What do you think?
Rate this book
The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago
With his colleagues at the People’s Law Office (PLO), Taylor has argued landmark civil rights cases that have exposed corruption and cover-up within the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and throughout the city’s political machine, from aldermen to the mayor’s office.
[TAYLOR’s BOOK] takes the reader from the 1969 murders of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark—and the historic, thirteen-year trial that followed—through the dogged pursuit of chief detective Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the CPD that used barbaric methods, including electric shock, to elicit false confessions from suspects.
Taylor and the PLO gathered evidence from multiple cases to bring suit against the CPD, breaking the department’s “code of silence” that had enabled decades of cover-up. The legal precedents they set have since been adopted in human rights legislation around the world.
[TAYLOR’s BOOK] takes the reader from the 1969 murders of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark—and the historic, thirteen-year trial that followed—through the dogged pursuit of chief detective Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the CPD that used barbaric methods, including electric shock, to elicit false confessions from suspects.
Taylor and the PLO gathered evidence from multiple cases to bring suit against the CPD, breaking the department’s “code of silence” that had enabled decades of cover-up. The legal precedents they set have since been adopted in human rights legislation around the world.
812 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 19, 2019
32 people are currently reading
833 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 14, 2019
This book is a tough read because even if you aren’t someone naive to police corruption in Chicago (it’s been reported on for decades) the extent of corruption may still surprise you. Though the book touches on different cases, the story of corrupt cop Jon Burge is a common theme and was hard for me to wrap my mind around. Burge was known to use torture devices, his experience with torture coming from his days seeing combat in Vietnam. But the exploitation of power doesn’t start and stop with him. It runs square into politics, with Richard M Daley prominently featured. Author Flint Taylor knows a thing or two since he was the lawyer fighting this cess pool of injustice. At one point in the book investigative journalist John Conroy poses a question of why the US attorney wasn’t getting involved in the case of accused cop killer Andrew Wilson’s alleged torture by police. His answer was “perhaps because no one believes it can happen here. Perhaps there is no investigation simply because, as other nations have found, torture is an intimate affair, something that happens among a few adults behind a closed door, something that is hard to prove afterward because the accused—often decorated soldiers who have served their country in a time of crisis—deny the allegations, and the victims are terrorists or alleged terrorists, associates of terrorists...dissidents, criminals, rioters, stone throwers, sympathizers, or relatives of the above”.
May 26, 2019
If the author can spend his entire working life litigating the same set of police torture cases to expose the truth and get partial justice , you can slog through this tome and learn about the cover-up and how hard it was to expose it. An important chapter in recent American history, showing the power of the police over black lives, the difficulty of teaching interrogation tactics to citizen soldiers and then bringing them back home, and how the bias and personal beliefs of some judges affects the supposed impartiality of our justice system. Among other things.
September 18, 2022
hailing from a south side adjacent suburb of chicago, it’s terrifying to read of the atrocities committed so close to home. terrifying and shocking—but if you have any knowledge of chicago history and politics, you know the game has been rigged for decades and the mass cover up by CPD and the City of the torture of detainees should really come as no surprise. and yet this detailed account of what transpired behind closed doors and the decades long legal battle to seek some semblance of justice still manages to be gut-wrenching.
prior to this book, i read a stephen king novel in which several of the main protagonists were subject to torture, not unlike what i read in this painstakingly detailed work of non-fiction. as i read Taylor’s book, there were moments where i thought to myself: i feel like i’m still reading a horror novel; but the true horror is that this happened and likely continues to happen, whether in CPD or elsewhere in the country or the world.
it’s a long read. flint taylor is clearly no literary genius in terms of creating an engaging storyline, he’s a lawyer by trade and it’s clear by the many unexplained legal terms he employed throughout. although dry at times, this book ultimately continued to be a page-turner, one where i wanted to keep reading and reading, if only to confirm that justice was achieved on some level.
the absurdity of the many legal and political actors in the system will frustrate and shock many, but again, should also come as no surprise—the title “torture machine” after all, a play on words/double entendre of the torture device Burge used on nearly all of his torture victims and chicago’s political machine headed by scumbag richard daley, alluding to the fact that the entire city was in on these human rights violations occurring on the south side.
this extensive work lays out a history of corruption and violence within the city of chicago, and anyone who wants a full picture and understanding of this city should read this book. anyone wanting to get involved with law, law enforcement (yikes), politics, esp in chicago or cook county must read this book — knowing what transpired in the past is just one, but fundamental, step in ensuring that we don’t allow it to happen again.
