Pasquale “Pat” Marcy, a Chicago political power broker in the notorious 1st Ward and reputed mob link to City Hall, died early Saturday.
The 79-year-old Marcy died in his sleep at his home as a result of heart problems, according to a source close to Marcy.
Virginia Lucania, of the Montclair Lucania Funeral Home at 6901 W. Belmont Ave., confirmed that Marcy died Saturday morning, but said she could provide no other details.
Marcy’s death came three months after he suffered a minor heart attack as he was standing trial in federal court on racketeering charges. A judge declared a mistrial in the case because of Marcy’s health.
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Marcy’s health had been deteriorating for years. He underwent heart surgery during the summer; and during pretrial arguments defense attorneys said that Marcy was terminally ill and that a trial would kill him.
U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen ordered that the trial be held for no more than four hours a day, four days a week.
In the trial’s first week, Marcy suffered a minor heart attack.
Marcy was the secretary of the powerful 1st Ward Democratic organization.
He also was reputedly the mob’s liaison to City Hall for decades, but he escaped prosecution until Robert Cooley, a corrupt lawyer, went undercover for the FBI in the late 1980s and wore a hidden tape recorder whose evidence was used against Marcy and others.
Marcy was accused of being behind some of the most infamous Cook County Circuit Court fixes in recent Chicago history, including the 1977 acquittal of reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman for murder and the 1986 acquittal of weightlifter Michael Colella in the beating of a Chicago police officer.
Marcy also was charged with fixing a 1981 Chinatown murder trial, a 1989 civil case and a zoning change that same year. He also was charged with buying an associate judgeship in 1989 in return for an undisclosed bribe.
In December, after Aspen declared the mistrial in Marcy’s case, the trial continued against his co-defendant, former 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti.
Roti was subsequently convicted of bribe-taking.