Operation Family Secrets Part 14

Could the Two Mikes be the guys to bring the Outfit down?

The FBI allows agents to run investigations on a one- or two-agent basis, and if substance is shown, a larger unit will be enlisted. Maseth and Hartnett needed to meet with Supervisor Bourgeois to get him to sign off on an expanded squad to cash in on my and Uncle Nick's revelations. Bourgeois to get him to sign off on an expanded squad to cash in on my and Uncle Nick's revelations.

Unlike high-profile FBI agents like Bill Roemer and Joe Pistone, who wrote popular true-crime books, Maseth and Hartnett were just two young agents building an investigation. Bourgeois knew they had a strong case and were gathering an inordinate head of steam.

Soon Mike was promoted to co-lead case agent. Maseth and Hartnett had to sell their colleagues on joining their budding investigation and build a team. Although the Two Mikes had a hot case to offer, many of the agents were a.s.signed to their own investigations or were busy readying cases that were about to go to trial. Once Agent Bourgeois gave them the go-ahead to expand operations, Maseth and Hartnett needed to select their team and entice the right a.s.sociates to join them.

By early 2002, they had their crew set up. According to Mike Maseth, it was like a.s.sembling a fantasy baseball team. After they listed the murders, the Two Mikes completed another list of squad members who might want to work with them. They needed to attract certain agents with certain skills to fill specific needs. Operation Family Secrets pursued crimes that were sprawled over three decades. Maseth and Hartnett needed personnel willing to put in long hours without clock-watching or whining about overtime.

Mob prosecutors Mitch Mars and John Scully (later joined by T. Markus Funk) came from the U.S. Attorney's Office. They would serve as the prosecution team. Bill Paulin, Laura s.h.i.+mkus, and Mike Welch would make up the IRS portion of the squad. (No investigation was complete without those dreaded IRS agents.) Veteran FBI agent Ted McNamara brought his encyclopedic knowledge of the Outfit landscape and an uncanny knack for pulling up valuable needle-in-the-haystack wiretap transcripts and case files. Agent John Mallul jumped over from Chicago's OC2 squad. He had been instrumental in cracking the William JahodaRocky Infelise case in the early 1990s. Mallul scored a civil RICO complaint against a labor council that controlled twenty locals and twenty thousand union members for LIUNA, the Laborer's International Union of North America. LIUNA's board of directors included mobsters Bruno and Frank Caruso and relatives of Joe "the Clown" Lombardo, Johnny Apes, and Vincent Solano. Mallul succeeded Bourgeois as OC1's squad supervisor after Bourgeois's retirement. complaint against a labor council that controlled twenty locals and twenty thousand union members for LIUNA, the Laborer's International Union of North America. LIUNA's board of directors included mobsters Bruno and Frank Caruso and relatives of Joe "the Clown" Lombardo, Johnny Apes, and Vincent Solano. Mallul succeeded Bourgeois as OC1's squad supervisor after Bourgeois's retirement.

Agent Anita Stamat was also recruited and became the squad's criminal anthropologist. She was in charge of translating coded Outfit messages and correspondence. Agent Tracy Balinao was a skilled field investigator and Bureau liaison for victims and eyewitnesses. Other "first-round picks" included Trisha Holt, Dana DePooter, and Andrew Hickey. Luigi Mondini and Chris Mackey made major contributions when they joined the squad in 2004. Lastly, Bob Moon and Al Egan, two veteran detectives from the Chicago Police Department, were added to the task force.

With eighteen unsolved murders to reconstruct and numerous surveillances to organize, the Operation Family Secrets squad quickly increased from seven to sixteen people. But it was Maseth and Hartnett who maintained primary contact with my uncle and me as their two star witnesses.

For security reasons, they decided to debrief Uncle Nick at FCI Ashland in Kentucky because there was less foot traffic there than at Milan or Pekin. Although Nick had been in Kentucky for months, he was no longer surrounded by a support group of wise-guy inmates like Jimmy Marcello and Harry Aleman. In Ashland, Nick was isolated from his Outfit brethren.

