The Vixen Of Violence

Frank Colombo, aged 43, and his wife Mary, aged 40, lived at 55 Brantwood in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, a planned suburb about half an hour from Chicago. Frank had grown up in the city, in a second-floor flat on West Ohio Street, and the couple moved out to Elk Grove Village in the mid-1950s, when new streets were being thrown up for blue-collar families. He managed an auto parts business, the Western Auto Parts supply terminal in Chicago, and had investments in a cartage company and a firm that supplied labourers. The family kept about 70,000 dollars in cash in a wall safe, with a ledger recording every transaction in place of a bank. Frank bowled in a league and kept his trophies on a three-shelf display; he and his 13-year-old son Michael were both enthusiasts for citizens band radio. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She told her parents he was 26, single and rising in the company. In fact he was 34, married, with five children. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The will he later left cut her out entirely and gave about 100,000 dollars to Michael.

details of the account remain covered until revealed The friend took her to the Where Else Lounge, where she met Lanny Mitchell, a 24-year-old used car salesman, and Roman Sabinsky, a recruiter for the Cook County Civil Service Commission. Neither was a hitman. She offered them 20,000 dollars from an inheritance she expected, payable after the killings. Because she had no money for a down payment she offered sex instead, and for about eight months the two men visited her flat, took photographs and promised a murder neither intended to commit. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

On 2 May 1976 Frank's sister Gloria Rozudo spoke to Mary for the last time. details of the account remain covered until revealed At about nine that night the family were last seen alive, returning home from a restaurant. Some time after that three or four people got in, probably through the garage and a door into the basement family room, and killed all three. The heating was turned up to 97 degrees.

On 7 May Chicago police found a maroon 1972 Thunderbird, registered to Frank Colombo, abandoned at 140 South Whipple on the west side, with a broken window and a pulled ignition. The car had not been reported stolen. An Elk Grove Village officer drove to 55 Brantwood to tell the owner. He found mail crammed in the box, three days of the Elk Grove Herald on the step, the storm door unlocked, the inner door ajar and a poodle whining inside. He called for assistance and two officers went in. Frank lay in the living room, shot four times in the head, stabbed, beaten about the skull with a block-shaped weapon and burned with cigarettes. Mary lay in the hall, shot between the eyes, her throat cut and her skull smashed. Michael was in a bedroom, shot once through the head, beaten with a bowling trophy and stabbed 87 times with sewing scissors. The trophy had been lifted from the shelf, leaving a clean square in the dust.

Elk Grove police initially briefed the newspapers on a mob theory. An officer named Conkey said there might be a link to Colombo's part-ownership of a Chicago cartage company and a labour-supply firm, that his associates were not co-operating, and that an address book contained names similar to known syndicate figures, among them Di Stefano, De Bartolo and Gargano. The family's cash and the absence of those interests from his tax returns were treated as suspicious, though his records were complete. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He started again from the beginning.

this part of the story is covered for now She said she had been at home with Kentucky Fried Chicken on the evening of 4 May and had spoken to her father for half an hour; she mentioned heavy-breathing calls to her flat, and a fear for her life. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Then a caller from the south side, a white man, told police he knew too much to be a prankster. this part of the story is covered for now He said she had grown impatient, pulled a Derringer on them in the spring, and told them that if they would not do it she would find someone else or do it herself.

details of the account remain covered until revealed She was brought in, abusive and combative, denied knowing Mitchell, then saw him through a window and admitted it. She gave a written statement that the police rejected as incoherent, and after her arraignment asked to see the investigators again. She then described a 'vision' of the house, correctly placing her father's body, her mother in her nightgown and robe, her brother in the dark bedroom and the bloody scissors in the hall light. Asked whether she was involved, she said she was afraid she had been there and had done it. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The strongest evidence was a rented car: glass in its shag carpeting matched the broken lamp in the Colombo living room. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed In about 2001 she abandoned her claim of innocence and told the board that her godfather had abused her for six years. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed