O.K. I have prided myself on writing a blog that centers on history and historical research and doesn’t just rant and complain about things but I can no longer do that.
A member of my facebook group, Chicago History the Stranger Side, posted an article yesterday about how the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office is getting press for locating autopsy reports for the St. Valentines Day Massacre that took place on Valentines Day (creative name huh?) in 1929.
[caption id="attachment_915" align="alignright" width="300"]![The carnage inside the SMC Cartage Company after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre]()
The carnage inside the SMC Cartage Company after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre[/caption]
I just about lost my mind when I saw that but you have to know the history to understand my reaction.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office’s mission, according to their website, is to ensure public health and safety by performing autopsies and postmortem examinations to determine cause and manner of death for individuals who die in Cook County.
Prior to 1976, Cook County had a Coroner who was an elected official (did not have to be a medical person) who presided over a public inquest similar to a court hearing in which the Coroner’s Jury looked over evidence presented by various people to help determine the case of death. These cases were public and the records created by this inquest are public records as well.
I conduct a good amount of research as part of my profession and I request a good amount of public records from various sources and have never run into a public office as inhospitable to the public’s right to records as this office.
I can't believe the excuses coming from this office as to why they cannot provide records. Again, I am not talking about any records since it became a Medical Examiner’s Office but referring to Coroner’s Inquest Records.
I can only speak about my own personal experiences with the office because I don’t like relying on hearsay accounts.
I have only requested three Coroners Reports for myself in the last 10 years and can say that I have never received any reports and only excuses when I would call to follow up. In one instance I called about a request and always received the same answer. The person on the phone said that the person who pulled records from the “warehouse” only would go once per week and the records were quite the mess and it could take about 6 months for a response.
Now I completely understand about how records can sometimes be a mess so I gave it six months and then called back. The person on the phone asked my how old I was. I said that I was 42 years old. She then said that I shouldn’t expect the report until I was 82!
I am not kidding! That was the response! I actually had to laugh and they laughed as well and I think they may just have been frustrated with the whole process and really didn’t know how else to respond.
I pretty much gave up requesting documents after that until I became involved as a researcher with the family members of Barbara and Patricia Grimes. I had been researching the 1956 murder of Barbara and Patricia and had the opportunity to meet Jim Grimes who is one of the younger brothers of the girls. I had read a number of accounts of the Coroner’s inquest from the newspapers who were in the public room reporting this public hearing. (I wonder how many times I can use the word public in a sentence) Jim Grimes expressed some interest in receiving a copy of the transcripts of the inquest for the family to have. They were never given a copy back in 1957 when the inquest took place. I told him that he might have better luck sending a letter to the Medical Examiner’s Office and stating who he was. The Grimes Sisters Murder is one of the most famous unsolved cases in Chicago history.
We received a response back from them (wonders never cease) and they said that the file was over 400 pages so that we would need to come up with over $1,200.00! That’s right you heard it correctly, $1,200.00! It was actually slightly more than that but I can’t remember the exact number. Jim called the office and explained that he was the living brother of the girls and while the employees there were very kind and professional they stated that the amount that have to charge is set by Illinois State Statute! And guess what…they were correct!
I found it hard to believe that there could exist a State Statute that could be at odds with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act but there most certainly is.
Of course Jim Grimes could not come up with $1,200.00 and I didn’t have the money lying around so I told him to remind the M.E.’s office that they are required by law to at least let us review the file in the office at no charge. They did agree to let us in the office to review the file but only as someone sat with us (which I understand for security reasons) and they limited us to 90 minutes. We could take hand notes but no photographs.
Unfortunately we only reviewed the copies that they had made so we don’t know if there were other files that weren’t copied. After our ninety minutes we took our notes and left. Of course in the defense of the employees they were very friendly and they really seemed to care and at one point recommended that maybe we should have a fundraiser to raise the money so that the family could have a copy. They said that they could hang onto the copies for a while but if we couldn’t put the money together they would have to shred the copies.
Many of the excuses I heard from the M.E.s office had to do with the organization of records and the lack of staff. I actually wrote Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle a letter and a note on the their website stating what the issues were and that I had access to volunteers that would be willing to help organize things as well as running and making copies for persons requesting copies but that letter went unanswered.
I also suggested that maybe the older Coroner’s files should become part of the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Archives. I visit the Archives about once per week and have always been amazed by their efficiency and superior public customer service. They provide access to court records going back to the Chicago Fire of 1871 and prior and the requests take one week on average to pull from the warehouse while the cost of copies are minimal. Again, that suggestion went in one ear and out the other if it was ever heard at all.
So basically my beef is with the fact that the statute that governs the cost of copies for transcripts in the custody of the Medical Examiner’s Office ($5 per page) are directly at odds with the Illinios Freedom of Information Act. (There is a loophole in the Illinois FOIA that states in 5 ILCS 140/6 Sec 6 (b).. Except when a fee is otherwise fixed by statute)
You can read both for yourselves here:
Illinois Freedom of Information Act (scroll down to section 6 which covers fees)
State of Illinois, Public Act 096 (which covers ridiculous fees for public documents)
So forgive me if I don’t applaud the fact that the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found historical documents that they are responsible for finding and preserving and just in time for Valentines Day!