The information flowed constantly, but the FBI could talk to him only for a prescribed period of time. Each debriefing session with Nick lasted ten or twelve hours. There were very few breaks and no time for ritzy lunches. The agents lived on candy bars, vending machine grub, and fast food. In the beginning, the debriefings took place in Ashland, but later they were moved to an undisclosed location.

Mike didn't know what to expect. For forty or so years, my uncle had been programmed not to talk to police. Sitting in a room with three FBI agents, a federal prosecutor, and a defense lawyer, my uncle had a lot of nervous energy. Uncle Nick was jittery and worried because, like me, he was about to do something that he had never imagined. with three FBI agents, a federal prosecutor, and a defense lawyer, my uncle had a lot of nervous energy. Uncle Nick was jittery and worried because, like me, he was about to do something that he had never imagined.

The FBI became extremely judicious about whom they chose to do business with. When Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano was arrested in 1998 on drug charges-seven years after becoming a government witness-the Department of Justice began driving a harder bargain for mobsters willing to cooperate or enter WITSEC (the Witness Security Program). One of my main concerns was whether or not the Bureau (or another government agency further up the food chain) would ever cut a deal with my father, putting him him back on the street. Such an arrangement would endanger the lives of both Nick and me. back on the street. Such an arrangement would endanger the lives of both Nick and me.

But it was extremely unlikely that my father would flip; putting him back on the street was a near impossibility. Short of revealing who killed JFK and Jimmy Hoffa, the most he could hope for was a slightly more comfortable cell inside a federal penitentiary. My uncle showed remorse for his crimes during his debriefings. His return to society as a productive and nonviolent citizen was plausible.

During the debriefing process neither my uncle nor I knew that the other was cooperating, much less talking with the same federal agents. It was vital in the investigation that we hadn't compared notes or shared information, and that neither of us knew of the other's whereabouts or involvement in the case.

For Mike Maseth, having a made member from the Outfit available to build a RICO case and close high-profile unsolved murders was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Now he had to decide how best to dispense the vast amount of information on his all-important official 302 report on my uncle.

In the 302, the FBI writes down what happens in an interview. Since Nick was giving Mike forty years' worth of information, Mike decided that if they were going to debrief Nick through several interviews over a long period of time, they wanted the 302 to make sense and have a broad context. They wanted somebody to read the doc.u.ment five years later and understand how everything tied in. Instead of doing a bunch of individual 302s every time Nick and Mike met, they compiled one gigantic 302, a chronology of what Uncle Nick told them throughout his briefs. the doc.u.ment five years later and understand how everything tied in. Instead of doing a bunch of individual 302s every time Nick and Mike met, they compiled one gigantic 302, a chronology of what Uncle Nick told them throughout his briefs.

Maseth's jumbo 302, which spanned 120 pages, would become the bedrock upon which Operation Family Secrets was built. It would become the road map that Mitch Mars and the U.S. Attorney's Office would use in a.s.sembling their case in federal court.

The Two Mikes got into a heated discussion in the parking lot at the new White Sox ballpark, where the squad was conducting a search for the body of Michael "Hambone" Albergo. It was a big production that resembled an archaeological dig, and based on Uncle Nick's information, the key area was roped off for excavation. The female agent in charge of investigating the Albergo murder and overseeing the digging operation approached Maseth with a question. She said the Evidence Response Team (ERT) needed to know how deep to dig. Only Nick knew the answer, and because Mike was Nick's handler, Mike was put on the spot. Hartnett had warned Mike not to contact Nick with too many specific questions. It would, in his opinion, be counterproductive to their ongoing debriefing relations.h.i.+p with him. Team (ERT) needed to know how deep to dig. Only Nick knew the answer, and because Mike was Nick's handler, Mike was put on the spot. Hartnett had warned Mike not to contact Nick with too many specific questions. It would, in his opinion, be counterproductive to their ongoing debriefing relations.h.i.+p with him.

