By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
The arrest of three Chicago area mobsters on Thursday — all senior citizens — had the makings of a movie, from the FBI surveillance and listening devices to the plan to knock off an armored car and rob the home of the late mob boss Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that authorities arrested Jerry “The Monk” Scalise, 73, Art Rachel, 71 and Robert Pullia, 69, all of the Chicago area. Scalise and Rachel were both convicted in the infamous 1980 heist in London in which the men made off with jewelry including a famous Marlborough Diamond. They appeared in federal court Friday afternoon and were detained, the paper reported.
The Sun-Times reported that the feds charged all three men with planning to rob an armored car that was going to pick up money at a bank in LaGrange, a Chicago suburb.
The paper reported that the FBI had been surveilling the crew since December and learned that they also planned to rob the home of feared mobster boss LaPietra, who died in 1999.
“All my client has told me so far is this is nonsense,” Terry Gillespie, who represents Scalise said, according to the Sun-Times.
The paper reported that the FBI secretly recorded Scalise’s conversations via listening devices in his van. In one instance, the FBI recorded him talking about killing a cooperating witness in a mob trial..
“We got to spare some time [and] a bullet for that f—— piece of s—,” Scalise is quoted as saying about the unnamed witness, according to the Sun-Times.
The Sun-Times reported that director Michael Mann hired Scalise as a consultant for the Johnny Depp film, “Public Enemies”.
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