HERO COP CATCHES BABY THROWN BY KIDNAPPER

IT was probably the most important catch he'll ever make, as one hero Chicago cop snagged a baby thrown at him by a kidnapping subject trying to get away. 

Arriving on the scene, witnesses pointed to a man in his 20s who they said had taken the tot, who was less than a year old. 

As they approached the man, he turned and tossed the baby high into the air and scrambling, the officer caught it, ensuring it wasn't hurt, reports The Chicago Sun Times. 

One astonished onlooker said: "It was pretty amazing. Lord knows what would have happened to the child if they hadn't been there. It could have been seriously injured."

But as he returned it to the mother, the suspects started punching the other officer, which led to a huge scrap between them all before they were able to subdue and arrest him.      

 Both officers were injured during the fight suffering cuts, bruises and one had a sprained shoulder and they were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital and released.

The mother and baby, who did not appear to be injured, left the scene during the fight.

The relationship between the suspect and the woman and child was not immediately known.

DMITRY SMIRNOV PLEADS GUILTY IN VESEL MURDER

THEY BARELY dated for a few weeks but Dmitry 'Crazy Dmitry' Smirnov was having none of it. And 2 1/2 years after the split he then stalked and murdered Jitka Vesel. On Friday, he pleaded guilty to murdering the 36-year-old beauty and now he has been sentenced to life in prison. Smirnov showed no emotion in court, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He shot Vesel 12 times in a parking lot.
He told the court: “Because you can’t just expect to just dump someone like that and ignore them for two years and...to get away with it with no consequences and, you know, just waste someone’s life like that."
The pair met online and the Canadian man later travelled to Chicago in December 2008 to stay with her for several weeks. Smirnov returned to Canada and the relationship crashed. She cut off all contact.

The killer returned to Vancouver, then drove to Seattle, bought .40 caliber handgun and ammo and continued on to Chicago. He had previously researched where she lived--and whether or not Illinois had the death penalty. MORE IN THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

NEW CLUE IN UNSOLVED KRISTY WESSELMAN MURDER

IT HAS been 26 long years since Kristy Wesselman, 15, was stabbed to death. A long wait for justice since there have been no arrests in the heartbreaking case. Yesterday marked the grim anniversary of the unsolved murder in DuPage, Illinois. But her mom has never given up hope.
Sandy Wesselman said: “I silently promised her I would never stop trying to find the person who killed her. My silent promise to Kristy has remained steadfast."
Now, detectives have revealed a new piece of evidence they feel could help solve the slaying. Kristy was wearing an antique pearl ring with a gold mounting when she was raped and murdered on July 21, 1985 while walking through a field on her way home from the supermarket, Sgt. Robert
Harris said. Her ring — size 4 1/2 with a small chip in the pearl— was never recovered and taken by the killer as a sick souvenir, Harris said. It never turned up

Sandy Wesselman said: “There’s a man out there who thinks he got away with murder. Please help us take away his dream. He stole all of Kristy’s.” MORE ON THE KRISTY WESSELMAN MURDER

CHARLES SIMS LOST COOL OVER AIR CONDITIONER DRIP

CHARLES 'Hot Head Charlie' Sims isn't much for air conditioning. Just ask poor Jimmy Parker. Cops in Chicago say that 'Hot Head Charlie' shot Parker eight times on June 2 after unraveling because of a dripping air conditioner. Apparently Sims' sister bitched that Parker dropped water on her from his apartment window above hers. Well, it wasn't Jimmy: it was the air conditioner dripping condensation. Poor Jimmy was only visiting a lady friend. Charlie confronted bewildered Jimmy about the slight outside the building. Parker denied it. Hot Head Charlie hit him. Parker hit Charlie. Sims pulled out Mr. 9mm and shot Parker. Then finished him off. Det. Jim Noradin said: “He administered a coup de grace of sorts."

Six witnesses have Hot Head Charlie as the shooter. Sims has denied involvement in the shooting.

'SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL' FOR GHOULISH CAROLYN TOWNS

GHOUL

A GHOULISH cemetery director who dug up hundred of graves and resold has admitted to dismembering human remains and stealing from a place of worship.
Carolyn Towns, 51, oversaw a team of grave diggers that would exhume bodies, crush vaults and dump human remains in the trash.
Cops said they would also "double stack" graves, burying existing remains deeper into the ground a putting newer one's in the same location at Chicago's Burr Oak Cemetery. 
At the time, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart called the scene "disturbing."
He said: "I found bones out there," he said. "I found individuals wandering aimlessly looking for their loved ones who can't find them."
The investigation also extended into "Babyland," a section of the cemetery intended for children, where Dart added that he talked to countless women who could not find their children.

