Chicago Mob Hitman in Omaha, Ooops! It's the FBI Instead

A Plattsmouth man has been ordered to stand trial in District Court on a charge of Conspiracy to Commit Murder.

Thirty-five-year-old Robert Harden had faced three conspiracy counts in the case but the judge reduced that to one count on Wednesday. Prosecutors claim that Harden tried to arrange the murders of his wife and her parents. The man he tried to hire was an undercover FBI agent.

Prosecutors say that Harden, who worked in Omaha, asked a coworker to help him kill his wife. That coworker went to Omaha police who contacted the FBI. The coworker brought Harden to a motel at 84th and Grover to meet a hit man who claimed his family had connections with the mafia.

After his arrest last month, Harden talked with us from jail and said the coworker involved, "always talked about his connections that he had with the mafia; people in Chicago -- and how people from Chicago take care of business and get things done." (Strangely, my co-workers tell me that I make the same claims ;-))

Harden and his wife had a rocky relationship and she had left their Plattsmouth apartment with their daughter. She took out a protection order and moved in with her parents in Iowa.

Harden claims that meeting a mafia hit man at the motel was a joke to cheer him up. "All I know is I was there and I was talking to a supposed hit man," he said. "Like I said, Brent has always done stupid stuff to make me smile so I figured this was another way to make me laugh and giggle." But the FBI agent who posed as a hit man testified Wednesday that Harden wasn't kidding around -- that he even provided pictures of his wife and her parents, a map to their house in Mallard, Iowa, a diagram of the house, information on dogs and suggested a time to carry out the hits.

The agent said that during the meeting at the motel, he gave Harden chances to back out and the agent said those opportunities were refused. The agent testified that at one point he told Harden, "If I leave this room, it's a done deal."

Harden says, "There was never any money traded whatsoever, okay?" The agent says Harden agreed, "the murders would be considered a favor from the mafia." (A favor from the mafia?! That really does not need it's own joke.) But Harden claims, "You can ask any psychiatrist, if you are emotionally or mentally distressed, you can be talked into anything."

The FBI says that Harden, who has the initials of his young daughter tattooed on his arm, knew the child would be in the house when the murders were to have taken place.

Even though two of the three counts of Conspiracy to Commit Murder were dismissed, prosecutors say they have a strong case and they say that Harden could get 20 years to life.

Thanks to WOWT

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Overheard: Mafia Hit in North Korea?

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns declared Sunday the U.S. wants China to pressure North Korea. We could do it ourselves but we'd rather have China do it. Chinese hit men work for nine cents an hour and New Jersey guys get ten grand a day.

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Overheard: Mafia Senate Subcommittees

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig denied Jose Canseco's charge that Major League Baseball is run like the Mafia. Appearances are deceiving. It's just a coincidence that everyone in baseball has developed a short neck from shrugging in front of Senate subcommittees.

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Mafia Detectives Risks Mafia Cops Case

Friends of mine: Louis Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa

Louis Eppolito may have written the book on being a "Mafia Cop" - but a soon-to-be released book could help write his ticket to freedom.

Michael Vecchione, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney's rackets bureau, has quietly signed a book contract touting "the full inside story of the investigation" into Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, the so-called Mafia cops. But there's one problem: Law enforcement and legal sources say Vecchione's book could jeopardize any state prosecution of Eppolito and Caracappa.

Right now, the case remains in federal court, as the feds are appealing Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein's decision to throw out racketeering convictions against the duo. If the feds lose the appeal, the ex-cops could be prosecuted in Brooklyn under state law.

Hofstra University law Prof. Monroe Freedman, an expert on legal ethics, said the American Bar Association's code of standards forbids prosecutors from entering into any media deal before a case is completely done. "It's really egregious judgment, because it's the kind of thing every prosecutor should know," Freedman said yesterday. "It clearly puts the prosecutor's personal interest in self-promotion and making money ahead of his obligations as a public official."

He added, "In my view, if this case is going to be prosecuted by the state, it would have to be by a different prosecutor's office or an independent prosecutor."

Vecchione's book, "Mafia Detectives," due out in January, promises to deliver "never-before-released documents and information" about the case, according to publisher Harper Collins' foreign rights guide.

A spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes refused to say when Vecchione inked the deal or how much he's getting paid. "It's a personal matter," said spokesman Jerry Schmetterer.

Vecchione is doing the book with retired Detective Tommy Dades, who broke the case as an investigator for Hynes' office and still works there.

Asked yesterday whether Hynes approved the book deal, Schmetterer replied, "Absolutely."

Thanks to John Marzulli

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What College Does Meadow Soprano Attend?

Several of you have emailed me that question in the last 24 hours and others have been searching for the answer. Since this gives me an excuse to run a photo of Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the correct answer is Columbia University.

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