Merlino's Luck

Joey Merlino, the flashy former boss of the Philadelphia crime family, is one of the luckiest mobsters in the mafia.  Merlino has survived numerous assassination attempts and gotten away with murder.  He has done a lot of time, but none that took him off the streets for good.  He has lived a charmed life with lots of toys.  

He was out in Los Angeles and even made it on TMZ at the airport with Howard Stern wack packer Johnny Fratto. I wonder if he actually got one of these wannabe Hollywood types to buy his life’s rights?

Merlino might have hit the prosecutorial lottery in his latest case.  Merlino, along with 46 other members and associates of the mafia, were picked up on charges ranging from illegal gambling to medical fraud in 2016.

The problem is with the informant in the case, John Rubeo, a former Genovese associate.

John Rubeo recorded over 800 conversations with various mobsters including Merlino.  

The problem is, John Rubeo erased a lot of the conversations.  

I have nothing for respect for the FBI.  All the agents I ever had dealings with were consummate lawmen.  They were all by the book and kept their word to me.

I wore two wires most of the time, really small MP3 recorders hidden in things like my watch. It only had an on switch and there was no speaker.  I recorded and dropped them off and then was given new ones everyday. All my calls I recorded through their system and I had no access to the system.  My car was wired, and again I only had an on switch.  I had to meet my handlers and there were always two of them, a couple times a week.  They would debrief me and write it down for 302’s.  I used to forward text and emails via email daily.  I wonder how was it possible for Joph Rubeo to delete any conversations.  How did they not properly debrief him?

Two agents and their supervisor are in hot water over the lapses.

It is possible that Merlino and the 46 others including a Genovese underboss and capo could walk free.  It does leave a huge hole in the case, because as defendants they are entitled to all the evidence even that which maybe exculpatory.

If evidence has been destroyed, how could they possible have a fair trial?

Joey Merlino may actually walk on this case and his life rights could turn into another really bad Hollywood mafia movie.

NYPD Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, is one of the best real estate investors in New York.

This guy is so good that he was able to get four properties that belonged to various Bonanno family members, including Vinny Basciano and Dominick Cicale, located in the Bronx, at below market rates.

I wonder why he even bothers to work for the NYPD anymore.  A company owned by his wife bought a lot that at one time had a home on it where the Bonanno’s had an initiation ceremony.  The home belonged to Cole's mother.  The home is gone and the lot had a 990,000 dollar loan against it.  Delatorre's wife’s company bought it and sold it to an LLC owned by Delatorre.

Much like many of today’s political elite, these people are excellent investors!  Just look at some of the people in Congress and Senate who never hold a private sector job, yet leave office with millions in the bank.  Why do they not share their investment secrets with us regular people?

2016 Year End Mafia Wrap Up

This year closes with more mafia busts. You can see with the new indictments that the Mafia has changed along with the times. It has become a more secretive operation concentrating more on crimes that bring in a lot of profit and without risking as much prison time.  Gambling and loan sharking are the lifeblood of the mafia.  Other Italian crime groups are much more involved in the drug trade.

If they keep up with this low profile the FBI will stay busy with Islamic terror organizations and maybe the mafia will rebuild.

The reckless boss of Philadelphia, Joey Merlino, was taken down by the FBI.  He was involved in a multi-family gambling, loan sharking and medical fraud operation.  The FBI intercepted a Genovese wiseguy telling another member that Merlino was a boss.

Meanwhile, Joey Merlino was on the books as employed at a restaurant in South Florida.  This is the same Joey Merlino who visited Los Angeles and was caught by TMZ (not the FBI) with Howard Stern personality Johnny Fratto.

The video is online for anyone to watch.  Hey, maybe Merlino was visiting his relatives in Los Angeles.

There has been a lot less activity in Los Angeles since Pete Milano died.  Joe Isgro, the Gambino family man who used to be in Mikey Scars’ crew, was arrested for gambling and money laundering.  Isgro was a successful record promoter and producer.  He also produced movies like Hoffa.  I know some day he will produce the Lucky Luciano movie.  This time he was able to get out of the gambling charges with a misdemeanor plea, which was much better than his loan sharking charges in Los Angeles years ago.

The Bonanno family had a better year after last years Christmas party was monitored by the FBI.  Some of their men may face a retrial on charges.

