In Part 3, Troy Cole relates how his detectives encountered problems trying to identify the young men in the photos found in the home of Bob Berdella. Most of these men had lived lives estranged from long time friends and even family. By the end of the first week into this investigation, a whole special squad was formed with detectives from Homicide, Sex Crimes and Vice. They set up a command post inside the show-up room. The word got around that this was a very high profile case with lurid deta...
Jan 17, 2017
In episode 2, Troy Cole tells about the search of this chamber of horrors. The house was in complete disarray, kind of like a teenage kid’s room. When Bob got done with something, he just threw it down. Except for the torture logs which were found on the second floor. An interview of Christopher Bryson revealed he had been kept captive and injected with several unknown substances that created burning and stinging sensations. As the officers searched the second floor they found a room exactly as ...
Jan 07, 2017
L-R Aaron, Gary and Troy This is the first of a 4-part series of interviews with retired Kansas City Police Department Sergeant Troy Cole. On April 2, 1988, Homicide Sergeant Troy Cole was preparing to leave work and looking forward to watching his Oklahoma Sooners play Arizona in the NCAA tournament that night. He received a call from the police dispatcher that a naked man wearing a dog collar and leash was claiming he had been kidnapped and tortured. A uniformed officer, Larry Lewis, had reque...
Jan 07, 2017
Korner Sandwich in 2016 In this last episode of 2016, Retired Chicago P.D. Detective Jim Padar tells how he learned the real story behind why Chicago Outfit associates Samuel Marcello and Joseph Grisafe were killed. He also reveals how they learned about the subjects who placed the bodies in the drum and what happened to those men. Read this story and many other great cop stories from the mouths of the men how lived the job, Jim Padar and his son, Chicago cop Jay Padar by clicking here. To purch...
Dec 19, 2016
In our last episode we told a story about how just before Thanksgiving day in 1973, Chicago Outfit associates Samuel Marcello and Joseph Grisafe parked in front of a fire hydrant at Taylor & Western on the west side of Chicago. They would enter the Korner Sandwich Shop just down the block and never be seen again, until the next summer. A month later in January , Sam Rantis, the sandwich shop owner, was found in the trunk of his car at O’Hare International Airport, dead. On a hot July night, ...
Dec 12, 2016
In the Cleveland mob war the Danny Greene gang (Danny was backed by mob associate and teamster John Nardi who had been mad because he thought he should be boss over Licavoli) the city experienced almost 40 car bombings. Nardi was killed on May 17, 1977 by a car bomb in the parking lot of the Teamster Hall in Cleveland. After eight failed attempts to kill Greene, the Cleveland mob boss, Jack Licavoli contracted Ray Ferritto to assassinate him. First Ferritto killed Bill McDuffee, Greene’s right h...
Nov 08, 2016
Angelo Lonardo Angelo Lonardo “Big Ange” In the 1980s, the FBI recorded Cleveland Mob Underboss, Joey Gallo, “Angelo Lonardo is probably one of the most respected guys in the whole United States.” Gallo went on to state, “He’s really the kind of guy we needed in this town a long time ago, but you know, nobody ever listened to him because… he don’t express himself… But out of everybody that’s left, this guy commands a lot of respect… I respect him not only because I have to because, I’m telling y...
Nov 01, 2016
After the deaths of the Mangano brothers, Costello pushes Anastasia as the new boss of that family. The Commission confirmed Anastasia’s ascension to be boss of the renamed Anastasia family. To take control of the Luciano family, Genovese needed to kill Frank Costello. However, Genovese could not kill Costello without also eliminating Anastasia. To do that, Genovese needed allies. Frank Costello Vito Genovese used Anastasia’s brutal behavior against him. The behavior that had been useful to the ...
Oct 25, 2016
To reward Anastasia’s loyalty, Luciano placed him and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the nation’s leading labor racketeer, in control of the Syndicate’s enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. This was a group of Jewish and Italian killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Rose’s, a candy store owned by mobster Louis Capone in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Some experts claim Louis Buchalter Sentencing Murder Inc. may have executed over 500 persons. Lepke and many other members of Murder...
Oct 18, 2016
Long before Albert Anastasia forms Murder Incorporated in 1919, he and his brothers arrived in New York City, working on a freighter. Jumping ship, the brothers stayed in the United States, working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront. It was not long before Anastasia was convicted of murdering a brother longshoreman, George Turino, as the result of a quarrel. Anastasia was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison Charles “Lucky” Luciano in Ossining, New York to await executio...
