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I thought some of you guys would be interested in this...
OK, besides guitars, Star Wars, and Hockey; one of my other interests is the Mob. I read a lot of books on the subject, some fiction (The Godfather), some nonfiction.(Accardo: The Genuine Godfather) I'm even beginning to drive my fiance a little batty by pointing out some of the Chicago mob scenes as we pass them in the city, most notably the location of the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
Some of you may or may not know that Casino was based upon the real-life Chicago mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro ("The Ant" being a shortened version of the nickname given to him by FBI Agent William F. Roemer Jr as Piss-ant) and his time in Vegas. At the end of the movie he and his brother were taken to a cornfield in Indiana, stripped down to their underwear, beaten savagely by baseball bats, and then buried alive.
Well, I was reading the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday and I came across this article that makes portions of Casino now more fictional...
<center><table border=1 width=550><tr><td><center><h4>Turncoat rewrites script on mob hits </h4></center>
<font size=-2>November 23, 2004
BY ROBERT HERGUTH AND STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporters </font>
It's one of the most brutal images of Chicago mob lore, immortalized in a Hollywood movie.
In the 1995 film "Casino," characters based on Chicago gangster Anthony Spilotro and his brother are lured to a cornfield where their companions savagely beat them with baseball bats, then bury them alive.
For years, that's been the popular view of how the Outfit whacked Spilotro and his younger brother, Michael.
In reality, the beatings took place in the basement of a Bensenville home.
The brothers were punched and kicked, not pounded with bats.
After the pummeling, the brothers' near-lifeless bodies were driven to an Indiana farmfield and buried in a shallow grave.
The man revealing all this to the FBI -- mob turncoat Nick Calabrese -- took part in the 1986 killings, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
He's not just helping rewrite the script of the Spilotro murders -- among the most notorious mob hits since the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
His cooperation is expected to close the books on as many as 18 Mafia-related killings, making Calabrese the most valuable hoodlum to flip here for the FBI -- in recent times at least.
<h6>'A great liability'</h6>
Numerous Outfit bosses soon could face new charges, including Calabrese's own brother, Frank.
Nick Calabrese's cooperation was secured largely by authorities tying him, through DNA, to the 1986 murder of "Big John" Fecarotta, who messed up during an initial attempt on Anthony Spilotro's life, the Sun-Times disclosed Monday.
Spilotro was the Chicago mob's top guy in Las Vegas starting in the early 1970s. But by the mid-1980s he had drawn the wrath of the underworld's bosses.
Spilotro supposedly was getting too ambitious, drawing too much attention to himself and badmouthing the bosses back home. His crew members had begun flipping for the feds, and he was facing a new criminal trial.
Late FBI mob investigator Bill Roemer, in his memoir, wrote that Anthony Spilotro had become "a great liability."
But what really may have sealed Spilotro's fate, sources said, was he was believed to be stealing millions of dollars from the "skim" -- the cash swiped by the mob from Las Vegas casinos. Spilotro also may have been orchestrating a play to seize control of the Chicago mob, sources said.
Aside from pointing out to the FBI the Bensenville home where the Spilotro beatings allegedly took place, Calabrese also has fingered the other participants, sources said. About a half dozen in all, they represented the upper echelon of the Outfit, sources said.
Most are alive today. At least one, Sam Carlisi, is dead, the sources said.
"Everyone wanted to participate," said one source.
The Bensenville home was owned by a relative of one of the killers, sources said.
<h6>Lured by ruse?</h6>
Some sources suggested the Spilotros were lured to their deaths by being told that Michael was getting "made" into the mob.
Whatever the case, it seems likely the record soon will be set straight.
Until now, it was widely believed the brothers were beaten at or near where they were buried.
And while experts long have contended that bats were not used to pummel the Spilotros, that has remained the popular myth perpetuated in film and newspaper columns.
Anthony Spilotro's widow, Nancy, says it's also a myth that her late husband was some violent, savvy mobster -- despite his ties to numerous murders and other crimes.
