Louis A. Wexler, 85, a former Cook County Circuit Court judge, died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Judge Wexler was a Circuit Court judge from 1964 until his retirement last year. He was a city prosecutor and the city’s chief assistant corporation counsel before going to the bench.
As head of the corporation counsel’s building code enforcement division, Judge Wexler used a little known state law to put substandard residential buildings into receivership, forcing property owners to make improvements or face their demolition. In 1963, he forced landlord Jack Winkler out of business at a time when Winkler owned 19 substandard buildings that housed 2,000 residents. The crusade won him the nickname “Demolition Lou,” and after his election to the Circuit Court, he was the first judge assigned exclusively to housing cases.
As a Criminal Court judge he presided over the trials of major gang leaders, including Eugene Hairston, leader of the Blackstone Rangers.
A native of Kiev, Ukraine, Judge Wexler first came to Chicago in 1920. He was a graduate of Austin High School and Crane College and a 1933 graduate of De Paul Law School, where he was a classmate of Mayor Richard J. Daley.
He is survived by his wife, Ruth; two daughters, Rhoda Sweeney and Suzanne Peck; a son, Bruce; and six grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday in Piser Weinstein Menorah Chapels, 5206 N. Broadway, Chicago. Services will be Friday at the Anshe Emet Synagogue, 3760 N. Pine Grove Ave., Chicago.
