A piece of Chicago History coming to an End??

[ORIGLS6]

Maybe they're just testing the waters to see what the car MIGHT bring? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

At least we can hope!

[Steven J]

More history here.........

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1004715.html

[kwhizz]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Steven J</div><div class="ubbcode-body">More history here.........

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1004715.html


</div></div>



Wow!!.........I now have a Headache!!

[Mr70]

What a shame....what a mess.

[PeteLeathersac]

Hard to believe it's come to this!.

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/no.gif[/img]
~ Pete

[kwhizz]

A little more to to story from the Chicago Tribune from 1995.......







Cop Turned Drug Dealer Sentenced To Life In Prison
August 22, 1995|By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer.

Clement Messino, a tough and grizzled former Chicago police officer, used a Harvey auto body shop as a cover for cocaine-peddling throughout the 1980s, authorities said.

Using stolen cars for underlings to drive cocaine from Florida, Messino and his older brother, Christopher, also an ex-Chicago cop, rose to become the biggest suppliers in the south suburbs, according to federal prosecutors.

On Monday, Messino was sentenced to the same prison term his brother received last week: life without possibility of parole.

In a lengthy diatribe in federal court, Messino accused U.S. District Judge James Alesia of holding &quot;a personal grudge&quot; against his family in an apparent reference to the judge's own background as a onetime Chicago police officer.

An unmoved Alesia called Messino a dangerous and violent man from whom society needed to be protected.

In a courtroom ringed with U.S. marshals, Alesia imposed the maximum sentence possible. Messino could have received a minimum 30-year prison term.

The two brothers were convicted by a federal jury in April of distributing dozens of pounds of cocaine between 1980 and 1991. The trial took 11 weeks.

Two of Christopher Messino's sons, Christopher Jr. and Paul, also were convicted, and each was previously sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison. A third son, Blaise, was acquitted.

&quot;God help all of you,&quot; Clement Messino said in a comment directed at the prosecutors in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Schneider, Felipe Sanchez and Kathleen Murdoch.

Messino, 47, is no stranger to trouble since he left the Chicago police force in 1974 after six years on the job.

He already is serving a prison term of 9 years and 4 months for a 1993 conviction for additional drug charges, escape and trafficking in illegal weapons.

Messino sold an Uzi machine gun with a screw-on silencer, a sawed-off shotgun and more than a pound of cocaine to a government informant posing as a gang member.

The escape charge stemmed from his fleeing from federal custody during medical treatment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in July 1992.

He was arrested the next month in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as he tried to ship a car to Costa Rica, prosecutors said.

In addition, Messino was convicted of racketeering conspiracy in 1985 for operating a &quot;chop shop&quot; from his auto body business, Auto Abbey, in Harvey.

In sentencing Messino Monday, Alesia ordered the shop forfeited as well as Messino's home in Oak Forest, two mid-1960s Corvettes and $315,000 in drug profits.

He also fined him $250,000.

Last week, Alesia also leveled a $250,000 fine against Messino's brother, 54. The brother, nicknamed &quot;Dickie,&quot; was ordered to forfeit homes in Blue Island and Florida, a race car named &quot;Shake, Rattle and Run,&quot; a racing boat and an additional $674,500 in drug profits.

Alesia held that both Messinos sold at least 80 kilograms of cocaine, a figure prosecutors stressed as conservative.

Two former girlfriends of Messino's both testified under grants of immunity from the government. Both said they had been enlisted by Messino to help in the drug-dealing.

One, Robin Smith, said Messino told her in 1986 that the drug operation was making $5,000 a week.

It grew so big, according to prosecutors, that the Messinos were key suppliers to John Cappas, who became a cocaine &quot;kingpin&quot; after graduating from Marist High School. Cappas was convicted in 1989.

During the trial, other informants testified as well, but perhaps the key evidence was secretly recorded tapes of Clement Messino, his brother and two nephews arranging drug sales.

Schneider, the prosecutor, said the Messino brothers cooperated and shared resources through the years but eventually developed some different sources for their cocaine supplies.

While couriers delivered the cocaine in stolen cars from Florida at great risk, the Messinos flew in comfort in planes on their return to the Chicago area, Schneider said.

[Xplantdad]

WOW!

[black69]

double wow! I grew up on the southwest side of chicago, and I knew crime was just common place, and this brought a lot of the memories back, on stuff that used to go on (chop shops, stolen cars, some corrupt chicago cops). That court info does seem old, so who really owns the car today? The goverment or?

[kwhizz]

Another piece of Chicago car / crime history.........There was a group of people that worked at the entrance to the underground Parking Garage at McCormick place would take orders for certain types of cars....when they would come they would have the car followed to see where it parked.....and when the owner left the car to go upsairs to whatever event was going on.......Well....you can figure out the rest....LOL

[ORIGLS6]

What was the high bid on the car last month?