THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972: Rock 'em Sock 'em Politicos, Round One
The Great 1972 Cook County State's Attorney Race
To access all website contents, click HERE.
Why do we run this separate item peeking into newspapers from 1972? Because 1972 is part of the ancient times when everybody read a paper. Everybody, everybody, everybody. Even kids. So Steve Bertolucci, the 10-year-old hero of the novel serialized at this Substack, read the paper tooâsometimes just to have something to do. These are some of the stories he read. Follow THIS CRAZY DAY on Twitter: @RoselandChi1972.
The 1972 race for Cook County Stateâs Attorney is a gloves-off, below-the-belt political fight in three rounds: the slating, the primary, and the general election.
Older Readers know who finally gets KOâd, but even faithful TCD1972 followers will take some punches they didnât see coming in this expanded look at the bout.
That said, if you donât feel like politics this week, try this Chicago History Rabbit Hole where we dove into the storied and delicious Ashkenaz Restaurant on West Morse. It was very filling. Now we return to our regularly scheduled politics.
The 1972 race for Cook County Stateâs Attorney is about a seismic political shift in Chicagoâs Black community, a crucial prelude to Harold Washingtonâs 1983 election as the cityâs first Black mayor.
That means itâs also about Mayor Daleyâs hold on power. Is he finally losing it? Where goeth Mayor Daley, so goeth Chicagoâs vaunted Democratic Machine. The Machine has been humming along since Mayor Anton Cermakâs election in 1931. Few people in 1972 truly recall Chicago before the Machine.
Mayor Daley has been in office since 1955. An entire generation of Chicagoans have never known any other mayor.
The 1960s were not easy for Mayor Daley.
But 1972 is truly Mayor Daleyâs terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.
First, Mayor Daley will face rebellions over his political decisions in this Stateâs Attorney race from three directions: the Black community; other major Democratic office holders and candidates; and unclear but significant numbers of his own political soldiers. These battles will rage all the way to Election Day in November 1972, but they actually begin in December 1971 with the Democratic Machineâs deliberations and announcement on which candidates it will âslate,â meaning âsupport,â for the coming March 1972 primary election. Specifically, who the Machine will slate for Cook County Stateâs Attorney.
And thatâs not all.
âĤand lead another Black community fight against him over general police brutality in Black neighborhoods.
Finally, Daley will battle the younger, liberal and diverse elements rising in the Democratic Party. Ald. Bill Singer and Rev. Jesse Jackson will lead a group that successfully challenges Daleyâs elected Machine delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July, taking the Machine seats at the Miami gathering. [See âMighty Daley has struck outâ for more.]
But it all starts with the race for Cook County Stateâs Attorney. Weâll assume everybody knows Mayor Daley. Now letâs meet the other biggest contenders in this fight campaign. Two more surprise pugilists will pop up later.
Contents
Itâs long! Here are sections to check out if you prefer to skip around. And to skip this and read on, click here.
In this cornerâĤ
Edward V. Hanrahan
Edward V. Hanrahan is 51 in 1972, either headed to jail or a second term as Cook County Stateâs Attorney. If the latter, many think his next stop could be the fifth floor of City Hall as Mayor Daleyâs successor.
The one sure thing about Hanrahan: He has a real temper on him.
OK, two sure things: He loathes Chicago Daily News star columnist Mike Royko, and the press in general. Weâll see Mike Royko tangle with Hanrahan several times in this campaign, including one Royko column that must have made Hanrahanâs head explode.
Hanrahan moved to Chicago as a child, living in a West Side apartment only a few blocks from the Black Panther apartment at 2337 W. Monroe which would be raided just before dawn in 1969 by police attached to his office, killing Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and leading to Hanrahanâs current indictment in our 1972 timeline.
Perhaps young Hanrahan walked by 2337 W. Monroe, naturally having no idea that future events on that spot would completely change the course of his life and Chicago politics.
After attending Our Lady of Sorrows and then St. Philip High School, Hanrahan got an undergrad degree in accounting from Notre Dame, served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in intelligence during World War II, and finally graduated from Harvard law school.
Mayor Daley backed Hanrahan for a stint as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District in 1964, and then for Cook County Stateâs Attorney in 1968. Mayor Daley is Hanrahanâs coach and cutman, the guy in Hanrahanâs corner.
Hanrahan and 13 co-defendants (one assistant Stateâs Attorney, 12 cops) are now under indictment by a special grand jury for conspiracy to obstruct the investigation of the 1969 Black Panther raid.
And in this cornerâĤ
Bernard Carey
Bernard Carey was a South Side kid who grew up at 9357 S. Throop in Brainerd, just north of Roseland, where his parents still live in our 1972 timeline. Careyâs father is principal of Jones Commercial High School, now Jones College Prep.
Could Bernard Carey become the first Republican Stateâs Attorney since Ben Adamowskiâs single 1956-1960 termâand before Adamowski, the first Republican since 1928?
Carey attended Mayor Daleyâs parochial high school alma mater, De La Salle Institute, then St. Maryâs University in Minnesota, and graduated from DePaulâs law school. Heâs 38 in 1972, living with his wife and children in south suburban South Holland.
A former FBI special agent, Carey currently works in special investigations for Illinois Attorney General William Scott. Heâs also been a Cook County undersheriff, and he organized the Illinois Bureau of Investigation in 1969. Two years ago, Carey ran for sheriff and nearly beat Democrat Richard Elrod. Carey lost by fewer than 10,000 votes. The vote fraud charges in that race will never die.
And in yet another cornerâĤ.
Fred Hampton and the 1969 Stateâs Attorney police raid
Though not on any ballot, Fred Hampton and the 1969 Stateâs Attorney police raid that killed him at age 21 are as much a part of the 1972 Stateâs Attorney election as the voting machines.
The story of Hampton, the Chicago Black Panthers and the deadly raid is a complicated one. Books have been written, such as âThe Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther,â by Jeffrey Haas, Hamptonâs attorney from the Peopleâs Law Office.
We donât have room for a book here. So Iâll give a thumbnail sketch of basic facts from some generally reliable sources, without trying to definitively pin down the most contentious questions.
Raised in Maywood, Fred Hampton started a high school chapter of the NAACP, then either participated in or led a series of protests and rallies demanding Maywood build an integrated public pool, depending on the source.
âAt one rally, when store windows were broken and a shed set on fire, protesters clashed with local police,â according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. âWho was responsible for the damage remains unclear, but Hampton and 17 others were charged with disorderly conduct and mob action.â
Another summary of that time period, from legendary Tribune reporter Ron Grossmanâs 2014 Flashback on the 1969 raid: âOver the next year, [Hampton] was associated with a school disturbance, the beating of an ice cream truck driver and a demonstration at Maywood Village Hall that ended with the mayor and other officials fleeing the building, tear gas being fired and plenty of glass broken.âÂ
Some sources, and certainly Hamptonâs lawyers, call the ice cream truck incident a âtrumped up charge,â as a Smithsonian Magazine look at the film âJudas and the Black Messiahâ put it.
Hampton left the nonviolent NAACP and joined the Black Panthers, founded in Oakland by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in late 1966. âBy December 1969, [Hampton] was the Illinois chief of the Black Panther Party, which preached violence as the means to African-Americans' liberation,â writes Grossman.
Per Smithsonian, the U.S. government began its first school breakfast program in 1966, the year the Panthers formed. Many believe the federal free breakfast program expanded because the Panthers started their own breakfast program in Black communities.
Again per Smithsonian, in addition to running a Chicago breakfast program, âHampton spearheaded the Rainbow Coalition, a boundary-crossing alliance between the Panthers, the Latino Young Lords, and the Young Patriots, a group of working-class white Southerners. He also brokered peace between rival Chicago gangs, encouraging them âto focus instead on the true enemyâthe government and the police,â whom the Panthers referred to as âpigs,â according to the Village Free Press.â
Meanwhile, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was obsessed with the Panthers. About six months before the Chicago raid, Hoover famously declared that the Black Panthers represented âthe greatest threat to internal security of the country.â
Hoover had created the FBIâs COINTELPRO program in 1956 to infiltrate radical groups, âranging from the Communist PartyâĤto the Ku Klux Klan,â per Smithsonian, later going after the Civil Rights movement and then the Panthers. The FBI, via COINTELPRO, âwas present at the scene of the Chicago Black Panthersâ foundation,â as Brittanica puts it, âin the person of informant William OâNeal, an African American teenager who, a few months earlier, had stolen a car, driven it under the influence of alcohol, and crashed it.â
âIn the months leading up to the raid,â writes Grossman, âBlack Panther members were involved in two fiery gunbattles with Chicago police. The causes of the incidents were disputed, but in a July shootout, five police officers and three Black Panther members were wounded at the party's headquarters a block north of Hampton's apartment. In November, two police officers were killed and six were wounded in a South Side fight with Black Panther members, who themselves suffered one death and one injury. It was war, and a spy [William OâNeal] had infiltrated the Panthers' ranks.â
FBI informant OâNeal became the Chicago Panthersâ security director. His FBI handlers asked him for a sketch of the Panther apartment at 2337 W. Monroe. OâNeal gave them a map showing the location of weapons and people, including Fred Hamptonâs bedroom. The FBI gave that information to Hanrahanâs office.
As a 2019 Tribune article by William Lee recounts, FBI agent and whistleblower M. Wesley Swearingen claimed in 1977 âfirst to government lawyers and later in a 1995 book that the FBI set up Chicago police to kill the Panthers, warning the officers theyâd be met with guns blazing.â
On December 4, 1969, just before 5 a.m., police assigned to Hanrahan's office raided the apartment. When it was over after nearly 100 shots fired, Fred Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark were dead. Four other Panthers were wounded.
What really happened? Was it an intentional planned assassination by the FBI and/or Chicago police; a raid gone horribly wrong due to FBI machinations and the recent violent history between CPD and the Panthers; or some hybrid?
Attorney Flint Taylor of the Peopleâs Law Office ârejected any suggestions that Chicago police were anything except âwilling partners,â in the slayings,â writes the Tribuneâs Lee. ââThey werenât duped into this raid,â Taylor said. âIt wasnât just a shooting ... it was a political assassination that came from Washington and the COINTEL program and J. Edgar Hoover.ââ
A few points we can say for sure:
Fred Hampton was shot while lying in bed with his common-law pregnant wife Deborah Johnson, later known as Akua Njeri.
Njeri said she tried and failed to wake Hampton when the raid started. She also said that after police removed her from the bedroom, she heard two shots fired, and a policeman say, âHeâs good and dead now.â
FBI informant William OâNeal denied drugging Hampton. Per Encyclopedia Brittanica, âtwo initial toxicology tests found no barbiturates in his system. However, an independent autopsy subsequently revealed a dangerous amount of barbiturates in his bloodstream.â The Smithsonian article says Hampton was âallegedlyâ drugged. Attorney Jeffrey Haas believed Hampton was definitely drugged, and that OâNeal had done it.
The initial federal grand jury investigation determined that out of 76 gun shells, only one had been fired by the Panthersâthough that finding was disputed during the 1972 trial, and other accounts will speak of closer to 100 shots and shells.
The federal grand jury report blasted every level of the raidâs planning and execution; the surviving Black Panthers for not cooperating with the investigations; and the initial press coverage. The Chicago Journalism Review, a fantastic but short-lived monthly publication begun by local reporters disgusted with coverage of Chicagoâs 1968 Democratic National Convention, devoted an entire issue to analyzing the Panther raid coverage, with an astonishing cover by Pulitzer-prize winning Sun-Times editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin:
There were four separate official investigations of the raid before Hanrahan and his 13 co-defendants were finally indicted by the Cook County grand jury led by special prosecutor Barnabas Sears. The indictments came down in June 1971, and then all over again in August 1971. Donât even ask, itâs complicated.
Hanrahan et al were indicted not for the raid itself, but for conspiracy to obstruct the investigation of the raid.
