The Goblin Market: Chicago May's Story

May Duignan left County Longford and emigrated to the States in 1890, where she earned the moniker 'Chicago May,' by putting the 'art' in her work as a con artist. She proved to be a quick study with the women in The Levee, Chicago's red-light district. As May later told it, Dickens's Fagin had nothing on her crime school teachers in The Levee.

May's underworld exploits were sensationalised by the press, including the daring robbery of the American Express office in Paris, which she conducted with her lover, the notorious bandit, Eddie Guerin. Near the end of a ten-year stretch in Aylesbury Pr*son, where May was sent for fleecing aristocrats, she met Countess Markievicz, interned there for her role in the Easter Rising. Through their conversations, May developed a political consciousness.

In an era when immigrant women fell through the cracks, disappeared, or toiled away in drudgery, Chicago May and her cronies forged another path.

**Refunds are available if requested up to noon on the day of the performance,

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Megan McGurk