The mafia is fairing much better because they are killing less. The “no murder policy” has done well, because juries are hard pressed to convict on big charges when there are no bodies.

There may be some fireworks coming up with the Genovese family’s Bronx crew for a murder.

Michael Persico, the “good son” of Carmine “The Snake” Persico and brother of “Allie Boy” Persico, managed to put off his sentencing again until 2017. I am amazed because others like Eddie Garofalo are already out from the case.  Teddy Persico Jr., his cousin, has a bit more time, at least until 2020.  Steve Marcus flipped and soon Michael Persico will be going bye bye.

The Montreal wing of the Bonanno family is still in turmoil and they continue to blast each other.

A member was convicted this year for taking part in killing former acting Bonanno boss Sal “The Ironworker” Montagna who was deported by the Feds to Canada.

The staples of the mafia: gambling, loan sharking, garbage, untaxed cigarettes, unions and construction will keep it in the money for some years to come.

Have a great 2017!

I’m sure there will be more to write about for years to come.

Take Down 46

Another week in the life, and this week the FBI took down 46 guys from a number of families for various racketeering charges.  The names you will recognize, because these guys just never seem to learn.  

Jimmy Caci, who was the street boss of the Los Angeles family, told me a few months before he passed away that the life was not what it was supposed to be. It had gotten out of control and there was no honor or loyalty anymore. This was after my first book Breakshot had come out.  

So here we were, sitting at a diner and he is speaking to me.  I felt sorry for him because he was a relic from the past and his time had passed.  Jimmy was originally from Buffalo, New York and he knew the long time boss Stephan Maggadino.  He was on good terms with all the guys in the family when it was at it’s peak.  Jimmy grew up in a different time.  A time when Italians were looked down upon. Boxers used Irish names to get fights, and most policemen were Irish.  The mafia served a purpose then, but now it may be one more thing, like Sears, we do not need.

You can read more about Jimmy in Breakshot, which has been re-released.

Joey Merlino was the one time boss of the Philadelphia family.  He may still be boss, but he is in custody again. Merlino has spent more than half his life locked up. He is the son of former underboss Sal Merlino and is also nephew to soldier Lawrence Merlino, both of whom are now dead.  

Merlino has gotten away with murder but he just cannot seem to go straight.  Some guys just never get it.  

In better times Joey Merlino was out in Los Angeles with Johnny Fratto getting chased by TMZ. Merlino was out to speak about selling his life rights to a well known movie producer.  Maybe this story will go into the new Johnny Fratto book that Randazzo is working on.

The new indictment charges many of the guys with bookmaking.  They again used offshore websites, but did business here in the US under the name Costa Rican International Sportsbook. One of those charged was Daniel Marino Jr., a friend of Colombo Craig Marino and son of a Gambino heavy weight.  Many years ago Daniel was hiding out at Joe Dente's home in Los Angeles.

This time the indictment has a couple of crimes we have not witnessed in an indictment in a few years.  Healthcare fraud: where they had doctors prescribing an expensive compound and charging insurance companies.  They were also smuggling untaxed cigarettes into the New York area, where they were worth three million dollars.

They had a casino style gambling spot in Yonkers where they hosted poker and other card games.

John Lembo, a name that was well known to those around back in the stock fraud days, was busted for setting up credit card skimmers.  Lembo was a friend of Eddie Garofalo and Craig Marino.  

The FBI had an undercover agent deep inside that worked with Genovese guys and Joey Merlino.  They also had a cooperator wired up the whole time.  How many more will flip is still to be seen.  The majority of those arrested face up to 20 years, but this indictment seems to be missing the normal murders and other violence.  They are charged with assaulting a homeless man who was bothering patrons of a restaurant on Arthur Ave.  They did threaten to choke a guy out, but it does not read as bad as the others I have read.  I bet everyone pleads out for a lot less time.

One guy arrested is Ralph Balsamo, a Genovese guy.  Why he does not just run his family's funeral homes I have no idea.  I bet Balsamo has some more problems that are going to come up soon.  Stay tuned.

Fratto

There is one small part of Los Angeles where people still walk around, on Beverly Boulevard south of Wilshire. On any given day, you will see actors and models walking up and down the street, sitting outside a nice restaurant or at the newsstand.  If you walked around that area, you would also inevitably see a tan, white-haired man dressed in designer jeans and a t-shirt. That was Johnny Fratto.  He passed away this week from lung cancer.  

