40 years ago

There used to be a Chicago radio personality named Howard Miller. He was as popular as the late Bob Collins. There used to be a Forest Park mayor named Howard Mohr. He had a community center named for him. The two Howards got together in an on-the-air telephone conversation on Miller’s WGN morning show. The subject was a proposal that college scholarships be made available for the children of police officers and firemen killed in the line of duty.

Miller suggested the measure go to the Illinois General Assembly and asked Mohr, then serving as a state senator, to be its sponsor. Mohr readily agreed since he had already co-sponsored an earlier state law providing $10,000 compensation to the families of such victims. Miller, a stanch spokesman for law and order, had established a similar fund for the families of Chicago police officers slain just previously at the Cabrini Green housing project.

From the July 29, 1970 Forest Park Review

30 years ago

Leftovers, anyone? More Aetna Life Insurance claims that can only be classified as weird: In Alexandria, Va., a dog left alone in an unattended, idling car nudged the gear shift into reverse. It rolled backward and jostled the car behind. The victimized car owner saw it coming and the dog let a loud Virginia Woof.

A couple of New England town constables were called to the scene of a suspected burglary in progress. Two men were loading valuables into a waiting van as officers confronted them. So affable and unflappable were the suspects that they convinced the cops that not only were they the homeowners but cajoled them into helping load a billiard table on board.

Wonder what the conversation was back at the station house that night?

From the July 9, 1980 Forest Park Review

20 years ago

“The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” They came and they went. But not before visiting Forest Park as part of a U.S.S.R. / U.S.A.- sponsored visit that included New York, Washington, D.C. and Buffalo, N.Y.

The prime purpose of the tour was to familiarize the foreign travelers with Americans. Having shown the group Chicago on this leg of the trip, the co-sponsoring Friendship Society planned this day in Forest Park as a stopover. The Russian visitors were welcomed by Mayor Lorraine Popelka, and given a tour of our police and fire departments. After some souvenir shopping at the Venture store, the entourage then visited the historic Haymarket Monument at Forest Home Cemetery. And, of course, no visit to the states would completely satisfy without fast food à la Ronald McDonald.

From the July 4, 1990 Forest Park Review

10 years ago

In May 2000, James Evans was sentenced to life without parole for stabbing to death Oak Park resident Angela Glover, 39.

Evans had entered Ms. Glover’s apartment ostensibly with burglary in mind when confronted by his victim. A struggle apparently took place during which Evans stabbed the woman several times, then ran from the scene only to be arrested that evening by Forest Park police after an intensive search.

Assistant State’s Attorney David Sabatini said Evans “graduated from being a car thief to a robber, to a rapist. Every time he goes to the penitentiary he comes out worse.” Evans’ defense attorney depicted him an abused child with little chance of escaping a life of crime. “He is a person who is not beyond saving,” she added, “who has potential to be an instrument of good.” In closing, she pleaded that her client be handed a sentence in terms of years, rather than the death penalty.

And the wheels of justice roll on.

From the June 28, 2000 Forest Park Review