Widow: Slain mobster knew he was in danger
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:03 PM CDT, August 2, 2007


Michael Spilotro apparently knew he was in danger in the weeks leading up to his slaying in June 1986, and he was acting strangely the day he disappeared, his wife and daughter testified today at the Family Secrets mob-conspiracy trial in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Ann Spilotro, at times sniffling and wiping her eyes, testified that her husband was nervous before he and his brother Anthony disappeared.

He was concerned, she said, despite having told her that he and his brother "were going to be No. 1." She said she took that to mean they would be leaders of the Chicago Outfit.

According to previous testimony from Nicholas Calabrese, a made member of the mob and the government's star witness, the Spilotros were killed after they were lured to a Bensenville basement under the ruse that they were to be promoted within the Outfit. He has said the brothers were killed because they were bringing too much heat to the mob's Las Vegas arm.

Today's testimony from Ann Spilotro is part of the continuing trial of five men accused in a conspiracy that allegedly included 18 previously unsolved murders, including the killings of the Spilotro brothers.

Early in the morning on the day Michael Spilotro vanished, he told his wife he had a meeting, she said in court today. "He said if he wasn't back by 9 o'clock, it was no good," she said.

"I didn't think as if he would lose his life, I just thought it would be a problem," she said.

Ann Spilotro said she went to a baseball game with her son, and came home to find that before her husband left for the meeting, he had given his daughter some of his personal items.

"Her dad had given her his jewelry, his driver's license and a medal he wore around his neck," she said. He also had given her money to take to a graduation party that night.

Spilotro's daughter, Michelle, now 38, also took the stand today.

She said she noticed her father was acting oddly the morning he left.

She said her father always told her he loved her when he left their Oak Park home. "That day he said it at least 10 times," she said, fighting back tears.

She said her father left his jewelry in a Ziploc bag on the kitchen counter, and told her to tell her mother to bring it to the graduation party.

Ann Spilotro said she went to the party, and watched the clock knowing her husband had mentioned 9 p.m.

Right at 9, she said, a woman whose husband happened to have been killed previously sat next to her, Spilotro testified.

"I started shaking," she said. "I couldn't stop shaking."

The next day, Father's Day, she called around to see if anyone had seen her husband. No one had, and she reported him missing the following day.

A week later, she learned the brothers had been killed, she said.

Michelle Spilotro spent some of her time on the stand today testifying about taking a number of calls over the years from a man she knew as "Jim."

Prosecutors allege that was Family Secrets defendant James Marcello.

The man would often call and ask for her father, Michelle Spilotro said, and she grew to recognize his voice.

Her father would tell her, "If that guy calls, I need to get the call," she said. Or, "If that guy calls, I'm not here."

After her father was killed, FBI agents had her listen to a voice lineup, she testified, in an attempt to identify "Jim."

She said she had no problem picking out the voice.

"I just remember immediately identifying the voice," she said. "I didn't even have to listen to the rest of the tape."

Spilotro said she did listen to the other voices, but just told agents, "That's it," when she heard "Jim's" voice.

She will be cross-examined by lawyers for Marcello this afternoon.

jcoen@tribune.com