Chicago Outfit or Chicago Hope?

Friends of ours: Frank Calabrese, James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Frank "The German" Schweihs

Like the old grey mare, the Chicago outfit isn't like it used to be.

"You are dealing with a bunch of old men. So they are going to have problems. I mean they are not unlike other senior citizens. They have problems," said Joe Lopez, Frank Calabrese's lawyer.

Defense attorneys noted in court Thursday that a number of the dozen or so remaining defendants in the "Family Secrets" case have a myriad of health problems, and they urged Uncle Sam to pick up the tab.

The outfit's aches and pains range from possible back surgery to new choppers. Calabrese has a bad back, needs an MRI and probably will have surgery. James Marcello needs dentures and is suffering from gum disease. Joe Lombardo has heart problems and Frank Schweihs is hard of hearing and needs hearing aids.

Calabrese's lawyer outlined his client's woes at the federal jail. "He's taking 15 pills a day, and its having an effect on him up there on 21 because he's very uncomfortable where he's at," Lopez said.

Meanwhile lawyer Rick Halprin argues that 77-year-old Joe Lombardo was not involved in any criminal conspiracy and never has been a member of the mob. In fact Lombardo once took out an ad in a newspaper denying any membership in the outfit. "There is no allegation in that indictment that Joe Lombardo is a made member or a boss or an underboss," Halprin said.

Some of the defendants claim they are not able to listen to or watch FBI video and audio tapes in jail due to poor equipment. They want occasional visits to their lawyers' offices to screen the material there.

Thanks to John "Bulldog" Drummond

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Fuggedaboudit! The Show Must Go On

It appears the show will go on after a federal judge Wednesday refused to block this week's opening of a Batavia middle school play branded racially insensitive by an Italian-American coalition.

U.S. District Court Judge John Grady said free speech trumps any alleged harm to the plaintiff, a 12-year-old pupil at Rotolo Middle School. Grady also said he failed to see how the plaintiff was harmed by the play, "Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy," because it was not shown that the boy was of the same social class as those depicted. Grady, however, admitted he had not read the play.

"Does this play communicate to a rational person that all Americans of Italian descent are members of the Mafia or have criminal inclinations?" the judge asked in his Chicago courtroom.

"I have difficulty with the notion that this young plaintiff is, for purposes of today's discussion, in the same class as 12 or so adults depicted in the play," the judge said later.

The plaintiff's mother, Marina Amoroso-Levato, said she was upset by the ruling. "I think the play was a total, from cover to cover, annihilation of Italian-Americans," she said. "If the judge didn't see that, it's unfortunate."

A civil rights suit filed Tuesday by the coalition is pending.

Performances are set for Friday during school hours, and on Friday and Saturday evenings, at Rotolo Middle School, 1501 S. Raddant Rd. Pupils who do not want to attend the play will have the option of participating in another activity, according to a statement released Wednesday by Supt. Jack Barshinger.

The school has also provided support for the cast, crew and faculty working on the play, the statement said, to help everyone understand the complexity of the concerns surrounding this play.

Members of the coalition are considering a non-disruptive response to the performances, said Tony Barratta, president of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, Order Sons of Italy in America.

They also expressed dismay at the judge's ruling, but said they were not surprised. "The banner of free speech does allow people wide latitude, and we're very grateful for that," said Dominic DiFrisco, president emeritus of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. "But we were hoping that fair speech would be considered in this case.

"Whatever the judge's decision, going to court was necessary to raise the issue of gross injustice that's constantly barraging the Italian-American community," he said.

He urged the school to balance the performance with lessons about the positive contributions of Italian-Americans.

The school statement characterized the play as a spoof of various characters whose good deeds are misconstrued by everyone.

A script released by the Sons of Italy last week indicates the play is the story of two brothers, Joey and Gino Caprese, who are opening an Italian restaurant. Their customers include two mobsters who are inspired to do something good after being on the take for so long.

The material is not offensive to Italian-Americans, argued the school's attorney, Anthony Scariano. "The only two clowns in the play are the American FBI agents who can't get a body recording right," he said.

The uproar over the play began when the plaintiff's mother read the "Fuggedaboudit" script and contacted the Sons of Italy, the nation's oldest and largest Italian heritage organization.

Amoroso-Levato decided she wouldn't let her son see it. "He's upset--he doesn't want his schoolmates to have to view this." But she said the experience is a lesson for her son. "I think it will be good for him to stand up for what he believes in."

Thanks to Jeff Cohen and Kate Hawley

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Hoffa's Hitman Comes Forward?

Do we finally know the identity of who killed Jimmy Hoffa? The Hoffa Files believes it does in reviewing how the tough guy helped make Las Vegas. The beginning of the end started for Hoffa when he asked "I heard you paint houses."

