On November 22nd, Peter Janney discusses his book, The CIA Conspiracy: The Murder of John F. Kennedy, Mary Pichot Meyer and their Vision for World Peace, on Crime Beat Radio.
Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST., on the Artist First World Radio Network at artistfirst.com/crimebeat.
Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.
Get the latest breaking current news and explore our Historic Archive of articles focusing on The Mafia, Organized Crime, The Mob and Mobsters, Gangs and Gangsters, Political Corruption, True Crime, and the Legal System at TheChicagoSyndicate.com
Sunday, November 18, 2012
R.I.P. to Jimmy Agnew, "The Best Crime Researcher in America"
Jimmy Agnew didn’t need Google. Before the Internet, Mr. Agnew plucked literary gold from mountains of obscure resources to provide research to some of the nation’s top true-crime authors. Legendary Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko once dubbed Agnew “the best crime researcher in America.” Mr. Agnew, 67, died on November 8th after battling pneumonia.
Tapping his police sources and well-informed bartenders and cabbies, his personal files of news clippings as well as little-known books, magazines and artifacts, Mr. Agnew did legwork for Charles Manson prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi; Chicago newsman Bill Kurtis, and journalist Nick Pileggi, who wrote the book “Wiseguy,” which became the film “Goodfellas.”
Pileggi credited Mr. Agnew with being “enormously helpful” with “Wiseguy” and “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.” Director Martin Scorsese turned both books into films. “Casino” was based in part on Chicago’s mobster brothers, the Spilotros. When Pileggi quizzed Mr. Agnew on the history of the Chicago mob or the names of the street bosses in any given era, Mr. Agnew always had “superior” information, he said. “He had terrific police sources who would tell him things they would never tell me because they didn’t know me,” Pileggi said.
“If Damon Runyon had chronicled Chicago — and done it a handful of decades hence — instead of Broadway in the ’20s, ’30s, he’d have based a character on Jim,” said celebrity profiler and author Bill Zehme. “He spoke Runyon fluently . . . broads and joints and dames and so on.”
With bushy eyebrows and a ruddy Irish face, Mr. Agnew resembled a cross between journalists Andy Rooney and Jimmy Breslin.
He befriended many Chicago journalists in the 1960s and ’70s in the smoky bars that comprised “the trail” — a sudsy pilgrimage that led from the Billy Goat to Riccardo’s and O’Rourkes, said his brother, Pat.
“He was a charter member of the regulars at O’Rourke’s Pub,” Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, a friend who knew him for 40 years, said in an email. “In addition to his crime researching, he had a deep knowledge of movies and in my early years on the job sometimes showed me 16mm prints of films he thought I should see.”
Mr. Agnew’s authority on films helped land him a job as assistant manager of Chicago’s Clark Theater, a quirky showcase for cinephiles at Clark and Madison until it was razed in 1974. Mr. Agnew had a hand in picking out the features. He especially loved “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
His love of good film dialogue helped lead him to literature, according to his brother, who said the film and history buff “would have loved to see Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln.’ ”
Mr. Agnew got his start as a literary sleuth while working for prolific Chicago crime writer Jay Robert Nash, author of more than 70 books, including the “World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime.” Mr. Agnew’s brother said he did research for the Nash book “Dillinger: Dead or Alive?”
He also founded and edited a short-lived magazine — Real Crime Book Digest — that reviewed crime books. And he worked as chief researcher for Illinois Police and Sheriffs News, his brother said.
“I’m not successful,” Mr. Agnew told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2001. “I could not pay my bills by my research or my radio bookings. It’s just a hustle — a literary hustle to keep my hand in the action.”
Though literary paychecks were at times infrequent and less than lucrative, Mr. Agnew always could fall back on what he knew.
His childhood home was one of 39 rooms at an SRO (single-room occupancy) boarding house his parents owned in Uptown. Mr. Agnew later ran the place. He worked the night desk of a Rush Street apartment building until several weeks before his death, his brother said.
Mr. Agnew also worked for a time as a bartender at Uptown’s Shamrock Tavern.
His parents — John Agnew, from Crossmaglen, County Armagh, and Katie Gallagher, of County Donegal — met in 1929 on the boat that took them from Ireland to America. John Agnew worked in the Stockyards.
Young James attended St. George and Senn high schools, then Amundsen Junior College.