"I don't think anything ever would have warranted" his murder, said the Las Vegas resident. "You can ask anybody, my husband was a helluva nice guy. . . . He was not a hijacker like John Gotti and all that other bull----. He was not a wiseguy."</td></tr></table></center>
OK, besides guitars, Star Wars, and Hockey; one of my other interests is the Mob. I read a lot of books on the subject, some fiction (The Godfather), some nonfiction.(Accardo: The Genuine Godfather) I'm even beginning to drive my fiance a little batty by pointing out some of the Chicago mob scenes as we pass them in the city, most notably the location of the St. Valentines Day Massacre.
Some of you may or may not know that Casino was based upon the real-life Chicago mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro ("The Ant" being a shortened version of the nickname given to him by FBI Agent William F. Roemer Jr as Piss-ant) and his time in Vegas. At the end of the movie he and his brother were taken to a cornfield in Indiana, stripped down to their underwear, beaten savagely by baseball bats, and then buried alive.
Well, I was reading the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday and I came across this article that makes portions of Casino now more fictional...
<center><table border=1 width=550><tr><td><center><h4>Turncoat rewrites script on mob hits </h4></center>
<font size=-2>November 23, 2004
BY ROBERT HERGUTH AND STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporters </font>
It's one of the most brutal images of Chicago mob lore, immortalized in a Hollywood movie.
In the 1995 film "Casino," characters based on Chicago gangster Anthony Spilotro and his brother are lured to a cornfield where their companions savagely beat them with baseball bats, then bury them alive.
For years, that's been the popular view of how the Outfit whacked Spilotro and his younger brother, Michael.
In reality, the beatings took place in the basement of a Bensenville home.
The brothers were punched and kicked, not pounded with bats.
After the pummeling, the brothers' near-lifeless bodies were driven to an Indiana farmfield and buried in a shallow grave.
The man revealing all this to the FBI -- mob turncoat Nick Calabrese -- took part in the 1986 killings, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
He's not just helping rewrite the script of the Spilotro murders -- among the most notorious mob hits since the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
His cooperation is expected to close the books on as many as 18 Mafia-related killings, making Calabrese the most valuable hoodlum to flip here for the FBI -- in recent times at least.
<h6>'A great liability'</h6>
Numerous Outfit bosses soon could face new charges, including Calabrese's own brother, Frank.
Nick Calabrese's cooperation was secured largely by authorities tying him, through DNA, to the 1986 murder of "Big John" Fecarotta, who messed up during an initial attempt on Anthony Spilotro's life, the Sun-Times disclosed Monday.
Spilotro was the Chicago mob's top guy in Las Vegas starting in the early 1970s. But by the mid-1980s he had drawn the wrath of the underworld's bosses.
Spilotro supposedly was getting too ambitious, drawing too much attention to himself and badmouthing the bosses back home. His crew members had begun flipping for the feds, and he was facing a new criminal trial.
Late FBI mob investigator Bill Roemer, in his memoir, wrote that Anthony Spilotro had become "a great liability."
But what really may have sealed Spilotro's fate, sources said, was he was believed to be stealing millions of dollars from the "skim" -- the cash swiped by the mob from Las Vegas casinos. Spilotro also may have been orchestrating a play to seize control of the Chicago mob, sources said.
Aside from pointing out to the FBI the Bensenville home where the Spilotro beatings allegedly took place, Calabrese also has fingered the other participants, sources said. About a half dozen in all, they represented the upper echelon of the Outfit, sources said.
Most are alive today. At least one, Sam Carlisi, is dead, the sources said.
"Everyone wanted to participate," said one source.
The Bensenville home was owned by a relative of one of the killers, sources said.
<h6>Lured by ruse?</h6>
Some sources suggested the Spilotros were lured to their deaths by being told that Michael was getting "made" into the mob.
Whatever the case, it seems likely the record soon will be set straight.
Until now, it was widely believed the brothers were beaten at or near where they were buried.
And while experts long have contended that bats were not used to pummel the Spilotros, that has remained the popular myth perpetuated in film and newspaper columns.
Anthony Spilotro's widow, Nancy, says it's also a myth that her late husband was some violent, savvy mobster -- despite his ties to numerous murders and other crimes.
"I don't think anything ever would have warranted" his murder, said the Las Vegas resident. "You can ask anybody, my husband was a helluva nice guy. . . . He was not a hijacker like John Gotti and all that other bull----. He was not a wiseguy."</td></tr></table></center>
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