Posted on 04/25/2005 11:47:24 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
By MIKE ROBINSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO (AP) - Fourteen reputed organized crime figures were indicted Monday on charges of plotting at least 18 murders, including the 1986 slaying of the Chicago mob's top man in Las Vegas, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was buried alive in an cornfield.
Those indicted include Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in the Chicago area. U.S attorney spokesman Randall Samborn said authorities were looking for Lombardo.
"This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the mob," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement. "After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime."
Tony Spilotro, a Chicago mob enforcer, ruled Las Vegas in the 1970s and early 1980s. Spilotro, 48, and brother Michael, 41, were last seen alive on June 14, 1986. Their badly beaten bodies were found buried in the Indiana field eight days later.
Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 movie "Casino."
FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents began arresting the defendants in the nine-count indictment Monday morning in Illinois, Arizona and Florida as a result of a long-standing investigation dubbed "Operation Family Secrets," which was aimed at clearing unsolved mob hits.
One defendant was found dead by the agents, apparently of natural causes, authorities said.
The operation has been one of the biggest investigations of organized crime activities in the Chicago area in years and is believed to be aimed at some of the mob's top leaders.
Federal prosecutors said 18 previously unsolved murders and one attempted murder - all of which took place between 1970 and 1986 in the Chicago area and one in Arizona - are at the core of the racketeering indictment.
Among those charged were two retired law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
They said all of those charged "are members of or in some manner associated with The Chicago Outfit, a criminal enterprise also known as the Chicago Syndicate and the Chicago mob."
Eleven of those named in the indictment were charged with conspiracy, including plotting to commit murder as part of such mob activities as loansharking and bookmaking.
The indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed Monday.
Prosecutors said that seven of the 11 defendants charged in the conspiracy count of the indictment actually committed murder or agreed to commit murder.
"The charges announced today are a milestone event in the FBI's battle against organized crime here in Chicago," said Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.
The 75-year-old Lombardo was previously convicted in U.S. District Court in Chicago in another major mob investigation of corruption involving the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.
Besides Lombardo, those charged in the latest indictment are: James Marcello, 63, of Lombard; Michael Marcello, 55, of Schaumburg; Nicholas Ferriola, 29, of Westchester; Joseph Venezia, 62, of Hillside; Thomas Johnson, 49, of Willow Springs; Dennis Johnson, 34, of Lombard; Frank Saladino, 59, of Hampshire and Michael Ricci, 75, of Streamwood.
Prosecutors said Saladino, who formerly lived in Freeport and Rockford, was found dead by agents in a hotel room where he was living in Hampshire in Kane County.
Two defendants, Frank Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., and Anthony Doyle, 60, of Wickenburg, Ariz., were being arrested in their states Monday, officials said.
They said three defendants, Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62, of Chicago, his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, of Oak Brook, and Paul Schiro, 67, of Phoenix already were in federal custody.
On a side note, how do you follow a boss nicknamed "the clown"?
So they still haven't found Whitey Bulger yet, huh?
Was this the psycho character portrayed by Joe Pesci in the movie, "Casino"?
"....Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was buried alive in an cornfield."
My memory tells me that "the Ant" guy was killed because he wouldn't follow orders and that he formed his own gang called the "hole in the wall gang". I think it's funny (maybe sick Mafia revenge humor?) that he was buried alive in a "hole in the dirt".
Is there a Chicago equivalent to Jerry Capeci's "Gangland News"?
because he'd stick a knife in your heart as he was telling you a joke ?
Hmm, I guess the feds must have watched Casino, over the weekend, and decided to get some work done.
Yes.
My memory tells me that "the Ant" guy was killed because he wouldn't follow orders and that he formed his own gang called the "hole in the wall gang". I think it's funny (maybe sick Mafia revenge humor?) that he was buried alive in a "hole in the dirt".
My all time favorite TV-news line was delivered by Chicago reporter Chuck Goudie, reporting from Spilotro's funeral:
"The Spilotro brothers were buried for the second time today..."
That's hilarious.
Guess Mr. Goudie could only get away with cracking jokes on a dead mobster because he was on the outs with the main mob. :)
AZ is to IL what FL is to NY.
The town we live in is very close to a couple of the ones mentioned in this article. One day Mr. RK and I were in the parking lot of the grocery store putting our bags in to the car. A brand new sparkling Cadillac with all windows (except the windsheild) tinted as dark as possible pulls in to the spot facing us. A couple gets out. The girl is blond and ultra trendy looking and the guy is about 5'5", slicked back black hair, wearing a track suit and chewing on a toothpick.
When we were a safe distance away I said, "Did you see that guy who looked like mini-Christopher from the Sopranos?" If he wasn't a mobster he put in a lot of effort to look like one.
... ping ...
Obviously you know what I have been doing all day :)
It took a long time for the G to get inside guys to flip.
20 years ? I know guys who've made Lt. Colonel in less time.
For the first 15 or so, nobody would give up any intel. Then they had to make a case.
The Mounties could take lessons, no doubt.
I'm saddened, R. Daley wasn't one of the 14.
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