The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption  Chicago Tribune

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Aug 27, 2024 - 00:30
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The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

By Kori Rumore, Ray Long and John Chase

Corruption is a way of life in Illinois politics and in Chicago, once dubbed “the only completely corrupt city in America.” As part of its ongoing series “Culture of Corruption,” the Tribune has compiled a list of roughly 200 convicted, indicted or generally notorious public officials from Illinois’ long and infamous political history.

Scroll and click to meet the small-town official behind the largest municipal fraud in the nation’s history, the Chicago mayor with ties to gangster Al Capone and many more. They are arranged into groups that include Chicago and Cook County officials, people Illinois voters sent to Springfield or Washington, suburban and downstate local officials and judges. These lists aren’t meant to be exhaustive, and the Tribune will update them when new politicians inevitably behave in ways that qualify them for inclusion.

“The Dishonor Roll” draws heavily from the Tribune’s vast archives, including photography and pages from the newspaper on the days these public officials made headlines. The Tribune also utilized resources from the Chicago Public Library, reviewed court records and consulted several books, including “Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality” by Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson.

Interested in exploring the Tribune’s archives further? We’re partnering with Newspapers.com™ to offer a one-month subscription to the Chicago Tribune archives for only 99 cents.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

  1. SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

    • Target 16.5: Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms
    • Indicator: Number of convicted, indicted, or notorious public officials involved in corruption

The article discusses the culture of corruption in Illinois politics and Chicago, highlighting the long history of convicted, indicted, or notorious public officials. This issue is directly connected to SDG 16, which aims to promote peace, justice, and strong institutions. Specifically, Target 16.5 focuses on reducing corruption and bribery in all their forms. The article provides a list of approximately 200 public officials involved in corruption, serving as an indicator to measure progress towards this target.

SDGs Targets Indicators
SDG 16 Target 16.5: Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms Number of convicted, indicted, or notorious public officials involved in corruption

Source: chicagotribune.com