CHICAGO: Chicago's biggest mafia trial in years saw federal prosecutors rest their case and the defense begin arguing Monday, with lawyers for alleged mafia boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo calling him a common street hustler who did not murder a federal witness.
Lombardo and four other reputed members of the Chicago underworld are charged with operating the city's organized crime family — known as the Chicago Outfit — as a racketeering enterprise that included gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved murders.
Lombardo plans to take the witness stand in his own defense sometime this week, attorneys said.
"If you're going to sum up Joey Lombardo's early life, the word that comes to mind is not gangster, is not mobster — it's hustler," defense attorney Rick Halprin told jurors.
Lombardo's defense is based on the claim that, after serving years in prison for attempting to bribe a U.S. senator and involvement in Las Vegas casino skimming, he swore he would never take part in any further crimes.
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Among those murdered was Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, for years the mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother Michael were beaten and strangled in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.
Besides the 78-year-old Lombardo, those on trial are James Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese, 69, Paul Schiro, 70, and Anthony Doyle, 62.
Defense attorneys for Calabrese and Doyle did not rule out the possibility that their clients also could testify.
Zagel said he would allow Lombardo to talk about his withdrawal from a life of crime despite grumbling from prosecutors that it amounted to letting him vouch for his own good behavior.
On cross examination, prosecutors are guaranteed to ask him why he went on the run for months after the indictment was unsealed. He was arrested after FBI agents cornered him in an alley in a Chicago suburb.
