44 Facts About Jon Burge

Jon Graham Burge was an American police detective and commander in the Chicago Police Department who was found guilty of having "directly participated in or implicitly approved the torture" of at least 118 people in police custody in order to force false confessions.

Jon Burge was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993.

Jon Burge was convicted on all counts on June 28,2010, and sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison on January 21,2011.

Jon Burge attended Luella Elementary School and Bowen High School where he showed interest in the school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Jon Burge attended the University of Missouri but dropped out after one semester, which ended his draft deferment.

Jon Burge returned to Chicago to work as a stock clerk in the Jewel supermarket chain in 1966.

In June 1966, Jon Burge enlisted in the army reserve and began six years of service, including two years of active duty.

Jon Burge spent eight weeks at a military police school in Georgia.

Jon Burge received some training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he learned interrogation techniques.

Jon Burge volunteered for a tour of duty in the Vietnam War, but instead was assigned as an MP trainer.

Jon Burge served as an MP in South Korea, gathering five letters of appreciation from superiors.

On June 18,1968, Jon Burge volunteered for duty in Vietnam a second time, and was assigned to the Ninth Military Police Company of the Ninth Infantry Division.

Jon Burge claimed to have no knowledge of or involvement in prisoner interrogation, brutality or torture in Vietnam.

Jon Burge was honorably discharged from the Army on August 25,1969, aged 21.

Jon Burge became a police officer in March 1970 at age 22 on the South Side of Chicago.

In 1988, Jon Burge became Area 3 detective commander.

Jon Burge was eager to catch those responsible and launched a wide effort to pick up suspects and arrest them.

Jon Burge was convicted as an accomplice at his second trial.

Jon Burge's case was remanded to the lower court for retrial.

Jon Burge said that he had been beaten, suffocated with a plastic bag, burned, and treated with electric shock by police officers when interrogated about the February 1982 murders; he had been the victim of the pattern of a police and city cover-up.

When Jon Burge took the stand on March 13,1989, he denied that he injured Andrew Wilson during questioning and denied any knowledge of any such activity by other officers.

Jon Burge was acquitted of these charges in a second trial, which began on June 9,1989, and lasted nine weeks.

Jon Burge sought an independent citizens' review of the police department.

Jon Burge said that he had falsely confessed in 1983 to murder after he was tortured by officers: they placed a plastic bag over his head, put a gun in his mouth, and performed other acts.

Jon Burge claimed officers abused eleven other suspects, using such measures as electro-shock.

Jon Burge was suspended for 30 days pending separation, starting on November 8,1991.

Jon Burge attempted to have the ruling overturned, but the suspension and subsequent firing were upheld.

Several politicians, including US Representative Bobby Rush, requested that State's Attorney Richard A Devine seek new trials for the Death Row 10 who were allegedly tortured by Burge into making coerced confessions.

Jon Burge granted clemency by converting their death sentences to sentences of life without parole in most cases, while reducing some sentences.

Jon Burge hired an assistant, several lawyers, and retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

On September 1,2004, Jon Burge was served with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in an ongoing criminal investigation of police torture while in town for depositions on civil lawsuits at his attorney's office.

Jon Burge pleaded the Fifth Amendment to virtually every question during a 4-hour civil case deposition.

Jon Burge answered only questions about his name, his boat's name, and his $30,000 annual pension.

Jon Burge continued to receive a police pension as entitled under Illinois state law.

Jon Burge was arrested on October 21,2008, at his home in Apollo Beach by FBI agents.

Under the charges, Jon Burge could have been subject to 40 years in prison for the two obstruction counts and five years on the perjury count.

Jon Burge pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bond.

Fitzgerald noted that although Jon Burge was being charged with lying, and not the torture to which the statute of limitations applied, he believed Jon Burge to be guilty of both.

Jon Burge won the right from a Cook County judge to subpoena Burge.

Jon Burge was expected to exercise his 5th Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

On January 21,2011, Jon Burge was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison by US District Judge Joan Lefkow.

Jon Burge's projected release date was February 14,2015; he was released from prison on October 3,2014 to serve the remainder of his sentence in a halfway house.

Jon Burge broke his silence to say he found it hard to believe that Chicago political leadership could "even contemplate giving reparations to human vermin".

The Jon Burge case has been chronicled in various formats in the mass media.