Liberace Garage at Hollywood Cars Museum Adds the Late Entertainer's Classic "Bicentennial" Rolls Royce

Now rolling into The Liberace Garage (www.liberace.org) at the Hollywood Cars Museum, Las Vegas, in all of its red, white and blue splendor, is the late entertainer's Bicentennial Rolls Royce, a 1952 Silver Dawn two light convertible London Motor Show car.



Designed for the "Liberace Show '76," the majestic vehicle was used on stage at the Las Vegas Hilton, with Liberace flying out of it via high wire cables while fireworks exploded and "Stars and Stripes Forever" played. It was later used at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. For Liberace, cars were often an extension of his wardrobe. So naturally, accompanying the Rolls is an updated version of a red, white and blue "Hot Pants" costume.

Launched with a gala catered cocktail reception at the Museum in early April, the Liberace Garage - now open to the public - is a collaboration between The Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts (www.liberace.org) and Hollywood Cars Museum at Hot Rod City, Las Vegas (www.hollywoodcarsmuseum.com). The event was a fundraiser for the foundation, which has provided over $6 million in scholarships in the creative and performing arts since 1981.

Among the vehicles on display at the Liberace Garage is the 1961 Rolls Royce Phantom V that Liberace used to drive onto the stage when he performed at the Las Vegas Hilton. The Foundation lent it to the production of the Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning HBO film Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon; Douglas, as Liberace, drove it on the stage.

The Liberace Garage also includes the crystal encrusted roadster that he had onstage during his final run of shows at Radio City Music Hall in 1986, and a large handful of cars he drove regularly, including the London Taxi (with the meter still installed) that he used to pick up famous guests from the Palm Springs Airport and the Bradley GT gold flaked sports car, among others.

The Hollywood Cars Museum at Hot Rod City is presented by Michael Dezer (www.dezercollection.com), owner of one of the world's largest vehicle collections at the Miami Auto Museum. It features vehicles that have appeared in more than 100 films, TV shows and videos and many wild custom creations.

Tweet

Operation Greylord: The True Story of an Untrained Undercover Agent and America’s Biggest Corruption Bust

"Operation Greylord: The True Story of an Untrained Undercover Agent and America's Biggest Corruption Bust" by Terrence Hake with Wayne Klatt.

This is the first book detailing Operation Greylord, one of the most successful undercover investigations in FBI history that occurred in 1980s Chicago. Hake, a naive attorney with no covert experience, was chosen to lead the undercover operation with no covert experience.

The Cook County Court system in Chicago was filled with corrupt judges and lawyers and after an almost four year investigation, more than 80 indictments were handed down to those judges and lawyers, according to the Chicago Tribune. Although the historical significance of this investigation cannot be overlooked, this book reads like a fictional thriller as Hake divulges his insider knowledge. A suspenseful tone is maintained throughout; ensuring readers are riveted from the first page.

Tweet

Lawsuit Alleges @IUBAC Local 21 Falsely Accused Concrete Contractor, Quality Restorations, of Mob Ties

A Chicago concrete contractor has hit a local labor union with a lawsuit, claiming the union lied about the business during demonstrations and in fliers designed to protest the contractor’s work on the Apparel Center building in River North.

On April 14, Quality Restorations Inc. filed its complaint in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers, Administrative District Council #1 of Illinois, defamed the construction company in fliers handed out to potentially thousands of people as part of a campaign against the business.

According to the complaint, Quality Restorations secured a contract to make unspecified repairs to the building, located at 350 N. Orleans, just north of the Chicago River and next to Merchandise Mart, in Chicago.

In June 2015, Quality Restorations’ complaint said the IUBAC’s Local 21 demonstrated near the building against Quality Restorations’ work on the project. According to the complaint, the demonstrators handed out “orange flyers … to numerous people passing by … including an agent of the owner.”

The complaint said the fliers delivered a litany of allegations against Quality Restorations, including that the company requires its workers to join a union, identified in the fliers as the “Independent Union of Amalgamated Workers Local 711.” The fliers said that particular union “negotiates sweetheart contracts that usually mean substandard wages and little or no benefits” for workers. Further, the fliers allegedly stated Local 711 was affiliated with “the Chicago Mob” through two men, identified in the court documents as James Bertino and John Matassa.

The fliers allegedly asked the owners of the building to stop working with Quality Restorations and “to stop doing business with a Mob union.”

It provided the contact information for a different contractor for the building’s owners to call, should they “think this work should be done by a contractor who works with real unions and whose employees receive proper wages and benefits.”

Quality Restorations said the building’s owners “questioned Quality Restorations about them immediately upon learning of them.”

The complaint indicated the fliers represented an injury to Quality Restorations’ business because the company asserted the accusations contained in the fliers were false, and “building owners and the engineers that manage their construction projects and assist in hiring contractors are sensitive to the associations and reputations of the contractors they hire, and they seek to avoid public relations issues at their buildings and work sites.”

Quality Restorations said they are “not associated with and does not conduct business” with Bertino, Matassa or “the mob” and pay their employees’ “proper wages and benefits,” contrary to the statements in the fliers designed to “impute that Quality Restorations is complicit in the alleged crimes of IUAW Local 711 and that Quality Restorations is involved in organized crime.”

The contractor asked the court to order the IUBAC to pay unspecified damages, including punitive damages, to be determined at trial.

Quality Restorations’ website lists Bob Joyce as its founder, owner and president. The website says the company has been in business since 1984, and has worked on a number of high profile building projects in Chicago.

The company is represented in this defamation action by attorney Matthew A. Wlodarczyk, of Wlodarczyk Law LLC, of Arlington Heights.

Thanks to Jonathan Bilyk.

