Roughly 33% of Chicago Aldermen since 1972 are convicted criminals.
But that’s nothing. Since 1983, 100% of the aldermen from the 7th Ward are convicted criminals – and both were convicted within 40 days of each other.
Sandi Jackson (upper left) and William Beavers (lower right)
The first is Sandi Jackson, wife of former U.S. Representative and hypochondriac Jesse Jackson Jr. She and her husband liberally stole from his campaign fund and blew it on a bevy of useless crap, like $43,000 for a Rolex watch, roughly $10,000 on Bruce Lee memorabilia, almost $5,000 on a Michael Jackson hat, $4,272.78 on a Navigator of the Seas cruise, $2,306.08 at Walt Disney World, over $10,000 at Best Buy, over $300 at Build-A-Bear, $3,544.00 at Mariel’s Boutique, $5,687.75 at Martha’s Vineyard Holistic Retreat, over $60,000 in excursions to nightclubs and lounges and over $14,000 on dry cleaning.
This, mind you, is only a partial list. Overall they stole $750,000 from Jr.’s campaign funds. Sandi plead guilty to one count of filing false tax returns and it is likely she will serve jail time.
The other 7th Ward jackass recently reeled in by the feds is “The Hog With The Big Nuts” William Beavers. He was convicted on four counts of tax evasion, which included not reporting tens of thousands of dollars taken from his campaign funds on his federal tax returns from 2006 to 2008. Beavers stopped reporting income taken from his campaign coffers after getting whacked with a particularly nasty tax bill in 2005, and federal prosecutors say this is clear proof that Beavers knew he was supposed to report the income but chose not to.
During the same period of time, Beavers lost half a million dollars in casinos. Most of the campaign checks he wrote to himself were cashed within minutes of Barnyard Bill’s returning to the tables. Of course he didn’t write “Funds For Feeding Vicious Gambling Addiction” on the memo stub. Instead he listed various campaign expenses. Sometimes these expenses wouldn’t be incurred until months later.
Beavers, who told U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald that he could go “fuck himself,” was defiant the whole way through the trial, but ultimately refused to testify. However this did not stop him from stating in public that his persecution at the hands of the federals was a direct result of his refusal to wear a wire and spy on John Daley. While I have no doubt the fascists over at the U.S. Attorney’s Office would stoop to trumping up charges, when it comes to Chicago politicians there doesn’t seem to be any need to go that way.