At one point it was thought that the grave of Michelle Obama's late Father Fraser Robinson III may have been affected, but it was later found to be a mistake.
What wasn't in doubt however, was Towns pocketed donations she elicited for an Emmett Till Memorial museum
Till was just 14 when murdered in 1955 for reportedly whistling a white woman and  his case had become a touchstone for the civil right movement.
Authorities also discovered his original glass-faced casket was piled in a garage filled with lawn care equipment.
So appalled was the community by their actions that even The Rev, Jesse Jackson was moved to comment, telling NBC Chicago there's "a special place in hell" for those accused of digging up graves.

Towns was sentenced to 12 years in prison Friday after she pleaded guilty to all charges against her, including dismembering a human body and theft from a place of worship, according to state prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois.

Three grave diggers also face charges.

CHRISTOPHER VAUGHN HAD CRIME SCENE STAGING MAG

REMEMBER the man the tabloids called The Family Guy Killer? That's Christopher Vaughn and believe it or not, he has not gone to trial yet for the slaughter of his wife and three children in 2007. When's the trial gonna be? Not sure. Stay posted. But yesterday it was revealed that detectives discovered a magazine article at the 36-year-old Vaughn's suburban Chicago home that was about staging crime scenes and "making the death appear to be a suicide."
It was also revealed that the night before the murders, Vaughn--a private
detective--spent 30 minutes at a shooting range. Cops later seized the gun he used on the targets. They found it at his dead wife's feet.

The new information became public after Will County Judge Daniel Rozak ordered the file unsealed Thursday. The records inside show his three children — Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8 — were each shot twice. Kimberly Vaughn was shot once under her chin, the records say.

And the files also suggest that Vaughn may have toyed with the idea of faking his own death.
A filing from February 2011 says Christopher Vaughn, who had been shot twice, waved down a passing motorist and said he thought his wife shot him. Today Vaughn is charged with all four murders, but his defense team argues his wife turned the gun on him and the children before killing herself. Sure.

As for motive, the couple had not been getting along and he had had an affair with a woman in Mexico. Oh, and Kimberly  had a $1 million life insurance policy.

MORE ON CHRISTOPHER VAUGHN CASE

AL CAPONE'S GUN FETCHES OVER $100K AT AUCTION

SCARFACE

NOTORIOUS mob kingpin Al Capone's pistol has fetched more then $100,000 at auction, according to auctioneer's Christie's.
The $107,337 price is more than the $95,600 paid by a California collector for a pistol that once belonged to Depression-era gangster and bank robber John Dillinger and highlights the continued obsession with the onetime king of the Chicago underworld. 
Capone's empire was worth millions of dollars, raked in from illegal booze, gambling and prostitution, until his reign ended in 1931 he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges.
After serving almost eight years behind bars he went into seclusion on an estate near Miami, Florida, where he died of a stroke and pneumonia in January 1947.
The auction house says the gun was manufactured in 1929, the year of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven people were slain during clashes in Chicago between Capone's gang and a rival mob.

It was sold along with a letter from Madeleine Capone Morichetti, the widow of Al Capone's brother Ralph, confirming the gun "previously belonged to and was only used by Al Capone while he was alive."

EVIL TEEN RAYMUNDO HERRERA SET NIECE, 3, ON FIRE

FUTURE SERIAL KILLER ALERT: A Chicago-area teenager seems to be practicing to a stone-cold killer. Raymundo "Stupid Ray"  Herrera, 18, was sentenced to 17 years in prison after confessing to setting his 3-year-old niece ablaze in 2009. He pleaded guilty to heinous battery.
Apparently the trigger for this outpouring of violence was the niece interrupted him while he was listening to music. Really. So, nutjob Ray sprayed lighter fluid on her and lit the child on fire. The terrified child ran down the stairs with her clothes on fire.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the girl suffered third-degree burns over 18 percent of her body, police said. She was taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center, then flown to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. She was initially listed in critical condition, but she did survive.

See ya around, Raymundo, like in 2028.