At 23, he served in the National Guard and was stationed outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel, headquarters for the Democratic Party’s 1968 political convention, as anti-war demonstrators clashed with police in the streets, chanting, “The whole world is watching.”
Zehme said Mr. Agnew quit drinking nearly 20 years ago and “helped a lot of people quit hooch thereafter, most generously and patiently.”
He recalled Mr. Agnew’s mastery of the fax machine in a 2001 Sun-Times interview. When Zehme was just starting to work on his Sinatra book “The Way You Wear Your Hat,” he said, “Within hours of my first conversation with him, maybe minutes, my fax machine began humming with these piles of pages filled with mad scrawls — phone numbers of people who might’ve once met Frank, names of books he was already hunting down for me, articles from long-extinct publications.”
Pileggi once told the Sun-Times: “He’s got phone numbers for people in prison!”
For the same 2001 story about Mr. Agnew, Bugliosi said of him: “He knows what’s going on everywhere in this country, no matter where it comes up. Now, I don’t know how he knows — don’t ask me — but if something appears in some obscure magazine, he’ll send me a fax . . . telling me I’m on page 44 of this magazine I’ve never even heard of. And I tell him, ‘Jimmy, how in the hell do you know?’ ”
Other survivors include another brother, John, and cousins Margaret Forker and Nora McCarthy, whom he considered sisters because they grew up in the same household.
A mass was celebrated in his honor at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church, 4200 N. Sheridan.
Thanks to Mitch Dudek and Maureen O'Donnell.
Tapping his police sources and well-informed bartenders and cabbies, his personal files of news clippings as well as little-known books, magazines and artifacts, Mr. Agnew did legwork for Charles Manson prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi; Chicago newsman Bill Kurtis, and journalist Nick Pileggi, who wrote the book “Wiseguy,” which became the film “Goodfellas.”
Pileggi credited Mr. Agnew with being “enormously helpful” with “Wiseguy” and “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.” Director Martin Scorsese turned both books into films. “Casino” was based in part on Chicago’s mobster brothers, the Spilotros. When Pileggi quizzed Mr. Agnew on the history of the Chicago mob or the names of the street bosses in any given era, Mr. Agnew always had “superior” information, he said. “He had terrific police sources who would tell him things they would never tell me because they didn’t know me,” Pileggi said.
“If Damon Runyon had chronicled Chicago — and done it a handful of decades hence — instead of Broadway in the ’20s, ’30s, he’d have based a character on Jim,” said celebrity profiler and author Bill Zehme. “He spoke Runyon fluently . . . broads and joints and dames and so on.”
With bushy eyebrows and a ruddy Irish face, Mr. Agnew resembled a cross between journalists Andy Rooney and Jimmy Breslin.
He befriended many Chicago journalists in the 1960s and ’70s in the smoky bars that comprised “the trail” — a sudsy pilgrimage that led from the Billy Goat to Riccardo’s and O’Rourkes, said his brother, Pat.
“He was a charter member of the regulars at O’Rourke’s Pub,” Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, a friend who knew him for 40 years, said in an email. “In addition to his crime researching, he had a deep knowledge of movies and in my early years on the job sometimes showed me 16mm prints of films he thought I should see.”
Mr. Agnew’s authority on films helped land him a job as assistant manager of Chicago’s Clark Theater, a quirky showcase for cinephiles at Clark and Madison until it was razed in 1974. Mr. Agnew had a hand in picking out the features. He especially loved “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
His love of good film dialogue helped lead him to literature, according to his brother, who said the film and history buff “would have loved to see Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln.’ ”
Mr. Agnew got his start as a literary sleuth while working for prolific Chicago crime writer Jay Robert Nash, author of more than 70 books, including the “World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime.” Mr. Agnew’s brother said he did research for the Nash book “Dillinger: Dead or Alive?”
He also founded and edited a short-lived magazine — Real Crime Book Digest — that reviewed crime books. And he worked as chief researcher for Illinois Police and Sheriffs News, his brother said.
“I’m not successful,” Mr. Agnew told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2001. “I could not pay my bills by my research or my radio bookings. It’s just a hustle — a literary hustle to keep my hand in the action.”
Though literary paychecks were at times infrequent and less than lucrative, Mr. Agnew always could fall back on what he knew.
