Mickey's Service Station
Tinney Cosgrove's son ran the legitimate front
Fourth and Pike Streets, Peru, IL
After high school William R. 'Mickey' Cosgrove Jr. ran a service station at the corner of Fourth and Pike in Peru while his father William R. 'Tinney' Cosgrove Sr. ran the Silver Congo on First Street in LaSalle and broke ground on a movie theater called The Peacock.
Mickey enlisted on February 23, 1943, landed at Omaha Beach in June 1944 with the 33rd Armored Regiment, was wounded in the Battle of Hill 91 in July, and was killed in action on August 29, 1944 — twenty-two days after returning to duty. His remains came home in 1948. The day Tinney got the telegram, he walked off the Peacock construction site and never came back. Mickey's pump went quiet that summer. The legitimate Cosgrove front died with the son.
William R. "Mickey" Cosgrove Jr.
Apr 9, 1924 — Aug 29, 1944
Tinney's son · Pvt., 33rd Armored Regiment · KIA 29 Aug 1944
Born in Peru on April 9, 1924 to William R. Cosgrove Sr. and Mabel Kohr Cosgrove. Five-foot-five, 155 pounds, hazel eyes, brown hair. After high school he ran a service station at 4th and Pike. Enlisted Feb 23, 1943 at age 18, placed in Company I of the 33rd Armored Regiment. Landed at Omaha Beach on June 26, 1944. Wounded in the Battle of Hill 91 on July 10–11, returned to duty August 7, killed in action twenty-two days later on August 29. His remains came home in 1948 — funeral and burial at St. Vincent Cemetery in LaSalle, Purple Heart awarded posthumously. The day Tinney got the telegram, he walked off the Peacock construction site and never came back.
William R. "Tinney" Cosgrove Sr.
active ~1933–1953
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.