Fact or Fiction?

Many years ago, while standing next to a bullet-riddled, blood-splattered car on Diversey Avenue in Chicago, a homicide detective peered into the carnage of a mob hit, then looked around quickly to make sure no one else with a badge was within earshot.

"Look, I know this is supposed to be against the law and all of that," he said. "But you do have to admire professionalism when you see it."

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Lawyer: Mob client's body in trunk

Friends of ours: Lawrence Ricci, Genovese Crime Family

A body believed to be that of a mobster who vanished during his waterfront corruption trial was found in the trunk of a car parked behind a diner in New Jersey. Investigators had yet to identify the victim positively as Lawrence Ricci, a reputed Genovese family capo last seen on October 7. But Ricci's lawyer said the body found Wednesday at the Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, was definitely his client.

"There's not the slightest doubt. The vehicle was the last vehicle he was seen in. Does anyone think it's somebody other than him?" said attorney Martin Schmukler. Schmukler won an acquittal for Ricci in federal court in Brooklyn after the mobster's disappearance. The 60-year-old Ricci had been accused of steering a dockworkers union contract to a mob-connected pharmaceutical company.

One news report suggested he was killed after ignoring a Mafia "request" to cop a plea in the waterfront trial. A law enforcement official was also quoted as saying the slaying was the result of an unrelated power struggle in Ricci's mob crew. The answers will eventually come out, said Ronald Goldstock, former head of the New York state Organized Crime Task Force. "In the old days, you might never find out," Goldstock said. "In current times, you will because somebody will talk. You can't keep these mob guys quiet anymore."

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