American Pharaoh (94 page)

There were still more charges swirling around the next Daley generation. Around the time the Daley sons were at the center
of the insurance-test scandal, the newspapers were also reporting that a North Side home owned by Patricia Daley and her former
husband, William Thompson, had not been properly appraised after improvements were made to it. And Daley son-in-law Dr. Robert
Vanecko was called to testify before a grand jury investigating charges of vote fraud in the 11th Ward. The inquiry centered
on absentee ballots cast on behalf of purportedly sick voters, accompanied by certificates signed by doctors. Some of the
voters said they had not seen the doctors and did not vote in the elections in question.
¹⁹

On top of everything else, Daley was now confronted with another police scandal. Police superintendent Conlisk had resigned
the previous October after some of his men were convicted in an elaborate, and highly organized, scheme of shaking down tavern
owners. The shakedowns reportedly netted more than $500,000 for the police participants. The latest scandal was part of a
disturbing pattern of corruption in the department. Over the preceding three years, 86 policemen had been indicted for crimes
and 407 fired, or forced to quit, for involvement with drugs and vice, and other improper activities. After Conlisk stepped
down, Daley elevated deputy police superintendent James Rochford to take his place. In one of his first acts, Rochford ordered
all top-ranking police officers to take lie-detector tests to determine if they had been involved in organized crime or corruption;
of the 70 officers taking the test, seven failed entirely and nine failed one or more questions. And the police department
had other troubles. In November 1973, the
Chicago Tribune
had reported on numerous cases of police brutality, including a teenager who lost an eye after being struck by a police officer.
The series led to the indictment of four members of the force. In February 1974, it was revealed that the proportion of nonwhite
police officers, which had never been high, had actually declined in recent years, even though the city’s black and Hispanic
population had been increasing. The Afro-American Patrolmen’s League urged Daley to do something about the racial disparity,
and eventually sought help from the federal government. After Daley resisted the efforts of the Justice Department to address
the problem through negotiation, the police department was drawn into multiple federal lawsuits.
²⁰

The signs that Daley’s health was in decline were becoming harder to ignore. He was elected to a twelfth term as chairman
of the Cook County Democratic Organization in April. None of the fifty ward and thirty township committeemen present at the
La Salle Hotel voted against him, but two liberal suburban committeemen abstained. It was another impressive political victory,
but those in attendance reported that Daley appeared “upset and perturbed.” In a long, rambling acceptance speech, he went
on about how the ousting of his delegates in 1972 had been “disgraceful” and charged that the Singer-Jackson slate of delegates
had been selected in “telephone booths.” Within days of Keane’s indictment, Daley’s condition declined more abruptly. He appeared
in the City Council chamber on May 6, but after feeling dizzy left hastily for an appointment with his physician, Dr. Thomas
Coogan. After a brief examination, Daley entered Presbyterian–Saint Luke’s Hospital. City Hall’s public relations campaign
went into high gear. Dr. Eric Oldberg, president of the Chicago Board of Health and a family friend, announced that Daley
was suffering from hypoglycemia. Sis, the seven Daley children, and several of their spouses, converged at the hospital. Reporters
suspected that the mayor was in a serious condition, but Daley’s new press secretary, Frank Sullivan, denied it. “This is
a sign of the affection the kids feel for the mayor,” he said by way of explaining the visits. Sullivan stuck by the hypoglycemia
story for nearly a week until reporters found out that Daley had, indeed, experienced a mild stroke. The family had held the
news so tightly that even Sullivan apparently had not known the truth. The stroke, it was revealed later, involved the left
side of his brain and impaired sensory perception and speech. Daley celebrated his seventy-second birthday in the hospital.
When he went home, after a ten-day hospital stay, he was greeted by well-wishers holding signs welcoming him back to Bridgeport.
Onlookers were kept at a distance so they were unable to discern any impairment. Daley returned to the hospital on June 1
for surgery to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery and then headed to the family home in Grand Beach, Michigan, to recuperate.
²¹

