Richard Elrod
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name =
|image = Richard Elrod, circa 1969 (3x4).jpg
|caption = Elrod, circa 1969
|office = Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court
|term_start = August 1988
|term_end = April 19, 2014
|office1 = Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois
|term_start1 = 1970
|term_end1 = 1986
|predecessor1 = Joseph I. Woods
|successor1 = James E. O'Grady
|office2 = Member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 13th district
|term_start2 = 1969
|term_end2 = 1970
|predecessor2 = LaSalle J. Michaels
|successor2 = Howard W. Carroll/ Charles J. Fleck Jr.
|birth_date = {{birth date|1934|02|17}}
|birth_place = Chicago, Illinois
|residence =
|death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|04|19|1934|02|17}}
|death_place = Chicago, Illinois
|party = Democratic Party
|alma_mater = Northwestern University
}}
Richard J. Elrod (February 17, 1934 – April 19, 2014) was an American jurist, sheriff, and legislator.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, Elrod received his bachelor's and law degrees from Northwestern University.
Elrod's father was Arthur X. Elrod, a Democratic Party operative who would go on to serve as a Cook County Commissioner and Chicago's 25th ward's committeeman.{{cite web |last1=Goldsborough |first1=Bob |title=Former Cook sheriff, judge Richard Elrod dies |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2014-04-21-chi-richard-elrod-obituary-20140421-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=18 November 2020 |date=21 April 2014}}{{cite web |title=Chicago's 24th ward: politics the old fashioned way |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-then/2012/04/chicagos-24th-ward-politics-the-old-fashioned-way/ |publisher=Chicago Now |accessdate=18 November 2020 |date=9 April 2012}}
Elrod was Chicago's Assistant Corporation Counsel from 1958 through 1970, and its Chief City Prosecutor from 1960 through 1970.
Elrod served in the Illinois House of Representatives, in 1969, as a Democrat. While serving in the Illinois General Assembly, Elrod was seriously injured and left paralyzed while helping a Chicago police officer capture Brian Flanagan during the Days of Rage conflict in 1969. Flanagan and two witnesses maintained that Elrod sustained his injury after attempting to tackle Flanagan and instead impacting the corner of a building, while Elrod and several police officers claimed that Flanagan repeatedly kicked him in the neck with construction boots. Flanagan would go to trial for several charges related to the incident, including attempted murder, but was acquitted of all of them.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2006/Sudden-Impact |first=Bryan |last=Smith |date=June 20, 2007 |title=Sudden Impact |magazine=Chicago |access-date=June 6, 2024 }}
Elrod was elected Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois in 1970, defeating Republican nominee Bernard Carey.{{cite web |last1=Goldsborough |first1=Bob |title=Former Cook sheriff, judge Richard Elrod dies |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2014-04-21-chi-richard-elrod-obituary-20140421-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=18 June 2020 |date=21 April 2014}} He would serve four terms. He was reelected three times, first in 1974 (defeating Republican Peter Bensinger), then in 1978 (defeating Republican Donald Mulack), then in 1982 (defeating Republican Joseph Kozenczak).Chicago Tribune, 11/7/1974Chicago Tribune, 11/9/1978Chicago Tribune, 11/4/1982 In 1986, he lost reelection to Republican James E. O'Grady.{{cite web |last1=O`Connor |first1=Matt |title=GOP'S HOPES FOR O'GRADY GO SOUR |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-11-08-9004020554-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com |accessdate=18 June 2020 |date=8 November 1990}}
From 1986 until 1988, he worked as the Senior Assistant Attorney General, working under Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan.
Elrod was then appointed as a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County in August 1988, where he continued to serve until his death in 2014.{{cite web |title=Richard Elrod |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Richard_Elrod |website=Ballotpedia |accessdate=18 June 2020 |language=en}} He died of cancer in Chicago, Illinois.'Former Cook County Sheriff Richard J Elrod dies at 80' Chicago Sun-Times, Mitch Dudek, April 21, 2014'Illinois Blue Book 1969-1970,' Biographical Sketch of Richard J. Elrod, pg. 214-215
Personal life
In 1955, he married Marilyn Mann; they had two children: Steven Elrod and Audrey Elrod Lakin. After his death, services were held at Temple Am Shalom in Glencoe, Illinois.{{Cite web|first= |last= |author-link= |title=Hon. Richard J. Elrod, Cook County Circuit Judge and dedicated and beloved civic leader and public servant, passed away at the age of 80 |publisher=Chicago Tribune|date=April 21, 2014 |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=richard-j-elrod&pid=170730239 |accessdate=}} His sister was Gloria Sheppard Bliss.
In popular culture
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2023}}
Elrod appears as a character in Saul Bellow's 1982 novel The Dean's December, both for the Days of Rage injury he received early in the novel and later in the protagonist Albert Corde's friendship during Elrod's career as Sheriff of Cook County.
Notes
{{reflist}}
{{Cook County Sheriff|state=collapsed}}
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Category:Politicians from Chicago
Category:Northwestern University alumni
Category:Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni
Category:Judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County
Category:Sheriffs of Cook County, Illinois
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives
Category:Deaths from cancer in Illinois
Category:20th-century Illinois state court judges
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:Burials at Westlawn Cemetery
Category:20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly
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