Boss Madigan’s Long Goodbye

By John Kass

 June 15, 2025

Usually, when a powerful Chicago Democrat is sentenced on federal corruption charges, you can count on their corporate media suck-ups to offer mitigating sounds from the back of their throats like a herd of anxious baby goats.

And there was Paul Lisnek of WGN-TV news bleating on cue, just one of the longstanding chorus of apologists for the Illinois bi-partisan Combine. The Illinois Combine’s corruption–and media support for the historically corrupt players with limitless media IOUs–has broken the state.

“Sometimes good people do bad things,” cooed Lisnek, just after longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for corruption after he was convicted on 10 federal corruption counts.

Sometimes good people do bad things?

Lisnek is as oily as other Combine cheerleaders, including the Tribune’s hard-drinking political writer, and a Combine blogger in Springfield, among others. They sniff around the powerful, just like their swampy counterparts in corporate legacy media along the Potomac. They are the same creature, serving the establishment, same dogs sniffing Alpha behinds, same dogs wagging their tails, barking on cue, laughing when they’re supposed to laugh.

They serve  the Combine guardians against the people. They protect the powerful.

But the trial judge, U.S. District Judge John Blakey wasn’t nearly as impressed as the unctuous Lisnek. Blakey noted that federal sentencing guidelines allowed for a term of 105 years based on findings in evidence — especially since Madigan committed perjury when he took the stand in his own defense, refusing to admit guilt.

As he sentenced Boss Madigan on Friday, Judge Blakey made it clear that he was angry, and that Madigan had lied repeatedly during testimony.

“To put it bluntly, it was a nauseating display,” Blakey said during the former speaker’s long-anticipated sentencing hearing.

The judge locked  eyes with Madigan, once regarded as the state’s most powerful politician. Blakey stared down at him from the bench and said:

“You lied, sir. You lied. You did not have to. You had a right to sit there and exercise your right to silence. But you took that stand and you took the law into your own hands.”

He slapped Boss Madigan with that long prison sentence and a $2.5 million fine. Madigan is due to report to prison Oct. 13.

It’s all moving so fast now for the man who build his power, wealth and legacy slowly, always meticulously concentrating on the details. Here’s another detail at the end of Mike’s life. He’s 83. And the big question for Judge Blakey is whether he will grant Madigan’s wish to stay out of prison pending appeal.

This is the most important thing, what Madigan wants now. He’s desperate to stay out of prison with Oct. 13 rushing up at him.

And he’s got at least $40 million–that he leveraged through his high position in government as the most powerful of the powerful–to pay his lawyers and drag this thing out for years. His lawyers asked for no prison time. Now they’ll stall this out for the next several years if they can.

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this column, I reported wrongly that Madigan would serve 75 percent of his sentence. Federal sentencing guidelines mandate that prisoners serve 85 percent. That means 85 percent of the 90 months imposed comes to 6.75 years. Madigan is 83 years old. If he serves 85 percent of his time he’ll by 89.3 years old.

To allow him to stay out of prison pending outcome of appeal is what he desires now. Madigan’s lawyers and the Combine media whores will praise Judge Blakey’s restraint if he is allowed to remain free pending appeal. That’ll be how you know they think he’s a chumbolone, a fool to sit on a stool and smile wanly at the sky. If he gives Madigan what he wants, he’ll be praised.

What’s the moral of the story?

If you’re a politician and you testify in your own defense, don’t lie from the witness stand and make a fool out of a federal judge.

Judge Blakey said Madigan lied about his close friendship with the longtime Springfield fixer Michael McClain. And he lied about a promise made to the scum weasel Chicago alderman Dan Solis who liked those Asian girls at the massage parlors. He denied his involvement in the Commonwealth Edison bribery scheme.

It all made Judge Blakey sick to his stomach.

