Edward Vincent Hanrahan (March 11, 1921 – June 9, 2009) was an American attorney and politician who served as Cook County State's Attorney from 1968 to 1972. Hanrahan had been a prospective successor to

Mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and ...

Richard J. Daley. His career was effectively ended after

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

leader

Fred Hampton Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African Ame ...

and member Mark Clark were assassinated in a raid by police coordinated by his office in 1969.

Early life and education

Hanrahan was born in Coconut Grove, Florida and moved as a child to Chicago with his family. He earned a degree in accounting from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in an intelligence role in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

Signal Corps.Napolitano, Jo
"Edward Hanrahan, Prosecutor Tied to '69 Panthers Raid, Dies at 88"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 11, 2009. Accessed June 13, 2009. After completing his military service, he attended

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

and earned his law degree in 1948.Sullivan, Patricia
"Prosecutor Oversaw Fatal 1969 Raid of Black Panthers in Chicago"
''

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'', June 12, 2009. Accessed June 13, 2009.

Career

Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley supported his successful bid for an appointment as

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial-level court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois. Appeals from the Northern District of Illinois a ...

in 1964. Hanrahan got the post after Daley told

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

Lyndon B. Johnson "Let me say, Mr. President, with great pride and honor, he's a precinct captain." Running as a Democrat, he won a landslide election in 1968 for Cook County State's Attorney, winning support from White and African American voters. Acting on the basis of a tip from an FBI informant (William O'Neal), 14 police officers assigned to Hanrahan's office staged a pre-dawn raid on December 4, 1969 to search for illegal weapons in the West Side apartment of

, a leader of the Black Panther Party. Dozens of shots were fired and Hampton and Black Panther Mark Clark were both killed. Despite guns found on the premises and police assertions that the Panthers had fired first, bullet hole markings presented by police in support of their claim turned out to be nail heads. An investigation found that the police had fired between 82 and 99 shots during the raid, and the Panthers had fired at least one shot. Hanrahan was indicted by a grand jury for obstructing justice and conspiracy to present false evidence, but was later acquitted. A civil suit concluded in 1982 ruled that there was a government conspiracy to deprive the Black Panthers of their civil rights and awarded nearly $2 million to the survivors of the raid and the families of those killed. The events leading up to the incident and the deaths of Hampton and Clark were the subject of the 1971 documentary ''

The Murder of Fred Hampton ''The Murder of Fred Hampton'' is a 1971 American documentary film about the short life and death of Fred Hampton, a young African-American civil rights activist in Chicago and leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party. During the film's product ...

'', and the material filmed by director

Howard Alk Howard Alk (25 October 1930 – January 1982) was a Chicago, Illinois-based filmmaker, and an original co-founder of The Second City theater troupe. In the 1960s he began to work in film with the Chicago Film Group, filming and directing document ...

in the immediate aftermath of the incident was used as evidence in the civil suit. The Cook County Democratic Party declined to endorse Hanrahan in his bid for reelection as State's Attorney in 1972, but Democratic voters renominated him anyway. The combined votes of Republicans and African American Democrats sufficed to elect his Republican opponent in the general election.

Post-State's Attorney

He ran for Mayor of Chicago in two Democratic Primaries, losing to Daley in 1975 and to

Michael Bilandic Michael Anthony Bilandic (February 13, 1923January 15, 2002) was an American Democratic politician and attorney who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, after the death of his predecessor, Richard J. Daley. Bilandic practic ...

in 1977; Hanrahan placed fourth each time. In the 1974 Congressional election for

Illinois's 6th congressional district Illinois's 6th congressional district covers parts of Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties. It is represented by Democrat Sean Casten since 2019. Geographic boundaries 2011 redistricting As of the 2011 redistricting which followe ...

, Hanrahan lost to

Henry Hyde Henry John Hyde (April 18, 1924 – November 29, 2007) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago' ...

. In the 1980 special election to represent the 36th ward on the

Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mon ...

, Hanrahan finished third of four candidates losing to incumbent appointee Louis Farina.

Personal life

Hanrahan and his wife were married for 55 years and had four children. Hanrahan died at age 88 on June 9, 2009 at his home in River Forest, Illinois due to complications from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanrahan, Edward 1921 births 2009 deaths District attorneys in Illinois United States Attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois Lawyers from Chicago Harvard Law School alumni University of Notre Dame alumni Deaths from cancer in Illinois Deaths from leukemia 20th-century American politicians People from River Forest, Illinois Lawyers from Miami Military personnel from Illinois 20th-century American lawyers United States Army personnel of World War II