Before he was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and progressive icon of the Supreme Court, he was a good man in a seedy Chicago ruled by cronyism. The corruption case that made Justice John Paul Stevens. — Dig great true storytelling? It’s all we do. Subscribe to our newsletter and don’t miss a word of our blockbuster nonfiction. On the evening of June 19, 1969, attorney John Paul Stevens was playing catch with his youngest daughter, Sue, on the lawn of his home in Chicago’s modest Beverly neighborhood when the phone call came that would change his life.