But if you do want to read the article on their stupendous job you can read it here
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The carnage inside the SMC Cartage Company after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre[/caption]
I just about lost my mind when I saw that but you have to know the history to understand my reaction.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office’s mission, according to their website, is to ensure public health and safety by performing autopsies and postmortem examinations to determine cause and manner of death for individuals who die in Cook County.
Prior to 1976, Cook County had a Coroner who was an elected official (did not have to be a medical person) who presided over a public inquest similar to a court hearing in which the Coroner’s Jury looked over evidence presented by various people to help determine the case of death. These cases were public and the records created by this inquest are public records as well.
I conduct a good amount of research as part of my profession and I request a good amount of public records from various sources and have never run into a public office as inhospitable to the public’s right to records as this office.
I can't believe the excuses coming from this office as to why they cannot provide records. Again, I am not talking about any records since it became a Medical Examiner’s Office but referring to Coroner’s Inquest Records.
I can only speak about my own personal experiences with the office because I don’t like relying on hearsay accounts.
I have only requested three Coroners Reports for myself in the last 10 years and can say that I have never received any reports and only excuses when I would call to follow up. In one instance I called about a request and always received the same answer. The person on the phone said that the person who pulled records from the “warehouse” only would go once per week and the records were quite the mess and it could take about 6 months for a response.
Now I completely understand about how records can sometimes be a mess so I gave it six months and then called back. The person on the phone asked my how old I was. I said that I was 42 years old. She then said that I shouldn’t expect the report until I was 82!
I am not kidding! That was the response! I actually had to laugh and they laughed as well and I think they may just have been frustrated with the whole process and really didn’t know how else to respond.
I pretty much gave up requesting documents after that until I became involved as a researcher with the family members of Barbara and Patricia Grimes. I had been researching the 1956 murder of Barbara and Patricia and had the opportunity to meet Jim Grimes who is one of the younger brothers of the girls. I had read a number of accounts of the Coroner’s inquest from the newspapers who were in the public room reporting this public hearing. (I wonder how many times I can use the word public in a sentence) Jim Grimes expressed some interest in receiving a copy of the transcripts of the inquest for the family to have. They were never given a copy back in 1957 when the inquest took place. I told him that he might have better luck sending a letter to the Medical Examiner’s Office and stating who he was. The Grimes Sisters Murder is one of the most famous unsolved cases in Chicago history.
We received a response back from them (wonders never cease) and they said that the file was over 400 pages so that we would need to come up with over $1,200.00! That’s right you heard it correctly, $1,200.00! It was actually slightly more than that but I can’t remember the exact number. Jim called the office and explained that he was the living brother of the girls and while the employees there were very kind and professional they stated that the amount that have to charge is set by Illinois State Statute! And guess what…they were correct!
I found it hard to believe that there could exist a State Statute that could be at odds with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act but there most certainly is.
Of course Jim Grimes could not come up with $1,200.00 and I didn’t have the money lying around so I told him to remind the M.E.’s office that they are required by law to at least let us review the file in the office at no charge. They did agree to let us in the office to review the file but only as someone sat with us (which I understand for security reasons) and they limited us to 90 minutes. We could take hand notes but no photographs.
Unfortunately we only reviewed the copies that they had made so we don’t know if there were other files that weren’t copied. After our ninety minutes we took our notes and left. Of course in the defense of the employees they were very friendly and they really seemed to care and at one point recommended that maybe we should have a fundraiser to raise the money so that the family could have a copy. They said that they could hang onto the copies for a while but if we couldn’t put the money together they would have to shred the copies.
Many of the excuses I heard from the M.E.s office had to do with the organization of records and the lack of staff. I actually wrote Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle a letter and a note on the their website stating what the issues were and that I had access to volunteers that would be willing to help organize things as well as running and making copies for persons requesting copies but that letter went unanswered.
I also suggested that maybe the older Coroner’s files should become part of the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Archives. I visit the Archives about once per week and have always been amazed by their efficiency and superior public customer service. They provide access to court records going back to the Chicago Fire of 1871 and prior and the requests take one week on average to pull from the warehouse while the cost of copies are minimal. Again, that suggestion went in one ear and out the other if it was ever heard at all.
So basically my beef is with the fact that the statute that governs the cost of copies for transcripts in the custody of the Medical Examiner’s Office ($5 per page) are directly at odds with the Illinios Freedom of Information Act. (There is a loophole in the Illinois FOIA that states in 5 ILCS 140/6 Sec 6 (b).. Except when a fee is otherwise fixed by statute)
You can read both for yourselves here:
Illinois Freedom of Information Act (scroll down to section 6 which covers fees)
State of Illinois, Public Act 096 (which covers ridiculous fees for public documents)
So forgive me if I don’t applaud the fact that the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found historical documents that they are responsible for finding and preserving and just in time for Valentines Day!
But if you do want to read the article on their stupendous job you can read it here
Find Chicago History The Stranger Side on FACEBOOK
Find Ray Johnson on Twitter and Google+
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