The Chicago Outfit - Sam Giancona - Home & The Armory Lounge

Sam Giancona , home and site of the Armory Lounge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Giancana
Sam Giancana, was an Italian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966. Among his other nicknames were, "Momo", "Mooney," "Sam the Cigar," and "Sammy."

...Upon his return to the U.S., Giancana joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a witness in the prosecution of organized crime in Chicago. The police detailed officers to guard his house in Oak Park, Illinois. However, on the night of June 19, 1975, someone recalled the police detail. A gunman later entered Giancana's kitchen and shot him in the back of the head as he was frying sausage and peppers.

Earth Hacks - Armory Lounge
http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile2465/Armory-Lounge---Sam-Giancana-HQ.htm
...The Armory Lounge was bugged by the FBI in 1959 and stayed bugged for over five years, yielding tons of information on criminal activities in Chicago and around the country. Currently a rather mediocre, though inexpensive and friendly, restaurant called Andrea's.

DogStar7 Visits The Vandalized The Gravesite Of Mike Todd - Elizabeth Taylor's 3rd Husband

Todd was born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Chaim Goldbogen (an Orthodox rabbi) and Sophia Hellerman, both Polish Jewish immigrants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Todd

 Mike Todd talks to a reporter about Elizabeth Taylor. "Miss Taylor? You mean Missus Todd."


On 22 March 1958, Todd's private plane Lucky Liz crashed near Grants, New Mexico. The plane, a twin-engine Lockheed Lodestar, suffered an engine failure while being flown grossly overloaded in icing conditions at an altitude which was too high to sustain flight with only one working engine under those conditions. The plane went out of control and crashed, killing all four on board.

Footage including Mike Todd's Beachcraft, "The Liz" (mentioned elsewhere as Lucky Liz)

Elizabeth Taylor Arrives At The Gravesite of Mike Todd - March 1958
Emotional footage of Elizabeth arriving at the funeral of Mike Todd
Beth Aaron Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois - March 1958

His son, Mike Jr., wanted his father's body to be cremated after it was identified through dental records and brought to Albuquerque, but Taylor refused, saying he would not want cremation. Todd was buried in Forest Park, Illinois, at Beth Aaron Cemetery in plot 66, which is part of Jewish Waldheim there.

In his autobiography, Eddie Fisher, who considered himself to be Todd's best friend, stated: "There was a closed coffin, but I knew it was more for show than anything else. The plane had exploded on impact and whatever remains were found couldn't be identified....The only items recovered from the wreckage were Mike's wedding ring and a pair of platinum cuff links I'd given him."

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1977 that Fisher's story was false; Todd's remains were indeed recovered and buried in Forest Park, Illinois. The remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into Todd's coffin looking for a $100,000 diamond ring which, according to rumor, Taylor had placed on her husband's finger prior to his burial. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his burial plot; the bag and coffin had been sealed in Albuquerque after Todd's remains were identified following the 1958 crash. Todd's remains were once more identified through dental records and were reburied in a secret location.

http://www.slate.com/id/2091218/
In 1977, "Wise Guy" Anthony Pellicano found the body of Elizabeth Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, which was stolen from a Chicago cemetary. In front of a camera crew from a local news station, Pellicano walked over to place seventy-five yards south of the excavated grave, reached under some leaves, and revealed a plastic bag of Todd's remains. Pellicano's rivals claimed he'd staged the entire episode for publicity.

Sept. 11, 1993, Los Angeles Times. Times reporters James Bates and Shawn Hubler write: Then there was the matter of producer Michael Todd's bones, which disappeared in 1977 from a Forest Park, Ill., cemetery. Todd had been married to actress Elizabeth Taylor when he died in a 1958 plane crash.

The grave robbery made headlines. Police scoured the cemetery in vain. Then a phone rang in the detective division. Pellicano said he had an informant; he knew where the bones were buried. Police met him at the graveyard. Pellicano had an anchorman in tow.

Todd's remains—a few bones and a melted belt buckle—were right on the cemetery grounds, under a pile of leaves and dirt about 75 yards from the grave. The grave robbers, Pellicano told police, had been after a 10-carat diamond ring, a gift from Taylor that they mistakenly had believed was inside Todd's casket.

A 1983 government sentencing report maintains that a mobster-turned-informant told authorities that two mob figures were the ones who exhumed Todd. But the story making the rounds in Chicago even today is that Pellicano orchestrated the event to gain publicity in hopes of being hired to help find Chicago candy heiress Helen Brach, who disappeared in 1977.

