BY Jason Meisner Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune
A quarter century after her husband was shot to death in a gun battle with a bank robbery defendant, Milly Belluomini walked into the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Thursday for perhaps the last time.
It hasn't gotten any easier to come back, even this many years later, she said. She got chills when security guards brought her in through the courthouse basement at 219 S. Dearborn St., past the spot where her husband, Harry, was fatally wounded. Upstairs in the lobby, as bagpipes played, tears sprung up in her eyes.
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"It's a happy and sad occasion at the same time," Belluomini, now 77, said at the memorial service for her husband and Deputy U.S. Marshal Roy "Bill" Frakes, who was also killed that day. "I'm so thankful that everyone came out to remember. But I told them this is it ... I will never come back."
It's the third time since the horrific events of July 20, 1992, that the federal courthouse has paused to honor the victims and reflect on what's been learned about security in the years since the tragedy.
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As in past ceremonies, judges, lawyers, security officers and retired cops all filled the narrow hallway of the building's austere lobby, where a plaque commemorating the bravery of the two victims hangs on a wall.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer told the crowd she's grateful for the men and women like Frakes and Belluomini who protect judges and courthouse staff from harm and allow the justice system to function.
"I know that for those of you who loved these men, the loss and pain will always be with you — I see that in your faces today," Pallmeyer said.
