Michael Spilotro

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Michael Peter "Micky" Spilotro (September 12, 1944 - June 14, 1986) was the brother of Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro and was an associate of the Chicago crime organization called "The Outfit".

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[edit] Family background

Michael was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 12 1944. He was the son of Pasquale Spilotro (1899–1954) and his wife Antoinette. He had five brothers, Vincent, Victor, Pasquale Jr., Tony and John. Pasquale Jr. became an oral surgeon and dentist in the Chicago area and Vincent lived a law-abiding life. Tony, John and Victor became criminals like Michael.

[edit] Life in the fast lane

Michael was the manager of Hoagie's Pub on the West Side of Chicago and stayed out of mob activities. However, around 1980, he started hanging around with members of the Outfit, including his brother Tony. Michael was friends with actors Robert Conrad and his half brother and fellow Hollywood actor Larry Manetti. Michael first met Robert in May of 1954, when Robert was only seventeen years old. At the time he had eloped with a lawyer's daughter and lied about his age to gain employment as a longshoreman down at the Chicago waterfront. He was later fired of December of that year for handing out a petition to have his union steward fired. The two remained close and Michael later appeared as a stick-up man in Conrad's TV series The Duke in 1979. He later was featured in Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy released in 1982, and with Tom Selleck in the Magnum P.I.TV series in the "Thicker Than Blood" episode. Michael helped run The Goldrush Ltd. with Anthony and his brother John who worked as a bookmaker. Michael soon became involved in bookmaking, drug dealing, prostitution, robbery, and extortion. Through his relationship with Larry Manetti he had connections in the Plaza Hotel & Casino when it was under the ownership of the Barrick Gaming Corporation.

[edit] Grisly execution

By 1983, Michael was the main point of contact for mobster Joey Lombardo in Chicago. Michael probably would have become a "made member" of the Outfit if brother Tony had not ended up in trouble with the organization. In the end, the Outfit bosses allegedly decided to kill both brothers.

On June 14, 1986, the bodies of Michael and Tony Spilotro were uncovered from a cornfield near rural Morocco, Indiana. The two brothers had been severely beaten, strangled, and then buried alive. Their brother Pasquale Jr. could only identify them with the help of dental records.On September 27, 2007, a jury in U.S. District Court found longtime Chicago mob boss James Marcello guilty in the Spilotro brothers' murders. Marcello faces up to life in prison for the murders.

[edit] In popular culture

Philip Suriano's character "Dominick Santoro" in the 1995 film Casino is based on Michael Spilotro. Dominick is shown assisting his brother and his crew in beating up a man outside of a bar, spitting in a police officer's sandwich, and later gunning a cop's home. Dominick is the first brother to be beaten in the infamous cornfield scene.

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