CHICAGO (AP) – Former Cook County State’s Attorney Bernard Carey, a Republican who was elected in the wake of a Chicago police raid that killed two Black Panther Party members in 1969, is dead at age 83.
Wife Mary Rita said Carey died Friday of stomach cancer at his home in Naples, Florida.
A former FBI agent, Carey became state’s attorney in 1972 when he defeated State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan. It was Hanrahan who ordered the raid that resulted in the death of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
Carey defeated a judge backed by Mayor Richard J. Daley to win re-election in 1976. He lost to state Sen. Richard M. Daley in 1980.
Tom Sullivan, who was U. S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1977 to 1981, said Monday that Carey was a driving force for Operation Greylord, an investigation into judicial corruption in Cook County.
In addition to his wife, Carey is survived by three sons and two daughters.
