I took him to the Ninety Fifth's Signature Room which looks out over both the lake and down along Grant Park.

To celebrate that holiday, the Chicago Symphony plays the down in the park, choreographed to a dazzling fireworks display out over Lake Michigan. The music is piped live into the dining room. Served up with an excellent menu, it's hard not to be impressed!

Sports enthusiasts will enjoy another popular location. Hall of Famer Harry Caray was the colourful broadcast voice of the Chicago Cubs for years and his restaurant of the same name on West Kinzie reflects Harry's effervescent personality. It's in an eye-catching, nationally landmarked building and full of memorabilia recalling his lively career.

It's in the street in front of the restaurant that an infamous foul ball was destroyed in a hoopla atmosphere earlier this year. The ball had been deflected by fans during the Cubs' 2003 playoff loss to the Florida Marlins.

whole incident created more headlines than landing on the moon. The produce man at a suburban store where I shop told us he returned home to his apartment building and found helicopters circling overhead, police and newsmen surrounding the building after that incident at the playoff game.

"Do you know who lives here?" asked a hyper-excited NBC sportscaster. "Dr. Mengele?" responded the produce man, noted for a droll sense of humour. "Who's Dr. Mengele?" asked the puzzled newsman. Of course, the resident receiving so much attention was the man who caught that ball.

The Berghoff Restaurant on West Adams in the heart of the city has been a Chicago favourite since 1898, so you know they have to be doing something right. The Berghoff family owned their own brewery, built up a reputation for fine food served in a wonderfully Germanic turn-of-the-century atmosphere. And they're still as popular as ever owned by descendants of the same family.

Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue became famous after sequences showing John Belushi ordering "cheezborgers" in . Popular with reporters and media, the late well-known Chicago syndicated newspaper columnist Mike Royko was a regular.

It's reputed he often sat at the bar and wrote about "Clout", mysterious ballots in "river wards" winning or losing elections, the well-known "vote early, vote often" syndrome of ghost ballots from resurrected cemetery residents, ever-popular gerrymandering of voting districts.

Hmmm . . . but that description could describe many places in the world.

We're running out of space and haven't yet taken you along Sheridan Road, named after General Philip Sheridan, following the lakeshore to the North Shore to see the Bahai Temple, only slightly less dramatic than the Taj Mahal.

Shoppers won't want to miss Marshall Fields, the massive department store rebuilt after the Chicago fire. With its Tiffany-domed ceiling of Favrile glass and 73 acres of floor space, it's as much a sightseeing attraction as a great emporium. One-time employee Gordon Selfridge was so impressed, he went to London to build one like it.

Not yet mentioned are the long list of entertainment possibilities . . . theatre, opera, symphony, jazz, blues, lakefront festivals, free concerts in the park under the stars. One thing is sure, you'll find them very easy to access . . . certainly different from Big Al's days.

When Capone went to the theatre, he rode in a seven-ton, bullet-proof car with combination locks so no one could open it and plant a bomb inside. Eighteen guards in tuxedos went with him. It was as much a production as the event he attended.

In 1850 when Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Chicago, he wrote to his good friend Carlyle: "It shows no sign of the rough or uncouth." Perhaps he was being overly generous, since the city did have its rambunctious side then, like all evolving frontier settlements.

Today it's a thriving, prosperous business centre, building ever upwards with the tallest buildings, busiest airport and certainly most impressive lakefront.

In 1870, Germany's Bismarck confided to General Philip Sheridan: "I wish I could go to America, if only to see that Chicago."

Come, see what you think.

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