William R. "Tinney" Cosgrove Sr.
Independent operator — Silver Congo & South Bluff Country Club
The other gambling king of Little Reno. Cawley ran 641 First Street; Tinney ran the Silver Congo and the South Bluff Country Club — and at one point lived with his family at the South Bluff CC itself. Migrated from Peru to LaSalle between 1935 and 1948. Started in a Peru soft-drink parlor on East Fifth Street (Prohibition-era code for a saloon). Was building a movie theater called The Peacock in LaSalle when his son Mickey was killed in WWII in August 1944 — he walked away from the project, and the unfinished building stood for years.
Mickey's Service Station. The legitimate Cosgrove front died with the son.
South Bluff Country Club. The remarkable part: the Cosgrove family lived on the grounds for a stretch in the early 1940s.
Landmark · Peru · 1933–1953
Mickey's Service Station
Tinney Cosgrove's son ran the legitimate front
Fourth and Pike Streets, Peru, IL
Gambling · Vice · Peru · 1933–1953
South Bluff Country Club
Tinney Cosgrove's other club — and his family's home
229 N 2550th Rd, Peru, IL 61354