Tweet

More Than 20 Mexican Mafia Gang Members Arrested in Historic Raids

"Not in my town." That's the message Seguin police hope they got across to gangs.

Nearly a dozen raids were executed as the result of an 18-month long investigation into the Mexican Mafia.

Seguin police say that, as a result, they've put a dent in the gang and drug activity in their community.

Among the day's take: piles of drugs, $60,000 in cash, and several weapons removed from nearly a dozen locations where Mexican Mafia gang members were known to operate. "We do believe that this is going to cause an incredibly serious interruption in the Mexican Mafia in this region," Seguin Police Department Deputy Chief Bruce Ure said.

The investigation into the drug activity began in Seguin 18 months ago with other local, state and federal agencies helping with the execution of those search warrants. "The operation spanned as far west as San Antonio and went as far east as the Houston area. And as far north as New Braunfels," Deputy Chief Ure said.

All the arrests resulted in federal and state drug charges.

One woman at the scene says her family has no affiliation with the Mexican Mafia. "There's no gang members here. They need to get their investigation straight before they come accusing," said Amy Herrera, whose family's home was raided. But police say that all of the locations raided Friday were known to have drug activity. "They are all known Mexican Mafia gang members and if you know anything about the Mexican Mafia, they're a vicious, vicious gang," Deputy Chief Ure said.

It's a gang they hope they have sent a strong message to. "Our gang members need to know whether you're in the MS13, or the Mexican Mafia, or where ever you are. If you're in our region, you're on our radar," Deputy Chief Ure said.

Those that were arrested remain behind bars, including a high-ranking "lieutenant," until their detention hearings in federal court.

Authorities say they are still searching for three other men wanted for drug charges.

Tweet

Former Olympian, Current Hells Angel, Shot while Riding Motorcycle

Phil Boudreault, the Sudbury boxer who became an unlikely hero at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and a longtime, high-ranking Hells Angels member, was reportedly shot while riding his motorcycle near Lachute, Que. on Saturday morning.

Sources say he suffered a punctured lung in the attack, which officers from the Surete de Quebec believe was linked to organized crime.

Police have not named the shooting victim, but according to QMI Agency, sources have identified him as Boudreault, a 41-year-old Sudbury native and vice-president for the Hells Angels Ontario Nomads who had been living in Quebec.

According to QMI, SQ spokeswoman Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said "the motorcyclist was seriously injured and was rushed to a hospital, but there is no fear for his life."

Sudbury sources have also identified Boudreault as the man who was shot.

Gord Apolloni, head coach at Top Glove Boxing Academy in Sudbury and Boudreault's former trainer, said he received calls on Sunday confirming the news. "He was going to a bike show near Montreal," Apolloni said. "He was lucky that his girlfriend didn't get shot, because she was on the back of the bike."

Apolloni said he was told Boudreault's injuries were serious and that he might have shrapnel in his spine.

Apolloni said he hasn't seen or spoken with Boudreault in some time, but said "it was a scary thought, knowing he could have been killed." "He has gone off on his own at this point, but I still remember Phil the way that Phil was at the Olympic Games. I still remember him living on his own and trying to clean his life up. That's how I remember Phil."

Police were called at around 10:30 a.m. about an incident on Bethany Road. A man was found lying in a ditch, his motorcycle at his side.

The assailants reportedly fled in an older, gray-blue SUV, which police are trying to locate.

"We heard maybe 10-15 shots," a witness, who did not want to be identified, told QMI Agency in French. "After that, there was a truck that passed us quite quickly and he left."

CTV News in Montreal reported a resident who lives nearby and who did not want to be named said he heard bangs and then a series of rapid-fire shots. He ran to the road and found the biker in pain and lying on the road with a woman at his side, CTV reported.

A second motorcyclist who was riding with them came and dragged the victim away to a ditch, the resident said. The resident spoke to the victim – an anglophone – who told him he is a member of the Hells Angels, CTV reported.

Boudreault had been seen last November at a funeral for one of the founding members of the Hells Angels in Montreal, Lionel Deschamps, in Repentigny, Que., QMI reported, and wore a jacket emblazoned with a Nomads "vice-president" badge.

Dubbed "The Sudbury Sensation," Boudreault represented Canada in the light welterweight division at the 1996 Summer Olympics and became a hero both locally and nationally for a time for his spirited showing in Atlanta.

Since then, however, he has spent much of his time getting in trouble with the law, including a brutal bar attack in 2005.

In 2013, he told a Sudbury court he planned to leave Sudbury after he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating his long-term supervision order. "My wife is a schoolteacher," Boudreault said after receiving the jail term. "We're moving. We're out of here … I will pack my bags and be out of this community for good … "I have overstayed my welcome, obviously.”

The former boxer was declared a long-term offender in August 2005, after he was found guilty of a vicious assault on a Valley East father and son in March, 2004. One of the victims suffered a broken jaw in three places, the loss of some teeth and part of his jawbone, and bruised ribs.

In August 2007, Boudreault was placed on a five-year long-term supervision order after completing a two-year prison term for the assault. The Crown had sought to have him declared a dangerous offender.

Boudreault made several attempts to resume his boxing career and compiled a 5-1 record as a professional, but couldn’t stay out of legal trouble.

"I still believe I can perform on the world stage,'' Boudreault told The Star during a training session at the Valley East Boxing Club's facilities in 2009. "I'm not saying I'm going to win a world title, but I believe I can compete at that level.''

Less than a year later, Boudreault was in jail in Sudbury.

Boudreault impressed boxing aficionados with his performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, finishing fourth in his weight class and coming within a whisker of winning a bronze medal. Many observers believed he should have won a medal, but was shortchanged by the judges' decision in his final bout.

Thanks to Sudbury Star.

Tweet