Jury fingers man in Spilotro hits

CHICAGO -- A federal jury found three aging mobsters responsible for 10 murders Thursday after an extraordinary trial that included colorful witnesses who exposed the seedy inner workings of organized crime in Chicago.

Jurors deadlocked on blame for eight other murders after eight days of deliberations in one of the biggest mob trials in the city's history.

Frank Calabrese Sr., 70; Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78; and James Marcello, 65, were held responsible for murder, raising the maximum sentence each faces to life. Jurors deadlocked on a fourth defendant, Paul Schiro, 70.

Marcello, described by prosecutors as a top leader of the Chicago Outfit, was held responsible for the June 1986 murder of Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago mob's longtime man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino."

The Spilotros' brother, Patrick, a Chicago dentist, grabbed his wife, Kathy, as the verdict was read.

"It was a sense of justice being served," he said later of his reaction. "We're just thankful the verdict came down as it did."

The defendants remained poker-faced as U.S. District Judge James Zagel's clerk read the verdicts one by one in a packed federal courtroom.

All four men were convicted Sept. 10 of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included illegal gambling, extortion, loan sharking and the 18 mob murders, which had gone unsolved for decades.

A fifth defendant, retired Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy but not accused of any murders.

After convicting the four men, the jury began a second round of deliberations to determine whether the defendants were individually responsible for any of the 18 murders listed in the racketeering count, qualifying them for possible sentence of life in federal prison.

Calabrese's defense attorney Joseph Lopez left the courthouse grumbling that there was no way to give his client a fair trial.

"I don't think anyone charged with a case like this can get a fair trial anywhere because of publicity prior to trial because of shows that they make in Hollywood and because of scripts they write in Hollywood," he said. "Al Capone is probably the most famous Chicagoan we have."

In addition to Tony Spilotro's murder, Marcello was found responsible for the death of the victim's brother, Michael. Witnesses said they were lured to a suburban basement where they were beaten and strangled at Marcello's direction. The brothers were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.

Lombardo, 78, accused of being the capo of a Chicago mob "street crew," was blamed for the September 1974 murder of businessman Daniel Seifert, a federal witness who was hunted down and shotgunned by masked gunmen.

Calabrese, 70, a portly, bearded loan shark who according to witnesses doubled as a hit man, was found responsible for seven mob murders. Witnesses including his own brother, Nicholas Calabrese, said he strangled victims with a rope, then cut their throats to make sure they were dead.

Ellen Ortiz said she has been "hoping and praying" for the day when Calabrese would be held responsible for the July 1983 murder of her husband, Richard Ortiz, who prosecutors say was killed because he had committed a murder not authorized by the Outfit. Ellen Ortiz said it was a struggle to sit through the trial.

"It's been very hard, very hard," she said. "It brings back all the memories."

Jurors, who confessed they were hopelessly deadlocked, did not return verdicts pinning responsibility for one other murder on Marcello and six on Calabrese.

Each of the jurors was asked by Zagel whether "further deliberations by the jury could not lead to a unanimous verdict on any of the issues on which the jury is divided."

They said it would be no use to go on.

Schiro, 70, had been accused by Nicholas Calabrese of taking part in the June 1986 murder of businessman Emil Vaci in Phoenix.

The so-called Operation Family Secrets trial is the biggest organized crime case in Chicago in many years. The defendants were convicted of operating the Chicago Outfit, as the city's organized crime family is called, as a racketeering enterprise.

They were accused of squeezing "street tax," similar to protection money, out of businesses, running sports bookmaking and video poker operations, and engaging in loan sharking. And they were accused of killing many of those who they feared might spill mob secrets to the government, or already doing so.

The cases went unsolved for decades, the oldest being that of Michael "Hambone" Albergo, a suspected loan shark himself, who according to witnesses was put to death by Calabrese after he threatened to testify.

Witnesses said that Calabrese strangled Albergo and cut his throat in a construction site near the present U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox. But an FBI dig in a parking lot now on the site failed to turn up Albergo's remains.

The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.