His childhood home was one of 39 rooms at an SRO (single-room occupancy) boarding house his parents owned in Uptown. Mr. Agnew later ran the place. He worked the night desk of a Rush Street apartment building until several weeks before his death, his brother said.
Mr. Agnew also worked for a time as a bartender at Uptown’s Shamrock Tavern.
His parents — John Agnew, from Crossmaglen, County Armagh, and Katie Gallagher, of County Donegal — met in 1929 on the boat that took them from Ireland to America. John Agnew worked in the Stockyards.
Young James attended St. George and Senn high schools, then Amundsen Junior College.
At 23, he served in the National Guard and was stationed outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel, headquarters for the Democratic Party’s 1968 political convention, as anti-war demonstrators clashed with police in the streets, chanting, “The whole world is watching.”
Zehme said Mr. Agnew quit drinking nearly 20 years ago and “helped a lot of people quit hooch thereafter, most generously and patiently.”
He recalled Mr. Agnew’s mastery of the fax machine in a 2001 Sun-Times interview. When Zehme was just starting to work on his Sinatra book “The Way You Wear Your Hat,” he said, “Within hours of my first conversation with him, maybe minutes, my fax machine began humming with these piles of pages filled with mad scrawls — phone numbers of people who might’ve once met Frank, names of books he was already hunting down for me, articles from long-extinct publications.”
Pileggi once told the Sun-Times: “He’s got phone numbers for people in prison!”
For the same 2001 story about Mr. Agnew, Bugliosi said of him: “He knows what’s going on everywhere in this country, no matter where it comes up. Now, I don’t know how he knows — don’t ask me — but if something appears in some obscure magazine, he’ll send me a fax . . . telling me I’m on page 44 of this magazine I’ve never even heard of. And I tell him, ‘Jimmy, how in the hell do you know?’ ”
Other survivors include another brother, John, and cousins Margaret Forker and Nora McCarthy, whom he considered sisters because they grew up in the same household.
A mass was celebrated in his honor at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church, 4200 N. Sheridan.
Thanks to Mitch Dudek and Maureen O'Donnell.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Chicago Arts and Culture Groups Receive Grants for International Collaborations
MacArthur awarded new grants to 13 Chicago arts and culture nonprofits to conduct collaborations with arts organizations in 12 countries. The grants are provided through MacArthur’s International Connections Fund, which aims to help Chicago nonprofit arts and culture organizations advance their work by collaborating with peer organizations abroad.
“Sharing artistic experiences and promoting cross-cultural learning can help inform, engage, and entertain audiences and bring fresh perspectives to the creative organizations involved,” said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci.
The following organizations will receive International Connections Fund grants:
Chicago a cappella – $18,500 in support of a musical and cultural exchange between artistic director Jonathan Miller and composer, choral director, and conductor Jorge Cordoba Valencia, a premier choral composer and director in Mexico.
Chicago Cultural Alliance – $40,000 for the cultural exchange of representatives of the Alliance’s Swedish American Museum, Chinese-American Museum, and Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art with ethnic museums in their home countries.
Contratiempo – $20,000 to collaborate with the bilingual alternative culture magazine Humanize, based in Madrid, Spain. Each will contribute to the other’s publication.
Every House Has a Door – $32,500 to expand a Bristol, UK performance piece to include material developed from the Randolph Street Gallery Archive, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, through artist and performer residencies.
Fulcrum Point New Music Project – $50,000 to support the collaborative creation of a new work fusing western classical and Indian classical music by Fulcrum Point, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, composer Param Vir, Fulcrum Point Artistic Director Stephen Burns, and sarod virtuoso, Soumik Datta.
Global Girls – $45,000 in support of a cross-cultural residency. Girls from the South Side will share their techniques in using the performing arts to help learn new skills with students of Kattaikkutte Sangam, a residential performing arts school outside of Chennai, India.
Hedwig Dances – $50,000 for a collaborative exchange with DanzAbierta dance company of Havana, Cuba to jointly choreograph two dances that will be performed in both countries.
Latinos Progresando – $40,000 to establish an ongoing cross-cultural exchange between Chicago’s Little Village and Centro Cultural Bacaanda arts organization in Oaxaca, Mexico. The experience will be developed into a theater piece.
Live the Spirit Residency – $45,000 to support a jazz education and composition exchange with London-based artist education and development group Tomorrow’s Warriors who will perform the work at the Englewood Jazz Festival.
portoluz – $50,000 in support of an exchange and performances of son jarocho music in Chicago, Berwyn, and Cicero between musicians from Chicago and Veracruz, Mexico.
Puerto Rican Arts Alliance – $40,000 to support an ongoing international collaboration with the Puerto Rican Philharmonic Orchestra and Quique Domenech, a master musician and teacher of the cuatro, a traditional instrument of Puerto Rico.
Silk Road Rising – $50,000 for collaboration with the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University in Beirut to translate, adapt, and present a staged reading by Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannus.
threewalls – $22,000 to jointly curate a series of exhibitions with Or Gallery Vancouver and Or Gallery Berlin highlighting visual artists and work from the three cities.
International Connections Fund grants are limited to Chicago area nonprofit arts and culture organizations and other nonprofits with well-established arts programs that received a grant within the last three years from MacArthur or though the MacArthur Funds established at the Driehaus and Prince Foundations or through the New Communities Program directed by LISC/Chicago. Learn more about MacArthur's International Connections Fund.
MacArthur awards more than $8 million annually to more than 200 arts and culture groups in Chicago and the region as an expression of its civic commitment to the place where the Foundation has its headquarters and where John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur made their home. Grants are designed to help sustain the cultural life of the city and region.
“Sharing artistic experiences and promoting cross-cultural learning can help inform, engage, and entertain audiences and bring fresh perspectives to the creative organizations involved,” said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci.
The following organizations will receive International Connections Fund grants:
Chicago a cappella – $18,500 in support of a musical and cultural exchange between artistic director Jonathan Miller and composer, choral director, and conductor Jorge Cordoba Valencia, a premier choral composer and director in Mexico.
Chicago Cultural Alliance – $40,000 for the cultural exchange of representatives of the Alliance’s Swedish American Museum, Chinese-American Museum, and Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art with ethnic museums in their home countries.
Contratiempo – $20,000 to collaborate with the bilingual alternative culture magazine Humanize, based in Madrid, Spain. Each will contribute to the other’s publication.
Every House Has a Door – $32,500 to expand a Bristol, UK performance piece to include material developed from the Randolph Street Gallery Archive, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, through artist and performer residencies.
Fulcrum Point New Music Project – $50,000 to support the collaborative creation of a new work fusing western classical and Indian classical music by Fulcrum Point, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, composer Param Vir, Fulcrum Point Artistic Director Stephen Burns, and sarod virtuoso, Soumik Datta.
Global Girls – $45,000 in support of a cross-cultural residency. Girls from the South Side will share their techniques in using the performing arts to help learn new skills with students of Kattaikkutte Sangam, a residential performing arts school outside of Chennai, India.
Hedwig Dances – $50,000 for a collaborative exchange with DanzAbierta dance company of Havana, Cuba to jointly choreograph two dances that will be performed in both countries.
Latinos Progresando – $40,000 to establish an ongoing cross-cultural exchange between Chicago’s Little Village and Centro Cultural Bacaanda arts organization in Oaxaca, Mexico. The experience will be developed into a theater piece.
Live the Spirit Residency – $45,000 to support a jazz education and composition exchange with London-based artist education and development group Tomorrow’s Warriors who will perform the work at the Englewood Jazz Festival.
portoluz – $50,000 in support of an exchange and performances of son jarocho music in Chicago, Berwyn, and Cicero between musicians from Chicago and Veracruz, Mexico.
Puerto Rican Arts Alliance – $40,000 to support an ongoing international collaboration with the Puerto Rican Philharmonic Orchestra and Quique Domenech, a master musician and teacher of the cuatro, a traditional instrument of Puerto Rico.
Silk Road Rising – $50,000 for collaboration with the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University in Beirut to translate, adapt, and present a staged reading by Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannus.
threewalls – $22,000 to jointly curate a series of exhibitions with Or Gallery Vancouver and Or Gallery Berlin highlighting visual artists and work from the three cities.
International Connections Fund grants are limited to Chicago area nonprofit arts and culture organizations and other nonprofits with well-established arts programs that received a grant within the last three years from MacArthur or though the MacArthur Funds established at the Driehaus and Prince Foundations or through the New Communities Program directed by LISC/Chicago. Learn more about MacArthur's International Connections Fund.