I just don’t know how he could grant Madigan’s wish to stay out of prison during the appeal. If that happens, after Blakey condemned him as a perjurer, then Blakey will definitely be portrayed as a fool. And the judge will deserve it.  But here’s the thing:

Every man is ultimately responsible for his own face, from know-it-all columnists to federal judges and all creatures in between.

For the record, I chased and hunted and mocked Madigan for years. And I enjoyed it since many journos were either afraid or drinking his whiskey from the Springfield bar tab of his mouthpiece Steve Brown. And so I took to calling him the Khan of Madiganistan, mocking him for lording over the wasteland that Illinois had become. But I never thought the feds would get him. They did.

A hat tip to the FBI’s public corruption unit. I know some of them, the sons of Chicago cops. They attended Catholic school, where there was right and wrong and not a large gray area. That gray area was populated by political liars like FBI boss James Comey. But the men and women who worked as public corruption investigators kept working, refusing to quit or be distracted by the garbage placed in their way by Comey and his political weasels.

According to the news story written by the Tribune’s savvy federal reporter Jason Meisner, the interim U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros released a statement praising his investigative team, led by ex-Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, who left the office in March. “Corruption at the highest level of the state legislature tears at the fabric of a vital governing body,” the statement read.

And I take no pleasure in Madigan’s fall or in the pain suffered by his elderly wife, who is ill and his kids. I didn’t like Mike, we weren’t friends, but I respected the man. He worked at his profession. He survived for decades in the fighting pits of Chicago politics.

Some may remember that I had that lunch with him when he munched silently on two rows of apple slices placed on linen napkins. Madigan chewing, exhibiting focus, discipline and control, the eyes of Boss Madigan widening like the eyes of D. T.J. Eckleburg, the mysterious oculist in the billboard in the novel the “Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald.

Were the Madigan/ Eckleburg eyes a symbol of judgement as he looked out over Springfield and Illinois (or the Valley of Ashes)?

Did he ever hurt me personally? No. But my family’s business was in his 13th Ward, West Lawn Finer Foods, and he and Shirley were customers. My father was  pro-Madigan, but when my brother needed Madigan’s help to save our family business from an unjust and brutal City Hall political squeeze, Madigan turned his back on us.

And his compadre Ald. Ed Burke (14th) was the lawyer for the Greek who would then swoop in and take our family’s store for pennies on the dollar.

That was his choice.

Months ago, when Boss Madigan finally went down on corruption charges, I thought of the bandit Pedro Flores from the novel “Lonesome Dove.”

But now as I sit down to write about Boss Madigan and what his political life and criminal conviction are all about, I’m struck by many conflicting thoughts.

He was the longest serving state house speaker in the country, and for at least 40 of those years he controlled all legislation and state judicial appointments. And I’m a bit sad. And eager. The death of the ruthless rustler and horse thief Pedro Flores in the great American novel “Lonesome Dove” comes to mind.

Here’s why: Upon learning of Flores’ death, his rival and Texas Ranger Woodrow Call seems confused, even lost. Call’s friend Gus notes that “you’ve run out of Indians and now you’ve run out of bandits. That’s the point. You need someone to outwit.” He’d lost his purpose.

I didn’t want to outwit Boss Madigan; I wanted him there, standing, strong, to fight against. And I don’t think I’m a Texas Ranger in a great American novel. Or some Marvel Comic weirdo geek. But I loved the contest against the Chicago politicians, especially the smart ones like Madigan. And yet every time I want to feel sorry for him, I think of my dad and uncle and my brother, and I think of all the other hardworking neighborhood people I grew up with on the Southwest Side, folks who’d been taught to doff their caps the way their grandparents and parents doffed caps and bent the knee back in Europe.

It wasn’t even Madigan himself whom I opposed. It was the posse of those Combine media hyenas sucking up to him, kissing his ass, laughing, pretending to be journalists.

In the past few days I’ve been learning old Chicago lessons. No matter how ruthless they’ve been in their political life, when the Chicago politician is sentenced for corruption, there’s always the big sentimental pity party. My friend the conservative radio host Dan Proft brilliantly skewered this mawkish sentimental ritual in a column for johnkassnews.com. It was a great column.

