Saturday, August 27, 2022

A twisted and sad story

Patrick Daley Thompson’s long rise and hard fall
Sneed: Former alderman, now imprisoned, for his whole life stuck to his ward, his roots and — most of all — his family.
By Michael Sneed
Aug 26, 2022, 4:19pm CDT




Patrick Daley Thompson arrives at the Laborers International Union Hall, 3841 S. Halsted St., on April 7, 2015.

Former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, 53, a new resident of the low-security federal prison in Oxford, Wis., once told me a story about power.

Power vs. perceived power. Real power vs. “reel power” that’s just for the cameras.

It now feels personal and, perhaps, a bit prophetic in re-reading his first exclusive interview with Sneed as a newly elected alderman.

Now serving a four-month sentence for filing false tax returns and lying to bank regulators, Thompson told the judge before his sentencing last week: “I’ve made mistakes. Those mistakes have cost me dearly.”

In the interview in 2015, Thompson was on top of the world. He was newly in charge of his legendary family’s Bridgeport bungalow; a seemingly low-key, unassuming, easygoing Irish fireplug of a guy; the kind you’d want to share a pint of Guinness with.

Thus, Sneed wrote:

Thompson was a little boy when he was handed a big-city job.

The blue-eyed fireplug was given a “clicker” to trigger the lights of the city’s gigantic Christmas tree jutting from the old Civic Center plaza.

“We were led to believe we were lighting the tree,” he said.

“But, you see, the clicker wasn’t real,” he chuckled....

The fifth-oldest of 23 first cousins comprising the latest incarnation of the Daley dynasty — set in place by his grandfather, Mayor Richard J. Daley — Thompson is the first member of his family to become alderman of the Daley bastion: The 11th Ward.

Surprisingly, Thompson also chose to live in the legendary Bridgeport bungalow where Mayor Richard J. Daley and his wife, “Sis,” raised his mother, Pat — and her siblings Mary Carol, Ellie, Rich, Mike, John and Bill.

“No one in the family ever wanted to be alderman of the 11th Ward before,” said Patrick’s uncle, Cook County Board Commissioner John Daley.

“I’ve never ventured far from this house,” said Thompson, a real estate lawyer and former commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

“I grew up next door to my grandparents and spent a lot of time with my Gram,” he said, referring to Sis.

“I’d flip over the fence and Gram always had coffee and cake ready because she had a sweet tooth. I spent a lot of time in the family den in the basement playing with my sister, Courtney, and my brother, Peter.

... Thompson went to school in the ward, played baseball and football and hockey at Donovan Park, sat at the counter of the now non-existent North Star ice cream parlor, and hung out at the Valentine Boys Club, playing basketball. ... [Thompson] is also the nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley and former Secretary of Commerce/White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

“I am very proud of my family,” said Thompson. “But I am my own person and am not relying on my family name to get things done,” said Daley.

“But I am reminded of my grandfather’s legacy in the ward,” he said.

“When I ran in the ward, a number of people remembered what my grandfather had done for them. What an influence he had been in their lives. ... It was proof of how special a person he had become.”

“When we first moved into the house, we talked about adding a second floor,” said Thompson, who lives there with wife and three children.

“Then I thought, well, 11 people lived in this house before us ... So I figured we’d probably never see each other if we added another floor. So we only redid the bathroom and the kitchen and repainted.

“I had all the original blueprints of the house framed. And I found a hidden door up in the attic which was imprinted with family signatures.”

Thompson is now hoping to be out in time for Christmas and return to the family home.

Looking back, I wondered why Thompson led off his first aldermanic interview with the “power” and “lack of power” he first felt he had in his hands as a child during what was obviously a staged media event for the television cameras. The story of the impotent “clicker.”

And why I never asked how that first impact felt.

The story of power he never really had … which, sadly, became the power he used unwisely.

I met this guy once. Knowing he was a Daley, I left my guard down. I found him to be rude and arrogant and I was surprised that the uncles would let him out in public acting like that. I have no doubt that the federal judge has helped cure his personality disorder.  I hope that when he comes home, he continues working on himself so that he gets another chance at life. He certainly has allot of good in him.

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