prior to this book, i read a stephen king novel in which several of the main protagonists were subject to torture, not unlike what i read in this painstakingly detailed work of non-fiction. as i read Taylor’s book, there were moments where i thought to myself: i feel like i’m still reading a horror novel; but the true horror is that this happened and likely continues to happen, whether in CPD or elsewhere in the country or the world.
it’s a long read. flint taylor is clearly no literary genius in terms of creating an engaging storyline, he’s a lawyer by trade and it’s clear by the many unexplained legal terms he employed throughout. although dry at times, this book ultimately continued to be a page-turner, one where i wanted to keep reading and reading, if only to confirm that justice was achieved on some level.
the absurdity of the many legal and political actors in the system will frustrate and shock many, but again, should also come as no surprise—the title “torture machine” after all, a play on words/double entendre of the torture device Burge used on nearly all of his torture victims and chicago’s political machine headed by scumbag richard daley, alluding to the fact that the entire city was in on these human rights violations occurring on the south side.
this extensive work lays out a history of corruption and violence within the city of chicago, and anyone who wants a full picture and understanding of this city should read this book. anyone wanting to get involved with law, law enforcement (yikes), politics, esp in chicago or cook county must read this book — knowing what transpired in the past is just one, but fundamental, step in ensuring that we don’t allow it to happen again.
October 1, 2019
Flint Taylor is not a prose stylist. This book is light on narrative and heavy on names and small details, making the reading slowgoing. But it's a comprehensive historical account of the activism and legal fight against the Chicago Police Department's systemic torture of Black men, when such accounts are rare. An invaluable resource for anyone studying or writing about Chicago police torture.
June 21, 2019
Flint Taylor has lived in the trenches of civil rights cases for years. In this book, Taylor sets out the pursuit by him and his colleagues at the People’s Law Offices of police brutality and especially the Burge torture.
April 21, 2025
Recommend this for any attorney doing good work (you know who you are). I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think about the last few chapters when I need encouragement to keep fighting. The moral arc of the universe is long indeed but people like Flint Taylor help it bend towards justice.
March 24, 2020
In 2018 reading Just Mercy cemented my admiration of Bryan Stevenson. In 2019 it was Ronan Farrow for his Catch and Kill. Now in 2020 I’ve just added Flint Taylor to my list of men who are making the world better. Like Just Mercy, Flint Taylor’s The Torture Machine documents injustices inflicted on black and Latinx men by the justice system, and he is also an attorney. The Torture Machine, however, was much, much more difficult to read, and I think that was intentional.
I’ll back up a little and say why it was so difficult to read. Taylor speaks of his decades fighting in the courts on behalf of men who had been tortured by police officers in Chicago. In terms of a timeline, it spans one year short of fifty years, starting with the murder of Fred Hampton in 1969 and going all the way to 2018. Taylor is extremely detailed. Thus the reader is taken through one night of torture to the next, page after page, chapter after chapter. This makes for a very long and dense and draining book with detailed accounts of torture mixed in with many names to keep track of and trials and hearings and appeals.
But, as I said before, I think that the fact that it’s a difficult read is intentional. It should not be an easy read. In choosing to release this book with its detail and density, Taylor finally made me come closer to realizing the horror of systematic racism in the American judicial system. It is not just about the policeman who tortured men; everyone from prosecutors to judges to politicians covered for them and even benefitted from their acts. I’ve read many books that cover this subject, but none have forced me to look at it like The Torture Machine did.
The cover of the book is a picture of the box rigged up to electrocute various body parts in acts of torture, and the title of the book at first seems to refer to that piece of equipment. As you read, however, you realize the real torture machine is the system that allows the torture to happen and even encourages it.
I don’t think a lot of people have read this book, and I have a feeling that in this time of pandemic, fewer emotionally draining books will be read. I hope I’m wrong. I hope people continue to bear witness as much as they can. This story needs to be common knowledge.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in furthering their knowledge on the subject but with a trigger warning. I recommend it to anyone whose interest was sparked by episode 134 of the Criminal podcast “Call Russ Ewing.” I think the biggest recommendation, though, would come from someone like Netflix. I was very glad when Just Mercy was made into a movie because it meant that more people would know Bryan Stevenson’s work. I hope a limited series gets made about Flint Taylor’s work.
