Michael Spilotro: The Man Who Paid for His Brother With His Life
Concrete Kingdoms
1,272 views
In Casino, Nicky and Dominick Santoro are beaten with baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield. Years later, a man who was standing in the room swore under oath that almost none of it happened that way. This is the real story of Michael Spilotro, the younger brother of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, and the Saturday afternoon in June 1986 when a phone call told him he was finally being made.
He was the Chicago Outfit associate who wanted to be an actor, whose best friend was Robert Conrad, who ran a restaurant called Hoagie's, and who was staring down 60 years in his own federal case when the invitation came. He took off his rings. He told his daughter he loved her. He got in the car anyway. The record of what waited in that Bensenville basement, and why the whole thing was built around Michael and not just his famous brother, sat sealed for more than twenty years before Operation Family Secrets finally pried it open.
Built from the Family Secrets trial transcripts, the autopsy testimony of Dr. John Pless, FBI files, and contemporaneous reporting from 1986.
Featured in this story: Michael Spilotro, Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, Pasquale Spilotro, Vincent Spilotro, Victor Spilotro, Patrick Spilotro, John Spilotro, Anne Spilotro, Michelle Spilotro, Sam Giancana, Jackie Cerone, Gus Alex, Robert Conrad, Larry Manetti, G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Cullotta, Joseph Aiuppa, Joey Lombardo, Angelo LaPietra, James Marcello, Nicholas Calabrese, Louie the Mooch, John Fecarotta, Frank Calabrese Sr., Frank Calabrese Jr., FBI agent Thomas Bourgeois, Dr. John Pless, and Judge James Zagel.
A man who sensed the invitation was probably a death sentence still shaved, dressed, and walked out the door. So was Michael a victim of his own last name, or a liability the Outfit was always going to erase either way? Tell me in the comments.
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Michael Spilotro: The Man Who Paid for His Brother With His Life
Concrete Kingdoms
1,272 views
In Casino, Nicky and Dominick Santoro are beaten with baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield. Years later, a man who was standing in the room swore under oath that almost none of it happened that way. This is the real story of Michael Spilotro, the younger brother of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, and the Saturday afternoon in June 1986 when a phone call told him he was finally being made.
He was the Chicago Outfit associate who wanted to be an actor, whose best friend was Robert Conrad, who ran a restaurant called Hoagie's, and who was staring down 60 years in his own federal case when the invitation came. He took off his rings. He told his daughter he loved her. He got in the car anyway. The record of what waited in that Bensenville basement, and why the whole thing was built around Michael and not just his famous brother, sat sealed for more than twenty years before Operation Family Secrets finally pried it open.
Built from the Family Secrets trial transcripts, the autopsy testimony of Dr. John Pless, FBI files, and contemporaneous reporting from 1986.
Featured in this story: Michael Spilotro, Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, Pasquale Spilotro, Vincent Spilotro, Victor Spilotro, Patrick Spilotro, John Spilotro, Anne Spilotro, Michelle Spilotro, Sam Giancana, Jackie Cerone, Gus Alex, Robert Conrad, Larry Manetti, G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Cullotta, Joseph Aiuppa, Joey Lombardo, Angelo LaPietra, James Marcello, Nicholas Calabrese, Louie the Mooch, John Fecarotta, Frank Calabrese Sr., Frank Calabrese Jr., FBI agent Thomas Bourgeois, Dr. John Pless, and Judge James Zagel.
A man who sensed the invitation was probably a death sentence still shaved, dressed, and walked out the door. So was Michael a victim of his own last name, or a liability the Outfit was always going to erase either way? Tell me in the comments.