In December 1971, as our story here begins, Hanrahan has refused to step down from his office as Stateâs Attorney, or take himself out of the running for re-election, as he seeks to have the indictments thrown out of court. He insists the indictments are illegitimate, because
1) Nobody was indicted for the raid itself, therefore Hanrahan claims there was no crime; and
2) How can you conspire to obstruct the investigation into something that wasnât a crime?
You can read more about the 1969 raid and its aftermath at the Peopleâs Law Office website from the POV of the attorneys who represented the Panthers.
The raid survivors and the Hampton and Clark families won a $1.8 million civil settlement, a case that took 13 years. As for William OâNeal, Grossman writes that he âmoved around the country under assumed names, fearing reprisals for his role in Hampton's death, though he denied having guilty feelings. In 1990âĤ O'Neal ran onto the Eisenhower Expressway and was fatally stuck by a car. The medical examiner ruled it a suicide.âÂ
Iâll throw in a smattering of non-political treats as we go along, such as Chicago Todayâs âSmilie.â In 1971, the Smilie explanation below runs daily in Today, usually next to the index at the bottom of page 2. Smilie pops up randomly elsewhere in the paper featuring incredibly corny reasons for his smile, sent in by readers. Smilieâs appearances gradually fade away as 1972 progresses, but heâs going strong in December 1971.
Who gets to fight for the Machine?
Itâs the one burning question on all political lips. Who will run in the 1972 primary with the official backing of the Cook County Democratic Party?
The Cook County Democratic Party, btw, is run by Mayor Daley and its Central Committee, made up of the 80 Democratic committeeman, one from each of Chicagoâs wards and each of the countyâs townships.
As we open, the Central Committeeâs slating group is about to begin meeting to choose candidates at their headquarters in the Sherman House hotel. These are their âslate-making sessions,â in which everyone who wants the Machineâs backing in the 1972 primary appears before the committee and auditions.
Chicago Today
by Mark Clark
Downstate leaders met in Springfield on December 1 for statewide candidates to audition there, âsaving their final decisions for the all important nod from Mayor Daleyâ at the Sherman House, as reported by Chicago Today.
The big speculation in Springfield is whether Daley has decided to push Lt. Gov. Paul Simon toward a promotion to governor. But at the Sherman House, the audition everybodyâs waiting for is Ed Hanrahan.
As the location of Mayor Daleyâs Democratic headquarters alone, the Sherman House looms large in 20th century Chicago history. Above, you see Sherman House from the northeast corner of Randolph and Clark, right across the street from City Hall, which is out of the frame on the lefthand side. Sherman House will close just a year after these events, in 1973.
By 1980, the entire block will be demolished to make way for Helmut Jahnâs State of Illinois Buildingâlater renamed the James R. Thompson Center, after the man who is U.S. Attorney for the Northern District in 1972. Thompson will become governor of Illinois in 1977. Below, the same northeast corner of Randolph and Clark in 2021 via Google Streetview.
Chicago Daily News
by Henry Hanson
The Cook County Republican Party has reportedly promised Bernard Carey at least $100,000 for his campaignâthatâs almost $7 million in 2022 moneyâand Carey has officially agreed to run.
âHe promptly denounced Democratic incumbent Edward V. Hanrahan,â writes the Daily Newsâ Henry Hanson. Carey declared that if he is elected, âblaming the press, judges and juries will no longer serve as a substitute for law enforcement.â
Chicago Daily News
by Charles Nicodemus
âThe failure of leading Democrats to defend Stateâs Atty. Edward Hanrahan against a scathing attack before party slatemakers has sparked fresh speculation that Hanrahan may not be slated for re-election,â writes Charles Nicodemus, Daily News political editor.
âThe blistering criticism was presented to the Democratic Central committeeâs slating group by the chairman of the Independent Voters of Illinois, Michael Shakman, who urged that Hanrahan be dumped.â
Nicodemus describes Shakman as the âdiminutiveâ and âsoft-spokenâ guy âwho has successfully sued in Federal Court here to force the reformâand eventual abolitionâof the patronage system, the foundation of Daleyâs organization.â Meaning the Machine.
Surprise: The liberal do-gooder IVI backed Hanrahan for his first run in 1968! Nicodemus reports that IVI is becoming âincreasingly influential.â
In addition, âan increasing number of Democratic ward and township committeemen are privately warning Daley that the party will risk losing the all-important stateâs attorney post if Hanrahan is reslated.â Not just Black city committeemenâsome white suburban ones too.
Shakmanâs attack âupon an incumbent officeholder, to the âeldersâ of the party assembled as slatemakers, is without precedent in local Democratic affairs,â writes Nicodemus. âEqually surprising was the refusal of any of the prestigiousâand usually combativeâDemocratic leaders, including Mayor Richard J. Daley, to rise to Hanrahanâs defense or to offer even one word in opposition to Shakmanâs criticisms.â
Chicago Today
Chicago Daily News: Lu Palmer
In his weekly op-ed column, Daily News reporter/columnist Lu Palmer quickly reviews the facts of the Stateâs Attorney police raid on âan apartment in Chicagoâs West Side ghettoâ exactly two years earlier, and the subsequent grand jury investigation and indictment of Hanrahan and 13 codefendants.
âTwo men have emerged as the central figures in the drama that has unfolded since the raidâHampton and Stateâs atty. Edward V. Hanrahan,â writes Palmer. âThe differences in these two men illuminate the depths to which the American system has sunk.â
âĤ. âThe major difference between Hampton and Hanrahan is that Chairman Fred is dead. Hanrahan is not only alive but is looking forward to being re-elected.
âLarge segments of the black community in Chicago believe fervently that Hampton and Clark were deliberately killed by the raiding party.â
Hampton started out with the NAACP, notes Palmer. âHampton did not become a revolutionary overnightâĤ.But Hampton was not only young and brilliant, he was also restless and impatient like so many black youths. And so he did, as he once told me, âwhat I had to do.â He became a Black Panther.â
âShortly before he was killed, he spoke at a memorial for John and Michael Soto, two black brothers killed by police in separate incidents. âI often wonder what I would be, if I had been born free,â he said at the time.
âOne thing Chairman Fredâand many other blacks like himâwould be if they had been born free is alive.â
In contrast, Palmer writes, Hanrahan expects to run for re-election, and Palmer says most people donât believe Daley will dump him.
Hanrahan contends his indictment for allegedly conspiring to obstruct the investigation of the raid should be thrown out since no one was charged with a crime.
âAnd so [Hanrahan] asks: âConspiracy to obstruct the prosecution of what?â
Hanrahan could get the answer from the Black community, Palmer concludes:
âItâs a one word answer and it tells a world.
âThe word is murder.â
Paul Simon and his slightly soiled bow tie
We could skip this but itâs too fun.
Illinois Democratic party leaders announce the statewide slated primary candidates on Monday, December 6, after the hopefuls have also appeared before Mayor Daleyâs committee, and Mayor Daley has made up his mind. Mayor Daley gave the nod to Lt. Gov. Paul Simon to run for governor.
Simon is famously independent and as clean-cut as his bow tie. Older Readers will remember Paul Simon as their (famously) liberal and ethical U.S. Senator, 1985-1997. As Chicago Today puts it today: âHe championed ethics legislation, each year publishing his income, and prodded the legislature to police itself closely, efforts which won him the Independent Voters of Illinois Best Legislator award seven times and some of his fellow legislatorsâ contempt.â
Tomorrow, Mike Royko will describe Simonâs audition at the secret slatemaking sessions. When Paul Simon finished his pitch to Mayor Daley and the slatemakers, only one person spokeâMayor Daleyâs âtop Pole,â as Mike puts it, County Commissioner and 26th Ward Committeeman Matt Bieszczat, who started his political career working on a city garbage truck.
âDaley trusts him because in all of Bieszczatâs years, he never once opened his mouth about a friend,â writes Mike. âHe wouldnât even open his mouth about an enemy.
âWhich is why he still had doubts about the boyish, bow-tied Paul Simon, who wanted Bieszczatâs backing for governor.â
With Simon standing there in front of the room, Bieszczat got up and read detailed passages from a 1965 article in Harperâs by then-State Senator Paul Simon, âas told to Alfred Balk,â which per Mike âtold of payoffs by lobbyists, profiteering in racetrack stock, the political muscle of the crime syndicate, and other juicy subjects.â
âWhen [Bieszczat] finished reading, he looked at Simon and asked:
ââDid you say that?â
âSimon didnât hesitate.
ââI was misquoted,â he said.
âBieszczat nodded. That settled the matter. To be misquoted means you didn't say it. If you didnât say it, you couldnât mean it. You donât believe it.â
Later, Mike called Alfred Balk to make sure Paul Simon had read the Harperâs article before it was printed with his byline.
âIâm sure of it,â Balk told Mike.
Hanrahanâs Audition
But Paul Simon is not the main Chicago event.
At Sherman House, they save the most important for last: Hanrahan auditions on Monday, December 6. As the committee debates Hanrahan into the afternoon on Tuesday, the Daily News plays it safe in its December 7 headline. Chicago Today calls it in the headline but waffles in the reporting.
by Charles Nicodemus
âLavish praise from 17 top Democrats in speeches during the partyâs secret slating talks made clear Tuesday that Mayor Richard J. Daley plans to tap Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan to run for a second term.
âThe plaudits for the controversial prosecutor came after the fiery Hanrahan spent 20 minutes before the slatemakers in the Sherman House Monday, seeking their endorsement.
âAfter Hanrahan departed to a standing ovation, U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinski, the 41st Ward committeeman slated as the partyâs candidate for the U.S. Senate, told the Cook County Central Committeeâs slating subcommittee:
ââI would be proud to be on the ticket with Ed Hanrahan. I believe heâd be an asset to the ticket.â
Then:
âBlack leaders from the West Side area, where two Black Panther Party officers were killed in a 1969 raid by Hanrahanâs police, told the slatemakers that âthe people in our area are behind Ed Hanrahan.â
âAld. Claude B. Holman (4th), the City Councilâs most bombastic black orator, told the group:
ââDonât be concerned about the attitudes of those black militants. They donât represent the community, anyway. Theyâd support any Republican opponent of Ed Hanrahanâs, no matter what. So just forget about them.
ââBlacks want law and order, as much as any group.
ââAnd they are confident Ed Hanrahan believes in law and order.ââ
FWIW, the 4th Ward is not on the West Side, then or now. It has been a firmly South Side ward since at least 1857.
Rev. Jesse Jackson came to the Sherman House with a different message for Mayor Daley and reporters.
Jesse Jackson: Mini-Profile
Jesse Jackson is easily the highest-profile civil rights leader in 1972 Chicago. Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson started participating in civil rights actions during college at North Carolina A&T, a HBCU in Greensboro. He came to Chicago in 1964 as a student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, but left for full-time civil rights work a few classes shy of his degree.
Jackson began working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after participating in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. King chose Jackson to found the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, the âeconomic branchâ of Kingâs Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).
In our timeline here, Jackson has just been suspended with pay for 60 days from his Breadbasket position by Kingâs successor, SCLC chairman Ralph Abernathy. Abernathy said Jackson had improperly set up two nonprofit corporations to run a 1971 Black Business Expo in Chicago without notifying the SCLC. Everybody knows itâs really a power struggle between low-key, fading Abernathy and dynamic comer Jackson. Jackson will quit Breadbasket within days and establish Operation PUSH. So he has a lot going on without adding on Hanrahan.
Still, on Tuesday morning, December 7, before the Central Committeeâs slating group met to make its final choices, Jackson met privately with Mayor Daley in his inner office for a reported 20 minutes.
Back to Charles Nicodemus:
âAfter his huddle with Daley, Mr. Jackson told reporters he told the mayor that if Hanrahan was reslated, he would devote his full time to heading a citizens committee that would work to defeat Hanrahan.