WEIGHT GURU GAUTAM GUPTA FLEECED $25 MILL.: FEDS

HE PROMISED people the sun and the stars. He ran five weight loss clinics in Illinois and made a killing by promising unhappy people that he could solve their problems forever. Now, Gautam Gupta, 57, is on the lam and wanted by the FBI.
Gupta is the focus of an international manhunt, charged with defrauding both state and private insurance companies out of an eye-watering $25 million, according to the FBI. According to the feds, Gupta and his unscrupulous staff submitted claims to Blue Cross / Blue Shield Insurance Company and Illinois Medicaid for unnecessary procedures – or procedures that never occurred. According to the FBI Gupta scammed some $25 million for false claims between 2001 and 2011. A
federal state initiative raided his clinics last January.
This is not Gupta’s first run-in with the law, though. Gupta had been in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which suspended his controlled substances license. (Now, why would they do that?) This time however, Gupta didn’t hang around to find out why. Since the conclusion of the police sting, Interpol has been brought in to help with the investigation – the FBI suspecting that Gupta may have fled the country. Gupta is of Indian descent, 5-foot-5, 160 pounds and has graying black hair that is sometimes worn in a ponytail (ooooh, yuck). MORE IN THE LA TIMES

OFF-DUTY COP IN CLOWN COSTUME KILLS ROBBER, 16

JERRY MOORE wanted to go robbin'. The 16-year-old Chicago native even showed his older brother Mike Jordan his piece: a .38-caliber revolver. The Jerry told his big brother "I'm gonna rob someone."
Mike told the Chicago Sun-Times : "He was all talk, you know? I thought he just wanted to be seen on the street with the gun."
 Jerry figured a clown at a community sleepover event would be an "easy target." Big mistake for
young Jerry. The clown was in reality an off-duty cop. Moore tried to rob him, the pair wrestled for the .38 and then it went off. The clown had the last laugh.

His brother said: “I know what he did was wrong, but he wouldn’t have shot anyone — that’s probably why he picked the clown, so he wouldn’t have to shoot.”

DNA CRACKS DEAF DAWN NILES' 1981 COLD CASE SLAY

AS TEENS

30 YEARS LATER

A 30-YEAR-OLD Chicago cold case has finally been cracked thanks to new DNA evidence.
Dawn Niles was last seen alive in March 1981, when she left the Windy City's Hinsdale South High School with her boyfriend Gary Albert. Five days later a fisherman found the 15-year-old's body buried in a nearby forest.
She had been repeatedly stabbed and an autopsy later revealed that she had been three months pregnant at the time of her death.

Now, 30 years later, Albert, 48, stands accused of her murder after modern techniques linked his DNA to her body The Chicago Tribune reports.
Prosecutor's believe that Niles and Albert who belonged to the high school's drama club for the deaf and the local chapter of the Junior Illinois Association for the Deaf had fought about her pregnancy.  
Friends told them that Albert didn't want to take responsibility for the child and suggested she tell her parents that she had either been raped or impregnated by someone else, according to court filings.
A defense lawyer for Albert, who had pled not guilty called those statements improper hearsay and argued against them, claiming they "infuse undue prejudice," records show.
In pretrial motions they said that it can't be proved that Albert was aware of the pregnancy and that he had no motive to commit such a crime.
The trial which is set to start this summer is expected to present a number of logistical issues for both prosecutors and defense because the defendant and some of the witnesses are hearing-impaired.
A recent pretrial hearing raised the possibility of using as many as three sign language interpreters at the same time.
Albert is currently free on $1 million bail.

REEMA BAJAJ LAWYER BY DAY, LADY OF THE NIGHT: COPS

HOOKER?

SHE was a lawyer by day and a lady of the night cops say.
High flying Chicago attorney Reema Bajaj was arrested after allegedly offering to perform a sex act on a man for $50 last month.
Cops were looking into another case when she was caught.
A law enforcement source: "She wasn't very well hidden and when we found out who she was and what she does there were a few raised eyebrows in the locker room." 
 Worse still, the 25-year-old legal eagle was caught within 1000 meters of a school which mean the misdemeanors she could have faced have been upgraded to a felony.
She has pleaded not guilty to all counts.  
Bajj was only admitted to the bar last year could have her law license revoked if found guilty of the charges reports The Chicago Tribune.
She is currently free on bail after posting a $500 cash bond, the paper reports.

