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May dates in
Marina City history

May 8, 1963 – Hilton Hotels Corporation signs a $2 million lease to operate restaurant and catering facilities at Marina City. It is the first time Hilton operates a restaurant in a private complex that is not a Hilton Hotel.

Herold Chalmers May 1963 – Marina City’s first grocery store opens. The owner is Herold Chalmers, pictured at left.

Mickey One

May 1964 – Scenes are filmed at Marina City for Mickey One, a film by Arthur Penn that stars Warren Beatty as a nightclub comic fleeing the Detroit Mob for Chicago.

(Left) Warren Beatty in front of a Marina City apartment in a scene from Mickey One.

May 1964 – Marina City Management launches a newsletter, From Marina City.

May 19, 1967 – June Fleck, a 39-year-old woman, falls to her death from the 50th floor of the east tower.

May 4, 1972 – Vickey Stevens is arrested in North Carolina and charged with robbing Marina City Bank the previous week of $33,000.

May 5, 1972 – Gloria Kirkpatrick, the young, pretty manager of the movie theaters at Marina City, is stabbed to death at 3:35 p.m. Her assailant is unknown. Motive is unknown.

Chicago Police Department
(Above) Chicago police report on murder of Gloria Kirkpatrick at Marina City on May 5, 1972.

May 12, 1972 – A charity tournament, the Bikini Open, is held at Marina City’s nine-hole miniature golf course. It features the “Gaslight Girls,” buxom ladies in saucy costumes.

May 1977 – Marina Cinemas closes.

May 3, 1991 – Police raid a Marina City apartment and seize about 250 guns, the largest single seizure of weapons in Chicago. But the owner of the apartment, Francis Samp, turns out to be a licensed gun collector. After eight years of prosecution, Samp is not convicted and every weapon seized is returned to him.

May 6, 1991 – A suspect in two 1989 rapes in downtown Chicago, Donald Williams, who had escaped earlier in the day from Cook County Jail, is captured at Marina City after allegedly attacking a woman in the lobby.

DePaul University

May 18, 2003 – A two-hour reception honors 19 original residents – people who were the first tenants of their respective apartments.

(Left) Dolores McCahill, a religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times in the early 1960s, one of 19 original residents honored at a reception in 2003.

May 2, 2008 – A four-foot version of Marina City, constructed of LEGO bricks, makes its first appearance at Looptopia, a dusk-to-dawn artistic celebration.

May 15, 2008 – A hard-fought building permit is issued to Dick’s Last Resort to construct a bar/restaurant at Marina City.

May 29, 2008 – Marina City resident Gary S. Kimmel pleads guilty to federal charges of money laundering.