There is one man who has actually admitted to starting the fire. When Louis Cohn
turned his $35,000 estate over to Northwestern University briefly before his
death, the university released a one-page statement. In the last paragraph, it
is revealed that Cohn “steadfastly maintained that the traditional story of the
cause of the fire -- Mrs. O'Leary's cow that kicked over a lantern -- was
untrue. He asserted that he and Mrs. O'Leary's son, in the company of several
other boys, were shooting dice in the hayloft . . . by the light of a lantern,
when one of the boys accidently overturned the lantern, thus setting the barn
afire.” Cohn would have been 18 years old at the time of the fire, and his
story is supported by several facts. There are records of several “Cohns”
living within walking distance of the O'Learys. The son that Cohn was
reputedly gambling with at the time was the O'Leary kid Jim, who would have
been only 9 years old. While his young age may seem to disprove Cohn's story,
one must remember that Jim O'Leary would grow up to be “Big Jim” O'Leary, a
notorious gambler and an off-track betting operator. 36
There are other theories, two of the notable ones being that Daisy acted alone
and that a comet split up into pieces and caused the fire. The latter theory is
said to explain the other fire that occurred in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, at the same
time and a smaller fire that occurred in Michigan. But the most popular theory,
and the one that most people still adhere to, is that of Mrs. O'Leary and
Daisy. 37