âMr. Jackson said he also told Daley that Hanrahan would be âa millstone around the Democratic Partyâs neckâ and would âprovide a bridge into the black community that Republicans could run across.ââ
âMr. Jackson, in explaining what he said was opposition to Hanrahan among blacks, said, âHanrahan has only been indicted for obstructing justice, but what he obstructed was another manâs lifeâand I call that murder.ââ
by Joel Weisman
Political Editor
âClaiming an âunbeatable defenseâ to charges stemming from the Black Panther raid, embattled Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan has apparently convinced Democratic slatemakers to permit him to run for a second turn,â writes Todayâs Joel Weisman.
âHis emotional speechâwhich dwelled on the theme of loyaltyâwas applauded by slatemakers, who were virtually certain to recommend his candidacy later today.
ââYour endorsement is worth more than that of all the newspapers combined,â Hanrahan told slatemakers, according to one committeeman present at the meeting. âI prize it highly.ââ
âĤ.âHe explained his âlegal problemsâ arose because of his loyalty to his assistants and policemen who carried out âa very dangerous missionâwhich most of you in this room would probably not be willing to undertake.ââ
Weissman includes a long list of all the committeemen who spoke for Hanrahan.
âThe only committeeman to dissent was Lynn Williams of New Trier Township. He suggested Hanrahan step aside until after the charges against him had been proven or dropped.â
Lynn Williams: Mini-Profile
Does that shock you? Elsewhere in all the Hanrahan coverage, the spoken or implied assumption is that all suburbanites are both white and favor any shooting done in the general direction of Black Panthers. You might think that goes double in wealthy North Shore suburbs.
But Lynn Williams is no ordinary suburban committeeman.
Lynn Williams was surely the only member of Mayor Daleyâs Central Committee who competed in the Mackinac yacht raceâ28 in all, including the year before he died at 76. Williams didnât just race the Mackinac. He won four times, including the 1970 race in the headline above, when actually 81 out of 165 boats were forced out by the wicked weather.
Per a later account of that 1970 race, âMany [boats] were forced ashore with tattered sails and broken spars, swamped and taking waterâĤThe winds had reached 70 miles an hour, and rollers were breaking 20 feet above the decksâ. Williams beat Ted Turner, rich and famous ocean yachtsman who would go on to found CNN, by nearly an hour.
Lynn Williams was a wealthy Winnetka businessman who went to Harvard, then Yale Law School, and also did graduate work at MIT per his 1985 Tribune obituaryâwhich explains how he was both an attorney working for various engineering firms, and also held many patents in his own name.
From Kenan Heiseâs Trib obituary: âIn 1959, when he was president of Anocut Engineering Co., he developed a process for machining the high-strength metals used in missiles and jet engines. The Soviets had displayed a highly touted procedure earlier. Anocut`s concept worked by reversing the electroplating process and was 60 times faster than the Soviets. He also invented a kind of bicycle brake.â
Williams ran as an independent Democrat for New Trierâs Democratic committeeman in 1966, beat Mayor Daleyâs guy, and stuck around for just over ten years making trouble.
In 1968, he supported Sen. Eugene McCarthy for his anti-Vietnam War stance, but didnât win election as a McCarthy delegate to the 1968 Democratic election. Soon after, Mayor Daley neglected to invite Williams to two Democratic Central Committee meetings in a row, reported Tribune political editor George Tagge, but Williams got wind of the second one and showed up anyway.
Hereâs Mike Roykoâs description of that meeting in âBossâ:
âOnly once in recent years has anybody stood up and talked back, and he was one of the suburban committeemen, generally referred to around party headquarters as âa bunch of meatheads.â
âThe suburban businessman, Lynn Williams, a wealthy manufacturer and probably the most liberal member of the Central Committee, had been angered by Daleyâs attacks on liberals after the 1968 Democratic Convention. Daley had been making speeches lambasting pseudo-liberals, liberal-intellectuals, suburban liberals, suburban liberal-intellectuals, and pseudo-liberal-intellectual suburbanites. He had been shouting: âWho in the hell do those people think they are? Who are they to tell us how to run our party?â
âWilliamsâĤstood up, finally, at a Central Committee meeting and delivered a scathing rebuttal to Daley, saying that without liberal participation the party would be nothing but a skeleton, its only goal, power.
âAs he talked, the committeemenâs heads swiveled as if they were watching a tennis game, wonder and fear on their faces. They had never heard such talk, and wondered what Chairman Daley would do. Strike him with lightning. Throw the bum out?
âWhen Williams finished, Daley, in a surprisingly soft voice, said, âIâve always been a liberal myself.â
âOther committeemen joined in his defense, recalling countless liberal acts by Daley. One man shouted at Williams, âPerhaps you didnât know, but this happens to be a very liberal outfit.â
âThe shock of the committeemen at the sound of somebody criticizing Daley didnât surprise Williams. He has said: âMost of them are mediocrities at best, and not every intelligent. The more successful demonstrate cunning. Most are in need of slaveryâtheir ownâand they want to follow a strong leader.ââ
A few weeks after that meeting memorialized in âBoss,â Lynn Williams held a press conference and called the Machineâs patronage system âimmoral, unethical and of doubtful effectiveness.â âWilliams urged âfree Democratsâ to break party discipline and support Republican Gov.-elect Richard B. Ogilvieâs plans to push anti-patronage legislation,â wrote Charles Nicodemus in the Daily News.
In 1969, when about 300 New Trier seniors left school for an anti-war march, they started âfrom Indian Hill Park after hearing an exhortation against the war by Lynn Williams, New Trier Twp. Democratic committeeman,â per the Daily News.
A year later, Williams helped lead an attempt to wrest control of the Cook County Democratic Committee from Mayor Daley. âIf the Democratic Party is to survive in Cook County, weâve got to throw Dick Daley out of the suburbs,â Williams told the Daily News.
It didnât work, but Williams never gave up, as we see from his Hanrahan vote at the 1971 slating session.
Chicago Today
by Joel Weisman
âRichard M. Daley, 29, Mayor Daleyâs eldest son, will follow in his fatherâs footsteps by running for the Illinois Senate next year, CHICAGO TODAY has learned.
âYoung Daley was all but formally slated yesterday in a meeting of party leaders from the South Sideâs 23d state Senate District, which includes the mayorâs Brideport home.
âThe informal slating meeting was held in the mayorâs Sherman House office. Afterward, a smiling young Daley emerged and accepted congratulations from dozens of ward and township committeemen.
ââWork hard and youâll win,â said a South Side committeeman.
ââYes, heâll have to work very hard,â quipped Richardâs brother, Michael, who is his partner in the law firm Daley, Reilly and Daley, 33 N. La Salle St.â
Fitz at Sherman House
Tom Fitzpatrick, the Sun-Timesâ top news columnist in 1972, spent Monday at Sherman House.
Fitzâs column is often terrific, but even Older Readers may not remember him. Like Jack Mabley, star columnist at Chicago Today in our timeline here, Fitz was eclipsed by the supernova that was Mike Royko at the Daily News.
Film maker Mike Gray has produced âThe Murder of Fred Hampton,â focused on the last year of Hamptonâs life and the 1969 Stateâs Attorney police raid that killed him and fellow Black Panther Mark Clark.
âIt is a film that many people talk about but few have seen because no major U.S. distributor has the courage to touch it,â writes Fitz.
Gray rented a suite at the Sherman House hotel, site of Mayor Daleyâs Democratic Central Committee headquarters and its slate-making sessions for the 1972 primary.
Note: You can watch âThe Murder of Fred Hamptonâ on Vimeo or YouTube. Hereâs a trailer from YouTube, which includes a clip of Ed Hanrahan speaking at a press conference:
Back to Fitz:
âGray believes with all his heart that Hanrahan should not be reslated,â writes Fitz. âThis is what Gray did. He rented a room in the Sherman HouseâĤand arranged to hold continuous screenings of the movie for all 50 slatemakers and anyone else who wanted to see it.â
Gray sent telegrams to Mayor Daley and Hanrahan, and printed up invitations for all 50 committee members. Gray stood outside the Emerald Room, where the committee would meet, to hand out the invites as participants arrived. One minute after Gray handed out the first invite, the Sherman House security chief showed up.
The security chief told Gray he could stand in the first floor lobby, or the floor on which heâd rented a suite. But he could not stand around in front of the Emerald Room. So Gray moved to the lobby, where he intercepted many committee members.
âIt was fascinating to watch the reactions of the slatemakers as they accepted the envelopes,â writes Fitz. âWithout exception, they appeared anxious to flee the scene as far away from the man with the envelopes as possible.â
âGray waited until 5 p.m. No slatemaker appeared to take advantage of the opportunity to see âThe Murder of Fred Hampton.â
âGray packed his equipment and headed for home.
âOn the elevator he met County Board President George W. Dunne, and this is what happened next, as Gray recalled it:
âDunne was fascinated by the movie equipment.
ââWhat have you been doing?â he said.
ââWell,â Gray answered, âas a matter of fact weâve been showing a film called âThe Murder of Fred Hampton.â I know youâre a busy man, Mr. Dunne, but Iâd certainly like the opportunity to show it to you at any time and any place, at your convenience.â
ââThatâs very interesting,â Dunne said.
ââWell,â Gray said, âwhen would be a convenient time and place for you?â
âDunne shook his head from side to side.
ââNo,â Dunne said, âI guess I really donât want to see it. This thingâĤitâs been such a shame the whole thing ever happened.â
âMike Gray got out of the elevator then and the hollow feeling of defeat that had been sitting in his stomach lifted. As he walked through the lobby, he realized he really hadnât lost after all.â
Chicago Today: âAll in the Familyâ
âCould you find out what the Orthodox Jewish TV repairman said in Yiddish to Archie Bunker [âAll in the Familyâ] on CBS last Saturday? Archie had been badgering the fellow becauseâfor religious reasonsâhe had to get home before sundown and wouldnât be able to immediately repair the Bunkersâ TV set.â
Younger Readers: In 1971, people didnât just throw out their malfunctioning appliances. They got them fixed and kept them going for a good 10, 20, even 30 years. Television repairmen were in big demand. You could usually spot a TV repair van in your neighborhood any day of the week.
The letter continues:
âArchie taunted him by asking, âAinât it also against your religion to turn a business deal down?â The young guy retorted in Yiddish and then refused to tell Archie what it meant. âYou can be certain, tho, that I got even.â Weâre dying to know what he said. â J. ORISâ
âACTION LINE: We hope Archie isnât reading this, because we agree that he doesnât deserve the satisfaction of knowing. He was got with a good one, tho: âYou should own a mansion with a 1,000 rooms and you should have heartburn in every room.â
Actually, the exchange goes like this:
TV repairman, Mr. Levy: âIâm sorry, I just canât go against my religion.â
Archie: âHey, turning down businessâTHATâS against your religion.â
Mayor Daley announces the official slate Tuesday afternoon in time for the Daily News Red Streak edition.
But the full story appears everywhere Wednesday.
Daily News, front page:
Some top Democrats refuse to endorse Hanrahanâs slating.
From the Daily News:
âThe decision of the Democratic organization to endorse a man under criminal indictment is a mistake,â said [U.S. Rep. Abner] Mikva. âAs the countyâs chief law enforcement official, Mr. Hanrahan shouldâve stepped aside when he was indictedâĤ.Until the charges are resolved, he ought not to be acting as Stateâs Attorney, let alone considered for re-election.â
âSen. Adlai E. Stevenson III (D-Ill), in a statement issued through a representative Tuesday, said he âcould not support for any office a man under indictment.ââĤ. Stevenson, in announcing that he would not support HanrahanâĤadded:
ââAs a loyal Democrat, I will not support Mr. Hanrahanâs Republican opponent.ââ
Then thereâs Lt. Gov. Paul Simon, now slated by Mayor Daley to run for governor and already in 1971 as famously clean-cut as his bow ties. According to the Sun-Times, Simon âsidestepped judging Hanrahanâs fitness for the slate. He said in a prepared statement:
ââI am neither the judge nor the jury. I hope the courts can resolve the matter as rapidly as possibleâĤ.I would do a disservice to justice were I to comment before the matter is adjudicated.ââ
So Simon didnât endorse Hanrahan, but he also didnât specifically say he wasnât endorsing Hanrahan. That is going to help cost Simon the endorsement of the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI) in a couple of weeks, per IVI state chairman Michael Shakman, the man who put the âShakmanâ in âShakman decree.â The IVI will back independent Democrat Dan Walker instead.