Johnny Fratto was the son of Luigi Tommaso Giuseppe Fratto, aka Louis Thomas Fratto, aka “Lew Farrell” or “Cock-eye.”  Louis was the boss of the Iowa family from the 1930’s until his death in 1967.  He handled everything, from trucking to beer distribution, for the Chicago Outfit.

Johnny was great at telling stories about life with his father.  Johnny and his brothers were crazy about the space program.  So their father and some of his men “borrowed” a space capsule for a few days and brought it home.  The kids played in it, and then they took it back to wherever it came.  

Johnny knew I liked boxing, so he told me a story about Rocky Marciano.

“Kenji you know why I don't like steak?” he asked me. “No, I have no idea,” was my response.  

“Well, Rocky used to come over to our house all the time for dinner.  He loved my mom's cooking.  I always sat next to him.  This one time, my mom cooked steak. So Rocky cuts it up into pieces and chews them up, then spits out the meat when the flavor is gone.  So he has this big pile of chewed up steak. I couldn't look at it, and now I don't like steak.”

I take it Rocky was cutting weight at the time.

Rocky would be killed in a plane crash in 1969 along with Johnny’s brother Frank.

Uncle Frank Fratto took over in Iowa, according to Johnny, after the plane crash that killed his brother.  Johnny had a great picture in his house of Frank with a pistol to Sammy Davis Jr.'s head.  Sammy is laughing in the picture and so is Frank.  He spent a lot of time with the celebrities of the day, like the Gabor sisters and the Rat Pack.  

Johnny still had family inside the Mafia.  Rudy Fratto, a top guy in the Chicago Outfit, was his cousin.  He was upset when Rudy was hit with legal problems in the last few years. Rudy was inducted into the Outfit in a ceremony which was overseen by John “Johnny No Nose” DiFronzo, who had been the boss at the time.  Rudy had a charmed life until a tax evasion charge, and then was picked up on a bid-rigging scheme.  During the time he was being watched by the FBI, they picked him up on wiretap saying, “I’m the boss of this area around here, no one else.”

Johnny would ask me for favors from time to time.  I had a feud with a Bonanno guy in Los Angeles.  Johnny was close to him.  I disliked the guy, so I would make fun of him and call him names.  Johnny asked me as a favor to him, to let it go.  I did.  He was a peacemaker.  I was speaking to him one day and he told me, “I have to go to the airport today to pick up Joey Merlino.”  For anyone who does not know Joey Merlino, he was the boss of the Philadelphia Family.  

The next thing I knew, Johnny was on TMZ with Joey Merlino at the airport!

I was on the show the Deadliest Warrior one time, and when I was in the office, I noticed they were doing an Al Capone show.  They had this kid who pretends he is a Capone, and I knew that Johnny Fratto was actually related.  I told the producers about Johnny, and we made the call.  He told me this:  “Capone?  Capone in my grandmother's house was like a Saint.  She wanted to buy a building, and Al Capone gave her the money.  After that, Capone could do no wrong in her eyes.”  After he spoke to the producer, he called me back later and asked me if he had to get on the freeway to get to their offices.

That was the Johnny Fratto I knew.  One night he called me and asked me to come over and take a ride with him. He was waiting for me downstairs in his car.  He dropped the top before we pulled out and we drove a few miles away to Book Soup where Gary Dell’Abote from the Howard Stern Show was doing a radio show and signing books.  I soon found myself with Baba Booey, Jillian and Mark McGrath.

When Johnny passed away this week, a piece of mob history died with him.  He was around so many of the legendary Outfit guys.  He had stories for days about Capone and the rest of them.  I wish for our sake, that he would have published his book.  

Rest in Peace Johnny Fratto.

Milwaukee Phil

3600 Fluer Drive, Des Moines, Iowa

To the kids who lived at 3600 Fluer in Des Moines, Iowa the smiling man was known as Phil, but to the outside world he was known as Milwaukee Phil.