And Shirley Madigan threw one for herself on video. I’m sure Judge Blakey saw it. I don’t think it worked.

When my wife Betty saw it, we had just joined my brother Pete and his wife Georgia at my 94-year-old mother’s hospital bedside. Betty wasn’t impressed by Shirley Madigan’s plea to Judge Blakey. Yes, Mrs. Madigan was grieving but Betty’s eyes narrowed.

“She can’t find someone to take care of them with $40 million? She’s got at least $40 million.”

I’d say more than $40 million, but that’s the sum that the feds included in their pre-sentencing filing. The judge did Boss Madigan a favor by striking the reference to the $40 million from the court record.

When politicians go to prison and their press agents throw a pity party, there are some of us who have our own problems and we’re not impressed.

According to news reports, “A federal judge on Tuesday struck from the court record a reference to former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s personal net worth of more than $40 million, agreeing with his defense team that it should have been kept private, even as the attorneys acknowledged the move was “hollow” given that it was already widely publicized.

“U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey said he didn’t find any “bad faith” on the part of the federal prosecutors who included the figure in a filing last week ahead of Madigan’s highly anticipated sentencing on Friday, but found that common practice would be to file such personal information under seal.”

“Federal prosecutors made Madigan’s net worth public for the first time in a response to a sentencing memorandum filed by his attorneys, arguing that the defendant’s “greed is even more appalling given his law firm’s success.”

Daniel Collins, an attorney for Madigan, called the inclusion of the former speaker’s personal fortune improper and a “gratuitous effort” to publicly identify his net worth.”

Hey Danny boy, You know what’s improper Dan?

Using your public position in the people’s government to leverage a fortune through corruption and lying about it later. That’s improper.

One person’s hypocrisy is another person’s, oh, what’s the word?

Oh yeah: survival.

Because in the politics of Madiganistan, the main thing is to keep your head about you, while all others are losing theirs. For a record 36 years Mr. Speaker and kept his head. Until he lost it.

Why he  ever decided to trust the pimp Chicago Ald. Danny Solis–a secret source of left-wing media reporters–I can’t really say.

And why he didn’t listen to his good friends who said years and years ago he should resign and just enjoy his money and his family because he’d become a federal target?

“What would I do?” he’d say.

Does it matter anymore?

What does matter is whether Judge Blakey allows Mike Madigan his freedom while Madigan’s lawyers drag his appeal out, year after year after year, so he doesn’t die in prison. I’ve seen too many federal judges make the big speech, the big lecture before showing mercy.

Again, if Blakey allows Madigan out pending appeal, the judge will be giving Madigan what he wants. And Blakey will be the great chumbolone of the Southwest Side.

Michael J. Madigan is 83 years old and he doesn’t believe in Fairy Tales.

(Copyright 2025 John Kass)

Madigan circa 1977-30-

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Merchandise Now Available: If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy for special someone who has everything, just click on the link to the johnkassnews.com store.

Where else would you find a No Chumbolone™ cap or a Chicago Way™ coffee cup?

Because I know this about you: You’re not a Chumbolone.

Comments 59

  1. Greed is what it is all about in our Country today. People are getting paid to picket against America and support 50M Illegals while we work hard and pay taxes to support them. They get free housing, free health care, and free everything while no one cares for the working class. China is advertising for people to get out and run on all the Streets to destroy the American Nation and pay them for it. I do not understand why the American young would get paid to destroy America and allow this to happen for money? They want a Minority Country and want most Americans to destroy their future. I find it ridiculous, do not watch the news anymore just the weather and read you John. We are losing our Country that we are so proud of and have worked so hard for to China and George Soros. They hate Trump because he is trying to find out the truth and praise Illegals. Makes no sense folks. Are streets and Suburbs are full of paid getting paid to fight the Government because the Press hates America. Astounding to me. They are protesting their own families and children for money? We are loosing our minds folks. Only when Christ comes this nonsense will stop. Keep telling the truth John.

