Thomas R. Bennett, owner and publisher of NUCLEAR | CHICAGO is also the Principal of a Chicago-based commercial real estate company as well as the sponsor of several emerging technology and Next Generation Commerce early-stage investments.
Mr. Bennett’s citizen journalism endeavor via NUCLEAR | CHICAGO while recent, is not new to the extended Bennett family. Investigative journalism and law enforcement is very much a part of Mr. Bennett’s DNA as several of Mr. Bennett’s relatives have backgrounds in both law enforcement and media.
In fact, the catalyst for Mr. Bennett establishing NUCLEAR | CHICAGO can be attributed to both Mr. Bennett’s aggressive and determined approach for uncovering The Truth as well as influenced by the legacy that was established by Mr. Bennett’s Irish Immigrant Great Uncle – Michael ‘Iron Mike’ Hughes.
‘Iron Mike’ Hughes, a native of Ballygar in County Galway, Ireland, was the Chief of the Chicago Police Department, and former Chief of Detectives during the Era in which Al Capone and his notorious gang of hoodlums were roaming the streets of Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, ‘Iron Mike’ Hughes – had a ‘record without parallel’ and was regarded as ‘the personal nemesis of all crookdom’ during his tenure at the Chicago Police Department.
Upon Iron Mike’s retirement in November 1935 after a 41-year career with the Chicago Police Department, Iron Mike embarked upon a career as a journalist and reporter with the The Chicago American – the last of the aggressive journalistic traditions in Chicago.
In recent years, Mr. Bennett has been exposed to various levels of ‘crookdom’ emanating from Rich Daley’s City Hall for the past several years. To this end, the final catalyst for Mr. Bennett’s launch of NUCLEAR | CHICAGO can be attributed to a handful of corrupt events that Mr. Bennett was subjected to beginning in 2007. NUCLEAR | CHICAGO will be reporting upon his own experience in great detail, as well as other instances of ‘crookdom’ throughout Illinois.
NUCLEAR | CHICAGO will be posting the biographies of other journalists and related team members in coming weeks.
