Trailer for @ChiraqtheMovie focuses on Violence in Chicago with Satire #MurderCapitalUSA #Chiraq

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Revisiting the Mob Career of Tony Spilotro

Tony Spilotro, who would eventually be portrayed by Joe Pesci in the Martin Scorcese film "Casino," was born and raised in “The Patch,” a near west side Chicago neighborhood that was a haven for Italian immigrants in the 1940s and 50s. Spilotro entered high school at Steinmetz, but when his father had a stroke and died the next year, he dropped out and started a full-time life of crime. All but one of his five brothers, along with a number of neighbors, became members of the Chicago mob, and a few played starring roles.

During the 1970s, Tony Spilotro was fronted in Las Vegas by childhood friend Frank Rosenthal (portrayed by Robert DeNiro in "Casino"), who ran numerous mob-backed gambling operations, to become the enforcer for Chicago. Spilotro was already known for his brutality and quickly established an embezzling scheme that took a cut for mob families in Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

Leo Foreman was the first brutal murder that Spilotro was accused of, supposedly in retribution because the loan shark (Foreman) had disrespected Chicago mob boss Sam DeStefano. Spilotro also is thought to have murdered Tamara Rand, a California real estate broker, in 1975, because she was suing over an unpaid $2 million loan to Spilotro’s Las Vegas associate Allen Glick.

When Tony was blacklisted by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1979, which barred him from being physically present in a casino, Spilotro’s role of enforcer was curtailed. By that time, he had branched out into other activities like fencing stolen property and conducting a burglary operation with his brother Michael. The first Chicago mob informants flipped by the FBI named Spilotro in the murder of Leo Foreman, and a half dozen other close associates who accused Spilotro of ordering or carrying out mob murders.

By the early 1980s, Spilotro had already broke with Rosenthal after he had an affair with Rosenthal’s wife. When Frank Cullotta, a childhood friend who had remained an insider, began to fear that Spilotro was going to kill him, Cullotta began talking to the FBI.

Spilotro was acquitted in Chicago on a murder charge stemming in part from Cullotta’s testimony, but by 1986 the mobster had been implicated in about 22 murders and had lots of enemies in and out of jail.  Among other high-profile killings, Spilotro was suspected of being involved in the murder of his mentor Sam DeStefano and mob kingpin Sam Giancana.

There are several theories about how Tony and his brother Michael were lured to a summit meeting likely in Bensenville or North Riverside, Ill., and subsequently beaten and killed on June, 14, 1986.

About 10 days after the murders, the partially decomposed bodies of Tony and Michael Spilotro were found buried in a cornfield within the 12,000-acre Willow Slough preserve, in Newton County, Indiana. The farmer who spotted the site of the burial investigated at first because he thought a poacher had buried a deer killed out of season. The coroner noted that the bodies appeared to have been beaten to death by several people, and numerous people were eventually convicted. Of the 7-8 suspects in the Spilotro killings, several were convicted, others flipped and received lighter sentences in later cases, but everyone who was known to be at the meeting where the brothers were murdered, went to jail or died.

Thanks to Pat Collander.

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Monster Sized Mobster Trial to Begin #MafiaCapital

The biggest mob trial in modern-day Rome opens on Thursday, with a one-eyed former neo-fascist gangster and 45 other defendants in the dock accused of operating a mafia network that plundered city coffers.

The trial is the result of the "Mafia Capital" investigation, which laid bare allegations of mobsters, bureaucrats and politicians working hand-in-fist to siphon off millions of euros from services covering everything from refugee centres to trash collection.

At the heart of the scandal sits Massimo Carminati, a one-time member of Rome's notorious far-right Magliana Gang, and his sidekick Salvatore Buzzi, a convicted murderer.

Italian police allege Carminati and Buzzi infiltrated Rome's city hall and got their hands on lucrative public contracts. Police have released an array of wiretaps that they say show the defendants openly discussing their various schemes.

"Do you have any idea how much you can make from immigrants? The drugs trade brings you less money," Buzzi said in one call.

Both Buzzi and Carminati have denied the mafia charges.

