Dennis Johnson Sentenced in Chicago Mob Video Gambling Ring

A bit player snared in a government crackdown on the Chicago mob was sentenced last week to six months in federal prison for converting video games into gambling devices.

Dennis Johnson, 38, of Plainfield was also given three years' probation following his release for his part in the video gambling racket run out of suburban Cicero by suspected mobster Michael "Mickey" Marcello.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said that although Johnson was not the mob leader that some of his co-defendants were, he was instrumental in a multimillion-dollar scheme.

Zagel sentenced Johnson to the minimum under the federal guideline range, saying he deserved credit for pulling himself together and changing his lifestyle since pleading guilty in June 2007.

Prosecutors did not press for a stiff sentence. "He was a small cog in the large wheel of the Outfit," said Markus Funk, one of three prosecutors who secured convictions against suspected top-echelon Chicago mobsters at the trial.

The case is one of the biggest targeting organized crime in Chicago. Defendants are accused of operating the Chicago Outfit - another name for the city's organized crime family - as a racketeering enterprise.

Johnson and his brother, Thomas Johnson of Willow Springs, both worked for Marcello's Cicero-based M&M Entertainment.

The two acknowledged they altered video games so they could be used as gambling devices, placed them in taverns and clubs, and collected the proceeds. Bogus records hid the profits, they said.

Thomas Johnson and Marcello have also pleaded guilty. Thomas Johnson is awaiting sentencing. Marcello got eight years after admitting he tried to buy the silence of jailed mobster Nicholas Calabrese - the government's star witness - by paying his wife $4,000 a month in hush money.

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Sex and The Sopranos

HBO, giddy over the success of its "Sex and the City: The Movie," may be going back for another dose of Carrie and company. But, wait, that's not all! There are also rumors "The Sopranos" might be getting "made" for the big screen. Bada bing, indeed!

We'd love to tell you HBO is planning a cross-over flick where characters from the two iconic shows meet up ("Samantha, meet Paulie Walnuts..."), but the alleged plans actually involve two separate movies. And, please note, we said "alleged." These are just rumors, albeit juicy ones that have launched a slew of blog postings and articles in the Buzz.

Access Hollywood reports that HBO execs have expressed public interest in doing another “Sex and The City” movie as well as a “Sopranos” flick. Meanwhile, Huffington Post notes that the fate of a Sopranos film would ultimately rest with the show's creator, David Chase. And, according to this video from Fox News, Mr. Chase ain't that interested. On a brighter note, the New York Post writes that there is currently "a lot of energy" about another "Sex" movie. A return to glittery Manhattan appears far more likely than another ticket to seedy Jersey.

For what it's worth, searches on both shows are still high, despite their being off the air. And, remember its called "show business" for a reason. If producers throw enough money on the table, we wouldn't be surprised if Tony came out of retirement for one more hit.

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British Union Votes to Merge with New York Mob Family

A NEW chapter has been written in the 86-year history of the Transport and General Workers Union after it agreed a merger with the New York Mafia.

Members of the T&G voted unanimously to join forces with the largest of the so-called 'Five Families' after 800,000 horses' heads were found at the bottom of working class beds across the UK.

The new super-union will have more than three million members and be controlled from the back of a delicatessen in Queens.

The merged union's new general secretary, Peter 'Fair Day's Pay' Clemenza, said: "I would like to pay tribute to my great friends from across the water who have come to a most sensible decision. "But remember what we agreed: play it cool and you don't wind up in the back of no refrigerated truck with a hook in a place you don't want it. Capice?"

Clemenza said British trade unionists would benefit from a stronger bargaining position as well as a share of the proceeds from gambling, prostitution and 'those big, fat trucks coming out of La Guardia, just ripe for the picking'.

He added: "We are keen to sit down with your chancellor of the exchequer and tell him how things are gonna be from now on."

In the UK the merged union will be known as Workers Uniting, while in the US it will continue to be known as 'the thing' or by its more formal name 'this thing of ours'.

Thanks to The Daily Mash

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