What If Mrs. O’Leary Finally Got To Tell Her Own Story?

Sasha-Ann Simons (0:12)

Hey, Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.

Be sure to listen all the way through the podcast for a breakdown of the day's top local stories. But first...

Most Chicagoans know the legend. A cow kicked over a lantern and started a fire that changed the city forever. But the cow's owner, Catherine O'Leary, spent the rest of her life carrying the blame for something she didn't do, even though the city officially cleared Mrs. O'Leary's name decades ago. Now, a new historical fiction audio book asked the question, if it wasn't Mrs. O'Leary, then who was responsible for the great Chicago fire? In this episode of The Pod, we sit down with the author of the audio book to talk about what it was like to bring Mrs. O'Leary's perspective to light. At the table, Melissa Birks. I started the conversation by asking her to share more of her inspiration for creating this historical fiction. Here's Melissa.

Melissa Birks (1:21)

The idea, first of all, I loved the song. I learned that in the 1970s in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a Girl Scout. So that tells you how widespread regionally, at least the story is.

My mom actually read to me an excerpt from a book called Bad Days in History in January 2025 And so I was inspired by that. You know, unjustly accused is always a great story. And I started, so that's how long I've been in this adventure. I started it first as a screenplay. I adapted it as a play, which I had a table read last December at the Newberry. And the same 12 actors also participated in, collaborated with me on the audiobook.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:05)

Yeah. Well, you explore Mrs. O'Leary's perspective and how being accused of starting the fire affected her and affected her life. So I want to play a little bit from those actors that you just mentioned.

Melissa Birks (2:14)

Thank you.

SPEAKER_3 (2:15)

Nobody's hiring an O'Leary. Nobody's buying milk from an O'Leary. And they're belting me, boy.

It'll pass in time.

Claire Lane (2:25)

For now, best course is to stay quiet. Maybe we keep the kids home from school for a few.

SPEAKER_3 (2:31)

No! Me kids are going to get all the schools that I didn't, and I'm going to clear me name.

It's too late for that, Kate. I did not start that fire. I'll be damned if I let them ruin us on account of a lie.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:47)

I mean, these actors are really getting into it, Melissa.

Melissa Birks (2:50)

Yeah, and they will be there tonight at the party I'm having, the celebration for the audio book at 7 p.m. tonight at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro on Lincoln.

Sasha-Ann Simons (3:02)

Now, how did you do this? Because I mean, Mrs. O'Leary, she didn't grant any interviews. So what was the research you did into her life and her experiences?

Melissa Birks (3:09)

Sure. So the first stop for me was the book by Richard Bales, who's an Aurora historian and was a retired now real estate lawyer, and it's called The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow. And that was my first stop. He forensically examines this case.

He not only tells you that Mrs. O'Leary did not start the fire, but he discusses and reveals, I will say, who did, the real culprit. So that was my first stop. I also spent a lot of time on newspaperarchives.com. You can find great, you know, the newspapers from the era, which I was a former journalist, so I love trolling through newspapers. They are kind of a time capsule, if you will, the way that things are written, the headlines in particular. And so I spent a lot of time with that, and that really informed a lot of the story. And it is historical fiction. And when you don't have someone, as you said, who didn't grant interviews, didn't spend a lot of time, you're going to have a pretty short film. It's tricky. Yeah, you're going to have not much of an audio book and not much of a play. So you have to sort of take her as a protagonist who has a goal. And that was what that—I'm glad you played that scene, because that was really, you know, I'm going to clear my name. So I have to give her a goal. I have to give her an opposition, an antagonist. And then I also gave her a story. We'll call it The Villain, the true culprit of the fire who emerges in the story.

Sasha-Ann Simons (4:43)

Yeah, well, you know, as I eluded to earlier, The Chicago City Council cleared her name. This was in 1997