But Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) has earned the family a dubious new first.
The grandson and nephew of Chicago mayors and a U.S. Cabinet official became the first Daley since the family’s rise in politics to land a spot in the Chicago City Hall of Shame.
With his conviction for lying to regulators and filing false federal income tax returns and subsequent sentencing to four months in prison, Thompson joins another large extended family of sorts.
Thompson is the 37th member of the Chicago City Council since the early 1970s convicted of a crime.
That averages out to one council member convicted every 16 months.
There’s no formal induction ceremony to the Hall of Shame — other than whatever the Bridgeport alderperson might face when he begins serving his sentence.
Thompson is the first former or sitting Chicago City Council member convicted since former Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22nd) pleaded guilty last September to wire fraud and money-laundering. Munoz admitted he took nearly $38,000 from the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus to pay for personal expenses including skydiving and a relative’s college tuition.
The 22nd Ward Democrat was the first council member convicted since state law changed the name of the office from “alderman” to the more gender-neutral “alderperson.”
But Thompson, Munoz and the rest are just as likely to be remembered as “aldercrooks.”
Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) leaving the Dirksen Federal Courthouse after his conviction.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Thompson, 52, is the grandson of the late Richard J. Daley, Chicago’s longest-serving mayor until his son Richard M. Daley took that title.
Beside Richard M. Daley, Thompson’s uncles include William Daley, who once served as chief of staff to President Barack Obama and Commerce Department secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Cook County Commissioner John Daley, the 11th Ward Democratic committeeperson.
Thompson is the first member of that august family to stand trial, though another grandson of the late mayor, Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, pleaded guilty in 2014 to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he threw the punch that caused David Koschman’s death a decade earlier.
Beyond being the first Daley, Thompson is also the first sitting council member to stand trial since Ald. Percy Giles, who was convicted in November 1999 of taking bribes in the federal Operation Silver Shovel investigation.
That was a busy year for aldermanic corruption. The West Side alderman was the second council member to stand before a jury in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in 1999. Ald. Virgil Jones (15th) was found guilty that January of accepting $7,000 in bribes from a mole in Operation Silver Shovel.
In 2013, City Hall veteran William Beavers faced a jury in the Dirksen building in a headline-grabbing trial. But the self-proclaimed “hog with the big nuts” already had moved on from the city council to the Cook County Board by then.
Others have faced criminal charges over the past decades, but they often pleaded guilty, avoiding trial.
Thompson is also the first alderperson convicted from Bridgeport’s 11th Ward, the Daley family’s base of power for nearly three-quarters of a century.
Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) gives a thumbs-up as he walks with family members and supporters into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse during his trial.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Other wards have seen more council members leave in shame.
Convicted in 2019, Ald. Willie Cochran was the third from the South Side’s 20th Ward, following in the sad footsteps of his predecessors Arenda Troutman and Cliff Kelley.
Two other wards — the Southwest Side’s 23rd and the Northwest Side’s 31st — also count three former alderpersons on the list.
The ranks of the fallen also include the West Side father-and-son duo of William Carothers (28th) and Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th), convicted nearly 30 years apart of unrelated crimes.
And there’s Ambrosio Medrano (25th), the Grover Cleveland of Chicago corruption, earning a place on the list three times for three separate corruption scandals.
The former Southwest Side politician was first convicted in 1996 for accepting bribes. In 2014, two federal judges presiding over separate cases handed Medrano a total of 13 years in prison over corrupt deals involving bribes and kickbacks. Medrano left prison in 2020 as part of an effort to release inmates who are at risk of contracting the coronavirus.
So, dating to 1973, here’s Chicago’s Aldermanic Hall of Shame. Some on the list appear for crimes that occurred after their time on the city council, including Beavers, James Laski and Edward Vrdolyak.
The list includes only those actually convicted — not those indicted who have not yet gone or never did go to trial — in the interest of keeping it to a manageable number.
Fred Hubbard (2nd) — 1973
Pleaded guilty to embezzling.
Joseph Jambrone (28th) — 1973
Convicted of taking bribes.
Ald. Casimir J. Staszcuk (13th) in 1967
Sun-Times archives
Casimir J. Staszcuk (13th) — 1973
Found guilty of extortion for demanding $9,000 in exchange for allowing three zoning changes. Also convicted of mail fraud and income tax evasion.
Joseph Potempa (23rd) — 1973
Pleaded guilty to taking a $3,000 bribe to support a zoning change in his ward and for failing to report that income to the Internal Revenue Service.
Ald. Frank J. Kuta (23rd) in 1971.
Chicago Sun Times archives
Frank Kuta (23rd) — 1974
Convicted of taking a $1,500 bribe from a builder to approve a zoning change and for failing to report that income.
Thomas E. Keane (31st) — 1974
Convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy for a scheme involving the purchase and resale of tax-delinquent properties.
Ald. Thomas Keane leaves the federal courthouse in 1974 after he is sentenced to five years in prison.
Sun Times file
Paul T. Wigoda (49th) — 1974
Convicted of tax evasion for failing to report a $50,000 bribe related to the rezoning of the Edgewater Golf Club. He was Keane’s law partner.
Ald. Paul Wigoda, shortly after a jury found him guilty in 1974,
Chicago Sun Times files
Donald T. Swinarski (12th) — 1975
Pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return in connection with a $7,000 payoff for a zoning change. Later became a state senator.
Edward T. Scholl (41st) — 1975
Convicted of taking bribes.
