Mob crook gets 18 years; convicted wife on leave from county job

Paul Koroluk, a leader of a mob-connected crew on the Near West Side, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for racketeering.

Frank Main

@FrankMainNews | email

An Outfit-connected career criminal has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a high-profile racketeering case brought by Cook County prosecutors.

Paul Koroluk, 57, pleaded guilty on June 13 to a felony racketeering charge. He’s currently in Stateville penitentiary.

His wife, Maria Koroluk, was also charged in the investigation, dubbed Operation Crew Cut.

Since she was charged in 2014, she’s been on unpaid leave from her $103,707-a-year job as director of technical review for Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, according to a spokesman for the office.

Maria Koroluk, 55, was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute — a felony carrying nine to 40 years in prison. Police searched her home on the Near West Side and found 200 grams of cocaine packaged for sale in baggies, along with $12,000 in cash, according to court records.

But on June 13, prosecutors dismissed the drug charge and a felony charge of receiving stolen property. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass to a vehicle and was sentenced to court supervision.

The assessor’s office hasn’t determined whether she can return to her job, said Tom Shaer, deputy assessor for communications for Berrios. A misdemeanor conviction isn’t an automatic disqualifier, he said.

“It is important to note that Ms. Koroluk’s position is not Shakman-exempt,” he said. “Shakman oversight limits our latitude in hiring and firing such non-exempt employees.”

Paul Koroluk is connected to the Outfit and the C-Notes street gang in “The Patch” along Grand Avenue just west of the Loop — home to some of the city’s most infamous mobsters, prosecutors say.

His alleged partner in crime, Robert Panozzo Sr., continues to face racketeering charges in Cook County Criminal Court and a separate extortion charge in federal court.

Operation Crew Cut was the second racketeering case that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez brought under 2012 state statute modeled after the 1970 federal racketeering law used to target the Mafia.

“We now have the legal tools that our federal partners have enjoyed for a very long time and we are putting them to work to systematically crack down on violent organized criminal activity as charged in this particular investigation,” Alvarez said in a statement Thursday.

The probe by the Chicago Police and feds was launched in October 2013 after Panozzo and others tried to have a state witness killed, officials say. The witness was preparing to testify against members of the crew in a kidnapping and home invasion case.

Prosecutors say Panozzo and Koroluk ran the “PK street crew,” which allegedly committed home invasions, armed robberies, residential burglaries, insurance fraud, prostitution and other offenses.

The crew used information from gang members to rob drug dealers. The crew members allegedly posed as cops — wearing badges — to steal narcotics from dealers, prosecutors say.

Paul Koroluk and Robert Panozzo Sr. are convicted burglars and have been in the news for years for their reputed connection to the Chicago Outfit.

They have longtime ties to Grand Avenue mob boss Albert “Little Guy” Vena, 68, and imprisoned mob boss Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo, 87, officials say.

They were busted in July 2014 when they raided what they thought was a Mexican drug cartel’s stash house on the Southeast Side. It was actually a police sting. Paul Koroluk has pleaded guilty to that July 2014 attempted holdup, as well as a January 2014 drug rip-off on the Southwest Side and a November 2012 drug rip-off in south suburban Crete.

Four other defendants, William Feliciano, Kevin Koonce, Donald Hines and Jose Contreras, have pleaded guilty to charges in the probe. Feliciano got 18 years in prison; Koonce, 47 years; Hines, 17 years, and Contreras, 22 years.

Charges are pending against Ponozzo’s son, Robert Jr.; Dionisio Garcia, and Jeffrey Hollinghead, the would-be hit man who informed police about the PK crew’s plot to kill a state witness. He started cooperating with authorities in 2013 before he pleaded guilty to a kidnapping and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, sources say.

THE LAST FAMILY SECRET: 30 YEARS AFTER THE SPILOTRO HIT

                By Chuck Goudie and Barbara Markoff and Christine Tressel

Friday, June 24, 2016

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On June 23, 30 years ago, the mob's powerhouse brothers were discovered buried in an Indiana cornfield. The "last family secret" is how they got there.

The I-Team looks into Tony and Michael Spilotro's last road trip, where it began and who was behind it.

"Do you have any fears at all for your life?"

The question to Tony "Ant" Spilotro was finally answered on June 23, 1986, when he and his brother Michael were found six feet under by a Northwest Indiana corn farmer.

"This don't look like any animal skin I've ever seen," the farmer said at the time.

The Spilotro's temporary resting place is still eerily visible thirty years later. How they ended up here is not nearly as obvious.

The movie "Casino," Hollywood's version of the brother's death, shows outfit bosses beating them in the Indiana cornfield, something mob insiders say never happened.

We do know from authorities and underworld informants the Spilotros were rubbed out because Tony had angered Chicago crime bosses by an affair with the wife of Lefty Rosenthal, a Chicago native and Vegas casino exec who was an outfit operative.

And former FBI supervisor John Mallul says Spilotro was a loose cannon.

"He was essentially operating on his own. Keeping the proceeds to himself and not looking for authority to do anything," says Mallul.

"He did a lot of things he was not supposed to do that were really bad for business and for the Outfit," says John Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit."

And we know the Spilotros had been invited to a meeting with the bosses, under the belief it was to be a mob promotion ceremony. But they had been summoned to their deaths in a suburban basement. Details came years later by mob informant Nick Calabrese.

"He dove at Michael's legs, he grabbed Michael, he held Michael and Louie Eboli cut his throat," says Joe "the Shark" Lopez, mob attorney.

Top hoodlums Louie "The Mooch" Eboli and all the bosses were there, according to authorities, along with several mystery murderers, not known to this day.

"The plan was simply to tackle them, hold them down and strangle them," Mullul says.

"The top guys made a point of being there and getting their whacks in on them before they were dead," says Binder.

And the last Family secret? The exact location of where they were jumped and beaten by that gaggle of hoodlums, narrowed down only to a subdivision in northwest suburban Bensenville,

"It was my understanding that there was a couple of members, alleged members, that lived in that subdivision," says Lopez.

One of the murderers was Nick Calabrese, an FBI informant since 2002, and numerous times he tried to lead agents to the site of the basement beat-down.

"We couldn't locate the home and Nick couldn't confirm it. That's why that still remains a mystery," says Mallul.

For the family of Tony Spilotro, a ruthless career criminal who once put a victim's head in a vice until his eyeball popped out, 30 years has softened the memories.

"Ya know, he just- he was just a man, and got caught up in some things that maybe he shouldn't have but he lived it the way he lived it," says Vincent Spilotro, his son.

Mobwatcher websites display several Bensenville homes purported to be the location of the Spilotro killings. Investigators say all were all looked at and cleared. The I-Team examined property records for those and other possible locations and spoke with current and former homeowners and found no outfit connection. So that last family secret remains intact.

Archives of the Chief Investigator, Winter 1998

THE CHIEF SAYS.....

  by Chief Investigator, Wayne A. Johnson

ORGANIZED CRIME IN CHICAGO

  The problems involving North Loop Tax Increment Financing District Contracts (no bid) known as (TIF)s, that were first reported by Crain’s Business Chicago in the summer of 1997 was expounded upon in the November 2, 1997, Sunday Tribune. A holistic explanation was provided of the TIF concept and it’s expansion. This report also provided an inside look at common political favoritism practices, in a typical city council meeting (Feb, 7, 1997). It’s good for the public to see just how this process works. Crain’s and the Tribune should be commended for these reports. A proposal is being considered to designate the Taylor St. (Little Italy) area as a TIF district. Remember, Corruption will only be tolerated by an uninformed public!  

  Since that revelation, other scandalous incidents have appeared on the horizon. One such case was documented when a TV news crew followed a Ward, Streets and Sanitation Superintendent. The Superintendent not only left his ward but, left the state while on company time. In typical Chicago fashion his cronies stood fast and defended his actions citing past exemplary service. What makes this case exceptional is the fact the one current and three former Alderman came to the rescue. Since this storey surfaced the Inspector General brought charges against this Superintendent and he was currently on suspension. This case was scheduled to be presented before the Personnel Board for the City of Chicago until the Ward Superintendent suddenly retired in late January. The troubling part of this scenario is that he was allowed to take part in a buy-out offered to some but, not all city employees. What about the criminal aspects of this THEFT.      

UNION NEWS

  Well as spring approaches the long awaited ruling by former organized crime prosecutor and Hearing Officer for LIUNA, Peter Vaira was released. The ruling coincided with the complaint filed in 1997 by the GEB Attorney for LIUNA, that characterized several LIUNA Officials as Organized Crime members or Associates. This finding led to a takeover in early February, of the Chicago District Council offices at 6121 W. Diversey by U.S. Marshalls and FBI Agents armed with a Federal Judges Court Order. Trustee Robert Bloch was appointed for the task of sorting through bank accounts, pension funds, and other union records for signs of improprieties. This task as characterized by Washington-based Attorney Dwight P. Bostwick as “only the beginning”.   

  New allegations have arisen from the GEB Attorney for the Laborers International Union of North America, except this time they are directed at the International President and Bill Clinton confidant, Arthur Coia. This is not the first time that such actions have been considered however. In 1994 through 1995 a takeover seemed unavoidable as government negotiators and union representatives tried to reach an agreement on a plan to rid the union of mob influence. Although, a short time later Coia himself agreed to lead the effort to clean up the union after hiring a former federal prosecutor and federal agents, to placate the Justice Department. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the chicken coup. But, for the time being the heat dissipated and it was back to business as usual, including the close relationship between Coia and President Clinton.

  Well, as 1997 came to an end former U. S. Justice Department lawyer, and the man Coia himself hired, GEB Attorney  Robert D. Luskin filed charges in Washington against Coia, while still other investigations against Coia proceed in Washington, Boston, and Rochester N.Y.  In this complaint, the charges against Coia concern “historical misconduct”, and claimed that Coia has “associated with, and been controlled by and influenced by organized crime figures” in the past. This is no surprise in light of past accounts from his own mouth that included a meeting in 1991 between Coia, John Serpico (a former union official ousted in 1995 and current chairman of the Illinois International Port District), and Chicago MOB Lieutenant Vincent A. Solano. The late Solano a former Laborers local president himself gave Coia his blessing in his bid for a run at secretary-treasurer of the international but, warned him that it was Serpico that the MOB had designated as the heir-apparent to the International Presidency. Well, as you can see this episode reads like a Nicholas Pileggi screenplay. In coming months we will monitor this and other union affairs and report those results in the next Alert.      

POLICE CORRUPTION

  On November 3, 1997, the FOP membership at a regular meeting attended by over 300 members  passed a vote of no confidence in their former leader Supt. Matt Rodriguez. This unprecedented measure came on the heels of what is felt to be a rush to judgement regarding the move to fire two officers in the alleged beating of a west side teenager.

  In light of this, what I find astonishing is the department’s tortoise like investigation of an officer with a long Organized Crime associations in Gambling ventures that was first brought to light in 1994 when this officer was in the training academy as a recruit. This revelation was  made public when the Chicago Crime Commission released it’s latest work on Organized Crime titled “The New Faces of Organized Crime”. High ranking officials of the department have told the Chicago Crime Commission that legal affairs attorneys admit that if all that is known now, was known when this officer applied for employment he would not be a police officer today. More recently, a former candidate for the Superintendents position claimed in a Sun-Times interview that he  never had files in his possession that would clarify this officers Organized Crime associations.  However, this information was known by the department and specifically the Internal Affair Division. Why the lies? And why was this officer not fired. Smells like a cover up to me! This makes me wonder aloud, why does the department not ask all of it’s applicants if they have Organized Crime affiliations and further, why don’t they consult their owns experts in that area about the backgrounds of potential candidates? Could it be because, the unit over the last several years has been stripped of manpower and could not handle such a mandate!

  Future recommendations by newly appointed Superintendent Terry Hillard address just that. In his first days as the Superintendent designee, Hillard spoke of bringing the Intelligence function of the Department back to its prior strength. In my eyes, this is a sign the Mayor made the right selection. I wish Superintendent Hillard all the best and look forward to working with him in the future.

Sinatra And The Jack Pack: Hollywood star and JFK break-up

SLEDGEHAMMER in hand, an apoplectic Frank Sinatra swung savagely around his newly renovated home in Palm Springs, California.

By PETER SHERIDAN

PUBLISHED: 16:26, Sun, Jul 24, 2016 | UPDATED: 17:43, Sun, Jul 24, 2016

Ol’ Blue Eyes had rebuilt the house at vast expense to welcome his good friend, President John F Kennedy.

He had remodeled it, adding rooms for White House staff and Secret Service agents, and installed a bank of 25 phone lines.

He even built a helicopter pad in the garden. But days before JFK’s planned visit in March, 1962, the president abruptly ended his friendship with Sinatra – the bitter aftermath of a shared penchant for dangerous women and Mafia connections.

Sinatra stormed through his house “smashing up everything in his way before taking a sledgehammer to the concrete helipad outside,” reveals Michael Sheridan, author of the gripping new book Sinatra And The Jack Pack, detailing their remarkable friendship and its dramatic ending.“

He was deeply wounded by what he regarded as a huge personal insult.”

Sinatra had his famed Rat Pack – Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and the president’s brother-in-law Peter Lawford – but he craved more.

“Sinatra desperately wanted to be part of John F Kennedy’s gang,” says Sheridan.

“The guy Ol’ Blue Eyes really wanted to hang with was the real chairman of the board, John F Kennedy.” He adds: “He and his father [Senator Joe Kennedy] had covertly used the Mob, through Sinatra to get the vote out and to, in some cases, fix entire electoral areas.

He had used Frank to encourage his Hollywood and entertainment industry friends to support the Kennedy presidential election campaign.” For hard-drinking, brawling, Mafia-connected womaniser Sinatra, raised on the hardscrabble streets of New Jersey, the friendship offered an entrée to Washington DC’s ultimate circle of power, and a veneer of respectability.

Kennedy loved the singer’s Hollywood glamour, and access to the world’s most beautiful women. Sinatra was even put in charge of JFK’s inaugural gala ceremony and parade in Washington, DC, in January, 1961, assembling a stellar cast including Gene Kelly, Bette Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Ethel Merman.

“Since the election Sinatra had sought access to, and approval from, the president with a new intensity,” and “bombarded Kennedy with letters, messages, gifts and suggestions,” says Sheridan.

Sinatra hosted lavish parties and fund-raisers for JFK, and privately they womanised together.

Both bedded screen siren Marilyn Monroe, and FBI files disclose that both were investigated for a fling with two New York prostitutes, the book reveals.

Among the women Sinatra pimped for JFK was brunette beauty Judith Campbell Exner, who Sinatra – in an appalling display of bad judgment – also introduced to Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana.

Thanks to Ol’ Blue Eyes, the president of the United States and the nation’s leading mobster shared the same lover for more than two years. But while Kennedy kept his affair with mobster’s moll Exner under wraps, Sinatra made no secret of his affection for Mafia hoodlums.

This posed a mounting problem for the president’s brother, US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who had vowed to crush the mob and viewed Sinatra’s links to organized crime as a political time bomb.

An FBI probe into organized crime exposed Sinatra’s extensive mob ties. His file would ultimately fill more than 2,000 pages. By 1962 Kennedy reluctantly acknowledged that it was political suicide to remain friends with him. He ordered brother-in-law Peter Lawford to break the bad news: his visit to Sinatra’s Palm Springs home was cancelled.

“I was scared, “ Lawford admitted.

“When Jack called me, he said that as president he just couldn’t stay at Frank’s and sleep in the same bed that Giancana or any other hood had slept in.”

Ol’ Blue Eyes phoned Robert Kennedy in a rage, “to be told that the reason for the cancellation was the disreputable company he was keeping and the need for the administration to distance itself from people such as himself,” says the author.

“Sinatra called the attorney general every name in the book before slamming the phone down. Cut off from the White House, Sinatra threw himself back into Hollywood, filming Robin and the Seven Hoods with Rat Pack pals Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

He deliberately omitted Peter Lawford from the movie, livid that his friend had sided with the Kennedy clan. When Sinatra learned of Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, he halted filming and phoned the White House, only to discover that his privileges had been revoked.

“Sinatra, despite his celebrity, was just another caller that afternoon,” says the author.

The president’s family and close friends went to Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, for the funeral but in a final indignity Sinatra was snubbed.

Sinatra later turned his support to Republican Richard Nixon, and then Ronald Reagan, despite having branded him “a bore” who “couldn’t get into the pictures.”

After JFK’s slaying, Sinatra reportedly had an affair with his widow, Jackie Kennedy – perhaps the ultimate revenge. But in death, Sinatra finally spoke more kindly of the friend who had cruelly shunned him.

“For a brief moment, he was the brightest star in our lives,” Sinatra said of JFK. “I loved him.”

Sinatra And The Jack Pack by Michael Sheridan with David Harvey. £16.99 Skyhorse Publishing. Call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562310. Or send a cheque or PO to Jack Pack Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth, TR11 4WJ, or visit expressbookshop.com

How the Mafia Almost Fixed the 1932 Democratic National Convention

FDR Presidential Library, CC BY

BY JAMES COCKAYNE

July 25, 2016

After a dramatic Republican National Convention in Cleveland which saw Donald Trump finally become the party’s official nominee, Hillary Clinton will this week accept the formal nomination of the Democratic Party.

U.S. national conventions have always been big business opportunities. As one long-time ally of the Bush family reportedly said, “For people who operate in and around government, you can’t not be here.” Although some of the usual donors to the Republican National Convention, like Ford and UPS, stayed home this year, the host committee was able to raise nearly US $60 million from American businesses. Yet historically the “people who operate in and around government” are not only legitimate businesses but also, sometimes, less-than-legitimate ones.

Take the 1932 Democratic National Convention. As I explain in my book about the hidden power of organized crime, from which this article is adapted, the nomination that year had come down to a contest between two New York politicians. Al Smith was a reform-minded former governor aligned with Tammany Hall, the Manhattan-based Democratic political machine. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the sitting governor, was running against him, and he was not aligned with Tammany.

If Roosevelt was to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, he needed to neutralize the Tammany threat. That meant figuring out what to do about the Mob.

You can’t fight Tammany Hall.

Through their control of liquor and vice-markets in southern Manhattan, Tammany’s stronghold, the Italian-American Mafias and Jewish-heritage gangs that made up the New York Mob had developed growing power in Tammany affairs over the preceding years.

The Mob leadership now saw a huge strategic opportunity at the Democratic National Convention to leverage that power into something even bigger: influence over the next occupant of the White House.

Strange bedfellows

Mob leaders Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky all accompanied the Tammany Hall delegation to the convention in Chicago. Their Mafia associate Al Capone provided much of the alcohol, banned under prohibition, and entertainment.

Al Capone in 1929. US National ArchivesCostello shared a hotel suite with Jimmy Hines, the Tammany “Grand Sachem,” who announced support for Roosevelt. But another Tammany politician, Albert Marinelli, announced that he and a small bloc were defecting and would not support Roosevelt.

Marinelli was Tammany’s leader in the Second Assembly District, its heartland below Manhattan’s 14th Street. During Prohibition he had owned a trucking company – run by none other than Lucky Luciano. Luciano had helped Marinelli become the first Italian-American district leader in Tammany, and in 1931 forced the resignation of the city clerk, whom Marinelli then replaced. This gave Luciano and Marinelli control over selection of grand jurors and the tabulation of votes during city elections.

Now, the two were sharing a Chicago hotel suite.

An offer he couldn’t refuse

Why were Costello and Luciano backing rival horses, and through them, rival candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination? Was this a disagreement over political strategy?

On the contrary, the evidence suggests that the Mob was playing both sides, to place themselves as brokers in the Democratic nomination process.

Roosevelt needed the full New York state delegation’s support – and thus Tammany’s – if he was going to win the floor vote at the convention. But he also needed to avoid being tainted by the whiff of scandal that hung stubbornly around Tammany – and the Mafia.

Roosevelt responded to the split by issuing a statement denouncing civic corruption, while carefully noting that he had not seen adequate evidence to date to warrant the prosecution of sitting Tammany leaders, despite an ongoing investigation run by an independent-minded prosecutor, Sam Seabury. Picking up his signal, Marinelli threw his support behind Roosevelt, giving him the full delegate slate and helping him gain the momentum needed to claim the nomination.

Roosevelt on the campaign trail in 1932. FDR Presidential Library, CC BY

The Mob’s role may not have been decisive. Roosevelt’s nomination had numerous fathers, not least John “Cactus Jack” Garner, a rival presidential candidate to whom Roosevelt offered the vice presidency in return for the votes of the Texas and California delegations. But it was a factor.

If the Mob leaders were not quite kingmakers as they had hoped, they were certainly players. As Luciano reportedly put it, “I don’t say we elected Roosevelt, but we gave him a pretty good push.”

It takes one to know one

Luciano was nonetheless a newcomer to national politics, and seems to have been quickly outsmarted by his candidate. Having secured the nomination, Roosevelt loosened the reins on Seabury’s corruption investigation, making clear that if it developed new evidence, he might be prepared to back prosecutions after all.

Seabury quickly exposed significant Tammany graft in the New York administration. The city sheriff had amassed $400,000 in savings from a job that paid $12,000 a year. The mayor had awarded a bus contract to a company that owned no buses – but was happy to give him a personal line of credit. A judge with half a million dollars in savings had been granted a loan to support 34 “relatives” found to be in his care. Against the backdrop of Depression New York, with a collapsing private sector, 25 percent unemployment and imploding tax revenues, this was shocking profligacy and nepotism.

By September 1932, the mayor had resigned and fled to Paris with his showgirl girlfriend. In early 1933, Roosevelt moved into the White House and broke off the formal connection between Tammany Hall and the national Democratic Party for the first time in 105 years. He even tacitly supported the election of the reformist Republican Fiorello La Guardia as New York mayor.

Luciano was pragmatic about having been outsmarted. “He done exactly what I would’ve done in the same position,” he reportedly said. “He was no different than me … we was both s—ass double-crossers, no matter how you look at it.”

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Muhammad Ali's son's dirty dealings with the mob revealed

Published on:8 July 2016

JO SUE

Ali Jr. at risk of losing his inheritance to Chicago gangsters for back debts on drugs.

The late Muhammad Ali's son Ali Jr., is in debt to the Chicago mob who are now coming after him hard since the death of his father on June 3rd. The gangsters are looking to get paid what they are owed and then some from Muhammad Ali's estate after the inheritance has been doled out to his children.

Sources close to Muhammad's family have revealed that his son owes the gangsters money for drugs he was supplied with and they are threatening to take whatever they want from the Ali estate which is estimated to be around $80 million. "Everybody wants a piece of him" the insider reportedly stated. Ali Jr., 44, is one of nine children the boxing legend fathered during his four marriages

Muhammad Ali died last month at the age of 74 following hospitalization due to a breathing issue. Ali Jr., has been estranged from his father for several years up until his death believing his father's fourth wife Lonnie was responsible for keeping the two apart. Muhammad, who was diagnosed in 1984 with Parkinson's disease lived a comfortable life thanks to his success in boxing and world championship title, while his namesake son grew up poor in a seedy part of Chicago.

Ali Jr. may lose all his part of father's estate to drug debt

The neighborhood of West Englewood is described as rundown and poor with houses falling apart, and people living without basic needs such as hot water. The majority of people living there are crack addicts and drug dealers. Ali Jr. claims that since he was cut off by Lonnie he has struggled to feed his wife and two children, often relying on food stamps and handouts to get by.

His friends describe him as a devout Muslim, and is said to smoke weed heavily when he has money adding that his drug habits are to blame for his debts. Those closest to him say he is in heavy to the mob, they are not sure how much, but enough to live in constant fear over. The gangsters are well aware that he is Ali's son and will inherit a large sum of cash from his will.

Not only does he have the mob pressuring him, he is also being bombarded by so-called friends who approach him daily in hopes of getting their hands on some of his cash soon. They are also giving him drugs so that he will be indebted to them, Ali Jr. has recently flown out to Los Angeles to meet with his siblings about their father's estate, which Lonnie is in control over.

It appears as if Ali Jr.'s biggest threat lies within the hands of the Chicago gangsters who are plotting as we speak to get their hands on his cash, sadly though this is not his only worry, it is said his wife has been waiting for this time to come so she can walk away from him with a huge amount of money.

I'M Back

Greetings everyone, I apologize for my absence over the last couple of months. I was a little buried with school responsibilities i.e. prepping a new book for my Organized Crime class, wrapping up the Fall semester and other administrative responsibilities. However, I did enjoy the last several months basking in the glory of my beloved Chicago Cubs bringing home the World Series trophy. I will resolve for this year to be more active on this blog and provide you with the latest in Chicago Outfit news. Remember they are not pursued by Law Enforcement anymore but do exist. I have consulted on a Lake County case since the release of my book and maybe, just maybe some day it will be indicted. In the meantime I will post some more stories that had be in the hopper for awhile and report that book sales are pretty steady, especially at the Mob Museum in Vegas.

And oh yea, I am working on my next book that I hope to release soon. So like I always say "Stay classy America"

Buy the book at: https://www.amazon.com/History-Violence-Encyclopedia-Chicago-Murders-1st/dp/0615986935/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394923423&sr=1-2&keywords=a+history+of+violence