CHICAGO – An influential Chicago Democrat who famously compared himself to a virile hog was convicted Thursday after only two hours of jury deliberations on charges of tax evasion for not declaring campaign cash he gambled away on slot machines as income.

The tough-talking, rhetorically gifted William Beavers, 78 — who once bragged about the extent of his influence in and around Chicago by describing himself as a "hog with big nuts" – kept his eyes fixed on the clerk as the verdict was read but showed no emotion. His attorney, Sam Adam Jr., flinched and bit his lip.

Beavers, whose commissioner's salary is $85,000, lost $500,000 over three years at Indiana's Horseshoe Casino, sometimes writing himself one $2,000 campaign check after another on daylong gambling binges.