Dead Mob Hit Man, Larry Neumann, Declared "Prime Suspect" in Double-Murder at McHenry County Bar

The baby-sitter, it turns out, got it right.

The McHenry County sheriff's office has concluded that a now-dead mob hit man named Larry Neumann, in all likelihood, killed two people in 1981 in the small town of Lakemoor -- a long-cold case that was reopened last summer on the basis of a tip from Holly Hager, who baby-sat for the children of one of the pair back then.

Authorities now say Neumann is the "prime suspect" in the double-murder -- and that no charges will be filed because he's dead.

"I knew from the start that's what it was," Hager, now 42, said of their conclusion.

On June 2, 1981, the bodies of 37-year-old bar owner Ron Scharff and 30-year-old Patricia Freeman were found, shot to death, in the back of Scharff's bar, the PM Pub, named for his sons Paul and Michael.

Hager's father Jim had been Scharff's best friend, and she baby-sat for Scharff's boys.

Last summer, on a car trip to Arkansas, Hager was talking with her father, and he mentioned Neumann, once a feared enforcer for the Chicago Outfit.

When she got back home, Hager searched for Neumann's name on the Internet. It turned up on a serial-killer site. And Neumann, she learned, was from McHenry County. What convinced her this was no coincidence was the 2007 autobiography of Frank Cullotta, "Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness," a mob burglar and hit man-turned-government informant. In it, he wrote about Neumann killing two people in 1981 at a McHenry County bar.

Hager told authorities, and they reopened the case.

Neumann had been a part of Cullotta's Las Vegas burglary crew, working for Outfit boss Tony "The Ant" Spilotro. Cullotta said Neumann was mad that Scharf had kicked his ex-wife out of the bar, drove to McHenry County and shot Scharff. Freeman, a divorced mother of two, died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was her first night working at the bar to supplement what she made as a school bus driver.

Hager's tip wasn't the first time Neumann was implicated in the killings. Cullotta said he told McHenry County authorities the same story in 1982, when he became one of the government's best witnesses against his old organized-crime brethren.

"I did what I had to do at the beginning," Cullotta said by phone. But the chief investigator for McHenry County at the time, according to the just-concluded sheriff's report, questioned Cullotta's credibility.

"I think the investigation should have taken care of this back in '82, '83, and nothing happened," Paul Scharff, who was 10 when his father was killed, said by phone from Texas, where he lives.

After spending nearly 1,300 hours on the renewed investigation, the investigators now have concluded: "Frank Cullotta provided information that was credible and accurate."

Neumann died in prison in 2007 at 79. He spent the last 23 years of his life locked up for killing a jeweler.

Paul Scharff said he believes charges could have been brought against others who had information at the time about the murders. Still, he's glad to know who the killer was, even if it's too late to make a case in court.

"The families and friends of Ron Scharff and Patricia Freeman didn't forget about them," Scharff said. "We find some peace in that."

Thanks to NewsRadio780

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Last Reputed Member of the Black Mafia Family Captured

Investigators said Friday that the last known member of the Black Mafia Family who was still at large was captured.

On Thursday, U.S. Marshals arrested Vernon Marcus Coleman, aka Jason Stevenson Parkinson and ‘WU’, at an apartment in north Atlanta.

According to investigators, Coleman had been on the run for two years. An arrest warrant was issued for Coleman July 10, 2007 for possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. Coleman was wanted in Douglas County for failure to appear for traffic offenses.

Coleman is an alleged member of the crime ring known as the Black Mafia Family or BMF. Coleman is also a rapper who goes by the name WU and is associated with The Life Records, The Illustrious (ILL) Family, and B-EZ Entertainment.

The Black Mafia Family is considered an organized crime drug trafficking organization with a history of violent crime. Many of its members have been arrested while in possession of firearms and drugs.

Thanks to Leigha Baughan

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Apple's iPod Connected to Mafia Activities?

A new lawsuit from a Beverly Hills, Calif., man alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian mafia to secretly track him, transmit threatening messages to his iPod, and insert the word "herpes" into the song "Still Tippin'" by Mike Jones.

Not just his iPod, Gregory McKenna is convinced that many things in his life were bugged, including his bedroom, living room, upstairs bathroom and Toyota Camry. McKenna alleges in his lawsuit that two iPods he owned – an iPod shuffle bought on eBay and an iPod mini purchased in an Apple Store – were affixed with receivers that allowed the Mafia to transmit threats to him.

McKenna believes that these well-coordinated "threats" from Apple and the mafia were accompanied by an uncanny sense of rhythm: Recordings of mafia members saying "I'm going to kill him" supposedly played in unison with a song on the man's iPod mini in 2008.

"The recording of death threats and other evidence," the suit reads, "prove that APPLE INC. conspired with the Mafia and other Defendants to manufacture, distribute, and sell illegally bugged iPods and other electronic equipment to Plaintiff to perpetuate the stalking, extortion, and torture."

Filed Wednesday in a U.S. District Court in Missouri, the 124-page complaint lists Apple among a host of other defendants, including the St. Louis County Police Department, a local auto mechanic, and "unknown agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Perhaps the most outlandish Apple-related tale in the lengthy suit is a supposed subliminal message heard in the song "Still Tippin'" by rapper Mike Jones. McKenna alleges the word "herpes" was implanted into the song "to humiliate, degrade, and cause emotional stress."

In the version of the song McKenna claims he heard, the modified lyrics were: "Tippin' on four fours, wrapped in four vogues, HERPES. Tippin' on four fours, wrapped in four vogues. Tippin' on four fours, wrapped in four vogues, AHH."

The suit alleges he heard the modified version of the song on his Apple iBook G4 computer, Apple PowerBook G4, Apple iPods, and in three different vehicles, including his mother's Honda Accord.

The bizarre tale begins in 2000, when McKenna claims he was threatened by the Italian mafia at a Missouri night club. The suit alleges that the mafia tried to force the accuser into becoming a New York City fashion model.

"We're going to kill you if you don't model for us in New York," the suit says McKenna was told.

"Media sources report that the modeling industry has an infamous "shadow Mafia" that forces models to work for pay after fraudulently putting them into excessive debt, coerces them into the illegal sex trade, and then disposes of them," the suit reads.

The man claims he attempted to call the St. Louis County Police numerous times, but they would not respond to his pleas. His intricate tale includes numerous unnamed FBI agents, a plethora of hidden illegal recording devices, and constant references to "stalking, extortion and torture."

A high-profile, publicly traded company, Apple is hit with many lawsuits, sometimes from accusers who likely suffer from mental disorders. In 2007, a known frivolous suit filer claimed that Steve Jobs had employed O.J. Simpson as a hitman for the last two decades.

Thanks to Neil Hughes

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