Out of the past

For those of you familiar with Chicago corruption, a ghost of scandals past has reappeared:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-01-oct01,0,5966158.column

If you make a deal with the devil he will expect you to keep up your end of the bargain. After paying bribes to high ranking City of Chicago officials it is expected that you will never testify against those officials. If you do begin to testify you will receive a visit from that official’s “associates”.

The above article describes one such visit:

• If you've been following the story in this column and in news accounts in the Tribune, you know that Morales once told federal investigators about large bribes he paid to a Daley administration chieftain, former Transportation Department boss Anthony Pucillo, who has vehemently denied Morales' allegation.
  
• Then came a death threat telling him to keep his mouth shut, Morales said. Marco had pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges, but instead of reporting to prison, he ran to the Yucatan, to the town of Merida. While on the run, as the statute of limitations on the Daley administration bribery investigation was running out, his son Marc Morale began receiving the bulk of more than $60 million in contracts from the Daley administration.
  
• "You know when Marco got the death threat, that same day, they came to our house too," Stella said. "We were divorced by then. And then came the men. They knocked on the door."
  
• "This was after Marco was arrested, after he was talking to the grand jury about the bribes to Pucillo," Stella said. "They said to me, 'You have a son. Do you want your son to be able to walk and talk? Then tell Marco to keep his mouth shut about the bribes. Capisce? "