Free Republic

The way Albert Caesar Tocco was tried and convicted of racketeering and extortion — the way his jurors remained nameless for safety's sake and the way his wife sang her heart out from the witness stand — were the stuff of Chicago mafia legend. His motto should have read "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's," because this ferocious south suburban mob boss demanded a cut from every vice operator south of 95th Street. His Chicago Heights-based empire shaking down gambling and prostitution houses and chop shops stretched from Calumet City south to Kankakee, from Joliet over the Indiana border to...