Yet the agent at the site insisted, and she had a full crew waiting for an answer. Feeling squeezed with so much personnel and equipment on the scene, Mike got on the phone and made calls before getting through to Nick. As the ERT began their work, Hartnett overheard Mike telling someone that he had just spoken to Nick. A visibly upset Hartnett pulled Maseth aside.

"Didn't I tell you not not to call Nick?" Hartnett asked his partner. "You know, if you screw this thing up, it's to call Nick?" Hartnett asked his partner. "You know, if you screw this thing up, it's my my a.s.s." a.s.s."

"Calm down. It's my a.s.s, too," said Maseth. "Besides, I'm taking a beating out here, and all I want to do is help solve the case."

Later that night a set of bones was found at the dig site. By midnight, they were dusted and laid out. It looked like the remains of vertebrae and a spine. The next morning, a Sunday, Agent John Mallul pulled up to the command center with the office's special agent in charge (SAC).

"John," Maseth said wearily to Mallul, "I've got good news and bad news. We did find some bones, but the vertebrae seem too small to be human, and the skull we found looks to be that of a German shepherd. I'll let you tell the SAC."

Albergo's body was never found.

But not all of Uncle Nick's leads went cold. In recalling the details behind the Cagnoni bombing, he remembered that the license plate of the decoy car used in the blast came from a 1950 Ford that was later traced through police reports to have been stolen. Nick's claim that he and my father had staked out Cagnoni's business on South Damen Avenue at Blue Island Avenue two weeks before the murderous explosion was backed up by an old FBI 302 surveillance report that placed my father, John Fecarotta, and Frank Santucci in a parked car behind a building, half a block from Cagnoni's place of business. (After scoring such useful data, Mike promised himself he would not complain about having to fill out and file multiple 302 forms.) Mike promised himself he would not complain about having to fill out and file multiple 302 forms.) Later, Uncle Nick precisely recalled the use of a K-40 antenna stashed inside a parked car on the expressway, which detonated the brick-sized chunk of malleable C-4 explosives placed under Cagnoni's Mercedes. Squad investigators matched the make and model of similar parts of an explosive device that was used in the attempted bombing murder of another Outfit victim, Nick Sarillo.

After the painstaking process of piecing together events involving the eighteen previously unsolved homicides (although it was revealed by the government during sentencing that Uncle Nick detailed nearly two dozen slayings on Mike's jumbo 302), the investigation entered another phase between 2002 and April 2005-that of consolidating data and evidence for arrest and trial. Locating precise wiretap conversations proved to be the most time-consuming. When Agent Luigi Mondini investigated the Emil Vaci murder and the Outfit's attempt to whack the Spilotro brothers in Vegas, he needed certain wiretaps made there in the 1980s. The police in Nevada hunted through their archives, and when they dispatched the material to Chicago, Luigi wound up with a large stack of congealed reel-to-reel tapes. After baking the tapes in an oven to restore their usability (similar to what recording studios do to rescue decades-old vintage music masters), Luigi monitored hours of irrelevant material to find one pertinent four-minute conversation. It could take weeks to score one brief piece of tape. The tech room, where agents worked and reviewed wire transmissions, was so small that they could barely maneuver around the equipment.

When Mike mentioned in pa.s.sing to Agent Ted McNamara a series of obscure phone conversations that may have taken place between Jimmy Marcello, Rocky Infelise, and Joe Ferriola regarding Little Jimmy's gambling activities, McNamara dropped by Mike's desk a few days later with a set of transcriptions of wiretaps that took place in 1986. Maseth was stunned. Here were the two noteworthy recordings off the wire between Marcello, Infelise, and Ferriola. two noteworthy recordings off the wire between Marcello, Infelise, and Ferriola.

