The Mirage: The Tavern That Set A Trap

What happens when a group of reporters decides that the best way to expose corruption is to stop reporting—and start bartending?In 1970s Chicago, a team of investigative journalists opened a tavern in one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. But this wasn’t your average neighborhood bar. The Mirage Tavern was a carefully constructed undercover operation, designed to find out exactly what happened when city inspectors, police officers, politicians, and other officials thought nobody was watching.For months, the reporters poured drinks, kept the books, and quietly documented a system of bribery and corruption that operated with remarkable ease. What they uncovered would become one of the most audacious pieces of undercover journalism in Chicago history—and prove that sometimes, the best way to expose a crooked system is to let it walk right through your front door.This week on Murder, Not Murdering, we’re going behind the bar at The Mirage: The Tavern That Set a Trap—where the drinks were real, the reporters were undercover, and the corruption was very much on the record.