By Steve Rhodes
“As Melvin Jones stood half naked, handcuffed to a wall, former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge allegedly attached an electrical device to his penis and sent such a painful shock to his groin Jones said he can barely talk about it nearly 30 years later,” the Sun-Times reports.
“I was just thinking he was a mad man,” Jones said.
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“Earlier Thursday, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin said when he was a young assistant public defender, Anthony Holmes – another one Burge’s alleged victims – tearfully told him how he was ‘hooded’ and electrocuted before he was forced to sign a murder confession.”
The curious part about Suffredin’s testimony is why he never brought Holmes’ allegations into his trial.
“Back then, Suffredin argued, a confession without corroborating evidence wasn’t enough to convict, and that evidence was completely lacking,” John Conroy writes at his Burge trial blog on Vocalo. “Furthermore, Suffredin said, they were before the ‘best law judge’ in the County, Louis Garippo. So they based their strategy on that argument, asked for a bench trial, and lost. The appellate court overturned the verdict, but the Illinois Supreme Court later reinstated it . . .
“[I]t seemed to me that Suffredin left out one crucial piece of information. A motion to suppress a confession in which a Black Gangster Disciple alleged he’d been given electric shock in a Chicago police station would have met with complete incredulity in 1973. It is only in recent years that Cook County judges have been willing to accept that torture took place, and on this issue, even at this late date, there are few profiles in courage on that bench.
“According to Holmes, Suffredin and [colleague William] Murphy didn’t believe the story themselves in 1973.”
Conspiracy Quo
“But when their commanding officer, Sgt. Robert Peabody, arrived at the scene, he handed Killackey back his gun and badge and let him go, denying Clermont the chance to file a complaint.”
Not sure how that could be true; there was no time to formulate a conspiracy.
I guess these things just happen.
The Daley Show:
“We know there’s texting going on, something going on in the suburban area with a lot of young adults,” our Sociologist-in-Chief said on Thursday.
Maybe someone should shove a cell phone up the mayor’s ass and send his butt a text just to show him how effective it is.
*
I think I’ve got maybe one more of those in me, then I’ll quit.
*
“‘Twenty-two people were arrested, and 14 of them were from the suburbs,’ Weis said.
“‘Repeat that again,’ Daley said, interrupting Weis.
“Weis then repeated the line as the assembled officials laughed.”
Ha ha, it’s funny ’cause you expect opposite! He say read it again! Oh ho ho! And they laugh ’cause he da boss!
That’s Neil!
I just don’t have the strength for this today. Joke amongst yourselves.
Big Buff
“Brent Seabrook was nine years old and playing for a suburban Vancouver team when he first laid eyes on Dustin Byfuglien, a big kid from a Minnesota trailer park who would become his future Chicago Blackhawks teammate,” the Toronto Globe and Mail reports.
“‘He was head-and-shoulders above everybody else,’ Seabrook said. ‘He was so big. He had such a hard shot. And it was tough playing against him. I think I asked at about 13 or 14 years old where he went, and nobody knew. I guess he quit playing hockey.
“It was a touch later than that, but Byfuglien, now a 6-foot-4, 257-pound power forward, did hang up his skates as a teenager to spend the season fishing near his hometown of Roseau, about 20 kilometres from the Manitoba border. Minnesota is the ‘State of Hockey’ but Byfuglien wasn’t in the state of mind to play the game back then, and conditioning himself to play professionally proved even more arduous after he returned to the ice and toiled in the junior WHL.”
Golden Slider
“With the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals this weekend, I’ve been thinking about the last time I saw the Golden Jet, Bobby Hull,” John Kass writes today.
“It wasn’t at the old Chicago Stadium.
“It was at a White Castle on La Grange Road in Countryside.”
More Than A Logo
Coming Monday in the Tribune, The Story Behind Chief Blackhawk:
“For Chicago’s native Americans, the passion over a team named for a Sauk and Fox tribal leader has provided a ‘teachable moment’ concerning the original Blackhawk and Indian culture.”
Governor Gumby
“Gov. Pat Quinn accepted $75,000 in campaign donation last month from the Teamsters union that would have benefited from changes he proposed when he vetoed legislation to overhaul the McCormick Place convention center,” the Tribune reports.
“The Quinn campaign confirmed the Teamsters gave two donations – one for $25,000 and one for $50,000 – to the Quinn campaign on April 23. That was two weeks before the House and Senate passed legislation to re-organize the operations of the convention venue, following months of arduous negotiations.
“But Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff declared the timing of the contributions played no role in Quinn’s amendatory veto Wednesday, saying the ‘assertion is completely offensive.'”
The Teamsters would’ve given Quinn $75,000 even if he single-handedly blocked the changes they wanted!
No, Mica Matsoff, you are completely offensive.
The Teamsters, though, are stupid. All they got out of the deal – so far – was an overridden amendatory veto. Those are free.
At The NRA Show
Dirty lemon wedgies, longnecks and greenwashing.
How The Cubs Killed 18 Minutes
Leading by example with a Falstaff tall and a big, fat doobie.
Bloodshot Briefing
One-armed bandit, sweaty grooves and Alfred’s hot dogs.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Doobalicious.
Posted on May 28, 2010