Ryan reaches end of road: Prison (Fitz takes issue with claim of innocence)

Ryan reaches end of road: Prison
Fitzgerald takes issue with claim of innocence

By Michael Higgins and E.A. Torriero, Tribune staff reporters
November 8, 2007

On Wednesday, there was no deal former Gov. George Ryan could cut. There was no one to cajole, and no backroom compromise to be struck.

After a long drive from his Kankakee home, Ryan reported to a federal prison camp near Oxford, Wis., to begin serving a 6½ -year sentence for fraud, racketeering and other corruption.

Ryan's first night behind prison walls marks the end of a dizzying fall from his days in the governor's mansion, where he held sway as the state's most powerful Republican and its consummate old-school dealmaker.

Ryan's arrival at prison -- after an eight-year federal probe, a six-month trial and more than 1½ years fighting to stay free -- marked the symbolic end of a long, expensive and so far unsuccessful attempt to overturn his conviction.

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that he stays there not moved to some off-shore island to sip Coke and sun himself with the other American traitors.