How Do 18 Chicago Outfit Murders Remain Unsolved for Decades?

Friends of ours: Anthony "Twan" Doyle, Frank "Toots" Caruso, William Hanhardt, John Fecarotta, Nicholas Calabrese, Tony Spilotro, Michael Spilotro, Ronnie Jarrett

How do 18 Chicago Outfit murders remain unsolved for decades?

It might help to have the cops on your side.

This came out in the opening statement by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully in the historic Family Secrets trial, when Scully pointed at one of the accused, a fellow with the intriguing nickname of "Twan."

He's called Twan in the 11th Ward, in Bridgeport and Chinatown, where not only the wiseguys are nervous about this trial, but presumably some 11th Ward politicians, too, about information gushing from the mouths of Outfit informants.

Twan is a tough-looking fellow, with a muscly forehead and plates for eyebrows, a Chinatown Sammy Sosa in a nice suit, and the only one of five defendants not accused of being involved in the 18 murders.

The name Twan remains a mystery. If any of you know his longtime friend, Bridgeport's former labor boss, Frank "Toots" Caruso, and you ask Toots and he tells you, please call me. On a pay phone.

Scully's suggestion about how things work isn't in the name Twan, but in another, official name used by Twan: Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle.

According to Scully, Doyle was with the Outfit and a loan shark, but Doyle also worked in the evidence section of the Chicago Police Department for a time. If Scully's allegations are correct -- and Scully was correct a few years ago when he put former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt behind bars for running the Outfit's jewelry-heist crew -- the Outfit's reach into local law enforcement will be demonstrated once again.

Good cops who make small mistakes are often publicly humiliated, trotted out and yelled at by politicians who wag their fingers for TV cameras. Their families are ruined. But law-and-order politicians somehow always forget to wag their fingers at cops like Hanhardt or Twan.

If you're a loyal reader, you might remember that I wrote about Outfit tough guy John Fecarotta years ago, after reporting that Chinatown crew member Nicholas Calabrese had sought refuge in the federal witness protection program, which started Family Secrets. Fecarotta was implicated in many of the 18 murders by Scully on Thursday, including the 1986 beating deaths of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. It was Fecarotta's job to bury them. He blew it by inserting them in a shallow grave in an Indiana cornfield.

After the Spilotros' bodies were found, Fecarotta was invited to go on another crime, on Belmont Avenue. But he didn't know he was the intended target until Nick Calabrese pointed a gun at his face. There was a struggle, Nick was shot, and though Fecarotta ended up dead, a bloody glove was found, dripping with Nick's DNA. The glove ended up in the police evidence section where Doyle worked.

When the FBI began asking about the glove, Scully said Doyle became quite interested in this development, figuring that his Outfit superiors would be equally interested, if not more so. Scully alleged that Doyle told Nick Calabrese's brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., about the glove that could put the Calabrese family in the Fecarotta murder.

"He betrayed his oath to the public and decided to remain loyal to Outfit interests," Scully said.

There were other highlights in court Thursday, including Frank Calabrese Sr.'s lawyer, the dynamic and splendidly dressed Joseph Lopez, the only lawyer in town tough enough to pull off pink socks and work for mobsters while remaining a loyal reader of my column.

He described his client as a man ruined by an ungrateful son, another informant witness, Frank Calabrese Jr. Junior was a drug addict who didn't want to go into the trucking business and who cared more about a tarty wife than his own father's love, Lopez said.

He pointed to his client, who allegedly strangled several people until their eyes popped out but who was so soft and kindly-looking in court, he could have been in a TV commercial for facial tissue.

"Who is this man in the powder blue suit who could be a cheese salesman from Wisconsin?" Lopez asked the jury about Frank Calabrese Sr.

Gentle Wisconsin cheese salesman? I wonder where he read that one.

Other highlights included the lists of the Outfit soldiers allegedly in on the 18 killings. And the repeated mention of Bridgeport hit man Ronnie Jarrett, who worked for Bridgeport trucking boss/mayoral favorite Michael Tadin and was the model for the James Caan crime classic "Thief."

Jarrett was gunned down in 1999, about the time that Twan was getting worried about the glove. Jarrett's murder is not included in this case.

"Unfortunately," said Lopez, arguing that his client was not involved in other murders, "people get killed for various reasons all the time."

"The truth," Lopez said, quoting a lyrical Italian proverb, "is somewhere between the clouds."

But I think it's in the evidence room of the Chicago Police Department.

Thanks to John Kass

Chicago Police Star Flashed by Accused Mobster

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr.,
Friends of mine: Anthony "Twan" Doyle, Michael Ricci

He's accused of working for the mob, yet he still carries a Chicago Police star.

When retired cop Anthony Doyle arrived at federal court Wednesday for opening statements in his trial, he flashed security officers a badge and police photo ID.

There's nothing improper in Doyle using the retirement badge he received for 20 years of service as a decorated officer, said his lawyer, Ralph Meczyk. Doyle didn't get special treatment, Meczyk said. It's the same as a citizen using a driver's license as proof of ID, he said.

Doyle, 62, joined the Chicago Police Department in September 1980 and retired in June 2001 on a pension, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. He worked in the police Evidence and Recovered Property Section in the 1990s, records show. And he was arrested at his Arizona home in 2005 and charged with agreeing to pass messages from reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. to other Outfit members while Calabrese was in prison. In addition, Doyle allegedly kept Calabrese abreast of an investigation into a gangland murder.

Doyle's nickname is "Twan," short for Anthony, according to federal authorities. But he also is mysteriously referred to as "Captain Crunch" in one court document. At the time of his arrest, he was a member of the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff's Posse, an auxiliary police unit.

Another former Chicago cop, Michael Ricci, also was a co-defendant in the mob case. He died last year.

Thanks to Frank Main and Steve Warmbir

Using Intel to Stop the Mob (Part 1)

Friends of ours: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano

Seventy-five years ago this December, one Special Agent B.E. Sackett penned a short article for Bureau employees on what he called "organized crime conditions in Chicago."

By 1932, organized crime in the U.S.—though a shadow of what it is today—had started to get its legs. Al Capone, who with the help of the Bureau had just landed in federal prison, had built an empire of crime in the Windy City that would continue to morph and grow. An extensive underground of hoodlums, racketeers, and gangsters had emerged in response to Prohibition and was thriving. Hundreds of rackets that used threats of violence to force businesses to ante up a percentage of their profits for "protection" existed throughout Chicago and other cities. In New York, "Lucky" Luciano had risen to power in the Mafia and was beginning to shape it into the structured, secret society of criminals that we know today.

A "valuable weapon" against these criminal rings, Agent Sackett thoughtfully stated in his article, was "accurate information"—details on the key players, their interlocking connections, their tactics and capabilities. He talked about how Chicago agents had begun building this base of knowledge, through informants and other contacts and through an extensive index of pictures and background on more than "three hundred of the notorious criminals and members of their gangs."

He didn't call it "intelligence," a concept that was still in its infancy, but that's essentially what it was. The approach was strategic, thinking about a criminal network in larger terms, gathering information and insights to take out entire criminal organizations and their support and not just select individuals, and thus preventing a litany of future crimes.

This picture of the underworld would grow in the coming years and yield significant results for the young Bureau and its partners. We would begin puncturing these networks—exposing their activities for all of law enforcement, undercutting their support structures, and tracking their most dangerous actors and elements much in the same way that we now do with terrorist cells plotting attacks on U.S. soil.

A few examples:

• In August 1933, we prepared a detailed analysis of organized criminals and the various ways law enforcement had succeeded in stopping them. We outlined more than a hundred "rackets" in Chicago that extorted money from electric sign companies, "candy jobbers," dental labs, and others. This analysis helped paint a picture of the threat for all of law enforcement.
• When John Dillinger was on the run for a violent string of bank robberies, we put pressure on the many connections he and his gang had to all levels of the underworld—precisely because we had mapped out these connections. With the extensive cooperation of many police forces, this allowed us to track his movements and ultimately generated the leads that led to his death in a shootout outside a Chicago theater in July 1934.
• We learned everything we could about the enablers of organized crime: money launderers and fences, both organized and freelance, who helped criminals hide their loot from the law; shady doctors who performed backroom plastic surgeries to help disguise mobsters and shyster lawyers who helped shield them from justice; and the corruption-backed "spas" and criminal safe havens in places like Hot Springs, Arkansas, and St. Paul, Minnesota, that mobsters used to rest, recruit comrades, and plan their next moves in relative safety.
• Working with our law enforcement partners, we started building the criminal justice support system that has enabled a coordinated, layered attack against both criminal and terrorist networks, which includes national criminal records and crime stats…cutting edge forensic science services…and extensive training for law enforcement professionals.

In Chicago and elsewhere, the fight against organized crime had just begun. And so has our story. In the next few months, we'll run a series of articles tracing how we've used intelligence to take on mobsters and even decimate entire crime families in different times and different places over the past seven decades. Stay tuned!

Thanks to the F.B.I.

Defending Frank Calabrese Sr.

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr.

A reader wanted to paint another side of Frank Calabrese Sr.

