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Chicago Outfit mobster Tony Spilotro and brother Michael murdered 40 years ago this month

June 14, 2026

Forty years ago, Tony Spilotro’s neon excesses gave way to the cold reality of Midwestern soil. In June 1986, a shallow grave in a remote Indiana cornfield closed the book on one of the most volatile chapters of the Las Vegas Strip. The discovery of the beaten bodies of Spilotro and his brother Michael marked the beginning of the end of the Chicago Outfit’s tenure in Las Vegas. His legacy remains a grim example of what happens when a mobster begins drawing too much unwanted attention. Mob killer to Las Vegas enforcer Born May 19, 1938, in Chicago, Spilotro became involved in crime ...

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In 2010, Russian mobster Sergey Tsapkov was responsible for 12 murders on a farm in southwest Russia. Although he died in prison in 2014, his accomplices received an early release for military service in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Aleksandra Larinzeva/Kommersant Photo/Sipa USA (Sipa via AP Images)

Since World War II, Russian mobsters have traded prison cells for battlefields

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The Mob, Hulu’s upcoming reality show, stars actor Parker Posey as the host of a competition in which celebrities go head-to-head in Mafia-themed challenges. Hulu

Celebrities to compete for cash, get ‘whacked’ in Mob-inspired reality show

A Mob-themed competition show is set to air soon on Hulu and Disney+, featuring celebrity contestants at a luxury Italian…

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Mob fashion at its finest: The top 5 best-dressed mobsters

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The late Robert Blakey spoke at The Mob Museum in November 2013 during a public program, “JFK: An Inside Look at the Assassination of a President 50 Years Later.” The Mob Museum Collection

Robert Blakey, architect of the RICO Act that crippled the Mob, dies at age 90

No one made life more difficult for the Mob than Robert Blakey. In 1969, Blakey, a Notre Dame Law School…

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Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, right, is escorted from court following his sentencing on June 5, 1976. Courtesy of Cipollini Collection

Myth busted: Vietnam War-era drug traffickers did not smuggle heroin in soldiers’ coffins

Fifty years after U.S. officials brought down Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, the claim that heroin was smuggled into the United States…

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Geraldo Rivera poses on the stairs heading down to the Lexington Hotel’s basement, where Al Capone supposedly kept a hidden vault. Forty years ago, millions of Americans tuned in to watch Rivera’s two-hour live television special revealing the contents of the “vault.” Steve Kagan / Getty Images

Geraldo Rivera uncovered ‘The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults’ on live television 40 years ago

On April 21, 1986, television reporter Geraldo Rivera completed his final on-air shot in a live broadcast from the Chicago…

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Leonardo “Leo the Lawyer” Rizzuto, the current boss of the Montreal Mafia, leaves court in 2008. Courtesy of Scott Burnstein

Embattled Montreal Mafia clings to underworld power amid setbacks

After nearly two decades of intermittent unrest in the Montreal Mafia, the Rizzuto dynasty is once again on the ropes….

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