Ald. Tom Keane, considered by many the second most powerful politician in Chicago as chairman of the City Councilâs Finance Committee, tells the Sun-Times that the slating subcommitteeâs vote for Hanrahan was unanimous.
Perhaps he is suppressing the traumatic memory of Lynn Williamsâ ânoâ vote.
Ald. Vito Marzullo, whose name is often preceded in news accounts with the adjective âcolorful,â said he was âfor Hanrahan 1,000 per cent.â
Asked for further comment, Marzullo answered: âIsnât 1,000 percent enough?â
Chicago Tribune
by Robert Nolte
âStateâs Atty. Edward Hanrahan was beaming over his reslating yesterday until he learned that his candidacy would not be supported by Sen. Stevenson [D., Ill.]
âThe smile fell from Hanrahanâs face when reporters shouted the news.â
ââI canât believe that a fair minded Democrat would not support the Democratic ticket,â said HanrahanâĤ.While reporters pressed around him, Hanrahan explained he would run a campaign based on his âpast record and performance.â
âWhen asked for a second time about Stevensonâs statement, Hanrahanâs face tightened and his voice grew loud:
ââI would like to remind him [Stevenson] that an indictment is not a guilty verdict,â he said. âIt is not a conviction.ââ
Mike Royko at Sherman House
Yesterday we heard the news report version of Jesse Jackson meeting with the real Mayor Daley. Today we hear Mikeâs version.
News version: Jesse Jackson met Daley in his private office at Democratic Central Committee headquarters in the Sherman House. Jackson told reporters later that he informed Daley heâd lead a movement to defeat Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahan if the party slated him for re-election.
Mike version:
âJerry Huppert, a North Side ward boss, glanced across the room at Jesse Jackson.
âBoth men were in the outer office of Democratic Headquarters, killing time until Mayor Richard J. Daley made up the slatemakersâ minds.
âJackson, at the moment, was telling a TV camera how he was going to lead a black political revolt if Edward Hanrahan were allowed to run again.
âHuppert listened for a moment, then he said: âWhy donât you go over there and ask Jackson how many write-in votes he got for mayor.ââ
Note: Jesse Jackson had tried and failed to get on the ballot to run against Mayor Daley in the previous mayoral election, so he was a write-in candidate instead.
ââIâll save you the trouble. He got 14. Heâs a heckuva power, ainât he?â
âThat was just about all Jackson got,â Mike agrees. âBut Huppert didnât mention that Jackson couldnât get on the regular ballot because Illinois election laws are as open to nonparty members as Russiaâs are.â
Mike tells us Jackson âarrived in the morning, asked to see Daley, and had been ushered right in. No other civil rights leader bothered to try.â
Mike doesnât hesitate to criticize Jackson over other issues, so you know it impressed him that Jackson came over personally to have it out with Mayor Daley. Mike says Daley listened politely to Jacksonâs threat to lead a Black voter revolt if the party slated Hanrahan.
Daley âis always polite and attentive to men like Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King. To their face at least,â writes Mike. He tells us how, while Daley later met in his office with the slating subcommittee to finish choosing candidates, Jackson and various others (including Mike) milled around waiting outside the door.
Jackson spent the long day ârepeating his threat to the TV cameras and to the Machineâs black ward bosses as they arrived.â
But Mike realizes as he hears various white politicians talk to each other that no one else knows why Jackson is there.
âJacksonâs threat made so little impact on Daley, in fact, that Daley hadnât even bothered to tell any of the party leaders about itâĤHe didnât mention it once.â
Finally the door to Daleyâs office opened âand the party elders tripped out, in single file,â writes Mike. âThey are the tiniest, funniest looking men you have ever seenâĤ.After the first seven, I always expect to see Snow White.â
Last, Daley emerged and read the list of slated candidates as Jesse Jackson âstood on the outer fringe of the crowd of newsmen.â Daley announced Hanrahanâs slating.
Mike agrees with Jackson that itâs a slap in the face of Black voters. But, he says, from a political POV, Daley slated Hanrahan simply because he believes Hanrahan can win.
âDaleyâs Negro aldermen and legislators went along with the choice, although they whined to Jackson in private that they didnât like it,â writes Mike. âRemember, Hanrahanâs legal troubles came because his men killed a couple of Black Panthers and shot up several others. Since when is killing black militants politically unpopular in white Cook County?â
Mike says weâll see a different Hanrahan as long as heâs under indictment. âNo more wild rages, temper tantrums or making of vomiting noises at columnists he dislikes.â
I think Mike is referring to himself there.
âNo more finding people guilty in the press...As Hanrahan saidâĤabout his own indictment, âa person is innocent until proven guilty.ââ
âIâll buy that,â Mike concludes. âAnd Iâm still wondering what Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were guilty of. It must have been very serious for them to be sentenced to such a quick death.â
Donât miss Mike Royko 50 Years Ago Today
Dorothy Storck at Sherman House
Chicago Today
Chicago Todayâs Dorothy Storck normally has just a byline, but every once in a while they put a columnist header over her articlesâand itâs a shame she wasnât a daily columnist. This is Storckâs wonderful account of the outer room of Mayor Daleyâs Sherman House headquarters on the fateful day when Ed Hanrahan was slated for re-election, and itâs every bit as good as Fitz or Royko.
If only Dorothy Storck had turned up as a daily columnist in the Trib after Today folded in 1974!
Sadly no. She left for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she worked as a reporter and columnist for 11 years. The Tribune regularly ran Storckâs Inquirer columns in the mid â80s in Tempo. She next moved to London and reported for two years from across the pond before returning to Chicago in 1991, freelancing travel articles.
Iâll take a closer look at Dorothy Storck as soon as possible. Quickly: Born into a military family in 1927, she graduated from Barnard and served in the Air Force for 14 years, advancing to the rank of major, before joining the Chicagoâs American staff in 1965. After Storckâs return to Chicago in â91, she became engaged to UIC political science professor and former [fiery independent] Ald. Dick Simpson. She died in 2015.
Storckâs sharp eye for detail and character is always striking. Hereâs a fantastic Storck interview with Ald. Vito Marzullo after the 1972 Democratic Convention. And hereâs her vivid, moving description of the scene at Jackson Park Hospital as surgeons tried to save the life of a young police officer shot by robbers. Plus, a little later in this post, hereâs Storckâs account of Joanne Alterâs slating as the first ever county-wide Democratic female candidate.
Now, back to Sherman House:
âJesse Jackson was slumped in a chair at the back of the room, leaning a little against the mimeograph machine.â
Younger Readers: A mimeograph machine is an ancient form of a Xerox machine. Usually mimeographs were in a purplish ink, for some reason, and no one familiar with mimeographs will forget their distinct scent, especially when they were still fresh and a little wet. It wasnât an attractive smell, and yet, you couldnât help sniffing to take it in. I can think of absolutely nothing to compare it with.
âBehind a door at the far side of the place the Democratic slatemakers were nominating Edward Hanrahan for reelection as Cook County stateâs attorney.
âJackson had been in to see the mayor two hours earlier to protest the nomination.
âHe had talked with Congressman Ralph Metcalfe, taking him behind the coffee machine to find a little privacy in the crowded anteroom.
âMetcalfe, a former Olympic champion runner, had shaken his distinguished gray head with concern and furrowed his distinguished face. Then he had gone back thru the slatemakersâ door to vote for Edward Hanrahan.â
Next, Ald. Claude Holman exits the inner office briefly, and Jackson gets him behind the coffee machine too.
Holman âwas speaking very softly and looking very apologetic, the way you look when you tell someone youâre really sorry to hear about his liver condition.
âAfter talking with Jackson, Holman went to the phone and made two calls, shielding his mouth with a green blotter so that nobody who might be watching could see his lips move.
âThen he went back thru the slatemakersâ door and voted for Edward Hanrahan.â
Itâs obvious that Hanrahan is about to slated. Jackson tells the crowd of reporters and TV cameras that it will mean a split in the party.
âThen he took off his long leather coat, laid it carefully by the mimeograph machine and made one phone call after another for two hours from the Sherman House Democratic Committee headquarters.â
Remember Younger Readers, there are no cell phones.
Storck moves her attention to nearby U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinski, already slated to run against U.S. Sen. Charles Percy. Pucinski âwas standing a little to Jacksonâs left, joking with newsmen about the days when he, Roman Pucinski, was a newspaper reporter.
âIt is a little hard to concentrate on Pucinskiâs stories at the best of times. You keep looking at his wavy silver hair and wondering if it shines in the dark.â
âJackson looked over at Pucinski steadily for about a minute and then looked away.â
Storck has already evoked the scene masterfully by bringing in the office machines. Now she gives us a hilarious image:
âAll over the room little round men with glasses, pink jowls and rumpled suits were talking to each otherâĤ.As soon as one of them went away, two more turned up as if some marvelous amoebic splitting were taking place in the corridor outside.â
Somebody asks Jesse Jackson why heâs all by himselfâIâm assuming itâs Storck, avoiding using the first person:
âWhere are all the others, someone wondered? The ones you see at the welfare dinners and the good citizenship meetings in Woodlawn and Lawndale, who talk about making a better life for the black people in this city?â
âĤ. âJackson moved his hand wearily in front of him, then let it drop at his side.
ââThey donât understand,â he said. âNext week theyâll be out there protesting and all that. But next week is not the time. Weâve got to try to do something now to stop it.ââ
Chicago Today
by Joel Weisman
Weisman clarifies that Sen. Adlai Stevenson says he told Mayor Daley in advance that he wouldnât support Hanrahan. âIt was the first time in memory a party official holding such high office openly opposed the slatemakers,â writes Weisman.
Black slatemakers Ald. Claude Holman and State Sen. Cecil Partee âassured Daley they could âstill carry most black wardsâ with Hanrahan on the ticket. But Congressman Ralph MetcalfeâĤwas not nearly as optimistic, tho he publicly predicted victory for the ticket.â
Weismanâs conclusion: âMany find this strange at a time when Daley has opened up the partyâs top ticket positions to onetime mavericks like Stevenson and Simon. But there is some wisdom, from Daleyâs point of view, to his potentially divisive action. His decision shows the organization still rewards loyalty with loyalty. And Hanrahan will lure many conservative Republican votes, offsetting the ones he loses from liberals, blacks and Independents.â
Chicago Daily Defender
by Robert McClory and Faith Christmas
âBlack political and community leaders Wednesday labeled Edward V. Hanrahan âpublic enemy number oneâ and called the Cook County Democratic Committeeâs decision to reslate him for nomination as Stateâs Attorney an âhorrendous act and a calculated insult to the black community.ââ
âAt Tuesdayâs slatemaking session, [Ald. Claude] Holman reportedly assured Mayor Richard J. Daley that only dissidents and trouble-making blacks would oppose Hanrahan.â
Independent Democrat Black Ald. William Cousins (8th) told the Defender that he and Ald. Anna Langford (16th) and state Sen. Richard Newhouse would lead a still unformed coalition to oppose Hanrahan.
âHanrahan is the number one enemy of black people, and they know it,â said Cousins.
And:
âThe party leaders have inadvertently given the black community a cause to rally around, and the vote-getters in black areas may not be able to control their people and deliver the vote as they always have in the past.â
Daily News, Sun-Times, Today and Trib: Editorials
Hanrahanâs re-slating is that rare issue on which all five daily papers can agreeâin this case, they all agree that they disagree with it. The Defender, for some reason, doesnât run its editorial until December 11.
The most interesting points are made by Chicago Today and the Tribune.
Chicago Today theorizes on why the Democrats reslated Hanrahan:
âMore than any other post the organization dreads losing the stateâs attorneyâs office, and the Republicans have fielded a strong challenger in C. Bernard Carey. The party cadre is not about to match an unknown, a second-stringer, or even a potential independent against him.
