Michael Corbitt, 60; Former Police Chief Wrote on Ties to Mob

Michael Corbitt, 60, a former suburban Chicago police chief who wrote a book about his ties to organized crime, died July 27 in Tampa, Fla., of lung cancer.

In 1989, Corbitt, a former police chief of Willow Springs, Ill., was convicted of conspiracy in the death of Dianne Masters, the wife of a mob attorney. But he was released from prison in 1998, two years early, after helping the FBI solve several mob crimes.

In 2003 Corbitt published his story, “Double Deal: The Inside Story of Murder, Unbridled Corruption and the Cop Who Was a Mobster.” The book, which provides details of the inner workings of organized crime in Chicago, was written with the help of writer Sam Giancana, nephew of the mob boss of the same name who helped start Corbitt’s criminal career.

Corbitt said that he became involved with the mob as a teenager and that mob boss Sam Giancana helped him get his job as a police officer in Willow Springs. He served as police chief from 1973 until 1982, around the time Masters disappeared.

Her body was found nine months later in the trunk of a car in a canal in Willow Springs.