Chicago Fire Department SCUBA Team 687 Returning To Quarters

Chicago Fire Department
SCUBA Team 687, Engine 13.
259 N Columbus Drive, Chicago

Federal Employees Union Picket In Chicago

News Item:
http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=650930&am...
American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage said in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, U.S. Postal Service and labor policy.

This "misinformation campaign" has created a politically hostile climate that culminated in a decision late last year to freeze federal employees' wages for the next two years, Gage said.

"In spite of the misinformation campaign and the pay freeze, AFGE urges the members of this Subcommittee to rely upon 'the state of facts and evidence' regarding federal pay. And the facts are that even prior to the freeze, federal wages and salaries were lower than the wages and salaries in the private sector and state and local government, when compared on a job-by-job basis both nationally and regionally," Gage testified.

Gage urged Congress to end the pay freeze so the government can once again begin making progress to eliminate the pay gap between federal and non-federal salaries.

Electronic copies of Mr. Gage's testimony are available upon request.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 625,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

Federal Workers Demonstration In Chicago (FOX News Style Interview)

Brent Behran, President AFGE Local 648 tells a FOX style interviewer why Federal Employees aren't the lazy good-for-nothings you've been lead to believe.

Love - My Little Red Book (1966).flv

Dick Clark introduces the world to Love and the songs of Bacharach/David

Wikipedia: Love
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee and the group's second songwriter, guitarist Bryan MacLean. One of the first racially diverse American pop bands, their music reflected different influences, combining elements of rock and roll, garage rock, folk and psychedelia.

China - Japan relations thaws a bit after quake.

Japan quake: China sets aside disputes, offers help  By Keith B. Richburg Sunday, March 13, 2011 
"An unsigned commentary Saturday from Xinhua, the official state-run news agency, recalled how Japan assisted China after a deadly earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008, with Japanese lining up to make donations and a Japanese rescue team helping recover victims"

Chicago Fire Department: Engine 1 Returning to Quarters with L Trains Pa...

Engine 1 Returning to Quarters as two CTA L trains pass by.

"Change of Quarters" Chicago Fire Department.

Seagrave Aerial Ladder "from the shop" fills in at Illinois & Dearborn

This is the Brown Line

Haymarket Martyr's Monument, Forest Park, Illinois

The Haymarket Martyr's Monument

"THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY"


On May 4, 1886, a rally began at Haymarket Square in Chicago near Randolph and Des Plaines Streets. As the rally drew to a close, police were dispatched to disperse the crowd. A homemade bomb exploded and police gunfire erupted, causing fatalities on both sides. Although the bomber was never identified, eight men were indicted and convicted, because their "inflammatory speeches and publications" incited the mob to riot.

On November 11, 1887, at the Criminal Courts Building on Hubbard Street, leaders August Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel and Adolph Fischer were hanged. Of the other leaders, one committed suicide in prison. Two sentences were reduced to life in prison. One protester remained jailed, although uncharged.

On June 26, 1893, Governor John P. Altgeld reversed former Governor Richard Oglesby's refusal to pardon and granted a full pardon, saying that the conviction-focused jury was so prejudiced by the judge that a fair trial was impossible.
http://www.carpentersunion.org/site/epage/87959_837.htm

The United Ancient Order of Druids Monument, Forest Park, Illinois

Detailed and compendious account of A.O.D. & U.A.O.D
http://www.druidicdawn.org/node/1913

From Neo-Pagan web site:
http://www.neopagan.net/MesoDruids.html
In 1781 c.e., Henry Hurle set up the "Ancient Order of Druids" ("A.O.D."), which is sometimes just called the "Druid Order," ("D.O."), as were a few other groups, leading to no end of historical confusion. Hurle's group was a secret society based on Masonic patterns — not surprising, since Hurle was a carpenter and house builder, and thus would have been familiar with Masonry. The A.O.D., like most of the similar mystical societies formed at the time, was heavily influenced by Jacob Boehme.

(Jacob Boehme, 1675-1724 c.e., was a Protestant Christian mystic, greatly involved with alchemy, hermeticism and Christian Cabala, as well as being a student of the famous Meister Eckhart. His mystical writings attempted to reconcile all these influences and had a tremendous impact upon later generations of mystical Christians, Rosicrucians, Freemasons and Theosophists.)

In 1833, the secret society founded by Hurle apparently split up over the question of whether it should be mainly a "benefit" (charitable) society or a mystical one. The majority voted for being a charitable society and changed its name to the "United Ancient Order of Druids" ("U.A.O.D."). This group, with branches all over the world, still exists as a charitable and fraternal organization rather like the Elks or Shriners, with both their membership and their rituals overlapping heavily with those of mainstream Masonry.