Hake Terrence - Operation Greylord

These are the major people involved in Operation Greylord.

The Investigators

MICHAEL FICARO: an assistant states attorney who broke in Terry Hake and gave Operation Greylord a push at the earliest stage

TERRY HAKE: an assistant states attorney who agreed to gather evidence in the felony courts and then as a fixer in the municipal courts

LAMAR JORDAN: one of Terry Hakes contact agents

SCOTT LASSAR: an Assistant U.S. Attorney who helped guide Terry Hake

BILL MEGARY: an FBI contact agent whose work ensured the success of Greylord

DAN REIDY: an Assistant U.S. Attorney and the planner for Operation Greylord

DAVID VICTOR RIES: an FBI agent who set up a law office and began gathering evidence in the municipal courts

CHARLES SKLARSKY: an Assistant U.S. Attorney, who contacted Terry Hake about going undercover in operation Greylord.

The Corrupt

BARRY CARPENTER: a two-bit fixer married to Terry Hakes friend Alice, a fellow assistant states attorney

FRANK CARDONI: looking like a magazine ad, this defense attorney joined the BMW set by specializing in cases before Judge John Reynolds at a North Side police station

MARK CIAVELLI: Terry Hakes best friend in the courts, who left the States Attorneys Office to become a fixer with his law partner, Frank Cardoni

HAROLD CONN: used his role as a deputy court clerk to pass bribes on to judges, sometimes in public

JAMES COSTELLO: Big Bird, a hallway hustler in need of a friend who taught Terry Hake how the courts really worked

JUDGE JOHN DEVINE: snidely called Dollars Devine for his open greed in Auto Theft Court

JUDGE MARTIN HOGAN: another man you bribed if you were caught stealing an auto

MEL KANTER: Candyman, one of the Traffic Court fixers known as miracle workers

JUDGE ALAN LANE: so corrupt he hinted at it on his vanity license plates

JAMES LEFEVOUR: Jingles and Dogbreath, a policeman serving as a bagman in the municipal courts under his cousin, Judge Richard LeFevour, whom he resented

JUDGE RICHARD LEFEVOUR: in public he reorganized the municipal courts to end corruption, but secretly he packed the courts under him with equally grasping judges for a share in their bribes

JUDGE THOMAS MALONEY: his pretense of being a law-and-order jurist collapsed when he became the first American judge convicted of taking bribes in murder cases

JUDGE P.J. MCCORMICK: suggested Terry Hake lie about a case in his courtroom

JUDGE JOHN MURPHY: his greed in Traffic Court made him one of the first targets of Operation Greylord

JUDGE WAYNE OLSON: while presiding in Narcotics Court, he took bribes from fixers waiting in line

JUDGE MAURICE POMPEY: a jurist so cautious that Greylord could not touch him

JUDGE JOHN REYNOLDS: his side business was freeing defendants at a North Side court

LUCIUS ROBINSON: this bagman for Judge Pompey seemed like an ordinary court clerk, but could outsmart some of the fixers

JUDGE ALLEN ROSIN: hid his corruption from his family, but one day snapped, shouting in court, I am God!

BRUCE ROTH: a fixer who tried to get his law license back after being convicted of bribery

PETER KESSLER: this immigrant lawyer was a big money hallway hustler until he found his conscience

BOB SILVERMAN: Silvery Bob, a dapper defense attorney who spread corruption wherever he worked

JOE and JAMES TRUNZO: identical-twin policemen and bagmen in the traffic courts

JUDGE FRANK WILSON: took a bribe to free mob hit man Harry Aleman, making him give up his career and live in disgrace

CY YONAN: a fixer specializing in having judges throw cases out

indicates the name is a pseudonym

Today, crime victims and their families are fairly assured of seeing justice carried out, but it wasnt always that way in Chicago. The system was so crippled by corruption when I became a young prosecutor that no one knew how to fight it. But then the U.S. Justice Department chose the city for an experiment in reaching the roots of judicial bribery. Although there would be a personal cost for me, I was privileged to have been inside Operation Greylord from the beginning.

It used to be thought that lawyers corrupted judges, but we found that judges were pressuring defense attorneys for bribes and even setting their own rates. By freeing criminals, the judges were in effect taking part in their rapes, robberies, and murders. During our undercover investigation, we learned that perhaps half the judges in the nations largest circuit court system could be bought or made to comply. They were merely scarecrows draped in black robes. Those who refused to sell their ideals had their careers sidelined by being assigned to the lesser courts.

Any case could be rigged, from a traffic ticket to a mob hit. There even was a rumor that some innocent people were being convicted just to make crooked jurists appear tough on crime.

City hall and police headquarters were interlocked with the courts by corruption, with each protecting the other. It had always been this way, good people said with a shrug; but, as we learned, it hadnt.

For me the most shocking perversion of justice was the freeing of notorious mob killer Harry Aleman. On the night of September 27, 1972, truck dispatcher William Logan was leaving home for work when Aleman called out from the shadows, Hey, Billy! As Logan turned around he was cut down by three shotgun blasts.