    1. There is hope Ms Edward’s, as long as there are States other than Illinois. Counties, other than Cook.
      But you are right, there is a faction right now that have lost their minds. Madison deserves to die in prison. Maybe he’ll find Truth there, and die well

      2. I don’t want Madigan to die in prison. But he committed many crimes. He was found guilty on 10 counts. He has to pay.
        And Judge Blakey said Madigan lied repeatedly from the stand.
        JK

          1. Don’t be ridiculous! Trump would have no reason to pardon him. In the grand scheme of national priorities, Madigan is truly small potatos.

    2. Why can’t and doesn’t this damned fool of the the President, Trump go to the National TV from the White House and address the people directly and explain to them what he is doing and what the Dems and the media are doing/destroying the nation to just grab the power thru 2026 midterm elections?
      He is not doing the right thing now as was during the 2020 Covid days. At the start the Dems made it very clear they were going to do this the get the independents, blacks, browns and all the minorities who voted for Trump in 2025, away from him. Either Trump doesn’t have an inner circle of friends to advise him or simply he doesn’t care even if he is going to be turned into a lame-duck president over half of his remaining term in the white house?

  2. Madigan has ruined Illinois for all but the elites and their patronage army in the combine.

    Then Karma appears.

    Thanks John. I doubt you’ll ever run out of Comanches or bandits like Call. Greed for money and power is the terrible siren song drawing many of those afflicted into politics.

  3. While I believe Madigan’s fate will not deter any of the current slimebags running Illinois, after reading about Madigan lying on the stand, I now believe that he deserves a longer sentence. My position about Madigan not serving time in a previous post was wrong. Lying on the stand as Madigan did is the ultimate middle finger to the people of Illinois. There is no future for Illinois as long as the current regime is in power and the current regime is going nowhere because the voters in this state are too stupid to vote them out. The majority of the voters get the government they deserve – and Madigan, along with Governor Money Bags is a prime example of that. Too bad the federal government didn’t get Madigan 30 years ago and too bad the current bunch is still operating as Madigan taught them. I wonder how Madigan planned to take that 40 million with him. A lot of good it will do him now.

    1. Couldn’t agree more John. The $2.5 million fine should be A LOT more. Take that money and return it to the hard working taxpayers in this failed state. Maybe we could use it to help offset our ever increasing property taxes or our Com Ed bills. Wouldn’t that be appropriate?!

      1. Thank you, Nancy. I would like to suggest that the 40 million be used to set up a fund to investigate and prosecute Illinois politicians for corruption and any future fines be used to replenish the funds. How ironic would it be to get more crooked Illinois politicians with Micheal Madigan’s money?

        1. I thought Lisa Madigan as Attorney General of Illinois was supposed to root out corruption in government. Same with Kwame Raoul the other crime fighter. Two useless political hacks, turning their heads away from the own political party’s corruption, while spouting nonsense about their political opponents. Anyone notice you don’t seen Lisa with her father at his trial?

      2. I have read where the deal he cut with Com Ed cost the taxpayers $400M!! The fact that he is only getting fined $2.5M is peanuts.

        If you don’t get this guy in jail, he wins. The ultimate excuse of allowing him to stay out to care for his ill wife is weak. With $40M in assets, he’s got that money from all of us to help her. Maybe this scumbag should have thought about that during his years of corruption. He has singlehandedly thrown obstacles in the way of people like Rauner and others when they wanted to address issues in this state. This was old time Daley politics – taking care of “Friends of the Program” and screwing the people who voted you in. It is truly amazing to this day how ill-informed voters are on who they support.

  4. Wonderful column John. It’s like I’ve just finished the last chapter of a long novel. You, and I, have been waiting for this for a long time. Not many victories are celebrated in Illinois. Savor the moment.

