‘You’ll find out that Chicago’s a very small town’: Evidence in ex-Alderman Edward Burke trial to lay bare inner workings of one of city’s last machine politicians

CHICAGO — Five years ago this month, decades of political dominance by a pair of old school Chicago Democratic politicians began to unravel when FBI agents descended on City Hall on an otherwise quiet Thursday morning.

Even in a town accustomed to high-profile public corruption probes, the sight of brown butcher paper taped over the windows and glass doors of a storied seat of power such as alderman Edward Burke’s office suite was stunning.

But it was also just the beginning. In the ensuing months, the dominoes continued to topple, first with Burke’s indictment, then raids on a host of politicians and lobbyists connected to then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, followed by the indictment in March 2022 of Madigan himself.

Now, with the corruption trial of Burke and two co-defendants set to begin Monday, the inner workings of one of Chicago’s last machine politicians will be laid bare in a federal courtroom.

Burke, 79, who served more than 50 years before stepping down earlier this year, was long considered the dean of the City Council, a master parliamentarian who used his positions as fundraiser, chair of the Finance Committee, and Cook County judicial slate maker to wield enormous influence over the city’s politics.

But unlike the indictment against Madigan, which alleges a high-level scheme involving secret payments funneled from utility giants Commonwealth Edison and AT&T Illinois to Madigan-connected lobbyists, the allegations against Burke involved a decidedly more earthy, “where’s mine?” type of graft.

For all of Burke’s power, the trial evidence is expected to show him in the late stages of his career fretting about