Federal prosecutor Mitchell Mars was telling the jury about a litany of 18 Outfit murders -- solved by federal investigators, not locals -- and he put several corpses at the feet of convicted mobster Frank Calabrese Sr.
"He has left a trail of bodies, literally ..." Mars said Tuesday, as Calabrese began shouting, interrupting him.
"THEM ARE LIES!!" Calabrese shrieked, startling the jury.
It was the real Frank coming out after weeks of suppression in federal court, with that tight little smile of his. It was Chinatown Frank, the scary Frank with the famous thumbs, and federal marshals inched closer lest Frank pop for good.
Mars didn't flinch, and he continued speaking.
" ... during his career with the Outfit."
Then the jury retired to deliberate on the second phase of the landmark Family Secrets trial -- deciding which Outfit figures committed previously unsolved murders -- and my guess is that the jury is ready to be done with this.
What must bother Calabrese, and his co-defendants Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, and James "Little Shamrock" Marcello, is what Mars told that jury.
"This is not a case of guilt by association. It is guilt by participation in a criminal organization that protected itself and its members by homicide," Mars said. "They lived to kill. They lived to have money, and they lived to kill."
The "Them are lies" shriek was the dramatic highlight of the day, but here's one thing that isn't a lie:
Since the Chicago Outfit began controlling select politicians at City Hall, and select businesses and select cops and county judges, there have been hundreds of Outfit hits. And local law enforcement hasn't solved one for more than 40 years. They've only solved a scant few Outfit killings since Paul "The Waiter" Ricca let Al Capone pretend to be boss of Chicago.
I might be wrong. There might be one, or two, solved in the last four decades by local law enforcement, perhaps the real police in blue uniforms, the men and women who don't get promoted because they don't know the secret political passwords. And if I'm wrong, I'm sure that interim Chicago Police Supt. Dana Starks will invite me to Cafe Bionda for lunch and lecture me on my heresy, as legendary Bionda chef and Reserve nightclub fixture Joe Farina whips us up something tasty. But according to a Chicago Tribune investigation in 1989, no Outfit murder had been solved in Cook County in 20 years.
That was 18 years ago.
The report focused on the Cook County sheriff's office, and how high-ranking sheriff's officials "sabotaged investigations of brutal, execution-style murders and covered up evidence of possible crimes of other law enforcement officials, and judges."
Back then, sheriff's officers, the Tribune said, systematically concealed evidence, blocked efforts by other law enforcement agencies to interview witnesses, and hid their own relationships with organized crime suspects in murder investigations.
One of the murders was the 1976 slaying of Michael Curtin, a chemical company executive found facedown in the back of his tan Cadillac in Maywood, strangled, Chinatown-style, and shot twice in the head for good measure.
Curtin's murder was not one of the 18 homicides in the Family Secrets trial.
A tiny black notebook was discovered in Curtin's pocket. In that notebook, the Tribune reported, were the names of Cook County judges and lawyers, with dollar amounts written alongside.
Lt. James Keating seized the evidence, including Curtin's precious little black book, which vanished forever, as did the bullets that were mysteriously removed from Curtin's cold skull. Keating was convicted in 1986 for taking payoffs to protect Outfit vice operations in the suburbs. And in 1989, he was convicted in federal court for racketeering and murder conspiracy.
Since then, he's been in prison. Some literary muse must have whispered to him in the federal pen, because he's written a novel, "All on the Same Side," about the friendships between politicians, local cops and the Outfit.
One of the characters in the book is a so-called Chief William Murphy -- who vaguely resembles former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt, himself in federal prison for running an Outfit jewelry heist ring with Schiro.
Murphy's buddy is a mob boss named Dominic, who answers to another mob boss named Johnny, who may or may not have been shot in the nose years ago in real life, ruining his looks. And Murphy promises to kill investigations.
The book is fiction, sort of. But here are two facts:
If it weren't for the feds, the Chicago Outfit wouldn't worry about murder cases. And Frank Calabrese wouldn't have to scream "Them are lies" to the jury deciding the rest of his life.
Thanks to John Kass
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Judge Profoundly Unimpressed with Retired Cop at Mob Trial
The judge who presided over Chicago's biggest mob trial in years expressed doubts today about setting bail for a retired police officer convicted in the case, saying his testimony was unbelievable.
Defendant Anthony Doyle's testimony on the witness stand was so hard to believe it brought his sound judgment into question, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said. "What he was saying was profoundly unimpressive," Zagel said.
He said Doyle might flee to avoid prison if he was released, mistakenly assuming his daughter and several former police officers would not forfeit the homes they have offered as security for any bond. But Zagel agreed to take the bail request under consideration.
Doyle claims his sick wife needs him to be with her. The decorated former police officer appeared in court today in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner for the first time as his attorney, Ralph E. Meczyk, pleaded with the judge to free him on bond.
Doyle, 62, was among five defendants convicted Monday of a racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved mob murders.
He was the only defendant not accused of involvement in a murder and the only one free on bond; the others have been in federal custody for more than a year. Doyle was taken into custody only after the jury's verdict was announced.
A major part of the prosecution's case were tapes secretly made by the FBI at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., where Doyle visited Frank Calabrese Sr., a convicted loan shark who also was found guilty Monday. On the tapes, Calabrese allegedly discussed mob business.
Prosecutors maintain the tall, broad-shouldered Doyle was a loan collector for Calabrese while also working as a Chicago police officer.
Doyle testified he went to the prison not to discuss business but merely to visit a friend. He said he didn't understand much of what Calabrese was telling him and considered it "mind-boggling gibberish."
No date has been set for sentencing. A jury was deliberating Wednesday whether the four other defendants should be held responsible for specific murders outlined in the indictment, which would qualify them for life sentences.
Racketeering conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, although prosecutors estimated that the recommended sentence for Doyle under federal sentencing guidelines would be 12 to 15 years.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Defendant Anthony Doyle's testimony on the witness stand was so hard to believe it brought his sound judgment into question, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said. "What he was saying was profoundly unimpressive," Zagel said.
He said Doyle might flee to avoid prison if he was released, mistakenly assuming his daughter and several former police officers would not forfeit the homes they have offered as security for any bond. But Zagel agreed to take the bail request under consideration.
Doyle claims his sick wife needs him to be with her. The decorated former police officer appeared in court today in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner for the first time as his attorney, Ralph E. Meczyk, pleaded with the judge to free him on bond.
Doyle, 62, was among five defendants convicted Monday of a racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved mob murders.
He was the only defendant not accused of involvement in a murder and the only one free on bond; the others have been in federal custody for more than a year. Doyle was taken into custody only after the jury's verdict was announced.
A major part of the prosecution's case were tapes secretly made by the FBI at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., where Doyle visited Frank Calabrese Sr., a convicted loan shark who also was found guilty Monday. On the tapes, Calabrese allegedly discussed mob business.
Prosecutors maintain the tall, broad-shouldered Doyle was a loan collector for Calabrese while also working as a Chicago police officer.
Doyle testified he went to the prison not to discuss business but merely to visit a friend. He said he didn't understand much of what Calabrese was telling him and considered it "mind-boggling gibberish."
No date has been set for sentencing. A jury was deliberating Wednesday whether the four other defendants should be held responsible for specific murders outlined in the indictment, which would qualify them for life sentences.
Racketeering conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, although prosecutors estimated that the recommended sentence for Doyle under federal sentencing guidelines would be 12 to 15 years.
Thanks to Mike Robinson
Chicago Mob's Family Secrets Told in Rockford
Jurors began deliberating the fate of five defendants Aug. 31 in the 10-week Family Secrets trial in Chicago, and continued Sept. 4. Four of the men are alleged members of the organized crime syndicate known as the Outfit. The defendants are alleged to have been involved in 18 mob murders, according to the federal indictment.
The Chicago Tribune reports: “Federal prosecutors contend that reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey ‘the Clown’ Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul ‘the Indian’ Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony ‘Twan’ Doyle should be convicted in a racketeering conspiracy spanning four decades.
“All are charged in Count 1, the racketeering conspiracy charge, which takes up 18 pages of the indictment and alleges that an enterprise known as the Outfit collected street tax, operated illegal gambling businesses, made juice loans, obstructed justice and protected itself with violence and murder.”
If convicted, each man is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. The defendants are in their 60s and 70s.
While this real-life spectacle has captivated fans of crime drama all summer, Chicago is not the extent of the Outfit’s reach. Although outshined by a trial epitomizing Chicago’s rich history of organized crime, nine men were sentenced this summer, between May and June, on federal charges of operating an illegal gambling business in Rockford since the 1980s.
The lead prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney John Scully, said the ring netted in excess of $500,000.
Indictments were handed down last year, and federal warrants were executed for the arrests of eight local men, all of whom later entered guilty pleas after surrendering peacefully.
Rockford Police and the FBI conducted a joint investigation into the bookmaking business, starting in August 2000, including wire taps and surveillance of the ring’s hub of operations in a 17th Avenue apartment building. Bettors were not charged.
U.S. District Court Judge Philip G. Reinhard sentenced Joseph F. “Pep” Fiorenza to three years probation, eight months of which to be served under home confinement while wearing an electronic monitoring device. In addition, Fiorenza was sentenced to 150 hours of community service, and his passport was ordered to be held by Fiorenza’s probation officer. Fiorenza was fined $10,000 and ordered to forfeit an additional $46,000. Feds initially hoped to seize Fiorenza’s Rockford home, but simply held onto it until the forfeiture was made.
Fiorenza’s sons, Nicolas T. and Rick J., were sentenced to 36 months probation, six months of electronic monitoring under home confinement, 100 hours of community service and ordered to forfeit $15,000 each. Nicolas, of Machesney Park, and Rick were fined $2,000 and $350, respectively. Nicolas’ passport was also ordered to be held for the duration of his probationary period.
John P. “Tiger” Frisella, rumored to be the ringleader, was sentenced to three years probation and six months of electronic monitoring under house arrest. Frisella was also ordered to perform 150 hours of community service, pay a $250 fine and forfeit $20,000. Prosecutors originally sought $500,000 from Frisella from funds they said were associated with illegal gambling activities.
Frank C. Giardono, of Loves Park, was ordered to part with $7,500 in illegal gambling proceeds and ordered to pay a $500 fine in addition to his sentence of three years probation and three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring. Giardono will also perform 75 hours of community service.
Nick Provenzano, also of Loves Park, was ordered to surrender $5,000 and pay a $1,000 fine. He will serve two years of probation and 75 hours of community service. Provenzano is not related to the Rockford Provenzanos of Supplycore fame, according to the local daily.
Judge Reinhard sentenced Charles A. Purin to three years probation, three months under house arrest with electronic monitoring and 75 hours of community service. He also agreed to forfeit $5,000 and pay a $1,000 fine.
John F. Salamone will serve three years probation, pay a $100 fine and forfeit $5,000. Salamone’s aliases include Don Finooch, John Finooch and John Franks.
The ninth man, Joseph W. Saladino, was already in federal custody on weapons charges. He was sentenced to an additional six months in prison and three years of supervised release. In addition, Saladino was ordered to part with $20,000 for his role.
As reported in our May 4-10, 2005, issue with regard to Saladino: “According to court records, after a state trooper searched the trunk of Saladino’s vehicle, police found ‘a loaded 0.380 caliber handgun, an unloaded 0.357 magnum handgun, an unloaded 9 mm fully automatic machine pistol with no serial number, and in excess of 400 rounds of ammunition.’
“’In addition, defendant [Saladino] had two books on how to make silencers, a book on machine lathes, a billy club, two ‘slim jims,’ two bolt cutters, a tree trimming saw, one butcher knife, a pipe wrench, a stocking cap, and two face masks.”
Saladino is the cousin of alleged mob enforcer Frank G. “Gumba” Saladino, who was found dead of natural causes April 25, 2005, when federal agents raided his Hampshire, Ill., hotel room as Operation Family Secrets culminated in the simultaneous arrests of numerous reputed Chicago mobsters.
Saladino, formerly of Rockford, was posthumously named a co-conspirator in the Rockford gambling ring.
“Frank ‘Gumba’ Saladino was allegedly a very busy Outfit killer,” explained Steve Warmbir, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who has been covering the Family Secrets trial. “He’s been tied to several murders.”
According to Warmbir, Family Secrets prosecutors say Saladino was involved in the murders of John Mendell, Vincent Moretti, Donald Renno, Paul Haggerty and Henry Cosentino—five of the 18 Family Secrets “hits.”
Frank “Gumba” Saladino was long considered Rockford’s liaison to the Outfit, responsible for, among other things, delivering “tributes” to Chicago bosses from operations in Rockford.
The Chicago Tribune reported April 26, 2005, Saladino’s body was found with $25,000 in cash and $70,000 in checks in his room.
As reported in our Feb. 8-14, 2006, issue: “The Rockford Register Star reported that in the early 1960s, Frank ‘often partnered with his cousin Joe.’ Joseph Saladino’s past includes the following:
u “Rape conviction with his cousin Frank G. Saladino of a Winnebago County woman on Oct. 22, 1964.
“Pled guilty in Winnebago County to battery charges on Jan. 18, 1983, and was sentenced to one year of court supervision and a $90 fine.
“Sentenced to two years probation, 200 hours of community service and $3,500 fine for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon on April 8, 1998.”
Joe was recently seen in Rockford looking very well groomed and healthy.
A former Rockford-area bookie familiar with the illegal sports gambling ring alleged one of the key organizers was a prominent business leader. That leader was not among the individuals indicted.
Thanks to Stuart R. Wahlin
The Chicago Tribune reports: “Federal prosecutors contend that reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey ‘the Clown’ Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul ‘the Indian’ Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony ‘Twan’ Doyle should be convicted in a racketeering conspiracy spanning four decades.
“All are charged in Count 1, the racketeering conspiracy charge, which takes up 18 pages of the indictment and alleges that an enterprise known as the Outfit collected street tax, operated illegal gambling businesses, made juice loans, obstructed justice and protected itself with violence and murder.”
If convicted, each man is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. The defendants are in their 60s and 70s.
While this real-life spectacle has captivated fans of crime drama all summer, Chicago is not the extent of the Outfit’s reach. Although outshined by a trial epitomizing Chicago’s rich history of organized crime, nine men were sentenced this summer, between May and June, on federal charges of operating an illegal gambling business in Rockford since the 1980s.
The lead prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney John Scully, said the ring netted in excess of $500,000.
Indictments were handed down last year, and federal warrants were executed for the arrests of eight local men, all of whom later entered guilty pleas after surrendering peacefully.
Rockford Police and the FBI conducted a joint investigation into the bookmaking business, starting in August 2000, including wire taps and surveillance of the ring’s hub of operations in a 17th Avenue apartment building. Bettors were not charged.
U.S. District Court Judge Philip G. Reinhard sentenced Joseph F. “Pep” Fiorenza to three years probation, eight months of which to be served under home confinement while wearing an electronic monitoring device. In addition, Fiorenza was sentenced to 150 hours of community service, and his passport was ordered to be held by Fiorenza’s probation officer. Fiorenza was fined $10,000 and ordered to forfeit an additional $46,000. Feds initially hoped to seize Fiorenza’s Rockford home, but simply held onto it until the forfeiture was made.
Fiorenza’s sons, Nicolas T. and Rick J., were sentenced to 36 months probation, six months of electronic monitoring under home confinement, 100 hours of community service and ordered to forfeit $15,000 each. Nicolas, of Machesney Park, and Rick were fined $2,000 and $350, respectively. Nicolas’ passport was also ordered to be held for the duration of his probationary period.
John P. “Tiger” Frisella, rumored to be the ringleader, was sentenced to three years probation and six months of electronic monitoring under house arrest. Frisella was also ordered to perform 150 hours of community service, pay a $250 fine and forfeit $20,000. Prosecutors originally sought $500,000 from Frisella from funds they said were associated with illegal gambling activities.
Frank C. Giardono, of Loves Park, was ordered to part with $7,500 in illegal gambling proceeds and ordered to pay a $500 fine in addition to his sentence of three years probation and three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring. Giardono will also perform 75 hours of community service.
