Michael Cagnoni
James Mammina was driving to work in his Ford Club Wagon van on the morning of June 24, 1981, heading from his condominium in Downers Grove to his father's plant in Summit.
He stopped for a light just before he pulled onto the on-ramp on I-290 in Hinsdale.
A Mercedes pulled up next to him and pulled in front of him onto the ramp.
What he saw next would never leave him.
All of a sudden, there was a white flash, a loud explosion and a blast of heat through Mammina's windshield.
A car bomb planted by mobsters had turned the Mercedes inside out and killed the driver inside, Michael Cagnoni.
Cagnoni had been paying thousands of dollars a week in street tax for his highly successful trucking business but had run afoul of mobsters.
"The smoke cleared, and I was able to see his vehicle, or what was left of his vehicle," Mammina told jurors in the Family Secrets trial.
The roadway was showered with debris, from the car and from the victim.
Mammina was in shock but wasn't hurt.
Mammina, a regular fellow in the cabinet business, now living out of state, had another connection to the crime.
He is a cousin of the late mobster James DiForti, who prosecutors say played a role in Cagnoni's death.
Michael Cagnoni is a 2nd cousin to me.
I was young when the incident happened and didn't really learn about what happened to him until I was in my late teens.
My father and Michael were close growing up, but my father and him went their own ways well before I came along.
It was just another senseless killing for which no one person has been directly fingered, just a group of people who they say had somehting to do with it. Justice will never be done to the lone individual who committed the crime.
Seeing that picture brings back many memories. I used to work for Mike. Starting when he was married to his first wife. I met her and their two young sons on many occasions. A few years after I left his employment, I received a phone call from someone who still worked for him telling me of this horrible murder. Shortly afterwards, I learned that his second wife was pregnant with their second child.
I'm relieved that his killers were caught, but nothing can ever undo what was done to him.
i was working as a thermo king mechanic at the time of mikes death.at the time i had his son Nicky working with me teaching him refrigeration and trailers. one morning the phone rang and for some reason i decided to answer it instead of nick .it was the tribune asking "if mike owned co-op shippers" ?i told them i didn't know .then they asked" if it was the same person who just got blown up on the tollway"?i hung up the phone and told Nicky it was a wrong number. and, lets get back to work..i was scared,and dumbfounded.thank god the garage boss came in and took nick aside. meanwhile the Chicago police showed up in force. with bomb dogs .mike was really a good boss to us and it he was generous with hours and pay which at the time. due, to a large family it was surely needed.i think about him often.he was good to me....