Witness: Mobsters not buried alive
Forensic pathologist testifies in Family Secrets trial

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:17 PM CDT, August 1, 2007
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E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: Unlike the Hollywood version of the mob murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, the brothers were not beaten with bats and buried alive, according to a forensic pathologist who took part in their autopsies.

Both suffered massive blunt-force injuries, consistent with being beaten with fists and kicked, Dr. John Pless testified today at the Family Secrets trial at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. Both also showed signs that a rope had been placed around their necks, he said.

Pless said the bodies had been in the ground at least a week and were "moderately decomposed" when he and a colleague studied them at the Indiana University Medical Center on June 23, 1986.

"The bodies were still covered with sand from their removal from the cornfield," Pless said, adding that the bodies were clad only in undershorts.

Michael Spilotro had neck fractures and his nose was broken, Pless said. He bled so much into his chest that asphyxia was a factor in his death, Pless said.

The skin was not broken, he testified, leading him to believe that no object with mass—such as a baseball bat—was used in the beating.

Anthony Spilotro also suffered blunt-force injuries, and it was noted that he had severe heart disease. "All of these things compounding to produce death," he said.

Pless said he could not determine how many assailants took part in the attack.

Long the stuff of mob and Hollywood legend, the brothers' murders were depicted in the movie "Casino," which was based on Anthony Spilotro's role as the Chicago Outfit overseer in Las Vegas. But the movie got the murders wrong, according to Family Secrets testimony.

The movie showed the Spilotros beaten with bats in the same cornfield in which the bodies were discovered. But star witness Nicholas Calabrese testified last month that after the original plot to kill the Spilotros with explosives in Vegas fell through, mob bosses lured the brothers to a meeting near suburban Bensenville on June 14, 1986, with promises of promotions, and then beat and strangled them.

Calabrese testified that he saw a rope put around Michael Spilotro's neck as he tackled him in a Bensenville basement along with a hit team.

Today, Pless said he did not note that any sand or debris was in the upper airway of either man, as has sometimes been included in versions of the deaths.

"No, there was no evidence of that," Pless said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars made the point again by asking if there was any indication that the men were buried alive. "That's correct," Pless said.

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Thomas Breen asked about the cause of the death of Michael Spilotro.

"Is it fair to say he was just beaten to death?" Breen asked.

"Yes," Pless said.

"By fists and perhaps feet?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," was the answer.

Asphyxia was a factor in Anthony Spilotro's death, but it was caused by blood in his airway and not strangulation, Pless said.

Under cross-examination, Pless acknowledged it was "possible" that the Spilotros could still have been alive at the time of their burial, but when Mars asked him about it again, Pless reiterated that it was not his opinion that that had taken place.

The brothers' bodies, one on top of the other, were discovered June 22, 1986, in a 5-foot deep grave in a cornfield in Newton County, Ind., about 2 miles from the Illinois border and some 50 miles from Chicago.

The freshly turned earth was noticed by a farmer who thought the remains of a deer killed out of season had been buried there by a poacher.

The Spilotros had disappeared days before Anthony was to stand trial a second time in Nevada on charges he ran the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, a Las Vegas burglary ring.

Three months after the Spilotros' murders, John Fecarotta, a veteran mob muscleman, was slain because he botched the burial of the brothers.

jcoen@tribune.com