Oct 12, 2016
William “Red” Wemette was an FBI informant who testified against against the most feared and dangerous Chicago Outfit killers of modern times. I must note that Red was not the usual infomant but more a contract agent. He was not providing information as a trade to get out of a criminal charge, he was gathering information as a public service. He was paid, but this work was so dangerous, the pay was minimal compared to the risk and time involvement required. In this exciting interview Red Wemette...
Oct 02, 2016
The Investigation and Arrest In Part 2 of this horrifying story, retired detectives, Joe Langer and Tom Robinson tell about the Theresa Brown subsequent man hunt for Grissom. After he escaped arrest in the nearby town of Lawrence, Kansas, Grissom steals a car and drives to Corpus Christi, Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. He was a body builder and attractive man who could be quite charming to young women. While Kansas City apartment complex residents lived in fear and changed their locks, Grissom was...
Sep 26, 2016
Prison Break The Department of Justice sentencing guidelines send Mac to the famous maximum security federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. Here, he has a fateful meeting with another skyjacker named Gordon Trapp Brocknell. And, just when you think it is all over for Martin Joseph McNally, the case takes another unusual twist at the Super Max Penitentiary in Marion Illinois. McNally and his new friend and fellow skyjacker Garret Brock Trapnell wait in the prison yard while Barbara Oswald, a wome...
Sep 01, 2016
Arrest and Trial Of McNally Martin J. McNally in Lineup Shortly after, Mac arrives back home with a new plan. He is going to skyjack another plane and ask for a million dollars this time. As Mac makes contacts with his criminal associates, one of them alerts a Detroit police officer who passes this along to the F.B.I. This contact agrees to work with the Bureau and wears a wire trying to get Mac to implicate himself on tape as well as reveal his plan for the next skyjacking. The F.B.I. puts a fu...
Aug 24, 2016
The Hunt for the Skyjacker Skyjacker Martin J. McNally continues telling how he lands safely in a farm field. He determines he is in Indiana by the license plates. After hiding over night, hearing helicopters come and go, he decides to make his way to the closest town. After a nearly being struck by a passing car, the local sheriff stops to check him out. Mac convinces the sheriff he has been visiting a friend in the area and after a fight with his brother, he is trying to return home. The law e...
Aug 15, 2016
Skyjacking Interrupted Actual Parachute In Part 4, convicted skyjacker Martin J. McNally (“Mac”) relates how a local St. Louis man is drinking at the Lambert Airport Mariott Inn lobby bar. The bar patrons are watching this skyjacker drama live on a television. A patron abruptly leaves the bar with a comment something like, “hold my drink and keep watching, you’ll see something!” Mac has taken a lesson in how to strap on a parachute, received the 1/2 million cash in a leather American Airlines po...
Aug 08, 2016
The Hijacking Our D. B. Cooper copycat, Martin J. McNally, continues with his fascinating account of a real life skyjacking. He has selected Lambert Field in St. Louis and has arrived at the gate. Mac gets on the plane and takes his seat. This plane is a Boeing 727 arriving from New York and proceeding on to Tulsa Oklahoma. When the Captain announces the descent into Tulsa, Mac takes his attache case and heads to the rear bathroom. Inside, he puts on a cheap wig and takes out his “grease gun.” H...
Aug 04, 2016
The Preparation In the first episode, Mac told how he heard about the successful skyjacking of D. B. Cooper and started his own skyjacking plan. In this second episode of our interview with convicted skyjacker, Martin J. McNally, we learn about how Mac selected his target airport and airline. He believed that any airline would come up with the ransom demand. He recruited an old partner in crime, pool hustler Walter J. Petlikowski. Mac’s friend did not want to take part in the actual skyjacking, ...
Jul 31, 2016
Al Capone was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. He was a small time criminal and belonged to several different gangs including the powerful 5-Points Gang in lower Manhattan. He received his scar when he insulted a woman at a bar. Her brother, a gangster named Frank Gallucio, slashed Capone’s face. His boss in the 5-Points gang, Frankie Yale, made Capone apologize to Gallucio. In an ironic turn of events, Capone would later hire Gallucio as a bodyguard. Johnny Torrio Listen as the we...
Jul 18, 2016
Several months back, Aaron and I posted an episode telling about a 1972 D.B. Cooper copycat skyjacker named Martin J. McNally. In 1972, D. B. Cooper inspired McNally and several others to skyjack passenger planes and use parachutes to escape. After posting this story, Martin McNally (“Mac”) was googling his own name and found my podcast episode about his escapade. He reached out by commenting in each episode comments section. Mac wrote that he thought our episodes were entertaining and funny, bu...
Jul 14, 2016
When Ed Tickel was installing F.B.I. wiretaps, he led a secret life as a burglar. He was the son of a respected FBI agent and well-liked by his coworkers. I found a report about this secret life in a book titled The Secrets of the FBI by investigative reporter Ronald Kessler. He was known as a guy who could defeat any lock, crack any safe and make any covert entry required. Many agents attended lavish parties held at his 5-acre horse farm in Virginia. They all supposed this lavish lifestyle that...
Jul 09, 2016
This show is about F.B.I. Black Bag operations and the men who do this. Without the skill of the “bag men” the important microphones would not have installed and the Mob control over the Tropicana and Stardust Casinos would never have been uncovered. In this episode, I tell about an FBI agent that went bad, Ed Tickel. In the 1970s, this agent made many surreptitious entries inside and outside the country. He was what is known as an expert in NDE (non destructive entry). He was a legend within th...
Jul 05, 2016
In this episode, Tropicana Casino Skimming, Aaron and I talk about how KC boss Nick Civella used Joe Agosto to Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal infiltrate the Tropicana casino. I use the below actual wiretap audio to help tell the story. Nick Civella is concerned with the skimmers stealing and Civella wants a moratorium on all Tropicana skimming. The code names are: Carl DeLuna is Deluna Nick Civella is Zio or uncle Joe Agosto (Tropicana employee) is Caesar Carl Thomas (Tropicana employee )is Mr. C Don S...
Jun 24, 2016
In part 2, Aaron and I talk about the crime that our friend Schlecter, aka Joe Sharpino, did to get himself in witness protection. A woman named Sally Papia came from Chicago to Milwaukee and opened a nice club called Sally’s Steak House. She was the girl friend of a Chicago Outfit guy named Frank Buccieri. She was described as a raven haired firecracker who thought she was the queen bee of Milwaukee Organized Crime, because of her Chicago relationships. She hired three local mob associates and ...
Jun 21, 2016
I met retired F.B.I. Agent Gary Magnesun in Las Vegas- he had been assigned to the Milwaukee Organized Crime Squad and then transferred to Las Vegas. In Milwaukee, he was assigned to the first Organized Crime squad. In Las Vegas, he was assigned to the investigation of Lefty Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro and the Stardust skim. When I went out to Vegas to interview folks for my film, he cooperated and gave me a great interview. Before I went out, I obtained his book Straw Man in which he tells abou...
Jun 13, 2016
In his 30 Illegal Years to the Strip Bill Friedman explains how Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Charles Luciano, John Torrio, Moe Dalitz, Meyer Lansky and Joe Adonis and Frank Costello created the modern criminal gambling Syndicate that ruled organized crime in the United States. He wrote “The seven leaders of the three dominating Prohibition gangs imported the world’s finest liquors on a massive scale. Although they conducted their business in an illegal and dangerous world, these seven espoused tradit...
Jun 08, 2016
In his 30 Illegal Years to the Strip Bill Friedman explains how the early Mob bosses created illegal gambling empires after prohibition. Some of these men went on to help create modern Las Vegas. Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Charles Luciano, John Torrio, Moe Dalitz, Meyer Lansky and Joe Adonis and Frank Costello created the modern criminal Syndicate that ruled organized crime in the United States. He wrote “The seven leaders of the three dominating Prohibition gangs imported the world’s finest liquor...
May 31, 2016
In Part 3, Paul Scharff tells about his struggle to help clean up the McHenry County Sheriff’s office and elect a new sheriff. Paul runs into reluctance on the part of the sitting sheriff and he embarks on his own investigation into why the McHenry county authorities do not want to verify Frank Culotta’s claim that Larry “Lurch” Neumann killed his father, Ron Scharff. He learns the sitting sheriff was even called out to Nevada to testify in the Bertha’s Gift’s burglary trial. He was going to be ...
May 10, 2016
In Part 2, our special guest, Paul Scharff tells about his first contact with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Investigator. Paul learns they have never looked at Larry “Lurch” Neumann. When Paul first contacts the Sheriff’s investigator, they try to discourage him by intimating he may learn information about his father that he does not want to hear. They had put this off as a killing by a jealous lover of the bar maid killed at the same time. He talks to Frank Culotta and finds out that Neumann is ...
May 05, 2016
In 1981, 10 year old Paul Scharff was awakened and told the news that his father, Ron Scharff, was killed by unknown persons at his McHenry County neighborhood tavern. Twenty-eight years later, Paul receives a call telling him who killed his father. In this story, we learn that sometimes the bad guys are the good guys and the good guys are the bad guys. This is the fascinating true story of a mob killer working with the son of a murder victim to uncover the truth behind his father’s death. Paul ...
May 01, 2016
