© 2024 Peoria Public Radio
A joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Former Chicago Police Commander Linked to Torture Dies

NPR

CHICAGO - Jon Burge, a former Chicago police commander who was linked to numerous cases involving the torture of suspects, has died in Florida.

The Ruskin, Florida, funeral home handling Burge's remains confirmed his death. Burge was 70.

More than 100 men, most of them black, have accused Burge and his "midnight crew" of rogue detectives of shocking, suffocating and beating them to secure confessions. The alleged torture happened from 1972 to 1991.

Burge was fired in 1993. He was sentenced to prison in 2011 for lying in a civil case. It was too late to charge him criminally on the torture charges.

In 2015, the city agreed to pay $5.5 million in reparations to 57 Burge victims.

 

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.