Monday, December 31, 2007
Were Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham-Clinton both Trained by the Mob?
Barack Obama's campaign blamed Benazir Bhutto's killing in Pakistan, on the regional instability caused by the war in Iraq for which Hillary voted. Both candidates know a thing or two about local leaders being gunned down in the streets. They are both from Chicago. ;-)
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Now an Author, Retired Chicago Cop to Write about the Chicago Mob
A retired Chicago police officer who gained notoriety writing about an infamous triple murder is now at work on his next book, about the mob.
James Jack's book "Three Boys Missing: The Tragedy That Exposed the Pedophilia Underworld" won awards for its telling of the murders of Robert Peterson and Anton and John Schuessler in 1955
. The boys' murders ended an era of perceived innocence for many Chicago families.
As a rookie detective, Jack helped investigate the case, but it went unsolved for four decades before horse trainer Kenneth Hansen was convicted.
Now, another high-profile case is giving Jack material for his second career as a writer.
The Daily Herald wrote about Jack in June, just before the Family Secrets mob trial, recounting his run-ins in the 1950s and '60s with Frank Calabrese Sr. and other players in the Chicago Outfit. Since then, Jack has become something of a minor local celebrity, attending the trial every day and commenting on it for WGN 720-AM, WLS-TV Channel 7 and other media outlets.
Now, Jack is working on his next book, about his brushes with the mob since his youth with young hoodlums in pool halls on the city's West Side.
Growing up, he knew future mob members like Frank Santucci and Phil Tolomeo, who was briefly his police partner before working on juice loan collections and eventually turning state's witness. "I was like the nice guy," said Jack, a former Gold Gloves boxer. "I used to tell these guys to back off."
After all these years, Jack's glad that the hoods who caused so much trouble are finally being put away. "These guys will never see green again," he said. Though he talked to one of the defendants, a fellow former cop, Anthony Doyle, during the trial, others, like reputed mob boss James Marcello, didn't speak with him, and instead gave him the "cold eye."
At age 79, Jack has survived open heart surgery and is in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma.
He still appears for occasional book signings at bookstores, most recently in Schaumburg, and will speak at the Palatine Public Library in April.
Thanks to Robert McCoppin
James Jack's book "Three Boys Missing: The Tragedy That Exposed the Pedophilia Underworld" won awards for its telling of the murders of Robert Peterson and Anton and John Schuessler in 1955
. The boys' murders ended an era of perceived innocence for many Chicago families.As a rookie detective, Jack helped investigate the case, but it went unsolved for four decades before horse trainer Kenneth Hansen was convicted.
Now, another high-profile case is giving Jack material for his second career as a writer.
The Daily Herald wrote about Jack in June, just before the Family Secrets mob trial, recounting his run-ins in the 1950s and '60s with Frank Calabrese Sr. and other players in the Chicago Outfit. Since then, Jack has become something of a minor local celebrity, attending the trial every day and commenting on it for WGN 720-AM, WLS-TV Channel 7 and other media outlets.
Now, Jack is working on his next book, about his brushes with the mob since his youth with young hoodlums in pool halls on the city's West Side.
Growing up, he knew future mob members like Frank Santucci and Phil Tolomeo, who was briefly his police partner before working on juice loan collections and eventually turning state's witness. "I was like the nice guy," said Jack, a former Gold Gloves boxer. "I used to tell these guys to back off."
After all these years, Jack's glad that the hoods who caused so much trouble are finally being put away. "These guys will never see green again," he said. Though he talked to one of the defendants, a fellow former cop, Anthony Doyle, during the trial, others, like reputed mob boss James Marcello, didn't speak with him, and instead gave him the "cold eye."
At age 79, Jack has survived open heart surgery and is in remission from Hodgkin's lymphoma.
He still appears for occasional book signings at bookstores, most recently in Schaumburg, and will speak at the Palatine Public Library in April.
Thanks to Robert McCoppin
America's Most Wanted Top 10 Fugitives for 2007
10: Alexis Flores: Five-year-old Iriana DeJesus was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death in an empty apartment complex near her house in 2000. For years, the case went unsolved, but in March, the FBI got the break they were looking for: a DNA match from convicted criminal Alexis Flores.
9: Dominic Lyde: Deputies in South Carolina say two fugitives still on the run after one of the country's largest armored car heists might just be staying close to home. Police say Dominic Lyde played a role in stealing nearly $10 million -- $5 million of which is still missing.
8: Derrick Benjamin: Deputies in South Carolina have already arrested five suspects who they believe were involved in the robbery. Detectives say that Derrick Benjamin was also involved.
7: Nai Yin Xue: Authorities in Los Angeles tell AMW that a multi-agency international task force is currently on the lookout for Nai Yin Xue, a self-proclaimed martial arts master accused of killing his wife in New Zealand and abandoning his 3-year-old daughter at a train station in Melbourne , Australia.
6: Patricio Sosa: Patricio Sosa was one of the ringleaders of an operation that imported women and children from Mexico and forced them into prostitution in Florida , according to authorities. Now, law enforcement wants to put the brakes on this alleged trafficker.
5: Rafael Cadena-Sosa: Like many young men, authorities say Rafael Cadena-Sosa went into the family business. Unfortunately, that business was human trafficking and prostitution, according to the FBI.
4: Carmela Cadena: Imagine being kidnapped from your home country, held captive, and forced to work as a prostitute. This is the fate of thousands of women and children who are smuggled into the U.S. every year. The FBI says they're kept in line by women like Carmela Cadena, a member of the Cadena-Sosa family who is alleged to run a major trafficking and prostitution enterprise.
3: Paul Jackson: Cops say that when Paul Erven Jackson went to visit his brother, the pair didn't engage in the usual family bonding. Instead, they lured teenage girls back to a homemade sex-torture chamber. While Jackson is still on the run, Vance Roberts turned himself in back in September of 2006 and was convicted on June 6, 2007 after an hour of jury deliberation on 24 counts of charges ranging from first-degree kidnap to first-degree rape. On August 3, 2007, Judge Timothy Alexander sentenced Roberts to 108 years in prison.
2: Robert Bowman: AMW tipsters are telling cops exactly where they've seen 71-year-old accused killer Robert Bowman. Cops say the strongest tips are out of southern California and Sin City : tipsters have spotted Bowman living on the strip in Las Vegas as a homeless man. None of the sightings have been confirmed but cops are working to pinpoint any location that Bowman may have been recently. Since 1967, Ohio cops say Robert Bowman has literally gotten away with murder. They say science has finally caught up to the accused killer, and DNA irrefutably ties him to the abduction, rape and murder of 14-year-old Eileen Adams in Toledo , Ohio some 40 years ago.
1: If we told you before Saturday night, we would have to kill you.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Mafia Boss Tries Witchcraft to Thwart Prosecutors
A federal judge Thursday unsealed a handwritten incantation that Bonanno crime boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano stashed in his shoe to put a curse on prosecutors, FBI agents and mob turncoats during his 2006 racketeering trial.
Basciano has been jailed under conditions usually reserved for terrorists because the feds suspect it was a hit list to eliminate the gangster's enemies.
Basciano's lawyers say it was merely Santeria witchcraft meant to drive away bad vibes.
The spell goes: "Before the house of the judge, three dead men look out the window, one having no tongue, the other no lungs, and the third was sick, blind and dumb."
The words are to be repeated on the way to court and inside the courtroom, an Internet gypsy book of magic says.
Basciano must have been a lousy warlock, because he was convicted of murder and racketeering.
The beleaguered mafioso got a break from his stifling confinement yesterday after Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the government to allow Basciano to spend one hour in the courthouse with his mistress and their 6-year-old son - under the supervision of FBI agents.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Basciano has been jailed under conditions usually reserved for terrorists because the feds suspect it was a hit list to eliminate the gangster's enemies.
Basciano's lawyers say it was merely Santeria witchcraft meant to drive away bad vibes.
The spell goes: "Before the house of the judge, three dead men look out the window, one having no tongue, the other no lungs, and the third was sick, blind and dumb."
