<P> Polarized attitudes of labor and business in Chicago prompted a strike by workers' lobbying for an eight - hour work day, later named the Haymarket affair . A peaceful demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket near the west side was interrupted by a bomb thrown at police; seven police officers were killed . Widespread violence broke out . A group of anarchists were tried for inciting the riot and convicted . Several were hanged and others were pardoned . The episode was a watershed moment in the labor movement, and its history was commemorated in the annual May Day celebrations . </P> <P> By 1900, Progressive Era political and legal reformers initiated far - ranging changes in the American criminal justice system, with Chicago taking the lead . </P> <P> The city became notorious worldwide for its rate of murders in the early 20th century, yet the courts failed to convict the killers . More than three - fourths of cases were not closed . Even when the police made arrests in cases where killers' identities were known, jurors typically exonerated or acquitted them . A blend of gender -, race -, and class - based notions of justice trumped the rule of law, producing low homicide conviction rates during a period of soaring violence . </P> <P> During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rates of domestic murder tripled in Chicago . Domestic homicide was often a manifestation of strains in gender relations induced by urban and industrial change . At the core of such family murders were male attempts to preserve masculine authority . Yet, there were nuances in the motives for the murder of family members, and study of the patterns of domestic homicide among different ethnic groups reveals basic cultural differences . German male immigrants tended to murder over declining status and the failure to achieve economic prosperity . In addition, they were likely to kill all members of the family, and then commit suicide in the ultimate attempt at maintaining control . Italian men killed family members to save a gender - based ideal of respectability that entailed patriarchal control over women and family reputation . African American men, like the Germans, often murdered in response to economic conditions but not over desperation about the future . Like the Italians, the killers tended to be young, but family honor was not usually at stake . Instead, black men murdered to regain control of wives and lovers who resisted their patriarchal "rights". </P>

What was the city of chicago known for at the turn of the 20th century