Concerns Expressed by Chicago Crime Commission Regarding Proposed Expansion of Gambling

The Chicago Crime Commission notes that the Illinois Senators and Representatives have again discussed legislative proposals to expand gaming in Illinois. The proposals include new gaming licenses for new casinos, including the City of Chicago, as well as the installation of slot machines at Illinois horse race tracks. However, the proposals do not appear to address the responsibility for suitability investigations to be conducted by the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) on potential investors in these new gambling operations.

The IGB, as presently staffed, has experienced difficulty in timely reviewing applications for investments and conducting thorough background investigations. The IGB has never had sufficient staffing to routinely review all vendor contracts regardless of the service provided. The budget restrictions imposed by the State have, in the past, left the IGB staff with concerns about appropriate due diligence or comprehensive background investigations over all aspects of gaming. Adding new casino licenses and slot machines at horse race tracks would, potentially, completely overwhelm the ability of the IGB to provide complete, competent and independent oersight of the industry.

Arguments have previously been made that increasing the budget of the IGB in order to increase the staff and improve their ability to investigate and monitor the gaming industry would cost too much. The answer to this problem could be found in the gaming control operations in both Nevada and New Jersey. Both states require companies and individuals to pay a set amount before an investigation is initiated and to continue to finance the costs of each investigation, without any input or influence on the quality or extent of that investigation. Refusal to pay ends the licensing process. Each Illinois casino location could also be required to pay for the cost of IGB Agents who are required by law to be on-site during gaming activity, but who should be present at all times the casinos are open. This system would take the burden of the cost of the due diligence investigative process off of the State and place it on an industry that generates significant profits to the owners. This would not remove the need for a State budget for the overall operation of the IGB, but the primary costs would be shifted to the companies and individuals that benefit the most from the privilege of owning and operating gaming facilities in Illinois.

This system to increase the size of the staff of the IGB would also be much preferable to any proposed "out-sourcing" of this responsibility to private companies whose ownership and employees would also need complete background investigations.

This basic amendment to the financial operation of the IGB should be made at the time any additional licenses are made available in order to permit the IGB to continue to protect the integrity of gaming in Illinois.

Tweet

Only Mob Impacted by Whitey Sighting is Tourists

The possible sighting of the legendary Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger - who served as the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's savage villain in "The Departed" - is being greeted as a perverse stroke of luck by local Sicilian officials.

With the international spotlight now focused on the town of Taormina, where photographs were taken of a man resembling the now-77-year-old fugitive mobster, officials say the area is likely to become an even greater tourist destination.

"Forgive the cynicism, but it's good for tourism, and it provides a lot of publicity to Taormina at a worldwide level," city official Salvatore Cilona told Corriere Della Sera, one of Italy's major newspapers. "Taormina has always drawn famous criminals," Cilona added, noting that the infamous New York mobster Lucky Luciano stayed in the seaside resort town with a friend in 1962.

Images of a man resembling Bulger, who has been on the lam for more than 10 years, were captured by a vacationing DEA agent on April 10. The man was videotaped window-shopping with a silver-haired woman who may be his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, 56.

The FBI, which is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture, conducted a facial recognition test, but it was inconclusive.

The ruthless former leader of the Winter Hill Gang has been charged with 19 murders and is suspected of having committed many more.

While ruling Boston's criminal underworld in the 1970s, Bulger was also playing ball with the FBI, serving up tips that damaged the interests of his rivals.

He vanished in 1995, just before he was hit with a racketeering indictment.

Thanks to Rich Schapiro.

Tweet

Alyssa Milano is a Wisegal

Alyssa Milano has been tapped to star in the Lifetime original movie "Wisegal," a drama inspired by the true story of a women who became a trusted messenger for the Mafia.

Milano will play Patty Montanari, a widow with two young sons who becomes romantically involved with Frank Russo, a captain in a Brooklyn crime family who persuades her to work for the organization as a courier transporting millions of dollars from Canada into the U.S. When Patty learns that Frank has murdered his son, she realizes what he is capable of and begins to fear for her life and her sons' lives.

The movie will be executive produced by Joe Pistone, a real FBI agent who infiltrated the mob. "Donnie Brasco," the 1997 feature film starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, was based on Pistone.

"Wisegal" will premiere early next year.

Lifetime Networks president of entertainment Susanne Daniels was enthusiastic about having Milano in a Lifetime project, noting that she had worked with her when the actress was co-starring in the 1998-2006 drama series "Charmed" on WB Network, where Daniels was head of programming.

"We have been looking for the right project for her great talent, and she's ideal as the star of this riveting story," Daniels said.

"Wisegal" is produced by Daniel H. Blatt Prods. Pistone is executive producing with Daniel H. Blatt, Leo Rossi and Anthony Melchiorri; Danielle McVickers is co-producing. Jerry Ciccoritti is directing from a script by Shelley Evans.

Thanks to Kimberly Nordyke

Tweet

Upholding the Legacy of Al Capone

To me the Chicago Outfit has always meant a Bears shirt and some loud sweatpants.

That's how little I've followed our neighboring city's organized crime syndicate until this week's verdict nailing five of its aging leaders and associates.

