Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination

A new book has been released, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination, was written by Lamar Waldron. In the book it proposes that Mafia Mobster Boss, Carlos Marcello from New Orleans had JFK killed.

This is not a new theory, but the book cites a testimony from Marcello where he said “Yeah, I had the son of a bitch killed. I’m glad I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it myself.” It seems that Marcello does not care who knows that he orchestrated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The former mobster boss also claims that he knew Jack Ruby, and he had him kill Lee Harvey Oswald. The new book which has 848 pages also looks at the links between Marcello and the murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Tweet

How to Build Your Own Organized Crime Family

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Paramount Digital Entertainment announced that The Godfather® II videogame will be shipping on February 24th in North America and on February 27th in Europe. The Godfather II allows players to both act like a mobster and think like a Don, by immersing them in a 1960’s organized crime world. As a Don, players can build a crew and grow their family in an effort to become the most powerful mob syndicate in America. Players will be able to choose how and when to use their Made men, either by commanding them directly in battle as part of their crew, or by sending them to do a job in another part of the world – bombing rival family rackets, attacking their businesses, or defending your own.

Players who pre-order The Godfather II at participating retailers worldwide will receive an exclusive crew member, named Tommy Cipolla, to hire into their family. While the other soldiers at the start of the game come equipped with one specialty and level-one firearms, Tommy will be the only crew member to possess two specialties – arsonist and medic – as well as carry a level-two double-barreled shotgun. With Tommy in your family, players will have a strategic advantage in the game, using his advanced skills either directly in battle, or sending him to take over and defend rackets on his own.

The Godfather II takes the open-world genre in an entirely new direction. Part of the fascination with The Godfather fiction is the feeling of power that comes with being the Don of an organized crime family – and The Godfather II game puts the control in your hands. While at its heart The Godfather II remains an action game, it also features deep new strategic gameplay mechanics never before seen in an open-world game. The strategic elements to the game allow you to extend the fantasy of building and running your own organized crime family. This means that you have to build and invest in your family, manage your businesses, and reach out to corrupt officials – all of which is done through the revolutionary Don’s View. The Don’s View is a 3D representation of your criminal empire in all three cities; it allows you to coordinate your strategy, plan hits on rival Made men, attack enemy rackets, and much more. The Godfather II delivers the ultimate organized crime experience by allowing you to call the shots.

Developed at the EA Redwood Stores studio, The Godfather II will be coming to the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and PC. The Godfather II has been rated M for Mature by the ESRB and 18+ for PEGI.

Tweet

Al Capone's Hideaway and Steakhouse

Al Capone's Hideaway and Steakhouse was once actually one of the 10,000 speakeasies in the Chicago area controlled by Capone. Built in 1917 as Reitmayer's Resort and Beer Garden, the establishment catered to tourists and well-to-do residents who built summer homes along the shore of the Fox River in the Valley View area north of St. Charles.

With the passage of Prohibition, the Reitmayers entered a wild and daring time, manufacturing their own liquor and catering to some shadowy figures. In case of a raid, secret copper lines carried the illicit booze into a hidden storage area in the hen house.

In 1972, Bill Brooks Jr., a computer salesman visiting the area, noticed the rundown old beer garden and restaurant and bought it. Preserving the pine plank floors and walls, Brooks decorated his restaurant with memorabilia from the Prohibition Era. If you like history, allow a little time on your visit for reading newspaper stories of mob hits, receipts and letters from Capone's business, and looking at photographs of the Chicago Outfit.

Bill Brooks III, 32, who was born and raised upstairs of the restaurant, said Al Capone's Hideaway and Steakhouse ages and trims all its steaks in-house. Two charcoal grill chefs, Brooks' uncle Mike Mosher and Ray Heaberlin, have worked the grill for 35 and 32 years respectively. Every week, the duo serve about 1,200 customers and use 1,400 pounds of charcoal. The menu is loaded with steaks, seafood, bullet holes, pictures of Capone and his cronies and, naturally, Eliot Ness.

Capone's business, of course, was illegal liquor. He once said, "When I sell liquor, they call it bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on silver trays on Lake Shore Drive, they call it hospitality."

Legal liquor has become an important part of the Brooks' Alphonse Capone Enterprises. The Brooks family wholesales Roaring 20's Wine, Microbrews and Spirits. A vodka called Tommy Gun Vodka is sold in a glass bottle shaped like a 20's era Tommy Gun, complete with a barrel and two handles. Their vodkas are distilled in Poland. One, named Kul, Polish for cool, scored 91 of a possible 100 points in recent taste testings conducted by the Beverage Testing Institute. Kul, which retails for $10.95, was awarded a Gold Medal and Best Buy. "Kul got a higher rating than many $30 vodkas," said Brooks.

"The restaurant will always stay a part of our lives," said Brooks. "It's the base foundation for everything else, even though the liquor business can do in a month what the restaurant does in a year."

Tweet

Will Mob Museum Get Funding from the Federal Stimulus Package?

The mob museum just can’t seem to get any love in this town.

Republican Sen. John Ensign on Wednesday became the latest Nevada lawmaker to say there’s no way Las Vegas’ proposed Mob Museum is going to get a dime from the federal economic stimulus package.

“It’s not going to happen — there’s no way it’s going to happen,” Ensign said. “If folks tried to put things like that in the bill, it could bring down the bill out of embarrassment.”

The mob museum could have become Nevada’s own “bridge to nowhere,” a toxic asset depicted by Republicans in Washington as a prime example of potentially wasteful government spending in the recovery package.

Except that the idea never gained much ground here. It arose only because Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, himself a former mob lawyer, suggested last month that if Washington wanted to boost the economy, it could kick in some bucks for the museum he is trying to develop.

Republicans saw Goodman’s comment as a chance for political fungo. They raised the idea in Washington so they could swat at it. Political Web sites picked it up and it became a sensation.

To be sure, cities all over the country have been putting together wish lists of projects that could create jobs and boost their economies. In Las Vegas, the hometown industry could benefit from the tourist traffic of a new museum — which is being developed, incidentally, with the FBI field office’s former special agent in charge.

Nevada’s lawmakers aren’t necessarily opposed to the museum — remodeling of an old post office where it is to be housed has been supported with federal funding in the past. But Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, has made it clear there will be no pet projects, often called earmarks, in the stimulus package.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus said funding the mob museum would not be her top choice for stimulating the Southern Nevada economy.

On Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley added her thoughts, saying in a statement: “While I am not opposed to the concept of a museum like this, I do not and will not support federal tax dollars being allocated in this stimulus package specifically for this project.”

No walk-around money for the wise guys, it seems, at least not this time around.

Thanks to Lisa Mascaro

Tweet

The Chicago Crime Commission is Fighting to Survive

There is turmoil at the top of the Chicago Crime Commission, the nation's oldest organization of citizen crime fighters.

After leading the fight against a Rosemont casino and a high-level role in the Operation Family Secrets mob trial, the Chicago Crime Commission last week closed its doors and moved out of its long time headquarters in the Loop. A spokesperson says they are waiting for new office space to open. But the recently departed president says the commission was out of money late last year and couldn't make payroll.

"We simply were out of money at the time that I decided I had to resign," said James Wagner, Former crime commission president.

Decorated former FBI agent Jim Wagner left the crime commission last October without public explanation. Now, he tells the I-Team they were teetering on collapse. "I believed it was when I resigned, I was not at all confident that they would be able to continue," said Wagner.

It was thriving 90 years ago, along with the mob. The crime commission received its charter and was run by civic and business leaders. Prohibition triggered a gangland war, led by notorious hoodlum Al Capone. The crime commission began a decades-long fight against the outfit and the public corruption that fuels it.

"To come to its demise is very sad for me," said Robert Fuesel, former crime commissioner.

Former IRS investigator Bob Fuesel ran the commission 15 years ago. He says he accepted a $930,000 donation from the estate of a late board member. "That money is now all gone. People came in and started with high salaries and hired people that weren't needed," said Fuesel.

By last fall, the organization was in dire shape. "We didn't have what you would call a staff," said Wagner.

The latest public filings show the commission spends more than it brings in.

After Wagner, business magnate J.R. Davis took over what's left as chairman, board member and president. "He has no law enforcement experience and he is holding three positions, being a one man office...It's just a sham operation, there is nothing going on over there," said Wagner.

In an email, Davis cited the commission's "very formidable financial position" but said it's not "in the best interest of law enforcement to outline specific financial details of the commission."

"My concern is that all power is vested in one individual and I'm not sure that's a healthy situation for any independent not for profit to operate in that fashion," said Wagner.

State records reveal that a former crime commission employee is under investigation for alleged theft of funds.

The case was referred to the FBI and on Wednesday a bureau official says the matter is pending.

Despite the turmoil, a crime commission spokesperson contends they are not out of business and promises new innovative programs that address gang violence and public corruption as well as new members of their leadership team.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

Tweet