Milwaukee Phil was not a person to take lightly.  He had worked for Al Capone, but it would be his cousin Lou Fratto who brought him into the Outfit.  Soon he was working with two other old friends of Lou Fratto, Sam "Teets" Battaglia and John Marshal Caifano as an enforcer, mainly in Milwaukee and Chicago.  They saw that he was very good at taking care of whatever task he was given.  Many jobs required him to take trips to 3600 Fluer in Iowa which was a good meeting place because there was no surveillance there at all, and no heat.  This was the home of Lou Fratto, who was his cousin and the boss of the Iowa Mafia.

Phil was much more than an enforcer because he could think on his feet.  He soon started working for Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik who ran the "Corruption Squad" for the Outfit.  This was probably the most important Crew in the Outfit because they handed out the cash to law enforcement and politicians to keep the wheels greased.

The grease or payoff was what kept the Outfit on top for so many years and this is the real reason they kept away from drugs.  It was easy for a Judge to give a guy a slap on the wrist for gambling or Shylocking but selling hard drugs would never work the same.  These were important times in Phil’s life because he learned how the administration kept the Outfit on top.  When Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik died he was replaced  by another fixer, Llewelyn Morris Humphreys or Murray Humphreys aka The Hump.  Once again, the Outfit chose a non-Italian to handle their payoffs.     

The Hump

Phil would learn two important things from The Hump.  One was Union takeover and the other was the art of staying in the shadows, because the Mafia was intended to be a secret organization.  The Hump also had a favorite quote, "The difference between guilt and innocence in any court is who gets to the judge first with the most".

Phil must have taken the Hump’s advice to heart because he was quietly building an empire of vice in Milwaukee where he controlled a large gambling and shylock territory and it has been said that he was in control of a lot of the high end prostitution.  He worked with the leaders of the Milwaukee family but he was always an Outfit man.

It was at this time that he started working with Charles "Chuckie" Nicoletti dealing with The Outfits headaches that they could not payoff.  In May of 1962 Phil and Chuckie were taken in and questioned by police when they were caught sitting in a car.  The car turned out to be a "Hitmobile"  The car was designed with hidden gun racks, secret compartments, controls to turn off and on headlights and tail lights basically everything you needed to carry out a hit.  They told police that they were waiting for a friend.  The terrible twosome must have been good at their job because in nearly two decades of "Work"  they were brought in numerous times and questioned about murders but they were never charged.  Phil was said to have carried out up to 14 hits for the Outfit.

Phil soon found himself working with another non-Italian, this time a Greek named Gus Alex who was tough and carried out many hits and was very good at corrupting the people he needed.  Gus took over being in charge of Chicago’s non-Italian connected guys when The Hump died of a sudden heart attack caused by some overzealous FBI Agents who pushed him too far and his heart could not take the stress.

Gus Alex

Gus Alex’s most famous hit was probably when he and Lenny Patrick shotgunned James Ragen, the owner of the racewire in the street which he would not sell to the Outfit.

Milwaukee Phil learned a lot from Alex that would serve him during his rise in the Outfit.  In 1967 Lou Fratto was indicted along with the Milwaukee Mafia Boss Frank Balistrieri and Kansas City Boss Nick Civella on ITAR Charges because of a 300lb con man named Allen Rosenberg.  

It has been said that Phil helped put an end to the Conman who was found in March of 1967 riddled with bullets and handcuffed to a car.  Lou would pass away in November of that same year.  Milwaukee Phil had left a trail of murder and mayhem in the 1960's, one of the most famous was the M&M where he and Tony Spilatro used a vice on the head of a Chicago hood to get him to tell them who his partner was in murdering an Outfit guy.  The hood gave up his friend and they were both found with their throats cut.  

At the end of the decade Phil had moved into the top spot of the Outfit but his reign would be short lived. Despite controlling restaurants, nightclubs and stripjoints, Phil was convicted of extortion and sent to prison.  He would die while locked up in 1971.

Iowa Family

Everyone knows that the Mafia is in Chicago and New York, but most people do not know that there were 26 Families around the country.  A lot of them have died out and the descendants have moved on to live productive, law abiding lives.  These families did not disappear because of competition from other groups, they just died out because they no longer had a pool of poor hungry men to take their place in the family.

Charlie "Cherry Nose" Gioe

The Iowa Family is one of those La Cosa Nostra Families.  It was based in Des Moines, Iowa and the first recorded boss was Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe who was put in place by Al Capone.  Des Moines is strategically situated as the crossroads of America, all roads come together there for freight.  This location was really important after prohibition when mobsters had all been running trucking companies to get their booze to market.  This would also lead to their control of the unions.  

Things would soon change in Des Moines.  Louis Fratto, Aka Lew Ferral, Aka Cock-eye would come into town after being on the lam from some gambling charges (originally from Chicago and then Milwakee).  He would first work with Charlie Gioe in Des Moines until it was decided that he would replace Charlie.

Charlie wanted to go to Beverly Hills to work with the Movie studios for the Outfit. He would made a lot a money for the Outfit before the whole shakedown went bust.  He had made a lot of money for himself and he had invested it well. Charlie was one of the first investors in a company that would put whipped cream in a can.  He wanted other Outfit guys to invest in it and he asked Lou Fratto.  They all thought he was crazy but time would tell because that company was Reddi Wip.  

Frank Sinatra, Frank "One Ear"

In 1936 Lou would become boss of the Iowa family after being given the position by Paul Ricca and Anthony Accardo.  Lou took over what Charlie had built, but he brought in his own guys. There was a sizable Italian population at the time but he liked to work with Jews, so besides his core group of his brother Frankie “One Ear” Fratto, “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio, Johnny Marshall and a few others, he would not make any new guys in Des Moines.  

The rackets were great in Des Moines but the legitimate business was better.  Lou was able to become the beer distributor for a number of named brands.  Lou was very close to the Labor Leader named Barney Baker. Barney would become important later in many things including the assassination of John F Kennedy. He was known to have spoken to Jack Ruby before the Assassination in Dallas.  Barney was also involved in the Boxing game when he was said to be close to Sonny Liston before he lost to Ali.

Lou Fratto quickly made himself part of Des Moines society.  Lou was made a lifetime member of the Chamber of Commerce and during World War Two he raised over 1 million dollars in War Bonds.  He also recruited 75 men to join the Navy at the same time.

Lou Fratto and a Boxer

He had games going on all over and when two of his men Hymie Wiseman and Al Cramm were arrested in a gambling house they were quickly released and the charges against Lou were dropped. The administration of the Outfit were soon sent away for extorting the Movie Industry and one of those men was Charles Gioe, his former boss.  

Lou would be the man entrusted with bringing the payoff money to the Lawyer so the Outfit guys would be released.  Charles Gioe wanted to be back in charge of Iowa and he stuck his nose in some Union business in 1954.  On the night of August 18 1954 Charles was out to dinner with Hymie Wiseman and another man when they got into a car and another car pulled alongside and emptied a magazine into the car killing Charles instantly. Hymie was not hit and later was questioned by police but that proved to be a waste.  Lou was arrested for the murder of his former boss but there was no evidence so he was released.

He worked with Hoffa and the Teamsters, he worked with New York leaders like Tony "Ducks" Corallo, Joey Glimco and Tony "Pro" Provanzano.  He had a spectacular career as the leader of the Iowa Mafia family but it would end on November 24 1967 when he passed away from cancer.

On the Left: Hymie Weisman, On the Right: Dead Charles Gioe

Lou's brother Frank "one ear" Fratto was his number two man so he stepped up to handle the family business with Lou's oldest son Frankie Fratto Farrell.  Sadly, Frankie would only live until 1969 when he was on a plane with Boxing Champ Rocky Marciano when it crashed.  Frank stepped up again until his death in May of 1996 at the age of 81.

Iowa has changed much like the rest of America and the Cosa Nostra.  Iowa will join other places where the Mafia is now part of History like San Jose, San Francisco, Denver, Erie, Pennsylvania, Dallas, New Orleans and soon maybe Los Angeles.  I cannot do this family justice on this blog but please go to http://www.midwestmafia.com for more information.

Beer Company Trucks

Special Holiday Edition Post! St. Valentine's Day Massacre

"Only Capone kills like that," Bugs Moran 1929

The Saint Valentines Day Massacre

This is the name given to the murder of seven men from Chicago’s North Side Irish gang.

THE BEEF.

Throughout the 1920's, The Irish Gang - headed by leader Dion O’Bannion and Bugs Moran, battled with Al Capone for control of Chicago’s illegal businesses.  Dion was killed in his flower shop by Capone’s men on  November 10, 1924. Bugs assumed control of the gang after his murder.  Bugs continued to hijack Capone’s liquor shipments and shoot his men.

One of the most spectacular attempts on Al Capone came when Moran and his associates drove six cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illinois, where Capone and his associates were having lunch, and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets.  Al Capone had enough, so he had one of his top killers "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn aka Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi devise a plan.  Vincenzo took the name Jack Mcgurn when he was younger because he was a boxer, and an Irish boxer was given better fights than an Italian boxer.

THE PLAN.

Capone and his family left for their home in Florida weeks before the planned hit so that he would have a rock solid alibi.  Jack McGurn had two brothers, Harry and Phil Keywell (from Detroit's Purple Gang), rent a room at a boarding house conveniently located across the street from Bugs Moran’s gang's headquarters.  The headquarters were in a large garage behind the offices of S.M.C. Cartage Company at 2122 North Clark Street. The two brothers would keep watch, and get word to the hit team when they saw Bugs Moran enter the building.  They had a bootlegger that was known to Bugs offer a shipment of good whiskey to him on Valentine’s day. The plan worked well.  Five men from Bugs’ gang were waiting for the shipment and their boss to arrive.  There was a mechanic and an optician who considered himself a doctor.  Also there along with the men was a German Shepherd named Highball.   The brothers called the hit team and sent the message: Bugs had arrived.


THE HIT.

This is what is known.  A car parked in the rear.  Two men wearing trench coats came out of the car.  A police car pulled in front of the garage, and two “officers” (who were actually hoods dressed up like officers)  made their way inside the garage.  The two “policemen” lined up the seven men inside the headquarters.  They were all forced to stand facing a brick wall. The other two men from the car parked in the rear now joined the two “policemen”.  They each drew a Thompson Sub Machine Gun from under their coats.  One had a twenty round "stick" magazine and the other a fifty round "drum" magazine.  They used the stick because the drums were prone to jamming.  The police hoods -one armed with a shotgun and the other with a colt 45 automatic pistol - began to fire at the same time as the machine guns.  Seventy shots were fired in seconds.  At least two shotgun shells were found at the scene and the rest were 45 caliber cases.  When the shooting stopped, the seven men were down in a huge pool of blood.  Highball was howling in a high pitched cry.  The men in the trench coats hid the Tommy Guns under their coats and held up their hands.  They were marched out by the “police” to the waiting police car, and the four men drove away never to be seen again.

THE AFTERMATH.

Six men died on the spot.  One man, Frank Gusenberg, was still alive and was found crawling toward the door. He had been shot fourteen times.  He was taken to a hospital where he died without naming the men who shot him.  The dead were Frank Gusenberg, Pete Gusenberg, John May, Albert Weinshank, James Clark, Adam Heyer, and “Dr.” Reinhart Schwimmer (a gangster groupie) .  The problem was that Bugs Moran was not there!  He had pulled up just as the Police were getting out of their car.  Bugs figured that it was just another raid, so he left with two men. This was the end of Bugs Moran as an effective gang leader because he had lost his best men.  He would go on to live out the rest of his life as a petty criminal.  He would die with less than a hundred dollars to his name, and be buried in a potter’s field, beside other men who died penniless.

Al Capone would suffer greatly from the bad press. The public outcry was so great against Capone, that he was under too much heat to do business as usual.  He would be sent away for tax evasion and died later in Florida giving up his position as Boss to Frank Nitti.


Jack McGurn had an alibi, known as the Blonde Alibi because he was with his blonde girlfriend in a hotel all day.  He would be killed years later at a bowling alley by three men with machine guns.  It took place February 15th, 1936.

There has been much speculation about the shooters.  Two of them were almost certainly John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, two of Capones top killers.  They would be killed by him with a baseball bat three months
after the massacre.

Tony Arccado, the long time boss of The Chicago Outfit, was caught on an FBI wiretap talking about being part of the hit.  He did have  a role in the disposal of the car used in the hit.

Fred "Killer" Burke would later kill a policeman in St. Joseph, Michigan. When they went to the house Burke was using as a hideout he was gone but they found his girlfriend and an arsenal of weapons including two Thompson sub machine guns. They were used to kill Frankie Yale and were the same machine guns used in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

A friend of mine was able to fire these two Thompson's recently for a TV show.  He gave me a 45 caliber  casing shot from the gun.  The guns are still in a police evidence lockers today because the crimes are still open.