Jon Burge joined the Chicago Police Department in 1970, serving in various investigative posts and as commander from 1986 until his firing in 1993.
He was convicted in 2010 of lying about the torture of suspects. Special prosecutors had alleged Burge and his so-called midnight crew of rogue detectives led the torture of criminal suspects for two decades, coercing dozens of confessions.
Feb. 14, 1982
Police issue arrest warrants for Andrew Wilson and his younger brother Jackie F. Wilson in the fatal shooting of two police officers the week before. The Andrew Wilson case will dog Jon Burge for years to come, including his firing from the Police Department.
Feb. 14, 1989
A federal lawsuit filed by Andrew Wilson alleges his confession in the slaying of two police officers in 1982 was coerced under torture by investigators. The defendants named in the $10 million suit include then-Brighton Park Cmdr. Burge and three other cops, who deny the charges.
March 13, 1989
Burge takes the stand in a civil rights trial and denies allegations of police brutality brought by convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson against Burge and other police officials.
March 30, 1989
A federal judge declares a mistrial after a jury is unable to reach a decision regarding torture allegations against Burge. Two other police officers in the case are cleared of a charge that they tortured Andrew Wilson after his arrest in 1982.
Oct. 10, 1991
Gregory Banks, whose murder conviction was overturned because police beat a confession out of him in 1983, files a lawsuit accusing detectives under Burge of torturing him. The suit accuses Burge of “encouraging and supervising this violence.”
Nov. 8, 1991
Police Superintendent LeRoy Martin suspends and moves to fire Burge and two of his detectives after allegations of torturing prisoners while in custody.
Dec. 26, 1991
A federal judge refuses to order the Chicago Police Department to reinstate Burge and two other officers suspended without pay over allegations of brutality against Andrew Wilson.
Feb. 10, 1992
Convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson testifies about alleged torture by Burge, Detective John Yucaitis and Detective Patrick O’Hara at the start of hearings to dismiss the three officers. The officers deny the charges.
Jan. 13, 1993
Burge is among seven police officers sued in federal court on behalf of Marcus Wiggins, who alleges he was tortured while in custody during a 1991 murder investigation. Burge is not accused of personally torturing Wiggins.
Feb. 10, 1993
The Police Board votes to dismiss then-Cmdr. Burge on charges that he tortured Andrew Wilson, who was accused of killing two cops, 11 years earlier.
Oct. 4, 1993
A federal appellate court orders a new trial in Andrew Wilson’s lawsuit against four Chicago cops, including Burge, accusing them of torturing Wilson more than a decade earlier. The order reverses a lower federal court’s verdict that exonerated the officers in 1989.
June 27, 1994
A judge refuses to order the reinstatment of Burge, who was dismissed by the Police Board on allegations of torture in the Andrew Wilson case.
Feb. 2, 1999
Six years after Burge was fired on allegations of torturing a murder suspect, the charges of brutality against him and his detectives are revisited as 10 death row inmates and other prisoners try to prove they were beaten into making false confessions.
Nov. 17, 1999
A Chicago Tribune investigation looks at 10 death row cases and their connection to Burge and allegations of confessions obtained through torture. Read more.
Aug. 10, 2000
Aaron Patterson, left, and Derrick King claim they were tortured by police into making confessions that sent them to Death Row. (AP Photo; Illinois Department of Corrections)Justices reverse or remand six death penalty cases based on allegations of torture by police or other factors. The cases include death row inmates Aaron Patterson and Derrick King, who are granted hearings to present evidence of alleged torture by police working under Burge.
Jan. 19, 2001
Convicted murderer Darrell Cannon, who alleges he was tortured by detectives under Burge, agrees to drop his claim in exchange for a reduced prison term that could set him free within three years.
Sept. 26, 2001
Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine discusses deals with a handful of inmates with long-standing claims that they were tortured into confessing by Burge and his detectives. The inmates are Derrick King, Stanley Howard, Andrew Maxwell and Aaron Patterson.
April 24, 2002
Cook County’s chief criminal court judge appoints a special prosecutor to investigate decades-old allegations that detectives under Burge tortured suspects.
Jan. 10, 2003
Ryan pardons four death row inmates who claimed Burge or his detectives tortured them to confess: Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard.
May 29, 2003
Madison Hobley, pardoned by Gov. George Ryan, files a lawsuit alleging that Burge and his detectives tortured him during their investigation of a 1987 fire that killed seven people.