McNamara and Agent Anita Stamat had tremendous recall and discovered and understood the criminal activities of Jimmy Marcello, including the video poker machine business he had with his brother Mickey. While the Two Mikes had my uncle and me to navigate them through the coded lexicon of the Calabrese crew, Stamat, as the case agent for the Marcello inquiries, had to go it alone in cracking complex Outfit communication codes.

Chris Mackey, the agent in charge of gathering data on the late Angelo LaPietra, acc.u.mulated over ten thousand pages on the Hook alone-which needed to be meticulously reviewed before it was handed over to the a.s.sistant U.S. Attorneys.

When I first saw how many agents had joined the investigation, I was concerned that it might compromise my ident.i.ty. But this was not the case, and the inquiry remained top secret.

In November 2002, when Uncle Nick was scheduled to be released on racketeering charges, he suddenly disappeared from the federal prison system and was moved to a secret location for an indefinite period. While friends and family (especially the Outfit) waited for my uncle to rejoin his wife and kids in the suburbs, speculation turned to certainty. He had flipped and was about to become the first made Outfit guy to cooperate in court. Now when anyone typed "Nicholas Calabrese" at www.bop.gov to find out his whereabouts, he or she got nothing. Uncle Nicky had vanished into the ether-in the system one day, gone the next. to find out his whereabouts, he or she got nothing. Uncle Nicky had vanished into the ether-in the system one day, gone the next.

A year later, Jimmy Marcello was released from FCI Milan after serving eight years and seven months of his original twelve-and-a-half-year sentence. Marcello took a job with a nursing home operation called DVD Management. By then rumors of a major FBI investigation had escalated.

By 2004, change was in the air. Mike Hartnett was promoted and moved to New York City. At first he continued working in the Organized Crime unit in New York, but he was later rea.s.signed to the Manhattan Terrorism unit. In the wake of Hartnett's departure, Luigi Mondini became my new handler, while Mike stayed on with Uncle Nick. Just as Maseth had earned his stripes with Hartnett, Luigi was doing the same and was upped to co-lead agent status. Now the burden of investigative leaders.h.i.+p fell more on Maseth. on with Uncle Nick. Just as Maseth had earned his stripes with Hartnett, Luigi was doing the same and was upped to co-lead agent status. Now the burden of investigative leaders.h.i.+p fell more on Maseth.

Family Secrets loomed over Mike's career. While other agents were racking up arrests and solving dozens of crimes, he was confined to working one case. How that would bode for his career with the Bureau, particularly if Family Secrets didn't pan out, no one knew. The Bureau bra.s.s in Chicago and Was.h.i.+ngton kept a close eye on the progress of each Organized Crime case. Family Secrets became a make-or-break situation for Mike. It was the only major case he'd been a.s.signed since leaving the academy six years prior. Questions arose on the heels of Hartnett's departure. What if the operation were to fizzle before going to trial? What if the jury didn't buy into what my uncle and I testified to on the stand? What if the Outfit hired a dream team of attorneys and torpedoed the government's case? Had the case become too sprawling and complicated for a jury to comprehend? These factors weighed heavily on Mike as the squad soldiered forward.

Another unfortunate loss came after the death of CPD officer Bob Moon in 2004 after a bout with cancer. Moon was the king of practical jokers on the task force and a morale booster. For instance, he and a former agent named Diane would go at it back and forth. On Diane's fortieth birthday, Moon broke into her car and poured confetti into the air vents. When she started up the car with the air conditioner already on, her car's interior was blasted with confetti.

Soon after, Diane retaliated. When Moon showed up at his car in the parking garage after work, an attractive female stranger walked up to him and said, "I'll take a lesson."

"What?" Moon asked.

"I'll take a lesson."

"Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

The woman pointed at Moon's license plate. Courtesy of Diane, Moon's custom license plate frame now read, "s.e.x Instructor, First Lesson Free."

