Chicago’s Walking Man wandered alone for decades. Loved ones say: ‘He observed everything. That was his adventure.’
Joseph Kromelis, known as"The Walking Man," was a popular subject for street photographers in Chicago. He was photographed on the DuSable Bridge on Michigan Avenue in 1994 by Randy Martens.So when she met Joseph Kromelis, who suffered horrific burns after being set on fire as he slept on a Chicago street, she didn’t flinch. She reached for his hand and told him she had been praying for him. Wilson wanted, she said, to show him he was loved.
But as the years passed, he began appearing more haggard. His once brisk stride slowed. He wasn’t known to ask for food or money, but many wondered whether he might be experiencing homelessness. Wilson, of the Little Sisters of the Poor, met Kromelis in September after he emerged from a medical coma. She visited him at least once a week for nearly four months until his death. In her first interview about their friendship, she told the Tribune he was not frightened, vengeful or defeated.
Kromelis did not have a publicly documented history of mental illness, addictions or violence. He persisted through tremendous hardships — his father’s suicide, four siblings’ deaths in rapid succession, eviction and homelessness. Jonas Kromelis married Gertrude in 1932 in Lithuania. Singree isn’t certain, but she thinks her parents’ families arranged the marriage, as her father was 28 and her mother was still in her teens. But she said her mom adored him.
“We knew it was something strange and different,” she said of their voyage. “I remember they had a movie house on the ship and we saw our first Mickey Mouse movie.” “It was an old-fashioned little joint but it was nice,” said Singree, who tended bar after she turned 18. “My mother used to clean up in there every night. They’d work themselves to death.”
Tom Tomson, who graduated from grammar school with Singree in 1960, remembers Joseph tagging along on group swimming excursions near the Adler Planetarium. “What he liked, even as a young teenager, was really nice clothes,” she said. “When most kids would buy candy or junk stuff, he’d work part time or get a little money from Dad and then go down good old Maxwell Street and look for a new shirt.”
“In the evenings, everyone would pile into the living room and watch some TV show,” Maciulis said. “Otherwise a lot of time was spent at the beach on the shores of Lake Michigan or walking on the property. … Sunday evening the three of us would head back to Chicago and the grind of everyday life.” Joseph Kromelis’ interest in selling jewelry likely was born at Maxwell Street Market, a crowded open-air bazaar near Halsted and Maxwell streets, about a mile south of downtown.
One of his friends back then was Viki Mammina, who said she met Kromelis shortly after she moved to Chicago for art school in 1974. They called him “Mojo,” she said, “because he was just so gorgeous, so stylish with his three-piece suits, gold rings and chains.” The two of them shared a love for exploring the city on foot, and he would warn her which areas she should avoid. She admits she had a crush on him and regrets she never told him.“At an older age, I would have had a conversation with him, like, ‘Let’s see where this goes, Joe,’” she said. “I had no delusions he would have settled down and got married, but I would have been curious. I admired him so. There was such a kindness about him.
Rick Stradal, a retired corporate driver, said Kromelis approached his idling car on occasion and opened his three-quarter-length trench coat to reveal dangling gold necklaces for sale. Stradal said he never bought anything from Kromelis, who he said was never overly aggressive. Downtown workers and pedestrians gave him monikers: the Walking Man, the Walking Dude, Walking Yanni, the ’70s Man and more. Urban myths grew about his identity: He was an eccentric billionaire, a college literature professor, a hotel doorman, a bartender, a famous musician, even the ghost of a pedestrian who died after being struck by a car.
After a brief exchange in which Kromelis identified himself as Jim or John, Roeper’s elusive subject took off running down State Street, claiming to be on his way to work. According to relatives and public records, Kromelis was not homeless at the time. He lived alone in a single-room-occupancy building.
Joseph Kromelis' dark mane of hair had turned gray by 2019, when a Tribune photographer captured him walking through the intersection of Dearborn and Randolph streets. And, to thousands of Chicagoans, the Walking Man was part of their lives. But he wouldn’t remain nameless forever.Joseph Kromelis faced a series of life-changing hardships beginning in 2012, when he was in his mid-60s.This was the same year that Kromelis is believed to have first experienced prolonged homelessness. A review of his city peddler’s license applications over several years shows him living on the 2800 block of North Lincoln Park West.
In May 2016, a bat-wielding man brutally attacked him, including gouging his eyes “to the point that blood was streaming from eye sockets,” a police report said. Joseph Kromelis, then 69, makes his way south on State Street near Madison Street on Aug. 8, 2016. He was hospitalized earlier that year after being attacked on Wacker Drive.
Joseph Kromelis holds up a"Walk On, Dude" T-shirt created as a fundraiser by Scott Marvel, right, after Kromelis suffered a brutal beating in summer 2016. The shirt is still available; all future proceeds will go to support StreetWise. Several advocacy groups who do outreach work with people who are marginally housed told the Tribune they did not provide services to him, according to their records.
Police released surveillance footage of the assailant to the public. Two Melrose Park police officers, Jessica Ortiz and Eric Orozco, said they immediately recognized him as Joseph Guardia, a troubled 27-year-old local man with whom they had previous contact. He next began regularly seeing Guardia while Orozco was working a side security job at a local plasma center where Guardia regularly made donations for cash, including the day of the early morning attack.
Guardia also said he was not aware that a person was under the blankets, but prosecutors said Kromelis’ head and lower legs were visible. The nun visited him weekly, sometimes more, at various hospitals, rehab and nursing facilities. She usually came alone, worried that even the most well-intentioned guest might gawk.
There were some lighter moments, she said, like once when she played songs from Spotify on her tablet.She didn’t ask too many questions during their visits. But she was curious about why he didn’t use a sleeping bag instead of blankets in the wintertime.They prayed or watched old movies together. He also loved the news, especially CNN. Wilson remembered his reaction after watching coverage of a protest in a country where women and young girls were being denied basic rights.
“Oh, I loved him,” Wilson said. “I’ve worked with a lot of elders all my life and he was very unique. No one was going to tell him what to do, boy. He was a man who was making his own decisions.” They waited hours, until fire and police officials had all left. They then walked back into his room and, after a nurse lowered a sheet to reveal his face, each of the women held one of his hands and prayed.
“She was the one who really convinced him that there was somebody in his life that cared about him and wanted him to succeed and wanted him to get better,” Pistorius said. “And I think that gave him a lot of hope. I really do.”Joseph Kromelis’ body was cremated and his ashes interred in a donated columbarium space at St. Boniface Cemetery in Chicago.
Doug Schenkelberg, executive director of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, sees a sad irony in Kromelis’ story.
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