She Stole $54 Million From Her Town. Then Something Unexpected Happened. - POLITICO

Illustrations by Nikki Ernst for POLITICO with photos by Getty Images, AP, and U.S. Marshals Service; Photos by Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO By KATHY GILSINAN 05/12/2023 05:13 AM EDT Link Copied Kathy Gilsinan is a POLITICO Magazine contributing writer based in St. Louis and author of The Helpers: Profiles From the Front Lines of the Pandemic. DIXON, Illinois — “You have not been doing your job,” said a gray-ponytailed man in flannel once he got to the microphone. City Council members and the mayor sat stone-faced on the dais, absorbing this and similar blasts of anger from the public, still grappling with the shock of the crime they’d discovered far too late. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re all fired. Thank you very much.” Among the scores of citizens of Dixon, Illinois, who had packed the council chambers, lined stairwells, spilled out the front door of the red brick building and across the street into the library parking lot, this was not an uncommon sentiment. Want to read more

Illustrations by Nikki Ernst for POLITICO with photos by Getty Images, AP, and U.S. Marshals Service; Photos by Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO By KATHY GILSINAN 05/12/2023 05:13 AM EDT Link Copied Kathy Gilsinan is a POLITICO Magazine contributing writer based in St. Louis and author of The Helpers: Profiles From the Front Lines of the Pandemic. DIXON, Illinois — “You have not been doing your job,” said a gray-ponytailed man in flannel once he got to the microphone. City Council members and the mayor sat stone-faced on the dais, absorbing this and similar blasts of anger from the public, stil