For the first time in two decades, Daley did not attend the Cook County Democratic Organization’s annual dinner in May 1974.More
than 6,500 of the machine faithful gathered in ten ballrooms at the Conrad Hilton. The guests, who had paid $100 each, initially
exchanged rumors about whether Daley would appear. But the question was settled when his son Richard M. Daley rose and delivered
a standard speech about “unity and cooperation” in his father’s place. Daley’s incapacitation prompted a flurry of speculation
about whether he would seek a sixth term. In his absence, local politicians conjectured about Daley’s future, and their own.
Jake Arvey, who had been eased out of influence by Daley, told reporters gathered at a reelection rally for Senator Adlai
Stevenson III that Daley would not run again. But the Daley forces refuted the suggestions that the mayor’s career was drawing
to a close. Apparently with Daley’s approval, Jane Byrne — the lace-curtain Irishwoman who had become a recent protégée —
called a news conference to decry the “little men of greed” jockeying for power while the mayor recuperated. Byrne, whom Daley
had appointed to be the city’s first commissioner of the Department of Consumer Sales, Weights, and Measures, condemned such
talk as the “ghoulishness of political vultures” and called for it to stop. Daley stayed in near-total seclusion in Grand
Beach, Michigan, about ninety minutes from Bridgeport. The Daley home there, fenced in and dotted with “No Trespassing” signs,
was obscured from public view. Daley’s long absence from City Hall added to speculation that he would not seek reelection.
Independent alderman William Singer, who had announced in October of 1973 that he would run for mayor, attracted enthusiasm
and press coverage from those who thought he might be able to win if Daley did not run again. Blacks were also getting organized,
looking for a candidate to run. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, president of Operation PUSH, announced a voter registration drive.
Thompson, the bane of the Democratic machine, was also seen, at least by the media, as a potential Republican contender for
City Hall.
²²

Most damaging of all to Daley were charges that undermined his image as being personally honest. On July 11, 1974, the
Chicago Sun-Times,
working with the Better Government Association, published a story titled “$200,000 Nest Egg — Mayor Daley’s Secret Firm.”
The investigation revealed that Daley and his wife were owners of a real estate company, Elard Realty, with assets of more
than $200,000. The secret company Elard, an abbreviation for “Eleanor and Richard,” had been set up in 1957. In searching
property records in Berrien County, Michigan, investigators discovered that in 1965, a year after Daley bought it, the Grand
Beach home was transferred to the name of Elard. The property was valued between $70,000 and $80,000. Before long, reporters
learned that Elard Realty also held several small plots in Chicago, including the mayor’s 11th Ward Democratic headquarters,
valued at about $100,000, a cash bank account of about $40,000, and securities valued at $31,000. Daley had always presented
himself as a man who never got too rich for Bridgeport. “I’m tremendously wealthy because I have a fine family,” he once said.
“But financially speaking, I’m not a rich man. My salary is my major source of income.” During nearly two decades in office,
Daley had only disclosed his finances once, during his reelection race in 1971. Those reports, limited to the years 1966 to
1969, showed that his income was only slightly above his $35,000 salary. But the situation appeared to be more complicated.
Daley had at least one other source of income, from his second job as head of the machine. “What some people didn’t understand,”
explained David Stahl, “was that in addition to being paid $35,000 a year for being mayor, he was also paid for being chairman
of the Cook County Central Democratic Committee. I don’t know what [his salary] was, but that enabled him to live pretty well.”
Thompson subpoenaed the financial records of Elard Realty, and Daley’s spokesman Sullivan refused to comment. He said Daley
would answer questions at a news conference when he returned from his recuperation. The BGA added to the intrigue by disclosing
that the president of Elard Realty was Peter Shannon, a longtime Daley friend and associate, who had received nearly $500,000
since 1972 for consulting on auditing work for the city. In the end, though, the Elard Realty flap went nowhere. Even the
BGA, which called on Daley to explain his ties to the company, never alleged Daley had done anything illegal.
²³