Nick Provenzano, also of Loves Park, was ordered to surrender $5,000 and pay a $1,000 fine. He will serve two years of probation and 75 hours of community service. Provenzano is not related to the Rockford Provenzanos of Supplycore fame, according to the local daily.
Judge Reinhard sentenced Charles A. Purin to three years probation, three months under house arrest with electronic monitoring and 75 hours of community service. He also agreed to forfeit $5,000 and pay a $1,000 fine.
John F. Salamone will serve three years probation, pay a $100 fine and forfeit $5,000. Salamone’s aliases include Don Finooch, John Finooch and John Franks.
The ninth man, Joseph W. Saladino, was already in federal custody on weapons charges. He was sentenced to an additional six months in prison and three years of supervised release. In addition, Saladino was ordered to part with $20,000 for his role.
As reported in our May 4-10, 2005, issue with regard to Saladino: “According to court records, after a state trooper searched the trunk of Saladino’s vehicle, police found ‘a loaded 0.380 caliber handgun, an unloaded 0.357 magnum handgun, an unloaded 9 mm fully automatic machine pistol with no serial number, and in excess of 400 rounds of ammunition.’
“’In addition, defendant [Saladino] had two books on how to make silencers, a book on machine lathes, a billy club, two ‘slim jims,’ two bolt cutters, a tree trimming saw, one butcher knife, a pipe wrench, a stocking cap, and two face masks.”
Saladino is the cousin of alleged mob enforcer Frank G. “Gumba” Saladino, who was found dead of natural causes April 25, 2005, when federal agents raided his Hampshire, Ill., hotel room as Operation Family Secrets culminated in the simultaneous arrests of numerous reputed Chicago mobsters.
Saladino, formerly of Rockford, was posthumously named a co-conspirator in the Rockford gambling ring.
“Frank ‘Gumba’ Saladino was allegedly a very busy Outfit killer,” explained Steve Warmbir, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who has been covering the Family Secrets trial. “He’s been tied to several murders.”
According to Warmbir, Family Secrets prosecutors say Saladino was involved in the murders of John Mendell, Vincent Moretti, Donald Renno, Paul Haggerty and Henry Cosentino—five of the 18 Family Secrets “hits.”
Frank “Gumba” Saladino was long considered Rockford’s liaison to the Outfit, responsible for, among other things, delivering “tributes” to Chicago bosses from operations in Rockford.
The Chicago Tribune reported April 26, 2005, Saladino’s body was found with $25,000 in cash and $70,000 in checks in his room.
As reported in our Feb. 8-14, 2006, issue: “The Rockford Register Star reported that in the early 1960s, Frank ‘often partnered with his cousin Joe.’ Joseph Saladino’s past includes the following:
u “Rape conviction with his cousin Frank G. Saladino of a Winnebago County woman on Oct. 22, 1964.
“Pled guilty in Winnebago County to battery charges on Jan. 18, 1983, and was sentenced to one year of court supervision and a $90 fine.
“Sentenced to two years probation, 200 hours of community service and $3,500 fine for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon on April 8, 1998.”
Joe was recently seen in Rockford looking very well groomed and healthy.
A former Rockford-area bookie familiar with the illegal sports gambling ring alleged one of the key organizers was a prominent business leader. That leader was not among the individuals indicted.
Thanks to Stuart R. Wahlin
Dem Are Lies!
The day after a jury of seven women and five men found him guilty of racketeering, bookmaking and extortion, Oak Brook mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. hit his boiling point in court Tuesday, shouting out "Dem are lies!" as a prosecutor detailed his alleged murders.
Assistant U.S. attorney Mitchell Mars was making his closing argument before the second phase of jury deliberations, during which jurors will specify which murders, if any, the now-convicted mobsters committed during the course of their racketeering activities.
Calabrese Sr. had managed to remain silent during the first portion of Mars' presentation, when he recounted how Calabrese Sr. was caught on tape apparently telling his son, Frank Calabrese Jr. about the murder of William and Charlotte Dauber in Will County in 1980. The two were cut off in traffic and then shot to death because the mob thought William Dauber was an informant.
When Calabrese Jr. questioned why Charlotte Dauber was killed too, Calabrese Sr. replied, "Well, what was I supposed to do? Tell her to move over?" Mars said. And Mars' voiced cracked when he recalled another tape showing Calabrese Sr. "talking to his son, almost with glee, about how you can cut a man in half with double-ought shotgun shells. That's as cold as it gets."
Through those accusations, Calabrese Sr. remained silent, as he did through his attorney's attempt to persuade jurors not to find he had committed murder. But only when Mars, in his final rebuttal, remarked on how Calabrese Sr. was, even then, sitting "with a very chilling smile on his face" after "he has left a trail of bodies -- literally" did Calabrese erupt.
"Dem are lies," he barked out, sitting up in his seat.
Two U.S. Marshals moved in, prepared to restrain Calabrese, but Mars continued, ignoring the comment as if Calabrese wasn't even in the room.
District Judge James Zagel glanced at Calabrese, but said nothing, apparently unwilling to interrupt Mars any further.
Jurors, for their part, looked unimpressed by Calabrese's attorney's pleas to not believe the testimony of Nick Calabrese -- the hit man and brother of Frank Calabrese Sr. who testified and linked Calabrese Sr. to 13 murders. One woman yawned repeatedly. Another stared at the floor, his head held in both hands. Still another juror's eyes fluttered almost closed.
If the 12 jurors find unanimously that Calabrese Sr., James Marcello of Lombard, Joseph Lombardo of Chicago and Paul Schiro of Phoenix committed murders as part of their racketeering conspiracy, they face sentences of life in prison.
The jury went home Tuesday without reaching a decision. Deliberations continue today.
Thanks to Rob Olmstead
Assistant U.S. attorney Mitchell Mars was making his closing argument before the second phase of jury deliberations, during which jurors will specify which murders, if any, the now-convicted mobsters committed during the course of their racketeering activities.
Calabrese Sr. had managed to remain silent during the first portion of Mars' presentation, when he recounted how Calabrese Sr. was caught on tape apparently telling his son, Frank Calabrese Jr. about the murder of William and Charlotte Dauber in Will County in 1980. The two were cut off in traffic and then shot to death because the mob thought William Dauber was an informant.
When Calabrese Jr. questioned why Charlotte Dauber was killed too, Calabrese Sr. replied, "Well, what was I supposed to do? Tell her to move over?" Mars said. And Mars' voiced cracked when he recalled another tape showing Calabrese Sr. "talking to his son, almost with glee, about how you can cut a man in half with double-ought shotgun shells. That's as cold as it gets."
Through those accusations, Calabrese Sr. remained silent, as he did through his attorney's attempt to persuade jurors not to find he had committed murder. But only when Mars, in his final rebuttal, remarked on how Calabrese Sr. was, even then, sitting "with a very chilling smile on his face" after "he has left a trail of bodies -- literally" did Calabrese erupt.
"Dem are lies," he barked out, sitting up in his seat.
Two U.S. Marshals moved in, prepared to restrain Calabrese, but Mars continued, ignoring the comment as if Calabrese wasn't even in the room.
District Judge James Zagel glanced at Calabrese, but said nothing, apparently unwilling to interrupt Mars any further.
Jurors, for their part, looked unimpressed by Calabrese's attorney's pleas to not believe the testimony of Nick Calabrese -- the hit man and brother of Frank Calabrese Sr. who testified and linked Calabrese Sr. to 13 murders. One woman yawned repeatedly. Another stared at the floor, his head held in both hands. Still another juror's eyes fluttered almost closed.
If the 12 jurors find unanimously that Calabrese Sr., James Marcello of Lombard, Joseph Lombardo of Chicago and Paul Schiro of Phoenix committed murders as part of their racketeering conspiracy, they face sentences of life in prison.
The jury went home Tuesday without reaching a decision. Deliberations continue today.
Thanks to Rob Olmstead
Mob Killings Outlined for Jury
A day after jurors handed down guilty verdicts in Chicago's biggest mob trial in years, a prosecutor asked them yesterday to take the next step toward sending four defendants to prison for life for a series of "brutal and heinous" gangland killings.
"There was no mercy with regard to these murders — they were cruel, they were ruthless," prosecutor Mitchell A. Mars told jurors as he described the slayings of mobsters Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael Spilotro.
The same jury on Monday convicted five men of racketeering conspiracy and other charges involving decades of loan sharking, gambling extortion and 18 unsolved organized crime killings tied to the Chicago mob.
Prosecutors now want the jury to hold four of the defendants responsible for specific killings, qualifying them for life sentences. U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel will make the final decision on each defendant's sentence.
Mr. Mars described the 18 killings outlined in the indictment and what prosecutors see as the role of each defendant.
His voice cracked with emotion as he recalled how a bomb planted in businessman Michael Cagnoni's car almost killed Mr. Cagnoni's wife and child. "I can't think of anything more shockingly evil than the homicide of Michael Cagnoni," Mr. Mars said.
Facing life sentences are purported mob boss James Marcello, 65, purported capo Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, and convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70. The fifth defendant convicted Monday, retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62, is not accused of taking part in a killing.
Calabrese is accused of the most killings: 13. During the trial, he denied being a mob member and said he did not kill anyone.
Marcello is blamed for the June 1986 killings of Tony Spilotro, long the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother were fatally beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield.
The government's star witness, Nicholas Calabrese, brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., testified that he helped kill Michael Spilotro while other mobsters killed Tony Spilotro in the basement of a suburban home. He testified that Marcello lured the Spilotros to their death.
Marcello defense attorney Thomas Breen appealed to jurors to disregard the testimony of Nicholas Calabrese, saying he was an admitted hit man who would say anything to get a deal from prosecutors that would keep him from the execution chamber.
Mr. Breen said Nicholas Calabrese thought that to cut a plea deal, "the marquee, the five-star case that has to be cleared, is the Spilotro case."
"There was no mercy with regard to these murders — they were cruel, they were ruthless," prosecutor Mitchell A. Mars told jurors as he described the slayings of mobsters Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael Spilotro.
The same jury on Monday convicted five men of racketeering conspiracy and other charges involving decades of loan sharking, gambling extortion and 18 unsolved organized crime killings tied to the Chicago mob.Prosecutors now want the jury to hold four of the defendants responsible for specific killings, qualifying them for life sentences. U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel will make the final decision on each defendant's sentence.
Mr. Mars described the 18 killings outlined in the indictment and what prosecutors see as the role of each defendant.
His voice cracked with emotion as he recalled how a bomb planted in businessman Michael Cagnoni's car almost killed Mr. Cagnoni's wife and child. "I can't think of anything more shockingly evil than the homicide of Michael Cagnoni," Mr. Mars said.
Facing life sentences are purported mob boss James Marcello, 65, purported capo Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, and convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70. The fifth defendant convicted Monday, retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62, is not accused of taking part in a killing.
Calabrese is accused of the most killings: 13. During the trial, he denied being a mob member and said he did not kill anyone.
Marcello is blamed for the June 1986 killings of Tony Spilotro, long the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother were fatally beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield.
The government's star witness, Nicholas Calabrese, brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., testified that he helped kill Michael Spilotro while other mobsters killed Tony Spilotro in the basement of a suburban home. He testified that Marcello lured the Spilotros to their death.
Marcello defense attorney Thomas Breen appealed to jurors to disregard the testimony of Nicholas Calabrese, saying he was an admitted hit man who would say anything to get a deal from prosecutors that would keep him from the execution chamber.
Mr. Breen said Nicholas Calabrese thought that to cut a plea deal, "the marquee, the five-star case that has to be cleared, is the Spilotro case."
Rudy Giuliani's Mafia Jargon Deters Italian Voters
Just as some firefighters and relatives of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, don't want Rudolph Giuliani giving a reading at today's Ground Zero ceremony, the man who would be Churchill is in danger of becoming persona non grata within his own ethnicity.
Despite a distinguished career as a crime-busting federal prosecutor (in the great Roman classical tradition of jurisprudential excellence), two terms as mayor of the country's most heavily Italian-American city and a lifelong admiration for his predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia, Giuliani has turned his back on his Italian roots. Giuliani plays the dumbed-down-Italian card with gusto.
While campaigning on the West Coast earlier this year, "America's mayor" began a speech in the raspy cadence of don Vito Corleone: "Thank youse all very much for invitin' me here tuh-day, to this meeting of the families from different parts'a California."
Is this political theater, ethnic self-loathing or both?
Whatever the reason - his heart or his handlers - it is self-defeating. In a nation with nearly 25 million Americans of Italian descent - many of whom are swing voters in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and California - why risk alienating such a pivotal constituency?
In the Northeastern states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, the scions of Italy comprise 15 percent of the population.
Perhaps Giuliani feels he can take Italian-American voters for granted by virtue of the tell-tale vowel at the end of his surname. But why trifle with the country's fourth-largest white ethnic group? On what position paper is it written that Giuliani must wallow in the muck and mire of Mafia mythos?
Why can't he identify himself as a proud Italian in the same manner that Ronald W. Reagan and John F. Kennedy jauntily called themselves Irishmen? Michael Dukakis invoked the ideals of ancient Athens throughout his presidential campaign.
Why can't Giuliani speak of his Italian origins, and of America's debt to his noble ancestors in the Roman republic that is the basis of our own? Or of Caesar Augustus' pax romana, an unparelled 200-year period of peace and prosperity?
There was a glimmer of hope when he journeyed to Calabria in January to inaugurate the first direct flight from Kennedy Airport to the southern Italian airport of Lamezia Terme. But it was quickly dashed with the failure of Giuliani's staff to ballyhoo the trip or underscore its significance.
Instead, we hear this: When asked about his wife Judith's role in a Giuliani administration, he couldn't resist reverting to form: "I am a candidate. She's a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction." When queried about Hillary Clinton's vile Internet spoof of the "Sopranos" finale, he responded with a question of his own: "Think she's trying to get the Mafia vote?"
Peggy Noonan, one of President Ronald Reagan's favorite speechwriters and a New Yorker to the bone, has a wry take on these tawdry proceedings: "Can't have enough candidates for president who whimsically employ the language of mobsters."
Mario Cuomo, a man who surely missed his rendezvous with destiny, knows full well the dangers posed by anti-Italian intolerance. He witnessed Geraldine Ferraro's trials as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984. And the New York former governor was famously smeared as likely having "mafioso connections" by Gennifer Flowers (Bill Clinton's trailer-park paramour).
Italo-Americans should not support Giuliani simply on the basis of ethnic pride. The best advice for both candidate and voter in 2008 can be found in the words of the ancient Roman statesman, Marcus Aurelius:
"Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason. It enables you to learn from experience, to live in harmony with others, and to walk in the way of the gods."
Thanks to Rosario A. Iaconis, the vice chairman of The Italic Institute of America, which promotes Italian culture and is based in Floral Park.
Despite a distinguished career as a crime-busting federal prosecutor (in the great Roman classical tradition of jurisprudential excellence), two terms as mayor of the country's most heavily Italian-American city and a lifelong admiration for his predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia, Giuliani has turned his back on his Italian roots. Giuliani plays the dumbed-down-Italian card with gusto.While campaigning on the West Coast earlier this year, "America's mayor" began a speech in the raspy cadence of don Vito Corleone: "Thank youse all very much for invitin' me here tuh-day, to this meeting of the families from different parts'a California."
Is this political theater, ethnic self-loathing or both?
Whatever the reason - his heart or his handlers - it is self-defeating. In a nation with nearly 25 million Americans of Italian descent - many of whom are swing voters in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and California - why risk alienating such a pivotal constituency?
In the Northeastern states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, the scions of Italy comprise 15 percent of the population.
Perhaps Giuliani feels he can take Italian-American voters for granted by virtue of the tell-tale vowel at the end of his surname. But why trifle with the country's fourth-largest white ethnic group? On what position paper is it written that Giuliani must wallow in the muck and mire of Mafia mythos?
Why can't he identify himself as a proud Italian in the same manner that Ronald W. Reagan and John F. Kennedy jauntily called themselves Irishmen? Michael Dukakis invoked the ideals of ancient Athens throughout his presidential campaign.
Why can't Giuliani speak of his Italian origins, and of America's debt to his noble ancestors in the Roman republic that is the basis of our own? Or of Caesar Augustus' pax romana, an unparelled 200-year period of peace and prosperity?
There was a glimmer of hope when he journeyed to Calabria in January to inaugurate the first direct flight from Kennedy Airport to the southern Italian airport of Lamezia Terme. But it was quickly dashed with the failure of Giuliani's staff to ballyhoo the trip or underscore its significance.
Instead, we hear this: When asked about his wife Judith's role in a Giuliani administration, he couldn't resist reverting to form: "I am a candidate. She's a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction." When queried about Hillary Clinton's vile Internet spoof of the "Sopranos" finale, he responded with a question of his own: "Think she's trying to get the Mafia vote?"
Peggy Noonan, one of President Ronald Reagan's favorite speechwriters and a New Yorker to the bone, has a wry take on these tawdry proceedings: "Can't have enough candidates for president who whimsically employ the language of mobsters."
Mario Cuomo, a man who surely missed his rendezvous with destiny, knows full well the dangers posed by anti-Italian intolerance. He witnessed Geraldine Ferraro's trials as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984. And the New York former governor was famously smeared as likely having "mafioso connections" by Gennifer Flowers (Bill Clinton's trailer-park paramour).
Italo-Americans should not support Giuliani simply on the basis of ethnic pride. The best advice for both candidate and voter in 2008 can be found in the words of the ancient Roman statesman, Marcus Aurelius:
"Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason. It enables you to learn from experience, to live in harmony with others, and to walk in the way of the gods."
Thanks to Rosario A. Iaconis, the vice chairman of The Italic Institute of America, which promotes Italian culture and is based in Floral Park.
Appeal Heard for FBI Agent Convicted of Aiding Whitey Bulger
A lawyer for retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. urged a federal appeals court today to overturn his 2002 racketeering conviction because one of the government's key witnesses, former New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank'' Salemme, allegedly boasted to a fellow mobster that he lied on the stand.
Judge Bruce M. Selya questioned the events described by Connolly's lawyer, suggesting that Salemme may have told the truth in court and then lied to Philadelphia mobster Roger Vella when the two of them were imprisoned together later.
"We have a Mafia don who is committing the worst crime a Mafia don can ... he rats out and cooperates with the feds,'' said Selya, one of three judges on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit considering Connolly's case. "Why isn't it the most natural thing for him to try to explain away his cooperation?''
Braintree attorney Terrance J. McCarthy, who represents Connolly, argued that Salemme "had every reason to tell Vella the truth'' when he claimed prosecutors helped him shape his story to win a conviction because he didn't know Vella was a confidential informant and would later report the boasts to the FBI.
Connolly is serving 10 years in prison. He was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and lying to an FBI agent for protecting longtime informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi from prosecution and leaking them information. He's also scheduled to stand trial in Miami in March for a 1982 gangland slaying.
Salemme, who had been granted immunity for his testimony at Connolly's trial, was indicted in 2004 on a charge of lying to investigators by withholding information about the 1993 disappearance of South Boston nightclub manager Steven DiSarro. Federal prosecutors allege Salemme witnessed DiSarro's slaying and helped bury his body, and he is awaiting trial in that case.
"Doesn't that cloud the picture a bit?" said Circuit Judge Kermit V. Lipez, questioning the government today about why any of Salemme's testimony at Connolly's trial should be believed, given that he's now awaiting trial for lying.
US Special Attorney William J. Nardini said Salemme allegedly lied about his involvement in DiSarro's slaying to protect other organized-crime figures. He argued that Salemme's statements to Vella -- including claims that the government promised him $500,000 for his testimony and a condo on a golf course -- were "pretty absurd.''
Thanks to Shelley Murphy
Judge Bruce M. Selya questioned the events described by Connolly's lawyer, suggesting that Salemme may have told the truth in court and then lied to Philadelphia mobster Roger Vella when the two of them were imprisoned together later.
"We have a Mafia don who is committing the worst crime a Mafia don can ... he rats out and cooperates with the feds,'' said Selya, one of three judges on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit considering Connolly's case. "Why isn't it the most natural thing for him to try to explain away his cooperation?''
Braintree attorney Terrance J. McCarthy, who represents Connolly, argued that Salemme "had every reason to tell Vella the truth'' when he claimed prosecutors helped him shape his story to win a conviction because he didn't know Vella was a confidential informant and would later report the boasts to the FBI.
Connolly is serving 10 years in prison. He was convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and lying to an FBI agent for protecting longtime informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi from prosecution and leaking them information. He's also scheduled to stand trial in Miami in March for a 1982 gangland slaying.
Salemme, who had been granted immunity for his testimony at Connolly's trial, was indicted in 2004 on a charge of lying to investigators by withholding information about the 1993 disappearance of South Boston nightclub manager Steven DiSarro. Federal prosecutors allege Salemme witnessed DiSarro's slaying and helped bury his body, and he is awaiting trial in that case.
"Doesn't that cloud the picture a bit?" said Circuit Judge Kermit V. Lipez, questioning the government today about why any of Salemme's testimony at Connolly's trial should be believed, given that he's now awaiting trial for lying.
US Special Attorney William J. Nardini said Salemme allegedly lied about his involvement in DiSarro's slaying to protect other organized-crime figures. He argued that Salemme's statements to Vella -- including claims that the government promised him $500,000 for his testimony and a condo on a golf course -- were "pretty absurd.''
Thanks to Shelley Murphy
Will Family Secrets Mob Trial Convictions Doom Chicago Mob?
Does Monday's conviction of four top mobsters mean the end of the Chicago Outfit?
Hardly.
The Outfit long has controlled illegal gambling operations -- from sports betting to video poker -- and has financed Chicago-area drug dealing, said Chicago Crime Commission President James Wagner, a former top FBI mob fighter. Money from those ventures often is invested in law-abiding businesses because "you've got to have somewhere to send that cash in order to legitimize it," Wagner said.
History has shown that when Outfit members get sent to prison, others take over. The most recent transfers of power happened long before the Family Secrets trial began, Wagner said. "This will solidify the positions of the people already out there," he said. The trial "hasn't eliminated anything."
Who runs the Chicago mob isn't clear. Reputed mobsters not charged in the Family Secrets case who are still powerful in the Outfit include John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Joe "The Builder" Andriacchi, Al Tornabene, Frank "Tootsie Babe" Caruso, Marco D'Amico and Michael Sarno, law enforcement sources said.
Al Egan, a former Chicago Police detective who investigated organized crime here for three decades, said the verdict wounded the Outfit but won't kill it.
"This put an extremely huge dent in it," said Egan, who worked on the federal Organized Crime Task Force. However, "It's not going to be stopped."
Thanks to Steve Warmbir and Chris Fusco
Hardly.
The Outfit long has controlled illegal gambling operations -- from sports betting to video poker -- and has financed Chicago-area drug dealing, said Chicago Crime Commission President James Wagner, a former top FBI mob fighter. Money from those ventures often is invested in law-abiding businesses because "you've got to have somewhere to send that cash in order to legitimize it," Wagner said.
History has shown that when Outfit members get sent to prison, others take over. The most recent transfers of power happened long before the Family Secrets trial began, Wagner said. "This will solidify the positions of the people already out there," he said. The trial "hasn't eliminated anything."
Who runs the Chicago mob isn't clear. Reputed mobsters not charged in the Family Secrets case who are still powerful in the Outfit include John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Joe "The Builder" Andriacchi, Al Tornabene, Frank "Tootsie Babe" Caruso, Marco D'Amico and Michael Sarno, law enforcement sources said.
Al Egan, a former Chicago Police detective who investigated organized crime here for three decades, said the verdict wounded the Outfit but won't kill it.
"This put an extremely huge dent in it," said Egan, who worked on the federal Organized Crime Task Force. However, "It's not going to be stopped."
Thanks to Steve Warmbir and Chris Fusco
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mum's the Word
Aheavy-set, gray-haired fellow stepped outside the Old Neighborhood Italian-American Club Monday afternoon, sat down at a picnic table and started trimming his fingernails with a set of pocket clippers just as I walked up.
I told him who I was and what I was doing, which was looking for reaction to Monday's across-the-board guilty verdicts in the big Family Secrets mob trial.
He glanced up without actually lifting his chin, shook his head, grunted and shook his head again.
I took it for a no comment.
The next guy out the door was friendlier.
He laid his cane on the picnic table as he sat down, smiled when I made my introduction and said he reads the Sun-Times regularly. He even said he likes my column and mentioned another columnist here he doesn't like. I told him the other columnist was great.
"I'm just telling you the truth," he said. I told him that's all we can ask.
While this was going on, a big guy came to the door and asked the guy with the fingernail clippers if he could come inside a minute, which was just about the time I was asking the friendly guy about the verdict in the mob trial.
The friendly guy suddenly grew hard of hearing, a blank faraway expression crossing his face. I repeated my question. His look grew more pained. Words seemed to fail him.
Then the guy with fingernail clippers opened the door and told the friendly guy (he might have called him John) that he had a phone call. John asked me what the other guy had said, his mind having tried so hard not to hear me that it seemed to have blocked out all other sound as well. I told him he had a phone call -- and that he should assure them he hadn't told me anything.
By then, of course, the word was spread to everybody else inside the modern brick and stone structure at 30th Place and Shields that there was a reporter out front.
After that, most of them either slipped out the side door to get to the ONIAC members only parking lot surrounded by one of those black wrought iron fences favored by the mayor -- who after all grew up just down this very street -- or they marched past me without so much as a sideways glance as I tried to talk to them.
The reaction to my presence was only slightly different for those entering the club. They at least paused to hear me out before scurrying off.
"I no speak English. I no speak English," said one, not too convincingly.
It reminded me a little of the way defendants flee the Dirksen Federal Building, which was unfortunate, because I considered the Old Neighborhood Italian-American Club a good place to look for the opinion of older Italians, not older mobsters, and I do not consider one to be synonymous with the other. But the club also played a cameo role in the trial. Its founder was said to be Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra, the onetime boss of the mob's 26th Street crew. Defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., a LaPietra lieutenant, was a club member. The current club president, Dominic "Captain D" DiFazio, was a prosecution witness who testified about being the go-between for extortion payments to Calabrese from the owner of Connie's Pizza.
This gave me time to contemplate the significance of the silent treatment, which obviously hadn't come as a complete surprise. Whether you call this Bridgeport or Armour Square, this is not a neighborhood known to be welcoming to outsiders. It's also an area where there historically has been a nexus between the mob and Chicago politics. And what struck me is that, as important and valuable as this prosecution was, it doesn't really change the fundamentals. This is still a town where in certain places they know you don't talk about certain people because they still have power and influence.
A young man across the street in a city General Services Department T-shirt was walking a basset hound puppy. Between the puppy, his job and working on a double major at DePaul, he said he didn't have time to think -- about the mob trial or anything else. But he said, "It's everywhere."
He wouldn't give his name, but said the dog's name was Dolce.
"That's sweet in Italian," he explained.
Finally, a guy arrived who was happy to talk. I told him about the verdicts.
"That's life," he said, mentioning that he knew Frank "The German" Schweihs, one of the original co-defendants.
"What disappointed me is that they were hurting legitimate people, their own people, Italians," he said of the accused.
Just then, the door opened and the big guy stuck out his head again.
"Larry!" he shouted. "You got a phone call."
Dolce.
Thanks to Mark Brown
I told him who I was and what I was doing, which was looking for reaction to Monday's across-the-board guilty verdicts in the big Family Secrets mob trial.
He glanced up without actually lifting his chin, shook his head, grunted and shook his head again.
I took it for a no comment.
The next guy out the door was friendlier.
He laid his cane on the picnic table as he sat down, smiled when I made my introduction and said he reads the Sun-Times regularly. He even said he likes my column and mentioned another columnist here he doesn't like. I told him the other columnist was great."I'm just telling you the truth," he said. I told him that's all we can ask.
While this was going on, a big guy came to the door and asked the guy with the fingernail clippers if he could come inside a minute, which was just about the time I was asking the friendly guy about the verdict in the mob trial.
The friendly guy suddenly grew hard of hearing, a blank faraway expression crossing his face. I repeated my question. His look grew more pained. Words seemed to fail him.
Then the guy with fingernail clippers opened the door and told the friendly guy (he might have called him John) that he had a phone call. John asked me what the other guy had said, his mind having tried so hard not to hear me that it seemed to have blocked out all other sound as well. I told him he had a phone call -- and that he should assure them he hadn't told me anything.
By then, of course, the word was spread to everybody else inside the modern brick and stone structure at 30th Place and Shields that there was a reporter out front.
After that, most of them either slipped out the side door to get to the ONIAC members only parking lot surrounded by one of those black wrought iron fences favored by the mayor -- who after all grew up just down this very street -- or they marched past me without so much as a sideways glance as I tried to talk to them.
The reaction to my presence was only slightly different for those entering the club. They at least paused to hear me out before scurrying off.
"I no speak English. I no speak English," said one, not too convincingly.
It reminded me a little of the way defendants flee the Dirksen Federal Building, which was unfortunate, because I considered the Old Neighborhood Italian-American Club a good place to look for the opinion of older Italians, not older mobsters, and I do not consider one to be synonymous with the other. But the club also played a cameo role in the trial. Its founder was said to be Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra, the onetime boss of the mob's 26th Street crew. Defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., a LaPietra lieutenant, was a club member. The current club president, Dominic "Captain D" DiFazio, was a prosecution witness who testified about being the go-between for extortion payments to Calabrese from the owner of Connie's Pizza.
This gave me time to contemplate the significance of the silent treatment, which obviously hadn't come as a complete surprise. Whether you call this Bridgeport or Armour Square, this is not a neighborhood known to be welcoming to outsiders. It's also an area where there historically has been a nexus between the mob and Chicago politics. And what struck me is that, as important and valuable as this prosecution was, it doesn't really change the fundamentals. This is still a town where in certain places they know you don't talk about certain people because they still have power and influence.
A young man across the street in a city General Services Department T-shirt was walking a basset hound puppy. Between the puppy, his job and working on a double major at DePaul, he said he didn't have time to think -- about the mob trial or anything else. But he said, "It's everywhere."
He wouldn't give his name, but said the dog's name was Dolce.
"That's sweet in Italian," he explained.
Finally, a guy arrived who was happy to talk. I told him about the verdicts.
"That's life," he said, mentioning that he knew Frank "The German" Schweihs, one of the original co-defendants.
"What disappointed me is that they were hurting legitimate people, their own people, Italians," he said of the accused.
Just then, the door opened and the big guy stuck out his head again.
"Larry!" he shouted. "You got a phone call."
Dolce.
Thanks to Mark Brown
Brother of Murder Victim Cheers Mob Trial's Guilty Verdicts
A relative of a mob murder victim wasted no time applauding the guilty verdicts in the Family Secrets case.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, prosecutors asked everyone involved in the trial not to talk to the media yet, but one man decided to speak out.
Ron Seifert seemed eager to talk about the guilty verdicts after a federal jury convicted five men Monday in a racketeering conspiracy that involved decades of extortion, loan sharking and 18 murders aimed at rubbing out anyone who stood in the way of the ruthless Chicago mob. "It makes you feel good. Anybody would feel good," Seifert said.
His brother Danny was one of the victims of the Chicago mob. Danny Seifert was just 29 years old and the owner of a Bensenville plastics factory. The feds say Joey "The Clown" Lombardo muscled in on the business, and then helped kill Seifert when it looked like he'd testify against the outfit guy in a fraud trial.
"I'm just glad they convicted Joey, that's all. Why? Because I think he was involved with my brother, killing my brother," Ron Seifert said.
Emma Seifert and her son Joe had little to say after the convictions were handed down by the jury. But in July, the widow of Danny Seifert told CBS 2 News about the murder, at a time when son Joseph was only four years old.
