The ANNOTICO Report
John Zimmerman of the Chicago Daily Herald reports on the courtroom "comedy" of Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, whose outside the courtroom  activity has resulted in federal indictments for Lombardo and 13 others in an alleged mob conspiracy spanning four decades in which 18 people were murdered.
 Zimmerman goes on to state that Not only do Italian Americans have deal with the damage to their reputation in the Courtroom, BUT  in Movies and TV, where Film Makers myopia, lack of morality (fairness and equity) and greed bombard the viewers with the typical Negative Italian American Stereotype.
He calls for Italians to demand fairness in filmmaking!!!!!!
He has an excellent point. Would not the Jewish Community rise up in arms if Jews were always depicted as Greedy Shylocks?? Would not Blacks decry constant and almost exclusive depictions as Pimps and Drug Dealers, Or Asians object to always being Stealthy Slant Eyed Gooks.etc????
What are the Major Italian American Organizations doing about this??
I have for 5 years, and on numerous occasions suggested the use of Internet Power in the form of an Italian American PORTAL, with an Email Barrage Component.
But, "old fogey" IA leaders are oblivious as to what is happening in the "real" world, and the incredible advances in Communications Technology, with our young generation being "in every moment"  wired to their friends, and every digital database in the world, while IA leaders seem content with "horse and buggy" methods in a "futuristic" world.
Additionally, When Jack Valenti was head of the MPPA (Motion Picture Producers Assn), did the those IA Organizations have a "sit down" with Valenti, and persuade him to take their case of  "Fairness in Filmaking for Italian Americans" to the Film Producers. Refresh my memory, WHAT was he given an award for??? Complicity in their  Egregious Conduct???
I see the IA Organizations spending a lot of time in Photo Ops, and giving each other Awards, and LITTLE CONCRETE PROGRESS!!!
In the Meantime, While we Lambast those who would Defame our Culture, we should Equally take the time to THANK those who not only empathize with our Dilemma, but speak up strongly on our Behalf!!!!
We should reconsider giving awards to IAs who have done VERY well for themselves, and Honor  ONLY those who have advanced  and or defended the Italian American Community, AND those NON Italian Americans who Speak Up for our cause.
For the moment,  John Zimmerman  deserves a Thank you Email at   jzimmerman@dailyherald.com

CLOWNING AROUND IN A COURTROOM, BUT SOME AREN'T LAUGHING
Chicago Daily Herald
John Zimmerman
Sunday, January 22, 2006
 
 

Yeah, that Joey’s a real jokester.
In court last week, he gave some folks aching for a Sopranos fix a real lift.
This is what the reputed mobster, a fugitive since April until being nabbed last week, told the judge when asked why he hadn’t seen a doctor lately:
“I was supposed to see him nine months ago, but I was — what do they call it — I was unavailable.”
The court erupted in laughter.
Yeah, that’s why they call Joseph Lombardo “Joey the Clown” Lombardo. He’s just chock full of chuckles.
If he really wanted to get a roar out those before his court comedy club, he might have stolen the Joe Pesci line from the movie “Goodfellas”. You know, “But, I am funny how? Funny like a clown?”
Missed his big chance to get ‘em to the point of loss of bladder control.
Of course, these folks can chuckle. The worst that the Clown will ever do to them is split their sides with laughter, and not blow their heads off, as the federal government alleges Lombardo did to Daniel Seifert in Bensenville in 1974.
Seifert was set to testify against organized crime in a pension fraud case. He never made it. He was killed, cut down by shotgun blasts. Frank Schweihs, similarly captured after being on the run, has also been indicted in the Seifert killing.
For the record, Lombardo and Schweihs have pleaded not guilty.
DuPage County was also host to other alleged mob hits. In indictments, the federal government alleges that James Marcello of Lombard killed Anthony and Michael Spilotro in 1986.
You might have seen this murder happen. Not in real life, or death as you will, but on film. If you’ve seen the movie “Casino,” you have to remember that grisly scene when the Spilotros were Louisville-Sluggered to death. Only federal prosecutors don’t think those murders were carried out in that Indiana cornfield. Rather, they believe the brothers were killed here, in DuPage County, then hauled off to their Hoosier burial ground.
Indictments also allege that Frank Calabrese Sr. of Oak Brook killed Michael Cagnoni. On June 24, 1981, the trucking executive got just a short distance down I-294 from Ogden Avenue in Hinsdale when a remote-controlled guided bomb was set off, blowing him up.
In all, the federal government has named Lombardo and 13 others in an alleged mob conspiracy spanning four decades in which 18 people were murdered.
Funny stuff, huh?
And I’ll bet there’s a lot of Italian Americans who aren’t laughing at Joey’s joke.
They have to deal not only with the damage to their reputation with all the mob indictments and convictions in the courts, but also the gushing, by moviegoers, over “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” They don’t see anything entertaining in films that wrongly imply that all Italian-Americans are Tommy Gun-toting, juice-loan-sharking, Luca Brasi-bone-busting brutes.
Maybe they should demand fairness in filmmaking. Call for a remake of the 1938 classic, “Angels with Dirty Faces.” In it, gangster Rocky Sullivan, played by James Cagney, is persuaded by a childhood friend and priest to go to his death in the electric chair in a cowardly way, for the sake of impressionable children who idolize him. Rocky resists, but in his final moments, he comes to realize his friend his right, he’s been a bad guy and bad example. So he fights the executioners and screams, “Oh. I don’t wanna die. Oh, please. I don’t wanna die. Oh, please. Don’t let me burn. Let go of me. Please…”
And the headlines, at end of the movie, greet Rocky’s sniveling demise this way:
“ROCKY DIES YELLOW KILLER AT END.”
That would be entertainment with the right perspective, even if fans of Tony Soprano wouldn’t want their lovable character to go out groveling this way. (Please e-mail a thank you to (jzimmerman@dailyherald.com)  Walter Santi