âParty loyalty, moreover, is almost an absolute commandment to the Democratic leadership. It is as necessary to the organization as mortar is to a brick wall. Refusing to slate Hanrahan now might weaken this bondâshake the belief of party workers that if you stick by the organization it will stick by you.â
âThe Democrats have exploded something of a political bomb by reslating the mercurial Edward V. HanrahanâĤ.Much of this reaction is based on emotionalism. We are pleased to see that the Repulicans are taking a more considered approachâĤ.They are dealing with Mr. Hanrahan on the basis of his recordâĤ.
âMr. Hanrahanâs effectiveness as a prosecutor is appallingly poor. The conviction rate for his office in 1969 was 56 per cent. In 1979, it dropped to 54 per centâĤ.The Tribuneâs Task Force made a thoro investigation of the Criminal Court and its problems, and found that the conduct of the stateâs attorneyâs office contributed greatly to them.â
Vito Marzullo, Part One
Chicago Sun-Times
âA split among influential Democrats emerged Wednesday over the slating of Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan for re-election.
âAld. Vito Marzullo (25th)âĤbranded U.S. Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson III âa swamp mosquito, not a loyal Democrat, a man who is in the Democratic Party only for what he can get.ââĤ
âWhile Marzullo said of Stevenson, âIt is his business to do what he pleases and I will do what I please,â he added that he was not surprised by the senatorâs opposition.
ââI had his number two years ago. He is a faker. He is not loyal and he is not honest. Does he forget who elected him?
ââLast year, he got elected on his name.â
âMarzullo referred to the Democratic Partyâs slating of Stevenson to succeed Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R.-Ill.), and Stevensonâs late father, former presidential nominee and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
âMarzullo was asked if he questioned the loyalty of Sen. Stevenson at the time of his slating.
ââThatâs right, I did. And I will question it again and again. When a man canât be loyal to the party that supports him and spends money to elect him, then, to me, heâs wrong in my book.â
ââMarzullo vowed: âOur party will win, and we will never stop because of the criticism of swamp mosquitoes.ââ
Vito Marzullo, Part Two
Chicago Tribune
Political editor George Tagge fits in more Marzullo at the end of his overview:
Chicago Tribune
Iâm a sucker for this type of column, going back in the Tribune to the earliest years of the 20th century with its Inquiring Camera Girl. In 1971-72, reporter Jeannye Thornton is the most regular writer assigned to miniâpinions. While she includes two (white) people who plan to vote for Hanrahan, the two voters below best represent the majority pictured in todayâs installment:
âThe Sun-Times has learnedâ that Ald. William Singer is considering a run against Hanrahan. Singer is a young, relatively new member of the City Councilâs small cadre of independent Democrats.
âA Singer campaign, it was reported, would try to establish that Hanrahan has been intemperate and injudicious and that he has been guilty of unprofessional conduct in the administration of the stateâs attorney office.â
These inside sources say Singer wonât run without âadequate advance financing,â plus endorsements from key figures like Rep. Abner Mikva and Sen. Adlai Stevenson, who have refused to back Hanrahan.
âThe Daily News learned that Singer has been offered organizational aid, assistance in raising money, and the manpower that helped elect such independents as Al Raby, Bernard Weisberg, Mary Lee Leahy, Ron Smith and state Rep. Bruce Douglas as con-con delegates.â
âCon-Conâ is the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, held to update and improve the stateâs then 100-year-old constitution.
Nicodemus writes that the people encouraging Singer to run are Michael Shakmanâthe man who put the âShakmanâ in âShakman decree,â president of Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI);
Don Rose, âpublisher of the Hyde Park Voices, a neighborhood newspaper,â who was of course already a campaign consultant too and who will go on to mastermind Jane Byrneâs historic win against the machine when she beat Mayor Michael Bilandic in 1979;
âMrs. June Rosner, a veteran publicist for independent candidatesâ; and attorney Donald Page Moore.
Itâs Howard Miller Time!
Chicago Daily News: TV Listings
Thatâs rightâ
Imagine two mighty conservative rivers like Howard Miller and Ed Hanrahan flowing together into one raging right-wing confluence. Or maybe you donât know who Howard Miller is. Time for the Howard Miller primer:
Howard Miller was Rush Limbaugh before Rush Limbaughâa loud right-wing radio talkshow host. He started out as a disc jockey and morphed into a conservative talk radio host hawking Arizona real estate to gullible listeners. Youâve heard of âGlengarry Glenn Ross,â right?
That kind of real estate, but in Arizona. The Tribuneâs Action Express had to help two readers get their money back from one worthless plot of sand and cactus that Millerâs people sold them. Since David Mamet is from Chicago, it seems like Howard Miller just has to be part of where he came up with âGlengarry Glen Ross.â Boy Iâd love to know.
Howard Miller started out as a music radio DJ. Per his 1994 Tribune obituary by Kenan Heise, âBy the mid-1950s, he was unquestionably the country's foremost disc jockey, and Time Magazine in 1957 called him "probably the nation's single biggest influence on record sales."
Hereâs Howard, pre-toupee, spinning the wax:
Then Howard moved on to talk radio. For years, Miller was WINDâs morning host, jockeying for top ratings with WGNâs legendary lovable Wally Phillips.
Miller was Wally Phillipsâ evil twin in every wayâthey both famously wore silly toupees, too. Miller got bounced off WIND in 1968. At that time, he and Wally were neck-and-neck, each owning 25% of ALL Chicagoland morning radio listeners.
Miller got fired from WIND when he reportedly said on-air, after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, that a special day should be held for the police and firemen who worked during the ensuing riots. Then Miller announced that 3,000 Black youths were planning to march on the East Chicago armory. âLet them try it,â he added.
From 1969 to early August 1971, Miller did short stints at WCFL and then WGN. Shortly after leaving WGNâwhich in this postâs timeline is just a few months agoâHoward Miller set himself up as chairman of a $250,000 fund-raising drive for the Stateâs Attorney police indicted along with Ed Hanrahan.
So Howard is currently off the radio, but heâs going to come back in April 1972 via WMAQâs morning drive, and Mayor Daley will call in for Howardâs first show,
All this time, Howard Miller has continued his weekly Ch. 7 talk show. But now, in December 1971, Howard Miller is also quitting his TV gig. Heâs threatening to run as a Republican for U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinskiâs seat as Pucinski makes a try for Sen. Charles Percyâs U.S. Senate seat.
Thatâs Mike Roykoâs district. On December 13, Mike will write about the possibility of Howard Miller representing him in Congress. Mike will say âthe excitementâ is getting to him: âI even spent most of Sunday getting ready for the political campaign by painting a sign to put in front of my house. The sign says: âFor Sale.ââ
December 10, 1971, is Howard Millerâs last TV show episode, at least for now, and his surprise last-minute guest is Ed Hanrahan. How I wish that episode was lurking on YouTube. Luckily, the Daily Newsâ Robert Signer watched and will describe the experience on December 11.
To finish, hereâs a compilation of Howard Miller clips, which per its YouTube description is from 1971-73. Guests include Chicago Daily News TV critic Norman Mark; Jane Fonda, who looks like she walked right off the set of âKluteâ; Channel 7 weatherman John Coleman; a Nazi; faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman; a drag fashion show; George Jessel doing an imitation of Eddie Cantor, who at that time had been dead for ten years (Howard, afterward: âLadies and gentleman, thatâs talent, thatâs an American, thatâs talentâ); atheist Madalyn Murray OâHair; and at about the 9:30 mark, Dr. David Reuben, author of âEverything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask),â whose syndicated column currently appears in Chicago Today. Dr. Reuben gets accosted by an audience member angry over his bookâs discussion of homosexuality.
Jon and Abra and Irene Hughes
Chicago Daily News
Donât know Irene Hughes?
No time now, but weâll follow the rabbit to Irene Hughes soon. For now, know that Irene Hughes was a true Chicago local celebrity, a clairvoyant who accurately predicted the epic 1967 blizzard down to the exact first days of snowfall, and the second snowfall a week later.
We all know how Chicago loves to obsess over its blizzards. Hughes didnât have to get anything right ever again after that to stay at the top of her profession locally.
In the â60s and â70s, the papers ID Irene Hughes as âa Chicago Heights housewifeâ even though she was so successful in turning her ESP skills into a profitable career, she had an office downtown and spent much of her time on TV appearances and speaking gigs by the mid â60s. Hughesâ ESP paid to move her family to a big Crete property complete with horses. But yeah, she was a housewife in Chicago Heights all that time.
What about Jon and Abra?
Donât know or remember Jon and Abra? See here for a Jon and Abra primer. The column excerpted at that link allowed them to write the phrase âthe ladies in our office, to a man,â making it worth the click right there. Jon and Abra are also the couple who renovated their 30th floor penthouse in Drake Towers in 1974 to include two-story floor-to-ceiling windows.
Chicago Sun-Times
by Paul Molloy
âStateâs Atty. Edward Hanrahan denounced Democratic Party âliberalsâ who oppose his candidacy Thursday but predicted they would eventually âreturn to the foldâ and support his 1972 campaign,â writes the Sun-Timesâ Paul Molloy.
âIn an exclusive interview in his Civic Center office, the embattled stateâs attorneyâ told Molloy, âI will do as St. Paul suggestedâ ârun so as to win.ââ
I would love the citation on that verse.
Best Hanrahan quote: âIâm not worried about Jesse Jackson. Heâs a showman. Heâs the biggest showman in ChicagoâĤ.I just donât think Jesse Jackson is representative of the black people.â
To be fair, Rev. Jackson is a showman. Hereâs his absolutely show-stopping reading of âGreen Eggs and Hamâ on Saturday Night Live, a performance everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime.
Hanrahan was probably a little jealous of Jackson. Back to the interview:
âHanrahan, a little weary, covered his face with his hands. âIt will be a difficult campaign,â he said. âBut I believe sincerely I will win because of my record.
ââLook, you canât kid anybody. Iâm not known as phlegmatic. Repeated criticism, I guess, makes me irritable to some peopleâĤ.But I wonât allow anybody to call me anything Iâm not. They call me abrasive. Thatâs not appropriate.
ââI may be too intense about some things, but youâve got to put your heart and soul in what you believe in, or donât do it.ââ
Ed Hanrahanâs Hands
Chicago Today
by Michael Garrett
Todayâs Michael Garrett spends an hour with Ed Hanrahan, in another âexclusive interviewâ in his Civic Center office. Reminder that the Civic Center is now Daley Center, but already featured the Picasso in its plaza.
This profile includes fun close-ups of Ed Hanrahanâs hands by photographer Ernie Cox, paired with what Hanrahan was talking about as he made the gestures:
A few portions that will be of interest to 2022 readers:
âHanrahan said one of his major campaign themes will be what he considers ineffective laws governing the use of weapons.
ââOur gun laws are weak,â he said. âIn addition, these laws will not work as long as judges refuse to send violators to prison.
ââSentence for gun violations are imposed in only 10 per cent of convictions. This makes no sense when records show 13,000 armed robberies occur each year, and there are 300 shootings every month in Chicago.ââ
Garrett asks if the Black Panther raid and indictment will hurt Hanrahan with the Black community.
ââI think many of our black citizens are aware that our efforts primarily are directed at protecting them from crimes,â he said.
ââWe recognize that it is the black people who are overhwelmingly the victims of savage crimes. Your own newspaper ran a story about a month ago citing the fact that the black person is a victim of rape, murder or armed robbery at a ratio of nearly 12-to-1 white.ââ
Chicago Daily News
by Robert Signer
God I wish we had a clip of this.
âThey donât look alike, this modishly dressed Republican broadcaster with the polished patina, and the conservatively dressed Democratic prosecutor with the slight hint of nervousness,â writes Robert Signer.
âBut they talk the same language.