June 26, 2003
Aaron Patterson, pardoned by Gov. George Ryan in January 2003, files a federal lawsuit alleging he was tortured or threatened by Burge and officers he commanded as they investigated a 1986 double murder.
Nov. 24, 2003
Former death row inmate Stanley Howard files a lawsuit alleging that Burge and his detectives used torture to coerce his confession to a 1984 slaying that Howard says he did not commit.
Jan. 10, 2004
Former death row inmate Leroy Orange, pardoned by Gov. George Ryan, files a federal lawsuit against Burge and other police detectives alleging they tortured him into confessing to four 1985 murders he did not commit.
Aug. 4, 2004
A federal magistrate judge orders Burge, now living in Florida, to come to Chicago to give a deposition in lawsuits filed by pardoned death row inmates Madison Hobley and Aaron Patterson.
Sept. 1, 2004
During videotaped depositions in two lawsuits filed by pardoned death row inmates, Burge stays mum when asked if he or detectives under his command tortured suspects.
July 19, 2006
Concluding a four-year probe, special prosecutors allege that Burge led the torture of suspects for two decades. But the investigation states Burge and other cops cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired. Read more.
April 24, 2007
A coalition of civil rights groups issues a report stating that a four-year investigation into police torture was a whitewash, and that two special prosecutors had ample evidence to charge Jon Burge and others with perjury and obstruction of justice.
Sept. 20, 2007
A group of City Council members calls for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to seek an indictment of Burge and detectives under his command for torturing suspects in their custody.
Sept. 26, 2007
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announces that his office is investigating reports of police torture from the 1970s to 1990s, but he does not name Burge or the detectives who worked under him.
Dec. 7, 2007
Chicago agrees to pay up to $19.8 million to settle the cases of pardoned death row inmates Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard, Madison Hobley and Aaron Patterson, who allegedly were tortured into confessions while in the custody of Jon Burge and his detectives.
Feb. 1, 2008
Prosecutors drop murder charges against James Andrews, who went to prison for a double homicide he confessed to after allegedly being tortured by detectives working under Burge.
Oct. 21, 2008
Burge is arrested on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, accused of lying in written answers he submitted in 2003 as part of a federal lawsuit over torture claims. Read more.
Oct. 27, 2008
At a brief court hearing packed with observers, Burge enters his plea to federal charges.
Jan. 9, 2009
After serving 25 years of a life sentence in prison, David Fauntleroy is cleared of a 1983 homicide. He maintained he was tortured into confessing by police working under Burge.
May 22, 2009
A Cook County judge orders a new trial for convicted murderer Victor Safforld after finding three police detectives who worked under Burge likely beat him into confessing to two 1990 murders.
July 7, 2009
Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves, serving time for the 1988 murders of two women and three children, are released from prison. Kitchen had contended that police under Burge beat a confession out of him.
Aug. 18, 2009
Mark Clements accepts a plea deal that frees him from prison after 28 years. Clements claims his confession to a 1981 arson that killed four people was coerced after a beating by police under Burge.
Sept. 3, 2009
Alton Logan, who spent 26 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, files a federal lawsuit alleging that Burge suppressed evidence that would have proved his innocence.
Jan. 14, 2010
After 23 years in prison, charges are dropped against Michael Tillman, who said police under Burge beat a confession out of him in a 1986 rape and murder.
May 6, 2010
Jury selection begins in the trial of Burge, who stands accused of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying in 2003 when he denied under oath he knew of or participated in abuse of suspects. Read more.
May 26, 2010
Former gang leader Anthony Holmes testifies that Burge used an electrical device and plastic bags to force a murder confession from him in the early 1970s.
June 16, 2010
Burge tearfully testifies at his perjury trial that he never beat, shocked or suffocated anyone into giving confessions. Read more.
June 28, 2010
A federal jury convicts Burge on all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about the torture in a civil lawsuit. Read more.
July 1, 2010
Freed death row inmate Ronald Kitchen, who spent more than 20 years in prison after police allegedly used torture to extract a false confession to five murders in 1988, sues Burge, his detectives and Mayor Richard M. Daley.
July 22, 2010
Michael Tillman, who spent 23 years in prison for a 1986 rape and murder, files a federal lawsuit claiming his confession was coerced by police working under Burge who allegedly beat, burned, smothered and threatened him with death.
