Mirage Tavern

The Mirage Tavern was a drinking establishment at 731 N. Wells St. in Chicago purchased by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1977 to investigate widespread allegations of official corruption and shakedowns visited on small businesses by city officials. The journalists used hidden cameras to help ensure that city inspectors caught accepting payoffs for ignoring safety hazards were all properly documented.In 1978, the Sun-Times broke the story in a 25-part series that documented the many abuses and crimes committed at the tavern, which was shaken down repeatedly by state and local officials. The series was initially nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for general reporting, but the Pulitzer board decided not to award the Sun-Times when editor Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post led an attack on the grounds that the reporters used undercover reporting, a form of deception, to report the story.The Mirage gave rise to major reforms including city code revisions, new procedures in city inspections and investigations at federal, state and city levels. The IRS sent in 20 agents to take a closer look at tax fraud by cash businesses. The Illinois Department of Revenue formed a new investigative unit: the Mirage Audit Unit. An ongoing federal investigation, spurred by the Mirage findings, managed indictments of a third of the city’s electrical inspectors in 1978, with more indictments to come later.The project was overseen by editors James Hoge, Ralph Otwell, Stuart H. Loory and Joseph Reilly. In May 1977, journalist Pam Zekman and Better Government Association chief investigator Bill Recktenwald purchased the tavern under the aliases Mr. and Mrs. Ray Patterson. Reporter Zay N. Smith, who wrote the series, and BGA investigator Jeff Allen posed as the bartender and manager, respectively. Sun-Times photographers Gene Pesek and Jim Frost were in charge of photographing the tavern's activities from a hidden section of the tavern built over the washrooms.