As recently as 2013, the main government representative in the Rome region downplayed the existence of the mafia in the city, but the police probe, which was made public last December, suggested that much of local administration was rotten.

"Rome is unfortunately fundamentally corrupt," said Alfonso Sabella, a renowned Sicilian anti-mafia prosecutor who was drafted into the city after the Mafia Capital scandal detonated late last year.

"This is not your traditional mafia involved in drug dealing or extortion rackets. This is something original," he told Reuters, saying mobsters found accomplices in officials and politicians of all colours.

Police say the group was organised like a mob clan and have classified it as a mafia case. However, they say it was independent of the traditional southern Italian mafias.

Amongst those standing trial are Luca Gramazio, the former head of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party on the regional council, and Mirko Coratti, former head of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party on the Rome city council.

Both have denied wrongdoing.

The case will open in Rome's main courthouse but will then switch to the court bunker in the Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, where it is easier to secure large groups of defendants. It is expected to run until at least next July.

Carminati, who lost an eye in a police shoot-out in the early 1980s, is being held in a maximum security jail and will only be allowed to follow proceedings via a video link.

An initial, fastracked trial tied to the scandal ended on Tuesday, with all four defendants, including a senior city official, found guilty and handed prison terms of between four and five years.

Prosecutors allege that mobsters flourished in Rome following the 2008 election of right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is under investigation for graft, but does not face any mafia-related charges and is not involved in this trial.

Alemanno's successor, the centre-left Ignazio Marino, is not implicated in the case, but was forced to resign last week following in an unrelated expenses scandal.

Sabella says city hall has been purged over the past year.

"I would put my hand in the fire and say there is now no mafia in city hall. But I can't say the same about corruption. Even as we speak, someone is probably paying someone a bribe somewhere in the Rome city council," he said.

"That is what makes one so bitter."

Thanks to Crispian Balmer.

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Remarks by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch at 84th Interpol General Assembly

Thank you, President [Mireille] Ballestrazzi, for that kind introduction – and for your tireless work to foster greater cooperation among the world’s law enforcement agencies.  Thank you also to Secretary General [Jürgen] Stock for your leadership at Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) and your dedication to justice.  My thanks as well to my colleagues from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security who have committed so much to this organization, including Alan Bersin, Jolene Lauria [Sullens] and our National Central Bureau.  And thank you to everyone who is here with us today – distinguished leaders, passionate citizens and committed partners in the work that is our common cause.  It is an honor to address this eminent assembly and a privilege to be able to return to Rwanda – a country of unsurpassed beauty and tremendous resilience.
I first came to Rwanda 10 years ago to conduct a witness tampering investigation for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  As you can imagine, the stories I heard were heart-rending.  How does one comfort a woman who describes surviving a churchyard massacre by hiding under a pile of dead bodies and who went to the priest the next day for sanctuary, only to be turned away?  How does one promise justice to another woman who still bears the scars of the machete in her skull and who collapses in tears as she recounts how she was betrayed to the Interahamwe by someone who promised to smuggle her to safety?  These and other witnesses shared their stories with me with a faith that, first and foremost, justice could be achieved and that others would be helped if they shared their pain.
Serving that tribunal brought me face to face with what can happen both to a country and to the soul of its people when the rule of law collapses and justice cannot be found.  But it also reminded me of the fundamental human rights that our community of nations must defend and protect.  It reaffirmed my unwavering belief that upholding the rule of law is a government’s foremost responsibility – a responsibility that must be stronger than the desire for expedience, power or vengeance.  Individuals in every nation have the right to a government that prizes their citizens’ self-determination over its own desire for influence and power, and the right to expect that no organization or individual is above the law.  That is what the tribunal signified.  And through the indictment of 93 perpetrators and the uncovering of buried truths, it demonstrated what the family of nations can accomplish when we find the moral resolve and the political will to work together.
It is that same commitment to collaboration and that same understanding of universal rights that fuels this important organization today.  With 190 member countries and an unshakeable devotion to the rule of law, Interpol stands as an invaluable conduit for mutual assistance between law enforcement agencies across the world and a critical facilitator for international cooperation in matters of security, opportunity and human rights.  You are ensuring secure global police information systems; providing round-the-clock support and operational assistance; driving innovation and fueling improvement; and expanding international capabilities to identify crimes and pursue wrongdoers.  In all of your efforts, you are focused on working collaboratively to enhance the foundations and infrastructure essential to the work we share.
That work involves action against some of the most important and complex challenges of our time.  You provide a network to coordinate counterterrorism aid and a partnership to help combat the threat of foreign terrorist fighters – a resource that is invaluable as we seek to stem illicit travel by individuals moving to and from conflict zones in Syria and Afghanistan.  You join nations with one another in protecting cyber-security, helping to deprive cyber criminals of their mistaken sense of impunity and ensure that wrongdoers are held accountable – an effort that becomes more important every day.  You assemble information on common challenges and best practices of law enforcement, helping nations to learn from one another and strengthen our procedures.  In fact, the Interpol office in the United States has begun to offer Interpol members access to files in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center, starting with data on wanted persons, firearms and stolen vehicles, in order to assist police organizations worldwide.  And you are working to protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society by partnering with law enforcement agencies at all levels to exchange intelligence on human trafficking and to support action against those who exploit human beings for financial gain.
This last issue – a crime that is nothing less than modern-day slavery – is one of my highest priorities as Attorney General of the United States and one of our foremost challenges as an international community.  Because human trafficking is a largely hidden crime, it is difficult to precisely estimate how many millions of women, men and children are its victims.  But we do know that it occurs in countries all over the world, including the United States.  It is a crime that can take many forms – from forced physical labor to forced sex to child soldiers – and whose victims range from domestic workers to schoolchildren, to farmworkers, to countless others.  And with its ties to organized crime, its preying on flows of migrants and its complex financing schemes, human trafficking is a truly global problem that demands a truly global response.
Fifteen years ago, a framework for that united effort was created by two documents: the U.N. Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons and the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or TVPA.  Together, these instruments acknowledged psychological coercion as a common factor in involuntary servitude; recognized the effectiveness of holistic approaches involving protection, prosecution and prevention; and articulated the need for international collaboration in alleviating this heinous crime.
In the new era of resolve ushered in by the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol, Interpol has been at the forefront of the global crusade against human trafficking.  Whether developing tools and systems to help the global law enforcement community share intelligence, or partnering with bodies like the Organization of American States to pool resources and exchange best practices, or conducting operations like the one last June in the Ivory Coast that led to the arrest of 25 suspects and the rescue of more than 75 children, Interpol has helped dismantle trafficking networks, shut down illegal labor operations, apprehend smugglers and kidnappers and care for survivors.
Through efforts like these, the international community has come a long way in the last 15 years.  But the fact that millions of individuals remain in forced labor reminds us of how far we still have to go.  In addition to the persistent scope of the problem, new challenges are emerging – particularly the rise of the Internet as a forum for traffickers and criminal gangs’ reliance on child sex trafficking as a revenue stream.  As we seek to develop innovative, comprehensive and nimble responses to these evolving threats, we must find ways to work even more closely together in order to end this affront to our values and stop this crime against humanity.
I am proud to say that the United States is deeply engaged in combating this devastating threat.  Under my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Department of Justice joined the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security in launching the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team Initiative to create specialized units of attorneys and agents from across the federal government, enabling us to more effectively identify, apprehend and prosecute human traffickers and those who offer them material support.  I was proud to announce earlier this year that we would be expanding that initiative into new cities to bring to bear the full weight of our law enforcement capabilities and investigative expertise.  Just last month, in close conjunction with state and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI conducted its ninth annual “Operation: Cross Country” initiative against those who traffic in children for sexual exploitation, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of sex traffickers.  And through the department’s Enhanced Collaborative Model Program, we have been able to give municipalities throughout the United States tens of millions of dollars in grant funding to bring together law enforcement and victim services providers to not only ensure that traffickers are brought to justice, but to fully address the issues faced by survivors in a holistic, comprehensive and victim-centered environment.
These are important steps forward and I hope that in the months and years ahead, we will continue to join together to build on our achievements, in our own nations and around the world.  That work will not be easy, but it is deeply necessary.  This country – through its history – and this organization – through its design – understand the importance of making progress, one individual at a time, as difficult as it may be.  Every trafficker brought to justice represents a victory against inhumanity and a safer world for all nations.  Every survivor pulled from the clutches of a trafficking organization is a human life with a new opportunity to imagine his or her own destiny.  And every achievement we make together is a validation of our common mission to protect the rule of law.
When I shared my experiences at the tribunal with friends some years ago, one told me that the images painted by my words made him despair of the human race.  Surely, such evil condemned mankind to a life that was indeed “nasty, brutish and short.”  But I was not discouraged and I was compelled to explore why not in order to answer him.  And it is because, when we are confronted with the admittedly irrefutable evidence of man’s inhumanity to man, be it the betrayal of genocide or the scourge of human trafficking, the destructive impetus of terrorism or the corruption of cyberspace, we turn to the law.  Not because the law is perfect, but because it is the instrument through which we forge justice: fairly, impartially and transparently, even in the face of horrific crimes.  It is how we ensure that no one receives preferential treatment and that all receive equal protection.  It is how we honor the memories of the fallen and assure survivors they are not alone.  It is how we punish those responsible for unspeakable crimes and how we ensure the innocent are not falsely accused or wrongly convicted.  And it is ultimately how we create a better future – not only for the powerful, but for every citizen in our own nations and around the world.
As we gather here today, let us resolve to remember our part in that effort.  Let us pledge to stand together in that fight.  And let us continue, every day, to pursue our mission of a safer world, to advance our vision of a more just society and to hold close our hope of a brighter future for all.

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Check Out "Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters and Gin Joints to Gumshoes and Gimlets" from @Scottyyz

Catering to lovers of the well-written word and the well-mixed drink, Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters and Gin Joints to Gumshoes and Gimlets, is a lively look at the intertwining of alcohol and the underworld―represented by authors of crime both true and fictional and their glamorously disreputable characters, as well as by real life gangsters who built Prohibition-era empires on bootlegged booze. It celebrates the potent potables they imbibed and the watering holes they frequented, including some bars that continue to provide a second home for crime writers.

Highlighting the favorite drinks of Noir scribes, the book includes recipes for cocktails such as the Gimlet described in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, the Mojito Mulatta T.J. English drank while writing Havana Nocturne and the Dirty Martini favored by mob chronicler Christian Cippolini.

Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters and Gin Joints to Gumshoes and Gimlets, also lets us in on the drinking habits of notorious organized crime figures, revealing Al Capone’s taste for Templeton Rye, Meyer Lansky’s preference for Dewar’s Scotch and Gambino family hit man Charles Carneglia’s habit of guzzling Cutty Sark. With black and white illustrations throughout, Cocktail Noir is as stylish and irreverent as the drinks, often larger-than-life figures and culture it explores.

Authors Quoted Extensively: Dennis Lehane Patrick Downey T.J. English Scott Burnstein Christian Cippolini Chriss Lyon Gavin Schmitt Authors Discussed: Mario Puzo Gay Talese Peter Maas Raymond Chandler Dashiel Hammet Authors Honorably Mentioned: F. Scott Fitzgerald Dorothy Parker Stephen King Truman Capote

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Former U.S. House Speaker John Dennis Hastert Pleads Guilty

JOHN DENNIS HASTERT, 73, of Plano, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of illegally structuring cash withdrawals in order to evade financial reporting requirements.  The Honorable U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin scheduled a sentencing hearing for February 29, 2016, at 10:00 a.m.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois issued this statement following the guilty plea:

“Now that Mr. Hastert has pled guilty, and the Court has accepted his guilty plea, the case will proceed to sentencing.  As part of the sentencing process in this case, as in all cases, we will provide the Court with relevant information about the defendant’s background and the charged offenses, and the defendant will have an opportunity to do the same, so that the Court can impose an appropriate sentence taking into account all relevant factors in the case.  We have no further comment about the matter at this time.”

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Japan is Bracing for War among 'Yakuza' Crime Gangs

Japan is bracing for war.

Not with other countries, but with the nation's notorious gangsters.

A 43-year-old man was gunned down in the parking lot of a hot springs resort in western Japan earlier this month in what authorities say they fear could be the start of a deadly war among the nation's largest organized crime gangs, known collectively as the yakuza.

The powerful Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, which marked its 100th anniversary this year, split into two rival groups in September. Police arrested a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi in the hot springs shooting and identified the victim as a member of the breakaway group.

Analysts said the rupture was due to long-running disputes over succession plans and high fees that member groups were required to pay Yamaguchi-gumi leaders.

Japan’s National Police Agency warned of possible gang violence at an emergency meeting of senior officials from each of the country's 47 prefectures shortly after the split. "We don't have specific information thus far that the rift will develop into inter-gang conflicts, but there were incidents in the past which involved civilians," Takashi Kinoshita, chief of the JNPAs organized crime division, said at the meeting in early September, according to local media.

A dispute over the gang’s leadership in the early 1980s led to a two-year war that left an estimated 30 gangsters dead, 70 others wounded and more than 500 in police custody. However, there are no statistics on the number of civilians killed or injured in the violence.

Today, local news media report that yakuza groups are beginning to stockpile weapons and recruit members to carry out potential hits. The price of a handgun sold on the black market has risen from $2,500 to $10,000 in recent weeks, according to Asahi Shimbun, a leading mainstream newspaper.

Legal firearms are highly restricted in Japan. In a nation of roughly 127 million people, Japan had just 35 cases of firearm shootings in 2010, according to the most recent data available from the National Police Agency's “Crime in Japan” report.

Last month, in the western Japanese city of Toyama, one yakuza group paraded as many as 100 gangsters down a busy street in a show of strength. Two nights later, a rival group did the same nearby, Kyodo News Service reported. Authorities responded by sending scores of police to raid each group's headquarters, according to Kyodo.

Police estimate that Yamaguchi-gumi had about 10,000 core members and about 14,000 affiliated members before the split. About one-third are believed to have broken off to form a rival organization, called the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi.

Atsushi Mizoguchi, a journalist and author who has written extensively on the yakuza, said it is unlikely that senior leaders would order a full-on war. But he said at least some violence is likely as rival groups fight for turf.

“If organized criminals were able to establish viable revenues by invading the domain of others … it could lead to skirmishes in various places around the country. That could expand and eventually could well lead to a (violent) struggle,” Mizoguchi said at a Tokyo press briefing this week.

Jake Adelstein, a Tokyo journalist and authority on organized crime, is less sure. He points to the case of Tadamasa Goto, a yakuza boss who was ordered to pay $1.2 million in damages to the family of a real estate agent murdered by members of his gang in 2012. Although Goto was not charged in the death, he was still held liable.

“The situation is very different from what it was in the '80s,” Adelstein said. “It's not economically wise to have a gang war. The general public is no longer tolerant of yakuza conflict. It's costly to kill people.”

Yakuza gangs, long tolerated as a “necessary evil” in Japan, have been in slow decline since organized crime countermeasures were enacted in the early 1990s. Many gangs still operate semi-openly, however, with headquarters, business cards and legitimate-appearing front companies.

Yakuza engage in a variety of “serious criminal activities, including weapons trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering,” according to a February 2012 report from the U.S. Treasury Department. Extortion, loan-sharking and “protection” rackets also are common yakuza activities in Japan.

President Obama issued an executive order in 2011 designating the yakuza as a “transnational criminal organization.” The Treasury Department has since frozen assets in the U.S. of more than a dozen yakuza bosses — including the leaders of the Yamaguchi-gumi and the breakaway Kodo-kai gang — and has forbidden Americans from doing business with them.

In a report issued in April, the Treasury Department labeled the Kodo-kai “the most violent faction within the Yamaguchi-gumi” and said the yakuza has engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States, but did not provide details. There is no indication that any yakuza violence as a result of the recent split could spread to the U.S.

Thanks to Kirk Spitzer.

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