"… And then when the other one was struggling with my husband and he took Joseph and I into the bathroom and held a gun to my head and just told me to be quiet. The next thing I remember hearing was a gunshot," Emma Seifert said.
A known associate of convicted mobster James Marcello was distraught, and seen in tears after hearing the verdict. Prosecutors say Marcello was involved in the murders of rogue mobsters, the Spilotro brothers.
Thanks to Mike Parker
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, prosecutors asked everyone involved in the trial not to talk to the media yet, but one man decided to speak out.
Ron Seifert seemed eager to talk about the guilty verdicts after a federal jury convicted five men Monday in a racketeering conspiracy that involved decades of extortion, loan sharking and 18 murders aimed at rubbing out anyone who stood in the way of the ruthless Chicago mob. "It makes you feel good. Anybody would feel good," Seifert said.
His brother Danny was one of the victims of the Chicago mob. Danny Seifert was just 29 years old and the owner of a Bensenville plastics factory. The feds say Joey "The Clown" Lombardo muscled in on the business, and then helped kill Seifert when it looked like he'd testify against the outfit guy in a fraud trial.
"I'm just glad they convicted Joey, that's all. Why? Because I think he was involved with my brother, killing my brother," Ron Seifert said.
Emma Seifert and her son Joe had little to say after the convictions were handed down by the jury. But in July, the widow of Danny Seifert told CBS 2 News about the murder, at a time when son Joseph was only four years old.
"… And then when the other one was struggling with my husband and he took Joseph and I into the bathroom and held a gun to my head and just told me to be quiet. The next thing I remember hearing was a gunshot," Emma Seifert said.
A known associate of convicted mobster James Marcello was distraught, and seen in tears after hearing the verdict. Prosecutors say Marcello was involved in the murders of rogue mobsters, the Spilotro brothers.
Thanks to Mike Parker
Monday, September 10, 2007
GUILTY for All 5 Family Secrets Mob Defendants
In a verdict announced this afternoon, a federal jury in Chicago convicted four reputed Outfit figures and a former Chicago police officer on all counts in the landmark Family Secrets mob conspiracy case.
Convicted on the most serious charge--racketeering conspiracy--were:
Marcello also was convicted of conducting an illegal video gambling business, bribing Calabrese's brother in hopes of discouraging him from cooperating with authorities and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.
Calabrese also was convicted of running a sports bookmaking operation and extorting "street taxes" from the Connie's Pizza restaurant chain.
Lombardo also was convicted of obstructing justice by fleeing from authorities after his indictment in the case. The jury deliberated four days last week and an hour this morning before reaching its verdict.
The riveting trial, which played out over 10 weeks this summer before overflow crowds in the largest courtroom in Chicago's federal courthouse, marks the most significant prosecution of the Chicago mob in decades.
According to the racketeering conspiracy charge, the defendants extorted protection payoffs from businesses, made high-interest "juice" loans and protected its interests through violence and murder.
The heart of the charges involved 18 gangland slayings dating back decades. Among them was the infamous 1986 murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, whose bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.
The prosecution case hinged on the testimony of Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, one of the highest-ranking mob turncoats in Chicago history who linked his brother to many of the murders. Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., also secretly tape-recorded conversations with his imprisoned father. The unprecedented cooperation by relatives of a target prompted federal authorities to code-name the probe Operation Family Secrets.
Even with the guilty verdicts, the jury's duties are not yet concluded. After hearing another round of argument by lawyers and prosecutors that could take part of a day, jurors will have to decide if any of the reputed Outfit figures are guilty of any of the 18 murders. If found guilty in this second round, the defendants could face sentences of life in prison.
Frank Calabrese Sr. has been accused of taking part in 13 murders, Marcello three and Lombardo and Schiro one each. Doyle was not charged with a murder.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Convicted on the most serious charge--racketeering conspiracy--were:
- James Marcello, 65, identified by authorities as Chicago's top mob boss two years ago when the indictment was handed down.
- Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, 78, a legendary reputed mob figure for decades who was convicted in the 1980s of bribing a U.S. senator.
- Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, whose brother and son provided crucial testimony for the prosecution.
- Paul "the Indian" Schiro, 69, the reputed Outfit member from Phoenix who is already serving a prison sentence for his role in a mob-connected jewelry theft ring.
- Anthony "Twan" Doyle, 62, the former Chicago cop accused of passing on confidential information about the federal probe to a mob friend.
Marcello also was convicted of conducting an illegal video gambling business, bribing Calabrese's brother in hopes of discouraging him from cooperating with authorities and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.
Calabrese also was convicted of running a sports bookmaking operation and extorting "street taxes" from the Connie's Pizza restaurant chain.
Lombardo also was convicted of obstructing justice by fleeing from authorities after his indictment in the case. The jury deliberated four days last week and an hour this morning before reaching its verdict.
The riveting trial, which played out over 10 weeks this summer before overflow crowds in the largest courtroom in Chicago's federal courthouse, marks the most significant prosecution of the Chicago mob in decades.
According to the racketeering conspiracy charge, the defendants extorted protection payoffs from businesses, made high-interest "juice" loans and protected its interests through violence and murder.
The heart of the charges involved 18 gangland slayings dating back decades. Among them was the infamous 1986 murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, whose bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.
The prosecution case hinged on the testimony of Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, one of the highest-ranking mob turncoats in Chicago history who linked his brother to many of the murders. Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., also secretly tape-recorded conversations with his imprisoned father. The unprecedented cooperation by relatives of a target prompted federal authorities to code-name the probe Operation Family Secrets.
Even with the guilty verdicts, the jury's duties are not yet concluded. After hearing another round of argument by lawyers and prosecutors that could take part of a day, jurors will have to decide if any of the reputed Outfit figures are guilty of any of the 18 murders. If found guilty in this second round, the defendants could face sentences of life in prison.
Frank Calabrese Sr. has been accused of taking part in 13 murders, Marcello three and Lombardo and Schiro one each. Doyle was not charged with a murder.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Bus Union Under Mafia Control Concludes Independent Counsel
An independent counsel appointed to investigate the union representing 15,000 New York City school bus drivers has concluded that there is substantial evidence that “organized crime has infiltrated and controlled” it.
The counsel’s report, written in January and made public yesterday by dissident union members, said that top officers of the union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, were involved in what it called racketeering activity that included extortion, kickbacks and bribes.
Salvatore Battaglia, the local’s former president, is facing trial on federal charges accusing him of extortion, receiving bribes and hiding Mafia involvement in the union. He has pleaded not guilty. The local’s secretary-treasurer, Julius Bernstein, was forced to resign by federal prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to obstructing justice.
The independent counsel, Richard W. Mark, called on the parent union to bring internal charges against Mr. Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein and to conduct a further investigation “to determine the extent of criminal activity.”
Leo Wetzel, the general counsel of the parent union, said the union had decided against bringing charges against those officials because they had both retired and cannot run again for union office. “It was the judgment of the union,” Mr. Wetzel said, “that the resources and attention of the international and local union were better directed to putting the local on the right course and to leave those matters to federal prosecutors.” Mr. Wetzel said the parent union assigned auditors to review Local 1181’s books for financial wrongdoing.
At a news conference yesterday, a dozen bus drivers complained that the two trustees whom the parent union had named to oversee the local had hired 11 of the local’s executive board members who had worked under Mr. Battaglia.
The drivers said those people had helped perpetuate an intimidating atmosphere that discourages criticism of union leaders. They also complained that not enough was being done to recoup the more than $2.7 million that federal officials say Mr. Battaglia obtained improperly.
“The international didn’t bring in any new faces,” said Simon Jean-Baptiste, who belongs to a dissident faction called Members for Change. “The same people are there who stopped people from talking. It’s a bad situation.”
Another bus driver, Clifford Magloire, said that in May, when he was distributing leaflets criticizing the local’s leaders, one union official pushed him against a fence and started screaming at him as others surrounded him.
Defending the decision to hire the 11, Mr. Wetzel said: “It is essential that you have experienced personnel to represent the union members. If you sweep house and bring in a bunch of people who have no experience, that is not a good idea.”
Mr. Wetzel said the 11 executive board members were hired for staff positions only after they passed a background check by the parent union. He said one executive board member was not hired because of questions about his integrity.
The independent counsel’s report criticized several officials from the parent union who knew for decades about mob involvement in Local 1181 but did nothing.
Last September, Matthew Ianniello, the acting boss of the Genovese crime family, admitted that he had helped arrange for bus companies to make payoffs to Local 1181 officials. Some payoffs, prosecutors say, went to Mr. Battaglia, who in exchange agreed not to attempt to unionize certain bus companies.
Mr. Ianniello also said he shared kickbacks and extorted money with Local 1181’s leaders. He made those admissions when he pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to obstructing justice.
Mr. Wetzel said that union officials planned to enact a stronger ethics code at their convention this month that would, among other things, require union officials to notify headquarters if they know of any union official mishandling funds or involved in corruption.
Thanks to Steven Greenhouse
The counsel’s report, written in January and made public yesterday by dissident union members, said that top officers of the union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, were involved in what it called racketeering activity that included extortion, kickbacks and bribes.
Salvatore Battaglia, the local’s former president, is facing trial on federal charges accusing him of extortion, receiving bribes and hiding Mafia involvement in the union. He has pleaded not guilty. The local’s secretary-treasurer, Julius Bernstein, was forced to resign by federal prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to obstructing justice.
The independent counsel, Richard W. Mark, called on the parent union to bring internal charges against Mr. Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein and to conduct a further investigation “to determine the extent of criminal activity.”
Leo Wetzel, the general counsel of the parent union, said the union had decided against bringing charges against those officials because they had both retired and cannot run again for union office. “It was the judgment of the union,” Mr. Wetzel said, “that the resources and attention of the international and local union were better directed to putting the local on the right course and to leave those matters to federal prosecutors.” Mr. Wetzel said the parent union assigned auditors to review Local 1181’s books for financial wrongdoing.
At a news conference yesterday, a dozen bus drivers complained that the two trustees whom the parent union had named to oversee the local had hired 11 of the local’s executive board members who had worked under Mr. Battaglia.
The drivers said those people had helped perpetuate an intimidating atmosphere that discourages criticism of union leaders. They also complained that not enough was being done to recoup the more than $2.7 million that federal officials say Mr. Battaglia obtained improperly.
“The international didn’t bring in any new faces,” said Simon Jean-Baptiste, who belongs to a dissident faction called Members for Change. “The same people are there who stopped people from talking. It’s a bad situation.”
Another bus driver, Clifford Magloire, said that in May, when he was distributing leaflets criticizing the local’s leaders, one union official pushed him against a fence and started screaming at him as others surrounded him.
Defending the decision to hire the 11, Mr. Wetzel said: “It is essential that you have experienced personnel to represent the union members. If you sweep house and bring in a bunch of people who have no experience, that is not a good idea.”
Mr. Wetzel said the 11 executive board members were hired for staff positions only after they passed a background check by the parent union. He said one executive board member was not hired because of questions about his integrity.
The independent counsel’s report criticized several officials from the parent union who knew for decades about mob involvement in Local 1181 but did nothing.
Last September, Matthew Ianniello, the acting boss of the Genovese crime family, admitted that he had helped arrange for bus companies to make payoffs to Local 1181 officials. Some payoffs, prosecutors say, went to Mr. Battaglia, who in exchange agreed not to attempt to unionize certain bus companies.
Mr. Ianniello also said he shared kickbacks and extorted money with Local 1181’s leaders. He made those admissions when he pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to obstructing justice.
Mr. Wetzel said that union officials planned to enact a stronger ethics code at their convention this month that would, among other things, require union officials to notify headquarters if they know of any union official mishandling funds or involved in corruption.
Thanks to Steven Greenhouse
Restaurant Impresario Fails to Disclose Connection to Mobster
High-flying restaurant impresario Giuseppe Cipriani repeatedly omitted in his state liquor-license applications the involvement of a convicted Colombo crime-family associate in his hotspots, documents obtained by The Post show.
He also failed to list his father, Arrigo Cipriani, on numerous license applications, omissions that could lead to new criminal charges against the son.
The State Liquor Authority is examining Cipriani's failure to put down ex-con Dennis Pappas as a top executive on applications for any of the family's five famed New York restaurants, as it determines whether to yank Cipriani's licenses to sell booze. Not disclosing a senior manager, particularly one with a criminal past, "would be a very serious violation," said SLA spokesman Bill Crowley.
On the applications, reviewed by The Post, Giuseppe Cipriani, 42, president of Cipriani USA, claims to be the only owner and executive at the firm's opulent eateries and banquet halls.
In papers submitted to the SLA in 2004 for the restaurant at 200 Fifth Ave., for example, Cipriani says he has 100 percent ownership and adds, "Giuseppe Cipriani is the sole officer, director and shareholder."
But the application doesn't square with an April 2003 lease agreement Pappas signed with the restaurant in which Pappas describes himself as "CEO."
Nor does it match testimony Pappas gave in May, when at his sentencing for insurance fraud, he told a judge he had managerial control over the Ciprianis' New York operations between 2000 and 2006, reported only to Giuseppe Cipriani, hired workers, oversaw construction projects and got paid $900,000.
A reputed mob moneyman now doing time for duping insurance companies out of $1.5 million in fake disability claims, Pappas was convicted by the feds of RICO charges in 1998 for his legal work for the Colombos. He was also charged in 2006 with falsifying an application for a cabaret license for the Ciprianis' Rainbow Room by not disclosing his criminal past to the city's Department of Consumer Affairs.
The SLA is already looking to pull the Cipriani licenses after the felony conviction of patriarch Arrigo Cipriani, 75, who admitted in July he and Cipriani USA dodged $10 million in taxes.
Convicted felons are barred from holding liquor licenses unless they get a rare special permission from the court or Probation Department.
On the license applications, Giuseppe Cipriani also fails to mention the involvement of Arrigo, who heads a parent company that controls the family's New York operation.
The new documents could mean further legal trouble for Giuseppe, who also copped to helping the firm evade the taxes.
Thanks to Brad Hamilton and Susan Edelman
He also failed to list his father, Arrigo Cipriani, on numerous license applications, omissions that could lead to new criminal charges against the son.
The State Liquor Authority is examining Cipriani's failure to put down ex-con Dennis Pappas as a top executive on applications for any of the family's five famed New York restaurants, as it determines whether to yank Cipriani's licenses to sell booze. Not disclosing a senior manager, particularly one with a criminal past, "would be a very serious violation," said SLA spokesman Bill Crowley.
On the applications, reviewed by The Post, Giuseppe Cipriani, 42, president of Cipriani USA, claims to be the only owner and executive at the firm's opulent eateries and banquet halls.
In papers submitted to the SLA in 2004 for the restaurant at 200 Fifth Ave., for example, Cipriani says he has 100 percent ownership and adds, "Giuseppe Cipriani is the sole officer, director and shareholder."
But the application doesn't square with an April 2003 lease agreement Pappas signed with the restaurant in which Pappas describes himself as "CEO."
Nor does it match testimony Pappas gave in May, when at his sentencing for insurance fraud, he told a judge he had managerial control over the Ciprianis' New York operations between 2000 and 2006, reported only to Giuseppe Cipriani, hired workers, oversaw construction projects and got paid $900,000.
A reputed mob moneyman now doing time for duping insurance companies out of $1.5 million in fake disability claims, Pappas was convicted by the feds of RICO charges in 1998 for his legal work for the Colombos. He was also charged in 2006 with falsifying an application for a cabaret license for the Ciprianis' Rainbow Room by not disclosing his criminal past to the city's Department of Consumer Affairs.
The SLA is already looking to pull the Cipriani licenses after the felony conviction of patriarch Arrigo Cipriani, 75, who admitted in July he and Cipriani USA dodged $10 million in taxes.
Convicted felons are barred from holding liquor licenses unless they get a rare special permission from the court or Probation Department.
On the license applications, Giuseppe Cipriani also fails to mention the involvement of Arrigo, who heads a parent company that controls the family's New York operation.
The new documents could mean further legal trouble for Giuseppe, who also copped to helping the firm evade the taxes.
Thanks to Brad Hamilton and Susan Edelman
Petey Cap Hits a 7 and Craps Out as He Heads Up the River
It's snake eyes for Hudson County gambling racketeer Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino, who is on his way up the river after being sentenced to an unlucky seven years in prison today, officials said.
Caporino ran illegal numbers and sports betting rackets for more than 40 years and was an FBI informant for two decades.
Helping the feds got him off the hook but he just couldn't give up the business he operated out of the Character Club, on Monroe Street in Hoboken. A portion of his take was passed up the chain to Genovese crime family bosses, law enforcement officials said.
"We are gratified that this book has reached it's final chapter," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.
In 2002, Caporino pleaded guilty to money laundering involving illegal gambling proceeds and was sentenced to five years in prison. That sentence was suspended when he agreed to wear a wire for the FBI and help prosecute 15 reputed Genovese associates.
Caporino could have walked away but he didn't -- and things spiraled from there.
In June, he was arrested at his Hasbrouck Heights home and charged with leading an organized crime network, promoting gambling and possession of gambling records.
On Aug. 16 last year, he was arrested in Hoboken by Jersey City police and charged with promoting gambling and possession of gambling records, officials said. Following this arrest, the feds washed their hands of Caporino and DeFazio reinstated the five year suspended sentence.
Caporino was given seven years today by state Superior Judge Peter Vazquez, sitting in Jersey City, for leading an organized crime network, and five years for promoting gambling. Under the terms of the plea deal, the terms will run concurrently.
The sweep that netted Caporino in June also resulted in the arrest of his wife, Ann Caporino, 68, on the charge of possession of gambling records. The charge against her was dropped as part of his plea deal.
Thanks to Michaelangelo Conte
Caporino ran illegal numbers and sports betting rackets for more than 40 years and was an FBI informant for two decades.
Helping the feds got him off the hook but he just couldn't give up the business he operated out of the Character Club, on Monroe Street in Hoboken. A portion of his take was passed up the chain to Genovese crime family bosses, law enforcement officials said.
"We are gratified that this book has reached it's final chapter," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.
In 2002, Caporino pleaded guilty to money laundering involving illegal gambling proceeds and was sentenced to five years in prison. That sentence was suspended when he agreed to wear a wire for the FBI and help prosecute 15 reputed Genovese associates.
Caporino could have walked away but he didn't -- and things spiraled from there.
In June, he was arrested at his Hasbrouck Heights home and charged with leading an organized crime network, promoting gambling and possession of gambling records.
On Aug. 16 last year, he was arrested in Hoboken by Jersey City police and charged with promoting gambling and possession of gambling records, officials said. Following this arrest, the feds washed their hands of Caporino and DeFazio reinstated the five year suspended sentence.
Caporino was given seven years today by state Superior Judge Peter Vazquez, sitting in Jersey City, for leading an organized crime network, and five years for promoting gambling. Under the terms of the plea deal, the terms will run concurrently.
The sweep that netted Caporino in June also resulted in the arrest of his wife, Ann Caporino, 68, on the charge of possession of gambling records. The charge against her was dropped as part of his plea deal.
Thanks to Michaelangelo Conte
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Chicago Mob Family Secrets Infamous Locations Map
I have been procrastinating creating a map of various Chicago Outfit infamous locations . Mark Konkol created such a map for the Family Secrets Trial along with an accompanying article.
Since Mark gave me a headstart, now seems like a good time to piggyback upon his efforts and expand the map to include both Family Secrets and other infamous and historical Chicago Mob locations. You can find the current results here. As with most of my efforts, this will be a work in progress. Feel free to submit your ideas for additional locations that should be included.
Since Mark gave me a headstart, now seems like a good time to piggyback upon his efforts and expand the map to include both Family Secrets and other infamous and historical Chicago Mob locations. You can find the current results here. As with most of my efforts, this will be a work in progress. Feel free to submit your ideas for additional locations that should be included.
Mob Trial Judge Helps Jury Define 'Intimidation'
The jury in the Family Secrets mob trial is taking it easy. On Thursday, the 12 men and women told the judge they will not deliberate tomorrow.
CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond reports, the jury worked about six hours today. There was a flurry of activity at the Dirksen Federal Building, however, when the jury sent a note to Judge James Zagel asking for a definition of the term "intimidation."
One of the biggest victims of intimidation was local pizza king James Stolfe, chief executive of Connie's. Prosecutors contend that defendant Frank Calabrese Sr. shook down Stolfe for more than $200,000 over a 20-year period. And the government argues that other defendants, including Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, were also not pikers in extorting victims.
Five defendants in the case are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy including 18 murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion.
The defendants' lawyers were summoned to the courthouse to iron out what the word "intimidation" means to the jury. But it was Zagel who became a local Funk and Wagnalls and crafted what is intimidation.
"An act of intimidation occurs when a person communicates to an individual a threat to inflict physical harm to an individual or to propert," Zagel said.
The jury will resume deliberations on Monday.
CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond reports, the jury worked about six hours today. There was a flurry of activity at the Dirksen Federal Building, however, when the jury sent a note to Judge James Zagel asking for a definition of the term "intimidation."
One of the biggest victims of intimidation was local pizza king James Stolfe, chief executive of Connie's. Prosecutors contend that defendant Frank Calabrese Sr. shook down Stolfe for more than $200,000 over a 20-year period. And the government argues that other defendants, including Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, were also not pikers in extorting victims.Five defendants in the case are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy including 18 murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion.
The defendants' lawyers were summoned to the courthouse to iron out what the word "intimidation" means to the jury. But it was Zagel who became a local Funk and Wagnalls and crafted what is intimidation.
"An act of intimidation occurs when a person communicates to an individual a threat to inflict physical harm to an individual or to propert," Zagel said.
The jury will resume deliberations on Monday.
America's Most Wanted on The Chicago Syndicate
Dominic Lyde & Derrick Benjamin: Deputies in South Carolina have arrested five suspects in one major armored car robbery – with proceeds to the tune of nearly $10 million. But they say two other suspects are still on the run, and nearly $5 million is still missing. Only one of the suspects is older than 22. So what did they do with all that cash? They blew their loot on tattoos, cars and strippers. What else?Richard Goldberg: Notorious accused pedophile Richard Goldberg is back in the U.S. The FBI Top Tenner was picked up north of the border and now Canadian authorities have deported him and turned him over to U.S. officials. Goldberg faces charges of molesting six young girls and producing child pornography.
Jon Schillaci: A family offered Jon Schillaci a new chance at life after he was released from prison in November 1999, but this registered sex offender paid their kindness with a parent’s worst nightmare. New Hampshire police say as soon as he moved into their home, he was back to his old perverted ways.
Joseph Duran: Police in Vacaville , Calif. are on the lookout for an 18-year-old suspect in the shooting of one of his former friends. Cops say that Joseph Stanley Duran shot and killed 19-year-old Angelo Hurst during a drive-by shooting on June 20, 2007. Authorities tell AMW that Hurst wasn’t the intended target—Duran was aiming for someone else and Hurst was simply caught in the crosshairs in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, Duran’s on the rune and cops are hoping that AMW viewers can help to pinpoint his whereabouts.
David Atwood: On February 24, 2005 David Atwood was released on parole, after serving ten years for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy. After his release, cops say it didn’t take long for Atwood to become a repeat offender. He has been on the rune since allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted yet another child.
Pablo Castro: Cops in New York are trying to track down convicted felon Pablo Castro. They say the Colombian national has snuck into the U.S. and is recruiting day laborers to burglarize affluent homes. Connected to more than 20 crimes, cops say Castro could be laying low in New York or hiding out in New Jersey.
Rizwan Chuadhary: It's Christmas Eve in East Brunswick , NJ , and a woman and her 9-year-old son are on their way to church. Minutes later, police say Rizwan Chaudhary plows into their minivan at 91 miles an hour, killing the young boy -- now authorities hope to put Chaudhary on a collision course with justice.
Raven Jeffries: In August 2006, 7-year-old Raven Jeffries was playing outside of her home in Detroit , Mich. , when her brother says he stepped away from her for just a moment. Just days after her disappearance, police say that her burned body was found in a field in a neighboring town. Now, AMW is teaming up with Pauley Perrette from the hit crime drama NCIS to help solve the case.
Shannon Paulk: At around 2:30 p.m., two of Shannon's friends were on a walk through the trailer park, when they saw Shannon talking to an unfamiliar man. Nearby was a white, four-door car, with red clay mud on the back. They went up to talk to Shannon , but she didn't introduce them to the newcomer, so they figured she didn't really know him very well. The girls talked briefly, then parted ways. When Shannon's friends passed by again half an hour later, Shannon , the mysterious man, and the car were all gone. Shannon was never seen again. Now, this Saturday night, AMW is teaming up with Pauley Perrette, the star of the prime time crime drama NCIS, to help investigators solve Shannon ’s murder as well as the murder of Raven Jeffries.
Camille Cleverley: Investigators tell AMW that a questionable ATM purchase made with missing BYU student Camille Cleverley's ATM card may help in ascertaining what happened to the missing 22-year-old. Cops say that around 11 a.m. on August 31, the day after Camille was last seen, her ATM card was used to purchase two bottles of juice and some doughnuts. Unfortunately, the convenience store's security cameras were not operational when the transaction was made and subsequent police interviews with the cashier have not yielded a positive identification of exactly who used Camille's card to make the purchase. Tune in this Saturday night to help us put the clues together and bring Camille home.
Jelmo Kirkland: The Citgo gas station in Miami Gardens , Fla. was full of people on January 20, 2007, but police say that didn't stop a man known as "Skeebo" from pulling out a gun and opening fire on a car. Now, this week we’ll try to track him down and put him behind bars.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Family Secrets Trial Highlights
June 18th - Jury selection begins.
June 20th - On the day the trail is set to start, Kurt Calabrese, the son of mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. finds what appears to be a bomb on his back porch. The device turns out to be fake.
June 21st - In opening statements, federal prosecutors lay out the details in the deaths of 18 men and women allegedly slaying by The Outfit. "This is not 'The Sopranos,' This is not 'The Godfather.' This case is about real people, real victims," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully.
June 26th - Jurors hear secret tape recordings between reputed mobster Frank "The German" Schweihs and the owner of an adult book store. The recordings are full of threats and profanities as Schweihs makes it clear the bookstore owner shouldn't be paying any other mobsters who want street tax payments.
June 29th - The widow of Daniel Siefert, a businessman gunned down in front of his young child, testifies that she believes the masked gunman who killed her husband is mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. The woman's husband was to be a federal witness.
July 3rd - Bookmaker Joel Glickman decides not to testify against reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. It will mean a prison stay of several months for Glickman. "I respectfully refuse to testify," Glickman told the court when asked whether he ever had to pay a street tax to Calabrese Sr.
July 4th - Frank Calabrese Jr., testifies that his father threatened him with a gun. "He stuck it in my face and told me, 'I'd rather have you dead than disobey me,'" he told jurors. Calabrese Jr. is a star witness in the Chicago trial.
July 10th - Frank Calabrese Jr. testifies about the slaying of the Spilotro brothers and how Tony threatened his attackers. "Tony put up a fight. He kept saying, 'You guys are going to get in trouble, you guys are going to get in trouble.'" The bodies of the Spilotro brothers were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.
July 11th - Riveting secret conversations were played for jurors of Frank Calabrese Sr. discussing who was the rat in his mob crew. The evidence points to his own brother. In the tapes, Calabrese Sr. also talks about the hit on Spilotro and that one of his sins was sleeping with the wife of mob associate Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.
July 13th - Frank Calabrese Jr., the son of reputed hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. testified that he loves his father but not his "Outfit" ways. Calabrese Jr. is a star witness in the federal case against his father.
July 16th - When a mobster says he wants to collect "a recipe" for him, he's talking code to get someone to muscle a victim for street tax payments. Jurors got a taste of mobspeak during today's testimony.
July 18th - Hitman Nicholas Calabrese implicates a close friend of Chicago Mayor Daley's as taking part in a restaurant bombing 20 years ago.
July 19th - The mob hit of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were detailed by Outfit hit man Nicholas Calabrese. The hits took place in the basement of a Chicago home. Spilotro and his brother were lured there with the promise of mob promotions.
July 20th - Killer Nicholas Calabrese called himself a "coward" on the witness stand as he spilled the Outfit's family secrets.
July 24th - Pat Spilotro visited Nicholas Calabrese in prison and asked what his brothers, Anthony and Michael, did wrong to deserve getting killed.
July 30th - Bookmaker Michael Talarico took the stand against former mob boss Frank Calabrese, Senior. Talarico says Calabrese made him pay a "street tax."
Days after Michael testified, his brother, civil attorney Al Talarico sat in as counsel for Calabrese. Talarico originally requested to be Calabrese's lawyer, but was denied.
Calabrese's lawyer is defense attorney Joseph "The Shark" Lopez. Calabrese is accused of murdering 13 people during his mob career.
July 31st - Anatomy of a Skim: Prosecutors in Chicago say former mobster Paul "The Indian" Schiro may be tied to an Arizona murder and casino skim. Authorities say Schiro along with hitman Nicholas Calabrese took part in the murder of Emil Vaci.
Vaci testified to a grand jury in Las Vegas about the disappearance and presumed murder of slot-skimmer George Jay Vandermark. Vandermark oversaw the mob-run skim at the slots at the former Stardust casino.
Calabrese testified against Schiro, saying they both played a part in the murder.
Aug. 3rd - The former mistress of top Chicago mob boss James Marcello turned against him on the stand Thursday.
During the Family Secrets trial Thursday, the daughter of Michael Spilotro also tied Marcello to her father's brutal murder in 1986. Attorneys for Marcello questioned why Spilotro's daughter didn't mention this key fact to the FBI after the murders.
Michael Spilotro and his brother were both killed in the hit. Another Spilotro brother, Patrick, is expected to testify Monday about what he knows about the Chicago outfit mob.
The Spilotro brothers' murders were featured in the Hollywood movie "Casino."
Aug. 6th - Some Chicago police brass took payoffs from mob burglars, according to new testimony Monday in the Family Secrets mob trial.
As CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond reports, the eye-opening testimony came from Sal Romano, a dog-loving career burglar who was whisked from Federal court by the FBI.
Romano learned the tools of the burglar trade as a youngster in Chicago.
Romano began co-operating with the government 30 years ago and closed his career as an informant with a $40,000 bonus in 1987. He specifically named the one-time chief of detectives William Hanhardt and policemen at areas five and six.
Other than the convicted Hanhardt, Romano did not name any specific cops as wrong-doers.
Romano on Monday implicated defendant Paulie "The Indian" Schiro in burglaries and other crime in Las Vegas.
Romano himself was the target of a planned gangland assassination ordered by Las Vegas crime boss Tony Spilotro and his henchmen Frank "Far-Away Frank" Cullotta.
Aug. 7th - A career burglar with ties to the mob testified Tuesday about his corrupt connection with police and attorneys in the Chicago mob trial.
Sal Romano who worked under Anthony Spilotro says he indirectly bribed police through Chicago attorneys in several mob operations. Romano also discussed his work in Las Vegas with a variety of career criminals.
He says he worked with Spilotro, who was killed in 1986, and Paul "The Indian" Schiro, another defendent in the trial. While on the stand, Romano also confessed to several robberies and home invasions during his mob career.
Aug. 9th - A notorious mobster is set to take the stand next week in the Family Secrets trial.
Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo will take the stand in his own defense next Monday. He's accused of taking part in the 1974 shotgun murder of businessman Daniel Seifert.
Lombardo, along with four other mobsters, were convicted of concealing Mafia ownership of the Las Vegas Stardust resort and casino back in 1986.
Prosecutors are wrapping up their case, which has put the highest levels of the Chicago outfit mob on the stand.
Aug. 13th - Federal prosecutors Monday rested their case at the racketeering trial of alleged mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and four other reputed members of the Chicago underworld.
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel quickly denied requests by the defendants for immediate acquittal and began setting the stage for perhaps a week of defense witnesses -- including Lombardo himself -- at Chicago's biggest mob trial in years.
Aug. 14th - Reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo told a jury Tuesday he once shined police officers' shoes and ran a dice game approved by a Chicago alderman but denied he committed the murder that could send him to federal prison for the rest of his life.
Aug. 15th - Reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo testified today that he was busy filling out a police report about his stolen wallet around the time his friend Daniel Seifert was killed in 1974.
Aug. 16th - "I only acted like a mobster." Reputed mob figure Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, continuing to testify in his own defense at the landmark Family Secrets trial today, said he was having breakfast and waiting for a shop that sold garage-door remotes to open when federal witness Daniel Seifert was killed in 1974.
Aug. 17th - "No Time to Kill People." Frank Calabrese Sr. went from eating oatmeal for dinner as a child to making millions of dollars from illegal street loans but denied Thursday from the witness stand that he ever killed anyone for the Chicago Outfit.
Aug. 20th - Frank Calabrese Sr., reputed mob hitman accused of killing 13 people, lost his cool in federal court Monday morning after a judge restricted his testimony in the Family Secrets trial.
Aug. 21st - A mobster's "Judas kiss" -- It was Christmas Eve 1996, and reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. was seeing his brother Nicholas out the door after breaking out the Napoleon brandy, when his brother made an unusual request.
Aug. 22nd - Reputed mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr., a portrait of grimaces, glares and barely contained rage, simmered for hours on the witness stand Tuesday as a federal prosecutor questioned him -- until, finally, he boiled over.
Aug. 23rd - A former Chicago Police officer said Wednesday he repeatedly drove five hours to visit Frank Calabrese Sr. in federal prison in Michigan despite being extremely bored, often not understanding what Calabrese Sr. was talking about and feeling as if he had been paroled when he finally left.
Aug. 24th - A retired Chicago Police officer admitted that he told an Outfit bookmaker and loan shark the date -- but only the date -- when Chicago Police handed over key evidence in a mob hit to the FBI.
Aug. 28th - A federal jury heard Frank Calabrese Sr.'s Greatest Hits as a federal prosecutor played tape after tape of Calabrese Sr.'s own secretly recorded voice describing in detail mob hits he allegedly committed.
Aug. 29th - Reputed top Chicago mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo was "not truthful" at times in his testimony in the Family Secrets trial and was made to look like "a ridiculous old fool" under cross-examination -- but he was nothing more than a "rent-a-mobster," Lombardo's own attorney told jurors in his closing argument Tuesday.
Aug. 31st - Prosecutor: Don't buy Lombardo's song and dance. Alleged top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo is still part of the Chicago Outfit because he lied from the witness stand to protect the organization, a federal prosecutor said Thursday in the government's final argument in the Family Secrets trial.
Sept. 4th - Jury begins deliberations.
Thanks to LVN
June 20th - On the day the trail is set to start, Kurt Calabrese, the son of mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. finds what appears to be a bomb on his back porch. The device turns out to be fake.
June 21st - In opening statements, federal prosecutors lay out the details in the deaths of 18 men and women allegedly slaying by The Outfit. "This is not 'The Sopranos,' This is not 'The Godfather.' This case is about real people, real victims," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully.
June 26th - Jurors hear secret tape recordings between reputed mobster Frank "The German" Schweihs and the owner of an adult book store. The recordings are full of threats and profanities as Schweihs makes it clear the bookstore owner shouldn't be paying any other mobsters who want street tax payments.
June 29th - The widow of Daniel Siefert, a businessman gunned down in front of his young child, testifies that she believes the masked gunman who killed her husband is mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. The woman's husband was to be a federal witness.
July 3rd - Bookmaker Joel Glickman decides not to testify against reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. It will mean a prison stay of several months for Glickman. "I respectfully refuse to testify," Glickman told the court when asked whether he ever had to pay a street tax to Calabrese Sr.
July 4th - Frank Calabrese Jr., testifies that his father threatened him with a gun. "He stuck it in my face and told me, 'I'd rather have you dead than disobey me,'" he told jurors. Calabrese Jr. is a star witness in the Chicago trial.
July 10th - Frank Calabrese Jr. testifies about the slaying of the Spilotro brothers and how Tony threatened his attackers. "Tony put up a fight. He kept saying, 'You guys are going to get in trouble, you guys are going to get in trouble.'" The bodies of the Spilotro brothers were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.
July 11th - Riveting secret conversations were played for jurors of Frank Calabrese Sr. discussing who was the rat in his mob crew. The evidence points to his own brother. In the tapes, Calabrese Sr. also talks about the hit on Spilotro and that one of his sins was sleeping with the wife of mob associate Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal.
July 13th - Frank Calabrese Jr., the son of reputed hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. testified that he loves his father but not his "Outfit" ways. Calabrese Jr. is a star witness in the federal case against his father.
July 16th - When a mobster says he wants to collect "a recipe" for him, he's talking code to get someone to muscle a victim for street tax payments. Jurors got a taste of mobspeak during today's testimony.
July 18th - Hitman Nicholas Calabrese implicates a close friend of Chicago Mayor Daley's as taking part in a restaurant bombing 20 years ago.
July 19th - The mob hit of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were detailed by Outfit hit man Nicholas Calabrese. The hits took place in the basement of a Chicago home. Spilotro and his brother were lured there with the promise of mob promotions.
July 20th - Killer Nicholas Calabrese called himself a "coward" on the witness stand as he spilled the Outfit's family secrets.
July 24th - Pat Spilotro visited Nicholas Calabrese in prison and asked what his brothers, Anthony and Michael, did wrong to deserve getting killed.
July 30th - Bookmaker Michael Talarico took the stand against former mob boss Frank Calabrese, Senior. Talarico says Calabrese made him pay a "street tax."
Days after Michael testified, his brother, civil attorney Al Talarico sat in as counsel for Calabrese. Talarico originally requested to be Calabrese's lawyer, but was denied.
Calabrese's lawyer is defense attorney Joseph "The Shark" Lopez. Calabrese is accused of murdering 13 people during his mob career.
July 31st - Anatomy of a Skim: Prosecutors in Chicago say former mobster Paul "The Indian" Schiro may be tied to an Arizona murder and casino skim. Authorities say Schiro along with hitman Nicholas Calabrese took part in the murder of Emil Vaci.
Vaci testified to a grand jury in Las Vegas about the disappearance and presumed murder of slot-skimmer George Jay Vandermark. Vandermark oversaw the mob-run skim at the slots at the former Stardust casino.
Calabrese testified against Schiro, saying they both played a part in the murder.
Aug. 3rd - The former mistress of top Chicago mob boss James Marcello turned against him on the stand Thursday.
During the Family Secrets trial Thursday, the daughter of Michael Spilotro also tied Marcello to her father's brutal murder in 1986. Attorneys for Marcello questioned why Spilotro's daughter didn't mention this key fact to the FBI after the murders.
Michael Spilotro and his brother were both killed in the hit. Another Spilotro brother, Patrick, is expected to testify Monday about what he knows about the Chicago outfit mob.
The Spilotro brothers' murders were featured in the Hollywood movie "Casino."
Aug. 6th - Some Chicago police brass took payoffs from mob burglars, according to new testimony Monday in the Family Secrets mob trial.
As CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond reports, the eye-opening testimony came from Sal Romano, a dog-loving career burglar who was whisked from Federal court by the FBI.
Romano learned the tools of the burglar trade as a youngster in Chicago.
Romano began co-operating with the government 30 years ago and closed his career as an informant with a $40,000 bonus in 1987. He specifically named the one-time chief of detectives William Hanhardt and policemen at areas five and six.
Other than the convicted Hanhardt, Romano did not name any specific cops as wrong-doers.
Romano on Monday implicated defendant Paulie "The Indian" Schiro in burglaries and other crime in Las Vegas.
Romano himself was the target of a planned gangland assassination ordered by Las Vegas crime boss Tony Spilotro and his henchmen Frank "Far-Away Frank" Cullotta.
Aug. 7th - A career burglar with ties to the mob testified Tuesday about his corrupt connection with police and attorneys in the Chicago mob trial.
Sal Romano who worked under Anthony Spilotro says he indirectly bribed police through Chicago attorneys in several mob operations. Romano also discussed his work in Las Vegas with a variety of career criminals.
He says he worked with Spilotro, who was killed in 1986, and Paul "The Indian" Schiro, another defendent in the trial. While on the stand, Romano also confessed to several robberies and home invasions during his mob career.
Aug. 9th - A notorious mobster is set to take the stand next week in the Family Secrets trial.
Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo will take the stand in his own defense next Monday. He's accused of taking part in the 1974 shotgun murder of businessman Daniel Seifert.
Lombardo, along with four other mobsters, were convicted of concealing Mafia ownership of the Las Vegas Stardust resort and casino back in 1986.
Prosecutors are wrapping up their case, which has put the highest levels of the Chicago outfit mob on the stand.
Aug. 13th - Federal prosecutors Monday rested their case at the racketeering trial of alleged mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and four other reputed members of the Chicago underworld.
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel quickly denied requests by the defendants for immediate acquittal and began setting the stage for perhaps a week of defense witnesses -- including Lombardo himself -- at Chicago's biggest mob trial in years.
Aug. 14th - Reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo told a jury Tuesday he once shined police officers' shoes and ran a dice game approved by a Chicago alderman but denied he committed the murder that could send him to federal prison for the rest of his life.
Aug. 15th - Reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo testified today that he was busy filling out a police report about his stolen wallet around the time his friend Daniel Seifert was killed in 1974.
Aug. 16th - "I only acted like a mobster." Reputed mob figure Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, continuing to testify in his own defense at the landmark Family Secrets trial today, said he was having breakfast and waiting for a shop that sold garage-door remotes to open when federal witness Daniel Seifert was killed in 1974.
Aug. 17th - "No Time to Kill People." Frank Calabrese Sr. went from eating oatmeal for dinner as a child to making millions of dollars from illegal street loans but denied Thursday from the witness stand that he ever killed anyone for the Chicago Outfit.
Aug. 20th - Frank Calabrese Sr., reputed mob hitman accused of killing 13 people, lost his cool in federal court Monday morning after a judge restricted his testimony in the Family Secrets trial.
Aug. 21st - A mobster's "Judas kiss" -- It was Christmas Eve 1996, and reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. was seeing his brother Nicholas out the door after breaking out the Napoleon brandy, when his brother made an unusual request.
Aug. 22nd - Reputed mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr., a portrait of grimaces, glares and barely contained rage, simmered for hours on the witness stand Tuesday as a federal prosecutor questioned him -- until, finally, he boiled over.
Aug. 23rd - A former Chicago Police officer said Wednesday he repeatedly drove five hours to visit Frank Calabrese Sr. in federal prison in Michigan despite being extremely bored, often not understanding what Calabrese Sr. was talking about and feeling as if he had been paroled when he finally left.
Aug. 24th - A retired Chicago Police officer admitted that he told an Outfit bookmaker and loan shark the date -- but only the date -- when Chicago Police handed over key evidence in a mob hit to the FBI.
Aug. 28th - A federal jury heard Frank Calabrese Sr.'s Greatest Hits as a federal prosecutor played tape after tape of Calabrese Sr.'s own secretly recorded voice describing in detail mob hits he allegedly committed.
Aug. 29th - Reputed top Chicago mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo was "not truthful" at times in his testimony in the Family Secrets trial and was made to look like "a ridiculous old fool" under cross-examination -- but he was nothing more than a "rent-a-mobster," Lombardo's own attorney told jurors in his closing argument Tuesday.
Aug. 31st - Prosecutor: Don't buy Lombardo's song and dance. Alleged top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo is still part of the Chicago Outfit because he lied from the witness stand to protect the organization, a federal prosecutor said Thursday in the government's final argument in the Family Secrets trial.
Sept. 4th - Jury begins deliberations.
Thanks to LVN
Intimidation Request by Jury in Mob Trial
A federal court jury considering the biggest Chicago mob trial in years has asked for the legal definition of the word "intimidation."
Federal Judge James Zagel told attorneys about the jurors' request late this morning. He asked attorneys to return at 1:30 with proposals on how the word should be defined.
The five defendants are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy including 18 murders dating back to 1970, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion. Save 15% when you Shop by PBS Series! Expires 9.17.07
In the indictment, the Chicago Outfit is accused of using threats, violence and intimidation to discipline members and associates -- and also to collect street tax and juice loan debts.
The jury is in its third day of deliberations.
Federal Judge James Zagel told attorneys about the jurors' request late this morning. He asked attorneys to return at 1:30 with proposals on how the word should be defined.The five defendants are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy including 18 murders dating back to 1970, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion. Save 15% when you Shop by PBS Series! Expires 9.17.07
In the indictment, the Chicago Outfit is accused of using threats, violence and intimidation to discipline members and associates -- and also to collect street tax and juice loan debts.
The jury is in its third day of deliberations.
Reputed Gambino Sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit Murder Conviction
Dominick Pizzonia shuffled into Federal District Court in Brooklyn yesterday wearing a faded and wrinkled prison uniform, his hair almost completely gray. Mr. Pizzonia, a reputed Gambino crime family captain, looked more like a middle school mop man than a hardened mobster, fragile as he entered the courtroom for sentencing after being convicted in May of conspiracy to commit murder.
Judge Jack B. Weinstein sentenced Mr. Pizzonia, 65, to 15 years in prison, a point between the 20-year maximum that prosecutors were pushing for and the 7-to-10-year term his lawyers were hoping for.
For Mr. Pizzonia, it was the latest in a long string of court proceedings that included testimony by made men, murderers and Mafia turncoats who were brought in to detail or dispute his role in the 1992 killings of Thomas and Rosemarie Uva.
The Uvas were a married couple from Ozone Park, Queens, who rode roughshod through very rough circles, robbing mobsters with an Uzi and — for a time — apparent impunity. The robberies earned them the nickname Bonnie and Clyde, as well as a bounty on their heads, according to witnesses and prosecutors. They robbed Mafia social clubs, forcing their victims to empty their pockets and drop their pants. Perhaps their gravest mistake was robbing the social club that Mr. Pizzonia managed — not once, but twice.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Pizzonia wanted the couple dead, and had given orders for anyone who found them to kill them. He even went to John A. Gotti, the boss of the Gambino family at the time, for permission for the killings, prosecutors said.
The Uvas had become marked for death by the Bonanno, Gambino and Colombo crime families.
The couple were gunned down on the morning of Dec. 24, 1992. Several bullets crashed through the windshield of their car, striking each of them in the head three times. The killings took place not far from their Queens home and Mr. Pizzonia’s social club on nearby Liberty Avenue. Mr. Pizzonia was charged with the killings, but in the end a jury found him guilty only of racketeering conspiracy for participating in planning the killings.
Joseph R. Corozzo, Mr. Pizzonia’s lawyer, pointed out the government’s disdain for Mafia members yesterday, but he cited what he said was its willingness to offer freedom or lesser charges to those who snitch on — or lie about — a bigger fish.
At trial, Mr. Corozzo cast doubt on the government’s case, picking apart the testimony of its star witnesses, who were mostly Mafia defectors, bookies and criminals, one of whom is in the federal witness protection program. The jury returned a not-guilty verdict on the more serious charges.
Prosecutors, arguing for the maximum sentence, reiterated yesterday that Mr. Pizzonia had boasted of putting an end to the Uvas. They reminded the judge that trial testimony had indicated that when another crime family tried to take credit for the killings, Mr. Gotti told the bosses of that family that it was “our Skinny Dom,” as Mr. Pizzonia is known, who killed the couple.
By yesterday afternoon, the fireworks that had preceded the day had faded. There was no commotion as the judge read Mr. Pizzonia’s sentence.
Mr. Pizzonia was seated at a large conference table in Judge Weinstein’s courtroom, directly opposite the judge. Mr. Corozzo sat to his left. The prosecution team sat to the left of Mr. Corozzo, and in the three-row gallery behind Mr. Pizzonia sat his wife and two sons and other supporters, mostly stoic old Italian men with clean-shaven faces and work-worn hands.
Before the judge rendered the sentence, he likened Mr. Pizzonia’s life to a work of cinema, a film with a split screen and a single actor portraying two roles, masterfully at times. On one side of the screen, Judge Weinstein said, you have the church member who was quiet, generous and courtly. But on the other is a hardened criminal who has been “a lifelong member of a vicious gang.”
“How much credit can be given to the worthy side?” Judge Weinstein asked. “In this case, not much.”
Thanks to Trymaine Lee
Judge Jack B. Weinstein sentenced Mr. Pizzonia, 65, to 15 years in prison, a point between the 20-year maximum that prosecutors were pushing for and the 7-to-10-year term his lawyers were hoping for.
For Mr. Pizzonia, it was the latest in a long string of court proceedings that included testimony by made men, murderers and Mafia turncoats who were brought in to detail or dispute his role in the 1992 killings of Thomas and Rosemarie Uva.
The Uvas were a married couple from Ozone Park, Queens, who rode roughshod through very rough circles, robbing mobsters with an Uzi and — for a time — apparent impunity. The robberies earned them the nickname Bonnie and Clyde, as well as a bounty on their heads, according to witnesses and prosecutors. They robbed Mafia social clubs, forcing their victims to empty their pockets and drop their pants. Perhaps their gravest mistake was robbing the social club that Mr. Pizzonia managed — not once, but twice.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Pizzonia wanted the couple dead, and had given orders for anyone who found them to kill them. He even went to John A. Gotti, the boss of the Gambino family at the time, for permission for the killings, prosecutors said.
The Uvas had become marked for death by the Bonanno, Gambino and Colombo crime families.
The couple were gunned down on the morning of Dec. 24, 1992. Several bullets crashed through the windshield of their car, striking each of them in the head three times. The killings took place not far from their Queens home and Mr. Pizzonia’s social club on nearby Liberty Avenue. Mr. Pizzonia was charged with the killings, but in the end a jury found him guilty only of racketeering conspiracy for participating in planning the killings.
Joseph R. Corozzo, Mr. Pizzonia’s lawyer, pointed out the government’s disdain for Mafia members yesterday, but he cited what he said was its willingness to offer freedom or lesser charges to those who snitch on — or lie about — a bigger fish.
At trial, Mr. Corozzo cast doubt on the government’s case, picking apart the testimony of its star witnesses, who were mostly Mafia defectors, bookies and criminals, one of whom is in the federal witness protection program. The jury returned a not-guilty verdict on the more serious charges.
Prosecutors, arguing for the maximum sentence, reiterated yesterday that Mr. Pizzonia had boasted of putting an end to the Uvas. They reminded the judge that trial testimony had indicated that when another crime family tried to take credit for the killings, Mr. Gotti told the bosses of that family that it was “our Skinny Dom,” as Mr. Pizzonia is known, who killed the couple.
By yesterday afternoon, the fireworks that had preceded the day had faded. There was no commotion as the judge read Mr. Pizzonia’s sentence.
Mr. Pizzonia was seated at a large conference table in Judge Weinstein’s courtroom, directly opposite the judge. Mr. Corozzo sat to his left. The prosecution team sat to the left of Mr. Corozzo, and in the three-row gallery behind Mr. Pizzonia sat his wife and two sons and other supporters, mostly stoic old Italian men with clean-shaven faces and work-worn hands.
Before the judge rendered the sentence, he likened Mr. Pizzonia’s life to a work of cinema, a film with a split screen and a single actor portraying two roles, masterfully at times. On one side of the screen, Judge Weinstein said, you have the church member who was quiet, generous and courtly. But on the other is a hardened criminal who has been “a lifelong member of a vicious gang.”
“How much credit can be given to the worthy side?” Judge Weinstein asked. “In this case, not much.”
Thanks to Trymaine Lee
Part Two of Family Secrets Mob Trial Coming Next Spring
While jurors deliberate over the evidence in the family secrets mob murder trial, it appears act two of the saga will now unfold next spring.
CBS 2’s John “Bulldog” Drummond has learned federal prosecutors are planning an all-out blitz on another high-profile Chicago mob figure.
Frank “The German” Schweihs was severed from the family secrets trial last spring reportedly because of health reasons. He was apparently suffering from cancer. But a source says the 77 year old has made a miraculous recovery. If his health holds, he’ll be brought back to Chicago for a trial in the spring, possibly in April.
For a time, Schweihs, known as “The German” in underworld circles, led the feds on a merry chase until he was arrested in an apartment complex in Berea, Kentucky.
Schweihs, a feared mob enforcer, was convicted in 1989 for shaking down Red Wemette, an adult book store owner. Schweihs was secretly recorded on videotape boasting that no one could move in on his territory. It was an expletive-filled tirade.
“This joint has been declared for years. There’s no one has the right to come in __ and in our domain. I don’t give a __ who the __ he is. If it’s Al Capone’s brother and he comes back reincarnated, ok. This is a declared __ joint and no one has the right to come and ___ with this, ok,” Schweihs said.
Schweihs did time on the extortion charges and now faces a new variety of accusations including his alleged involvement in the murder of a government witness, Daniel Seifert. Seifert was gunned down outside his Bensenville factory in September of 1974.
Schweihs has been a suspect in a number of other high-profile slayings including the murder of Admiral Theater impresario Patsy Ricciardi. Schweihs’ name was on the lips of mob investigators when mob associate Allen Dorfman was shot to death outside a Lincolnwood hotel in January of 1983. But in those slayings, Schweihs was never charged with being involved.
In the 1970s, every time there was a gangland slaying, Schweihs’ name came up, but there was never any proof that Schweihs was involved and he never was charged.
Thanks to John "Bulldog" Drummond
CBS 2’s John “Bulldog” Drummond has learned federal prosecutors are planning an all-out blitz on another high-profile Chicago mob figure.
Frank “The German” Schweihs was severed from the family secrets trial last spring reportedly because of health reasons. He was apparently suffering from cancer. But a source says the 77 year old has made a miraculous recovery. If his health holds, he’ll be brought back to Chicago for a trial in the spring, possibly in April.
For a time, Schweihs, known as “The German” in underworld circles, led the feds on a merry chase until he was arrested in an apartment complex in Berea, Kentucky.Schweihs, a feared mob enforcer, was convicted in 1989 for shaking down Red Wemette, an adult book store owner. Schweihs was secretly recorded on videotape boasting that no one could move in on his territory. It was an expletive-filled tirade.
“This joint has been declared for years. There’s no one has the right to come in __ and in our domain. I don’t give a __ who the __ he is. If it’s Al Capone’s brother and he comes back reincarnated, ok. This is a declared __ joint and no one has the right to come and ___ with this, ok,” Schweihs said.
Schweihs did time on the extortion charges and now faces a new variety of accusations including his alleged involvement in the murder of a government witness, Daniel Seifert. Seifert was gunned down outside his Bensenville factory in September of 1974.
Schweihs has been a suspect in a number of other high-profile slayings including the murder of Admiral Theater impresario Patsy Ricciardi. Schweihs’ name was on the lips of mob investigators when mob associate Allen Dorfman was shot to death outside a Lincolnwood hotel in January of 1983. But in those slayings, Schweihs was never charged with being involved.
In the 1970s, every time there was a gangland slaying, Schweihs’ name came up, but there was never any proof that Schweihs was involved and he never was charged.
Thanks to John "Bulldog" Drummond
"Usurious" Request from Jury
Jurors in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial deliberated for a second day Wednesday without reaching a verdict, but not before complaining about the temperature in the jury room and becoming perplexed for a time over the definition of an uncommon word in the indictment.
Jurors deciding the fate of four reputed Outfit figures and a former Chicago police officer issued their first written questions to U.S. District Judge James Zagel since deliberations began Tuesday. Zagel has presided over the 10-week trial.
Jurors asked for additional fans because the room where they are deliberating was stuffy.
The jury also wanted a dictionary.
After joking about whether it would be unpatriotic to give the jury an Oxford English Dictionary, Zagel asked jurors instead to tell the court which words they wanted defined.
The jury indicated the confusion was over one word—"usurious," which appears on the second page of the indictment. The defendants are accused of charging "usurious" rates on high-interest "juice loans."
The word is defined in most dictionaries as "of or constituting usury," which is defined as the practice of lending money at excessively or illegally high interest rates.Before the court had supplied an answer, jurors told the judge that they were able to glean the definition from the indictment itself.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Jurors deciding the fate of four reputed Outfit figures and a former Chicago police officer issued their first written questions to U.S. District Judge James Zagel since deliberations began Tuesday. Zagel has presided over the 10-week trial.Jurors asked for additional fans because the room where they are deliberating was stuffy.
The jury also wanted a dictionary.
After joking about whether it would be unpatriotic to give the jury an Oxford English Dictionary, Zagel asked jurors instead to tell the court which words they wanted defined.
The jury indicated the confusion was over one word—"usurious," which appears on the second page of the indictment. The defendants are accused of charging "usurious" rates on high-interest "juice loans."
The word is defined in most dictionaries as "of or constituting usury," which is defined as the practice of lending money at excessively or illegally high interest rates.Before the court had supplied an answer, jurors told the judge that they were able to glean the definition from the indictment itself.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Judge Kicks Out Two Mob Trial Jurors
After a federal judge removed two jurors for already having made up their minds, the jury in the Family Secrets mob trial began its first full day of deliberations Tuesday but went home early without reaching a verdict.
Last week, two jurors in the case communicated to the judge that they had already made up their minds, and the judge, after consulting with attorneys in the case and holding a closed-door hearing, removed them. Special offer! Save 50% on You've got treats! 8-14 thru 9-30-07
Jurors are supposed to enter deliberations with an open mind.
On trial are reputed Chicago mob bosses James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo; reputed Outfit killer Frank Calabrese Sr., accused of 13 murders; the mob's alleged man in Phoenix, Paul "The Indian" Schiro; and retired Chicago Police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, accused of helping Calabrese Sr. track down a mob snitch.
Speculation centered on Schiro as presenting the most challenge for the jury.
Out of all the defendants, Schiro is the only one who wasn't caught on audio or videotape.
Also, only one witness -- Outfit killer and star government witness Nicholas Calabrese -- directly put Schiro in the one murder he's accused of: the 1986 slaying of Schiro's friend and business partner, Emil Vaci, who had the misfortune of getting called before a grand jury on a topic of interest to the Chicago mob.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Last week, two jurors in the case communicated to the judge that they had already made up their minds, and the judge, after consulting with attorneys in the case and holding a closed-door hearing, removed them. Special offer! Save 50% on You've got treats! 8-14 thru 9-30-07
Jurors are supposed to enter deliberations with an open mind.
On trial are reputed Chicago mob bosses James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo; reputed Outfit killer Frank Calabrese Sr., accused of 13 murders; the mob's alleged man in Phoenix, Paul "The Indian" Schiro; and retired Chicago Police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, accused of helping Calabrese Sr. track down a mob snitch.
Speculation centered on Schiro as presenting the most challenge for the jury.
Out of all the defendants, Schiro is the only one who wasn't caught on audio or videotape.
Also, only one witness -- Outfit killer and star government witness Nicholas Calabrese -- directly put Schiro in the one murder he's accused of: the 1986 slaying of Schiro's friend and business partner, Emil Vaci, who had the misfortune of getting called before a grand jury on a topic of interest to the Chicago mob.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Kurt Calabrese Speaks Out
All Kurt Calabrese ever wanted was a father.
Not the man -- Frank Calabrese Sr. -- who sat on the witness stand during the Family Secrets trial to face charges he killed 13 people for the mob.
Not the man who blamed his brother and his sons for conspiring to frame him for the crimes.
Not the man who denied he beat his sons and brought them into the loansharking business.
"All I wanted him to be was a dad," Kurt Calabrese said. "Why couldn't he be a dad?"
At one point from the witness stand, Frank Calabrese Sr. gestured out to Kurt, who was sitting in the gallery. "Ask him!" Calabrese Sr. said, as if Kurt Calabrese would confirm his testimony.
He would not have. Kurt Calabrese did not testify at trial and has not spoken publicly about his father or what life was like with him -- until now. But after his father made allegation after allegation from the witness stand, Kurt Calabrese is reluctantly breaking his silence in an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
"I'm not looking for anybody to feel sorry for me," Kurt Calabrese explained. "I hope maybe they can understand it.
"I don't hate him," Kurt said of his father. "I hate what he's done, and I hate how he's treated our family. But I don't hate him, because that's not me. I'm not a hateful person."
Without the turmoil in the Calabrese family, there may never have been a Family Secrets case.
Frank Calabrese Sr.'s eldest son, Frank Jr., agreed to record his father secretly while they were both in federal prison in 1999 on a loansharking case -- a case that also landed Kurt in prison. Frank Calabrese Jr. led jurors through the recorded conversations, in which Calabrese Sr. seems to admit taking part in mob murders.
Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nicholas, also testified against him at trial, admitting to killing at least 14 people, some with Frank Sr.
On the witness stand, Frank Calabrese Sr. often had a two-word response to the allegations: "No way."
Calabrese Sr. said he never hurt anyone, unless it was to defend someone against bullies. He used diplomacy to collect his juice loans, he said. He said his brother Nicholas tried to turn his two sons against him.
Calabrese Sr. said he loved his sons so much he pleaded guilty in the loansharking case -- so Frank Jr. and Kurt could get less time in prison. But his sons betrayed him, Calabrese Sr. suggested, by agreeing with their uncle, Nicholas, to frame him for mob murders and take his money.
At one point, Frank Calabrese Sr. had Kurt Calabrese subpoenaed to testify, a move that baffled Kurt. The subpoena was withdrawn. "For him to want to get me on the stand made no sense," Kurt Calabrese said. "I wasn't going to lie. The truth wouldn't have helped my father."
Kurt Calabrese worked for his father and made stops to collect loan payments but was not involved in the violence of his father's street crew, according to testimony and law enforcement sources. "My father was very good at what he did. I don't like what he did. I don't condone what he did," Kurt said.
Kurt Calabrese pleaded guilty to a tax charge and was sentenced to two years in prison, getting out in 1999. "At the direction of my father, I did those things. Since I've come home from prison, that life is over," said Kurt Calabrese, who is now in the restaurant industry.
Kurt rejected the notion that his father pleaded guilty to help him. On the contrary, he said, he pleaded guilty to help his father. Kurt Calabrese said his lawyer was told by authorities at the time that if he didn't plead guilty, the negotiated pleas for his father and brother wouldn't be accepted. So he took the deal.
When he next saw his father -- who did not know of his decision -- his father pleaded with him to sign the plea agreement, Kurt recalled. "My father told me, 'If you don't take this plea, I'm gonna die in prison,' " he said.
Kurt Calabrese scoffs at his father's allegation he was involved in framing him -- along with his brother and his uncle -- in the Family Secrets case. "I wish I could tell you I was that smart," Kurt Calabrese said.
His uncle Nicholas never pitted him or Frank Jr. against his father, Kurt Calabrese said. In fact, his uncle Nicholas was more like a father to him than anyone, he said.
His uncle would at times try to stop his father from beating him, Kurt Calabrese said. In spite of his claims to the contrary, Frank Calabrese Sr. regularly beat his two oldest sons, Kurt Calabrese said. "My father said he didn't like bullies," Kurt Calabrese said. "The biggest bully I've ever known is my father."
Kurt Calabrese, who shows his emotions readily, said his father verbally abused him until he broke down. His father would punch him, throw things at him and kick him when he was down on the ground, Kurt recalled.
One trial witness told the FBI Frank Calabrese Sr. once got so mad at him he was foaming at the mouth. Kurt Calabrese remembers that face: The quivering chin, the reddening skin, the spit coming out of an enraged mouth. Then the violence.
He still sees that face in his nightmares, he said. "There were times when he hit me, and I didn't think he was going to stop," he said.