The words are to be repeated on the way to court and inside the courtroom, an Internet gypsy book of magic says.
Basciano must have been a lousy warlock, because he was convicted of murder and racketeering.
The beleaguered mafioso got a break from his stifling confinement yesterday after Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the government to allow Basciano to spend one hour in the courthouse with his mistress and their 6-year-old son - under the supervision of FBI agents.
Thanks to John Marzulli
Threat to "The Sopranos" Eliminated
A federal jury on Wednesday ruled against a man who says he helped "The Sopranos" creator David Chase develop ideas for the hit HBO mob drama.
The jury dismissed the claims of Robert Baer, ruling the aspiring writer and former prosecutor was not owed anything for help he provided while Chase wrote an early draft of the pilot.
Chase's lawyers hugged after hearing the verdict, which came after less than two hours of deliberations on the trial's fifth day.
Baer claimed he arranged meetings with police and prosecutors during a three-day tour of New Jersey mob sites in 1995 and engaged in subsequent conversations — sparking ideas for what became the hit HBO mob drama that ended in June.
Both men testified that Baer turned down compensation from Chase three times. But Baer claimed Chase agreed to "take care of him" if the show was a hit. Baer said no monetary figure was ever discussed. Chase never offered him a writing job on the show.
Chase's attorneys contended it was not the industry practice to pay advisers for help during the writing of a pilot.
Chase said Baer himself was not an expert in the Mafia, and that Baer introduced the Emmy-winning writer-producer to people with knowledge. When Chase rewrote "The Sopranos" pilot after it was rejected by Fox and other networks, he turned to "a true Mafia expert," Dan Castleman, his defense maintained.
Castleman, chief of the Manhattan district attorney's investigations division, testified that he provided free consulting services to Chase, over several dozen phone calls, as Chase worked on rewriting the pilot.
Castleman didn't enter into a contract as a technical adviser with HBO until after the pilot was written. He was paid $3,000 for help in filming the pilot, and got $1,000 for each of the 12 subsequent episodes in the first season. He declined to say how much he was paid for his role throughout the five seasons that followed until the show ended in June.
Castleman also eventually appeared on the show nine times in the role of a federal prosecutor, and prosecuted Tony's uncle, Corrado "Junior" Soprano, in his federal trial in Newark.
Thanks to Janet Frankston Lorin
The jury dismissed the claims of Robert Baer, ruling the aspiring writer and former prosecutor was not owed anything for help he provided while Chase wrote an early draft of the pilot.
Chase's lawyers hugged after hearing the verdict, which came after less than two hours of deliberations on the trial's fifth day.
Baer claimed he arranged meetings with police and prosecutors during a three-day tour of New Jersey mob sites in 1995 and engaged in subsequent conversations — sparking ideas for what became the hit HBO mob drama that ended in June.
Both men testified that Baer turned down compensation from Chase three times. But Baer claimed Chase agreed to "take care of him" if the show was a hit. Baer said no monetary figure was ever discussed. Chase never offered him a writing job on the show.
Chase's attorneys contended it was not the industry practice to pay advisers for help during the writing of a pilot.
Chase said Baer himself was not an expert in the Mafia, and that Baer introduced the Emmy-winning writer-producer to people with knowledge. When Chase rewrote "The Sopranos" pilot after it was rejected by Fox and other networks, he turned to "a true Mafia expert," Dan Castleman, his defense maintained.
Castleman, chief of the Manhattan district attorney's investigations division, testified that he provided free consulting services to Chase, over several dozen phone calls, as Chase worked on rewriting the pilot.
Castleman didn't enter into a contract as a technical adviser with HBO until after the pilot was written. He was paid $3,000 for help in filming the pilot, and got $1,000 for each of the 12 subsequent episodes in the first season. He declined to say how much he was paid for his role throughout the five seasons that followed until the show ended in June.
Castleman also eventually appeared on the show nine times in the role of a federal prosecutor, and prosecuted Tony's uncle, Corrado "Junior" Soprano, in his federal trial in Newark.
Thanks to Janet Frankston Lorin
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