I’ll back up a little and say why it was so difficult to read. Taylor speaks of his decades fighting in the courts on behalf of men who had been tortured by police officers in Chicago. In terms of a timeline, it spans one year short of fifty years, starting with the murder of Fred Hampton in 1969 and going all the way to 2018. Taylor is extremely detailed. Thus the reader is taken through one night of torture to the next, page after page, chapter after chapter. This makes for a very long and dense and draining book with detailed accounts of torture mixed in with many names to keep track of and trials and hearings and appeals.
But, as I said before, I think that the fact that it’s a difficult read is intentional. It should not be an easy read. In choosing to release this book with its detail and density, Taylor finally made me come closer to realizing the horror of systematic racism in the American judicial system. It is not just about the policeman who tortured men; everyone from prosecutors to judges to politicians covered for them and even benefitted from their acts. I’ve read many books that cover this subject, but none have forced me to look at it like The Torture Machine did.
The cover of the book is a picture of the box rigged up to electrocute various body parts in acts of torture, and the title of the book at first seems to refer to that piece of equipment. As you read, however, you realize the real torture machine is the system that allows the torture to happen and even encourages it.
I don’t think a lot of people have read this book, and I have a feeling that in this time of pandemic, fewer emotionally draining books will be read. I hope I’m wrong. I hope people continue to bear witness as much as they can. This story needs to be common knowledge.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in furthering their knowledge on the subject but with a trigger warning. I recommend it to anyone whose interest was sparked by episode 134 of the Criminal podcast “Call Russ Ewing.” I think the biggest recommendation, though, would come from someone like Netflix. I was very glad when Just Mercy was made into a movie because it meant that more people would know Bryan Stevenson’s work. I hope a limited series gets made about Flint Taylor’s work.
March 13, 2023
Flint Taylor's The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago is a historical chronicle of the decades it took to get any form of justice for torture survivors. For years, the Chicago Police Department used terror tactics and physical torture to get false confessions from men of color—I won't even call them suspects, since almost all of them were simply men of color profiled by the police—torturing more than 120 people. The worst of them was commander Jon Burge, but it was a culture and pervasive chain of violence, not to mention a cover-up, that involved people at every level of the police department and Chicago government, and is a shameful stain on Chicago history that needs to be well-known.
The book exposes the lengths to which people would rather be ignorant—the lengths they'll go to in order to preserve the system—to avoid confronting hard questions. How things suddenly become political and "editorial" the moment they implicate the system as a whole. How the judicial system tried to subvert and break down these trials at every turn, largely due to the ingrained biases of judges and to the concerted efforts of the government to cover-up as much as they could.
It is a thick, dense history of both the torture and primarily the legal process it took to expose it and break the police code of silence and government conspiracy of silence that dominated up to that point. Dense, but hard to put down. Horrific, and exposed me to a lot of history that I should know as a Chicagoan and progressive in Chicago.
My only complaint about the book is it dearly needs a timeline. I made one myself full of crucial names and dates, but it would have been a huge help. To organize his story, Taylor has to go back and forth in time sometimes—totally fine, but less confusing with a timeline present!
Content warnings for violence, torture, racism (systemic, language/slurs, violence), misogynoir, sexual assault.
The book exposes the lengths to which people would rather be ignorant—the lengths they'll go to in order to preserve the system—to avoid confronting hard questions. How things suddenly become political and "editorial" the moment they implicate the system as a whole. How the judicial system tried to subvert and break down these trials at every turn, largely due to the ingrained biases of judges and to the concerted efforts of the government to cover-up as much as they could.
It is a thick, dense history of both the torture and primarily the legal process it took to expose it and break the police code of silence and government conspiracy of silence that dominated up to that point. Dense, but hard to put down. Horrific, and exposed me to a lot of history that I should know as a Chicagoan and progressive in Chicago.
My only complaint about the book is it dearly needs a timeline. I made one myself full of crucial names and dates, but it would have been a huge help. To organize his story, Taylor has to go back and forth in time sometimes—totally fine, but less confusing with a timeline present!
Content warnings for violence, torture, racism (systemic, language/slurs, violence), misogynoir, sexual assault.
May 3, 2021
First off, because I don’t want to scare readers off too quickly, I want to say
thise who have little knowledge about the subject matter should read this or something else to see just what goes on with the police and the justice system. Also, if you are looking for a detailed, step by step, account, this is for you..
