Michael ‘No Show’ Magnafichi
Today’s show features retired Chicago Police Official Don Herion, who penned two famous books on his crusade on Organized Crime in Chicago back in the day when the Chicago Outfit was at its deadliest stage. His books are titled Pay, Quit, or Die and The Chicago Way.
I recently had contact with Michael Magnafichi who promised to be on this show as a guest in order to take a polygraph test. He was a no-show, which was expected when he didn’t return calls prior to the show.
Have a great and safe Super Bowl weekend. Probably see you next week.
Note: In the video I incorrectly referenced ‘brothers’ of the now late Chicago Gangster Joe Gagliano. I have no knowledge if Gagliano had brothers (nor do I care).
24 Comments
Don made an interesting guest for the show. I loved the story about the garage robber.Not quite sure why they had to wear masks and flee while the cops on duty could come and make an arrest. Why didn’t Don make an arrest? The masks were kinda odd as well as pulling his pants down. A different time I suppose. Today criminals have rights,lol. Fantastic show. Hope Don will come back and tell more stories and I wish him lots of success on his books. Also please keep us updated on the Michael Mag situation. A lie detector show would be exciting and revealing of course
LL,
I believe Don explained that he wore a mask to escape detection as he was serving in an unofficial capacity. He was avoiding consequences. He and his partner cuffed the criminal to a fence so the on duty officers would be able to easily locate and arrest the criminal. Don wanted to catch the rapist very badly to the point where he pursued the criminal on his own time (as well as on company time). However, it was not considered lawful for him to police on his own time, which again explains the masks. He lowered the criminals pants for no reason other than establishing a safe place to stash the criminals gun, thus keeping it on his person. Lowering the pants allowed for a considerable amount of distance from the criminals hands so the criminal would be unable to reach the gun while cuffed to the fence. Your mention of a criminals rights is reasonable, however, I believe that you clearly misunderstand that lowering the criminals pants had nothing whatsoever to do with abusing the person. I hope that I have made it clearer for you.
Will keep you updated on the Mags situation. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help you understand Don’s story. 😉
I’m confused?! I did not hear that Mags and Joe were currently speaking. I understand that there was a contact between the two and Mags never showed for the show. Maybe I watched a different podcast(:
That is right LL. I will believe Michael once I see the results of the polygraph test that he agreed to do.
The polygraph should be filmed.
HDN, I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂
Perfect
I’ll bet Mags thought you were bluffing about the polygraph. I’ll be shocked if he goes through with it.
Don Herion busted me years ago. Luckily for me it was baseball season and the only thing they found were some old betting records. I ended up getting charged with some low level misdemeanors and ended up with a very short term of court supervision.
Knowing they weren’t going to find anything of value the hardest part for me was keeping a straight face as I read the search warrant. The last thing I wanted to do was to laugh and wind up antagonizing them.
I told him and his his crew to take their time and asked them to please not wreck the house. I even offered them soft drinks while they were there. They were extremely nice to me,never put me in handcuffs,didn’t confiscate the cash I had on hand,told what to bring,what to expect and even suggested that I buy snacks from a vending machine because they said the process would take several hours. . The only annoying part was that they took all my phones and it took me several months to get them all back. I believe that it was a disgruntled former girlfriend that ratted me out and I got the feeling that they were most upset over being sent on a wild goose chase that ended up with them getting nothing.
All in all it was a good lesson on what precautions I should take in the future should I ever get raided again.
E,
Thanks for sharing. Do we know each other?
No,We’ve never met.
Lurk- did you ever get raided again?
Nope,they never came back Heavy. The only betting records they found were some small bets that a friend was making with me from a few weeks past. I told them that my gambling was simply small betting among friends and the records they found proved it. When they asked me why I had so many phones in my house I told them that I was running an adult business that was completely legitimate. On the ride to the Maxwell St station they were more interested in that,and wanted to know how it worked. 🙂
The beauty of this whole experience was that I got a ring-side seat to observe a raid,note exactly how they went about it,where they would most likely to be looking for evidence,and what questions they would be asking,all for the rock bottom price of the $750.00 I paid my lawyer. As I said before the most difficult part was keeping a straight face and not bursting out laughing. When they first came in and identified themselves as Police and that they had a search warrant I thought for sure they were there about something else that really did worry me. When asked “what for “and they said “gambling” I remember thinking “Whew,thank god”! and then quickly thought about the best place to sit that wouldn’t arouse any suspicion and encourage them to search elsewhere. Another humorous note to this was that I had 2 phone number books. They of course ended up taking the wrong one. 🙂 They left thoroughly convinced that I was just some poor schmuck that got set-up by a pissed off ex-girlfriend.
Oh,and btw everyone,and or any law enforcement officers that may be reading this,I am no longer in nor connected to the gambling business in any way.
As Hyman Roth would say “I’m a retired investor living on a pension”. 🙂
Good to hear that the long arm of the law never reached you. I was also raided by a “task force”. It’s a great story, but this isn’t the place.
I hear you,Heavy. You never know who’s lurking here.
Ha. You know that there is a jr FBI guy taking notes.
Joe, to Lurk’s point, are you sharing any of our information with LE without a subpoena?
As Hyman Roth would say “I’m a retired investor living on a pension”. 🙂 You remind me of an old friend. Emmit
Fine. I stand corrected. The fact that Joe is considering speaking with Mags is good enough for me. I like when Mags is there.
Great show. Herion was the perfect guest. Coconutty did a nice job. You were good too. I have one criticism. When you are asking questions, it is best to understand the age group that the answers would best impact. Talking about the 50s and 60s puts the demographic in their 70s and 80s. I doubt a lot of folks around that age group watch the podcasts. (Could be wrong . But I am fairly certain). If you bring Don back, stay in the 80s and 90s. The vigilante story was vintage Don. I really enjoyed seeing him again.
Nice to hear you and Mags are speaking. I never believed he wanted to hurt you. Let’s get em back on the show. Maybe he will finally get it together, let you ask real questions and make a go of this thing.
Gotta disagree with you. Books on the older stuff still sells (books on Al Capone are very popular), so there’s a big interest in it out there. There’s also a lot of mystery and confusion about the older stuff, and we need more stories about them. They set the foundation for the more recent stuff.
(I don’t know why this has me down as “Guest,” Antiliar is the name I post with here.)
Fair enough. May I ask what age group you represent?
Is Don any relation to Tom, who was also a former CPD officer?
Don has a son, I believe is named Tom. He was working at the Bensenville PD many years ago.
Interesting. There was a Tom Herion who was a former Chicago Police Officer who worked at O’Hare and now works out of Midway. Thought there might be some connection.