On this day, April 9, in 1973, Otto Kerner, a former governor of Illinois, was convicted for taking bribes in an illegal horse racetrack scheme.
Kerner had been appointed a federal appeals judge when Marge Everett, the manager of a suburban Chicago racetrack, admitted to bribing Kerner when he was governor.
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Kerner arranged favorable dates for horse racing and to place expressway off-ramps near the racetrack in exchange for stock at reduced prices.
The bribes came to light when Everett deducted the stock value on her income tax returns in the belief that bribery was an ordinary business expense in Illinois.
Kerner was sentenced to three years in prison. He died in 1976 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
— Scott McCabe
