The only part of Calabrese's testimony about the Spilotro murder that I thought was odd was the fact that everyone had gloves on when the brothers entered the basement. One of the lawyers had a good point about that, by the time Michael and Tony saw the men wearing gloves there was no way they were getting out of the basement alive.
I saw the house that they were murdered in. Joe Fosco on one of his early columns in the thread section gave info on how to find the house.
When the story first broke about how the murders were solved and it listed who was there I was kind of suprised that so many top guys were there but it would make sense if Michael thought he was getting made that Carlisi, Ferriola and DiFronzo was there.
There was a big fuss at the trial when Calabrese first mentioned that he saw Rocky Infelise was there but the feds had him under survelliance at the time and he was not there. Calabrese later said he thought he saw him there. He also said there were 3 other guys there that he didn't know. I wonder who they were. Someone stated that one of the three guys was Little Anthony Zizzo.

^ And what's odd about Fosco saying where the house was is that the Feds were never able to find it.

I saw in another column he wrote, though, that he said he knew at least three non-made members of the Outfit who'd known exactly what happens with the Spilotros way before Calabrese testified.

In general, though, prosecutors go to great lengths to try to get witnesses not to lie about anything, because if they get caught the entire thing blows up.

I still don't buy that all those top guys would take the risk of being at such a high profile murder scene no matter what the story to set them up was. Why not say the promotion/making ceremony was coming and let them assume the big shots were downstairs in the basement waiting for them? Michael supposedly had a gun on him...when he walked in on them with gloves he still didn't have time to pull it out of his waistband? How do you "think" you see Rocky Infelise out of the corner of your eye? How could you not know who was there even after so many years a situation like that would be tattooed to your brain. There just seems to be a lot of questions. I just wonder if he was actually there.

I never heard Michael had a gun on him. Where did you see that?

Anyway, they knew they were potentially dunzo. Michael put all his jewelry in a bag and told his wife if he wasn't back by 9, there was trouble.

I imagine they were resigned to the fact that if their number was up, it was up.

It is interesting that they chose to beat them to death rather than just shoot them. I can only imagine it was because Aiuppa and Cerone were enraged they were basically going away for the rest of their lives and blamed Tony for bringing down so much heat. At least that is the way it has been explained to me before. Makes sense.

It came out in the trial that Nick removed a gun off of Michael after Michael was strangled and he gave the gun to DiFronzo.
I believe that Nick was at the murder scene. Fosco said that the feds at one point did search the basement of the house in Bensonville but didn't find anything incriminating. The feds took Nick around Bensonville to see if he could point out the house but Nick couldn't remember. Nick didn't drive to the house on the day of the murders and it happened over 20 years ago so it's believable that he couldn't remember the exact location.
Aiuppa and Cerone didn't tolerate any high profiling in the Outfit. They ordered a lot of brutal murders.

Interesting about the gun.

Well, I guess a situation like that in real life rarely plays out like it is in the movies. There was probably a few guys on Michael before he realized what was happening, and I'm sure they all had guns too. My point is that it is probably much more shocking and far easier to become psychologically resigned in a situation like that in real life than, you know, a Charles Bronson movie.

And interesting about the feds knowing about the house. I remember reading Nick couldn't find it so I thought that meant that they didn't know where it is, but it would make sense that they just took Nick out to see if he could find it himself while already knowing where it was.

Bunch of animals, beating people like that!

I think the feds were hoping that Nick could point the house out because it would stregthen there case.
The murder of the Spilotro brothers was a really brutal crime scene. I have copies of the photos of the brothers in the half dug grave with the cops digging the bodies out and a few photos of them in the mourge. There faces were so black and blue they looked like extra's from a zombie film.
I think it happened so fast that Michael didn't have time to react. They both knew that it was a 50/50 chance of them coming out alive.

Right, I'm sure that's what it was, they wanted Nick to be able to find the house himself to be able to strengthen the case.

I'm sure Aiuppa and Cerone were absolutely enraged. Plus Tony had gotten off scott free himself.

That is a bad spot to be in, when the bosses are going to prison for life, you are free, and they blame you for them going away.

In that light, hard to imagine it going down any other way.

"When it looked like they could get twenty-five years to life in prison just for skimming a casino, sick or no fuckin' sick you knew people were going to get clipped."

Ha... that pretty much says it all.

Tony's case was severed from the Strawman case and was to be tried at a later date when he was healthy. Everyone in Strawman was convicted. Tony would have been too. Although Tony was only 48 when he would have gone to jail for Strawman he probably would have gotten out the same time the rest of the guys did which was in the mid 90's.
There was no way Aiuppa was going to even take a chance with Tony being found not guilty. He wanted Tony dead no matter what.

Oscar Goodman would disagree with you, but I am sure you are right!

He said he was confident they would beat the case.

From 2007, a description of the Spilotro murders. Old news for most folks.

http://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/8-14-2007/Details-of-Spilotro-murders-revealed-in-mob-trial/

Great article. The wikipedia on this under "Anthony Spilotro" appears to be a f**kin' mess.

Geek, where did you find pics of the bodies? I've never seen them. A guy I went to college with married a Spilotro. Not sure yet which one she descended from.

I still don't buy some of the top guys were there, though it seems the Outfit differed from NY in that capos participated in knock downs much more frequently. The house was supposedly Ebolis wasn't it?

According to Joe Fosco the house were the murders took place was a relative of Lee Magnafichi's. Some guy who worked for the liqour union. In one book it stated that the murders took place at Louie Eboli's house but he lived in Oak Brook.
I will try to scan the photos of the bodies. They were in the book "Pay, Quit or Die". Im not sure why the photos are so hard to find since there are tons of mob murder photos online but the Spilotro ones are hard to come by.

Where was the house at? I believe Channel 7 some years ago went to a house in Bensenville and interviewed the owner. Is it a different house than that one?

The house that channel 7 went too was the wrong house. The house is really close to Irving Park Road and Route 83. I believe it's on Bryn Mayr. The houses on the street are pretty far from eachother and each house sits on a lot of property.

Chicago Outfit boss Jimmy 'The Man' Marcello wants life sentence tossed

https://abc7chicago.com/jimmy-marcello-chicago-mob-outfit-boss/6265172/