Luke, why do I have to do your work for you?

Few weeks ago I mentioned the Chicago Outfit guy that would place ads in the local free weekly demanding that "members of organized crime syndicates" stay away from him, since that was a condition of his parole. That guy, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, was just charged in a pretty huge RICO indictment issued yesterday.

Of all of the counts, people will probably cling to the one involving the murder of Tony Spilotro, portrayed by Joe Peschi in the movie Casino, and his brother out in a cornfield in unincorporated DuPage County back in 1986.

Here's some relevant parts of the indictment, Luke:


COUNT SIX

The SPECIAL AUGUST 2003-2 GRAND JURY further charges:

From sometime in the summer of 2001 and continuing until approximately November 2001, in the Northern District of Illinois and elsewhere,

FRANK SCHWEIHS, also known as "the German,"

defendant herein, knowingly did attempt to commit extortion, as that term is used in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951(b) (2), which extortion would have affected interstate commerce as that term is used in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951(b) (3), in that the defendant would and did attempt to obtain money as "street tax" from an adult entertainment club operating in a suburb of Chicago, with the consent of a representative of the club, induced by the wrongful use of actual and threatened force, violence, and fear;

In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1951 and 2.


COUNT SEVEN

The SPECIAL AUGUST 2003-2 GRAND JURY further charges:

From sometime in October of 2001 and continuing through November 2001, in the Northern District of Illinois and elsewhere,

FRANK SCHWEIHS, also known as "the German"

defendant herein, knowingly participated in the use of extortionate means within the meaning of Title 18, United States Code, Section 891(7), to collect and attempt to collect from the former owners of an adult entertainment store operating in Indiana, an extension of credit, within the meaning of Title 18, United States Code, Section 891(1); that is, the defendant did expressly and implicitly threaten the use of violence to cause harm to the former owners of the store in an attempt to obtain a sum of money from them by November 1, 2001;

In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 894 and 2.


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There were rumors circulating--the departing FBI SAC even gave an interview stating as much--that several politicians were going to be implicated in a coming Outfit bust. Only a couple of cops were implicated here. I heard this morning that the second Grand Jury will be called back, and that a second indictment will have to do with shaking down, money laundering through and other business involving strip clubs and adult stores--but I don't know anything first-hand. Should be an interesting summer.

Spilotro was .... "cornholed" .......

Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas for the last 5+ years, was Spilotro's Mouthpiece. It has long been thought that Good ol' Oscar has known many tidbits about the Ant's Murder that actually dont fall under attorney client privilege, but being the good Goombah-ass-kisser-extraordinaire that he is, he has kept them to himself and enjoyed being Emperor of Sin City (not the porno company.)

There has been a federal Racketeering Holy War against the Vegas strip club Crazy Horse Too (CH2) since 1997. Oscar used to represent CH2 owner Rick Rizzollo, and other Bonnano Affiliates (like Vincent ferraci, whose father supposedly knew Spilotro.) Since becoming mayor, Oscar has taken a lot of heat for some dubious actions that have clearly favored Rizzolo and CH2, and he may have seen the writing on the wall/indictment and quietly shared a few details to help the frustrated feds, in exchange for the feds allowing a "deal" in the CH2/rizzolo matter and leaving Oscar alone. The Feds have invested 7 years, countless man hours, documents, wiretaps and Dollars, as well as significant opportunity cost while other cases have been ignored, trying to close the CH2 case.

I dunno....a couple of fellow morally aloof professional friends in Vegas have been blabbing about shit I normally ignore, but didnt for some reason this time. Probably because drug addicted strippers played a minor role in the whole sordid affair.

Anyway, Da Burglar's "Unsubstantiated-but-still-probably-somewhat-true" Rumor mill has met its yearly quota. Thank you for watching. If you want to do research yourself, check out Vegas Columnist Steve Miller here:

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