Robert Cooley (born 1943) is a former

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

lawyer, government

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...

and author of the 2004 autobiography, "'' When Corruption was King''."

Early life

Cooley was born in 1943 to an

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

family which lived in the Greater Grand Crossing section of Chicago's Southeast Side.''Robert Cooley Interview''
Avila Chicago; 2007; Text: Cooley notes that he lived at 74th & Vernon, as well as 76th & Langley; accessed December 2015 His father was a

Chicago Police The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

, as were his grandfathers – both of whom had died in the line of duty.

Informant

In 1986 Cooley became disgusted by the people he worked for. He approached the U.S. Justice Department's

Organized Crime Strike Force The United States Organized Crime Strike Force was created in the late 1960s for the purpose of finding and prosecuting illegal racketeering. It was formed in a congressional effort led by Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Specifically, the Strike Forces ...

and declared, "I'd like to help you destroy the First Ward. I want to help you destroy Pat Marcy."Cooley, Robert, with Levin, Hillel; '' When Corruption Was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago, Then Brought the Outfit Down''; New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers; 2004; ; p. 182; retrieved December 2015 He proceeded to work undercover as part of an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

probe known as "Operation GambAt" (for "gambling attorney"). His work ultimately sent 24 men to

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

, including

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, ...

mobsters A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization a ...

, politicians, police officers, and judges.

References

External links

Robert Cooley
a
Robert Cooley Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooley, Robert 1943 births Living people American people of Irish descent 21st-century American memoirists Lawyers from Chicago Chicago Police Department officers Federal Bureau of Investigation informants Organized crime memoirists