MacArthur awards more than $8 million annually to more than 200 arts and culture groups in Chicago and the region as an expression of its civic commitment to the place where the Foundation has its headquarters and where John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur made their home. Grants are designed to help sustain the cultural life of the city and region.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Cory B. Nelson Named Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Division
Director Robert S. Mueller, III has named Cory B. Nelson the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago Division. In this role, he will be responsible for FBI personnel and operations in northern Illinois. Mr. Nelson most recently served as the deputy assistant director of the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and was responsible for its day-to-day operations, to include oversight of internal investigations and responses to external audits.
Mr. Nelson entered on duty as a special agent with the FBI in July 1991 and was assigned to the New York Division’s applicant squad. He was subsequently assigned to an organized crime squad, where he conducted investigations into the Genovese crime family. In addition to investigative work, Mr. Nelson was selected to lead one of the first Evidence Response Teams in the New York Division.
In August 1997, Mr. Nelson transferred to the San Antonio Division’s Brownsville Resident Agency and conducted narcotics investigations, served as a firearms and defensive tactics instructor, and was the SWAT assistant team leader. While in Brownsville, he responded to the Oklahoma City bombing and received an award from FBI Director Louis J. Freeh for his work.
In October 1999, Mr. Nelson became a supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigative Division, Colombian/Caribbean Unit, at FBI Headquarters. In this role, he provided guidance and oversight of domestic and international narcotics investigations. In October 2001, Mr. Nelson was appointed senior supervisory resident agent for the Tampa Division’s Fort Myers Resident Agency. He supervised three resident agencies covering nine counties in southwest Florida and received a commendation from Governor Jeb Bush for his assistance in Florida’s counterterrorism efforts.
Mr. Nelson was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Denver Division in August 2005 and was responsible for the management of all criminal programs, the cyber program, all resident agencies in Colorado, and SWAT. During his assignment in Denver, he served as the FBI’s on-scene commander in Afghanistan between April and June 2006. He also served as the acting SAC of the division.
In April 2008, Mr. Nelson was named the deputy director of the Terrorist Screening Center and oversaw its operational components. He became chief of the Terrorist Financing Operations Section in May 2009 and managed units that gathered intelligence, formed partnerships, provided training, and investigated all aspects of international terrorist financing methods, trends, and activities.
Mr. Nelson was appointed the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio Division in June 2010 and was responsible for all personnel and operations in south Texas, including 500 miles of shared United States/Mexico border.
He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Business Administration from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business
Mr. Nelson entered on duty as a special agent with the FBI in July 1991 and was assigned to the New York Division’s applicant squad. He was subsequently assigned to an organized crime squad, where he conducted investigations into the Genovese crime family. In addition to investigative work, Mr. Nelson was selected to lead one of the first Evidence Response Teams in the New York Division.
In August 1997, Mr. Nelson transferred to the San Antonio Division’s Brownsville Resident Agency and conducted narcotics investigations, served as a firearms and defensive tactics instructor, and was the SWAT assistant team leader. While in Brownsville, he responded to the Oklahoma City bombing and received an award from FBI Director Louis J. Freeh for his work.
In October 1999, Mr. Nelson became a supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigative Division, Colombian/Caribbean Unit, at FBI Headquarters. In this role, he provided guidance and oversight of domestic and international narcotics investigations. In October 2001, Mr. Nelson was appointed senior supervisory resident agent for the Tampa Division’s Fort Myers Resident Agency. He supervised three resident agencies covering nine counties in southwest Florida and received a commendation from Governor Jeb Bush for his assistance in Florida’s counterterrorism efforts.
Mr. Nelson was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Denver Division in August 2005 and was responsible for the management of all criminal programs, the cyber program, all resident agencies in Colorado, and SWAT. During his assignment in Denver, he served as the FBI’s on-scene commander in Afghanistan between April and June 2006. He also served as the acting SAC of the division.
In April 2008, Mr. Nelson was named the deputy director of the Terrorist Screening Center and oversaw its operational components. He became chief of the Terrorist Financing Operations Section in May 2009 and managed units that gathered intelligence, formed partnerships, provided training, and investigated all aspects of international terrorist financing methods, trends, and activities.
Mr. Nelson was appointed the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio Division in June 2010 and was responsible for all personnel and operations in south Texas, including 500 miles of shared United States/Mexico border.
He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Albany and a Master of Business Administration from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business
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