  6. Madigan should spend every minute of his sentence behind bars. He is one of the main reasons IL is in such poor financial shape. He and King Richard II were very influential in rewriting the IL constitution during the ConCon of 1970. He is responsible for the pension clause that has bankrupt the state.
    He is responsible for writing the rules that the gerrymandering that allowed one party to rule ad infimum.

    Madigan and his politics are what ruined Illinois.

  7. If it wasn’t for the legal mumbo-jumbo protocol that’s entitled to Madigan,…he should be marched off immediately to the Slammer. And to serve his full sentence.

  8. I’m not sad. Like the FBI investigators, I went to a Catholic high school (Holy Cross in River Grove). I hate Mike Madigan. I have no hesitation or reservation in stating it here publicly for all the world to see. Lisnek and the drunk guy and the lame blogger from Springfield are all despicable. How can they look away all these decades as Madigan ran roughshod over this state? Praetorian guard imbeciles. Nice to see there is a federal judge who is as outraged as I am. And he’s young so he’ll be around for a good long time. A very pleasant thought this Father’s Day!

  9. Another thoughtful column, John. As a lawyer, I never liked the unctuous Lisnek’s superficial analysis of legal issues and obvious bias in favor of the party of royalty in Illinois. Maybe we should have our own “No Kings Day” for Madigan.

  10. I’ve been saying this for 30 years. The biggest threat to America is not Russia, China, Iran or North Korea, it’s the legacy media and their obvious bias of holding only one political party accountable. They are not journalists, they are political hacks. John, you and others like you in New Media are going to save our country. God Bless you and keep up the good work.

  11. I think it’s fair to say that not one person who marched around with a No Kings sign yesterday would vote against Mike Madigan were he running against any conceivable non-machine candidate today. Including the new Pope. Most often, we get what we deserve.

    Remember that time when they were marching through the loop with No Bosses signs?

  12. He ruined a state. He aided and abetted ruining a county and city. Thankfully, people like John Kass, Dan Proft, Wirepoints, and Illinois Policy called him on it and uncovered it. If you haven’t watched MichaelMadigan.com, watch it.

    It’s not a great day for Illinois citizens because so much damage has been done, much of it permanent. Over 2300 politician corruption convictions in Illinois since 1983. The corruption isn’t an outlier. It’s how business is done.

    1. Is that number real? 2300? Daymn.
      I was a kid who heard jokes about Paul Powell’s shoebox growing up and learned the city, county and state were run by scoundrels, but as long as things “worked,” it seemed like the price of doing business. None of it works anymore, though, so “scoundrel” doesn’t nearly capture the evil at work.

    2. An old Detroit News sportswriter used to liken the fight game to a corkscrew: if you straightened it out, it wouldn’t work.
      Perhaps the same can be said of politics?

  13. What a powerful column and perspective on what was once called the Machine . . . before it began breaking down. It gamed $40 million for Chicago’s own Big Guy and smaller fortunes for other wise guys, but what did it leave behind for Chicago? An idiot mayor, rampant crime, taxpayers leading the flight from Detroit West, and fat pensions feeding the good life mostly for folks sunning themselves elsewhere.

    We need Kass to tell this story. But an afterword by the Bard is always useful:

    “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.”

  14. Yianni,
    “Vengeance is mine,” saith the Lord. However, I feel no sympathy for Mike, as he was master of his own fate. The crowning achievement was lying on the stand, and pissing off the judge along the way. He made his bed long ago, and now will be forced to sleep on it, albeit a prison cot. All those adversely impacted by his decades of decisions should feel some relief knowing he’s out. But in this Crook County of Illinois, there will simply be another to take his place, and maybe a worse conniver! Only if Illinois and Chicago voters wake up, snap out of their decades of brain freeze, will there be any hope of salvaging what’s left. Let us pray….

