A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant who is the brother of John “Quarters” Boyle was charged Thursday with a string of arsons in the city and suburbs, fires he allegedly admitted setting because he was distraught.
Lt. Jeffrey Boyle, 46, was charged with four arsons in Chicago and four in Park Ridge, where authorities said he has been linked to at least six other blazes in trash bins, garages and construction sites. Authorities in Chicago and several northwest suburbs said they are investigating numerous unsolved arsons with similar circumstances.
Boyle told police detectives he has suffered for years from the compulsion to set fires when he is under emotional stress, detectives said. The 25-year veteran of the department was arrested after fellow firefighters recognized him in a surveillance video shot outside a Northwest Side gyro restaurant where a trash bin fire caused damage early Monday, authorities said.
In the video, a man walked up the alley to the trash bins, used a cigarette lighter to set two bins on fire, then rolled one of the flaming bins five feet into the wall, said Sam Dakis, who owns Brandy’s restaurant at 6262 N. Harlem Ave.
Investigators said Thursday that Boyle admitted setting the fire because he was upset over losing money in a Super Bowl bet.
Boyle admitted setting another recent fire after trouble with a girlfriend, police said, and also because of the ongoing legal troubles of his brother.
Boyle is the older brother of John “Quarters” Boyle, 44, who was indicted last month in an alleged bribery scheme related to Chicago’s Hired Truck Program. John Boyle got his nickname after being convicted of stealing millions of dollars in coins when he worked for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.
John Boyle was hired by the city’s Department of Transportation, where he wielded influence well beyond his low-level rank as an engineer.
Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter said Thursday that Jeffrey Boyle had been placed on administrative leave. Police were holding him at the Jefferson Park District pending a bond hearing Friday.
Boyle joined the department in 1980 and was promoted to lieutenant in 2002 under the controversial “merit promotion” clause that critics say allows politics and favoritism to influence promotions.
When asked at a midday news conference whether the promotion was influenced by Boyle’s clout-heavy brother, Trotter said he was not in a position to know.
Trotter said that he did not know which senior fire officers sponsored the merit promotion, and that he was not commissioner when the promotion was given. Trotter said merit promotions benefit excellent firefighters who do not take written tests well, but that there is no place in the system for politically motivated promotions.
“Needless to say I am saddened this situation occurred,” Trotter said of Boyle’s arrest. “The charges are very serious, especially for a person sworn to protect citizens of Chicago from the dangers of fire.”
Boyle had been disciplined in the past, but only for minor offenses, including a written reprimand for insubordination, Trotter said. Nothing in his past suggested arson, Trotter said.
Police in Chicago and Park Ridge had discussed the similarities and proximity of several fires recently, but the case was not broken until Dakis reviewed security video at his restaurant and discovered the crime was captured on camera before it was engulfed in flames.
He turned the video over to authorities and firefighters recognized Boyle, officials said.
Boyle was arrested Wednesday and interviewed by Chicago and Park Ridge police over several hours at the Homan Square headquarters of the bomb and arson unit on the West Side. He gave a statement Thursday morning, authorities said.
Bomb and Arson Lt. Wayne Micek said Boyle did not give a specific motive for starting the fires, but said he “did stupid things at different times in his life. … He would drive around and wouldn’t feel right, and would want to start a fire.”
There have been many cases of firefighters becoming arsonists, including the well-known California case of fire investigator, John Orr, whom federal profilers called “the most prolific arsonist of the 20th Century.” His fires led to the deaths of four people and millions of dollars in damage.
Attorney James Tunick, who represents both Boyles, praised Jeffrey Boyle’s career with the Fire Department but declined to answer questions about the charges.
“Jeff Boyle has served the Chicago Fire Department … in an excellent capacity,” Tunick said. “He has worked on some of the bigger fires here in Chicago, [including] the recent 135 S. LaSalle [St.] fire. He’s received numerous unit performance awards.”
Last October, a federal magistrate judge released John Boyle from custody after Jeffrey agreed to act as his brother’s custodian.
With Jeffrey Boyle’s arrest, court officials quickly began the process of replacing him as custodian and suggested that Valerie Boyle, 75, the Boyles’ mother, assume that role. She had posted her home of 52 years as collateral to obtain son John’s release on $300,000 bond. He has been living with her since his release.
U.S. District Judge James Holderman scheduled a hearing for Feb. 22 to determine if Valerie Boyle wants to take on the added responsibility of acting as custodian to John.
So far police said they have attributed 14 fires to Boyle–four in Chicago and 10 in Park Ridge–although he was charged in only eight of the arsons Thursday.
Chicago police said the first fire in Chicago, in the 7200 block of West Palatine Avenue, was set after Sunday’s Super Bowl game. A detached garage behind a three-flat house was destroyed. Then early Monday, Boyle allegedly set the fire at Brandy’s, a half block away at Palatine and Harlem Avenue, authorities said.
Also on Monday, Boyle allegedly set fires at the Norwood Park Field House, 5801 N. Natoma Ave., near his mother’s home; and at Immaculate Conception School, a few blocks away at 7263 W. Talcott Ave., authorities said.
The Park Ridge fires attributed to Boyle all took place between May 1998 and March 2001, authorities said. He has given statements implicating himself in a May 27, 1998, garage fire in the 300 block of West Grant Place; a fire the same day at a condominium under construction in the 1000 block of Cedar Street; and in an Aug. 13, 1999, fire of a home remodeling site at the same Grant Place address, authorities said.
All the fires have happened near a roughly two-mile stretch along Northwest Highway, a stable, middle-class area where the Chicago streets feel as suburban as the adjacent Park Ridge and Niles neighborhoods.
The area around Norwood Park has a high concentration of police and other city workers. Most of the Park Ridge fires were set a few blocks from Boyle’s own Ozark Avenue home in Chicago.
Thursday afternoon, a neighbor of Boyle’s said their tidy street of bungalows and two-story frame houses was a mix of retirees and younger families. The man said that he did not know Boyle well, but that he seemed like a friendly, stable neighbor.
No one answered the door at Boyle’s large, two-story home. A green Ford Expedition registered to Boyle was parked in the driveway.