CRIME BRIEFS: GREG FULTZ'S IDIOTIC BILLBOARD, MORE

MEET the biggest dick on the planet, June 9, 2011 edition. Greg Fultz. Not happy with his ex-girlfriend. Not at all. The New Mexican nimrod took out a billboard showing him cuddling the outline of a baby with the words: "This would have been a picture of my 2-month old baby if the mother had decided to not KILL our child!" Problem is, his ex, Nani Lawrence didn't have an abortion. She had a miscarriage. WORLD'S BIGGEST MORON

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* STUPID COUPLE DRIVE BOOTED CAR: Stupid is spreading like wildfire. Check it out: Carina Rios, 19, and Alejandro Alvarez, 22, parked their car in an Illinois mall parking lot (we do shit like that too) and head to Six Flags Great America across the street. Parking guy puts a boot on their car. They had no money pay. So they drove on with the boot. Yeah, it was dumb.
 MORE IN THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

TEACHER ELISIA MARTINELLI HAD SEX WITH BOYS, GIRLS

SHE WAS A young teacher at a private Christian school for boys and girls.  She was liked by her colleagues and was trusted by parents (LOL!).  But Elisia Martinelli, 34, violated that trust and PREYED on children to satisfy her sick sexual fantasies.  She told ‘sexy’ stories to innocent teens while plying them with alcohol.  She performed sexual acts with girls as young as 14, and even had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy for over a year.  All of this is according to Cook County prosecutors in Chicago, who have charged the teacher with four counts of criminal assault – one for each of her alleged victims.  Martinelli received bail at $1.5 million.  Her brother, Nelson Quintana Jr., 27, who also worked at the school was charged with one count of misdemeanor criminal sexual abuse in connection with another student.
Martinelli worked at Dayspring Christian Academy until March, 2011, said Andy Conklin, spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney.  Her alleged victims were students and members of neighboring Day Spring Church, where her father, Nelson Quintana Sr., is pastor.  Martinelli’s campaign of abuse began in 1998 when she sexually molested a then 15-year-old girl over a three-year period, according to Cook County prosecutors.  Following this, in March 2003 Martinelli then abused another 15-year-old girl and her brother while their parents were away, claims Conklin.  She continued to abuse the boy for a year Martinelli's husband, Scott, said all of the victims were at one point "good friends" with his wife. He said she has had some psychological problems but had been seeing a therapist recently and was "really, really turning her life around."
TWISTED ELISIA MARTINELLI LIKES GIRLS AND BOYS!

MOST WANTED JOSE RODRIGUEZ SOUGHT IN COLD CASE

"ARMED AND DANGEROUS"

BY the time he was finished, one victim was bound and a second was found shot to death after a fight broke out at a late night party at his home.
But then prime suspect Jose S. Rodriguez vanished after the 2004 killings, which shocked Chicago's, Cicero neighborhood and he hasn't been seen in the seven years since.
Now FBI officer's believe their man, who they consider to be "armed and dangerous" may be comfortable enough to return to the Windy City and they're urging anyone who sees him to turn him. 
The 48-year-old is accused of fatally shooting Gabriella Rodriguez, who he did not know and was not related to, despite having the same last name on November 6, 2004 after a fight broke out.
When the dust settled, FBI's Mike Kosanovich says "One victim was bound and gagged and the second victim, Gabriella Rodriguez, was found shot to death."
He added that the reason for the shooting is unclear.
The search for Rodriguez initially focused on his home country Mexico because cops learned he returned with his wife and children about a month before the murder.
If you have any information about this case, call the Chicago FBI Bureau at (312) 421-6700

AL CAPONE'S GUN COULD FETCH $100K AT AUCTION

SCARFACE

TO the man himself even today's $100,000 price tag would be little more than chump change, but you can bet he didn't pay that sort of money for the Colt .38 when he bought it. 
But the iconic gangster's nickel plated pistol is expected to go for at least that amount when it is auctioned by Christie's later this month. 
It is not known whether it was used in any murders although the one time king of the Chicago rackets was thought to have personally killed several people. A spokesman for the auction house Leonie Ashfield said: "We've had film memorabilia but nothing related to the actual Al Capone in the last 10 years."
Capone's empire was worth millions of dollars, raked in from illegal booze, gambling and prostitution, until his reign ended in 1931 he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and prohibition charges.
After serving almost eight years behind bars he went into seclusion on an estate near Miami, Florida, where he died of a stroke and pneumonia in January 1947.
The fascination with the onetime mob kingpin has remained well into the 21st century however, with high prices being paid for a number of items belonging to him.  
A bullet-proof 1928 Cadillac that Capone owned sold at auction for $37,000 in 1971 while a rare signed photo of him fetched $4250 in 1982.
This pistol is expected to fetch a whopping amount, possibly more that the $95,600 paid by a California collector for a pistol that once belonged to Depression-era gangster and bank robber John Dillinger.

