Four organized-crime figures and a retired police officer were convicted Monday on federal racketeering charges in connection with 18 mob-related slayings dating back to the 1970s. Two of those convicted were Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo, 78, and Paul “The Indian” Schiro, 69. Expert witness James W. Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission and past supervisor at the FBI’s organized crime unit in Chicago, testified for the prosecution. The RICO and racketeering expert witness said, “All that matters is that those who committed the murders be brought to justice, no matter how old the files might be or how long the case takes to get to court.” LATimes.com also reports:
The first of the 18 mob-related killings — forgotten by many amid this city’s notoriously corrupt and violent history — happened more than three decades ago. Two of the men connected to the so-called Family Secrets mob conspiracy case, designed in part to solve these cold-case killings, died before the case ever went to trial. A third was deemed too old and infirm for a courtroom…Frank Calabrese Sr., the 70-year-old convicted loan shark believed to be involved in more than a dozen slayings, also was found guilty of extortion and running a sports-bookmaking operation.