FEAR STRIKES OUT

FEAR STRIKES OUT


Only in Chicago could the 1853 killing of an early Constable rise from
the ashes to expose the meager state of moral courage in contemporary

municipal leaders. From the moment the long forgotten story of

Constable James Quinn's death first resurfaced some seven years ago, it

represented not only a can of worms to the police department's

so-called "historians" but served as a catalyst to expose a city that

had not changed much over the past 150 years. Clout is still clout.

Double standards remain common practice, and having two sets of rules:

one for insiders and another for outsiders is alive and well in the

Windy City.



The modern investigation into the death of Constable Quinn proved to be

so much more than just a walk through history. Piecing together

hundreds of artifacts found in various archives around town revealed

ugly secrets - exposing hypocrisy in some folks and uncommon valor in

others. Along the way, two themes surfaced: the police brass were

afraid of change and that fear caused otherwise good men to act badly.



From a factual perspective, the Quinn case was a no-brainer right from

the start. Primary source documents surviving the Great Fire of 1871

revealed a

long forgotten fact: Constable Quinn died as a result of

injuries sustained while in the discharge of his duty and a three man

legal team, known as the Committee on the Judiciary of the Common

Council of 1854, had determined just that. Despite this

incontrovertible evidence, the police department - its brass, its

historians, and others - not only denied this truth but spun and

twisted the facts to new heights - even for Chicago standards. Rather

than accepting the legal findings of the city, Quinn nay-sayers pointed

to a single uncorroborated allegation made by a vicious convicted felon

at the trial of the man convicted of killing the Constable as their

basis for believing Quinn died while off-duty in a barroom brawl. They

actually advanced this lie with a straight face never showing a bit of

shame.



In effect, the recently removed police brass treated the Constable no

differently than the Pharisees reacted to the curing of the Blind Man

by a certain young Man from Nazareth almost 2000 years ago. In this

Biblical story, the Truth scared the Pharisees. Why? Because the story

and all that it meant ran contrary to their belief systems and

historical narratives. Therefore they did everything to discredit and

discount the truth. To accept the curing of the blind man by Jesus

meant He was the Messiah - something the Pharisees refused to accept no

matter how weighty the evidence. Similarly, the police brass in Quinn

refused to accept 19th century primary

source evidence showing the

Quinn case was decided long ago. They also pooh-poohed a 2007 finding

by seven professional historians from the Chicago History Museum that

concluded, “We can say with certainty that Constable Quinn is the

earliest known Chicago police officer to die in the line of duty."



The rejection of the truth in the case of the Constable was much more

than just "an institutional reluctance to change" on the part of police

brass. No. It was an intentional and deliberate campaign launched and

orchestrated by men of bad character with ill-intent. They showed their

true colors by attacking the legacy and good name of a defenseless,

dead hero -- a man who had made the ultimate sacrifice for his city.

.

How could this seemingly harmless discovery scare the hell out of men

who had no doubt stood toe to toe with violent criminals over the

years? It just didn't make a lick of sense -- unless you understand the

power of FEAR - FEAR of change; FEAR of outsiders; and FEAR of being

viewed as having been "upstaged" by such outsiders are all very

powerful factors that influenced their bad behavior.



Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but nobody is entitled to

their own facts. Facts are stubborn things. Truth is irrepressible.

Beginning in 2003, the story of Constable Quinn took on so much more

than just an interesting historical tid bit. It became the prism

through which endless buffoonery, hypocrisy and vicious politics was



exposed.



Rather than just simply rejoicing the finding of its proverbial Lost

Sheep, the police brass chose to reject Quinn and embarked on their

campaign to deny, deceive and destroy this story and all those who

advanced it. The smear campaign to kill Quinn for a second time was so

effective that it almost claimed another victim: Thomas Epach, a career

prosecutor...a man of unquestioned integrity, and a man who, in his

day, prosecuted and convicted cop killers. Tom, after capping off a

tremendously successful career prosecuting violent criminals, was

hand-picked to become the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of

the Chicago Police Department... In Tom's eyes, this assignment was his

crowning achievement in public service. In this role, he was assigned

to perform many sensitive tasks for the Superintendent; one of which

included a tasking in 2005 to review the evidence in the Quinn case.

This job was given to him directly by his boss - Superintendent Phil

Cline - but his order came with one caveat: Cline told him, "Find a way

to kill the case."



Duty bound, Epach diligently reviewed all of the evidence in Quinn. He

digested every morsel, memorized all of the facts, asked endless

questions, challenged every piece of evidence, engaged in scholarly

inquiry and debated the case from every angle. In the end, he arrived

at the same inescapable conclusion that city fathers had reached over

150 years ago: Quinn died as a result of injuries he sustained

while in

the discharge of his duty as an officer of the city.