Every agent on an FBI OC squad had to rotate for complaint duty. Every squad member took his or her turn answering phone calls, which sometimes involved talking to people with mental problems.

"I'm being followed. The aliens have come down to get me."

Bob Moon savored such calls. He told the other agents, "Send them to me."

"h.e.l.lo. This is the communication department. How may I help you? Now sir, slow down please.... Before you go any further, I need to know if you have the implant chip or the headband...and the serial number?...666?...Okay, now grab a pen and paper because I'm going to direct you where to go to get it fixed."

Moon gave the caller the phone number to the CPD detectives' unit.

Mike, now the lead agent for Family Secrets, remained a constant target for intra-squad pranks.

One time before going out of town to debrief Uncle Nick, he left his overnight bag in the squad area. As soon as Mike and John Mallul arrived to debrief Nick in Ashland, Mike checked into his hotel room and opened up his suitcase. He noticed he didn't have any underwear.

The next day a package for Mike arrived at the hotel. Mallul stood in line for twenty minutes to sign for it. The squad had stolen Mike's underwear and overnighted it back to him in a FedEx box with some doc.u.ments. These were the same trusted colleagues who locked Mike inside the Porta-Potty one night during the Albergo dig.

Mallul jumped into the car and threw the box at Maseth.

"Next time tell those guys to keep me out of the crossfire of their crazy-a.s.s schemes."

In the months leading up to the indictments, the FBI's goal was to weave the murder charges in with the other RICO predicate acts (loan-sharking, gambling, and extortion) to show the Outfit operating as a singular criminal enterprise. Until the date of the Family Secrets indictments, there had been more than 3,200 mob murders in a hundred years in the Chicago area, resulting in only twelve convictions. No made member of the Outfit had ever been convicted of a mob homicide. No made member ever testified.

On April 25, 2005, the proverbial shoe dropped when the grand jury unsealed a United States Department of Justice indictment in which fourteen defendants were charged with organized crime activities. Eighteen previously unsolved murders (plus the attempted murder of Nick Sarillo) served as the indictment's centerpiece.

For the first time the Justice Department targeted the Outfit as a criminal enterprise as opposed to prosecuting acts committed by individuals. As Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said, the indictment "is remarkable for both the breadth of the murders charged and for naming the entire Chicago Outfit as a criminal enterprise under the anti-racketeering law. It is a textbook example of the effective use of the RICO statute to prosecute an a.s.sortment of crimes spanning decades." Of the fourteen defendants indicted, eleven were "charged with conspiracy, including [committing] murders and attempted murders, to further the Outfit's illegal activities such as loan-sharking and bookmaking, and to protect the enterprise from law enforcement." This, simply put, represented the most extensive mob-murder prosecution in American history.

The April indictments pointed an accusatory finger at what was left of the Outfit's leaders.h.i.+p. The roster of eleven primary defendants was as follows: 1. James Marcello, who had been released from FCI Milan in 2003, was listed as a member of the Melrose Park crew, and presently acting boss of the Chicago Outfit. Marcello would stand trial for his involvement in the 1986 murder of the Spilotro brothers.

2. Joseph Lombardo would have to answer for his role in the September 1974 murder of Danny Seifert.

3. Frank Calabrese, Sr., was listed as a member of the South Side 26th Street/Chinatown crew. In many ways my father became the star defendant of the group, the most reviled, and the defendant against whom the FBI had a.s.sembled the strongest case. The first murder of eleven he was indicted for was the killing of Michael Albergo, dating back to August 1970.

4. Nicholas W. Calabrese was listed as affiliated with the South Side 26th Street/Chinatown crew. Although Nick was cooperating with the FBI, he was indicted and would stand for his crimes, including the murder of John Fecarotta and thirteen others.