Ald. Edward T. Scholl (41st), left, in 1971; Aid. Stanley M. Zydlo (26th), right, in 1967.
Chicago Sun-Times archives
Stanley Zydlo (26th) — 1980
Pleaded guilty to paying a bribe.
William Carothers (28th) — 1983
Convicted of attempted extortion.
Ald. William Carothers (28th) in 1981 (left) and his son, Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th), in 2010.
Sun-Times file
Louis P. Farina (36th) — 1983
Convicted of extortion.
Ald. Louis P. Farina (36th) in 1976.
Sun-Times file
Tyrone T. Kenner (3rd) — 1983
Convicted of taking bribes.
Chester A. Kuta (31st) — 1987
As part of the Operation Phocus investigation of bribe-taking by city licensing and inspection officials, Kuta pleaded guilty to charges of filing a false income tax return and extorting $5,370 from Leonard Kraus, who paid the bribes to maintain a flea market in Kuta’s ward.
Clifford P. Kelley (20th) — 1987
Pleaded guilty to taking bribes.
Former Ald. Wallace Davis Jr. (26th) posing across the street from his restaurant, Wallace’s Catfish Corner, during a 2007 comeback attempt in the 2nd Ward.
Keith Hale/Sun-Times file
Wallace Davis Jr. (27th) — 1987
Convicted of extortion.
Perry Hutchinson (9th) — 1988
Pleaded guilty to taking bribes.
Ald. Marian Humes (8th) in 1984.
Jack Lenahan/Chicago Sun-Times file.
Marian Humes (8th) — 1989
Pleaded guilty to taking bribes.
Fred Roti (1st) — 1993
Convicted for bribery, extortion and racketeering.
Ald. Fred B. Roti (1st) listens to a City Council debate at City Hall just hours before he was indicted in the federal government’s Operation Gambat corruption investigation in 1990.
Rich Hein/Sun-Times file
Ambrosio Medrano (25th) — 1996, 2014
In 2014, a federal judge said Medrano pulled off an “unprecedented ... corruption trifecta” that included his role in a scheme to take bribes and kickbacks to sell bandages to public hospitals, along with another conviction that year, after his 2 ½-year sentence in the 1990s for accepting bribes.
Ambrosio Medrano in 2014.
Jessica Koscielniak / Sun-Times file
Allan Streeter (17th) — 1996
Pleaded guilty to extortion.
Joseph Martinez (31st) — 1997
Pleaded guilty to holding a ghost-payroll job after he served on the city council.
Joseph Martinez in 1981.
John White / Sun-Times file
Jesse Evans (21st) — 1997
Convicted of racketeering and extortion.
Joseph Kotlarz (35th) —- 1997
Convicted of theft and conspiracy for skimming $240,000 from a 1992 tollway land deal.
John Madryzk (13th) — 1998
Pleaded guilty to taking part in a ghost-payrolling scheme.
Ald. Larry Bloom (5th), center, talks to reporters in 1991.
Chicago Sun-Times archives
Larry Bloom (5th) — 1998
Pleaded guilty to a felony tax charge stemming from the Operation Silver Shovel corruption investigation. Admitted taking $14,000 in bribes from an FBI mole. The demise of the independent alderman and “self-appointed conscience” of the council added “a new wrinkle to Chicago’s corrupt political legacy,” a Chicago Tribune reporter wrote: “A place so crooked, even the reformers are on the take.”
Virgil Jones (15th) — 1999
Convicted of taking bribes.
Ald. Virgil Jones (15th) in 1999.
Sun-Times file
Percy Giles (37th) — 1999
Found guilty of taking payoffs and tax evasion.
James Laski (23rd) — 2006
Pleaded guilty to taking $48,000 in bribes related to the city’s Hired Truck Program. His conviction stemmed from his role as city clerk.
Edward Vrdolyak (10th) — 2008 and 2019
Though he never was convicted for anything related to his role as an alderman, authorities have since convicted him twice in corruption-related schemes.
Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak on Election Night at the Bismarck Hotel’s Democratic Party headquarters in 1982.
Sun-Times file
Arenda Troutman (20th) — 2008
Pleaded guilty to bribery and tax charges, admitted extorting developers seeking zoning preferences.
Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th) — 2010
Pleaded guilty to bribery, mail fraud and tax fraud for taking $40,000 in home improvements, meals and sports tickets from a West Side developer in exchange for zoning changes that netted the developer millions. William Carothers was his father.
William Beavers (7th) - 2013
Sentenced to six months and fined $10,000 after being found guilty of tax evasion.
Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, third from right, speaks after being found guilty on all counts at the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in 2013.
Andrew A. Nelles~Sun-Times file
Sandi Jackson (7th) - 2013
Pleaded guilty along with her now-former husband, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., to schemes relating to the looting of his campaign committee. Sandi Jackson pleaded guilty to filing a false federal income tax return.
Willie Cochran (20th) — 2019
Pleaded guilty to wire fraud for spending money on personal expenses that was taken from a ward fund meant for charity.
Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (22nd) at a Chicago City Council meeting in 2018.
Rich Hein/Sun-Times file.
Ricardo Muñoz (22nd) — 2021
Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money-laundering, admitting he took nearly $38,000 from the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus to pay for personal expenses such as skydiving and a relative’s college tuition.
Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) — 2022
Convicted of two counts of lying to regulators and five counts of filing false federal income tax returns. Afterward, one juror told the Sun-Times she’d never heard of the Daley family before the trial and still wasn’t sure who they were. “I might Google it,” she said, before adding that she might not, because she has “better things to do.”
