As a cigar-chomping governor always eager to cut a backroom deal, George Ryan seemed to fit the mold of a rough-and-tumble Illinois politician.
On Wednesday, officially under indictment on federal racketeering charges, it was taken a step further as Ryan joined the sizable and storied ranks of Illinois politicians who found themselves not only tarnished by scandal, but headed for court.
From small town mayors and big city aldermen to county judges and state governors, Illinois has a regrettably rich history of public corruption. Since the days when it was little more than a prairie outpost and one of the original “Wild West” states, Illinois has gained a reputation for its bare-knuckled affairs of state where its players weren’t scared to break the rules for personal gain.
“What has made Illinois so unique in its political history is not just the scandals and corruption but the people’s willingness to accept it,” said State Historian Thomas Schwartz. “Illinois has never had a very refined approach to politics, and, as a result, our political culture has always taken scandals in stride.”
“Historically, the state’s culture of corruption has seemed intractable,” said U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), who fought to bring to Chicago U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald, who indicted Ryan. “But with today’s development, perhaps Illinois has turned a corner.”
The history of corruption is indeed lengthy.
Prior to Ryan, four governors have been indicted. Two were convicted and served time in prison. Another, who was governor in the 1850s, escaped being charged for defrauding the state out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though he essentially pleaded no contest to the accusations.
And then there is Paul Powell, the one-time secretary of state. Shoeboxes jammed with hundreds of thousands of dollars were discovered in his Springfield hotel residence after his death in 1970. It is believed much of the ill-gotten gains came from residents seeking license plates who wrote checks to “Paul Powell, Illinois Secretary of State.”
A few years later Atty. Gen. William Scott was convicted of income tax evasion for using campaign contributions for personal expenses without paying taxes on the income. Still later, State Treasurer Jerome Cosentino pleaded guilty to participating in a check-kiting scheme.
Of course, corruption has hardly been confined to Springfield. Chicago over the decades has been the statewide epicenter of bribes, extortion, shady backroom dealing, ghost payrolling and other notorious acts of illegality.
In the last few decades alone, federal investigators have launched probe after probe with catchy names–Operations Phocus, Incubator, Greylord, Gambat, Haunted Hall, Silver Shovel.
After witnessing its members depart for prisons at the remarkable rate of about one a year for a quarter-century, Chicago’s City Council marked a minor milestone last month–four years without an indictment, let alone a conviction. The last alderman to go was Percy Giles, who in late 1999 was found guilty of racketeering, fraud and tax evasion.
Many aldermen have been caught at small-time corruption, but there have been big catches too.
Thomas Keane (31st), the late Mayor Richard J. Daley’s floor leader, was convicted in 1974 for using his insider’s knowledge and influence in a scheme to buy nearly 1,900 tax-delinquent properties and sell them to various governmental agencies at hefty profits.
City Treasurer Miriam Santos–successor to Walter Kozubowski, who was also convicted of crimes–pleaded guilty in 2000 to using employees to work on her unsuccessful bid for attorney general. Cook County Treasurer Edward Rosewell pleaded guilty in 1998 to putting on the treasurer’s payroll two state legislators who earned thousands of dollars in pay and benefits even though they did little or no work.
The suburbs, too, have had their share of corruption. Last year, Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese was convicted in a scam that swindled the suburb out of $12 million in insurance funds.
Even politicians who didn’t work here, but were from here, have been snared. Former congressional powerhouse U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski was convicted in 1996 for mail fraud in connection with charges that he used public funds to buy favors for relatives and political associates and converted postal stamps bought out of his congressional budget into cash. “Rosty” caught a break when President Bill Clinton pardoned him in 2000, but only, naturally, after some backroom lobbying.
“If you take nearby states, particularly ones like Wisconsin, scandals tend to be very rare,” said Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Your average state in the nation would not have anything like what we have in the way of corruption.
“As a general matter, we lean toward corruption.”
But perhaps the story that has the most parallels to Ryan’s situation can be found in the case of Illinois’ 26th governor, Lennington Small.
Like Ryan, Small was a dealmaker known for building and fixing roads across the state. Like Ryan, he was a Kankakee Republican who learned about politics in a political organization that stressed helping friends and punishing enemies. And, like Ryan, before ascending to the governor’s mansion, he headed a smaller statewide office, state treasurer, where authorities alleged he broke the rules.
Ryan might take some solace from the outcome of Small’s case: He was acquitted.
His reputation, however, was ruined forever.
The governor of Illinois during the Roaring ’20s, Small was charged with conspiracy and embezzling state funds, later tabbed at $1 million, while he was state treasurer. The attorney general charged Small deposited state funds in an inactive bank near Kankakee and then lent the money to Chicago meatpackers, collecting about 6 percent interest. Small would then refill state coffers at about 3 percent interest, according to the charges. He never accounted for the difference.
Small testified at trial and was acquitted, allowing him to continue on as governor for another seven years.
