Let’s get this straight. Cook County Circuit Court Judge William “Bill” Gamboney is ¾ Irish.
“My mother was a Fallon.”
Bill is also one of the most mellow guys I’ve ever met. “My Irish grandmother, Marie Fallon, lived at 3920 W Polk, Presentation parish. She emigrated from County Roscommon. Raised 10 kids. Made booze in her bathtub during Prohibition.”
Bill & Margie
Bill grew up on the West Side, the oldest of five kids. His grandfather, George Gamboney the undertaker; and his dad Bill Sr. and late brother Bobby also dabbled in the funeral business.
“We lived in the apartment building over the funeral home. My mother’s name was Irene. When I was a boy I heard my grandmother say to a friend in full Irish brogue, “well Irene…she married a DAY G0”.
Bill attended Weber High School and the family moved west as the neighborhood changed. “My entire lineage in life just moved from Halsted to Harlem.”
Bill, Margie, and kids
He went to UIC to study economics and then Kent School of Law at night for four years while working his day job. “Then I got hired by the Cook County States Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor, first with Bernie Carey and then Rich Daley.”
That’s when things got interesting. Bill went to work as a prosecutor putting bad guys in jail.
“I was there for 15 years.”
When he first met his wife Margie he told her he was taking her to see HAIR on their first date, but tickets fell through and he opted for Johnny Mathis concert instead. It took ten years for them to meet up again; guess she wasn’t a fan of Johnny. She still busts his chops about the HAIR tix. But they finally re-connected and have been married 45 years!
“She’s half Italian, half Irish.”
Margie, Bill and grand kids
Bill was long time law partner with the late, legendary and colorful Mike Goggin at Goggin & Gamboney. Bill says: “We were on a golf trip to Florida with a bunch of States Attorneys and Judges and the MC says ‘Mike Goggin called down to the hotel for a wake-up call. They told him to lose fifty pounds and stop drinking!’”
Bill was in private practice for 19 years before being elected Judge.
“Our campaign headquarters was (local gin mill),Doc Ryan’s on Saturday mornings.”
Rich Daley & Gamboney
Bill campaigned out at Gaelic Park before his election, “I was William Gamboney, son of Roscommon! My election as a judge was a real longshot. I won. Must have been luck of the Irish!”
He’s been a judge now for 14 years, most recently at the Criminal Courts building at 26th and California, covering “murders, sexual assaults, armed robberies, everything from soup to nuts. I had one four years ago, five dead bodies! It’s like man’s inhumanity to man. My theory is, and I don’t have the stats to prove it, but at least 90% , if not more, are just stupidity, drinking, domestic stuff, idiocy, but there’s a core in there, I’m thinking maybe 5%, they’re just evil, bad people kill you at the drop of a hat.”
Cub fan Judge Bill
I bumped into Bill on the feast of Corpus Christie over at St. Bernadine’s after Saturday night Mass. They were celebrating feast days of our parish.
Bernadine’s had a party that night, raffle for three grand, free cheeseburgers and hot dogs. Gamboney and his wife Margie brought Sharon the blind lady, (who is the cantor at Mass), to the party and we all feasted together.
St Patricks Day Parade
While waiting in the cheeseburger line he told me the fabled Criminal Courts story of the Trice twin brothers, Curtis and Carl. They lived together on the south side, 68th & Wolcott. Carl awoke one night when he heard noise in the kitchen. He went to investigate and found his brother Curtis, possibly drunk and cooking a pork chop. Carl became enraged, the two began struggling, and Carl grabbed an 11-inch butcher knife and plunged it into his brother’s chest. Criminal Court judge John J. Crowley found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. After the trial the judge asks if he has anything to say before sentencing.
Carl said he loved his brother but the pork chop was his, he had bought it the week before and had taken it out of the freezer that morning to thaw it. Carl said solemnly, “That’s my pork chop, man!”
All rise for Judge Bill Gamboney, the product of a mixed marriage; half Italian, half Irish. He might have inspired the J Geils Band lyric, “Judge, you sure is funky!”
