STEVE TELOW
Steve Telow was a right-wing extremist, political activist, racist, and member of the the Legion of Justice.
by Mike Royko
Kingsport Times / Friday, March 28, 1975
CHICAGO — Steve Telow, tavern keeper and raging right-winger, was talking about all those good times.
His pals had been out there burglarizing the offices of peace groups, smashing into their offices and grabbing files from their record cabinets. Then they had stashed the stuff in the basement of his Smokey Hollow Tavern on the northwest side until police spy-squad and military intelligence units could get the files they wanted. Best of all, the cops used to reward Telow and his pals by letting them take long, satisfying peeks into the spy-squad records to see what had been dug up about their enemies.
And their enemies included anybody to the left of the Ku Klux Klan. Telow, in an interview, confirmed these and other points that have emerged in the current furor over political spying by the Chicago police department.
"Sure, I used to see police records," Telow said.
"Why did I get to seem them? Why not? I was fighting the powers of the left. Why shouldn't I see them?
"But I didn't get to see as much as Tom Sutton did. He got to see whatever he wanted to see. He was in charge."
Telow was referring to the late S. Thomas Sutton, the glib lawyer who apparently pulled many of the city's right-wing elements into a paramilitary operation that committed burglaries of peace organizations and harassed antiwar leaders.
"Sutton recruited me," said Telow, who first got his name into print as a neighborhood segregationist.
"I was against integration before anybody ever heard of Martin Luther King."
Telow confirmed that his tavern's basement was used as a headquarters for a Sutton-led group that called itself the Legion of Justice.
A former member of that group has told the Chicago Daily News that it had virtual immunity from arrest by the police department while it committed burglaries and harassed peace organizations. Sutton, the former terrorist said, had told the group it should co-operate with the police spy squad in return for the immunity.
The source said that members of the spy unit were parked nearby, acting as lookouts, while Legion of Justice members burglarized the Young Socialist Alliance.
The source also said that Sutton dealt directly with members of the police department and armedforces intelligence units, giving them material taken in burglaries.
Telow's tavern basement was used, the source said, because it was "as secure as a fort. We weren't worried about police coming in because they knew what we were doing. Hell, we were giving the intelligence unit information while the burglary unit was supposed to be trying to catch the people who stole it.
"But the left knew what we were doing, so we were concerned about retaliation from them. So we used Telow's basement. It would have taken anybody two hours to break in." Telow agreed.
"Yeah, it was a secure place all right."
But he said having the right-wing group use his basement worried him, as much as he agreed with what it was doing.
The reason for his concern, Telow said, was his liquor license. He was so fearful of losing it that once, during an antibusing demonstration he led, he let his wife chain herself to a school yard flagpole rather than chain himself.
"If she gets pinched, it is one thing," he said. "But if I get pinched, I'll lose my liquor license."
That's why he was worried when the Legion of Justice began using his basement as headquarters.
"I was taking an awful chance if anything happened," Telow said. "My wife was always telling me: 'Steve, you're taking an awful chance.' "
But nothing happened. In fact, Telow often boasted about his palsy relationship with the spy squad, gloating about the things the police showed him in their files.
But now he is depressed.
"Ever since Sutton died (last week), things are different. I'm even getting liberals coming in my place. Maybe I'll become a liberal myself."
We were there to expose the traitors'
Daily Herald Wednesday, July 3, 1996
Like thousands of others, Chicago tavern owner Steve Telow came to the 1968 Democratic National Convention to protest U.S. policy in Vietnam. But his politics set him apart. Telow represented the Legion of Justice, a right-wing organization that supported soldiers in Vietnam while sharply criticizing the government's half-hearted war effort. He ventured into the city three times during the 1968 convention. Telow, now 74 and living in Wheeling, recalls the turmoil
My sons were of that age to go into the Vietnam War. I didn't want my boys to go if they weren't going to continue the war the proper way.
If we're going to fight a war, let's win it.
War is war. You kill — and hope that you don't get killed. Do it right or don't do it at all. That was my contention. That was the contention of the Legion of Justice.
