jan 1, 1987 - The Murder of Chuck Thompson

Description:

1987 The Murder of Chuck Thompson: Wyandotte County lawyer and 56-year old Democratic Party leader Chuck Thompson pulled into the Jalisco’s restaurant parking lot on 5000 State Avenue. He thought he was there to meet a client but it was a set up. Thompson’s assailant shot six Teflon coated exploding bullets hitting him with three. This was at a time in KCK where Thompson ran a political machine and the city was “disparaged as a backwater of urban decay, economic stagnation and patronage politics.” Thompson staggered out of his car to the door of Jalisco’s but it was locked, and then toward another locked door before he collapsed. There were no fingerprints, no shell casings and no witnesses in daylight within clear view of rush hour traffic.

An election in 1983 had started to break down the Democratic Party corruption machine as a couple of Republicans were elected to the City Council, and dissension had started up within the Democratic Party ranks. Thompson had been feuding with his fellow Democrats at a union Christmas Party and allegedly pointed a finger at a group of Democratic office holders informing them “they were gone.” His words could have been literal, or electoral, but the next day Thompson was dead coincidentally, or not. For his part, Scherzer said he couldn’t remember attending the party. The same was stated by Joe Steineger, who replaced then Mayor Joe Reardon four years after the murder. To this date it still remains the most significant open case with the K.B.I. There was so much corruption, and so many possible suspects unwilling to talk, that it has been impossible to resolve the case.

Hendricks, Mike, “Bulldog detective chases ’87 murder” Kansas City Star June 20, 2010

Added to timeline:

Date: