Chicago Mob Alderman's Name Comes Up At the Family Secrets Trial

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

It's the small moments in the Family Secrets trial that get overshadowed but are often fascinating.

Take the testimony of real estate investor Victor Cacciatore.

Cacciatore's testimony came at the end of a long day filled with the cross-examination of the prosecution's star witness, Nicholas Calabrese.

While Calabrese's testimony will get the headlines, Cacciatore's statements contain some interesting nuggets.

Cacciatore testified about being extorted by the mob during the early 1980s.

His memory was fuzzy in a few places.

But his testimony confirmed the basic account of two other witnesses, the prosecution's star witness, mob killer Nicholas Calabrese, and bookmaker Michael Talarico.

Calabrese testified last week how he was directed by his boss, Angelo LaPietra, to terrorize Cacciatore to get him to cough up some money.

Calabrese said the other main players in the extortion were his brother, reputed Outfit hitman Frank Calabrese Sr., and the late alleged mob killer Ronald Jarrett.

Talarico testified that he was instructed to do some surveillances of Cacciatore at the instruction of LaPietra.

Cacciatore confirmed he was the victim of mob threats, including having the head of a dog placed on his son's car.

Cacciatore had his back windshield shot out and received threatening phone calls.

Cacciatore said he was initially extorted for $5 million and wound up paying $200,000 to get the Outfit off his back.

Cacciatore reported his problems to the police at the time. Reports show that Cacciatore told authorities he knew who was extorting him but would not say because of the danger to him.

On the witness stand on Monday, though, Cacciatore couldn't recall ever knowing the names of his extortionists.

Cacciatore was not unfamiliar with reputed mobsters.

He happened to live next door for a time to top mob boss Anthony Accardo in River Forest.

Cacciatore knew who Jackie Cerone was because he would see Cerone visit Accardo while Cacciatore was mowing his lawn.

Cacciatore also had met Frank "Skid" Caruso because Caruso used Cacciatore as a lawyer to buy some property. The late Caruso was once the leader of the 26th Street/Chinatown crew.

And Cacciatore was well acquainted with Fred Roti, the late Chicago alderman who has been identified as a made member of the mob.

Roti was one of Cacciatore's first clients when Roti was just a humble Streets and Sanitation worker.

Roti referred him a lot of business, Cacciatore testified.

When he was getting extorted, Cacciatore told law enforcement that he went to a house to a middleman of the extortionists to see what could be done about the payment.

He told authorities then that the person frisked him for a wire and told him the original $5 million demand could be decreased to a $1 million.

Cacciatore also told investigators he would be signing his own death warrant if he said who the extortionists were.

On the witness stand Monday, Cacciatore said he didn't recall any of this.

"I recall talking to Fred Roti as to who could do this," Cacciatore said.

"I may have gone to his house," Cacciatore said.

It appears Alderman Roti was part of the racketeering enterprise.No word yet from Mayor Daley.