Former Cook County Judge Ronald J.P. Banks dies at 76

Ronald J.P. Banks, the Cook County judge behind a landmark 1985 murder conviction of three chemical company supervisors in the death of a factory worker, died on New Year’s Day.

Mr. Banks, who died from heart complications at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, was 76, his family said.

Once a candidate for chief judge of the county, he was one of three politically influential brothers from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood who rose to prominence.

His younger brother, former Ald. William J.P. Banks (36th), headed the City Council zoning committee until he retired in 2009.

His older brother, Samuel V.P. Banks, was a Cook County prosecutor who later defended some of Chicago’s most colorful — and purportedly mobbed-up — characters in court. He died in 2010.

“My dad kept our family as normal as it possibly could be,” said Samuel W. Banks, a zoning specialist for Cook County, who is one of Mr. Banks’ six children. “We grew up knowing our dad was a judge . . . but if I didn’t cut the grass for him, I’d get in trouble.”

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