I know an entirely different person than the one portrayed in the papers and on the news. After my husband deserted me and my two children, I was looking for an apartment and no one wanted to rent to a single mother with small children. Everywhere, I went people had different excuses for not renting to me. I noticed a small house in Elmwood Park that was vacant and left a note in the mailbox with my number. Mr. Calabrese called me back and said he would be happy to rent the house to me and my family. I lived in that home for 18 years and in that time span he would put an envelope in the mail so Santa could buy my children gifts. If he saw them playing in the yard he would tell them to pick-up the old newspapers and he would give them $10.00. I saw his sons grow up to be fine young men and fathers and I had a great relationship with his family.

This man is not heartless, he has a soft spot for kids. Over the years I remember seeing him with his boys and they were happy. I think things changed when he remarried and started a new family. There is always a certain amount of jealousy when it happens. I've learned that know matter how much you do for your family it is never enough. I pray for this family daily and I just felt I had to send this to let someone know that there are two sides to every story.

America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate Search for Jessie Marie Davis

America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate have partnered on AMW's upcoming episodes for Fox.

Jessie Marie Davis: This week, AMW is joining the search for the missing Ohio woman Jessie Marie Davis. Jessie is due to give birth to a baby girl on July 3rd and was reported missing on June 15th. Equusearch, a private, nonprofit search group from Texas , who has helped in other high profile cases recently joined the effort.

Mad Hatter: Attempting to rob his 17th bank, the New Jersey Mad Hatter got a red face. Much to his surprise, a teller slipped a dye pack in with the stolen cash, and when he tried to flee, it exploded. Cops say they’re hot on his tail. This week, hopefully we can put an end to his run.

Mikhail Drachev: This week we’ll recap the capture of suspected killer Mikhail Drachev. Cops say after fleeing to Canada , Drachev settled down with a new love interest. But before long, his new girlfriend spotted him on AMW.COM. A few phone calls later, Drachev was in custody as AMW’s 933rd direct-result.

Emanuel Carlos Veiga: Florida cops say that accused child rapist Emanuel Carlos Veiga cut off his tracking device and hit the road. He may be traveling with his girlfriend, Janaina Borges.

Dontay Brannon: Cops say due to a clerical error, accused killer Dontay Brannon walked right out of prison. Now police say they think he’s hiding out in New Jersey.

Blood and Gore Highlight Opening Statements at Family Secrets Mob Trial

Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr., Paul Schiro, Anthony Doyle, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, Nicholas Calabrese, Michael "Hambone" Albergo
Friends of mine: William Hanhardt

Chicago's biggest mob trial in years started Thursday with a prosecutor urging the jury to forget what they know about movie mobsters and see the now-elderly defendants for who they are: men who "committed brutal crimes on behalf of the Chicago Outfit."

"This is not The Sopranos. This is not The Godfather. These are real people, very corrupt and without honor," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully told the jury.

As Scully described a blood-drenched litany of murders, he showed the jury large photos of the victims. He talked about Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the movie Casino. Spilotro and his brother were allegedly lured into a basement and beaten to death, then buried in an Indiana cornfield.

The men on trial — reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, James Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, Paul Schiro, 69, and former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, 62 — are accused in a racketeering conspiracy that included 18 murders. All have pleaded not guilty.

An anonymous jury is hearing the case, with the jurors being identified only by court-issued numbers to protect their identities.

"Four of the five defendants in this room committed brutal crimes on behalf of the Chicago Outfit," Scully told the jury in his opening statement. The fifth, Doyle, protected them, he said.

Scully described Calabrese as a violent loan shark who strangled witnesses with a rope and cut their throats to make sure they were dead.

Defense attorney Joseph Lopez painted a different picture for the jury, describing Calabrese as a much-maligned, deeply religious man "who believes in peace" and loved his family. He ripped into Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., who is expected to be a key witness for the government against his father.

"He's going to say, 'My father is a rotten S.O.B., my father never loved me' — none of this is true," Lopez said. He said the jurors would see letters between the father and son "expressing love for one another."

"You're going to hear that Frank did slap his son around on numerous occasions," Lopez said. But he said that was only because the youngster was robbing the neighbors of their jewelry and taking cocaine.

He said Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, also expected to be a key witness, once stole a rifle with a silencer from Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, where it had been used to shoot birds that congregated on the scoreboard.

Scully described Marcello as one of the top leaders of the Chicago Outfit. He said Lombardo was the boss of the mob's Grand Avenue crew. Schiro was jailed five years ago for taking part in a jewel theft ring led by the Chicago police department's one-time chief of detectives, William Hanhardt.

Doyle, the retired Chicago police officer, also worked as a loan shark under Calabrese, according to federal prosecutors. He is the one defendant in the case not directly accused of murdering anyone. But Scully said that he aided and abetted the others in their work.

Scully was graphic in describing the killings, but it was Lopez who offered the juiciest details.

He recounted how FBI agents, acting on an informant's tip, tore up concrete in a parking lot near U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, looking for the last remains of murdered loan shark Michael Albergo. He said they found "thousands of bones" under the parking lot. But DNA testing couldn't tie any of the bones to Albergo, Lopez said, repeatedly referring to the victim by his mob nickname of "Hambone."

Former Chicago Cop Reflects on Mob's Heyday

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., John Fecarotta
Friends of mine: Philip Tolomeo

A Chicago police detective walked into The Nest, an old Outfit nightclub, looking for a shooting suspect.

The cop found his suspect -- he just hadn't been accused yet of committing any murders.

It was March of 1958 on the city's Northwest Side, and the lounge was packed to hear singer Tony Smith and his band play some trendy new rock 'n' roll dance music.

Working the midnight shift, Detective James Jack, who now lives in Palatine, and his partner Frank Czech walked in around 2 a.m. looking for a guy they knew hung at the joint. Jack, as he tells it, stepped between two guys to look up and down the bar.

One of the guys next to him swiveled around in his chair and asked him, "What the [expletive] are you looking at?"

"Nothing much," Jack answered.

With that, the guy punched Jack square in the mouth, sending him reeling against the wall. His attacker had a few inches and pounds on Jack, but the detective, a former Gold Gloves boxer, recovered and grabbed the man in a head lock.

Another guy jumped Jack's partner, but the big detective threw him aside like a doll. A police officer who happened to be standing down the bar came to help, they identified themselves as police, and together they wrestled the two hotheads outside and into a police car -- the Tony Smith band playing without skipping a note.

The perpetrator turned out to be none other than Frank Calabrese Sr., then 20. At the time, he was on parole for auto theft.

As they drove to the police station, Jack recalls, Calabrese kept saying, "I didn't know you were a cop."

"I said if I were a normal person, you and your cronies would have killed me and laughed all the way home," Jack said. "He was an animal."

As it turned out, Calabrese was not wanted in the shooting Jack was investigating, and the detective never recalls Calabrese being convicted for punching him. Federal investigators, Jack said, were more interested in bigger cases than a bar fight.

Calabrese's attorney, Joseph Lopez, noted his client was only 20 and "just getting started," but suspected there must be more to the story, saying his client treated police with respect. "I find that hard to believe," Lopez said. "He's not a bully. Something else must've happened."

In recent years, Calabrese has been in prison after pleading guilty to taking part in a long-running juice loan extortion scheme. Now, Calabrese is ready to stand trial on charges of murder and racketeering with 13 other alleged members of the Chicago Syndicate.

Calabrese was far from Jack's only run-in with the mob. His first police partner was Philip Tolomeo, who used to make Jack wait in the car while he met with cronies at a mob hangout, before leaving the force, joining witness protection and getting convicted with Calabrese.

Ironically, Jack also once arrested one of the victims of an alleged Calabrese hit. Jack arrested John Fecarotta for sticking a gun in the mouth of a parking attendant at O'Hare International Airport in 1965. Fecarotta was found shot dead in an alley in 1986.

Jack has long since retired from the force, but he plans to attend the mob trial, which will be presided over by Judge James Zagel, who once worked with Jack on the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Council 25 years ago. Jack says he wants to see some of his old combatants.

"I want to see how they act now, compared to how feisty they were in their younger days, when they didn't care who they got involved in altercations with," he said. "Let the jury throw the dice, and let justice prevail."

Thanks to Robert McCoppin

Up-and-Coming Mobsters Will Replace Old Guard

The Family Secrets prosecution was a heavy blow to the Chicago Outfit, but surely not a fatal one, longtime observers of the city's organized crime syndicate say.

If it finally removes some of the mob's biggest names from the scene, younger players are in place to step in and take over, the experts said. There always have been, after all, even in the wake of a case such as Family Secrets, which implicated an unprecedented three "made" members of the mob.

Street "sins" such as gambling, prostitution and narcotics are profitable, and organized crime will be there to control them and collect a cut, they said.

Up-and-coming mobsters step over the old guys, known as "Mustache Petes," said former FBI agent Lee Flosi.

"There are always guys who are anxious to get up the ladder and take over," said Flosi, who now works as a consultant. "The Outfit's not dead.

"They're masters of changing colors. They're chameleons," he said.

Today's Chicago Outfit may be smaller and more spread out, experts said, with more members living in the suburbs than in the city. But the syndicate still has influence in vice, labor unions and political corruption, Flosi said.

Organized-crime observers said the Outfit has evolved and taken on a lower profile as prosecutions have mounted over the years. The Chicago mob has improved its methods, experts said, having become better at hiding its activities and laundering money through legitimate businesses.

"They'll stay in control of what they have always controlled, as long as they're willing to enforce it with an occasional body in a trunk," Flosi said.

The last known mob hit occurred in November 2001 when Anthony "Tony the Hatch" Chiaramonti was shot in a suburban chicken restaurant. His name has surfaced in the Family Secrets case as an associate of some of the men facing trial. But one Outfit figure whose name also has surfaced in the case has been missing for months. Anthony Zizzo, a reputed underboss, was last seen leaving his Westmont home in August. Days later his Jeep turned up abandoned at a restaurant in Melrose Park.

Thanks to Jeff Coen

Chicago Mob Consigliere Revealed?

Friends of ours: Nick Calabrese, James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello, Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, Alphonse "Al the Pizza Man" Tornabene, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Sam "Wings" Carlisi, Anthony "Little" Zizzo
Friends of mine: Leo Caruso

Federal documents reveal a new name in the upper crust of the Chicago outfit, a man that some mob experts believe may have become the mob's "elder statesman."
Documents filed by federal prosecutors in the case against 14 top mob figures revealed the identity of what some mobwatchers say is the Chicago outfit's current consigliere. The man's name was blotted out -- redacted --from the government filing. But, the ABC7 I-Team reveals the name behind the black mark.

Mafia initiation ceremonies are not open to the public. The only pictures are cheesy Hollywood reenactments. So when Chicago wiseguy Nick Calabrese started deep dishing outfit details to federal authorities a few years ago, one story stood out. It is explained in a government filing known as a proffer, or play-by-play, of the case that federal prosecutors plan to put on against Chicago hoodlums charged in Operation Family Secrets. The proffer states that Nick Calabrese will testify that a number of individuals were "made" (or inducted) with him in 1983, including co-defendant James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.

During the "making ceremony," each 'inductee' was accompanied by his crew boss or "capo," according to the government. Two men "conducted the ceremony, which included an oath of allegiance to the organization."

One of the concelebrants was the late Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, then considered the top ranking boss of the mob. Aiuppa's partner in the blood ceremony was blacked out in publicly filed documents. But, the ABC7 I-Team has seen an un-redacted copy of the filing. We can reveal the name under the black mark: Alphonse Tornabene.

Tornabene is now 84 years old. He is known in mob circles as "Al the Pizza Man." A suburban pizza parlor is still in his family. Even though he owns a summer home in William's Bay, Wisconsin, the I-Team found Tournabene at the front door of his suburban Chicago house and asked him whether he was the grand mobster at an outfit initiation.

GOUDIE: "Know about that?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You don't remember?"

TORNABENE: "No."

GOUDIE: "You and Mr. Aiuppa?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You administered the oath of the Outfit according to the feds?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

"Well, it shows significance, one that they took him under their trust to make such a significant ceremony, in making some mob guys," said Robert Fuesel, former federal agent.

Former IRS criminal investigator Bob Fuesel says Tornabene grew up as an outfit bookie but was apparently being groomed for higher office. With the three elder statesman of the outfit all dead, Joey Aiuppa, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo and Sam "Wings" Carlisi, some federal lawmen believe that the role of consiglieri has fallen on Carlisi's cousin, Al Tornabene, who may have a hard time getting around these days, but is still meeting with known outfit associates.

GOUDIE: "The Crime Commission is saying that you run the mob?"

TORNABENE: (laughs) "I can't even move..."

On several days I-Team surveillance spotted Leo Caruso at Tornabene's home. Seven years ago Caruso was permanently barred from the Laborers' International Union after a federal investigation linked him to the mob's 26th Street crew. A Justice Department report stated that Caruso was "deeply involved with organized crime figures in a substantial manner."

TORNABENE: "He's just a friend..."

GOUDIE: "Mr. Caruso is a friend?"

TORNABENE: "Yes."

The FBI is currently investigating the disappearance of Tornabene's top lieutenant, Anthony "Little" Zizzo. The two men met frequently until last August, when Zizzo mysteriously vanished after leaving his west suburban condo for a meeting on Rush Street.

"Well, these indictments through the US attorney's office, just put everything in disarray, and so do they know what happened to Zizzo. I'm sure somebody does. It's hard for me to believe based upon his reputation that he has not been uncovered and/or is probably deceased," said Fuesel.

"Pizza Al" has no criminal record but comes from a mob family. His late brother Frank was convicted of vote fraud and prostitution and authorities say was active in outfit vice rackets.

The Tournabenes are also related by marriage to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Frank Tournabene was a great uncle to Blagojevich's wife Patty. A spokeswoman for the governor's wife says that while she is aware of her late uncle Frank Tornaebene, she doesn't recall a relative named Al and has no memory of ever meeting such a person.

The I-Team attempted to reach former union boss Leo Caruso about his relationship with pizza l Tornabene. A woman who answered the phone at Caruso's Bridgeport home said he wasn't interested in talking.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

The Shark Attacks

Attorney Joseph "The Shark" Lopez who is representing Frank Calabrese Sr. in the Chicago Family Secrets Mob Trial has agreed to provide updates with his observations regarding the daily court proceedings. In return, I am not allowed to make fun of his pink socks anymore. Well, maybe just one more time.

Joseph Lopez:

"Today we finished picking the jury and tomorrow are the opening statements. I am writing mine now it should be about an hour and focus on Nick (Calabrese) and Frank (Calabrese) Jr., the rats in this case. Also, the focus on the murders is that Frank Calabrese Sr., had no particapation in the murders and no one knows why they occurred. Basically, we will tear down the conspiracy theory of the government." jrl

Drinking Wine to Fight the Mafia

A new Italian white wine has become a symbol of the fight against organized crime, incurring the wrath of gangsters from Naples because it was produced from grapes grown on land confiscated from a Mafia godfather.

Campo Libero, which means "Free Field", was presented this month as the first wine made in Lazio region with grapes grown on land taken from an important member of the Camorra -- as the Naples version of the Mafia is known.

The lightly sparkling white wine is made from Trebbiano grapes cultivated by Il Gabbiano ("The Seagull"), a charity that employs people with troubled backgrounds, such as drug addicts and former detainees.

"The fact that we could turn a land bought with illegal earnings into something totally clean is the most important message we could send," said Dario Campagna, chairman of Il Gabbiano.

Campagna, a 50-year-old with silver hair, had no previous expertise in wine-making. At the beginning he had to rely on the knowledge of local farmers and he is modest about Campo Libero's bouquet, calling it a "farmer's wine". But he hopes it will symbolize to consumers the value of fighting organized crime.

Thanks to a law passed in 1996 by the Italian parliament, property belonging to convicted Mafiosi can be used for social purposes. In 2003, Il Gabbiano was given 10 hectares of land that had been abandoned for years.

It once belonged to Francesco Schiavone, head of the most powerful and violent Camorra family of Naples, whose empire spread from Naples to the farmland only 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Rome.

Roberto Saviano, a Camorra expert, wrote in his bestseller "Gomorra" that the Schiavone clan ran illegal drugs and arms but also had semi-legal businesses such as cement production and property developing, a shady empire worth some 5 billion euros ($7 billion).

The land on which Campo Libero grows was confiscated after Schiavone was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The gangster had already devoted part of this land to growing grapes that were illegally sold on the market.

There is evidence that the rest of the land was used for shadier activities. When Campagna first started digging to build a dirt road inside the property, he found old Italian lira banknotes, shredded and buried less than a meter underground.

The lira was replaced with the euro in Italy in 2001 and the old notes were supposed to be disposed of safely, to avoid their toxic lead content seeping into farmland. But the Camorra is infamous for taking money to get rid of waste illegally.

"I think Schiavone got paid to dispose of the banknotes and simply decided to hide them here," said Campagna. "When we got the land, it was like a rubbish dump. It took us three years and a lot of work to change it."

This year Il Gabbiano produced 10,000 bottles of wine, but it hasn't been an easy job. Campagna, a teetotaler, first asked local farmers for practical help and advice. But every time they made an appointment to start working, the farmers mysteriously failed to show up.

"Finally someone told us that one of Schiavone's relatives lived in the area and the people were afraid he would find out they were cooperating with us," said Campagna.

He called the police and got them to drop by twice a day on patrol. He also asked an agronomist from another town to help. Soon, when local farmers saw nothing bad had happened, they agreed to come and lend the charity workers a hand.
Sabotage

"This was our first real success," recalled Campagna, who has applied for public funding to renovate an old building on the property and adapt it to receive primary school students.

His dream is to create an educational farm to show youngsters how wine, flour and other natural products are made and, at the same time, teach them the value and importance of staying on the right side of the law. But his success appears to have displeased the former owners.

One night last September, just before the first harvest was due, unidentified saboteurs destroyed half the crop by cutting the metal wire supporting the vines, which collapsed under the weight of the ripe fruit.

"We woke up and saw we had lost around 50,000 kilos of grapes out of 140,000," said Campagna. "It was a real blow."

Police are investigating but Campagna has his suspicions. "I think the Camorra are to blame. They want the law letting their assets be confiscated to fail. It's in their interests for this land to stay untouched. It's a sign of power."

That is why Campagna and his workers did not give up and last March replanted the vines from scratch. "It will take years for the vines to grow again, but it's worth it," he said. "The more we fight for this wine, the better it will taste in the end."

Family Secrets Bomb Threat a Fake

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., Joseph "Shorty" LaMantia, Nicholas Calabrese

On the day a historic Chicago mob trial began in federal court, the estranged son of one of the men on trial -- reputed mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. -- got the shock of his life on the back porch of his north suburban home: A plastic bag containing a digital clock, wires and what looked like three sticks of dynamite.

The device looked deadly but turned out to be a fake. But the fear it created was all too real as police evacuated homes around the Kenilworth house of Kurt Calabrese and his family.

The device was the latest in a series of anonymous threats Kurt Calabrese has received, from menacing letters to dead rats placed at his home, authorities said.

What's puzzling about the threats is that Kurt Calabrese has nothing to do with the current Family Secrets case involving his father, Frank Calabrese Sr.

Other family members do. Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese, will testify against him and describe various mob killings the two allegedly did together.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s oldest son, Frank Jr., also will testify against his father about secret tape-recordings Frank Jr. made of his dad while they were in prison together.

Kurt Calabrese has nothing to do with his father and had only a marginal role in the 1995 loan sharking case that put Frank Calabrese Sr. in prison for nearly 10 years.

There's no love lost between father and son. Frank Calabrese Sr. allegedly repeatedly physically and verbally abused Kurt over the years, family friends have told the Sun-Times.

What's more, a rift grew between Frank Calabrese Sr. and his brother Nick Calabrese over the way Frank Calabrese Sr. treated his own two sons, such as selling them out during plea negotiations during the 1995 case.

Kurt Calabrese hasn't been subpoenaed to appear at the trial, nor is he cooperating in the case, authorities said.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s lawyer, Joseph Lopez, said late Tuesday his client had nothing to do with the bomb threat. "My client has the perfect alibi," Lopez said. "He was sitting in a federal courthouse."

Law enforcement sources said there was a note in the bag containing the fake bomb, but it was destroyed when law enforcement obliterated the package with a water cannon.

The package was discovered about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday as Kurt Calabrese headed to his backyard. He was home alone, sources said. As he went down his porch steps, he came upon a large, clear, plastic bag. Inside, he found what appeared to be three sticks of dynamite wrapped at both ends by black tape. In the middle was a digital clock connected to two wires.

There were reports of a strange car with its lights off cruising around the Calabrese neighborhood early Tuesday, but it's unclear what connection, if any, it had to the threat.

Authorities ran a bomb-sniffing dog through the Calabrese home, which is modest for the affluent suburb, and through Calabrese's car but found nothing. Residents were allowed to return to their homes about 3:30 p.m., police said. Neighbors were stunned by the development, with one calling Calabrese and his wife "nice people who keep to themselves."

The bomb scare happened as lawyers in the Family Secrets case made significant progress in selecting a jury Tuesday. Twelve jurors and six alternates could be selected by today, and opening statements could start as early as Thursday. The courtroom was crowed with observers, including Rocky LaMantia, the son of the late mob boss Joseph "Shorty" LaMantia.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

Inside the Mind of Mobster Frank Cullotta

Friends of ours: Frank Cullotta, Joe Cullotta, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo
Friends of mine: Jimmy Miraglia, John "Billy" McCarthy

In the high profile mob trial that began Tuesday in Chicago, one witness for the government is expected to be Frank Cullotta. For more than 25 years, Cullotta was part of the Chicago mob.

Unit 5's Carol Marin got a rare glimpse into the mind of a mobster. Her report is presented here verbatim:

The story of Frank Cullotta is a disturbing and twisted tale. The son of a gangster, he became one himself. He befriended many of the Outfit's top leaders. He stole. He beat people. And he killed twice -- all with little thought of the consequences of his actions.

Cullotta: "There were times that I muscled people."

Frank Cullotta loved the life of the mob. He loved the scores.

Marin: "How many burglaries would you estimate?"

Cullotta: "Minimum 300. Robberies, maybe 200."

He loved the thrills.

Marin: "Your two killings, how were they done?"

Cullotta: "One was a car explosion, and the other was a guy getting shot in the head."

Cullotta shot his victim in the side, back and front of the head.

Marin: "So, you shot him three times?"

Cullotta: "About 10 times."

Cullotta: "I come from a good family, loving mother, loving father. But my father was a shady guy."

Joe Cullotta was a thief and wheelman for the mob, who died in a high speed chase with police in hot pursuit.

Frank Cullotta: "I just felt like he was the model I wanted to follow after."

Over the years, Frank Cullotta graduated from small time thug to big time mobster, aided by his friendship with Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.

Cullotta: "We met each other on Grand Avenue in Chicago ... we became friends."

But Cullotta was soon to learn a lesson about friendship and the mob -- a lesson that years later helped him make the biggest decision of his life.

Jimmy Miraglia and John "Billy" McCarthy were members of Cullotta's burglary crew. When they carried out an unauthorized hit, they were tortured. The M&M boys fell victim to mob justice. McCarthy was the first to die.

Cullotta: "They stuck his head in a vice and start turning the vice. They didn't think the eyeball was going to pop out or whatever, and his eyeball popped out. And then he gave up Jimmy's name. Then they just cut his throat."

Cullotta lead McCarthy and then Miraglia to their deaths.

Cullotta: "It bothered me for a long time. But you know, you live in that world and you say, 'You know, if I don't give 'em up ... they are going to whack me."

When we met Cullotta two weeks ago in Las Vegas, we asked how the mob justifies killing another person.

Cullotta: "First of all you are told this guy could hurt you ... he's no good so you kill 'em."

Marin: "What if you know them or their family?"

Cullotta: "You just justify it, you are doing his family a favor by getting rid of this scumbag."

Marin: "Do you think about it? Does it stay with you?"

Cullotta: "You just forget about it."

In 1979, Cullotta moved to Vegas. He and his crew, the Hole in the Wall gang, stole with abandon under the protection of his pal, Tony Spilotro.

Cullotta: "He was a good friend. For many years, he was a good friend."

But in 1982, Cullotta says, he learned Spilotro was plotting to have him killed. He quit the mob and became a government witness against his former friends. Today, it's a pen and not a pistol you will find in Cullotta's hand. In Las Vegas, he was signing autographs in a new book about his life.

Rick Halprin: "It's just a cheap, trashy book full of stories, which he knows are not true."

Rick Halprin is the lawyer for Joey "The Clown" Lombardo. Cullotta says he will testify in the "Family Secrets" trial that Lombardo has long been a leader in the outfit.

Halprin: "Frank Cullotta is a two-bit burglar who has been telling the same story since 1982."

Cullotta: "I'm old now."

A grandfather, today he is cashing in on his notoriety. He's served as a technical advisor to the mob movie "Casino," and hopes the book will spawn a movie deal.

Marin: "But you are a killer, a burglar, a thug -- I mean you robbed big people and little people, didn't you?"

Cullotta: "I was, I was ... I probably couldn't kill a fly now, really. I've changed ... They tried to kill me ... I wasn't going to become part of the list of guys that were all murdered by their friends. I was a little smarter than them."

Thanks to Carol Marin

Family Secrets Mob Trial Has Bomb Scare

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese Sr., Ernest Rocco Infelice, Junior Gotti, Anthony Doyle, Nicholas Ferriola, 32, Joseph Venezia, 71, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Paul "the Indian" Schiro

A fake explosive device was found outside a suburban home owned by a son of a defendant in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial hours after jury selection began Tuesday, prompting a federal investigation, authorities said.

Investigators said a "hoax device" was left on the back porch of a house in Kenilworth and was discovered about 1 p.m.

A defense lawyer in the case, Joseph Lopez, said the object was found at the home of a son of his client, reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., on trial for racketeering conspiracy in connection with more than a dozen mob slayings. Public records show the home belongs to one of Calabrese's sons, Kurt, but not the son who is expected to testify when a jury starts hearing evidence in the case. The son who recorded conversations with his father and is expected to take the witness stand is Frank Calabrese Jr.

Investigators said the device was not a working explosive. It was too early to know whether it was a prank or a message, but the authorities are concerned because of its timing as jury selection began in the landmark trial.

Lopez said he was worried that opening statements, which could begin as soon as Thursday, might have to be delayed. "It's shocking, and it shouldn't have happened," Lopez said. "My client loves his children."

Earlier Tuesday, at least eight people had been chosen so far as potential anonymous jurors as the trial began in the much-anticipated mob conspiracy case. U.S. District Judge James Zagel, sorting through a large pool called for jury duty, dismissed some, and lawyers used peremptory challenges to remove others.

Zagel asked potential jurors general questions about their occupations, whether they have any connections to law enforcement and if they think they could be fair. He didn't ask their names, ages or other identifying information—such as where they live.

In a rare move, Zagel decided weeks ago to seat an anonymous jury. Although the jurors will not be shielded visually by a partition, the five men accused of racketeering conspiracy for their alleged roles in controlling the Chicago Outfit will know who is deciding their fates only by court-assigned numbers.

Today, 24 possible jurors were questioned in sessions lasting more than three hours. Several were removed for cause, including a medical physicist who performs cancer treatments and a man who said he has difficulty with English. The process will continue with possible jurors led into the courtroom for questioning in groups of about 25 until 18 are picked. Twelve will be permanent jurors, the rest alternates.

Zagel agreed an anonymous jury was the best course after the prosecution filed a sealed motion citing the safety of jurors for keeping their identities secret, even from defense lawyers in the case, lawyers said.

Experts say seating an anonymous jury is a controversial practice. Judges must weigh juror safety against a defendant's right to an impartial panel. The risk is that the need for their anonymity could leave jurors thinking the defendants must be dangerous. Lawyers in the Family Secrets case said they strongly objected for just that reason.

"Now, of course, the jury can infer that these must be pretty nefarious people," said Ralph Meczyk, the lawyer for Anthony Doyle, a defendant in the case. "That puts in their mind the belief that we're dealing with very, very dangerous defendants."

In seeking to seat anonymous juries, prosecutors typically argue that panel members could be at risk, or at least that the nature of a case could leave jurors apprehensive if the defendants know who they are and where they live.

This is believed to be the first use of an anonymous jury in Chicago's federal court in 15 years, but there is precedent for the move here and across the country, particularly in organized-crime prosecutions.

The last time it was used here was at the trial of mobster Ernest Rocco Infelice, who was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and murder conspiracy.

Recently, an anonymous jury heard a Ku Klux Klan trial in Mississippi, and another decided the fate of reputed mobster John Gotti Jr. last year in New York.

Meanwhile, two more defendants from an original group of 14 pleaded guilty Monday in the Family Secrets case. Nicholas Ferriola, 32, admitted he was part of the criminal conspiracy, while Joseph Venezia, 71, pleaded guilty to being part of an illegal gambling operation. Left to stand trial in the conspiracy that allegedly included 18 slayings are reputed mob bosses Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Frank Calabrese Sr. as well as Paul "the Indian" Schiro and Doyle, a former Chicago police officer.

The 6th Amendment guarantees all defendants the right to "a speedy and public trial." But as some organized-crime and terrorism defendants have learned, that doesn't necessarily include the right to know who is sitting in judgment on the jury.

Judges can seat anonymous juries for safety reasons and to prevent juror tampering, though the move usually draws cries of unfairness from the defense.

"From the defense side, you worry that the signal it sends is: We've got to be really careful here. These are dangerous individuals," said Andrew Leipold, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "That's not the mind-set you want jurors to start a case with."

But the judge could have taken into account, Leipold said, that Lombardo, for example, is accused of killing a government witness—an allegation that, if true, shows a willingness to use violence to subvert the justice system. He is blamed for the 1974 killing of Bensenville businessman Daniel Seifert, who was scheduled to testify against Lombardo in a Teamsters pension-fraud trial.

For judges, Leipold said, "it's difficult in that so much of this is predictions. What's the likelihood the jury will be tampered with? How likely is it that jury will be biased against the defense?"

Judges also must factor in the right of the public and media to an open proceeding, Leipold said. In the George Ryan corruption trial last year, for example, reporters at the Tribune used publicly available juror information to discover that two jurors had misled the court about their criminal backgrounds. A federal judge dismissed the jurors as a result.

In the Family Secrets case, it's unclear exactly what evidence persuaded Zagel to keep the jury anonymous. Prosecutors made their arguments in a Feb. 16 motion that was filed under seal. But anonymous juries are more common when defendants are allegedly part of a large criminal organization, with members outside the courtroom who have a strong interest in the trial's outcome.

The process to select the Family Secrets jury began earlier this year when prospective jurors in a special pool had their backgrounds checked and were sent questionnaires that asked for in-depth personal information. In addition to personal data, the jurors were asked dozens of questions about their opinions and perceptions of the justice system, the FBI and organized crime.

Jurors were asked what they read and listen to as well as what TV shows they might watch that touch on the mob. One prospective juror listed "The Simpsons," apparently a tongue-in-cheek reference to the character "Fat Tony" and his band of hoodlums from fictional Springfield's underworld.

Also among the questions was whether the prospective juror had ever written to the editor of a newspaper, and on what topic.

Some of the defense attorneys in the case said because of the detailed questionnaire, they may wind up knowing a bit more about each juror than they would have otherwise. Still, it's a handicap not to know such basics as a person's name or where they live.

Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, said he, too, objected to the anonymous panel. He noted he has practiced law for 20 years and has never heard of a case of jury tampering in Chicago's federal court.

Openness in government is important, and jury tampering—in real life, as opposed to Hollywood films—is exceedingly rare, agreed Shari Seidman Diamond, law professor at Northwestern University. "I'm not persuaded that [anonymous juries] are required or that they're useful or that they contribute to justice," Diamond said. "We prefer to have the jury be a source of light, not shadow."

But Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, said he's sure the judge has plenty of reasons to want the jurors' identities withheld in such a high-profile case. "Frankly, I think the gravest danger the judge perceives are crank phone calls and media scrutiny," Halprin said. "He doesn't want the same kind of fiasco they had in the Ryan trial."

Thanks to Jeff Coen and Michael Higgins

Family Secrets Trial Kicks Off

Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr., Paul Schiro, Anthony Doyle, Nicholas Calabrese, Tony "the Ant" Spilotro, Michael Marcello, Frank "The German" Schweihs, Joseph Venezia, Nicholas Ferriola,
Friends of mine: William Hanhardt, John Ambrose

It's a homecoming of sorts for reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo.

Lombardo was convicted in Chicago's skyscraper federal courthouse in 1982 of conspiring with then International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Roy Lee Williams to bribe then Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev.

After emerging from a decade in prison, Lombardo took out a newspaper ad declaring he was not a "made guy" and vowing to steer clear of the mob. But the 78-year-old Lombardo was back at the courthouse Tuesday as jury selection was to get under way in a trial experts say will take a bite out of the city's entrenched organized crime family -- The Chicago Outfit.

"This will hurt the mob," says Gus Russo, author of "The Outfit," and other books about organized crime. "But it won't end it."

"They always find a way to redefine themselves and bounce back," says Russo. "It probably won't be as strong in the short run."

Charged with a racketeering conspiracy that included at least 18 murders are Lombardo, James Marcello, 65; Frank Calabrese Sr., 70; Paul Schiro, 69; and Anthony Doyle, 62.

Lombardo, Marcello and Calabrese are alleged to be members of the Outfit's hierarchy and are in federal custody. Schiro was convicted five years ago of taking part in a jewel theft ring run by the Chicago police department's former chief of detectives, William Hanhardt. Doyle is a former Chicago police officer.

All five men have pleaded not guilty.

By midmorning Tuesday, jury selection had not yet started as attorneys consulted with Judge James B. Zagel. Zagel has ordered an anonymous jury with lawyers having only limited information about its members.

Defense attorneys had objected, arguing it could make jurors think the defendants must be dangerous. "Traditionally, the public has a right to know. So in the interest of the public, we believe the public had a right to know who the jurors were," Joseph Lopez, an attorney for Frank Calabrese Sr., said as he entered the federal courthouse Tuesday morning. "It would be nice if they did all juries anonymous, then maybe we wouldn't have this situation," he said.

The star witness is expected to be Calabrese's brother, Nicholas Calabrese, who has pleaded guilty to the charges and is being closely guarded by federal lawmen to prevent mobsters from getting anywhere near him.

Nicholas Calabrese says he has been a "made guy" in the Outfit for decades and knows who is responsible for many of the mob murders.

Among those killed was Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the movie "Casino."

Spilotro and his brother Michael were found beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield, victims of an internecine feud inside the mob.

Plainly someone is worried about what Nicholas Calabrese might say.

A federal marshal, John T. Ambrose, is charged with leaking information about Nicholas Calabrese's whereabouts while in Chicago to testify before a federal grand jury. Ambrose has pleaded not guilty.

The number of defendants in the case has dwindled steadily since the first day the indictment was unsealed and one of those charged was found dead of natural causes in his suburban hotel room.

Last week, Marcello's brother, Michael, pleaded guilty along with two other men. And Zagel severed alleged mob extortionist Frank "The German" Schweihs from the trial for health reasons.

On Monday, two other defendants, Joseph Venezia and Nicholas Ferriola, pleaded guilty to gambling and other charges, bringing the number of those due to go on trial to five.

Thanks to Mike Robinson

Saluting the Best Mafiosa Court Room Antics

Friends of ours: Frank "the German" Schweihs, Sam “Mad Sam” DeStefano, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, John Gotti, Joey “Doves” Aiuppa, Jackie “The Lackey” Cerone, Tony "the Ant" Spilotro, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo
Friends of mine: Judge Thomas Maloney

“The Sopranos” might have ended, but the first episode of Chicago’s latest mob drama begins Tuesday.

How fitting that the official festivities will take place in the feds’ ceremonial courtroom. The Outfit is big on ceremony, beginning with the oath that “made” guys take. They also take an oath of Omerta, promising never to talk about family secrets to the big bad wolf with the menacing initials: FBI. But how many of us can keep a good secret for life? So, between the gangsters who are desirous of saving their own hides and those who have or will be pleading guilty to high crimes and non-misdemeanors, only five wiseguys are expected to actually be sitting on their ceremonial behinds when jury selection begins Tuesday.

The lawyers for La Cosa Nostra have some serious work ahead of them in the next four or five months. I’m talking about the new, outlandish stunts the hoods will need if they expect to get a mention in the Mob’s Greatest Trial Antics.

It appeared as though Frank “The German” Schweihs might offer the first memorable moment. The German, who was one of the Outfit’s most feared and proficient hitmen, according to federal authorities, is said to be terminally ill.

There was a time when Schweihs would have come to trial with the rest of them, his skin pasty white and IV tubes plugged into his veins, a sad and pathetic character worthy of great sympathy from the jury. But now, Schweihs has been “severed” from the trial, which seems to be an apt legal description for somebody who federal authorities say cut short a few dozen lives himself.

Judge James Zagel didn’t want Schweihs dying one day during the case and creating a mistrial for the others, so he allowed him time to heal … a consideration that Mr. Schweihs himself allegedly would rarely grant those who begged him for mercy.

Schweihs could have followed the script written by Sam “Mad Sam” DeStefano back in the ’60s. The vicious mob enforcer would feign illness so he had to be wheeled into court on a gurney while wearing pajamas. Once, Mad Sam used a bullhorn in the courtroom so he was assured of being louder than prosecutors.

The crafty New York mafia boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante use to wear his bathrobe to court, mumble to himself and claim God was his lawyer in an effort to persuade jurors that he was deranged. It worked for many years until The Chin was eventually convicted. In 2003, two years before he died in prison, Gigante admitted it had all been an act.

The best courtroom performance by a mob lawyer was in 1986 by Bruce Cutler, who was representing John Gotti at the time. Cutler took the thick federal indictment against Gotti and stuffed it in a courtroom wastebasket. “It’s garbage,” Cutler shouted at prosecutors. “That’s where it belongs.”

Sickness and sympathy has been a favorite play by hoodlums for decades. When Chicago Outfit boss Joey “Doves” Aiuppa was on trial in Kansas City 20 years ago, Aiuppa hunched over a walker coming and going from court. Nevertheless, he managed to get in and out of a taxi and his hotel just fine.

During that same trial, Aiuppa’s vice consigliore Jackie “The Lackey” Cerone delivered a veiled threat to a Chicago news reporter while they were riding on a crowded elevator.

“How’s the wife and that new baby of yours?” Cerone asked the newsman, whose coverage he must have under appreciated. The question stunned the reporter, who certainly never had spoken to Cerone about his wife or his new daughter, Caylen Goudie.

Once, in 1983, I asked the infamous Outfit tough-guy Tony “The Ant” Spilotro a question that now seems prophetic.

“Tony, are you concerned for your personal safety?” I asked The Ant as he bailed out of Cook County jail.

Spilotro just sneered at me … a far different look than he must have displayed three years later when he and his brother were clubbed and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield.

When defrocked Cook County Judge Thomas Maloney was on trial for taking bribes to fix murder cases, the mob-connected Maloney tried his best every day to avoid TV crews staked out in front of the federal building.

Once, Maloney thought he had outsmarted news jockeys by sneaking into the federal building basement and walking up a ramp from the underground parking garage.

Not to be tricked, camera crews were waiting atop the ramp when Maloney strutted up dressed in a black trench coat and fedora. He began running across Adams Street in the Loop, pursued by TV crews until he tripped and did a belly flop onto the asphalt, staggering to his feet with a mouthful of gravel.

The finest out-of-court routine was put on by Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, who will go on trial again Tuesday. Years ago when he was free on bond, The Clown enjoyed living up to his nickname by shielding his face from photographers using a newspaper with cut-out eyeholes.

While he was a fugitive, Lombardo wrote a letter to Judge Zagel, who is hearing his case, stating that he was unfairly targeted by prosecutors who could convict “a hamburger” in federal court.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

Catching Up with the Bonanno Mob Family

Gay Talese's efforts to catch up with the children of Bill Bonanno, son of Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno,brought the author to Arizona.

Talese's 1971 book "Honor Thy Father" focused on the Bonanno crime family but his latest essay, now appearing in Newsweek, seeks to find out how the children have dealt with their notoriety. Talese met with the children recently at Bill and his wife, Rosalie's, home in Tucson, according to a release promoting the article. Here's what he found:

* Son Joseph became a doctor, who says he's overcome the Bonnano surname, but hasn't escaped it, having to win acceptance in his profession. He attended the University of Arizona and interned in pediatrics at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical in Phoenix.

* Charles Bonanno is an interstate truck driver, a job he took after working in an auto-repair shop in Phoenix for 10 years. He told Talese about a trip across the Canadian border when he was questioned about his name. "Are you in any way related to either Joseph Bonanno or Bill Bonanno?" the guard asked. "They're my grandfather and father," Charles answered, and the response was: 'Well, then you're on the nonentry list.'"

* Salvatore Bonanno graduated from the University of Arizona and is a computer-systems executive with his own firm in Phoenix. However, he tells of quitting a previous job for a company installing casino security systems when he was shifted to another assignment because of the family name.

* Felippa Bonanno, who raised 10 children, is expecting another, and operates a day care center, says she has not experienced difficulty with the name.

Guilty Pleas on Eve of Family Secrets Mob Trial

Friends of ours: Nicholas Ferriola, Frank Calabrese Sr., Joseph Venezia, Michael Marcello, James Marcello, Frank "The German" Schweihs

Two men accused of working with the Chicago mob pleaded guilty on the eve of the city's biggest organized crime trial in years.

The guilty pleas leave five defendants in the racketeering conspiracy case, scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday. The case is based on an FBI investigation of 18 long unsolved murders that federal prosecutors tie to the Chicago Outfit, the city's organized crime family. Neither man was among the most prominent defendants.

Nicholas Ferriola, 32, pleaded guilty to racketeering, bookmaking and squeezing extortion payments from a Chicago restaurant. He admitted he was part of the mob's South Side or Chinatown crew and that he worked with Frank Calabrese Sr., a defendant and reputed to be one of the city's top mob bosses.

Joseph Venezia, 64, pleaded guilty to running a gambling business and hiding the proceeds from the Internal Revenue Service.

No sentencing date was set. The men are to return to court Aug. 10.

The federal indictment presents a panoramic picture of the Outfit, which it says consists of six "street crews," each with a franchise over organized crime in its respective sector of the city and suburbs. The indictment details murder, gambling, pornography, extortion and loan sharking among the Outfit's activities.

The number of defendants has dwindled steadily as the date for jury selection has drawn closer.

Last week, Michael Marcello — brother of James Marcello, described by federal prosecutors as one of the top leaders of the Outfit — and two other men pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel also tentatively dropped reputed mob extortionist Frank "The German" Schweihs from the trial last week for health reasons.

Junior Gotti Heading South

Friends of ours: Junior Gotti

John "Junior" Gotti is selling his estate and preparing for an eventual move to the South, far from the region where his father was a notorious mob boss.

Gotti, 43, plans to place the 1.96-acre property in Oyster Bay Cove -- on Long Island about 30 miles east of the city -- on the market in two weeks, The New York Post reported in Sunday editions. "We're finishing fixing it up," Gotti told the newspaper. "I can't afford the upkeep."

Gotti spent more than $1 million defending himself in three federal trials against charges that he ordered the 1992 kidnapping of radio show host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, said his lawyer, Charles Carnesi. The trials ended with deadlocked juries and prosecutors decided not to try again.

Prosecutors said Sliwa, who survived several gunshot wounds, was attacked in retribution for his on-air rants against Gotti's father. Former Gambino family boss John Gotti was sent to prison for life in 1992 after he was convicted of racketeering. He died in prison in 2002.

The family will stay on Long Island long enough for his son to finish his senior year of high school, then move to Florida or South Carolina, Gotti said.

The Oyster Bay Cove property includes a four-bedroom mansion, a guest house, an in-ground pool, a wine cellar and a horse barn.

Family Secrets Mob Trial Capsule

The judge

U.S. District Judge: James B. Zagel

A Reagan appointee, Zagel is generally considered a good draw for the prosecution and one of the brightest judges on Chicago's federal bench. He is also among the most experienced, marking his 20th year on the federal bench this month. Zagel, 66, was once married to TV investigative reporter Pam Zekman, wrote "Money To Burn," a fictional thriller about a plot to rob the Federal Reserve Bank, and played a judge in the 1989 movie "Music Box."

Who's on trial

Fourteen alleged mobsters and associates were indicted in the case in 2005, but only five are expected to go on trial. Two of the original defendants died, one is too ill to face trial, four have pleaded guilty and two more are set to plead guilty as soon as Monday.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo

A reputed capo in the Grand Avenue street crew, Lombardo has been alleged to be a mob leader who committed murder while controlling pornography and other Outfit business in the city. Known for his alleged penchant for violence and an odd sense of humor, he once took out a newspaper ad to publicly announce that he was officially retired from the mob. He is charged in connection with the murder of Daniel Seifert in September 1974. He was separately convicted of attempting to bribe a U.S. senator and conspiring to skim $2 million from the Stardust casino in Las Vegas along with mob bosses Joseph Aiuppa, John Cerone, and Angelo LaPietra.

