On this day, Sept. 2, in 1988, the murder trial began for the leader of a Chicago street gang who plotted with Libya to bomb U.S. buildings and airplanes and assassinate American politicians.
The El Rukn Tribe leader Jeff Fort had united dozens of gang leaders and presided over meetings from a throne, surrounded by giant posters of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
In 1987, Fort and four others were convicted of agreeing to accept $2.5 million from Libya, the first Americans to be found guilty of planning terrorist acts for a foreign government.
He was sentenced to 80 years. A year later, Fort was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 70 more years. Fort, 63, remains in the supermax prison in Colorado.
-Scott McCabe
