Hey Funkster, you mentioned wanting to know more about Solano. A close friend of mine's wifes family married into the Solano family in the 80's. She told me some stories when she was younger and her family would come visit she was told to stay out of one room in the house which was Vince's office. In all the family photos Vince always had a mean look on his face. When she was older she was told to never talk about anything criminal in the house out of fear of the house being bugged. She never understood why since she was only 14 and had no knowledge of anything criminal. When Vince died in 1992 she didn't go to the funeral but her dad did and he noticed people across the street taking photos which turned out to be the feds.
Not many people know this, but Vince Solano Jr. started as an attorney working for the IRS in the 70s. In the 1980s, he was assistant states attorney in DuPage County. The son was very influential in helping his father maintain such a low profile and even Ken Eto testified about the father forcing Rush Street nightclub owners to sign over deeds to his son.
These days he is a very successful real estate and golf course developer...he did Royal Fox in St. Charles and the Solano's and Cerones partnered to create the Outfit's country club of the 1970s/80s--Brookwood CC. After the course was raided on Super Bowl Sunday and a gambling ring was discovered, Cerone/Solano Jr. managed to somehow get DuPage County's forest preserve to buy back the land...making a tidy profit.
Solano then went on to create Black Sheep which caught a ton of flack and media coverage for only allowing men. Solano Jr. was quoted everywhere from Sports Illustrated to the Chicago Tribune.