James Marcello

Marcello, 65, was described by Chicago's top FBI agent as the boss of the Chicago Outfit when the Family Secrets indictment came down in the spring of 2005. The Lombard resident had previously been convicted in 1993 on federal charges of racketeering, gambling, loan-sharking and extortion. Authorities have alleged he passed on money to the family of mobster Nicholas Calabrese to try to buy his silence on gangland slayings. Federal agents recorded conversations he had with his brother, Michael, while James was in a federal prison in Michigan. The men allegedly discussed gambling operations and Calabrese's possible cooperation with law enforcement.

Frank Calabrese Sr.

The one-time street boss of the mob's South Side or 26th Street crew, the 70-year-old Calabrese once was alleged to be the city's top loan shark. He is charged in connection with the 1980 murder of hit man William Petrocelli in Cicero as well as a dozen other slayings. Calabrese pleaded guilty in 1997 to using threats, violence and intimidation to collect more than $2.6 million in juice loans. He was in prison when the Family Secrets indictment came down. His brother, Nicholas, is the key turncoat witness in the case, and Calabrese's son, Frank Calabrese Jr., also is expected to testify against his father.

Paul "the Indian" Schiro

A 69-year-old mob enforcer who is charged in one of the gangland killings, Schiro was an alleged associate of murdered mobster Anthony Spilotro. At the time of his Family Secrets indictment, he was in prison for taking part in a jewelry-theft ring headed by William Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives.

Anthony Doyle

Doyle, also known as "Twan," is a former Chicago police officer. He is charged in the conspiracy for allegedly passing messages from the imprisoned Frank Calabrese Sr. to other members of the Outfit. Calabrese was trying to find out if his brother was cooperating with authorities, and Doyle allegedly was keeping him up to date on a law enforcement investigation into the murder of mob hit man John Fecarotta, authorities alleged. The 62-year-old was arrested at his home in Arizona as federal prosecutors and the FBI were announcing the Family Secrets case.

Thanks to Jeff Coen

Murder, Juice Loans, Pornography, Street Gambling, All Part of Mob Family Secrets Trial

Friends of ours: Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr., Paul "the Indian" Schiro, Anthony Doyle, Tony Spilotro, Frank "the German" Schweihs, Nick Calabrese, John Fecarotta, Rocco Infelice, William Hanhardt
Friends of mine: Michael Spilotro

With the sweeping "Family Secrets" conspiracy trial just days from starting, reputed mobster Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was looking pretty relaxed. If not for the orange jumpsuit and the federal courtroom, he could have been passing time in a coffee shop or one of his favorite Grand Avenue restaurants.

As he sat in a wheelchair with his legs crossed, he gestured and chatted with court personnel and lawyers about the clothes he'll wear when a jury hears allegations that he and several co-defendants ruthlessly steered the Outfit through years of vice and violence. "Do I get a haircut too?" he said with a smile, drawing a laugh.

Even in a city as heavy with mob history and lore as Chicago, the landmark trial set to begin Tuesday with the selection of an anonymous jury promises to be a spectacle.

There will be veteran prosecutors who have made careers targeting wiseguys. There will be flamboyant defense lawyers unafraid to make a joke in court and wear pink socks while doing it. And there will be Lombardo and at least four other defendants, a group accused of forming the backbone of the Chicago Outfit for much of the 1970s and '80s. The trial will lay bare secret ceremonies, 18 long-unsolved gangland slayings and the mob's grip on the city's dark side -- street gambling, juice loans and pornography.

They are now shadows of the men who have stared coldly out of mug shots. They have limped into court using canes, the 78-year-old Lombardo leading a geriatric assortment of characters that has complained of bad backs, poor eyesight and heart trouble in the months leading up to the trial.

Federal prosecutors have targeted individual Outfit street crews and their leaders in the past, but Family Secrets will essentially put on trial the structure and enterprise that was the Chicago mob during the last few decades.

Expected to go on trial with Lombardo for racketeering conspiracy will be James Marcello, named as the boss of the Chicago mob at the time of his arrest; Frank Calabrese Sr., a made member of the Outfit's 26th Street crew and once Chicago's reputed top loan shark; Paul "the Indian" Schiro; and former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle.

The case started with a bang when the indictments came down in the spring of 2005. Lombardo and reputed hit man Frank "the German" Schweihs -- now too sick to go on trial -- were on the lam for months.

While a fugitive, Lombardo wrote letters to the judge in the case, signing some "an innocent man" and promising to swallow truth serum to prove he wasn't involved in the murders. He vowed to turn himself in if he would be released on bail and tried separately. He was arrested in suburban Elmwood Park in January 2006.

As the case finally goes to trial, interest is expected to cause it to be moved to the ceremonial courtroom on the 25th floor of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the building's largest.

Prosecutors will tell the jury that Lombardo, Marcello and others helped control the organization born with Al Capone, which has persisted and flourished in all manner of illicit business, and has protected itself through murder when necessary. The most sensational of the 18 killings are the 1986 beating deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, who were found buried in an Indiana cornfield and whose murders were featured in the movie "Casino."

"This ranks up there with the great cases ... based on the number of people and the high-profile crimes involved," said Lee Flosi, a former FBI agent who was the supervisor of Chicago's organized crime task force in the early 1990s.

It could even be the last great mob case, Flosi said, as the FBI devotes fewer resources to taking on a somewhat downtrodden Outfit. "It'll be many years before there's anything that rivals it," he said.

Observers are calling the case the most important involving the Chicago mob since Lombardo and three bosses were convicted in 1986 of skimming millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino.

The trial, expected to last as long as four months, will feature high-ranking turncoats, including a made mob member, Nicholas Calabrese, who will testify against his brother, giving the case its Family Secrets code name. It will include undercover recordings of prison meetings between the incarcerated Marcello and his brother, Michael, and even a government expert dubbed a "mobologist" by the defense to try to tie it all together. A parade of prosecution witnesses that includes hit men, pornographers, bookies, career burglars, gamblers and other mob associates are expected to testify about their dealings with the Outfit.

As the government attacks the mob as a racketeering enterprise, the case will attempt to close the books on the Spilotro killings and a series of other hits that for years sat among the hundreds of unsolved mob slayings in Chicago. Prosecutors will use the rarest of tools to take jurors inside organized crime -- a member of the Outfit's inner circle.

Billed as the most significant witness against the Chicago syndicate in decades, Nick Calabrese has the insider's knowledge to name names. Associated with the Outfit since 1970, he has admitted taking part in 14 Outfit killings and has information on many more, prosecutors have said.

A made member of the 26th Street crew, he began cooperating in 2002 after being confronted by authorities with DNA evidence that linked him to the 1986 killing of mob hit man John Fecarotta. Calabrese recently pleaded guilty.

He also will supply firsthand information about mob business, the Outfit's structure and its customs. And he will explain the backdrop and motives for many of the slayings. He is expected to directly link James Marcello to the murders of the Spilotros, according to prosecutors' documents. The brothers were beaten and strangled in a home near Bensenville after running afoul of the Chicago Outfit while heading its Las Vegas operation.

Calabrese is expected to tell jurors about an underworld ceremony in 1983 when he was welcomed into the mob's leading ranks with Marcello and Frank Calabrese Sr. Calabrese will describe how each inductee was joined by his crew boss and how the highest-ranking Outfit leaders had them pledge absolute allegiance.

To fight Calabrese and his testimony, defense lawyers said they will attempt to show the motives for many of the murders were unrelated to the mob, or that their clients were not directing the conspiracy. According to the defense, the government's case is built on the idea that the Outfit was structured from the top down. "In past cases, the government has shown all of this thuggery, and then asked the jury to reasonably infer that it was done on behalf of the mob," said Rick Halprin, Lombardo's lawyer and a veteran of the federal courthouse. "This case is the reverse. They will be proving that there was organized crime."

Halprin, an ex-Marine who was wounded in Vietnam, has a booming courtroom voice and is quick with a quip. Halprin intends to portray Lombardo as a lifelong working man. "He doesn't have a home in River Forest," he said. "He doesn't drive fancy cars."

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s lawyer, Joseph Lopez, who has defended other mob figures as well, is known for his sharp suits, occasionally accented with pink socks. He said he agrees the team of prosecutors on the case must show that the orders for the killings came down the mob's chain of command.

It doesn't matter, Lopez said, that his client has previously pleaded guilty to being in the Outfit. Prosecutors have to prove the slayings were mob hits. "The question is, were these killings sanctioned by the mob," Lopez said. "People get killed for a variety of reasons."

Lopez said he will present evidence to show that two individuals who have no connection to the mob killed Richard Ortiz and Arthur Morawski, one of the mob hits with which his client is charged. "We're not charged with murder. We're charged with conspiracy," Lopez said. "If we were charged with murder down at 26th Street [the Criminal Courts Building], this would be a different story."

"They can't show these [murders] were done to protect the Outfit," he said. But leading the prosecution team are two of the most seasoned, savvy assistant U.S. attorneys, Mitchell Mars, the office's organized crime chief, who headed the prosecution in the early 1990s of mobster Rocco Infelice, and John Scully, who prosecuted William Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives convicted of running a mob-connected jewelry theft ring.

