When Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell’s body was found Oct. 11, 1970, in a Rochester, Minn., hotel room, political heavyweights tripped all over one another offering bipartisan tributes to the powerful Downstate official.The Tribune reported how Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, a fellow Democrat, predicted the 68-year-old Powell “will be recognized as a major … Continue reading From hero to bum in a flash: How an Illinois politician’s shoebox of money exposed the rot of corruption