Born in
Chicago,
Illinois, Scott served in the United States Naval Air Corps during
World War II. He was assigned to the
University of Pennsylvania where he earned his undergraduate degree. He then received his law degree from
Chicago–Kent College of Law in 1950 and then practiced law. In 1959, he helped the United States Government with a crackdown on organized crime. He then became vice president of a bank. In 1962, he was elected Illinois State Treasurer, as a
Republican, and served until 1967. Elected in 1968, he served as Illinois Attorney General until his resignation in 1980.
In 1980, while on trial for understating his 1972 United States income tax, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. He was convicted the day after his defeat in the polls. In 1982, after losing an appeal in the United States Supreme Court, he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. He served seven months of this sentence before being paroled. He died at his home, in Palos Heights, Illinois, of a heart attack. ==Notes==