To be sure, they won't be in a joking mood, even though Lombardo might be. "You know he doesn't want to just sit there silently with his hands folded," Flosi said of Lombardo, who once famously covered his face with a newspaper -- a hole cut out for him to see -- as he left a 1981 court appearance. "Maybe he'll come to court in his pajamas," Flosi said. "Who knows?"

Thanks to Jeff Coen

Michael Spilotro P.I.?

Friends of ours: Tony Spilotro, Frank Cullotta
Friends of mine: Michael Spilotro

The Spilotro Hollywood moment is that scene in "Casino" with the cornfield and the baseball bats that the critics loved, though it really didn't happen that way.

That's how America remembers the Chicago Outfit's Anthony Spilotro and his brother Michael, whose famous murders are among 18 Outfit killings comprising the historic federal "Family Secrets" mob trial set to begin this week. But there is another Spilotro Hollywood moment, long forgotten. In this one, actors don't play the Spilotros. Rather, Michael Spilotro played a tough FBI agent on the hit TV show "Magnum, P.I.," starring Tom Selleck.

Special Agent Spilotro appeared in the 1981 episode "Thicker than Blood." And you thought only Christopher from "The Sopranos" had a Hollywood urge.

Michael was the little brother of Tony, the Chicago Outfit's overseer in Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael received bit parts on "Magnum" and other shows. (I've got that "Magnum" DVD, but don't ask to borrow it.)

"Magnum" was a private-eye show set in Hawaii with a fancy red Ferrari and beautiful girls, gunplay, more beautiful girls, more gunplay and beautiful girls. That was when TV was TV. In the episode, a gang of wisecracking French drug dealers try to import loads of heroin. But G-man Michael Spilotro won't stand for such shenanigans.

Rather than wear a tie, Agent Spilotro wears a sports coat and an open shirt, but no gold chains. And Agent Spilotro did an interesting thing when he met Magnum in a parking lot in broad daylight. He reached for his gun. How rude.

Did Agent Spilotro think he was in some parking lot at Grand and Harlem?

Magnum was worried about his friend, TC, who'd been set up by the evil drug lords, so Magnum approached Spilotro to find out what happened to his buddy. "He doesn't wanna talk," Spilotro informed Magnum and Rick (played by native Chicagoan and Michael's boyhood friend Larry Manetti).

Spilotro unleashed his lines in an unmistakably thick Chicago accent, about as thick as mine, with the same flat vowels.

Later, FBI Agent Spilotro is hiding outside a warehouse, peering through a window, clenching a bullhorn while watching the drug dealers unload their heroin. One of the villains, in a thick French accent, says quite sarcastically, "$10 million worth of heroin, courtesy of zee United States Coast Guard."

Just then, Agent Spilotro springs into action: "This is a federal officer! The building is surrounded!! Come out with your hands in da air!!"

"Magnum" action music—including wailing guitars—pulsates to a disco beat. Agent Spilotro charges in, cornering the evildoers by firing his pistol into the air.

They surrender, and wisely. They didn't know if "Family Secrets" prosecution witness and Outfit enforcer Frankie Cullotta might have been hiding nearby, supporting Spilotro, with a vise that would fit several French heads. The vise thing was in "Casino," but it was drawn from Chicago Outfit war stories and, no wonder, since Cullotta was a technical adviser on "Casino" and knew what a vise could do to a head.

Spilotro may have been trying to increase his Hollywood profile for business reasons, but I don't think the old guys back home who ran things were too pleased about Michael raising his profile on TV. But others disagree, including Manetti, who ran a Chicago construction company that helped build Rush Street clubs before getting into acting. Manetti says he's developing several projects, including a TV comedy about burned-out cops working the night shift and a movie about Cuban refugees.

"I didn't know Michael as a gangster, I knew him as a guy I grew up with in the neighborhood," Manetti said. "Michael wanted to be on TV, that's all. Who wouldn't? It was a top show. He had fun. He wasn't trying to be a movie star or an actor, he was having fun."

Common wisdom is that Tony was the tough guy and Michael was the innocent victim, though some law enforcement sources suggest Michael may have been more devious than his brother. But that's not how Manetti saw his friend, who visited him in Hawaii and was offered a bit part.

"I loved Michael. I don't know what the rumors are, he wasn't a bad guy. Everybody has aspirations of being a movie star. We thought about it. It was funny, you know, Spilotro, FBI agent. . . . With us, it was all fun, no bad stuff. I think we talked about him playing a guy named Zookie the Bookie once, you know, just fun stuff. He was OK as an actor, he wasn't so stiff."

Manetti, who lives in California, said he'll read the Tribune to follow the "Family Secrets" trial. "I miss him. Listen, if it's about the guys who killed Michael, let them burn."

Some who ordered the murders have already been burned, and are likely burning still. And though Michael Spilotro may have had fun on TV, I've got a feeling that a few Chicago critics who could make him or break him didn't like his performance as a crime-fighting fed.

They gave it two broken thumbs down.

Thanks to John Kass

Mafia Cop Sends Letter from Jail Declaring Innocence

Friends of ours: Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Lucchese Crime Family
Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa

One of two former NYPD detectives accused of moonlighting as hitmen for the mob considers himself an innocent man wrongly imprisoned for more than year after news outlets "crucified" him in reports about the sensational case.

Louis Eppolito made the assertions in a rambling two-page letter written to The Associated Press from a federal jail in Brooklyn. Both Eppolito, 58, and Stephen Caracappa, 64, remain jailed there while prosecutors appeal a judge's decision last summer to overturn their convictions in eight Mafia murders.

"As you know, this case was overturned by the judge, yet we linger in solitary confinement (free men by law) for the past 15 months," Eppolito said in the handwritten letter dated June 7.

Eppolito also accused the government of suppressing evidence that would prove his innocence, and complained about the "media circus" that surrounded the case.

"We were both crucified with each and every story that was written," he wrote in response to an interview request. "It was proven to me by the press that they are not after the truth, but only to sell their newspapers with lies made to make us look like corrupt dirty cops, who were more like monsters then (sic) the good family men which we are."

Eppolito's attorney did not immediately respond Friday to a telephone message. The text of the letter was written in block letters, but Eppolito signed it in script with a flourish.

The former detectives were convicted in April 2006 of leading double lives, working for both the NYPD and Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. They earned $65,000 for one of the slayings, authorities said.

A jury found the so-called "Mafia Cops" were responsible for the eight murders, along with kidnapping and other crimes. The pair had been out on $5 million bail for nine months before their convictions on racketeering conspiracy put them behind bars.

Two months later, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein stunned prosecutors by saying he was compelled to set aside the verdict because the statute of limitations had passed on the slayings, which occurred between 1986 and 1990.

After hiring new attorneys, Eppolito and Caracappa sought their release on bail while they awaited the outcome of a government appeal of Weinstein's ruling or _ if it was upheld _ a retrial on lesser charges stemming from a 2005 drug sting in Las Vegas, where the partners both had retired. But the judge rejected their bid for freedom, calling them "dangerous criminals with no degree of credibility."

It's not unusual for federal appeals to take a year or more to decide.

Thanks to Tom Hays

Spilotro's Daughter to Testify at Family Secrets Mob Trial

Friends of ours: Tony Spilotro, James Marcello, Joseph Lombardo, Frank Schweihs
Friends of mine: Michael Spilotro

The daughter of executed mobster Michael Spilatro will testify that the day her father disappeared, he received two calls from James Marcello of Lombard, the man prosecutors call the head of the Chicago Outfit, it was revealed in court today.

Michelle Spilatro’s identification of Marcello in a “voice line-up” was being opposed by Marcello’s attorney, Marc Martin, who called an expert in court to testify that the way the lineup was conducted was faulty and was suggestive to her that she identify Marcello.

Martin is opposing the use of the identification for use at trial. U.S. District Judge James Zagel held off on ruling on its admissibility after a hearing today.

Prosecutors contend Anthony and Michael Spilatro were lured to a DuPage area home - reportedly near Bensenville - and beaten to death on June 14, 1986. Their bodies were later found in an Indiana corn field.

That day, prosecutors said Michelle Spilatro will testify, she answered two calls from Marcello asking to talk to Michael Spilatro. They said she will also testify that she heard Marcello’s voice around 80 times over several years that way, and is “100 percent” certain it was Marcello who called that day.

Prosecutor Marcus Funk also intimated through questions of the defense witness that Michelle Spilatro can clearly ID Marcello’s voice because she at one point recognized it in a phone conversation and confirmed with him that he was the man who always called for her father.

Defense attorneys contend Michelle Spilatro cannot possibly identify the voice because she was asked to perform the voice lineup more than three years after the day her father was murdered.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the mob case, which features not only defendant Marcello, but such legendary mob figures as Joey “The Clown” Lombardo and Frank Calabrese, Sr. Also Friday, Zagel granted a motion from lawyers for Frank “The German” Schweihs to release him from trial for now because he is severely ill and under the care of a doctor. Schweihs reportedly has cancer.

Opening arguments in the case are expected to begin June 25.

Thanks to Rob Olmstead