5. Frank Schweihs, known as Frank the German, was a feared enforcer and street tax collector and a murderer and extortionist. He was one of the most dangerous members of the Outfit and rivaled my father in notoriety, cruelty, and treachery. Michael Spilotro told his family that if they saw Frankie Schweihs lurking outside the family property, they should call the police immediately.

6. Frank "Gumba" Saladino, a member of my father's South Side 26th Street/Chinatown crew, committed murder and other criminal activities on behalf of the Chicago Outfit. Saladino had done a lot of overtime with a knife and fork, weighing in at four hundred pounds. When served with his indictment, he was found dead in a motel room in the northern suburb of Hamps.h.i.+re where he'd been living for two months.

7. Paul Schiro was arrested in Arizona. "The Indian," a jewel thief, burglar, and killer, served as the Outfit's conduit to the southwestern United States. He was listed as an a.s.sociate of Frank the German and Tony Spilotro while the Ant was serving the Outfit in Vegas. Also responsible for the Vaci homicide.

8. Michael Marcello, or Mickey, allegedly operated an illegal video poker gambling business with half brother Jimmy Marcello under the name M&M Amus.e.m.e.nt.

9. Nicholas Ferriola was the son of Joe Ferriola and a member of the South Side 26th Street/Chinatown crew. He was accused of "delivering messages to a.s.sociates of the enterprise and collecting money generated by extortion demands" for my father while he was inside FCI Milan.

10. Anthony Doyle was one of two corrupt law enforcement officers who the Outfit had in their pocket. "Twan" was a former CPD officer who kept my dad informed by pa.s.sing messages and supplying important confidential information about my uncle and Jimmy DiForti to determine if they were cooperating with law enforcement.

11. Michael Ricci, a retired CPD officer, was subsequently employed by the Cook County Sheriff's Department. He collaborated with Twan Doyle and my father, pa.s.sing messages about the b.l.o.o.d.y gloves that linked Nick to the murder of John Fecarotta. He was indicted on one count of making false statements to the FBI.

Of the eleven defendants, seven were singled out for committing murder or agreeing to commit murder on the Outfit's behalf. They were my father, my uncle, Jimmy Marcello, Joe Lombardo, Frank the German, Gumba Saladino, and Paul Schiro.

Through their involvement in M&M Amus.e.m.e.nt, three additional Marcello a.s.sociates-Thomas Johnson, Dennis Johnson, and Joseph Venezia-were charged, raising the number of those indicted from eleven to fourteen. Each was charged with one count of conducting an illegal gambling business. The Johnsons appeared in FBI surveillance photos carrying video poker machines.

Besides the murders and attempted murders spanning decades, the racketeering crimes named in the indictments included juice loans (charging 1 to 10 percent interest per week), illegal gambling, violence, intimidation and threats, obstructing justice, using fict.i.tious fronts to hide criminal proceeds, using coded language and names for fellow conspirators and victims of their crimes, monitoring law enforcement radio frequencies to detect law enforcement presence, using walkie-talkies while conducting criminal activities, acquiring explosives and explosive devices, maintaining hidden control of labor organizations and a.s.sets, maintaining hidden interests in businesses to receive untraceable income, and maintaining written records and ledgers for loan-sharking and bookmaking activities.

The official press release showed that the Bureau meant business and that the investigation that started a few years earlier when the Two Mikes reopened the Fecarotta murder case had blossomed into a high-priority attack on the Outfit.

"This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the Mob," said Patrick Fitzgerald. "After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime." With strong words, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, through these indictments, were sending a stern message to organized crime. and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime." With strong words, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, through these indictments, were sending a stern message to organized crime.

"While there have been many successful investigations during the past quarter-century resulting in the arrest and indictment of high-ranking members of the Chicago Outfit," said Robert Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the FBI, "never before have so many in lofty positions in the Chicago mob been charged in the same case."