Epach knew his findings would not be received well by his boss and

others. But duty bound, he pressed forward. He knew that the

department's historical narrative had placed Casper Lauer as its first

to fall and news that Quinn’s line of duty death preceded Lauer’s would

not be welcome. But “it is what it is” and Quinn happened to have died

nine months before Lauer. Epach delivered his findings in January of

2006 and immediately was demonized. He was viewed and treated as the

enemy. Rather than being complimented for a job well done; he was

ostracized and relegated to the "out" group within the department. But

this was the price he was willing to pay, for Epach would have no part

in the lynching of a dead man.

Nobody deserved such treatment - let alone Tom Epach. For years, he had

been the top boss for criminal prosecutors in the county, and took what

he called a step up- to join the best Police Department in the country

and protect from the front lines rather than the safety of the

courtroom.



After looking at the facts through every possible lens,Tom Epach knew

for sure what Rick Barrett, Skinny Sheahan, Ed Burke and Tom O' Gorman

and James Quinn already knew- that Constable Quinn's legacy was of the

greatest sort: that he had made the ultimate sacrifice...that he had

died in

the line of duty.



From t

he moment of that realization, Epach's spirit was forever joined

with the Constable's and he pushed forward armed with the Truth and

unafraid of any and all repercussions.



Epach wasn't Pollyannaish. He never walked through life wearing rose

colored glasses. In fact, through his many years of public service,

he'd seen his fill of bad guys masquerading as good guys -- but this

time, it was too much. His boss, the Superintendent, a man who, while

at the very time was building a multi-million dollar police memorial on

the city's lakefront to honor Chicago's fallen heroes, was at the same

time, privately spearheading an effort to kill the case Chicago's

earliest hero, reducing the memorial's motto of "Never Forget" to

nothing more than meaningless rhetoric.



Not only would Cline retaliate against Epach for "disloyalty" but the

disgraced Superintendent continued to weave himself deeper and deeper

into a tangled web of deception. Cline fabricated a March 22, 2006,

meeting of his Awards Committee to fool the Mayor into thinking the

Quinn case had been properly adjudicated. He lied to the mayor when he

claimed the Committee had reconvened and determined there was no new

evidence to justify enshrining Quinn's star in the Superintendent's

Honored Star Case. One hitch: That meeting never happened. It was all a

lie. He cowardly told Epach that if he were ever challenged by the

Mayor or anyone else on his decision to deny Quinn he would just point

to his Awards Committe

e claim they did it. So, Cline pulled a Pontius

Pilate and washed his hands of the matter. 




Then came the Friday night massacre...On the eve of Labor Day week-end

2006, when Epach was on furlough and out of town, a late night General

Order was issued by the Superintendent's office "dumping" Epach. He was

banished to the basement of the building to be the Evidence Custodian

in charge of counting recovered stolen lawn mowers and such. Make no

mistake: This was not an upward mobility move; it was retaliation,

Chicago style.





As unimaginable as it may seem, at the same time small minds and little

men were advancing lies about the hero Constable, they enshrined a

truly undeserving officer: Morgan P. Donahue, who, according to

original CPD homicide reports from 1919 was killed in a "bar room

brawl" while "off-duty" and drinking in a "saloon."



For the original CPD homicide report relative to P.O. Donahue see:



http://homicide.northwestern.edu/database/3401/?page=



The enshrining of Donahue brought hypocrisy, double standards and clout

to new highs not often seen even in Chicago...Cline's own "historians"

spoke out against enshrining Donahue...but Cline prevailed as Donahue

was claimed to have been an ancestor to one of Cline's life-long

buddies...but hey, what's a little corner cutting between friends?



And Epach? Well, he became both the second victim and the second hero

in the odyssey known as the Quinn case. In the end, he resigned fr

om

the job he loved rather than compromise his integrity and give in to an

order he knew was immoral. Although resigning was obviously a painful

choice for him, when all was said and done, and given his moral

courage, it was the only decision this man would make.



Police work is all about righting wrongs. In this case, as in all of

his cases, Epach did the right thing. He wasn't afraid of advancing the

truth no matter what the personal cost would be to him.



Finally, fear struck out.


http://www.constablequinn.com/FEAR%20STRIKES%20OUT.htm

Editor's note: Your ProbateShark has received communications challenging the historical validity and accuracy of this article.  ProbateShark does not wish to be in the middle of a historical controversy or accused of being a revisionist.  Any persons wishing to comment on this article, please make you thoughts known in the comment section of this blog.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com



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