Over 370,000 digital images are available online via Chicago History Museum Images site. Images can be downloaded and licensed from this site by contacting the Rights and Reproductions department at rightsrepro@chicagohistory.org.
Many photos relating to crime in Chicago have been published in the Chicago Daily News. Images from the Daily News collection from 1902-33 are digitized and can be viewed in our online catalog ARCHIE. Each image is cataloged individually and linked directly to the catalog record. As an example, here are the results of an image search for the famed murderers, Leopold and Loeb.
The Chicago Sun-Times Collection also has a great deal of photos relating to crime in Chicago. The collection consists of images produced by Chicago Sun-Times (CST) staff photographers from roughly 1940-2000. Most of the images date from 1960-2000 and have not been published. View our CST research guide which provides tips on searching and accessing images from this collection.
Image 1 (left): Police mugshot of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Des Plaines, Illinois, December 22, 1978. Prints and Photos topic file: Gacy, John Wayne, portrait(s), Chicago History Museum. Additional digitized images relating to Gacy may be found here.
Image 2 (right): Jacob Loeb, Nathan Leopold, Jr., Richard Loeb, and Nathan Leopold, Sr. before trial. DN-0078038, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. Search ARCHIE, CHM's library catalog for more images like this.
The Abakanowicz Research Center has several image collections relating to specific cases and crime in Chicago more generally. Some of these have digital components and you'll find the link to those in the catalog record. You can plan a visit to the ARC to view physical photo materials, just note that some photographic mediums are only available by advance request, as noted in the catalog record.
The research center has several topic files featuring images on general topics like crime, as well as biographical files featuring portraits of individuals like Al Capone, H.H. Holmes, and John Wayne Gacy. To do a search of just these topical image files, use the Advanced Search function and limit by Photos / Prints Topical File.
The following is a selection of some of CHM's photo collections relating to crime in Chicago: