CHICAGO, June 18, 2007
Will Fed Trial Put "Hit" On Chicago Mob?
FBI's "Operation Family Secrets" Goes To Trial Over 18 Mob Murders, Extortion, Other Charges
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Frank Calabrese Sr., left, and Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, who were among those indicted in connection with the FBI's "Operation Family Secrets" investigation into the Chicago Outfit, the crime organization linked to murders, extortion, illegal gambling and other offenses. (AP/FBI)
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U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, at podium, announcing the indictment of 14 reputed mob members in April 2005. (AP)
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Interactive Mobster Madness In real life and on the screen, Americans are fascinated by the Mob. Find out more about actual dons and their fictional counterparts.
Accardo was not amused.
Six men Accardo blamed for the heist were swiftly hunted down and murdered, according to papers filed by federal prosecutors in preparation for Chicago's biggest mob trial in years, scheduled to begin Tuesday.
And that's only one of the grisly tales jurors are likely to hear at the trial stemming from the FBI's "Operation Family Secrets" investigation of 18 long-unsolved mob murders allegedly tied to the Outfit, Chicago's organized crime family.
"This unprecedented indictment puts a hit on the mob," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in announcing the charges in April 2005. "It is remarkable for both the breadth of the murders charged and for naming the entire Chicago Outfit as a criminal enterprise under the anti-racketeering (RICO) law."
Among the defendants expected to go to trial this week:
All have pleaded not guilty. Four others have already pleaded guilty in the case, and two more may today.
Nicholas Calabrese, brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., pleaded guilty to several counts in May and admitted that he took part in 14 mob murders, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, known as the Chicago Outfit's man in Las Vegas. [Spilotro, who inspired the character played by Joe Pesci in the movie "Casino," and his brother were beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.]
Last week, Michael Marcello (brother of James) pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges and admitted he paid Nicholas Calabrese $4,000 a month to keep silent about unsolved underworld murders and not tie brother James Calabrese to the killings.
James Calabrese ended up talking to the FBI and now figures to be the prosecution's star witness. He is expected to tell an extraordinary history of the mob from the 1960s almost until now.
Another defendant, alleged extortionist Frank "The German" Schweihs, has been tentatively dropped from the trial for health reasons.
Another individual named in the original indictment in April 2005, Frank Saladino, was found dead in his hotel room, apparently of natural causes, when agents went to arrest him.
Accardo, the notorious mob boss whose home was hit by the burglars, died in 1992 at age 86. He boasted that he never spent a night in jail.
In court papers, prosecutors draw a panoramic picture of the Chicago Outfit and its trade in murder, loan sharking, pornography, illegal gambling and charging businesses "street tax" to stay in operation.
They say the Outfit is divided into six "street crews," each headed by a capo or "street boss" and with a franchise over its sector of the city.
Experts say the organization is so deeply entrenched that it won't be decapitated even if the government gets a clean sweep of convictions.
Lombardo defense attorney Rick Halprin scoffs at prosecutors' claims his client is a powerful organized crime leader. "Those things just aren't true," he said.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- It's good to see "perception5" has his granddaughter's computer available when she's at school...his Republicunt Party ********* diatribes are rather amusing to those of us that got beyond the sixth grade.
Unions ? You mean the folks that brought you WEEKENDS and PAID VACATIONS ?
You must have been brought up as the Son of the Massa someplace South of the Mason/Dixon line if you can't appreciate that fact...or your Daddy must have run the local sweatshop and kept you in preppy clothes and convertibles while your classmates without the silver spoon toiled right alongside their Daddies.
In the REAL world, unions make life better.
So sorry you're a freakazoid cake-eater that is just now realizing the Republicrap Party is done for at least the next 16 (if not TWENTY!!) years! - Reply to this comment
- forthepeople: How is any of that related to the story? You are really reaching for some support that, as far as I have read, is very small, in deed. Stick to what you do best: Rant in your own back yard, kick your dog, slap your wife, yell at your kids, light fire crackers under your grandma's rocking chair: you know, the usual kid stuff you think is so funny.
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- JULY 21 2007 IS WHEN AMERICANS WILL BE FREE AGAIN
EVERYONE THAT WANTS TO HELP WITH THIS SHOULD BE TALKING TO ALL MEDIA OUTLETS AND TELLING THEM THAT AMERICANS ARE READY TO TAKE WASHINGTON ON AND ITS NOT A FEW AMERICANS ITMILLIONS OF AMERICANS THAT WILL TAKE BACK THERE COUNTRY..
I AM WILLING TO GIVE MY BLOOD FOR ALL AMERICANS TO GET OUR COUNTRY BACK TO WHAT OUR FORFATHERS WANTED.
AM A VET AND AM READY TO TAKE CHARGE OF THIS AMERICAN BOYCOT/COOP IF WE THE PEOPLE DONT DO THIS NOW WE WILL BE GIVENING UP ON OUR CONSTITUTION AND WHAT ALL OUR VET HAVE DIED FOR..
DAVID A BELANGER,VET US ARMY,for-america@hotmail.com
ok so wants to join in on this great american REVOLUTION
they cant kill millions of americans at once so if we charge them all at once we will win and take them out and hang them all..
just like in the old days of the west...hang them from the trees in front of the whitehouse and see how many start telling the truth about what they have done to all us americans..
if the american NOW dont stand up and start a NATIONAL REVOUTION ON THIS WASHINGTON BULL S/H/I/T/ THEN we as TRUE AMERICANS can say nothing!!!
its time to take all this *** and take our government back now..
they are the ones that started this and we will finnish it now..we the people will take our country back and everyone in washington can sit there and thinks we the people are ok with what they are doing..go ahead and let them think that we are comming to take them out - Reply to this comment
- "charging businesses "street tax" to stay in operation."
The government hates competition... - Reply to this comment
- HOPEFULLY NEXT, THEY'LL BUST THE "SKULLS & BONES" GROUP, WHO OUR PRESIDENT G.W. BUSH AND VP-CHENEY IS A MEMBER OF !!! ALONG WITH DADDY-BUSH AND SEVERAL OTHER PROMINENT CORRUPT POLITICIANS AS WELL !!! JUST A MATTER OF TIME, ITS COMIN !!!! THEN THEY'LL FIND ALL THOSE MISSING BILLIONS OF US-TAX PAYER DOLLARS EARMARKED FOR IRAQ RE-CONSTRUCTION THAT CAME UP MISSING !!!!!!!
- Reply to this comment
- The republicans have their own even more powerful and corrupt mob to take care of them - corporations and law enforcement:)
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- "Wisecracking Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, who in the 1980s was convicted in the same federal courthouse (along with then-International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Roy Lee Williams) of attempting to bribe Sen. Howard Cannon of Nevada."
........ and our mob-run unions keep getting more corrupt......... which is why they probably support the Democrat Party............of course.
But our liberal MSM wolfpack press will continue to ingore these stories .........as much as possible as not to disrupt funds flowing from the mob-run unions to their pals in the Democrat party........... - Reply to this comment
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