Spilotro and his brother Michael disappeared on June 14, 1986, after they drove away together from Michael's
Oak Park home. Michael's wife, Anne, reported both brothers missing on June 16. The two were buried in a family plot at
Queen of Heaven Cemetery in
Hillside, Illinois, on June 27. The Spilotro brothers' fate had been sealed in January 1986. In the wake of the imprisonment of
Joseph Aiuppa and
John Cerone for skimming Las Vegas casino profits, most of the 'upper echelon' of the Outfit attended a meeting that month at the Czech Lodge in
North Riverside, Illinois. At the meeting, Outfit boss
Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo appointed
Samuel Carlisi as the "Street Boss" in charge of Outfit operations to replace Aiuppa. Carlisi told the group that Accardo would stay on as
consigliere and would have the final say, as well as
Gus Alex staying head of the connection guys. He then went on to the first problem: Spilotro, and how things had gone down since he took over Vegas. Mobster and mob enforcer Rocco Infelice said, "Hit him." Everyone else at the meeting agreed. After his murder, Spilotro was replaced in Las Vegas by
Donald "The Wizard of Odds" Angelini. Although the original reports stated the Spilotros were beaten and buried in the Enos, Indiana cornfield, mobster
Nicholas Calabrese testified in the "
Operation Family Secrets" investigation in 2007 that the brothers were killed in a
Bensenville, Illinois, basement, where the Spilotros had been led to believe Michael would be
inducted into The Outfit. Then their bodies were transported to the cornfield and buried. According to court testimony, Tony realized in the Bensenville basement what was about to happen to him, and asked, "Can I say a prayer?" No arrests were made until April 25, 2005, when 14 members of the Chicago Outfit (including reputed boss
James Marcello) were indicted for 18 murders, including the Spilotros'. The suspected murderers included
capo Albert Tocco from
Chicago Heights, Illinois, who was sentenced to 200 years in prison in 1990, after his wife testified that, in 1986, she drove her husband from an Indiana cornfield where he told her he had just buried Spilotro. On May 18, 2007, the star witness in the government's case against the 14 Chicago mob figures,
Nicholas Calabrese, pleaded guilty to taking part in a conspiracy that included 18 murders. Under heavy security, Calabrese admitted that he took part in planning or carrying out 14 of the murders including the Spilotro killings. He became the key witness against his brother,
Frank Calabrese Sr., and other major mob figures charged in the government's
Family Secrets Trial. Calabrese agreed to testify after the FBI showed him
DNA evidence linking him to the murder of fellow hitman John Fecarotta who was also allegedly involved in the Spilotro slayings. In September 2007 Frank Calabrese Sr. and four other men—Marcello,
Joseph Lombardo, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, and former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle—were convicted of mob-related crimes. On September 27, 2007, Marcello was found guilty by a federal jury in the murders of both Spilotro brothers. On February 5, 2009, Marcello was sentenced to
life imprisonment for the Spilotro murders, and United States District Judge
James Zagel, agreeing with the presentation made by federal prosecutor Markus Funk, also found Marcello responsible for the D'Andrea murder as well even though the jury had
deadlocked on that count. On March 26, 2009, Nicholas Calabrese was sentenced to 12 years and four months imprisonment. ==Suspect in gangland slayings==