âAnd when Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan, the professional politician, and Howard Miller, the amateurââremember, Howard is considering a Republican run for U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinskiâs seat as Pooch tries for U.S. Sen. Charles Percyâs jobâ âsat down together Friday night to talk for half an hour, it wasnât always possible to tell them apart.â
Hereâs where Signer works in the Shakespeare reference:
âHanrahan was the guest, politics was the subject, the press was the villain, and each manâs political future was the nearly visible specter that hovered over the two men like Banquoâs ghost in the banquet hall.â
But the details are, alas, skimpy. Hanrahan says the cityâs newspapers have an âabusiveâ attitude toward him, and complains that the papers have refused to run âa weekly table showing the progress and disposition of cases in his office.â
To be clear, the newspapers have never run a weekly table of cases being tried by the Cook County Stateâs Attorneyâs office, or any other prosecuting entity. Wouldnât that take an entire newspaper section?
âI think it is a fraud upon the public not to tell them the truth,â says Hanrahan. âWe are trying to demonstrate through criminal prosecutions that persons should not break the law. We are trying to redirect attitudesâĤand we leave it to (the judiciary) to decide if a person is guilty or innocent.â
Hanrahan insists âevery fair-minded person recognizes that an indictment does not mean a conviction,â a jab meant especially for U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson, but also for U.S. Rep. Abner Mikva, Lt. Gov Paul Simon and others who have refused to endorse Hanrahan as long as he remains under indictment.
Pretty sure Adlai blocked that one.
George Tagge says it will all go away
Chicago Tribune
Just FYI, when considering George Taggeâs prognostications: Tagge, the Tribuneâs political editor from 1943 to 1972, was notorious for participating in the news rather than just reporting it. Many people believed Tagge âran the Illinois Republican Party under the auspices of his Tribune position,â as Trib political reporter and managing editor Richard Ciccone wrote in his Mike Royko biography, âA Life In Print.â But we should probably amend that to âran the Illinois Republican Party for his boss, Tribune owner and publisher Colonel Robert McCormick.â
Ever wonder why McCormick Place is âMcCormick Placeâ? Because the shrewd Colonel foresaw the coming need for giant business shows, John McCarron wrote in the Tribune in 1997. âAfter World War II, McCormick told Tribune Managing Editor W. Don Maxwell to see what could be done about building a convention center on the lakefront. Maxwell, in turn, put veteran political reporter George Tagge on the case.â
As Taggeâs Tribune obituary put it, âAs political editorâĤhe was largely responsible for mustering support for and guiding through the Illinois General Assembly a series of bills that culminated in the construction of McCormick Placeâ.
The original McCormick Place opened by 1960, nicknamed âTaggeâs Temple.â
That said, Tagge devotes just the first three paragraphs of his political column today to his Hanrahan prediction. He uses the royal âweâ to mean himself:
Chicago Daily Defender: Editorial
âNo political decision by the high command of the Democratic party in our memory has stirred more bitterness and resentment in the black community than the reslating of Hanrahan,â writes the Defender editorial board.
Hanrahan is âa stateâs attorney, elected to uphold law and order, yet, who is under criminal indictment for conspiracy to obstruct justice in the wanton killing of two Black Panther leaders who committed no crime, no overt acts of any kind.â
Plus, notes the Defender, the Dems didnât slate any Black candidates for any city-wide or state-wide post.
âWords and name-calling will not do the job. This fight must be taken to the precincts. Young and old who have not registered must be registered. We must organize ourselves to make our black power felt, make the march that countsâthe march to the ballot box.â
The Defender says it joins several major organizations along with black clergymen âheaded by the Rev. Jesse Jacksonâ against Hanrahan.
âHe must be defeated at all costs. The political dynamics that caused the Democratic Party bosses to reslate him are beyond absolution.â
Chicago Sun-Times
Yeah, no. Ald. Bill Singer wonât run. Itâs not quite time for Ald. Singer to rise upâbut just wait for the July Democratic National Convention.
âI believe Mr. Hanrahan must be defeated,â says Singer, calling Hanrahanâs slating by the Democratic Party âan outrage.â
Chicago Tribune: Vernon Jarrett column
Vernon Jarrett never pulls a punch.
âIf there ever has been a time for Chicagoâs black population to deal honestly and openly with its collective selfâits strengths and weaknessesâit is now,â Jarrett writes today. âMayor Richard J. Daleyâs reslating of Edward V. Hanrahan for stateâs attorney leaves us with no alternative.â
âMayor Daley and his minions have taken a long, hard look at Chicagoâs estimated black population of 1,125,000, and he has discovered something that we too must eventually come to realize and to correct. Not only is there no permanently organized threat to his regime; he has discovered that in recent years we have become a race without a strategyâĤ.
âTodayâs black citizenry is confused over recent opaque, hazy definitions of ârevolution,â of âblack separatism,â of âintegration,â and of ânationhoodââĤ.Daley and his consultants are aware of all this. And Daley fears us not.
âFrom the fifth floor of City Hall, even Operation Breadbasket is nothing more than an impressive, glorified religious cult built around an attractive demigod who can cause much thunder but no lightning.â
He means Rev. Jesse Jackson.
âWhom and whatâĤdoes Daley fear or respect? The NAACP? No! The late Rep. William L. Dawson defused that local powder keg in 1957âĤ.Daleyâs only fears are black unity within the Democratic Partyâ or âthe ever-present possibility of a revoltâĤfrom the middle and the bottom of the oppressed masses.â
âĤ.
âChances of black solidarity among Democrats are hampered by the splitting of Ald. Claude B. Holman (4th) and Rep. Ralph Metcalfe. But that other possibilityâfrom ordinary people who occasionally decide to act on their own initiative, establishing newer forms of mobilizationâcould establish a precedent and a pattern in November 1972.â
Chicago Tribune
by William Jones
The Tribâs William Jones does a bang-up job explaining why the Democrats will go all out to re-elect Ed Hanrahan as stateâs attorney: They canât afford a Republican in the office.
The âsingle, four-year term Benjamin S. Adamowski, the unpredictable firebrand elected in 1956, convinced the Democrats on paper of what they already knew in theory:
âControl the office of prosecutor, and you control the principal investigative tool of governmentâthe grand jury. Control the stateâs attorneyâs office, and you have a voice in the policies and decisions of every county office, from the assessor to the sheriff, because you are their lawyer.â
Adamowski was the first Republican stateâs attorney since 1928, and he brought Mayor Daleyâs machine four years of scandals including âthe long lists of indictments of judges and Traffic Court referees in the 1959 Traffic Court and bail bond scandalsâ and later the explosive Summerdale police scandal, in which eight cops worked as a burglary ring while on the job and in uniform. [Not familiar? Check out this Chicago History Podcast episode on this most Chicago of police scandals.]
Since Adamowski, Mayor Daley has carefully run top vote-getters for stateâs attorney, writes Jones. First, Daley got Adamowski out of office in 1960 by running Daniel P. Ward, former dean of De Paul University Law School. When Ward left for the Illinois Supreme Court, first assistant John Stamos took over the rest of his term. But Mayor Daley replaced Stamos for the 1968 election with Hanrahan, who was U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois during a string of mob convictions, making him âvirtually unbeatable.â (Elsewhere, Iâve seen people claim that Daley dropped Stamos because he wanted an Irish name for stateâs attorney.)
In return, the Republicans gave up and ran young nobodies against the Machine for stateâs attorney.
Until now.
This year, the Republicans have picked Bernard Carey, who âcame within 11,000 votes of defeating Richard J. Elrod in the 1970 race for sheriffâĤ.Careyâs supporters will count on their manâs emerging as just as strong a law-and-order man, but without the volatile temper of Hanrahan, who has repeatedly lashed out at the press and some Criminal Court judges whose rulings displeased himâĤ.
âBut even the Republicans who believe most strongly that Carey will defeat Hanrahan insist it will be a close race at best. They point to their own polls in the suburbs that show Hanrahan as the strongest candidate the Democrats could run and claim that in some white backlash areas [Hanrahanâs] indictment could be an asset.
ââMany whites do not understand that the indictment charges Hanrahan with conspiring to obstruct justice and has nothing to do with the actual shooting,â said one G.O.P. strategist. âThey think he was indicted for killing Black Panthers, and they say, âWhatâs wrong with killing Black Panthers?ââ
Plus, the Democrats really donât think Black voters will abandon Hanrahan. Says one anonymous ward committeeman: âMy ward is 20 per cent black, but traditionally and statistically the black vote is the lightest in any election. So if I get hurt [by running Hanrahan for re-election], I get hurt where it hurts the least. And at the same time, Iâm going to pick up votes among whites who like Hanrahan because of his tough law-and-order stance.ââ
Joanne Alter busts the Central Committee ceiling
To be clear, the comedy here is provided not by Joanne Alter, but by most of the men involved in the slating process, including the reporters. If the Democratic slating process were an episode of âAll in the Family,â each of the men would be a clueless Archie Bunker.
In 1971, as youâll see, Joanne Alter becomes the first ever county-wide female Democratic candidate when sheâs slated to run for the Metropolitan Sanitary District. Sheâll win and become one of two first county-wide female elected officials, holding the seat until 1990.
âOver the next 18 years, Mrs. Alter pushed relentlessly for reform at the district, once a bastion of patronage and corruption,â wrote the Tribâs Trevor Johnson in Joanne Alterâs 2008 obituary. âShe leaves as a legacy the trees, parks and pathways that grace the banks of many of the district's waterways.â
At the time of her slating, Alter was 41 and a veteran Democratic political worker. Sheâd co-founded the Democratic Womenâs Caucus, and worked as the state-wide coordinator of U.S. Sen. Adlaiâs Stevensonâs 1970 campaign.
Joanne Alter grew up on the North Shore, met former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt while attending Mt. Holyoke College, and married businessman James Alter. Per Trevor Johnsonâs Trib obituary, âThe couple had four children and lived in a sprawling Victorian home near Belmont Harbor that hosted countless parties for the lakefront liberal set and visiting politicians, while she kept busy as a âprofessional volunteerâ on local and national issues.â
Among other accomplishments, Alter would become known for her ecological activism, and help found Friends of the Chicago River. Alterâs four children include Jonathan Alter, renowned journalist and author of the fascinating Old Goats Substack.
Chicago Today political editor Joel Weisman gets around to writing about Joanne Alterâs slating on December 12, but weâll also include here Charles Nicodemusâ account of Alter and the Democratic Womenâs Caucus appearing before the slating committee on December 6; and Dorothy Storckâs December 9 column about Alter.
December 7, 1971
Chicago Daily News
by Charles Nicodemus
âInvading the slating procedures for the first time was a contingent from the Democratic Womenâs Caucus, a new coalition consisting of regular Democrats and independents of several persuasions,â writes Charles Nicodemus as a conclusion to his account of Ed Hanrahanâs appearance before the slating committee.
âA six-woman delegation headed by Mrs. Joanne Alter told the slatemakers the party for too long had failed to give women their fair, proportional representation in party affairs and offices.
âThe first of the women, Mrs. Joan E. MacDonald, 26, an attractive, politically active teacher at Kenwood High School, was warmly and attentively received by the slatemakers.
âBut as the procession continued, the male patience waned.
âOne of the later entrants, schoolteacher Susan Anderson, 26, a former executive secretary to the mayor of Boston, said that when she closed her mouth to take a deep breath midway through her presentation, the slatemakers immediately started applauding, âindicating that I was done, and that was that.ââ
December 12
Chicago Today
by Joel Weisman
âIt was 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the anteroom of the Democratic Party headquarters in the Sherman House, and the decision to reslate embattled Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan had been made but not announced,â writes Joel Weisman.
âThey wanted to finish picking the entire county ticket first, and that meant fill-ing in the three slots for candidates for the Sanitary Board of Trustees.
âA cigar-chomping member of the select 15-member slatemaking subcommittee emerged from the party office and muttered.
ââHe wants a black, a Pole, a Jew, a suburbanite, and a bleepinâ woman, too, to balance the ticket. How the hell can we get those five things in just three candidates?â he asked.
âThe key words in the scene are âheâ and âbalance.â He, of course, is Richard J. Daley. And he gets just about everything he wantsâor almost.
