When Corruption Was King: The Double Life of the Chicago Mob Lawyer Who Turned on His Cronies and Took Down America's Most Corrupt Criminal Justice System Book

Bob Cooley was the Chicago Mafia?s "Mechanic"?a fixer of court cases. During the 1970s and ?80s, Cooley bribed judges, court clerks, and cops to keep his Mob clients?hit men, bookies, racketeers, and crooked pols?out of jail. Paid handsomely for his services, he lived fast and enjoyed the protection of the men he served. He had enough money to blow on all the vices the Windy City could offer, and enough standing among Mobsters to know he would never be caught. Yet, by the end of the ?90s, without a pending conviction or a hit man on his tail, Cooley became the star witness in nine federal trials that took down the Chicago Outfit, arguably the most powerful Mafia family in the history of organized crime. This is the story of a Mob lawyer turned mole with a million-dollar contract on his head who has clanged back and forth between sin and sainthood like a church bell clapper?a turbulent youth, a stint on Chicago?s police force, law school, and then the inner sanctum of Chicago?s Mob bosses and political leaders. With wild abandon he chased crooked acquittals for the likes of Pat Marcy, former henchman of Al Capone, who had become the Mob?s key political operative; ruthless Mafia Capo and gambling czar Marco D?Amico; and notorious hit man Harry Aleman. He dined with Mob bosses and shared "last suppers" with friends before their gangland executions. With Cooley on their side, the Mob controlled the courts, the cops, the politicians, and could fend off the Feds. In a startling act of conscience, Cooley walked into the office of the U.S. Organized Crime Strike Force and agreed to wear a wire on the same Mafia overlords who had made him a player. Having sent two dozen mobsters and public officials to prison, the man who bulldozed the Chicago Mob tells a tale of transgression and redemption in a book that reveals the personal story behind the federal government?s most successful Mafia investigation.Read More