While Daley was in Grand Beach in August, President Gerald Ford appeared in Chicago to address a Veterans of Foreign Wars
convention. Daley did not meet with him, the first time in nineteen years Daley had not greeted a visiting president, and
it led to more rumors that Daley’s health was worse than was being reported. After seventeen weeks away from City Hall, Daley
returned the day after Labor Day, and held one of the most heavily attended press conferences of his career. Reporters were
given two handouts, one detailing the recent accomplishments of the administration, the other dealing with Elard Realty. The
first question put to Daley, who was thinner and more subdued than before his illness, was whether he would run for a sixth
term in 1975. “The doctor has said I should not try to work as hard as I did in the past and then see,” replied Daley. “We’ll
try it and give you the answer later.” On the subject of Elard Realty, Daley explained that on the urging of lawyers, he and
his wife had created the company to safeguard their personal property from lawsuits brought against the city and, by extension,
the mayor in his official capacity. There were no illegalities, he insisted. If there were, Thompson’s office never found
them, or at least did not bring an indictment based on them.
²⁴

On October 9, Daley appeared in federal court to testify at Earl Bush’s trial. In his earlier deposition, he had denied any
knowledge of Bush’s connection to Dell Advertising. It turned out that Bush had filed a statement with the city clerk indicating
his ownership of Dell, but had omitted this detail in the copy he filed with Daley’s office. Daley praised Bush, but said
he had insisted he leave City Hall when he found out about the arrangement. After his testimony, Daley slowly left the courtroom.
He was greeted by reporters who gave him the bad news that Tom Keane had been convicted in his own trial. Daley’s bodyguards
escorted him down the elevators to an official car that was waiting to take him home to Bridgeport. The next day, Alderman
Wigoda was found guilty of income tax evasion and then, three days later, on October 11, Earl Bush was found guilty. After
the three convictions were in, Thompson said: “I think it’s been an extraordinary week in Chicago.” Though Daley was not involved
in Keane’s enterprises, the conviction of the number two man in his administration left him vulnerable to charges that he
tolerated corruption. “Chicagoans have been asked for two decades to wink at the fix and shakedown on grounds that Chicago
is the city that works,” said Alderman Singer, who was gearing up for his mayoral run. Keane, Wigoda, and Bush were all sentenced
to prison. The voters, however, were not inclined to blame Daley, for the scandals, or if they did, they did not regard them
as important. The
Chicago Sun-Times
published a poll revealing that 75 percent of city voters still thought Daley was doing a good job.
²⁵

In early December, Daley traveled to Kansas City for the Democrats’ midseason mini-convention. After his embarrassing exclusion
from the 1972 convention, the national party had been actively reaching out to Daley. In August 1973, the party selected Chicago
as the official kickoff city for its national telethon, a formal gesture indicating that Daley and Chicago were once again
in the mainstream of the party. In Kansas City, party chairman Robert Strauss kissed him on the forehead on network television,
and presidential hopeful Jimmy Carter hailed Daley as a “tremendous leader” whose steward-ship had made Chicago “the best
managed and governed city in the nation.” Back in Chicago, Daley announced to a luncheon of Chicago ward committeemen and
Democratic officeholders that he would run for reelection to a sixth term. For the first time in his career, it was not a
forgone conclusion. With his ill health, many politically active Chicagoans were convinced Daley would step down.
²⁶

Despite all of his political and health troubles, the Republicans once again had a hard time finding a candidate to run against
Daley. In the end, the party announced it had selected Alderman John Hoellen, Daley’s longtime foe and the lone Republican
left on the fifty-member City Council. Hoellen, a reluctant candidate, did not sound especially sanguine about his prospects.
“I’m the best available, but not the best,” he said. As Christmas neared, on Sunday, December 15, Daley learned that his old
friend Danaher had been found dead, of an apparent heart attack, in his room at the Ambassador West Hotel. Danaher, separated
from his wife for six months, had been living in the hotel, waiting to go on trial the following month on corruption charges.
Daley served as a pallbearer in Danaher’s funeral.
²⁷