Sherman H. Skolnick (July 13, 1930 – May 21, 2006) was a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based activist and

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

Early life

Born in Chicago in 1930, at the age of six, Skolnick was paralyzed by

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

, and he used a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

for the rest of his life. His parents, a homemaker and a tailor, were Jewish European immigrants. Skolnick's father was from Russia.

Career

Skolnick was founder and chairman of the Citizens' Committee to Clean Up the Courts, which he started in 1963. He used the local press to distribute his reports, later establishing a telephone hotline–"Hotline News", a

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

show on

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

, and a web site. Skolnick's investigations put

Otto Kerner Jr. Otto Kerner Jr. (August 15, 1908 – May 9, 1976) was an American jurist and politician. He served as the 33rd governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 and chaired the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission). He wa ...

in prison for three years; and led to the resignation of two

Illinois Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the fiv ...

justices, Roy J. Solfisburg, Jr. and

Ray Klingbiel Raymond I. Klingbiel (March 1, 1901 – January 18, 1973) was an Illinois lawyer and judge who twice served as the Chief Justice of Illinois (1956–1957, and 1964–1967) during sixteen years as justice of that court. In 1969, Klingbiel and then ...

, who, as Skolnick reported, had accepted bribes of stock from a defendant in a case on which they ruled. The scandal catapulted

John Paul Stevens John Paul Stevens (April 20, 1920 – July 16, 2019) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldes ...

, special counsel to an investigating commission, to fame as a justice of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

. In 2001, the story became the subject of a book, ''Illinois Justice'', by Kenneth A. Manaster. His investigations also revealed corruption at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Skolnick's final written works include an 81-part series entitled "The Overthrow of the American Republic," and a 16-part series entitled "

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

, and the Courts."

Later life and death

Skolnick died of a heart attack on May 21, 2006.

Publications

Articles

"The Late Grand Dragon of the Washington Post."
''Skolnick's Report'' (July 23, 2001).

Books

* ''Ahead of the Parade: A Who's Who of Treason and High Crimes – Exclusive Details of Fraud and Corruption of the Monopoly Press, the Banks, the Bench and the Bar, and the Secret Political Police''. Dandelion Books (2003). .
''Overthrow of the American Republic: Writings of Sherman H. Skolnick''.
Dandelion Books (2007). .

References

External links

* Sherman Skolnick file at the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

) * Sherman Skolnick collection at the Harold Weisberg Archive (via

) * Sherman Skolnick Suit collection at the Harold Weisberg Archive (via

)
"Sherman Skolnick Sounds Off!"
Interview by

Kenn Thomas Kenn Thomas (June 12, 1958 – September 22, 2023) was a conspiracy writer, archivist, and editor and publisher of '' Steamshovel Press'', a parapolitical conspiracy magazine. Thomas, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, wrote over a dozen books o ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Skolnick, Sherman 1930 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Activists from Chicago American anti-corruption activists American conspiracy theorists American investigative journalists American male journalists American male non-fiction writers Critics of the Catholic Church Jewish American activists Jewish American journalists Jewish American non-fiction writers Journalists from Chicago