Chicago homicide detective Lt. Dan Shine has plenty of stories to tell me as he celebrates his retirement later this week.
Sure there are plenty of bad guy busts and scary encounters he’s had over his last 31 years as a police officer. But he’s also very lucky; in many ways because of the secrets revealed to him over the years. Secrets that went on to change the course and direction and blessings of his journey.
Dan in front of Shines Pub in Eire
It could be called his personal Book of Revelations but there is nothing apocalyptic about it.
He came up in St. Gerald’s parish in Oak Lawn and went to the storied DeLasalle Institute, a Catholic all-boys high school in Bridgeport with more than a few Chicago mayors among their alumni.
Chicago Paddy's Day with Shine and pals
“I’m a third generation DeLasalle guy, my dad was from Viz," he told the Echo. "I wanted to do something fierce and I fought my parents’ tooth and nail. Finally they said ‘okay, we’ll let you go down there.’ And I went down there. I didn’t know one kid in the whole school!”
His dad had him working on the beer truck after graduation until he enlisted in the Navy.
Paddys Day Emerald Society 
His dad died suddenly of a heart attack while Dan was overseas. He came home and joined the police.
“Service in the police was always something that was well spoken of in our home," Dan recalls. "My grandfather was a policeman, and his brothers Bernard and Francis”
The good lieutenant has an easy-going nature despite all the violence and mayhem he has witnessed over the years. The fact that his last name is sometimes used as a racial slur in Chicago for our African American brothers, just rolls right off him.
In the Navy
That same stoicism helped him when he got another surprise. “My father Tom, passed away in ’91. My ma Cathy passed away in ’99. I was the only kid growing up. My parents had lost a baby two years before me. I knew I was loved more than most kids. I knew I was loved growing up, there’s no doubt about it. So there I was clearing out my mom’s room with a couple of aunts and I ended up finding some papers, and it turned out to be my adoption file. So no one had ever mentioned an inkling of this growing up or anything like that, ya know?" Golf outing
I don’t know, nor can anyone imagine what that must have been like to discover. He tore up the paperwork and threw it in the garbage and sought out the wise counsel of his former cop partner John L. Sullivan who lived in Bridgeport.
“We had a little talk about it, and he goes, ‘kid, what a beautiful story. You were so lucky.' He goes, ‘you’re a lucky kid’. And he put a good spin on it.”
Sullivan encouraged him to embrace the love and told him he might need those papers someday. And sure enough he did. He began a long search for his biological family and after many blind alleys it turns out they are people he has known for years, cousins.
Cops in Chicago
“We’ve grown to be good friends. One day my cousin comes to me and says…”
His cousin told him he had been diagnosed with a genetic disease and suggests that Danny get tested as well. “They call it the Celtic blood disease, the Celtic Curse!”
Hemochromatosis is a genetic blood disorder, where the body accumulates too much iron in the blood. It exists primarily in the west coast of Ireland, the largest population in the world that has it. Danny got tested and, yes, he has it. Thankfully he has been receiving treatment for the condition for years with frequent blood donations.
The hand of God appeared in Dan Shine’s life and the truth was revealed to him. “You have to give blood on a regular basis, so that’s what I do.”
He also rides a motorcycle as a member of the Canaryville Veteran Riders Assn, “some rough and tough guys doing wonderful things”, escorting war heroes’ home and working with the Gary Sinise Foundation helping disabled vets.
Dan also started a group “The Roamin’ Catholics”, folks who are interested in Chicago history visiting different local parishes each Sunday for mass. "We got a couple of nicknames, we’re the Holy Rollers…or if we don’t have to work that day, we’re the Pew and Brew.”
He’s retiring this week, looking forward to more trips to Ireland, where’s he been dozens of times. Danny tells me, “I am the luckiest person you have ever met.”
He’s my favorite Shine!