Jan. 21, 2011
A federal judge sentences Burge to 4 1/2 years in prison, saying his torture of suspects irreparably damaged the justice system. Read more.
March 16, 2011
Eric Caine, who says he was beaten into confessing to a 1986 double murder by detectives under Burge, is ordered released by a Cook County judge on the same day Burge reports to federal prison.
July 14, 2011
With Burge in prison for lying about the torture of criminal suspects, federal officials turn their investigation to detectives who worked under Burge and to former Cook County prosecutors. The expansion of the probe signals that a scandal that has dogged Chicago for decades may not soon be over.
Aug. 10, 2011
A federal judge rules that former Mayor Richard M. Daley can be sued for alleged police brutality under Burge. The ruling is important because Daley, the Cook County state’s attorney in the 1980s, is named in multiple lawsuits alleging torture by Burge and other detectives that led to coerced confessions.
March 2, 2012
Former Mayor Richard M. Daley denies allegations that he was part of a conspiracy involving Burge while Daley was Cook County state’s attorney. Daley’s written response is filed in federal court in answer to a lawsuit by Michael Tillman, who alleges he was tortured by Burge detectives and falsely confessed to rape and murder.
July 25, 2012
Aldermen approve more than $7 million in payments to Michael Tillman and David Fauntleroy, who say they were tortured during the 1980s by detectives under Burge.
Sept. 5, 2013
Chicago’s payouts to torture victims linked to Burge continue to climb as the latest settlement, for $12.3 million, is approved for onetime co-defendants Marvin Reeves and Ronald Kitchen.
July 3, 2014
Justices uphold a Cook County judge’s ruling that allows Burge, now in prison, to keep receiving his $4,000-a-month pension despite his 2010 conviction for lying about the torture of suspects.
Oct. 2, 2014
Burge is released from a minimum-security prison in North Carolina to a halfway house in the Tampa, Fla., area.
Feb. 13, 2015
Burge is released from home confinement in Florida, ending his 4 1/2-year sentence for lying under oath about the torture of suspects.
March 25, 2015
An unprecedented review by a Chicago law school dean gives hope to almost 20 alleged Burge victims still in prison. Read more.
April 14, 2015
Chicago proposes a $5.5 million fund for dozens of torture victims connected to Burge and his detectives. Read more.
May 6, 2015
The City Council acknowledges victims of torture linked to Burge before approving a $5.5 million reparations package. Read more.
Aug. 12, 2015
The Illinois Appellate Court overrules a lower court and throws out the murder conviction of Shawn Whirl, who claims his confession was coerced with torture by a detective who had worked with Burge. “There’s no evidence other than his coerced confession,” says one of the lawyers who represented Whirl in his appeal.
Oct. 14, 2015
After nearly 25 years behind bars for a murder he says he did not commit, Shawn Whirl walks out of state prison a free man. Read more.
Nov. 18, 2015
The Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission votes against sending the case of convicted killer Jerry Mahaffey to a Cook County judge to determine if he should be granted a new trial in a 1983 double murder. Mahaffey maintains that Burge’s detectives tortured him into confessing.
July 29, 2016
Previously, the state’s Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission couldn’t act on cases that didn’t involve Burge or his so-called midnight crew. That restriction is lifted with this new law, which allows the commission to investigate claims by anyone who was convicted in Cook County based on a confession coerced through torture.
Sources: Chicago Tribune reporting and archives; Chicago Torture Archive, University of Chicago
![After weeks of area college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as part of a nationwide movement, leaders of Chicago’s Jewish community responded Wednesday by demanding action against hate speech as a group of Northwestern students filed suit against their school for allowing protests there to become “increasingly hostile to Jews.” Meanwhile, seven members of Northwestern’s President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate stepped down to protest the university’s agreement with protesters. The agreement outlined a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the chaos and occasional violence that has engulfed other campuses across the country. […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CTC-L-cps-sit-in-response02_189144560.jpg?w=525 "After weeks of area college students protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as part of a nationwide movement, leaders of Chicago’s Jewish community responded Wednesday by demanding action against hate speech as a group of Northwestern students filed suit against their school for allowing protests there to become “increasingly hostile to Jews.” Meanwhile, seven members of Northwestern’s President’s Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate stepped down to protest the university’s agreement with protesters. The agreement outlined a plan intended to allow demonstrations to continue while preventing the chaos and occasional violence that has engulfed other campuses across the country. […]")