Historians allege one of the reasons Small may have avoided prison was because the jury in his criminal case apparently was tampered with. Four of the jurors later ended up on the state payroll. Small also did not escape the scandal completely unscathed. He lost a subsequent civil case and was forced to pay the state treasury $650,000.
Following Small’s trial, statewide officeholders stayed out of the criminal courts for a few decades.
A huge scandal erupted in the 1950s surrounding Orville Hodge, the Republican state auditor who stole $1.5 million in state funds and served nearly 6 1/2 years in prison. The money financed a lavish lifestyle, including two planes, four cars and luxury homes in Chicago, Springfield and Ft. Lauderdale.
In 1965, another governor found himself in trouble.
Four years after he left the Executive Mansion, former Republican Gov. William Stratton was indicted on charges of violating income tax laws. The charges revolved around allegations Stratton had abused campaign contributions. Stratton was acquitted.
The man who defeated Stratton, however, Democrat Otto Kerner, became the first governor to go to prison.
Chief executive from 1961 through 1968, when he resigned to become a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, Kerner was convicted in 1973 of bribery, conspiracy, income tax evasion, mail fraud and perjury in connection to deals he made as governor for Illinois racetrack stocks.
U.S. Atty. James Thompson, who later became governor himself, alleged Kerner profited from a deal in which he purchased stocks at low prices from Marjorie Lindheimer Everett, the leading figure in Illinois racing at the time. Kerner then sold those same stocks back to Everett at higher prices. In exchange, Kerner made favorable decisions regarding racing matters.
The first significant legal problems to hit a governor occurred in 1841 when the federal government sued Gov. Joseph Duncan for trying to help a family member. Duncan signed a surety bond backing his brother-in-law, a receiver at a federal land office in Illinois, and was forced to pay back the U.S. government after his brother-in-law defaulted on collections.
Illinois’ 10th governor, Joel Matteson, after whom the south suburb is named, was almost charged criminally for defrauding the state out of roughly $250,000 in connection with redeeming old government scrips, which acted like state bonds. He avoided the charges, though, after a grand jury in Springfield voted twice to indict him but then eventually voted not to. It was later learned that Matteson attended the supposedly secret proceedings.
Before Ryan’s indictment Wednesday, the last ex-governor to be charged with a crime was Daniel Walker, governor from 1973 to 1977. Although he was charged for actions unrelated to his time in the office, the stain remains. In 1987, Walker chose not to stand trial on charges of bank fraud. Prosecutors alleged he had received $1.4 million in fraudulent loans.
“I have broken the law,” Walker said minutes after pleading guilty. “I have deep regrets and I offer no excuses.”
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Key investigations of Illinois officials
Legal troubles of Illinois governors
At least six other former governors have had legal troubles. The most recent four were criminally indicted; the last two served prison terms.
Joseph Duncan (D)
Term: 1834-38
Sued in 1841 after he signed a surety bond, which made him liable for his brother-in-law, who failed to collect money for the U.S. government.
Joel Matteson (D)
Term: 1853-57
Court ruled in 1863 that he owed state $253,000 for turning in blank or non-canceled scrips, which act like bonds, that were used to pay contractors.
Lennington Small (R)
Term: 1921-29
Indicted in 1921 on charges he ran a money-laundering scheme during his days as state treasurer (1905-07, 1917-19). He was later acquitted.
William Stratton (R)
Term: 1953-61
Acquitted in 1965 of income tax evasion charges stemming from the way he spent some of his campaign cash.
Otto Kerner (D)
Term: 1961-68
Convicted in 1973 of bribery, conspiracy, income tax evasion, mail fraud and perjury in connection with money he earned from race-track stock.
Daniel Walker (D)
Term: 1973-77
Convicted in 1987 of misusing funds from his failed First American Savings and Loan Association of Oak Brook.
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Some recent investigations of government corruption
Operation Greylord
Beginning in 1984, nearly 100 people, including 13 judges and 51 attorneys become convicted in an investigation into corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court.
Operation Incubator
Beginning in 1986, fourteen Chicago officials become charged with accepting bribes, including a deputy water commissioner, the Cook County clerk, a former mayoral aide and four aldermen.
Operation Gambat
In 1990 a Cook County Circuit Court judge, an Illinois State senator, a Chicago alderman and two others were charged in connection with corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court, the Illinois Senate and the Chicago City Council. Four people were convicted.
Operation
Silver Shovel In the mid-1990s, six Chicago aldermen and 12 other local officials were convicted of accepting bribes in one of the most extensive corruption probes in Chicago history.
Operation Haunted Hall
Former Ald. Anthony Laurino was indicted in a 1995 federal investigation probing ghost-payrolling at City Hall. At least five members of City Council committees were linked to the scandal; Laurino died before his case went to trial.
Images of Joseph Duncan and Joel Matteson courtesy of the Illinois State Historical Library
Sources: “Mostly Good and Competent Men,” by Robert Howard. Revised and updated by Peggy Boyer Long and Mike Lawrence; Tribune archives; FBI
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