For 10 years, law enforcement officials have been stymied in their attempts to identify and prosecute the killer of William Hawkins, the popular, two-term mayor of suburban Phoenix.
Now, however, authorities and Nancy Hawkins, the mayor`s widow, say they have reason to believe the case may be solved, largely on findings by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cook County sheriff`s police.
Mayor Hawkins, 57, an outspoken foe of vice and gambling in the poor, mostly black village, was slain in a hail of rifle bullets outside his home in the suburb on the night of Oct. 16, 1979.
The shooting came in the wake of a bitter strike by village police. One longstanding theory by investigators-now reinforced by the FBI-sheriff`s police findings-is that the killer resented Hawkins` efforts to clean up Phoenix and took advantage of the local discord to kill him.
Hawkins` widow said she was told of renewed interest in the murder case by an FBI agent and an official of the state`s attorney`s office.
Nancy Hawkins said she believes her husband may have been killed because of his efforts, largely successful, to keep organized criminals out of town.
”He did not want Phoenix to become a place for wholesale illegal drugs,” she said in an interview last week. ”He told me, `Nancy, I think I can make Phoenix a better place.` ”
While no charges have been brought against anyone, a likely scenario of who shot Hawkins, and why, is under review by the Cook County state`s attorney`s office, said County Police Chief Earl Johnson.
Johnson, a former Chicago police official with 33 years experience in patrol and detective work, acknowledged the inquiry but declined to go into specifics ”due to the delicate stage that we are at.”
But sources familiar with the case said the version under scrutiny, based on FBI findings, points to involvement in the murder by a former Phoenix police official. The sources said Hawkins incurred the wrath of village officers who were taking protection payoffs from criminals.
One sheriff`s investigator, James Houlihan, to whom the FBI turned over its findings, said: ”The old suspicions (in 1979 about a motive and identity of the slayer) were pretty much true. This is a dead bang case. I can tell you that they (state`s attorney`s office) are moving on it.”
Thomas Dwyer, chief of that office`s Special Prosecutions Bureau in the state`s attorney`s office, declined to comment, citing a policy not to confirm or deny whatever the bureau may do.
But ”no comments” haven`t stopped a persistent Nancy Hawkins from
”staying on the case.”
Determined to see the crime solved, she said she went to a crime prevention talk at the Harvey YMCA in January to confront the guest speaker, Robert Clifford, head of the state`s attorney`s office in Markham branch of Circuit Court.
”I told him who I was and asked, `Are you still investigating my husband`s murder?` He told me they did have pertinent information.”
Mrs. Hawkins said she also called the FBI office in Orland Park, asking if agents had ”given up” on the murder mystery.
”I was told by an agent, `No ma`am. We never had the case. But an FBI investigation of policemen in Harvey, Phoenix and Robbins came across information about the murder, and we turned it over to county authorities.` ” Mrs. Hawkins was a patient in the same hospital to which her mortally wounded husband was rushed on the night of the shooting. Earlier, in a hospital visit during the Phoenix police strike, she said she saw that her husband had armed himself with a derringer.
”I asked Bill why he had the gun and he said, `Oh nothing. I just picked it up and put it in my belt.` He kept a lot of things to himself.”
William and Nancy Hawkins had known each other since they were pupils together in the 1st grade in Biloxi, Miss. They had been married 40 years when he was killed.
