May 21, 2020 – Chicago mob soldier Mario (The Arm) Rainone is seeking a compassionate release from his federal prison sentence for a gun charge due to health concerns related to the Coronavirus. Famed Windy City mob lawyer Joe (The Shark) Lopez filed the motion with U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber Tuesday on behalf of Rainone, who has been locked up since 2009. Leinenweber scheduled a hearing for May 28 to take-up the motion and listen to arguments.
Rainone, 65, used to be a collector for old North Side crime bosses Lenny Patrick and Gus (Slim) Alex, building a citywide reputation for himself as a menacing mob enforcer in the Outfit of the 1980s. But in 1989, fearing for his life after a falling out with Patrick, he betrayed his Outfit superiors and briefly agreed to enter the Witness Protection Program; before changing his mind and backing out of his cooperation deal when his mother’s front porch was firebombed.
Right now, Rainone is halfway through a 20-year prison stretch – stashed in a prison hospital in Rochester, Minnesota – and, according to his court filing this week, battling prostate cancer, liver damage and heart ailments. The Bureau of Prisons lists his current release date in September of 2028.
In 2009, Rainone, already a convicted felon, was arrested for possession of a handgun found on his bedroom nightstand when his Addison residence was searched in the hours after he was suspected of burglarizing a Lincolnshire condo. It’s not clear how or if Rainone was let back into the Chicago mob after he played ball with the feds in the ’80s.
What is known for sure is that his gangland mentors were certified legends in the Chicago underworld, both tracing their criminal roots to the old Capone mob of Prohibition times. For years, Lenny Patrick ran the Outfit’s Jewish faction out of Rogers Park. Slim Alex was a top advisor and political fixer for longtime Chicago mob boss Tony (Joe Batters) Accardo and controlled vice in the “Loop” business district downtown.
Patrick flipped on Alex and was the star witness at Alex’s heavily-covered racketeering and extortion trial in 1992, resulting in a guilty verdict for Alex and him spending the rest of his life behind bars. Tony Accardo died peacefully of natural causes in the months preceding Alex’s trial.
The post The Long Arm Of The Law: Chi. Outfit Figure Mario Rainone Looking For Compassionate Release appeared first on The Gangster Report.