Thomas J. Courtney

During his tenure, Courtney frequently made local and even national news for such actions as the "railroaded" prosecution of mobster Roger Touhy for the fake kidnapping of Jake "The Barber" Factor;[1] investigating a CTA "L" crash where 20 persons died,[2] raiding betting parlors,[1] and raiding slot machines.[3] Numerous raids in 1938 netted headlines but no convictions and are viewed by historians as political show.In the late 1930s, Courtney tried to ally himself with Governor Henry Horner in the latter's political feud with Chicago mayor Ed Kelly and Democratic boss Patrick A. Nash, going so far as to challenge Kelly in the 1939 mayoral primary.[5] In 1944, Courtney was the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois, losing in the general election to Republican incumbent Dwight H. Green.The next year, 1945, he became a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County and served on the bench for the next quarter-century, until 1970.