It's like "The Sopranos" episode that Tony hoped would never come. Tough guys with colorful nicknames were dragged into court by the feds to answer to charges of racketeering, illegal gambling, extortion, obstructing justice and 18 murders dating back to 1970. The jury returned guilty verdicts on the other counts but has yet to decide on the murder charges.

A panel of 12 peers, if that word can apply to a mobster trial, convicted James Marcello, 65, said to run the Outfit; Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78; Paul "the Indian" Schiro, 70; Frank Calabrese Sr., 70; and Anthony "Twan" Doyle, 62, a former Chicago cop.

The summer-long trial followed an investigation code-named Operation Family Secrets because two star witnesses were the brother and son of accused hit man Calabrese, who shouted, "Them are lies!" as the prosecutor told the jury he had left a trail of bodies.

Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, who pleaded guilty, said he peed his pants in fear as they dug a shallow grave for one victim. And he recalled that "Strangers in the Night" was playing on the jukebox at the restaurant where one guy was whacked.

There was plenty of mob-speak about high interest "juice loans" and grownup bullies collecting "street taxes" from fearful merchants. The jury saw surveillance photos and listened to tape recordings made in secret. They heard about "made" guys and "capos," bookies and henchmen. There was even talk of a severed puppy head and a dead rat being left to get someone's attention.

Wisconsin, long a vacationland for gangsters, got only brief attention at the trial. The Outfit buried a few hundred thou in cash up here but found it soaked and smelly when they dug it up.

Calabrese's lawyer tried to put a wholesome sheen on his client by saying he might as well be "a cheese salesman from Wisconsin."

One old-time Outfit figure mentioned at the trial was Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio. According to the Journal Sentinel archives, he oversaw organized crime activity in Milwaukee for his Chicago bosses in the 1950s and 1960s. He died in 1971.

Much better remembered here, of course, are the Balistrieris - dad Frank P. and sons Joe and John. They lacked a cool name like the Outfit, but they were the faces of our reputed Milwaukee mob. All three went to prison in the 1980s but were later released. Frank died in 1993, and his sons still live quietly here in town.

The FBI in Milwaukee has an organized crime detail, but these days they spend more time on groups from Eastern Europe and Asia, and street gangs.

"We don't see the Italian organized crime as being a large threat in the Milwaukee area," said special agent Doug Porrini. "There just haven't been any cases since the Balistrieris," Milwaukee U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic added.

That's OK, we don't miss it. The level of disorganized crime here is bad enough.

The U.S. Department of Justice in Chicago admitted that this prosecution wounded the Outfit but did not kill it. As these men go off to prison, new leaders will step in.

It just wouldn't be Chicago without someone upholding the legacy of Al Capone.

Thanks to Jim Stingl

Tweet

The Hulking Figure Called "Twan"

"Twan" -that is the nickname for Anthony Doyle, a retired Chicago police officer who was convicted this week in the operation Family Secrets mob trial. He's the only one of the five defendants not accused of murder.

One of the Chicago mob's worst-kept secrets is corruption, greasing politicians and police to keep organized crime rackets in operation. Among the five men convicted this week of racketeering: Anthony Doyle, a Chicago cop for 21 years. The man they call Twan was the outfit's man in blue.

Sixty-two-year old Doyle is a hulking figure, whose rigid jaw line helps carve an imposing presence. Doyle is a longtime friend and associate of Chicago Outfit boss Frank Calabrese, who was responsible for at least 13 gangland murders, according to federal prosecutors.

Numerous times in 1999, Calabrese paid for Doyle to come to a federal prison in southeastern Michigan. Doyle discussed Chicago mob business with Calabrese, who is known as Frank "the Breeze." Neither man knew the FBI was secretly taping the meetings.

The visits alone violated Chicago police rules that prohibit associating with felons. And when Doyle gave Calabrese information he'd requested about a police murder investigation, straight from a department evidence computer, that was also criminal.

Investigators believe that Doyle sensed Chicago police were on to his relationship with Calabrese and that Doyle tendered his resignation from the police department in 2001 before a federal grand jury could indict him. That way, Doyle was able to receive his Chicago police pension of $2,800 a month, or $34,000 a year.

Since retiring, Doyle has collected nearly $200,000 in pension payments from the city. The director of the police pension board wrote in a letter to ABC7 that they are aware of Doyle's conviction and plan to address the forfeiture of his pension once he is sentenced. A sentencing date has not been set.

Doyle began his defense last June with a trash bin, his lawyers demonstrating for the jury that he started as a city sanitation worker and made it to the police force.

His birth name is actually Passafume, which is Italian. But when he decided to join the Chicago police force, which is historically Irish, he became Anthony Doyle. His police records list him as "Irish/Italian." But through the ethnic transformation, his nickname stayed the same: Twan.

A twan is a popular Chinese doughnut. Literally translated, it means "rice glog." Of course, police are known to be fond of their doughnuts, and Officer Doyle grew up in a section of Chinatown where twans are sold.

On Wednesday in federal court, Doyle asked to be freed on bond until sentencing, offering to post his home in Arizona; his daughter's home and the homes of two retired Chicago policemen as bond.

Judge James Zagel is considering bond but in court questioned Doyle's judgment and did not seem inclined to let him out until sentencing.

Doyle is the only mob defendant not accused of murder.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

Tweet