Jon Burge
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| “ | As a policeman, [Jon Burge] did a lot of harm to a lot of people and left on this city a mark. It stains us for a long time. | „ |
| ~ Jesse Jackson |
Jon Graham Burge (December 20, 1947 – September 19, 2018) was an American police detective and commander in the Chicago Police Department who was accused of torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991 in order to force confessions.
Biography edit
Raised in the community area of South Deering on the Southeast Side of Chicago, Burge was the second eldest son of Floyd and Ethel Burge. Floyd was a blue collar worker of Norwegian descent and Ethel was an aspiring fashion writer of mixed Western European descent. Burge attended Bowen High School where he showed interest in the school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC). There he was exposed to military drill, weapons, leadership and military history.
He attended the University of Missouri but dropped out after one semester, which ended his draft deferment. He returned to Chicago to work as a stock clerk in the Jewel supermarket chain in 1966. He later joined the U.S. Army Reserve and served tours in South Korea and Vietnam. When he returned to the South Side of Chicago, he began a career as a city police officer, ending it as a commander.
According to The Guardian, between 1972 and 1991, Burge "either directly participated in or implicitly approved the torture" of at least 118 people in police custody. Federal prosecutors stated that Burge's use of torture began in 1972.
Burge was the leader of a group of police officers known variously as the "Midnight Crew", "Burge's Ass-Kickers", or the "A-Team", who abused suspects to coerce confessions. Federal prosecutors stated that the "Midnight Crew" used methods of torture including beating, suffocation, burning, and electrical shock to the genitals, among other methods.
Following the shooting of several Chicago law enforcement officials in 1982, the police obtained confessions that contributed to convictions of two people. One filed a civil suit in 1989 against Burge, other officers, and the city, for police torture and cover-up; Burge was acquitted in 1989 because of a hung jury. He was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993.
After being fired, Burge moved to Apollo Beach, Florida, a suburb of Tampa. He continued to receive a police pension as entitled under Illinois state law. In 1994, he bought his current wood-frame home for $154,000 and a 22 ft (6.7 m) motorboat.
While a police officer, Burge had owned a 40-foot (12 m) cabin cruiser named The Vigilante, which he maintained at Burnham Harbor. Upon retiring at full pension, he ran a fishing business in Florida. The precise amount of his pension is not a matter of public record, but he was eligible for 50% of his approximately $60,000 salary.
In 2002, a four-year review revealed numerous indictable crimes and other improprieties, but no indictment was made against Burge or his officers, as the statute of limitations for the crimes had expired. In 2003, Governor George Ryan pardoned four of Burge's victims who were on death row and whose convictions were based on coerced confessions.
In 2008, Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for Northern Illinois, charged Burge with obstruction of justice and perjury in relation to testimony in a 1989 civil suit against him for damages for alleged torture. Burge was convicted on all counts on June 28, 2010, and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in federal prison on January 21, 2011. He was released in October 2014.
Burge died at age 70 on September 19, 2018, at his home in Apollo Beach, Florida. Burge was previously treated for prostate cancer.