Reputed Mob-Backed Video Poker Machines Under Investigation

A federal investigation of mob-backed video poker machines is now under way in the Bridgeport neighborhood, sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News. And tavern owners, in whose bars the poker machines were located, have been called to testify before a federal grand jury.

The raids, according to law enforcement sources, began over the summer.

“They hit several taverns, 10 or 12 of them maybe,” confirmed attorney Joseph Lopez, who said the FBI took all the circuit boards out of the machines.

One such raid, according to a knowledgeable source, took place at the Redwood Lounge at 3200 S. Wallace. Reached at home, the bar’s owner, Nick Spazio, declined to comment when asked if his tavern was the object of an FBI raid. “Sweetheart, I can’t really talk to you on the advice of my lawyer . . . we better leave it alone,” he told a reporter.

The bar is now closed.

Authorities believe the video poker machines, which produce illegal payouts, tie back to the operation of the late Joseph “Shorty” LaMantia, a top lieutenant in the 26th Street Crew.

LaMantia, in turn, worked under Frank Calabrese Sr., who was convicted in 2007 in the historic Family Secrets trial, involving 18 unsolved mob murders. Calabrese, Joseph Lombardo and three others were found guilty on racketeering and conspiracy charges.

A jury ruled that Calabrese, 72, took part in seven outfit hits and ran an illegal gambling operation. He was sentenced to life in prison.

At the end of the trial, Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office, said his agents’ work was not done. “It’s not the end of the Outfit,” he said. “I would declare to you right now we are actively investigating the Chicago Outfit.”

Video poker machines have long been a staple of Chicago taverns and a rich source of revenue for the Chicago mob.

Currently, it is the state that is desperate for revenue. And so in July, Gov. Quinn signed a bill to legalize video poker as a way to fund state construction projects. But those machines won’t be able to legally make payouts until the Illinois Gaming Board can hire sufficient staff to license them and enforce their operation. A Gaming Board official said the goal is to be up and running by the end of 2010.

The plans call for an estimated 45,000 to 60,000 legal video poker machines in bars and taverns statewide. So far, about 49 cities, town and counties, including Cook and DuPage, have opted to ban them. (The county bans apply only to unincorporated areas.)

The Legislature, according to the Gaming Board, allocated $3.3 million to the board in fiscal year 2009 and $4.7 million in fiscal year 2010, allowing it to double its existing staff. Half of the new hires will be dedicated to monitoring video poker machines.

Critics argue that even with additional personnel it will be a daunting, if not impossible, challenge to wire all the machines to a central location and ensure no criminal influence.

Then there is the question of what will the mob do? Jim Wagner, a former FBI supervisor and past head of the Chicago Crime Commission, believes video poker remains too lucrative for the Outfit to cede its profits to the state.

There’s “too much money to be made with those machines to turn their backs on it,” Wagner said. “They have their own equipment out there and that won’t change.”

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment for this story.

Thanks to Carol Marin and Don Mosely

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Public Enemies Two-Disc Special Edition is Released

This week, among the outstanding, thematically diverse films coming to DVD is a period piece chronicling the exploits of famous gangsters and the legendary FBI inspector who captured them.

Michael Mann's Public Enemies (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Universal) spotlights both famous personalities and key events from the era when such characters as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Alvin Karpis captured the imagination of the public despite their criminal exploits.

Mann's lengthy (140 minutes) work mainly focuses on Dillinger (Johnny Depp), his relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) and legendary FBI agent Melvin Purvis' (Christian Bale) long crusade to capture him.

The film divides its time equally between Bale's often stormy relationship with superior J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and his searches for not only Dillinger, but also Floyd (Channing Tatum), Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi) and Nelson (Stephen Graham).

Bale plays Purvis in a more relentless, less folksy manner than some previous actors, most notably Dale Robertson, whose portrayal of Purvis in both films and television shows depicted him as a larger-than-life, rollicking type who loved gambling, fancy cars and women. This Purvis is a tough, serious type who doesn't have much tine for small talk or bureau politics.

Public Enemies sometimes veers off into the unusual relationship between Dillnger and Frechette, and also shows just how magnetic Dillinger's personality was during that time. He was also quite brilliant, and among the film's highlights is the depiction of his escape from a heavily guarded prison, one that was particularly embarrassing to both prison and federal officials at the time.

The movie was based in part on Bryan Burrough's comprehensive Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI and is far more detailed and realistic than many of its predecessors.

Thanks to Ron Wynn

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"Capone May Go Free"

Imagine being a kid whose father was Al Capone's attorney and being taken to school by Sam "the Cigar" Giacana.

That's the early life of Donald "Donnie" Parrillo, who has written and self-published a book, "Capone May Go Free," about his family's connections to the Chicago mob. Parrillo served as councilman in Chicago's notorious First Ward, which has been credited with swinging the presidential election in favor of John F. Kennedy.

"It's about an era that's never going to happen again," Parrillo said. "Today, organized crime is very little. It's more of a myth."

Parrillo, who will be 79 on Dec. 13, had a heart attack while visiting Michigan City about a month ago. He's recovering from quadruple bypass surgery at his Chicago home. He spoke to The News-Dispatch by phone about the book he worked on for nearly a year.

In the book's prologue, Parrillo assures the reader, "Every word you are about to read is true. This is truly a true story based on my own experiences, from growing up in Chicago's 'Little Italy' where I saw 'Taylor Street Justice' administered with an iron hand, to that truly frightening moment when I was approached at my father's grave by the leader of the Chicago Outfit, Sam 'the Cigar' Giancana, and asked to run for alderman of Chicago's legendary First Ward."

The book's title comes from a newspaper headline about Parrillo's father, William "Billie" Parrillo, who found a legal loophole to get the infamous Al Capone free from prison. Capone had already served more than four years of an 11-year sentence at Alcatraz for tax evasion. Capone was released on parole and, ultimately, was done in by brain syphilis he got from actress Jean Harlow. He died at age 48.

William Parrillo also died at 48, and his son has never gotten over the early death. His father graduated from Kent College of Law in Chicago and became an assistant U.S. district attorney. William Parrillo left to start his own law practice with partner Joe Roach. Soon, his son said, "they became the go-to lawyers in Chicago for gangsters...," including Capone, Giancana and Frank Nitti.

Parrillo makes a point of saying his father worked for the organized crime syndicate, but he wasn't connected to them.

"They never could order him what to do," Parrillo said. "He was never in a position where he had to say yes."

The author devotes an entire chapter to Giancana, commonly referred to as "Mo." He knew Giancana "from the day I was born," he said. The Chicago mob boss occasionally took him and his brother to school.

"Mo loved the limelight," Parrillo recalled.

He writes about being asked to go to his father's grave, where he was met by a man dressed like a cemetery caretaker. The man turned out to be Giancana, and he asked Parrillo to run for alderman of Chicago's First Ward, one of the most politically influential wards in the city.

"The government was breathing down the First Ward's back because gambling was running wild," Parrillo said. "They knew I was a legitimate businessman."

Parrillo served as alderman from 1964 to 1968 and said he benefitted financially from it.

"The $11 million deposit bank I owned went to a $36 million bank," Parrillo said. "I also inherited a lot of money."

Parrillo spent summers at his family's lake house in Long Beach, starting at age 3 until his late teens. He lived full time in Long Beach with his wife and two children from 1979 to 1989. His daughter, Kimberly, graduated from Elston High School in 1986, and son Timothy is a 1987 Elston graduate.

"I loved Long Beach and the area so much, I wanted them to experience it, too," Parrillo said.

He considers the mobsters he knew as men who treated each other honorably.

"The lesson I learned from the big shots was, if you're an honorable person, you can never be stopped," Parrillo said. "When you make a commitment, you follow through with it."

Parrillo is distributing the book only in Michigan City. He has contracted with local resident Alan Harvey to stock the books in the three Al's Supermarkets and at The Bookstore at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets. Visit www.caponemaygofree.com or call (877) 874-6220 for more information.

Thanks to Laurie Wink

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Junior Gotti Visits Father's Grave After Released from Fourth Mistrial

Freshly free after his fourth mistrial, the Teflon Son went to pay his respects to the original Dapper Don on Sunday.

John A. (Junior) Gotti arrived at the gangster-packed St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, at 1:15 p.m. and spent about a half-hour alone with his departed dad.

The elder Gotti, who headed the Gambino crime family before his son, was sentenced to life behind bars after skating on three previous trials. He died in a Missouri prison in 2002. Junior, a 45-year-old father of six, spent the past 16 months behind bars until last Tuesday, when his own fourth racketeering trial ended in a hung jury.

Gotti made a point last week of saying he looked forward to visiting the graves of his father and brother. Junior's little brother, Frank, who was accidentally run over at age 12 by a neighbor who soon vanished without a trace, is also interred at the cemetery's five-story mausoleum.

Wearing a striped black track suit and white sneakers, Junior first went to noon Mass at the Church of St. Dominic in Oyster Bay, L.I., with two of his daughters.

He told reporters he planned to spend the rest of the day enjoying family time. "I'm going to cook. I always cook on Sundays," he said.

Junior made similar pilgrimages to his dad's grave after previous mistrials.

During his most recent murder and racketeering trial, Gotti said he felt his father communicated with him through specific songs that played on the radio at 10:27 p.m.

"1-0/27 is my father's birthday," he explained last week. "To me it's like a message."

Others buried at St. John's include such storied mobsters as Carlo Gambino, Carmine Galante, Vito Genovese, Joe Profaci, Joe Colombo and Lucky Luciano.

Thanks to Helen Kennedy

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ABA Journal's 3rd Annual Blawg 100

The ABA Journal's online directory has invited readers to vote for their favorite blogs from among their annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 in each of 10 categories. Every year, the list has occasioned great debate about the state of the blawgosphere, terrific legal blogs that didn't make the list, and how lawyers can benefit from the news and analysis being produced online every day by their colleagues nationwide.

Voting ends December 31. Winners will be featured in the February issue of the Journal.

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