At last!
The inside scoop behind a sensational 56-year-old Chicago story from the 1968 Democratic National Convention, thanks to Carol DiLeonardi, widow of the late, press-friendly Chicago police Supt. Joe DiLeonardi. Back then, “Joe Di” was working the DNC floor as a young, undercover plainclothes detective.
Legendary CBS-TV correspondent Mike Wallace was arrested on the convention floor inside the old International Amphitheatre while anti-Vietnam War protester-police confrontations raged on Chicago streets.
Wallace was just weeks from launching “60 Minutes” with Harry Reasoner. His arrest made national headlines.
One 1968 news account had Wallace getting arrested for attempting to muscle his way off the congested convention floor to talk to a New York delegate who was having trouble with his credentials. Another said Wallace was arrested while fuming at being blocked and strong-armed on the convention floor while he was just “doing his job.” Also, he had blasted the police for manhandling protesters.
For whatever reason, Wallace was arrested and whisked off the convention floor. His CBS boss would bawl out then-Mayor Richard J. Daley and protest the arrest. Daley reportedly demanded that Wallace apologize.
But Wallace was never charged with any crime or booked.
‘Bad-mouthing his city’
According to Carol DiLeonardi, whose husband was one of the officers who escorted the blustery newsman off the convention floor, Wallace was indeed “reporting inside the hall and blasting the way police outside were arresting and holding back protesters.
“The mayor was very upset that he was bad-mouthing his city, so he wanted him arrested and removed from the floor,” she says.
“So Joe and another officer did take Wallace outside the convention, where his picture was taken and shown in every newspaper, so [Wallace] could, of course, let his audience know what happened. He told Joe it was the only time he ever got arrested.
“Joe heard later from Wallace’s son Chris that Mike had the picture framed and hanging in his office like a badge of honor.”
A decade later, DiLeonardi became Chicago’s top cop under Mayor Jane Byrne.
Chris Wallace went on to become a Fox News anchor and is now an anchor for CNN. He was in Chicago when his father covered the 1968 convention and is covering the 2024 convention.
Related
- A front-row seat when ‘the whole world’ was watching Chicago in 1968
‘Clinton Alumni Reunion’
President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Dem presidential candidate, will be tossing a “Clinton Alumni Reunion” at a downtown hotel Monday afternoon for former campaign workers and White House staff.
“Invitations to hundreds of people went out, and, at last count, between 500 to 700 guests were coming,” a source told Sneed. “The Secret Service has asked us not to give out the location.”
Former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, whom Bill Clinton appointed, helped organize the event.
Among those invited: former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was a top campaign aide during Bill Clinton’s first presidential run, major Dem strategist James Carville and former Clinton campaign strategists David Axelrod and Paul Begala, both now CNN correspondents.
In memoriam
A special note to Willy Vogt … the only child of Kathy Byrne, who died of a fast-acting lung cancer. Byrne was the only child of Jane Byrne, Chicago’s first female mayor:
Dear Willy,
Your brilliant attorney-mom was one of two major “encyclopedias” helping me research nearly a dozen newspaper columns on why your grandmother should be honored with a city memorial.
Related
- Kathy Byrne, attorney and only child of former Mayor Jane Byrne, dies at 66
The series led to TWO memorials being named for her after then-Gov. Pat Quinn and then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel both jumped aboard.
But your mother also wanted them for YOU, looking forward to your first drive through the newly named Mayor Jane Byrne Interchange, hearing it mentioned on the car radio, visiting the new Mayor Jane Byrne Park with you, not far from your late grandmother’s Gold Coast residence — and going with you on a winter school break a few years ago to visit your grandmother’s rediscovered and relocated Children’s Fountain in Lincoln Park. It was everything for her, Willy. She loved you so much.
Sneedlings ...
Saturday birthdays: Robert De Niro, 81; Julian “Downton Abbey” Fellowes, 75; Sean Penn, 64; Giuliana Rancic, 50; Austin Butler, 33 … Sunday birthdays: Robert Redford, 88; Denis Leary, 67; Edward Norton, 55; Parker McKenna Posey, 29.