I just hate not giving this book five stars, and I hate what my comment is mostly about to be, but...
However, I do have this knowledge already and the simple truth is that as much as I like and appreciate the author ( who I met decades ago while looking for a lawyer in my own political activism based conspiracy case), I have to say he needs to stick to his day job. This is one of the most dry and uninteresting account of something this important that I have ever run across. I did not finish the book, but I scanned ahead and it never changed, just dry, almost transcript like accounting with little commentary or analysis. Sorry, just dull. It certainly did not have to be. It’s too bad, for example, Angela Davis did not write this.
thise who have little knowledge about the subject matter should read this or something else to see just what goes on with the police and the justice system. Also, if you are looking for a detailed, step by step, account, this is for you..
I just hate not giving this book five stars, and I hate what my comment is mostly about to be, but...
However, I do have this knowledge already and the simple truth is that as much as I like and appreciate the author ( who I met decades ago while looking for a lawyer in my own political activism based conspiracy case), I have to say he needs to stick to his day job. This is one of the most dry and uninteresting account of something this important that I have ever run across. I did not finish the book, but I scanned ahead and it never changed, just dry, almost transcript like accounting with little commentary or analysis. Sorry, just dull. It certainly did not have to be. It’s too bad, for example, Angela Davis did not write this.
March 24, 2021
It's sad to think that while I was riding my bicycle, going on a first date, entering the workforce and buying a new car...that many poor souls were living an actual hell on Earth.
Between 1960 and the early 90's black men were being tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit and then sentenced to life in jail.
Most of white America was unaware of this torture crew working for the Chicago Police Department.
This book describes the uncovering of the torture and the 35 years of cover-up perpetrated by the City of Chicago's mayor, States attorney and many others.
Flint Taylor is a lawyer and this book presses home proof after proof that the travesty of justice occurred.
I listened to the audiobook version over 3 weeks.
A disturbing look in to how power is abused and the lengths taken to keep the torturers reputations intact.
Between 1960 and the early 90's black men were being tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit and then sentenced to life in jail.
Most of white America was unaware of this torture crew working for the Chicago Police Department.
This book describes the uncovering of the torture and the 35 years of cover-up perpetrated by the City of Chicago's mayor, States attorney and many others.
Flint Taylor is a lawyer and this book presses home proof after proof that the travesty of justice occurred.
I listened to the audiobook version over 3 weeks.
A disturbing look in to how power is abused and the lengths taken to keep the torturers reputations intact.
August 22, 2024
Difficult and long read, but very powerful story from Flint Taylor of the People’s Law Office documenting the decades long legal battle for survivors of Chicago police torture. It was truly horrifying to read about the atrocities committed by Jon Burge and his cabal of racist cops against black and brown communities in Chicago. Learning the conspiracy to cover up the torture and failure to investigate went all the way up to Mayor Richard Daley was shocking. The story follows the legal cases of the survivors and the tireless efforts of lawyers and activists in the fight for justice. I hope that one day, the curriculum about Jon Burge can expand beyond CPS to foster more conversations about systemic police violence and racial injustice.
August 10, 2019
A must-read to understand the true horrors the Chicago Police Department delivered and the City if Chicago helped to cover up, while Taylor and his legal team fought for decades to deliver justice. There is a book within a book here as well, when you come to understand there is an element in this story involving police officials who inflicted unspeakable torture on other humans were also veterans of the Vietnam War. To fully understand this piece and factor of this awful time in history for Chicago, I would recommend reading Bring the War Home, by Kathleen Belew as well. The interviews Amy Goodman has done with Taylor are also an excellent compliment to this book.
November 14, 2020
-DNF! stopped halfway through -
Very fact heavy and little narrative or emotion for such an emotional and traumatic story. I even peaked ahead to see if things picked up, and was disappointed to see that the last 200 pages of the book was still a play by play of each time Mr. Taylor provided counsel for the torture victims (which was for a LOT of trials). Nonetheless, it is a valuable and critical testimony of the numerous Black victims of torture conducted by CPD and the people who fought for their justice. If you enjoy the rational and matter-of-fact tone used in history books and court cases, this book may be more of an interest to you than it was for me!
