Treasure Hunt

When Chicago's ex-Mayor and Democratic Boss Ed Kelly died last fall at the age of 74, the citizenry could hardly wait to find out how much money he had piled up. Although Ed was born in poverty and had been a modestly paid public servant most of his life, Chicago was certain that he was a millionaire--perhaps two or three times over. Nobody had forgotten that Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson left $1,500,000 stuffed in his safe-deposit boxes, and it was hard to believe that onetime Sewer Engineer Kelly had not enjoyed similar opportunity.

Last week the inventory of his estate, made public at a probate hearing, totaled only a paltry $854,000, almost all of it in real estate and securities. Many a Chicagoan was still positive that Ed had been a millionaire, and their authority was none other than Ed's pretty, diamond-studded widow, Mrs. Margaret Kirk Kelly. Somebody, she said, had gotten into Ed's cash after he died and carried bundles of it away.

The co-executor of Kelly's will, ex-Sheriff Michael Mulcahy, and Kelly's tax adviser, a onetime city politico named Ed Gorman, pooh-poohed the widow's story. They had gone through the safe and the files in Ed's office only four days after his death, they said, and had found no big bundles of cash.

"I've been hoodwinked," cried Mrs. Kelly. "I'm not guessing what my husband was worth when he died. I know. [Her attorney guessed that at least $1,200,000 was missing.] I went to the bank last May 28, after Mr. Kelly suffered a heart attack, and looked into the box we held jointly. Everything was in it--a sizable fortune. When I checked the vault last Nov. 8, it was completely empty--and I know Ed Kelly wasn't one to put an empty shoe box in a safety vault."

Mrs. Kelly refused to sign the inventory of the estate and directed her lawyer to start court proceedings by which Chicago politicos could be hauled in by droves for questioning. Chicago waited with delight for the big treasure hunt to begin.

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