Biography
Frank "Moon" Muscare was the president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 during the bitter 1980 Chicago firefighters' strike against Mayor Jane Byrne. In February 1980, after contract talks collapsed, roughly 4,000 firefighters walked out in defiance of a court restraining order — the first firefighters' strike in the city's history. Muscare refused to order his members back to work, and a judge jailed him for contempt of court, sentencing him to five months and reportedly citing his "big mouth," while levying fines that reached $40,000 a day against the union and its officials. The walkout lasted 23 days before the union ended it on March 8, 1980. Muscare died in 2005.
Courtroom custody and sentencing
The original UPI report in the Daily Iowan of February 22, 1980, page 2, describes Thursday night's five-month contempt sentence and Muscare being led from Judge John Hechinger's courtroom in handcuffs. The arrest/capture and sentencing fields are therefore February 21, 1980; this was custody on commitment for direct contempt, not a separate street arrest. The existing incarceration day is corroborated.
The appellate judgment confirms the February 21 punitive sanction and distinguishes it from earlier civil-contempt fines. The existing March 14 bail-release endpoint is retained, not presented as final discharge of the five-month sentence. UPI's March 22, 1982 report states 23 days served and that he faced return to jail unless further proceedings or leniency intervened. That conditional prospect does not establish a second admission or its release. The stored 22-day elapsed span and the report's 23 days served reflect different counting conventions; no new total sentence-service figure is inferred. Existing photograph retained.
Sources: Daily Iowan, February 22, 1980, printed p.2, original UPI report visually inspected; City of Chicago v. Chicago Fire Fighters Union, 99 Ill.App.3d 583 (1981); UPI, March 22, 1982. Eventual completion or any later custody remains unverified.
