Key Blagojevich adviser dies (Blago's close buddy, just pled guilty)

Chicago Tribune ^ | 9-12-09 | Jeff Coen, Jeremy Gorner

[STARWISE]

Christopher Kelly, a key figure in the federal corruption probe into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is dead.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office today confirmed that Christopher Kelly of Burr Ridge was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital at 10:46 a.m. The office said Kelly died of salicylate intoxication.

According to medical reference guides, salicylates are used in anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications. An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday.

*snip*

Kelly is a former confidant and top fundraiser for Blagojevich, who was accused of using his office to leverage campaign donations and benefits for himself and his family.

*snip*

Kelly’s attorney, Michael Monico, declined to comment today when reached by a Tribune reporter. Kelly, who was indicted alongside Blagojevich in April, pleaded guilty this week in a separate federal case.

On Tuesday, in a surprise move just a day before his scheduled trial, Kelly, owner of a roofing business, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud as part of a kickback scheme to illegally obtain $8.5 million in work at O'Hare International Airport.

At the time, Kelly, 51, said he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to cooperate in their investigation of Blagojevich, but he refused.

Kelly faced a sentence of almost 5 years in prison on top of the roughly 3 years in prison he got in June for his guilty plea to tax offenses. Kelly was ordered to report to federal authorities for incarceration by Sept. 18.

[STARWISE]

The Tribune published a profile of Kelly in December 2007 after his first indictment. You can read it by clicking here.

~~~~~~~~

Wow ... tragic what crime can do to a man's life. Prayers for his family.

[STARWISE]

~~I can’t help thinking about the pressure he must’ve been experiencing .. and from whom .......... PING!

[Velveeta]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2338176/posts

[BlessedBeGod]

Suicide my patoot.

[wastedyears]

Suicide my patoot.

Agreed

[Fireone]

Just the first of many to come from the Chicago political
underworld. They know too much about a high profile target.

[Redbob]

salycilate = aspirin
Aspirin O.D.?

[vetvetdoug]

Too many aspirins?

[jazminerose]

It is possible. Aspirin is one type of salicyclate.

Sounds like the Chicago Way.

[STARWISE]

Sad state of affairs, isn’t it?

I wonder how many more tragedies will erupt.

[Bahbah]

Inconvenient man.

Got rid of him.

[penelopesire]

I wonder how many aspirin he was forced to eat at the point of a gun?

[thecodont]

He knew too much.

[Political Junkie Too]

Too much Chicago?

-PJ

[thecodont]

I wonder how many aspirin he was forced to eat at the point of a gun?

Sounds like a likely scenario. I hope something comes of the investigation and that this is NOT swept under the rug. There's supposed to be an autopsy tomorrow.

[Jim Noble]

Really hard to force a lethal dose of salicylate.

[Brilliant]

I’m surprised that Hillary would help Blago silence his witnesses. Maybe she did it for Obama.

[trumandogz]

Dead Men Have No Tails

[VideoPaul]

Those who were inside the corrupt Chicago denocratic political machine and knew things that can bring down Rahm Emmanual and Barry O’Bamm-bamm will be coming to various forms of grief.

I call this one the day Blago got arrested and w3as derided for being a corspiracy theorist and a member of the “vast right wing conspiracy” to discredit the messiah.

—PP

[MinuteGal]

Coming just before he had to report for the Club Fed, he was done in by a hit man?

No, this is undoubtedly suicide by overdose....with a corpus not messy for his family to find.

He didn't rat out Blago. Blago isn't the type to hire hit men, anyhow. Remember, Blago has to keep looking over HIS shoulder for Obama's hit men.

Chicago's streets must be populated by guys walking backwards.

Leni

[Vendome]

How many times did he shoot himself? In the back of the head?

[VideoPaul]

He got Vince Fostered. You don’t cross the Clintons and you don’t CARE know something that could bring down Rahmbo and O-Vomit.

—PP

[VideoPaul]

Pausing only three times to reload

[Vendome]

So he overdosed on Aspirin?

Well, that is creative for an adult who probably had access to powerful prescription drugs that would have made his death more comfortable.

[Yaelle]

Not the old “aspirin enema” that leaves no traces...

[driftdiver]

BO has a lot of work to do if he’s to beat Clinton.

[Vendome]

did he take an extra deep breath before finishing?

[elizabethgrace]

I can’t help thinking about the pressure he must’ve been experiencing .. and from whom ..

Ditto.

[Yaelle]

The Obama Way

[HiTech RedNeck]

Someone held a gun to his head and ordered him to swallow a bottle of aspirin? Bizarre

[HiTech RedNeck]

Or Ben-gay (and similar liniments) or oil of wintergreen. Those would have the disadvantage of odor, though.

[HollyB]

You think this was a suicide and not a hit?

[HiTech RedNeck]

That might not have been all. Aspirin and sleeping pills perhaps.

[UCANSEE2]

Really hard to force a lethal dose of salicylate.

Not if one is 'sensitive' to it.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Chicago politics. If you wanna play, you better be ready to pay.

[bgill]

Well, that is creative for an adult who probably had access to powerful prescription drugs that would have made his death more comfortable.

Yeah, one would think he'd have much more powerful stuff in the medicine cabinet or he could get a little something from someone who knows someone. He looks like a big guy, so it'd take the entire bottle, right?

[ProudFossil]

salicylate intoxication

Maybe I am uneducated but isn't aspirin a salicylatic acid. So maybe this guy died from an overdose of aspirin?

Chicago (and now national) politics!!!

[elpadre]

I keep thinking of all the convenient deaths that occurred during the Clinton years.

[piasa]

If he was like Abu Nidal in Iraq, he might have needed a lot of aspirin for the headache caused by all 8 of those self-inflicted bulletholes.

[Black Birch]

Suicide my patoot.

He had racked up some serious jail time and the feds still weren't done with him. He had a third trial scheduled next year..

[snuffy smiff]

yep, I still remember “Arkancide” i.e: heart attack with an exit wound...

[fujimoh]

Died? No more like killed or suicide.

[piasa]

It would be cool for one who would be king to have access to everyone’s medical records on a convenient government database so as to know what any potential enemies are ‘sensitive’ to, or are getting by presription. And people say Obamacare isn’t ‘practical.’ :-’

[arthurus]

He overdosed on Aspirin?

[tioga]

It would be cool for one who would be king to have access to everyone’s medical records on a convenient government database so as to know what any potential enemies are ‘sensitive’ to, or are getting by presription. And people say Obamacare isn’t ‘practical.’ :-’

I bow down to your devious analytical thinking.

[stayathomemom]

Would that be labeled "allergic reaction" rather than "intoxication"?

[arthurus]

salycilate also = tomatoes and lots of stuff. For some people it really is poison.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Tomatoes, eggplant => nicotine, not salicylates.

[thecodont]

It would be cool for one who would be king to have access to everyone’s medical records on a convenient government database so as to know what any potential enemies are ‘sensitive’ to, or are getting by presription. And people say Obamacare isn’t ‘practical.’ :-’

Did you see the 1995 move "The Net" (with Sandra Bullock), about a lone programmer fighting cybercriminals? In one scene they've invaded her psychiatrist friend's medical records database and made sure the pharmacy gave him the wrong prescription--which killed him.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113957/

[stayathomemom]

Tomatoes have salicylates, I believe. He just ate too many.