Capone's revolver will be sold in London alongside several other items dating from the 10th century to the 20th century, including arms, armor and military items.
Among them is another notable gun being sold by a private collector: a .44 six-shot revolver that was once owned by Cole Younger, a member of the 19th-century James-Younger Gang, which included legendary outlaw Jesse James.

BIG BREASTED WOMAN "PUTTING OFF THE JURY"

HER employer claims she is there with the breast of intentions, while her opponent claims she's making a boob of the proceedings.
Chicago attorney Thomas Gooch claims the woman's sole purpose "is to draw the attention of the jury away from the relevant proceedings" - a big time case over a used car. So he asked  Cook County Circuit Judge Anita Rivkin-Carothers to order the woman to sit in the gallery with other spectators. "Personally, I like large breasts," he said.
"However, I object to somebody I don't think is a qualified paralegal sitting at the counsel table - when there's already two lawyers there - dressed in such a fashion as to call attention to herself."
But the woman's boss Dmitry Feofanov said the woman is his paralegal assistant and a key part of his team in the big time show trial - something Gooch disputes.
Feofanov said Gooch cites no "good faith legal argument" why she can't sit at counsel's table.
The big time case, Song and Maria Sayavongsa v. Exotic Motors Inc., is scheduled for trial June 2.

'MONK' ANTHONY KELLEY, MOM BEAT DEMENTED DAD

A CHICAGO-area mother and son gruesome twosome restrained his elderly father after becoming infuriated with him while changing his diaper. Cops say Anthony Kelley, 40, who claimed to be a trained Russian monk and his monster mom Dianne, 63, were busted Monday for restraining the father on a bed with duct tape, blasting him with pepper spray and beating him. They are each being held on $50,000 bail. The 74-year-old navy veteran has dementia and is
bedridden.

Cops say the gruesome twosome were pinched after a waitress at a diner heard them bragging about their evil deeds. Sonny boy fessed up to the pepper spray, Mama confessed smashing him with a book bag because she was sick of caring for the helpless man. The man is now recovering in hospital. While requesting public defenders, Diane Kelley said she is a housewife and her son said he was studying to become "a Russian monk."

MISSING MODEL IRMA SABANOVIC FOUND DROWNED

TRAGIC

A MISSING model who sparked a huge police search has been found drowned in the Chicago River, cops say. Gorgeous Irma Sabanovic, 25, who modelled under the name Ira Blackbird was found in her Ford Focus and although authorities have ruled out foul play in her death, they have yet to say whether it was suicide or an accidentCops have been searching for the troubled beauty for almost two weeks after she disappeared on her way to a night club on Goose Island. The model, who was originally from Bosnia had sent a friend a text message at 2am saying that she was lost. He car was found just two blocks from the club. Mike White, a Chicago-based photographer, first met Miss Sabanovic two years ago when she approached him about expanding her portfolio. He told the
Chicago Tribune: "She had a dignified, quiet beauty that I think you have to be tuned in to it to see it, because it wasn't amplified or boisterous."
Mr White added that was instantly struck by the rail-thin 5ft 7in stunner’s exotic looks and her confidence.

He explained: "I think she was really highly regarded as sort of a hidden gem."
A police source said foul play was not suspected, although officials did not say whether the death was accidental, homicide, or suicide.

GARY SCHUNING BUTCHERED MOM, THEN HOOKER: DA

GARY SCHUNING seemed to figure that after he stabbed his mother, Doris Pagliaro, to death on Feb. 26, 2006 it was time to party! So, after shopping around various Chicago escort agencies he used his mom's credit card to order up two hookers for sex at mom's house. But the three-way quickly came off the rails and Schuning stabbed to death one of the women, Kristi Hoenig, 21, who became terrified when she found a bloody knife in the house. When she tried to call for help, she was murdered. Her pimp, illegal immigrant Jesse Miser, is slated to testify. Another woman is also slated to testify.
Samantha Eme, 30, who now lives in California, left Schuning’s house “shortly before” Hoenig was murdered, according to court documents.

Schuning, 28, at first told cops he stabbed Hoenig after SHE attacked his mother. He had several self-inflicted wounds when cops finally arrived. Jury selection begins Wednesday, with testimony expected to start later this week. He faces a life sentence.

MORE IN THE CHICAGO HERALD