South Sider, 87, dies of gunshot wound suffered in 1940s

An 87-year-old South Side man shot in the abdomen in the 1940s finally succumbed to his wounds Sunday.

Tom Buchanan, of the 3200 block of South Wentworth, died Sunday of a gunshot wound he suffered some time in the 1940s, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was pronounced dead at 11:18 a.m. at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center.

The medical examiner’s office did not specify where Buchanan was when he was shot seven decades ago, but cited complications of intestinal obstruction and the gunshot wound as his primary causes of death, according to an autopsy. His death was recorded as a homicide.

Heart disease was a secondary factor in his death, the autopsy also found.

Buchanan’s 82-year-old cousin Mattie Matthews says the shooting happened in the 1940s. She says she remembers her mother and her aunt talking about it but she was never told any details and Buchanan never said much about it.

Matthews says she took Buchanan to the hospital on Saturday because he was suffering abdominal pain and that he died the next day.

Associated Press contributed to the report.