Mabley, Jack

Chicago reporter and columnist for the Chicago Daily News.

Jack Mabley was born in Binghamton, New York, but grew up in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where his first foray into investigative reporting took place at the Daily Illini. In 1937 he began an anti-prostitution crusade at the paper which resulted in the closings of several brothels. After graduation Mabley worked at the City News Bureau, and briefly at the Associated Press before becoming a general assignment reporter for the Chicago Daily News. Mabley spent four years in the Navy as a lieutenant during World War II. Following the war he returned to the Daily News as a reporter and rewrite man, later a sports reporter, and in 1957 began writing a general interest column. In 1961 he left the News for Chicago's American (later Chicago Today) taking an estimated 29,000 of his loyal readers with him. During the 1950s and 1960s he wrote exposés on police corruption, racketeering, and vice on the streets of Chicago, complete with undercover reporters and surveillence teams. In 1968 he assigned a young reporter to infiltrate both the SDS and the National Mobilization Committe in the months leading up to the Democratic convention. He defended convicted police and mob figure Richard Cain, and caused the now notorious shut-down of the Winter 1958 issue of the Chicago Review which contained exceprts of William Burroughs Naked Lunch. When Chicago Today ceased, he continued as a columnist at the Chicago Tribune until his retirement in 1982. Contract stipulations with the Tribune prevented him from writing in the Chicago area for five years, after which he joined the Arlington Heights Daily Herald where he continued to write a column until 2003. Mabley lived in Glenview where he was village president from 1957 to 1961. He also created the Forgotten Children's Fund, which raised money for the Dixon State School for mentally disabled children. He met wife Frances Habeck on a blind date and married her in 1937. They had four children, daughters Pat, Jill, and Anne, and a son Bob. Mabley died of complications from a hip fracture on January 7, 2006.