  15. I do not think it cruel to allow Mr. Madigan to stay in prison until he has served his sentence in full. If he is dying, then compassionate leave. BUT: there has to be consequences. Getting found guilty is part of it. Sitting in prison to serve out the sentence is the second part (admitting fault is third part). Mr. Madigan’s incarceration should be the harsh learning lesson for other politicians who think a “little” corruption is ok.

    Additionally, he has $40 million to keep his family safe. Did he think about the family of West Lawn Finer Food; how they will survive? Your wife was right.

  16. The days an old villain has left to live aren’t as crtical as the days left to live for the youth of Illinois.
    Their future was worth more then his plunder.
    The horse thief wasn’t hung merely over the value of one horse.

  19. Any criminal defendant who testifies on their own behalf and gets convicted should have a perjury charge and penalty added to their sentence.

    Like Robert Redford’s character in “Three Days of the Condor” said to Higgins, the CIA weasel, “You people think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth.”

    On this Father’s Day, I’m reminded of the greatest lesson my dad imparted to me directly: “Never lie to me. If you do, you’ll have two problems — the lie AND whatever you’re lying about.”

  20. Let him die in prison. Who gives a *#@&?
    A common thief may end his life with what, a hundred or so victims ? Madigan made victims of every taxpaying citizen in this state, thousands of victims, if not more.
    Let him die in prison. Erase his name from any mention in the presence of honest and honorable people. He could have chosen the right path, but he didn’t.
    To hell with him.

  21. Excellent Mr. K.

    As a man in my Golden years, I am conflicted on this. I do not want to see anyone at 83 going away to any prison, for a non violent crime.

    I feel for his wife, kids and grandchildren. That’s the Catholic in me. What will incarceration accomplish?

    I like Judge Blakely, Madigan got a fair trail, with a good Jurist. Think of the decision Judge Blakely has to make.

    Now as a citizen i am just fed up, when will we ever see honest elected officials in this state. Between Illinois state and Chicago government we must lead the country with political corruption indictments, and convictions.

    Maybe if they incarcerate Madigan, at his age the word will get out to our elected official’s:

    just do the right thing in public office. Serve the people who elected you with integrity.

    Pay your taxes like us chumbolones; do not remove your toilets to save a few bucks, when you have more money than the majority of the people who elected you..

  22. I used to watch WGN-TV in the early first breaking news and weather in the morning when it had Larry, Robin, Skillet Head, and Paul Konrad. however, the inclusion of the oily, swarmy, and repugnant presence of Paul Lisnek has had me flee to other no-woke television pastures. WGN is now the most woke local station on the air.
    I might be wrong John, but I always thought that 85% was the parentage for federal sentencing depending on good behavior.
    Thanks for your column.

  23. Mike Madigan was a political fixer during his entire political career. His impact on not just state government but also the City of Chicago’s police and fire departments was felt within those agencies. The promotions of residents within his ward to some of the highest positions of command in both departments was obvious to anyone paying attention. Is there any doubt that other cities, counties and state departments were less populated with Madigan influenced appointees. It’s all fun and games until you or your family are impacted by it.

  24. Did George Ryan receive any sympathy when he was sent to prison and his wife was battling cancer? No his wife literally died while he was in prison. Sorry Shirley perhaps your husband should’ve thought about consequences while he was Speaker of the House and his back room deals.

  26. “Sometimes good people do bad things,” says the guy who skewered Trump for saying “there were good people on both sides” following a 2017 confrontation between white supremacists and black nationalists in Virginia. Good old Paul and the rest of the lapdog DNC media were actually cheerleading during the BLM riots three years later. They’re scum.

    1. Just remember “good old Paul” has a law degree. He can’t tell right from wrong because then he would not be a lawyer. Has anyone ever heard of lawyer refusing to defend anyone because the lawyer knew he was guilty? Didn’t think so. It is not legal ethics, it just no values. There is no right and wrong for lawyers – just what the guilty can get away with – with the lawyer’s help.