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Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy

A national Italian-American organization is seeking to legally prevent a Chicago suburban school from staging a play about mobsters, alleging stereotyping.

The Rotolo Middle school in Batavia, west of Chicago, set off a national protest campaign by the Order Sons of Italy in America, who claim the play, "Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy" is offensive.

Attorney Joseph Rago filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to stop the play. He said it is "completely racially and ethnically offensive and inappropriate for middle school children," the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The show was to have a dress rehearsal Wednesday and run Friday and Saturday nights.

The school has refused to cancel the show and officials refused to speak with reporters, the newspaper said.

It was a mother of an Italian-American student at the school who first complained but she asked not to be named to spare her son any ridicule, the Chicago Tribune reported.

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Bonanno's Name Bambino Godfather

Friends of ours: Bonanno Crime Family, Salvatore "Sal the Ironworker/Sal the Zip" Montanga, Joseph Massino, Baldassare "Baldo" Amato, Patrick "Patty from the Bronx" DeFilippo, Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, John "Dapper Don" Gotti, Vincent "the Chin" Gigante

The Bonanno crime family has tapped a man of steel to rebuild its crumbling empire, the Daily News has learned.

He's Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna, the newly minted boss of the Mafia family, according to law enforcement sources - and he's practically a bambino at only 35 years of age.

The Sicilian-born Montagna and his wife, Francesca, own a small ironworks company in Brooklyn, but they show no signs of living the high-life of a Mafia don. The couple and their three daughters live in a modest ranch house in working-class Elmont, L.I., not far from the Queens border.

"Putting someone that young and relatively unknown in charge indicates that they're desperately seeking to salvage the remnants of the family from the recent prosecutions and convictions," said Mark Feldman, former chief of organized crime for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office.

Feldman said the move clearly "signals desperation" on the part of a mob family that has seen three bosses and acting dons bite the dust in three years. Most noteworthy was the conviction of longtime family boss Joseph Massino, who is now serving life in prison.

Last night, a teenage girl answered the door of Montagna's vinyl-sided home on Oakley Ave. and said the reputed crime kingpin was not at home. Two little sisters stood at her side. Outside, a small construction crew was wrapping up its day working on Montagna's brick driveway.

A short time later, Francesca Montagna drove up in a late-model Lexus SUV and turned angry when asked if her husband was the new head of the Bonanno family. "I don't know what you're talking about," said the dark- haired woman, dressed in a sweatsuit. "I have kids in here. It's not appropriate for you to be here."

Until now, Montagna has rarely appeared on the radar of the NYPD and the feds, and neighbors said they knew nothing about any reputed mob ties. Still, the Mafia talk didn't worry them. "Am I scared?" said one local. "Absolutely not. I come from Brooklyn. Believe me, when you live next to one of these people, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Another neighbor found the suggestion "ridiculous," but quickly added, "We'd be shocked and scared at the same time if that is true. Wow!"

The Montagnas run the family-owned Matrix Steel Co. on Bogart St. in Brooklyn. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the firm supplies structural material for builders and reported a modest $1.5 million in sales last year.

In 2003, Montagna pleaded guilty to criminal contempt charges and was sentenced to probation for refusing to answer questions before a Manhattan grand jury. He had been indicted a year earlier after a probe by the Manhattan district attorney's office as one of 20 wiseguys charged in a takedown of a Mafia crew allegedly involved in gambling, loansharking and weapons possession.

Whether the new Bonanno boss has any other arrests was unclear yesterday.

"He's well-liked by the rank and file," said an underworld source, adding that Montagna is also known as Sal the Zip, a reference to the name bestowed on members of the crime family's Sicilian wing.

Sources said Montagna was close to legendary Bonanno gangster Baldassare (Baldo) Amato, another immigrant from near Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily, and served in the crew of capo Patrick (Patty from the Bronx) DeFilippo. Those guys are largely history now, with Amato recently sentenced to life in prison and DeFilippo facing a retrial on murder charges.

Led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Andres, the feds have indicted and convicted more than 70 Bonanno gangsters since 2002, leaving behind about 75 shell-shocked members on the street. Sources said Montagna's promotion couldn't have happened without the blessing of Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano, who once operated Hello Gorgeous, a hair salon in the Bronx, and became the official boss of the crime family after Massino turned rat.

Thomas Reppetto, author of the just-published "Bringing Down The Mob: A War Against the American Mafia (Henry Holt)," said the new breed of boss pales in comparison to past godfathers like the late John Gotti or Vincent Gigante. "There may no longer be a boss in the sense that we understood the term, an all-powerful figure at the top, because naming an official boss provides the FBI with a clear target," Reppetto said.

Thanks to John Marzulli

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