James DiForti, not a snitch

In the Monday editions of the Chicago Sun-Times, we tell the story of how the FBI created such a paranoid atmosphere in the Chicago Outfit, many mobsters, including Frank Calabrese Sr., came to believe that fellow Outfit member and reputed killer James DiForti was a rat.

Outfit people on the street to this day believe DiForti was a snitch.

But he wasn't.

Here are some more details on how the FBI messed with the mob's mind, according to a review of court records in the Family Secrets case and an interview with Kevin Blair, an FBI agent who worked in Chicago and was an architect of the FBI's strategy.

Blair came up with the name for the investigation, Family Secrets, but he downplayed his own role and praised the job done by other agents who continued his original work on the case.