'He could put me away forever'
MOB TRIAL | Man testifies that defendant feared star witness flipping for feds

July 31, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
When prolific burglar Richard Cleary visited his longtime friend Paul "The Indian" Schiro in prison in December 2003, Cleary told him the hot news: Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese had flipped for the feds.

"I asked, 'Do you know him?'" Cleary recalled Monday in his testimony in the Family Secrets trial.

"Yes," Schiro replied, according to Cleary.

"I asked him, 'Could he hurt you?'" Cleary testified.
Schiro said, "Yes, he could put me away forever," Cleary told jurors.

Cleary's testimony came Monday as prosecutors presented evidence to focus on Schiro, one of the defendants in the Family Secrets mob case, and his alleged role in Arizona for the Chicago Outfit.


Murders tied to casino skim
Mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese has already testified against Schiro, saying they both took part in the murder of Emil Vaci in Arizona in June 1986 after Vaci had testified before a grand jury in Las Vegas.
That grand jury was investigating the disappearance and presumed murder of slot-skimmer George Jay Vandermark. Trial testimony suggested on Monday that the Chicago Outfit would have had a great interest in Vandermark, who oversaw the mob-run skim at the slots at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas.

The mob got $4 million in one year from the skim. But authorities estimated the real skim was $7 million, with the mob getting shorted $3 million.

The grand jury was interested in Vaci, in part, because he ran an Arizona hotel where Vandermark hid out.

I came, I saw, I had no idea what was going on, I left.