Posted on 12/18/2005 7:32:14 AM PST by nuconvert
Reputed hitman captured by FBI
Frank 'The German' Schweihs, 75, had disappeared from his Dania Beach home in April, one of two defendants in a Chicago mob case who slipped away from federal lawmen.
Associated Press
A reputed mob enforcer from Dania Beach who had been the focus of a manhunt since April, when federal prosecutors unsealed racketeering-murder charges against him, was arrested Friday in Kentucky, the FBI announced.
Frank ''The German'' Schweihs, 75, was captured without incident by the FBI at his apartment in Berea, Ky., a rugged, hilly area 40 miles south of Lexington.
Until April, Schweihs, allegedly at the top echelon of the Chicago underworld, lived openly on Southeast Seventh Street in Dania Beach. And before that, on Georgia Street, in Hollywood.
Schweihs was one of two defendants in the Chicago case who slipped away from federal lawmen just before prosecutors unveiled the long-sealed indictment against reputed Chicago mob boss James Marcello and 13 others in the FBI's Operation Family Secrets investigation.
FBI agents are still hunting for another fugitive, Joseph ''Joey the Clown'' Lombardo, 76, known as one of the senior figures in the Chicago mob.
The indictment charges that Chicago hoodlums and mob associates conspired in at least 19 unsolved murders, including that of Tony ''The Ant'' Spilotro, once known as the Chicago Outfit's man in Las Vegas, and his brother Michael. Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie Casino.
The indictment charges Schweihs with taking part in the racketeering scheme, in which the participants allegedly agreed to commit a number of murders.
It also charges him with extorting payments, or ''street tax,'' on behalf of organized crime by using ''force, violence and fear'' in the summer and fall of 2001 against the owners of adult entertainment clubs in Indiana and the Chicago suburbs.
Schweihs had an initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in Lexington at which he waived extradition. He will be held there until he can be returned to Chicago, officials said.
When he returns, Schweihs will be arraigned before U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is presiding over the Family Secrets case.
David Beyer, an FBI spokesman in Louisville, said Schweihs first leased the Berea apartment two weeks ago and paid cash.
Berea resident Tori Kittoe said she witnessed Schweihs' arrest about noon eastern standard time Friday. A plainclothes officer asked Schweihs if he had any weapons and Schweihs said he didn't, Kittoe said.
''He went on peacefully,'' she said of Schweihs.
''It really scared me that somebody who has possibly done something so horrible lived just a few doors down from me,'' Kittoe said.
Lt. Ken Clark of the Berea Police Department said residents of the apartments, close to Interstate 75, believed Schweihs had been there just a few days.
Federal law enforcement officers have been baffled thus far in their search for Lombardo. They offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the two men.
Lombardo wrote a letter to Zagel last May, offering to turn himself in if he were guaranteed a trial separate from the other defendants. He later wrote a second letter, taking issue with news reports in the case.
Lombardo went to federal prison in the 1980s, convicted along with then-International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Roy Lee Williams in a bribery conspiracy.
How glamerous.
I only hold Hollywood in limited accountability when Americans freely choose to embrace murder crimes as entertainment.
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