City on the take

What is essential to thriving as a Chicago politician? “Ambition,” answers venerable former reform alderman Leon Despres. “And in Chicago, with enough ambition, a little corruption doesn’t stop someone from advancing in politics. I’ve seen wave after wave of officeholders with corrupt ambitions who have not failed,” says the 101-year-old Hyde Park resident, who owes his jaundiced outlook to 20 years as the lone independent voice in the City Council during Mayor Richard J. Daley’s reign. If Chicago history is indeed defined by civic scandal, this year might just be remembered as the moment the city’s corruption metastasized, infecting the nation. Herein, some of the unscrupulous deals and dirty tricks that got us this far.

Ogden Gas Company scheme, 1895
In their most diabolical plot, the Gray Wolves, a notorious clique in the City Council, awarded the city’s lucrative gas utility contract to Ogden Gas Company, a ghost business invented by the aldermen. The previous contract holder was then enticed to buy up the rights to the fake company, and the wicked councilmen pocketed fat cash.
The fallout The preyed-upon citizenry founded the Municipal Voters League in 1896 to issue reports informing voters of worthy candidates.

The Mirage, 1977–78
The Chicago Sun-Times took investigative reporting to new extremes, opening a tavern it dubbed the Mirage to expose the systemic corruption of city inspectors. Of the dozen inspectors who visited the ratty Near North Side building, which severely violated everything from fire codes to health codes (a sink, for instance, emptied directly onto the floor), half exchanged falsified reports for cash-filled envelopes—and half were crooked for free.
The fallout 25 electrical inspectors convicted; more than a dozen city and state workers canned

Greylord, 1980–83
With the help of a few brave moles and wiretaps planted in judges’ chambers, the FBI revealed mass corruption in the county court system. One of the moles, former Cook County assistant state’s attorney Terrance Hake, bribed judges with cash to fix FBI-concocted cases, everything from traffic tickets to misdemeanors. One lawyer was captured on tape boasting, “Even a murder case can be fixed if the judge is given something to hang his hat on.”
The fallout The sweeping convictions included 50 lawyers and 15 judges.

Haunted Hall, 1990s
This federal probe into ghost payrolling—getting paid for a public job while doing little or none of the prescribed work—centered on 39th Ward Ald. Anthony Laurino, who placed as many as 35 family members and friends on the city payroll. What little work they did largely involved getting out the vote for Laurino and his cronies.
The fallout 35 convicted, including three aldermen and a state senator

Silver Shovel, 1992–95
Chicago construction-business–insider-turned-FBI-mole John Christopher wore a wire while bribing numerous city officials to put his phantom company to work. Even squeaky-clean reform alderman Lawrence Bloom took $16,000 in bribes so Christopher could dump construction debris in a minority neighborhood.
The fallout The feds netted convictions of six aldermen, a Chicago Water commissioner and the president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

Drugs in the Department of Water Management, 2002–05
On the city’s $30-per-hour dime, employees of the Department of Water Management ran the local cell of a Colombian heroin-trafficking ring, until one of them slipped up and sold to an undercover FBI agent.
The fallout Four city workers convicted

Sources: Chicago Sun-Times archives, Chicago Tribune archives, Chicago FBI website, Curing Corruption in Illinois: Anti-Corruption Report Number 1 (Gradel, Simpson, Zimelis; 2009), Grafters and Goo Goos (Merriner, 2004)

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