George Robert Blakey, who wrote the RICO Act that feds use to put mobsters behind bars, dies at 90

George Robert Blakey, principal author of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, died Friday of natural causes at the Oak Park home of his son, John Blakey, a federal judge.

Mr. Blakey was 90.

RICO gave federal prosecutors new tools to go after mob leaders, allowing them to broaden the scope of a case by presenting a criminal narrative stretching back years and even decades.

It's been used extensively to prosecute mafia leaders, including Chicago mobsters that were held to account in the 2007 "Operation Family Secrets" trial. It's also been used more broadly to prosecute street gang leaders, terrorists, corrupt politicians and white collar criminals.

President Richard Nixon gave the pen he used to sign the RICO Act in 1970 to Mr. Blakey.

Mr. Blakey held onto the pen for decades, had it framed and presented it to his son as a gift after President Barack Obama nominated him to the federal bench in 2014.

It's on the wall of his chambers at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

"He always taught me that law was a privilege that enabled you not to just do well but to do good in the world, and he lived that out," his son said. "His life is the reason I understand words like integrity and kindness."

Mr. Blakey, a longtime law professor at his alma mater the University of Notre Dame, retired in 2012. He had been living at his son's home in Oak Park for several years when he passed away.

"He’s a legend," said T. Markus Funk, who was a member of the Family Secrets prosecution team and is now a partner in the global law firm White & Case’s Chicago office. Funk said prosecutors on the team used Mr. Blakey's academic papers and public testimony as a blue print to build their case against Chicago mob leaders.

"His foundational work on the landmark RICO statute, a statute that for good reason is synonymous with his name, will endure for generations and is something for which we, as members of the public, owe him a great debt of gratitude," Funk said.

"RICO allowed for the first time a way to deal with syndicated crime," said Ron Goldstock, former director of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force. "Before RICO you could take out out individual mobsters, but never the entire syndicate or leadership of the syndicate."

Fresh from law school, Mr. Blakey joined the Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1960. From 1969 to 1973 he was chief counsel of the U.S. Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures where he helped craft multiple pieces of legislation, including the use of wire taps, that enhanced the federal law enforcement tool kit.

"He was the smartest person I knew," Goldstock said. "But it was not just law, it was his knowledge of history and philosophy and linguistics and logic, and he could put them all together when he was addressing an issue and present answers in an understandable way, like AI before there was AI."

The seed for what would become RICO was planted early in his career in a Pennsylvania courthouse bathroom where Mr. Blakey bumped into a mobster he was helping to prosecute.

"He's in the bathroom during a break and the defendant walks in and says 'Hey, counselor, you're doing a great job, but don't worry, you're not going to win, the rules won't let you, so don't worry about it.' And he kind of laughed and walked out, and my dad looked in the mirror and said 'We need to change the rules,'" recalled John Blakey.

In the 1970s Mr. Blakey was chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, which investigated the assassinations of President Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

John Blakey attributed his father's longevity to "Ice cream, a good book and a Notre Dame victory."

In addition to his son, John, Mr. Blakey is survived by his son Michael Blakey and his daughters Elizabeth Blakey, Marie Blakey, Katherine Cox, Christine Coury and Margaret Clarke, as well as 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is predeceased by his wife, Elaine Blakey and his son Matthew Blakey.

Services are being planned.