Saturday, July 02, 2011
Stocks Drop on Arrest of Whitey Bulger
Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger was tracked down in Santa Monica by the FBI after sixteen years on the run. Stocks fell on the news. When it was first reported the feds had just nailed Whitey, everyone assumed the Democrats had pushed through a tax hike on the rich.
Friday, July 01, 2011
$110,000 for Al Capone's Handgun
Al Capone's handgun sold for nearly $110,000 at an auction in London
The Colt .38 revolver was manufactured in 1929, the year of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven people were slain during clashes in Chicago between Capone's gang and a rival mob.
Auctioneer Christie's says the gun went for 67,250 pounds ($109,080) to an anonymous online bidder. It was sold by an anonymous private collector along with a letter from Madeleine Capone Morichetti, the widow of Al Capone's brother Ralph, confirming the gun "previously belonged to and was only used by Al Capone while he was alive."
The sale price was at the upper end of the pre-sale estimate of between 50,000 pounds and 70,000 pounds. It includes a buyer's premium.
The New York-born mobster Alphonse "Al" Capone dominated the Chicago underworld during Prohibition until his 1931 arrest for tax evasion. He died in 1947.
The Colt .38 revolver was manufactured in 1929, the year of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven people were slain during clashes in Chicago between Capone's gang and a rival mob.
Auctioneer Christie's says the gun went for 67,250 pounds ($109,080) to an anonymous online bidder. It was sold by an anonymous private collector along with a letter from Madeleine Capone Morichetti, the widow of Al Capone's brother Ralph, confirming the gun "previously belonged to and was only used by Al Capone while he was alive."
The sale price was at the upper end of the pre-sale estimate of between 50,000 pounds and 70,000 pounds. It includes a buyer's premium.
The New York-born mobster Alphonse "Al" Capone dominated the Chicago underworld during Prohibition until his 1931 arrest for tax evasion. He died in 1947.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Chicago Geriaric Mob Trio Trial Delayed Over DNA Tests
The so-called ''geriatric trio'' of Chicago mobsters will have to wait a few months for their day in court.
The federal court trial of Jerry Scalise, Art Rachel and Robert Pullia was to start on July 11, and as avid craps players know, that date -- 7/11 -- is considered good luck and a natural win. Now, though, a delay in some evidence tests ordered by the prosecution means the trial for the Outfit's "geriatric trio" will no longer roll on 7/11.
It has been nearly 15 months since the geriatric troika was arrested in its latest Outfit racket: Armed invasions of several suburban banks and a break-in at the home of a deceased mob boss.
The leader of the 70-somethings is Scalise, a long-time Outfit burglar and repeat ex-con who seemed to have been going straight, working as a consultant on Dillinger and other gangster films shot in Chicago. But, according to prosecutors, Scalise was plotting new crimes even as he aided the fictional accounts on film.
In May, FBI agents served warrants on Scalise's head, demanding hair samples for DNA tests to compare with hair strands found on masks that were allegedly to be used in the hold-ups.
Pullia also provided hair samples to the government.
Art Rachel, known as "The Genius," was not required to pluck any samples.
In court Wednesday, the government said that DNA testing of hair samples was still under way. With defense attorneys willing to wait for the results of hair tests that they hope will clear their clients, a new trial date of September 19 was set.
Thirty-one years ago, the case that made Scalise and Rachel famous was the daring theft of the 41-carat Marlborough diamond from a London jeweler. They were convicted and did lengthy prison sentences in the UK in a case that had no DNA sampling because the use of DNA testing was still a few years away in criminal cases.
This time around, with DNA center stage, attorneys for the mobsters contend that U.S. prosecutors shouldn't have waited a year to do the hair tests.
The September trial date is tentative and it may be later than that. There was even talk of a possible December date. Judge Harry Leinenweber said the whole thing was "screwing up my schedule."
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
The federal court trial of Jerry Scalise, Art Rachel and Robert Pullia was to start on July 11, and as avid craps players know, that date -- 7/11 -- is considered good luck and a natural win. Now, though, a delay in some evidence tests ordered by the prosecution means the trial for the Outfit's "geriatric trio" will no longer roll on 7/11.
It has been nearly 15 months since the geriatric troika was arrested in its latest Outfit racket: Armed invasions of several suburban banks and a break-in at the home of a deceased mob boss.
The leader of the 70-somethings is Scalise, a long-time Outfit burglar and repeat ex-con who seemed to have been going straight, working as a consultant on Dillinger and other gangster films shot in Chicago. But, according to prosecutors, Scalise was plotting new crimes even as he aided the fictional accounts on film.
In May, FBI agents served warrants on Scalise's head, demanding hair samples for DNA tests to compare with hair strands found on masks that were allegedly to be used in the hold-ups.
Pullia also provided hair samples to the government.
Art Rachel, known as "The Genius," was not required to pluck any samples.
In court Wednesday, the government said that DNA testing of hair samples was still under way. With defense attorneys willing to wait for the results of hair tests that they hope will clear their clients, a new trial date of September 19 was set.
Thirty-one years ago, the case that made Scalise and Rachel famous was the daring theft of the 41-carat Marlborough diamond from a London jeweler. They were convicted and did lengthy prison sentences in the UK in a case that had no DNA sampling because the use of DNA testing was still a few years away in criminal cases.
This time around, with DNA center stage, attorneys for the mobsters contend that U.S. prosecutors shouldn't have waited a year to do the hair tests.
The September trial date is tentative and it may be later than that. There was even talk of a possible December date. Judge Harry Leinenweber said the whole thing was "screwing up my schedule."
Thanks to Chuck Goudie
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