As for the tapes on which his father talks about the mob murders, Kurt Calabrese was shocked his father would ever discuss such things with anybody. But he wasn't shocked his father did them. He wonders what his father makes of the victims' families, sitting in court. "I hope when he sees these people, he knows they are there and dealing with things they shouldn't have to deal with," Kurt Calabrese said.
The trial has been hard on his family too, Kurt said. He is thankful every day for his mother, his wife and his children. The day jury selection began, a fake bomb was found at his Kenilworth home, prompting police to evacuate the area. "This is my whole family," Kurt Calabrese said of the havoc his father has created. "This didn't have to happen."
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Not the man -- Frank Calabrese Sr. -- who sat on the witness stand during the Family Secrets trial to face charges he killed 13 people for the mob.
Not the man who blamed his brother and his sons for conspiring to frame him for the crimes.
Not the man who denied he beat his sons and brought them into the loansharking business.
"All I wanted him to be was a dad," Kurt Calabrese said. "Why couldn't he be a dad?"
At one point from the witness stand, Frank Calabrese Sr. gestured out to Kurt, who was sitting in the gallery. "Ask him!" Calabrese Sr. said, as if Kurt Calabrese would confirm his testimony.
He would not have. Kurt Calabrese did not testify at trial and has not spoken publicly about his father or what life was like with him -- until now. But after his father made allegation after allegation from the witness stand, Kurt Calabrese is reluctantly breaking his silence in an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
"I'm not looking for anybody to feel sorry for me," Kurt Calabrese explained. "I hope maybe they can understand it.
"I don't hate him," Kurt said of his father. "I hate what he's done, and I hate how he's treated our family. But I don't hate him, because that's not me. I'm not a hateful person."
Without the turmoil in the Calabrese family, there may never have been a Family Secrets case.
Frank Calabrese Sr.'s eldest son, Frank Jr., agreed to record his father secretly while they were both in federal prison in 1999 on a loansharking case -- a case that also landed Kurt in prison. Frank Calabrese Jr. led jurors through the recorded conversations, in which Calabrese Sr. seems to admit taking part in mob murders.
Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nicholas, also testified against him at trial, admitting to killing at least 14 people, some with Frank Sr.
On the witness stand, Frank Calabrese Sr. often had a two-word response to the allegations: "No way."
Calabrese Sr. said he never hurt anyone, unless it was to defend someone against bullies. He used diplomacy to collect his juice loans, he said. He said his brother Nicholas tried to turn his two sons against him.
Calabrese Sr. said he loved his sons so much he pleaded guilty in the loansharking case -- so Frank Jr. and Kurt could get less time in prison. But his sons betrayed him, Calabrese Sr. suggested, by agreeing with their uncle, Nicholas, to frame him for mob murders and take his money.
At one point, Frank Calabrese Sr. had Kurt Calabrese subpoenaed to testify, a move that baffled Kurt. The subpoena was withdrawn. "For him to want to get me on the stand made no sense," Kurt Calabrese said. "I wasn't going to lie. The truth wouldn't have helped my father."
Kurt Calabrese worked for his father and made stops to collect loan payments but was not involved in the violence of his father's street crew, according to testimony and law enforcement sources. "My father was very good at what he did. I don't like what he did. I don't condone what he did," Kurt said.
Kurt Calabrese pleaded guilty to a tax charge and was sentenced to two years in prison, getting out in 1999. "At the direction of my father, I did those things. Since I've come home from prison, that life is over," said Kurt Calabrese, who is now in the restaurant industry.
Kurt rejected the notion that his father pleaded guilty to help him. On the contrary, he said, he pleaded guilty to help his father. Kurt Calabrese said his lawyer was told by authorities at the time that if he didn't plead guilty, the negotiated pleas for his father and brother wouldn't be accepted. So he took the deal.
When he next saw his father -- who did not know of his decision -- his father pleaded with him to sign the plea agreement, Kurt recalled. "My father told me, 'If you don't take this plea, I'm gonna die in prison,' " he said.
Kurt Calabrese scoffs at his father's allegation he was involved in framing him -- along with his brother and his uncle -- in the Family Secrets case. "I wish I could tell you I was that smart," Kurt Calabrese said.
His uncle Nicholas never pitted him or Frank Jr. against his father, Kurt Calabrese said. In fact, his uncle Nicholas was more like a father to him than anyone, he said.
His uncle would at times try to stop his father from beating him, Kurt Calabrese said. In spite of his claims to the contrary, Frank Calabrese Sr. regularly beat his two oldest sons, Kurt Calabrese said. "My father said he didn't like bullies," Kurt Calabrese said. "The biggest bully I've ever known is my father."
Kurt Calabrese, who shows his emotions readily, said his father verbally abused him until he broke down. His father would punch him, throw things at him and kick him when he was down on the ground, Kurt recalled.
One trial witness told the FBI Frank Calabrese Sr. once got so mad at him he was foaming at the mouth. Kurt Calabrese remembers that face: The quivering chin, the reddening skin, the spit coming out of an enraged mouth. Then the violence.
He still sees that face in his nightmares, he said. "There were times when he hit me, and I didn't think he was going to stop," he said.
As for the tapes on which his father talks about the mob murders, Kurt Calabrese was shocked his father would ever discuss such things with anybody. But he wasn't shocked his father did them. He wonders what his father makes of the victims' families, sitting in court. "I hope when he sees these people, he knows they are there and dealing with things they shouldn't have to deal with," Kurt Calabrese said.
The trial has been hard on his family too, Kurt said. He is thankful every day for his mother, his wife and his children. The day jury selection began, a fake bomb was found at his Kenilworth home, prompting police to evacuate the area. "This is my whole family," Kurt Calabrese said of the havoc his father has created. "This didn't have to happen."
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Meet the New Boss(es)?
Robberies are "scores," criminal charges "beefs" and getting sent to prison "going away" in the language of witnesses testifying at Chicago's biggest mob trial in years.
Scheduled to begin deliberations today, jurors in the "Family Secrets" mob trial have heard testimony about a kiss like the one Michael gave his brother Fredo in "The Godfather;" about mob wannabes initiated as full-fledged "made guys" by cutting their fingers and burning holy pictures in their bare hands in secret basement ceremonies.
Testimony also has attempted to link alleged mobsters with a host of unsolved gangland murders in and around Chicago, including those of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, long known as the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, and Spilotro's brother, Michael.
Both were found in June 1986 buried in a cornfield in Newton County, Ind.
Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, is one of five men on trial accused in a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly includes 18 long-unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion tied to the Outfit, as Chicago's organized crime family is known.
The others are reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62; and convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, the brother of prosecution witness and admitted hitman Nicholas Calabrese.
Yet with five men in their 60s and 70s as prosecutors' targets -- one of whom alternates between a cane and a wheelchair -- the testimony seems more a throwback to the days of Al Capone than it does any representation of the mob today.
Experts insist that isn't the case. Even if the Outfit isn't what it was in decades past, it isn't 6 feet under either, they say. "People say, 'Look at how old these guys are on trial, it's a geriatric organization,"' said John Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit."
"What you're seeing is just part of the organization," he said. "They're still doing gambling, they've still got some labor racketeering, they've got their hooks into some unions (and) they're still doing juice lending."
While the allegations date mostly to the 1970s and 1980s, Binder said the mob's influence still lingers.
In fact, the trial itself has served as a reminder that it's not necessary to watch "The Untouchables" for examples of the mob's reach. "What the trial has made clear is even when they are in prison they continue to exert influence and control," said James Wagner, the leader of the Chicago Crime Commission who investigated the mob for years when he was an FBI agent.
Some say it's naive to suggest that because so many of the reputed mobsters, including those on trial, are old, that the Outfit doesn't have people ready to step in and take over.
Binder compared the mob to a major company. "It's important in management to groom people," he said. "The Outfit is good at it; they've shown the ability to bring people up."
In addition to the murders of the Spilotro brothers, the "Family Secrets" mob trial included details about three other unsolved murders -- those of William and Charlotte Dauber and Nicholas D'Andrea.
Forty-five-year-old William "Billy" Dauber, 45, and his wife, Charlotte, were shot to death on the rural Monee-Manhattan Road in Will County as they were driving from a court hearing in Joliet to their home in Monee. Dauber, leader of the mob's stolen auto ring in the southern suburbs and Northwest Indiana, was himself a mob assassin.
The Daubers' 1980 Oldsmobile was riddled with bullets on the morning of July 2, 1980, by killers who used a high-powered rifle and shotgun while riding in a stolen van found abandoned and burned two miles from the murder site.
The body of the then-49-year-old D'Andrea, of Chicago Heights, was discovered Sept. 13, 1981, in the trunk of his burned out Mercedes-Benz two miles east of Crete.
His son Richard was arrested and his brother Mario, 42, of Chicago Heights, was killed by federal agents during an undercover drug buy in October 1981 after Mario D'Andrea pulled a gun when an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer identified himself.
Speculation at the time was that Nicholas D'Andrea was killed in connection with the attempted assassination of south suburban mob boss Alfred Pilotto, who was shot while playing golf with his brother, Henry, in July 1981. Henry Pilotto was at the time the police chief in Chicago Heights. Both Pilottos survived the shooting attempt.
Thanks to Don Babwin
Scheduled to begin deliberations today, jurors in the "Family Secrets" mob trial have heard testimony about a kiss like the one Michael gave his brother Fredo in "The Godfather;" about mob wannabes initiated as full-fledged "made guys" by cutting their fingers and burning holy pictures in their bare hands in secret basement ceremonies.
Testimony also has attempted to link alleged mobsters with a host of unsolved gangland murders in and around Chicago, including those of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, long known as the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, and Spilotro's brother, Michael.
Both were found in June 1986 buried in a cornfield in Newton County, Ind.
Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, is one of five men on trial accused in a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly includes 18 long-unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion tied to the Outfit, as Chicago's organized crime family is known.
The others are reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62; and convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, the brother of prosecution witness and admitted hitman Nicholas Calabrese.
Yet with five men in their 60s and 70s as prosecutors' targets -- one of whom alternates between a cane and a wheelchair -- the testimony seems more a throwback to the days of Al Capone than it does any representation of the mob today.
Experts insist that isn't the case. Even if the Outfit isn't what it was in decades past, it isn't 6 feet under either, they say. "People say, 'Look at how old these guys are on trial, it's a geriatric organization,"' said John Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit."
"What you're seeing is just part of the organization," he said. "They're still doing gambling, they've still got some labor racketeering, they've got their hooks into some unions (and) they're still doing juice lending."
While the allegations date mostly to the 1970s and 1980s, Binder said the mob's influence still lingers.
In fact, the trial itself has served as a reminder that it's not necessary to watch "The Untouchables" for examples of the mob's reach. "What the trial has made clear is even when they are in prison they continue to exert influence and control," said James Wagner, the leader of the Chicago Crime Commission who investigated the mob for years when he was an FBI agent.
Some say it's naive to suggest that because so many of the reputed mobsters, including those on trial, are old, that the Outfit doesn't have people ready to step in and take over.
Binder compared the mob to a major company. "It's important in management to groom people," he said. "The Outfit is good at it; they've shown the ability to bring people up."
In addition to the murders of the Spilotro brothers, the "Family Secrets" mob trial included details about three other unsolved murders -- those of William and Charlotte Dauber and Nicholas D'Andrea.
Forty-five-year-old William "Billy" Dauber, 45, and his wife, Charlotte, were shot to death on the rural Monee-Manhattan Road in Will County as they were driving from a court hearing in Joliet to their home in Monee. Dauber, leader of the mob's stolen auto ring in the southern suburbs and Northwest Indiana, was himself a mob assassin.
The Daubers' 1980 Oldsmobile was riddled with bullets on the morning of July 2, 1980, by killers who used a high-powered rifle and shotgun while riding in a stolen van found abandoned and burned two miles from the murder site.
The body of the then-49-year-old D'Andrea, of Chicago Heights, was discovered Sept. 13, 1981, in the trunk of his burned out Mercedes-Benz two miles east of Crete.
His son Richard was arrested and his brother Mario, 42, of Chicago Heights, was killed by federal agents during an undercover drug buy in October 1981 after Mario D'Andrea pulled a gun when an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer identified himself.
Speculation at the time was that Nicholas D'Andrea was killed in connection with the attempted assassination of south suburban mob boss Alfred Pilotto, who was shot while playing golf with his brother, Henry, in July 1981. Henry Pilotto was at the time the police chief in Chicago Heights. Both Pilottos survived the shooting attempt.
Thanks to Don Babwin
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
After Two Plus Months of Testimony, Jury Begins Deliberations Today
Deliberations are set to get under way Tuesday morning in the Family Secrets trial, as jurors begin to sift through more than two months of testimony on whether the five defendants played roles in a conspiracy to further the goals of the Chicago Outfit.
Before leaving the courtroom in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse last week for the Labor Day weekend, jurors determined they would work from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily as they try to reach a verdict.
Federal prosecutors contend that reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle should be convicted in a racketeering conspiracy spanning four decades.
All are charged in Count 1, the racketeering conspiracy charge, which takes up 18 pages of the indictment and alleges that an enterprise known as the Outfit collected street tax, operated illegal gambling businesses, made juice loans, obstructed justice and protected itself with violence and murder.
During the trial, Marcello and Lombardo were accused of being mob bosses, while Calabrese, accused in 13 of the 18 slayings in the case, was alleged to have been a leader of the mob's 26th Street, or Chinatown, crew.
Much of the case could depend on how jurors view the testimony of the government's key witness, Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, whose accusations implicated each defendant. Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the account of a man they described as an Outfit soldier who admitted to taking part in 14 murders.
Defense lawyers urged the panel to reject Nicholas Calabrese's testimony, calling him a liar and a killer who invented information against their clients in a bid to one day win his freedom. Much of his testimony detailed murders he allegedly committed with his brother.
Jurors also heard hours of secretly made recordings of four of the five defendants allegedly discussing Outfit business.
A pool of 17 jurors -- nine women and eight men -- heard the closing arguments last week.. But two of them are expected to be dismissed after having given the court a note indicating they had made up their minds already about the case, a no-no for jurors.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel ordered that the identities of the jurors be kept secret even from the lawyers and prosecutors, who know them only by number. Court officials have not yet disclosed which 12 jurors will be involved in the deliberations and which are alternates.
If jurors convict the men of racketeering conspiracy, their deliberations would not be over. At that point, lawyers would make another round of arguments, and the jury would then decide which defendant can be held accountable for which murder in the case.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Before leaving the courtroom in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse last week for the Labor Day weekend, jurors determined they would work from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily as they try to reach a verdict.
Federal prosecutors contend that reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle should be convicted in a racketeering conspiracy spanning four decades.
All are charged in Count 1, the racketeering conspiracy charge, which takes up 18 pages of the indictment and alleges that an enterprise known as the Outfit collected street tax, operated illegal gambling businesses, made juice loans, obstructed justice and protected itself with violence and murder.
During the trial, Marcello and Lombardo were accused of being mob bosses, while Calabrese, accused in 13 of the 18 slayings in the case, was alleged to have been a leader of the mob's 26th Street, or Chinatown, crew.
Much of the case could depend on how jurors view the testimony of the government's key witness, Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, whose accusations implicated each defendant. Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the account of a man they described as an Outfit soldier who admitted to taking part in 14 murders.
Defense lawyers urged the panel to reject Nicholas Calabrese's testimony, calling him a liar and a killer who invented information against their clients in a bid to one day win his freedom. Much of his testimony detailed murders he allegedly committed with his brother.
Jurors also heard hours of secretly made recordings of four of the five defendants allegedly discussing Outfit business.
A pool of 17 jurors -- nine women and eight men -- heard the closing arguments last week.. But two of them are expected to be dismissed after having given the court a note indicating they had made up their minds already about the case, a no-no for jurors.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel ordered that the identities of the jurors be kept secret even from the lawyers and prosecutors, who know them only by number. Court officials have not yet disclosed which 12 jurors will be involved in the deliberations and which are alternates.
If jurors convict the men of racketeering conspiracy, their deliberations would not be over. At that point, lawyers would make another round of arguments, and the jury would then decide which defendant can be held accountable for which murder in the case.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
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