  27. John. Your ambivalence regarding Mr, Madigan has me confused. Are you implying that if your brother Pete was successful in getting Mike Madigan to go to bat for your father’s store, all would have been forgiven?

    And by the way, even if Madigan has to go to prison, there is still a chance, given his age, length of sentence, and time it takes to finalize an appeal, that he could die an innocent man. If he dies in prison while his appeal is not finalized, he will in fact die an innocent man. Not ideal for Mr. Madigan but all things considered not too bad either.

    1. Madigan has been found guilty. He has been sentenced.
      If it were my decision he would have gone directly to jail. He would have led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
      Let any appeals happen while he is locked up. If he dies in prison, so what?
      How else will these scummy pols ever learn?

      1. Oh I agree. Just pointing out that if he dies in prison while his appeals are still active – a reasonable likelihood – he will have died “officially” an innocent man. Means nothing to me, but might for his disciples and apologists who concoct his “official” legacy.

        1. If Madigan does win his appeal while in prison he will not know it. He will end his days locked up. That is enough for me.
          The worst part of this is that the other pols will not learn anything from this. With help from the lapdog presstocracy they will continue to do this forever. They will continue to lie, cheat, and steal and bankrupt us and enslave our children and grandchildren.
          But it recalls the line from ‘A Man for All Seasons’ spoken by Thomas More:
          “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?”
          Madigan’s legacy is forever stained. And for what? Wales?

        2. Bruce, are you sure of this. I had a case as coroner, where the individual was proven guilty after his suicide. His corrupt wife got his pension bcuz he was never convicted therefore, technically still innocent. Madigan was convicted and if he dies now he is still convicted.

          1. From NPR:

            “Former Enron executive Kenneth Lay has been cleared of his fraud and conspiracy conviction. A federal judge in Houston made the decision based on a precedent known as abatement, which allows convictions to be eliminated when a defendant dies before he can appeal.”

            Your point I imagine is “abatement” is not equivalence to “innocence”. I suspect you are correct on this. We have several lawyers on John’s site. Maybe they could pipe in.

  28. The sad, pathetic thing is that the Madigan conviction will make no material difference in the governance of Chicago, IL, or the US. Most of our politicians are as corrupt as Madigan, and there is little we can do about it since the Uniparty (aka the Combine in IL) controls the people who are slated by both parties for most elections. And the Uniparty has no real interest in providing better government for the voters (other than providing billions in charity to the non-citizens who have largely been registered to vote by the NGO and will soon be voting illegally). The sole intent of most politicians at all levels is to get re-elected by buying the votes of a select few voters who can control the outcome and doing the bidding of the plutocrats who provide the financial benefits that have obviously made most politicians wealthy (which plutocrats dictate which wars we will undertake for the benefit of the plutocrats themselves). Sorry to sound pessimistic and cynical, but we need to realize that politics as usual, even when something hopeful like like Madigan going to jail happens, is not likely to provide necessary solutions to our country’s problems.

  29. He got off far too easy. A lifetime of picking our pockets and he gets 7.5 years. Nothing. He breached a trust. He’s worse than the thug who robs a 7-11 at gunpoint. I hope he gets a baggy orange suit to make up for his many years in tailored suits.

  30. In regard to his alleged $40 M net worth. Madigan founded a law firm decades ago specializing in property tax appeals (Madigan and Getzendanner, now closed). So while he supported all government initiatives raising property taxes, his law business boomed as he benefitted from the property tax appeals of the very citizens subject to those tax increases. In effect he was creating his own never ending client base.

    1. Well pointed out.
      One of the legal scams the Daley family had was they owned an insurance business. If you received a contract from the city for work and city asked for your insurance coverage guess where it had to come from. No Daley insurance, no work/contract. Legal apparently.

  31. Is anyone else surprised that Madigan’s crew didn’t try and wheedle an “Autopen Pardon” from Biden before he left office?

    It seems Madigan is about the only high profile Democrat that didn’t get a blank check pardon, stretching back to Middle School.

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