Many were convinced that my father's harsh and abusive treatment of Kurt, my uncle, and me had dragged the low-key and publicity-shy Outfit into a high-profile prosecutorial shoot-out. The words of Vito Corleone in The G.o.dfather The G.o.dfather echoed throughout the streets of Chicago: "A man who doesn't take care of his family is not a man." echoed throughout the streets of Chicago: "A man who doesn't take care of his family is not a man."

Once the indictments dropped, two of the primary defendants-Joey the Clown and Frank the German-went on the lam. It would be eight months before Schweihs was arrested in Berea, Kentucky, forty miles outside of Lexington. The seventy-five-year-old Schweihs was nabbed as he left the town house he was sharing with his "younger and attractive" girlfriend in her sixties.

Lombardo remained a fugitive for nine months until he was apprehended in January of 2006 after leaving the office of Dr. Patrick "Dr. Pat" Spilotro. Lombardo had a couple of after-hour appointments with Dr. Pat to fix an abscessed tooth and perform a bridge adjustment. During his months on the run, Lombardo played cat-and-mouse with the judge (and the press) by feeding letters and communiques through his lawyer, Rick Halprin, denying any involvement in acts of racketeering, murder, or violence "in anyway [sic] shape or form."

Agents Tracy Balinao and Luigi Mondini began the search for Lombardo on a Sunday, the day before the April 25, 2005, indictments were unsealed.

They went to arrest him at his place of business. Then they went to his home and to the Italian clubs. They searched up and down the streets and could not find him. He sent letters through his attorney to the judge, saying that if the FBI and the court gave him certain considerations he would come in. his attorney to the judge, saying that if the FBI and the court gave him certain considerations he would come in.

Nine months later Balinao and Mondini set up surveillance and, with their car, T-boned Lombardo's car in an alley. He was a pa.s.senger. The agents had to yell at the driver-who was quite elderly-to put the car in park. Joe the Clown was polite when he was apprehended, dressed like a homeless person sporting a beard, looking like Saddam Hussein. At first he wasn't going to tell the Feds who he was, but he had a driver's license on him with his name on it. He didn't want to get the guy who was driving into trouble, so the FBI took him to their office and fingerprinted him. The agents found him to be very personable, and Luigi tried to get him to talk by speaking a little bit of Italian.

With the MCC full for the night, Joey was taken to the Chicago Police Department lockup to be held. Once there, he was more conversational, recommending restaurants in the area. The next day, he was set to be moved over to the MCC. Joey had made friends with the folks in the lockup, and warmly greeted federal agents. Gone was his homeless look. "See?" he said. "I shaved for you. I got all nice."

As charming and amusing as Joey could be, the FBI was aware of his vicious side. He's personable and nice, and people love him, but if he's crossed, that's it. The wiretap of Lombardo meeting with Morris Shenker shows the other side of Joey, when Shenker, a St. Louis mob attorney and Las Vegas casino investor, was warned by Lombardo during a 1979 money dispute: Lombardo: How old are you, Morris? How old are you, Morris?

Shenker: Seventy-two. Seventy-two.

Lombardo: If they come back and tell me to give you a message and if you want to defy it, I a.s.sure you that you will never reach seventy-three. If they come back and tell me to give you a message and if you want to defy it, I a.s.sure you that you will never reach seventy-three.

Other than some idle speculation, no one knew I was wearing a wire until I made the grievous error of telling my brother Kurt, who pa.s.sed it on to his lawyer. This misstep put the investigation in serious danger. Standard procedure is that the only person who should know that you're cooperating is who pa.s.sed it on to his lawyer. This misstep put the investigation in serious danger. Standard procedure is that the only person who should know that you're cooperating is you you. You can't even tell your wife.

When my Bureau contacts found out that I had leaked it to my brother, their first reaction was "expletive deleted." The agents didn't yell at me, but they did ask, "Do you want to get killed?" That's essentially what it came down to. Kurt got out before me, while I was still inside with my dad. Thank goodness the information didn't spread and nothing happened.

The Feds did hear on one of the wires before indictment, around 2003, that Jimmy Marcello had made a comment about my wearing a wire. Marcello said, "Don't talk to the kid," and he ran his fingers up and down his chest as if he had a wire on. I don't know if Marcello was guessing or was certain.

Originally, Uncle Nick suspected that the FBI's sudden flood of information came from Jimmy DiForti and not from me, since the FBI couldn't play, and never played, any of my Milan prison yard tapes to my uncle. He was in the dark as to my role in the case, but after Nick figured out it was me, he apparently wasn't angry, and said, "I should have known. I knew what he grew up with. I grew up with the same guy so I understand what he had to do."

The gulf of time elapsing between Uncle Nick's flipping in January of 2002 and the spring of 2005, when the indictments and arrests landed, was occupied by the intense prep work that goes on between the gathering of evidence and the trial. Once everything pertinent to the case was collected and cataloged, it was time for an important road trip-the delivery of 1.2 million doc.u.ments, which were a.s.sembled, boxed, and loaded into two tractor trailers.

Mike, Luigi, and Chris Mackey were to escort two separate truckloads of doc.u.ments between Chicago and Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. The evidence would be digitally scanned on state-of-the-art equipment and archived in D.C., a painstaking process, since some of the doc.u.ments dated as far back as 1958. The older doc.u.ments were extremely brittle and could easily disintegrate. equipment and archived in D.C., a painstaking process, since some of the doc.u.ments dated as far back as 1958. The older doc.u.ments were extremely brittle and could easily disintegrate.

The agents methodically numbered the boxes and carried the boxes on dollies and loaded the truck. Leaving Chicago early on Sat.u.r.day morning, they followed the truck to Pittsburgh, where there was a stopping point because under the rules mandated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the driver was allowed to drive only eleven out of fourteen work hours.

Agents Mondini and Mackey led the expedition in a Crown Vic in front, followed by Mike and another agent named Smitty bringing up the rear. The truck steadily advanced to D.C.

When they drove to D.C. the first time, they were expecting to see people waiting on the other end, ready to take the stuff off the truck. But Chris, Smitty, Luigi, and Mike unloaded the entire first s.h.i.+pment themselves.

On the second trip to D.C., the group pa.s.sed through Pittsburgh again on January 22, 2006, a date to remember for Pittsburgh NFL football fans. It was the day the Steelers won the AFC Champions.h.i.+p by defeating the Denver Broncos 3417 in Denver and secured a spot in the Super Bowl.

The Pittsburgh FBI office was on the south side, and with so many rivers and bridges to cross, the truck and trailer caravan had to navigate through the city's bar district. The Steelers had won the champions.h.i.+p less than an hour before.

The caravan was stopped by police at the site of the ma.s.s celebration. The roads were blocked. The streets were packed with crazed Pittsburgh Steelers revelers. Pa.s.sage seemed impossible. Yet the three FBI vehicles snaked their way through the crowd. The locals didn't part like the Red Sea. Instead, they swarmed the truck and climbed aboard, dangling from the side of the cab. The agents and the driver had no choice but to forge ahead at a snail's pace.

They "badged" their way through to get to the office in time. It was pure mayhem. Fans were jumping onto the side of the truck, hooting and hollering, waving the Terrible Towel. The driver did pretty well. The more he beeped his horn, the more the crowd loved it. Fortunately, the hordes didn't turn the truck over. pretty well. The more he beeped his horn, the more the crowd loved it. Fortunately, the hordes didn't turn the truck over.

Two weeks later Mike's team, the Steelers, behind quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, went on to win the Super Bowl by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 2110 at Ford Field in Detroit. Next up, Operation Family Secrets advanced to the finals and on to the trial stage as well, where a team of a.s.sistant U.S. Attorneys would lace up and take the field to prosecute the Operation Family Secrets defendants in a federal courtroom.