âWithin an hour the slatemakers had found Mrs. Joanne Alter, a Jew and a woman; Charles Coleman, a black; and William Jaskula, a Pole.â
December 9, 1971
Chicago Today
âWhen Joanne Alter led her Womenâs caucus to the Emerald Room at the Sherman House Monday she thought she knew what she was getting into,â writes Todayâs Dorothy Storck.
âOn Tuesday, she found out she didnât know the half, maybe not even the quarter, of it.
âMonday after she and Bunny Paschen and Pat Siebert and the others had been doing a mild seethe in the hallway outside the room where the Democratic slating committee was meeting, while the newsmen hung around and told jokes waiting for the important Hanrahan announcement.
âThe Womenâs Caucus only had a three-minute pitch to make and they were already two hours late in getting in.
âJoanne had the speech clenched in one hand. It was her only copy and it was getting smudged.
âShe was wearing a nice check suit with pleats right at the knee. Her brown hair was knotted back. She looked like a younger, more intense âSisâ Daley.â Younger Readers: âSisâ Daley is Mayor Daleyâs wife.
Alter says when she asked Mayor Daley if the Womenâs Caucus could speak to the slating committee, the mayor âwas very niceâĤhe said, âOf course.ââ
Among the potential candidates appearing the day before the slating committee for the Sanitary District seats, there are three women, including one âblack school teacher from the 8th Ward who came with the endorsement of her ward committeeman.â Sheâs the favorite, coming with a Machine pedigree. Joanne Alter says sheâs glad one of the women may be elected.
Finally the door to the Emerald Room opens and the Womenâs Caucus is beckoned inside.
âThe newsmen outside chortled,â writes Storck, âand down the hall someone had persuaded a waitress in a miniskirt to prance up to the door and wiggle for entry.â
Itâs not clear if the waitress made it inside.
When Joanne Alter comes back out, she tells Storck the sticky part was when the slating committee asked if the Womenâs Caucus would support âthe entire ticket.â That, of course, means possibly supporting indicted Cook County Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahan.
âSo I said, âSome of us will, and others wonât,â and they let it go at that,â says Alter.
But then, the next day, Joanne Alter picked up the phone in her kitchen and somebody from Mayor Daleyâs office told her she was running for Metropolitan Sanitary District, even though she had never asked to do so. Mayor Daley had slated her, so that was that.
âI didnât know what hit me,â Alter tells Storck.
âJoanne Alter came thru the press crowd outside the slating room on Tuesday looking just a touch like Joan of Arc with indigestion,â writes Storck.
âI bet when you said âKnock, knock,â you didnât think weâd open the door,â an alderman quips.
âShe is heading toward the power drains of the Sanitary District with its $212 million budget and the clout which comes with denying someone a sewer permit,â Storck observes.
ââIâm not an experienced politician,â Mrs. Alter was saying yesterday. âBut I want to get women into politics, and I donât want to ruin this. IâmâĤwellâĤthere are choices and I guess there are accommodations.ââ
When Joanne Alter later visits the Metropolitan Sanitary District and meets with the chairman, he actually says, âWeâll enjoy having a womanâs touch around here.â
ââThey may be surprised,â Joanne said later. âIâm going to learn a lot about things down here and Iâm not going to wander around drains to do it.ââ
âGo, go Joanne Alter,â Storck concludes. âWipe those knock, knock jokes off their faces. Sewers are for everyone.â
Chicago Daily News: Charles Nicodemus column
Daily News political editor Charles Nicodemus writes a weekly op-ed column for the weekend edition, but this week he appears on Monday, and how could he write about anything but Ed Hanrahan?
Letâs focus on Nicodemusâ thoughts regarding the Black vote.
âDemocrats point out that even the opinion polls conducted by Careyâs forces show that Hanrahan would win convincingly if the election were held todayâĤ.And they scoff at the Rev. Jesse Jacksonâs threat to lead a âblack revoltâ against Hanrahanâs candidacy, because of the Black Panther raid.
ââLook how much good Jesse Jackson did for Dick Friedman in the mayoral raceâexactly none,â they laugh.â
Richard Friedman took on the thankless task of running against Mayor Daley in 1971, as Daley went for his fifth term in office. Friedman was the stateâs First Assistant Attorney General 1964-69, then executive director of the Better Government Association before taking on Mayor Daley as an independent Democrat-turned-Republican. Friedman lost 740,137 to 315,969âabout 70% to 30%.
Nicodemus points out that Jesse Jackson âannounced for Friedman at the last minute, and perhaps did as much harm as good. But the anti-Hanrahan sentiment in the black community is much broader and more militant than any issue prevalent during the mayoral campaign, and it is being ushered nearly a year before the election.â
âThe black vote remains imponderable,â Nicodemus concludes. âProportionately, the statistics show that Friedman did better in the black community than any GOP mayoral candidate in nearly 40 years. Yet in numerical totals, he was still overwhelmed.â
Whether Black voter registration can be cranked up like never before to elect Republican Bernard Carey, writes Nicodemus, âremains to be seen.â
Chicago Daily News
by Charles Nicodemus
âAssistant Corporation Counsel Leonard N. Foster, 40, a former constitutional convention delegate, said he will seek the city job that Mayor Richard J. Daley personally arranged, as he takes on Hanrahan, the mayorâs personal choice.
âBut even if Daley fires him, Foster said, âIâm in this to stay, because there ought to be an alternative to Hanrahan on the primary ballot.ââ
Chicago Daily Defender: Letter
Chicago Today
Chicago Sun-Times
no byline
Indicted Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahan is counting on getting the charges against himself and 13 co-defendants thrown out of court, either by the judge presiding over the case in Criminal CourtâJudge Philip Romitiâor by the Illinois Supreme Court.
Today, Romiti postponed for at least a week his decision on Hanrahanâs four legal motions to dismiss the charges.
Romiti declared âthis court does not intend to allow itself to be hurried.â
Meanwhile, the Illinois Supreme Court is considering several other motions, including Hanrahanâs charge that Special Prosecutor Barnabas Sears pressured the special county grand jury into indicting Hanrahan.
Chicago Daily Defender: Charlie Cherokee Says
Yes, Younger Readers, the Defender ran a social/political gossip column called âCharlie Cherokee Says,â starting in the 1940s. See this January 4 item for some background.
Chicago Daily Defender: Hanrahan upsets âUncle Tomsâ too
The lede quotes Charles Gray, executive director of the Lawndale Peopleâs Planning and Action Conference:
âEven the âUncle Tomsâ who usually side with the Cook County Democratic Organization are overwhelmingly opposed to the reslating of Edward V. Hanrahan for stateâs attorney.â
Gray disputes (Black) Ald. Claude Holman (4th), who said only âmilitant and trouble-making blacksâ opposed Hanrahanâs slating by Mayor Daleyâs Central Committee for re-election.
ââWe usually have a wide division of opinion in the Lawndale community on controversial issues,â he said, âbut not on this one. Old and young, conservatives and liberals feel the same way.ââ
âBut Gray admitted that patronage and other traditional Democratic controls on the people might influence them to vote contrary to their true feelings, âalthough in their hearts they deeply resent Hanrahan and what he stands for.ââ
The article lists more groups âjoining in the swelling chorus of opposition,â including the Midwest Community Council, the Westside Organization, the Garfield Organization, and Dr. Charles Hurst, president of Malcolm X College.
Donald Page Moore, Part One
Chicago Tribune
by George Tagge
Donald Page Moore is about to announce heâll challenge Ed Hanrahan in the Democratic primary for Stateâs Attorney.
âMoore is a partner in one of the cityâs largest law firms, Pope, Ballard, Kennedy, Shepard, and Fowle, 69 W. Washington St.
ââIâm not going to run as an outraged liberal weeping over some individualâs case,â he said. âWhat is involved is the qualityâthe professionalismâof our law enforcement. Itâs a poor show at 26th and California [the Criminal Courts Building.]
ââMr.Hanrahan has successfully changed the subject. He goes around with his chin out like Dick Tracy to show how tough he is. His is a circus performanceâĤ.Weâve got to get back to the real subjectâhow to investigate and prosecute, whether the area is gangs, politics, the ghetto, or anywhere else.
ââWeâre going to debate whether the taxpayers have taken a terrible beating and whether law enforcement is taking a terrible beating thru unprofessional conduct.ââ
Yesterday, the Sun-Times added this: âIn private law practice since 1966, Moore formerly opposed teamsters union President James R. Hoffa and six associates in their vain bid here to overturn their 1964 convictions and prison sentences. He also headed the successful effort to spare condemned killer Paul Crump from the electric chair.â
Note that besides Hanrahanâs indictment, his opponents from both the political left and the political right will attack Hanrahan on his prosecution recordâthe lack of it, that is. Donald Page Moore and Republican Bernard Carey will attack Hanrahanâs record because they say he hasnât prosecuted enough criminals, or won enough convictions, especially in Black neighborhoods hit hardest by surging crime rates and street gangs.
In contrast, Hanrahanâs pitch to Black voters is that he has increased prosecution of crimes in their neighborhoods.
I donât know how that will sound to readers 100+ years after 1972, but 50 years later, readers will note a big swing in this conversation.
Chicago Daily News: letter to the editor
Vernon Jarrett weighs in
Chicago Tribune
âCampaign strategists for the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization are not bluffing when they predict a victory for controversial Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan in Chicagoâs predominantly black wards.
âThey are for real and they do not intend to rely entirely upon the assembly line packaged vote normally expected of Mayor Daleyâs machine.â
They have a new strategy, Jarrett reports:
ââWeâre going to stop the opposition by selling Hanrahan to the independents,â a veteran campaigner told me without blinking an eye. âYou are shocked by that, arenât you?â he asked with wry laughter.
ââThe so-called independents and militants have started believing their own oratory,â he continued. âThey talk as if Hanrahan is running against the ghosts of two murdered young black men. In a way they are right, and itâs going to cost some votes.
ââBut weâre going to let the public know that Hanrahan also is running against a real live man, a white man just like Hanrahanâonly slicker, better trained, and more dangerous.ââ
The operative tells Jarrett that in phase one, the Democrats will portray Bernard Carey as âa cold, calculating former FBI agent who would have masterminded âthe Panther thingâ without getting caught.â
In phase two, the operative says the Democrats will be âexposing those phony black independentsâĤ.If they were really hurt over the killing of two black youths, why did they throw their arms around those street gangs and never criticize them?â The only Black independent who has criticized street gangs, per this operative, is State Sen. Richard Newhouse.
âYou may never hear about this type of strategy via television or the newspapers,â Jarrett concludes, âbut it is the type of political hand-to-hand combat that is fought in the streets, stairways, and apartments of this city, and it is quite different from campaigns conducted at press conferences.â
The Illinois Supreme Court weighs in
By John Camper
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against indicted Cook County Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahan, who claimed special prosecutor Barnabas Sears pressured the grand jury to indict. Today the Illinois Supreme Court decided it wonât allow a hearing on thatâso they quashed Hanrahanâs bid to quash his indictment.
âHanrahan had cited what he termed improprieties on the part of Sears and some of his assistants before the jury, and had presented sworn affidavits from three jurorsâĤ.These included statements that one of Searsâ assistants referred to a witness as âa whore, slut and liar.â Sears, himself, according to Hanrahanâs petition, had the indictment drawn up before the jurors voted, and told them: âDonât worry, an indictment is nothing but a piece of paper.ââ
The Illinois Supreme Court âalso found that any undue publicity in the controversial caseâĤwas in part caused by Hanrahan himself.
âThe effect is a clear-cut victory for Barnabas F. Sears, special prosecutor who obtained the indictmentsâ.
âThe Democrats hold a four-to-three edge in the seven-man Supreme Court, but [Democract] Justice Walter V. Schaefer joinedâ the Republicans, writes Camper.
