On that winter's night, 1963, Alderman Ben Lewis was fresh from his landslide re-election. The one-time CTA bus driver was alone in his ward office that used to be on West Roosevelt Road.
"Lewis made $8,000 a year as alderman but yet he was living a million-dollar lifestyle. He vacationed in Acapulco quite frequently, he was living well beyond his means," said historian and author Richard Lindberg.
Lewis was found by a janitor manacled to his office chair; the 53-year old alderman shot three times in the back of his head... "It was clear he was tortured by his assailant, cigarettes had been burned into his skin, and then he was shot," said Lindberg.
Except for Lindberg and some other local crime buffs, this case seems to have vanished from Chicago history.