The Legion of Justice was there to expose the traitors who were willing to sacrifice our boys. The purpose behind it was that treason should be punished. We felt that Jane Fonda should have been charged with treason, and a lot of others.
When we protested against (antiwar forces), it was always a thousand of them and maybe a hundred of us — if a hundred. Sometimes it was 20. There was a lot of support behind us from different people, foundations, groups, whatever.
When the convention was beginning, the officers were pleading with us not to confront (the antiwar protesters) on Michigan Avenue. When they were going to have their big parade, we were going to protest against these anti- Vietnam protesters, like 10,000 of them.
There was a Dr. Love who was supporting us. He was the president of a bank. He gave us thousands of flags. They were burning our flag. So Dr. Love got a hold of us and said, "I'll give you a thousand flags to give out to people who wanted to hold the flag."
We had the anti-Vietnam protesters who were marching. We started marching. Naturally we had police following us also. The Vietnam protesters were splitting off and taking our flags from the people and breaking them. We couldn't do anything about it. But the bad of it was that the people wouldn't take the flags because they were afraid they would be attacked.
It was scary. They were throwing things at us and the police couldn't stop it. Luckily, nobody got hurt. I've got to give the police credit; they really protected us. As much as they could.
There was a story about a guy who did take a flag away and trampled on it. I remember what he looked like. He was a heavy-set guy, about 250 pounds. He took it out of one of our people's hands. I said "You can't get away with this." Well, he took off. As I was going down State Street with my car, who do you think I see on the corner, crossing the street, but that guy who tore the flag down. I stopped my car. There was a policeman on the center guiding traffic there. I said, "Arrest that man for desecration of the flag."
He did. (On another night of the convention)
I went down there to see what was going on. I was there with my wife and several other people. The Yippies were fighting back and forth. I remember when they were throwing the garbage out the windows of the Stevens Hotel. It was very confrontational. I was there from like 6 till 10.
We (also) had a demonstration for (Democratic candidate George) Wallace. We put Wallace in a big open car. We had thousands there for that. I remember (Assistant Corporate Counsel Richard J.) Elrod said, "You can't march down LaSalle Street. You ain't got no permit." I said, "Tell that to the thousands of people behind me. You're not going to stop us now."
This was several days after the confrontation on Michigan and Balbo. It was on a Saturday. They held a parade. We felt we should have a parade. And our man was Wallace.
Those were exciting times. If you were really going to get involved with something, that was the time to get involved.
Chicago's Mayor Earns Anger Of Property Owners
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1966
CHICAGO (UPI)
Middle aged white property owners carrying signs accusing Mayor Richard J. Daley of "sailing out Chicago" picketed city hall Monday in protest against an open housing agreement negotiated with Martin Luther King's Chicago Freedom Movement.
One man carried a sign reading, "Daley Forgot His Taxpayirs."
Another had a sign referring to the so-called "summit conference" of Daley, civil leaders, the Chicago Real Estate Board and King and his aides. It said, "Summit Another Munich."
Daley was absent from City Hall while the 50 pickets representing The Kilbourn Organization (TKO) paraded. The mayor was interviewing prospective Democratic judicial candidates.
One of Daley's aides met with Steve Telow, president, but Telow refused to discuss demands with anyone but the mayor.
Telow said he was demanding:
— A grand jury probe of alleged "Communist agitation" in the civil rights movement.
—Repeal of the city's open occupancy ordinance.
In a statement, TKO said:
"The races spoke, religion spoke, but who spoke for the taxpayers of Chicago? We demand an equal voice and equal rights for people who pay for these promises.
David Sheehan, director of the Property Owners Coordinating Committee, meanwhile, announced a mass meeting of Southwest side property owbers groups to organize political opposition to candidates supporting open occupancy legislation.
And what was this vile "Open Occupancy Ordinance' that Telow and his racist friends opposed so vehemently?
It was an ordinance that barred discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin in the sale, rental, leasing or financing of any housing in Montgomery County.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
