Crime & Law
Once Known as the Chairman, Ex-Ald. Ed Burke is Now Federal Inmate No. 53698-424
Former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke enters the Dirksen Federal Building ahead of his sentencing hearing on June 24, 2024. (WTTW News)
Precisely 2,124 days since FBI agents raided now former Ald. Ed Burke’s well-appointed City Hall and ward offices, the man who was once the most powerful politician in Chicago — known to all simply as the chairman — has a new title.
Federal inmate No. 53698-424.
Burke is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Thomson, Illinois, nearly 150 miles west of his beloved hometown. He will begin his two-year prison sentence.
A jury last year convicted Burke on one count of racketeering, two counts of federal program bribery, two counts of attempted extortion and eight counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
The 38th member of the Chicago City Council to be convicted of a crime since 1968, Burke repeatedly — and brazenly — used his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm, formerly known as Klafter & Burke.
The longest serving member of the Chicago City Council in history, Burke has a legacy that is now indelibly tarnished, and the city he proclaimed to love is once again tarred by corruption.
The verdict also ensures that Burke’s turns of phrase captured on the wiretaps and hidden recordings made by disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward) are enshrined as part of Chicago’s long history of political corruption.
“So, did we, uh, land the tuna?” Burke asked Solis. “If we land the tuna there certainly will be a day of accounting, you can count on that.”
Burke wasn’t done.
“If we’re not signed up, we’re not going to do heavy lifting,” Burke said. “The cash register has not rung yet.”
Had he been acquitted, Burke would have been remembered for the role he played in leading a group of White City Council members who worked to stymie Chicago’s first Black chief executive, Mayor Harold Washington, touching off what came to be known as Council Wars in the 1980s.
But by convicting Burke of racketeering, a charge usually brought against members of the mob or street gangs, the jury determined that Burke operated at City Hall like a mafia don, shaking down those who needed or desired an official action from their elected leaders.
The sentence facing the 80-year-old Burke is significantly less than the eight years federal sentencing guidelines called for, and the 10 years prosecutors sought. Burke is set to spend significantly less time in prison than former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who served eight years behind bars after being sentenced to 14 years in prison, and former Gov. George Ryan, who served more than five years in prison after being sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall also fined Burke $2 million.
Although Burke was stripped of his $96,000 per year pension after being sentenced, he will not struggle to pay the fine, having amassed a fortune of nearly $30 million during his 54 years in public office, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Kendall said she was swayed by the more than 200 letters from his family, friends, employees, priests and former constituents, all praising him as a man of deep Catholic faith who worked his entire career to help women and those with disabilities.
Kendall said she was moved by Burke’s long history of “very personal acts that are not anything to do with authority or public office” that helped average Chicagoans, who could offer him nothing in return.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]