The Dishonor Roll: Meet the public officials who helped build Illinois’ culture of corruption

Corruption is a way of life in Illinois politics and in Chicago, once dubbed “the only completely corrupt city in America.” As part of its ongoing series “Culture of Corruption,” the Tribune has compiled a list of roughly 200 convicted , indicted or generally notorious public officials from Illinois’ long and infamous political history.

Scroll and link to meet the small-town official behind the largest municipal fraud in the nation’s history, the Chicago mayor with ties to gangster Al Capone and many more. They are arranged into groups that include Chicago and Cook County officials, people Illinois voters sent to Springfield or Washington, suburban and downstate local officials and judges. These lists aren’t meant to be exhaustive, and the Tribune will update them when new politicians inevitably behave in ways that qualify them for inclusion.

“The Dishonor Roll” draws heavily from the Tribune’s vast archives, including photography and pages from the newspaper on the days these public officials made headlines. The Tribune also utilized resources from the Chicago Public Library, reviewed court records and consulted several books, including “Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality” by Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson.

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