The FBI Confirms Rod Blagojevich Mafia Story

The FBI in Chicago was given information more than 20 years ago alleging that Rod Blagojevich had connections to an organized crime gambling ring.

That disclosure came on Thursday from a former top official of the FBI.

Outfit lawyer turned federal informant Robert Cooley told the I-Team that Rod Blagojevich booked illegal bets in the 1980's and paid protection money to the mob.

Cooley claimed he told FBI officials that Blagojevich used to be a mobbed-up bookie. On Thursday evening, the FBI agent who supervised Cooley's undercover work in the late 1980's confirms that federal officials were informed back then about Blagojevich's alleged bookmaking and mob payoffs.

In 1986, criminal defense lawyer Bob Cooley walked into the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and offered to wear a wire in conversations with the hoodlums, corrupt city hall officials and crooked judges that he knew.

As part of Cooley's cooperation and to steer clear of criminal charges himself, he had to disclose all of the misconduct he knew about.

Some of what he reported to prosecutors and FBI involved Rod Blagojevich who was fresh from law school and working as an assistant cook county prosecutor.

"I reported, I observed Rod, the present governor who was running a gambling operation out in the western suburbs. He was paying street tax to the Mob out there," said Robert Cooley, federal Informant.

On Thursday, former FBI official Jim Wagner confirms that telling the I-Team that Cooley indeed informed the bureau about Blagojevich's alleged bookmaking business. But Mr. Wagner says in the 1980's, FBI agents had never heard of Blagojevich.

Wagner was Cooley's 'handler' for the FBI at the time, supervising his undercover that resulted in two dozen successful prosecutions for public corruption.

That wasn't the end of it.

When Blagojevich ran for governor, Cooley says he returned to the FBI hoping agents would pursue the allegations of outfit bookmaking. Wagner confirms that as well but says the statute of limitations had long passed for prosecuting Blagojevich on illegal gambling charges.

However, last week when federal prosecutors announced they had filed corruption charges against the governor, Al Patton, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service, was on the podium.

As the feds examine Mr. Blagojevich's finances, one thing they will look for is unreported gambling income.

The governor's former chief of staff Chris Kelly will plead guilty next month to tax fraud for not declaring more than $1 million in winning sports wagers.

A few years ago when Robert Cooley reminded the FBI of his Blagojevich bookie information, Cooley also provided it to the ABC7 I-Team.

In attempting to verify the bookmaking allegations at the time I asked Governor Blagojevich whether he had ever been involved in taking betting action or paying a street tax to the mob. The governor denied it and said he didn't know Mr. Cooley.

This week, a spokesman for the governor declined to comment.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

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Reputed Mobster Charged in Cop Assassination

A reputed mobster was charged Thursday with ordering a hit on an off-duty New York Police Department officer who at the time was married to his ex-wife _ a slaying that had gone unsolved for more than a decade.

An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn also brought new charges in three other gangland killings dating to 1994. They included that of William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, an underboss with the Colombo organized crime family whose body was discovered in October buried in a wooded area of Long Island.

The case demonstrates investigators' determination to catch mob killers "no matter how much time passes," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell at a news conference.

The indictment charged Joel Cacace, 67, the former acting Colombo boss, and two other men in the shooting death of Officer Ralph Dols on Aug. 25, 1997. Cacace already is behind bars after pleading guilty in 2004 in a mistaken mob hit on a 78-year-old judge whose son, a former prosecutor, was the intended target.

Dols was killed "merely because he was married to Cacace's ex-wife," said David Cardona, head of the criminal division in the FBI's New York office.

Authorities refused to discuss how the cases were solved. But in recent years, mob turncoats have identified killers _ and sometimes pinpointed the remains of their victims _ in other cases that had gone cold.

Dols, 28, was ambushed around midnight as he arrived home from a shift as a uniformed housing police officer. While parking his car, a man jumped out of a dark-colored Chevrolet, fired seven shots, then fled.

The killing touched off an intense, wide-ranging investigation involving federal and local authorities. It also drew attention to the officer's wife and her alleged links to the Mafia through three other men from her past: a brother and reputed Colombo soldier who was convicted of murder in 1981, a husband found shot to death in 1987 in an apparent mob hit and Cacace.

In the Cutolo slaying, prosecutors say the victim was targeted in May 1999 because the Colombo boss believed he was trying to take over the family. He was gunned down in a basement apartment, then buried in Farmingdale, Long Island, court papers said.

Thanks to Tom Hays

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Mafia Boss Whacks Himself

A suspected mafia leader whose indiscretions on the telephone prompted Italian police to launch one of its biggest operations against organised crime in Sicily hanged himself in his prison cell on Tuesday night, hours after being arrested.

Gaetano Lo Presti, 52, is alleged to have been one of two people believed to be the new leaders of the Sicilian Mafia – or Cosa Nostra. He had been running cells in the Porta Nuova area of Palermo since last year and had become one of the most powerful gangsters on the island. He was deeply involved in the organisation's decision to try to forge a new power structure after the arrest of the head mobster, Bernardo Provenzano, in 2006.

But Lo Presti, who had recently finished serving a 27-year prison sentence for mafia-related crimes, was being bugged by investigators and was careless in what he told his contacts over the phone. He blurted out the names of other bosses, their plans for the future and – crucially for the timing of this week's raid – he also revealed his opposition to their plans.

When told of the decision to appoint another Palermo leader, Benedetto Capizzi, 65, as the Mafia's capo dei capi – or boss of bosses – he reportedly demanded, "Who authorised this?" – a blunt challenge to his fellow gangsters. The implication was that Lo Presti – appointed boss of Porta Nuova in 2007 by Salvatore Lo Piccolo, one of two brothers who seemed destined to hold sway over the Mafia until his arrest in November last year – believed he had more claim to the top job than Capizzi. There was also the suggestion that blood would be shed in a new round of "mafia wars", to be played out on the streets of Sicily. It was this fear that led police to bring their assault forward and launch an operation that resulted in 94 arrests on Tuesday morning.

The Sicilian Mafia, unlike those of Calabria or Campania, has long had an authoritarian structure, with a single capo dei capi, appointed with the approval of the grand old men of the organisation, and who wields absolute power over his subordinates.

Until his arrest in 1993, that man was Salvatore Riina. Even from prison, where he was serving a life sentence, he was shaping the hierarchy, designed to impose obedience on members to ensure efficiency and loyalty within the organisation. Italian media reports said that Lo Presti did not share his vision. In prison he may have feared revenge attacks and, therefore, moved to take his own life.

Lo Presti took control of Porta Nuova district after the murder of a rival, Niccolo Ingarao, a year ago, and there may have been threats from fellow mafiosi who blamed him for spilling secrets over the phone, which resulted in this week's arrests.

And he had another potential reason for anxiety: his earlier indiscretions led to an important result for the authorities, when transcripts of his conversations were used to convict Salvatore Riina's son Giuseppe, who is now serving a 14-year sentence for mafia association, extortion and money-laundering.

Lo Presti had only recently served a 27-year sentence for Mafia-related crimes.

Thanks to Peter Popham

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