Harland D. Warren

Farm-boy from a hundred-and-fifty-acre homestead in Serena Township, thirteen miles north of Ottawa. Business and political-science degree, then a law degree from the University of Illinois, then four years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as Chief Defense Legal Counsel for Navy and Marine court-martial defendants at the Charleston Naval Base. Discharged 1946. Won the LaSalle County State's Attorney race in November 1952 on a Republican ticket. His campaign promise: "Gambling and prostitution cannot exist in a city if the police chief wants to do his job." Within weeks of being sworn in, a stone shattered his front window. He hired two private detectives from Chicago out of his own pocket because he couldn't trust local cops to investigate Cawley. He timed his February 21, 1953 raid for the Saturday afternoon before Washington's Birthday so banks would be closed all weekend and Cawley couldn't post a cash bond. He was re-elected in 1956. Two terms, then back to private practice in Ottawa.