Posted on 09/12/2009 4:13:16 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com ...
How many times did he shoot himself? In the back of the head?
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
Pausing only three times to reload
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.
Not the old “aspirin enema” that leaves no traces...
BO has a lot of work to do if he’s to beat Clinton.
did he take an extra deep breath before finishing?
Ditto.
Someone held a gun to his head and ordered him to swallow a bottle of aspirin? Bizarre
Or Ben-gay (and similar liniments) or oil of wintergreen. Those would have the disadvantage of odor, though.
You think this was a suicide and not a hit?
That might not have been all. Aspirin and sleeping pills perhaps.
Not if one is 'sensitive' to it.
Chicago politics. If you wanna play, you better be ready to pay.
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?
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!!!
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.
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..
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