Camper notes that Hanrahan still has four motions to dismiss his indictment waiting before Criminal Courts Judge Philip Romiti in Chicago: That âthe statute of limitations has expired on the charges, that there was an undue delay between the purported offense and the indictment, that Hanrahanâs constitutional rights were violated, and that since the grand jury did not indict anyone in the killings, the charge against Hanrahan of obstructing justice is faulty.â
Chicago Today
Chicago Daily News
by Charles Nicodemus
The Illinois Supreme Court decision to bat away Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahanâs motion to investigate special prosecutor Barnabas Sears for allegedly pressuring grand jurors into indicting Hanrahan and 13 co-defendants has set political tongues wagging.
Itâs âexpected to fuel speculation that Edward V. Hanrahan will be dropped as the Democrats choice for county prosecutor,â writes Daily News political editor Charles Nicodemus.
But Nicodemus says if the Democrats dropped Hanrahan, it would probably happen after the primary. That way, the Democrats can see how well Hanrahan does with voters. If he doesnât win by a good margin, he could âvoluntarilyâ step down and let the Central Committee appoint a replacement. This exact scenario took place with the Democratic primary candidate for Cook County superintendent in 1970, notes Nicodemus.
Hanrahan still has four motions to dismiss pending with Criminal Courts Judge Philip Romiti. But Romitiâs next hearing is on Monday, and heâs said he wonât be hurried into making a decision.
âYet the close of business Monday afternoon is the deadline for filing nominating petitions for the March primary,â notes Nicodemus. âThus if Hanrahan were to be eased out before the primary, Mayor Richard J. Daley would have to arrange to have the prosecutorâs potential replacement prepare his petitions over this weekend, and submit them by dayâs end Mondayâregardless of what Hanrahan did. So far no such âbackupâ candidate seems to be in sight.â
Nicodemus buries his lede:
âNevertheless Fridayâs Supreme Court decision left numerous knowledgeable organization Democrats convinced that Daley intends to drop Hanrahan from the ticket.
âMany Democrats are so cynical about the workings of the stateâs highest court that they assume the Democratic-dominated tribunal would not have handed down its 4 to 3 decisionâwith Democratic Justice Walter Schaefer joining the GOP minority and writing the opinionâunless City Hall wanted it that way.
âUnder such reasoning, it is suggested that Daley âran Hanrahanâs candidacy up the flagpole,â and when he saw the opposition that was developingâeven among regular organization leadersâhe decided he would have to back down.
âYet such theorizing fails to take into consideration the stubbornness and determination of Hanrahan, or Daleyâs fierce loyalty to a beleaguered friend and the pleasure the mayor takes in thumbing his nose at his critics.â
Chicago Sun-Times
by John Dreiske
Mayor Daley is reportedly quite concerned since the Illinois Supreme Court ruling, and the other candidates are eager to dump Ed Hanrahan.
âSuch efforts reportedly were started but Hanrahan said he would not withdraw,â writes John Dreiske, who goes on to quote anonymous Central Committee members lamenting the situation.
âThere was little question that the well-oiled regular Democratic machinery in the Sherman House headquarters easily could garner the minimum 6,000 signatures required within a few hours for a new candidate. The Monday deadline for filing such petitions could thus be met.â
Donald Page Moore, Part Two
Chicago Sun-Times
by James W. Singer
âThe last time Donald Page Moore ran for office he was beatenâand beaten badly,â writes James W. Singer. âHe came in third in a field of three, behind Roxie Katz and Stanley Pasternak, when he ran for president of the Lamond School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a sixth-grader
ââI never liked that Pasternak, he was a little prig,â Moore recollected the other day in his Loop law office. âBut that Roxie was all right. In fact, I bet she turned into a very sexy woman.ââ
Yes Younger Readers, this is the most progressive man in the race, and probably one of the most progressive men in the entire city.
âMoore, 42, voluble, dynamic, colorful, now is making his first run for elected political office,â writes the Sun-Timesâ Singer, who elsewhere describes Moore as presenting âa somewhat rumpled appearance with his cigar, wispy blond hair and old-fashioned horn-rim glassesâ.
âIâm obviously the underdog, obviously miles behind at the moment,â he begins soberly, but abruptly changing pace continues, âbecause Iâve never been indicted or done anything else famous.ââ
ââHanrahanâs been a lousy prosecutor whoâs run a lousy, sloppy office and heâs attempted to deflect criticism by denouncing newspapers, judges and everybody else in sight,â Moore said.â
Moore figures he needs at least $250,000 to run a decent campaignâthatâs $1.7 million in 2022 money. He didnât want to run, because he loves private practice and was hoping to golf on vacation this winter. âBut I went ahead because I felt it would be a disgrace to the legal profession and to the Democratic Party if Eddie Hanrahan ran without significant opposition in the primary.â Seems a bit dismissive to Leonard Foster, whoâs already announced his run.
Moore has an unusual backstory, growing up in wealthy Shaker Heights, Ohio, but quitting high school at 16 to join the army. He attended college afterward for three years, then left for the Army a second time. He ended up at the University of Illinois Law School, graduating in 1956 with âall sorts of honors and one dubious distinction: more classes cut than ever before in the history of the school, according to one of his professors.â
Moore came to Chicago for his first job, counsel for the Illinois A.C.L.U. Later after some time in the Justice Department, Moore served as an acting U.S. Attorney in West Virginia. âOne of his most meaningful experiences was his work in the aborted 1968 presidential campaign of the late Robert F. Kennedy, for whom he retains deep affection.â
âHe has been a partner in a 52-man Loop law firm for the last five yearsâĤ.He has won important cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and played a key role in prosecutingâĤ.Jimmy Hoffa, the powerful Teamsters Union boss.
âIn 1962, Moore won national recognition when he saved Paul Crump, a convicted killer, from execution two days before he was scheduled to die in the electric chair.â
Moore lives in Barrington with his wife and children.
Chicago Today
Chicago Tribune
by Thomas Seslar
Quoting âone of the stateâs best-known Democratsâ who is âa man close to Daley,â the Tribune reports: âThere is almost no possibility that the Democratic Party will withdraw its support of Stateâs Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan for reelection or that Hanrahan will bow out of the 1972 raceâ.
Per the anonymous top Democrat: âI donât know what youâd have to do to get him off the ticket. He has a personality that does not let him think he is anything less than infallible.
âYou also must remember that even if for some reason he is not the candidate, he still will be in office until January, 1973. With the grand jury at his disposal, itâs hard to tell what he might do.
âBesides that, Monday is the deadline for filing to get on the primary ballotâĤ.I havenât heard about anybody circulating petitions.â
This top Democrat thinks that if Hanrahan bowed out after the primary, a new candidate wouldnât be able to get on the November ballot, and would have to run as a write-in candidateâ âand that would be treacherous.â
The Dumping
Paraphrasing Hemingway, Hanrahanâs dumping was gradual, and then all at once.
Chicago Daily News: Hanrahan threat: âIâll runâ
by Charles Nicodemus
After doing the wrong thing for weeks, Mayor Daleyâs Democratic Central Committee (aka Mayor Daley) decides to do right Monday morning after getting hit with weeks of outrage.
The Central Committee took back its endorsement for indicted Cook County Stateâs Attorney Ed Hanrahan and gave it to Traffic Court Chief Judge Ray Berg.
They waited until the absolute last possible minute: 11 a.m. on the day nominating petitions are due at 5 PM in the County Clerkâs office. Minimum number of signatures required to get on the ballot: 6,000.
Mayor Daley says Hanrahan is out âbecause there were many people around the county talking (unfavorably) about the candidate who had been on the ballot. We listened to all these comments and then acted in what we believed was the best interests of all.â
The Cook County Democratic Central Committee voted in Judge Berg this morning in their Sherman House headquarters. Presumably Lynn Williams was happy to make the vote unanimous this time.
Independent Democratic candidate Donald Page Moore filed his nominating petitions at the Cook County Clerkâs office in the County Building âand then strode over to the Sherman House and cracked:
ââI came over to see if they were going to slate (Ald.) Vito Marzullo.â
âMoore told scores of reporters and TV crews, âGee, I didnât know thereâd be any media people here. I donât want to create any confusion.â
Leonard Foster, the city corporation counsel who had briefly declared his candidacy to oppose Hanrahan, bowed out and left the field to Donald Page Moore. âHe said he had circulated petitions that were signed by âmany people who would lose their jobs if the petitions were filed.â
âFoster said he was returning to work for the city with âthe grace of God and Richard J. Daley.â Foster indicated he admired Moore for remaining in the race. âGod bless him,â said Foster.â
The slating subcommittee met first on Sunday, Dec. 19 to start the debate and hear from Hanrahan. âWhen Hanrahan learned Sunday of the efforts to dump him, he reportedly told slatemakers, âIâll win vindicationâfrom the people at the polls, and in the courts.ââ
Nicodemus writes that a slating subcommittee member says they dumped Hanrahan because when he appeared before them two weeks ago, he âvirtually assuredâ them that heâd win his case before the Illinois Supreme Court, and before Mondayâs nominating petition deadline:
âWhen the court did that, the mayor decided that if Justice (Walter) Schaefer (a Democrat) joined the courtâs three Republicans on that vote, then he might do the same thing on any other Hanrahan appealâwhich meant the Black Panther case could drag on forever, generating bad publicity.â
Plus, Machine workers allegedly found surprising resistance in circulating Hanrahanâs nominating petitionsâthough those petitions have already been filed.
Most damningly, many of Hanrahanâs fellow candidates claim voters only want to talk about his indictment when theyâre campaigning. U.S. Rep. Roman Pucinski, running for Sen. Charles Percyâs seat, was a major Hanrahan supporter two weeks ago. Quoth the Pooch at that time:
âI would be proud to be on the ticket with Ed Hanrahan. I believe heâd be an asset to the ticket.â
Now Pucinski tells the Daily News: âWe found that everywhere we went, people just wanted to ask questions about the Hanrahan affair. We could hardly get in a word about the real issues our campaign.â
âThe slating committee weighed the potential of Bergâs candidacy for 3 1/2 hours Sunday afternoon following the departure of the angry Hanrahan, who brushed past two reporters waiting the central committeeâs outer office.â
The punchline is at the very end.
âCity and county workers today were prowling the corridors of public buildings in search of 5,900 signatures on petitions nominating Chief Traffic Court Judge Raymond K. Berg for stateâs attorney.
âIn an effort to beat the 5 p.m. deadline for filing nominating petitions, the Democratic machine cranked up a large scale effort on short notice, swinging into action minutes after party leaders decided to dump incumbent Edward V. Hanrahan.
âEven before the slatemakersâ latest decision was announced officially, clerks in the Criminal Courts buildingâHanrahanâs own official homeâwere circulating Berg petitions in the hallwaysâĤ..
âParty bosses called precinct workers at home last night and ordered them to report to Democratic organization headquarters in the Sherman House early this morning.â
According to Daley stalwart Ald. Claude Holman, âBut only men who work nights are collecting signatures. Nobody is taking time off from his job to do this.â
Republican candidate for Stateâs Attorney Bernard Careyâhe has no opponents, since Republicans are generally lucky to get a single person to run for major offices against the Daley Machineâsays dumping Hanrahan and slating Traffic Court Chief Judge Ray Berg âreally doesnât make any difference to me.â
ââThe tragic history of the stateâs attorneyâs office is that it has been a political tool of the Democratic machine,â Carey said. âThereâs no reason to suspect that no matter who they slate that he will be other than a tool of the Democratic machineâĤ.
ââItâs extremely important for the survival of the Democratic machine to retain that office.ââ
âMayor Richard J. Daley, who presided as Democrats moved to dump Hanrahan and slate Berg, said, âThe effect will be to unite our party.â
âWhen asked if the change would embarrass the party, Daley said, âI donât think itâs embarrassing.ââ
Chicago Today
Did you dig spending time in 1972? If you came to THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972 from social media, you may not know itâs part of the novel being serialized here, one chapter per month: âRoseland, Chicago: 1972â âFREE. Itâs the story of Steve Bertolucci, 10-year-old Roselander in 1972, and what becomes of him. Check it out here.
I remember forging my dad's name on the Ray Berg petition!
Careful Garry, youâre giving away the next installment! But that is incredible. Please tell us more!