Very fact heavy and little narrative or emotion for such an emotional and traumatic story. I even peaked ahead to see if things picked up, and was disappointed to see that the last 200 pages of the book was still a play by play of each time Mr. Taylor provided counsel for the torture victims (which was for a LOT of trials). Nonetheless, it is a valuable and critical testimony of the numerous Black victims of torture conducted by CPD and the people who fought for their justice. If you enjoy the rational and matter-of-fact tone used in history books and court cases, this book may be more of an interest to you than it was for me!
March 23, 2020
A great, yet difficult, book. This book should be in the library of every lawyer, activist, clergy and educator. While the context is Chicago and unique, many of the issues would supply in major metropolitan areas across the nation.
Perhaps the most difficult part was reading this book and coming across names of people I knew well in the late 1980's. The seeds that were sown through abuse, torture, and the over-policing of communities of color have come to fruition in today's entrenched societal challenges.
Perhaps the most difficult part was reading this book and coming across names of people I knew well in the late 1980's. The seeds that were sown through abuse, torture, and the over-policing of communities of color have come to fruition in today's entrenched societal challenges.
June 7, 2024
An in depth look into the prosecutor that represented several civil rights cases in Chicago revolving on police mistreatment of those in custody. This follows litigation of a police unit that was known for forcing confessions by the use of torture.
I wish I had learned more about this subject matter and other civil rights issues before now. I will think about this book. It raised several interesting questions as they worked to bring justice to those who were wronged by the actions of the police officers, judges, and politicians involved.
I wish I had learned more about this subject matter and other civil rights issues before now. I will think about this book. It raised several interesting questions as they worked to bring justice to those who were wronged by the actions of the police officers, judges, and politicians involved.
October 5, 2025
One of the most important books I’ve ever read. Chronicles Mr. Taylor’s, members of the PLO, allies, victims, and the community’s fight for justice against a seemingly impenetrable opponent in the corrupt Illinois criminal justice system.
Ever more important, the epilogue encourages all of us to continue fighting for the struggle and a better America.
The harrowing accounts of torture, abuse, and racism described are heavy, but important to read and understand, I’d encourage readers to take breaks when needed as the content can be upsetting.
Ever more important, the epilogue encourages all of us to continue fighting for the struggle and a better America.
The harrowing accounts of torture, abuse, and racism described are heavy, but important to read and understand, I’d encourage readers to take breaks when needed as the content can be upsetting.
May 30, 2024
3.5
The work put in to make this book possible is masterful.
The 80s torture cases are a behemoth and the people’s law office and a litany of others involved with these cases were doing jaw dropping work.
The book was bogged down on legal jargon and seemed chronological, but ended up hopping around. Lots of big names along with sitting judges mentioned which was interesting. Loved hearing about my coworkers and reading about a current Loevy client in this.
The work put in to make this book possible is masterful.
The 80s torture cases are a behemoth and the people’s law office and a litany of others involved with these cases were doing jaw dropping work.
The book was bogged down on legal jargon and seemed chronological, but ended up hopping around. Lots of big names along with sitting judges mentioned which was interesting. Loved hearing about my coworkers and reading about a current Loevy client in this.
March 7, 2021
really interesting read, learned a lot as well, read a different nonfiction of the same audio length and this book was so much better in so many ways, wouldn't mind buying this book for my dad.
April 15, 2021
If you want a thorough case study on systematic racism and the powers that be restrict holding people accountable and preventing abuse to BIPOC this is the book for you. My heart was heavy in how much the system made it hard to stop abuse that needed to stop.
April 9, 2024
Wow! Just amazing! The inside scoop on the corruption, and the lengths The City of Chicago took to defend and cover up the Massacre of Commander Jon Burge.
November 19, 2024
definitely a long read, but a super important telling of the history of police torture in chicago.
may you never ever rest peacefully, jon burge <3
may you never ever rest peacefully, jon burge <3
March 15, 2020
Just finished reading
The Torture Machine
Is 542 pages of
healing medicine justice words.
Wishing everybody read this book.
Is so important in our struggles
to abolish policing
and Prison Imperialism.
The Torture Machine
Is 542 pages of
healing medicine justice words.
Wishing everybody read this book.
Is so important in our struggles
to abolish policing
and Prison Imperialism.
March 15, 2020
Just finished reading
The Torture Machine
Is 542 pages of
healing medicine justice words.
Wishing everybody read this book.
Is so important in our struggles
to abolish policing
and Prison Imperialism.
The Torture Machine
Is 542 pages of
healing medicine justice words.
Wishing everybody read this book.
Is so important in our struggles
to abolish policing
and Prison Imperialism.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews