Earlier this week, the attorney for Joseph Lombardo, Rick Halprin, tried to anticipate an argument that he believed the prosecution would make in its rebuttal.
Halprin scoffed at the notion that the famous Last Supper photo of Lombardo, standing, with a group of mobsters sitting around a table, showed Lombardo's 1976 making ceremony.
Prosecutor Mitch Mars put the pieces together for jurors in the 1986 murder of Emil Vaci in Phoenix.
Now, they'll have to decide if they form a convincing picture.
Vaci, 72, was killed by the Chicago Outfit because he was going to testify before a federal grand jury about a slots cheat, Jay Vandermark, who was overseeing the Outfit skim on slots at a few casinos but ripped off the mob for millions of dollars.
Outfit killer Nick Calabrese, a star witness for the government, said he and another mob hitman, Joseph Hansen, parked a light blue cargo van next to Vaci's car in the parking lot of the restaurant where Vaci worked.
Federal prosecutor Mitchell Mars, in a searing final argument for the government, laid out the evidence against Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo in the most comprehensive fashion to date concering his alleged role in the 1974 murder of Bensenville businessman Daniel Seifert.
Seifert was shotgunned just yards from his wife and 4-year-old son at his fiberglass factory in Bensenville.
Here's the government's evidence:
Lombardo had the best motive to kill Seifert. Former federal prosecutor Matt Lydon testified at trial that Seifert was the only witness to link Lombardo to a 1974 Teamster pension fund fraud case. When Seifert died, so did the case against Lombardo. Mars argued that if Lombardo had been convicted in the 1974 case, his access to the millions of dollars in Teamster pension fund money would have been gone too.
"He loses his grip on the golden goose," Mars told jurors.
Emma Seifert, Daniel's widow, testified that Lombardo was at Seifert's business the week before Seifert was slain, casing out the place.
The laywers for Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo have suggested someone else who should be the chief suspect in the 1974 slaying of federal witness Daniel Seifert.
The late bail bondsmen and businessman Irwin Weiner.
Lombardo is accused of killing Seifert because Seifert was scheduled to be a witness against Lombardo in a federal criminal case involving embezzlement of a Teamster pension fund.
But Lombardo wasn't only one charged in the criminal case from the 1970s. So was Weiner.
In his closing argument, Rick Halprin, the attorney for Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, tried to get in front of a potentially interesting prosecution argument about an infamous photograph.
The photo, from 1976 and seen above, shows Lombardo around a table of mob leaders.
Halprin was concerned the prosecution, in its rebuttal argument, would contend the photo is of the making ceremony of Lombardo into the Outfit.
In the Family Secrets trial, we've heard from the patriarch of the family, Frank Calabrese Sr.
Accused of 13 murders, Calabrese Sr. has told jurors from the stand how he's the real victim in the case.
Calabrese Sr. described how his brother, Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, stole the affection and loyalty of two of Calabrese Sr.'s sons, Frank Jr. and Kurt.
The betrayals came even after Calabrese Sr. plead guilty in a 1995 loansharking case to get better deals for his two sons, who were also charged, according to Calabrese Sr.'s testimony.
Anthony "Twan" Doyle, Michael Ricci, Frank Calabrese Sr.
Anthony Doyle this week tried to explain away portions of the above conversation he had with Frank Calabrese Sr. when he and a former Chicago homicide detective, Michael Ricci, visited the reputed Outfit killer in prison on Feb. 19, 1999.
Doyle, Calabrese Sr. and Ricci are talking in a visiting room about Calabrese Sr.'s current obsession:
From left to right, Calabrese Sr., Ricci and Doyle
Former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle has a lot to answer for during his cross-examination this morning in the Family Secrets trial.
For instance, there's this secretly recorded video clip from his time in the Milan, Mich., prison visiting room with Frank Calabrese Sr. The conversation happened in April 2000.
Frank Calabrese Sr. showed a chivalrous side Tuesday.
When asked about one mobster by prosecutor John Scully, Calabrese Sr. said: "When I found out he a bit a woman's breast off and went to jail for it, I lost complete respect for him."
Frank Calabrese Sr. has developed an interesting strategy as he testifies as to the true meaning of what he told his son during recorded conversations the two had in prison in 1999.
The conversations pose a particular challenge to Calabrese Sr. because they are his own words apparently describing in great detail mob murders he allegedly committed.
Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph R. Lopez, goes through each conversation and asks him about particular passages.
Calabrese Sr. pauses then give his interpretation of it.
The conversations date to 1999, and Calabrese, at 70, does have to think back on them.
Calabrese Sr., though, has had months to prepare for trial and consider what he said back then.
His strategy gives his testimony a making-it-up-as-he-goes-along feel.
A young Frank Calabrese Sr.
Federal prosecutors want to stop Frank Calabrese Sr. from testifying on two key points for his defense.
In a court motion filed Sunday, the Family Secrets prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge James Zagel to prevent Calabrese Sr. from testifying that his sons stole his classic cars or valuables from his vacation home in Williams Bay, Wisc.
Ralph DiCapua, a retired city of Chicago worker, testified this week that his friend, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, worked a regular job during the 1970s.
But the most interesting part of his testimony came later.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk noted that DiCapua had testified at another court hearing for Lombardo, saying Lombardo was "the godfather of the community."
