Jul 13 2007
MOBSTER BURIED ALIVE FOR MAFIA WIFE AFFAIR
Hit inspired Pesci role in gangster flick Casino
MOBSTER Tony “The Ant” Spilotro met a grisly end because he broke the Mafia code – by having an affair with another gangster’s wife.
Spilotro, said to be the inspiration behind Joe Pesci’s chilling character in the gangland movie Casino, was buried in a cornfield along with his brother.
Both were beaten and buried alive, just like Pesci’s Nicky Santoro and his brother in the Martin Scorsese movie, also starring Robert de Niro and Sharon Stone.
Spilotro was also skimming money from the mob from deals he made on the side, a jury trying a hitman for murder was told.
But his worst offence in Mafia eyes was having a fling with the wife of a Las Vegas mobster.
“Right then a nail went in the coffin,” convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese is heard saying on a tape.
It was played to the trial of Calabrese and four others accused in a conspiracy that involves 18 murders, including Spilotro’s. Spilotro was known as the Chicago mob’s man in Las Vegas and he boasted one day he’d be boss.
Calabrese was heard on the tape saying sex with the wife of a mob member violated their code.
“That is a no-no, that is a friend and that’s a commandment,” he told his son, who secretly recorded the conversation to help the FBI gather evidence against his father.
Calabrese said Spilotro and his brother Michael were murdered on orders from the big boss of the mob at the time, Joey Aiuppa. Referring to Spilotro, Calabrese said: “Joey Aiuppa had a meeting before they all went to jail and he told them he wanted Spilotro knocked down.”
On the tape, Calabrese then quoted Aiuppa as saying: “I don’t care how you do it. Get him. I want him out.”
Calabrese, 69, is on trial in Chicago along with James Marcello, 65, Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo, 78, convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70, and retired Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, 62.
They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included the murders of the Spilotro brothers and 16 others.
Aiuppa was the top boss of the Chicago mob. He died in 1997, aged 89.
‘That’s a no-no. Right then, a nail went in the coffin’
MOBSTER BURIED ALIVE FOR MAFIA WIFE AFFAIR – By Don Mackay – 12 July 2007 – http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=mobster-buried-alive-for-mafia-wife-affair-&method=full&objectid=19442927&siteid=66633-name_page.html
