The head of the Chicago Board Of Education, Michael Scott, is dead.
Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that Scott had a gunshot wound to his left temple and police discovered a .380-caliber gun underneath his body, which was found 30 feet from his blue Cadillac.
Terrible. But there are suspicious circumstances.
Scott reportedly disappeared from his Chicago home Sunday.
Emergency responders pulled the body out of the river at 4:30 a.m. local time Monday, after receiving a tip, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Joe Roccasalva told MyFoxChicago.com.
So was it murder or suicide? Or murder followed by suicide. Or suicide followed by murder?
Why was Scott "despondent"?
Scott had been Mayor Daley's go-to guy for a long time. Over the summer he told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating how students were selected for the system's elite selective-enrollment high schools, MyFoxChicago.com reported.
Scott said he had done nothing wrong, the Web site reported.
Chicago residents grew angry when Daley appointed Scott to serve a second stint as school board president. Scott had recommended that sports agent Rufus Williams succeed him, but Williams resigned under pressure and Daley re-appointed Scott to head the school board and oversee the city's public schools -- a top Daley priority, MyFoxChicago.com reported.
"My wife and I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family of Michael Scott," Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger said in an e-mail statement released Monday.
Chicago is famous for mob bosses sending condolences to the family of some one they have ordered killed. However, one should beware of guilt by association. Just because Mr. Stroger is from Chicago, as is our President, there is no reason for guilt by association with a city known for its gangster past.
As far as I know Mr. Stroger is nothing like Alexi Giannoulias who is running for Obama's old Senate seat if he can win the Democrat nomination.
Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.
Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help.
Thank the Maker that an honest politician from Chicago has become President. The country would be in really bad hands if we had gotten the other kind.
I remember when Giannoulias was elected state Treasurer. His only claim to fame was making bad loans that were defaulted on to reputed mobsters from his family owned bank. He said it was racism because he is Italian (I'm half sicilian my grandparents never whined about racism, they hated the mob).
He ran against a woman who actually had experience as a town treasurer. But she was Republican, and refused to campaign "dirty" and point to his past. At that time we were still recovering from George Ryan's corruption, and no Republican would get into office.
So to fight corrupuption the people elected a guy with mob ties, because that's still better than being Republican. real smart the Illinoisans are.
Was Scott left-handed?