CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT LIEUTENANT Jeffrey “Matches” Boyle gained his nickname honestly – he sets fires. And while he deserves his nickname, whether or not he deserved to be promoted to lieutenant is debateable.
Matches and his family, you see, are well-connected with the Daley political machine and when Matches took his lieutenant’s exam, coming out way down at #200 didn’t really matter. He quickly recieve a “merit promotion” and went to the head of the list. But in 2006 his career development hit a speed bump when he was caught setting one of his fires. After being recorded on a surveillance tape torching a restaurant, he pleaded guilty to six arsons and admitted to setting at least 20 others, including an elementary school.
He got six years for that, but good behavior (and good connections?) got him out in just 21 months. But the felony conviction did cost him his job, however. So now Matches is filing a lawsuit demanding that he receive his earned pension of about $50 thousand annually. He was initially turned down for it because of his conviction.
But Matches is arguing that since all of his arsons took place while he was off duty, then they should have no bearing on his job performance nor his pension. “A mere conviction of a felony is insufficient to justify forfeiture of pension benefits; rather there must be a ‘clear and specific connection between the felony committed and the participant’s employment,’ to justify such a forfeiture,” argued Matches’ lawyer, Thomas Needham, in the suit.
John Kass has the whole, hot story in the Chicago Tribune HERE.
Matches was also getting some heat from his associations with Nick “The Stick” LoCoco and a city racket. The Sun-Times covers that HERE.
Nick the Stick was a good friend of Matches and his brother “Quarters” Boyle, who got his name by pilfering over $2 million in coins from the toll roads authority. Poor Nick suddenly died mysteriously when he went out for a horseback ride. You can catch up on that sad story HERE.
