Chicago mob enforcer wants 2nd dose of mercy from federal judge

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mario Rainone has spent about half of his life behind bars for various Chicago Outfit rackets from violence to extortion. Once, a judge labeled Rainone an "urban terrorist." Now, the mobster by trade is being called a "model candidate" for full release from his federal sentence in a court filing asking a federal judge to cut Rainone's court supervision short for good behavior.

Mario Rainone's official mob moniker is "The Arm" for his knack at muscling people.

But now, at age 68, the Outfit enforcer is said to have a debilitating back injury from a high-speed, rear-end collision that occurred after he was released from federal prison.

That accident -- apparently now in litigation -- is one of the things prompting him to ask a federal judge in Chicago for mercy again. The first time, Rainone was granted early release from a 15-year sentence due to the threat of COVID. Now, he is claiming he is an elderly man wishing to terminate his release so he can travel the world at his leisure during his golden years.

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Chuck Goudie: "If he's so debilitated, though, how can he travel?

Joe "The Shark" Lopez, Attorney for Mario Rainone: "Well, I don't think he can be debilitated the rest of his life but in the future after his treatment is over and he receives whatever he's going to receive as a plaintiff then he will be able to do what he wants to do."

Lopez told the I-Team Rainone wants to go to Italy but is now restricted to the Northern District of Illinois.

"I don't know that you can rationally have both of those things in the same breath," said Gil Soffer, ABC 7 legal analyst. "And, I don't think that's going to be the dispositive factor here anyway. The judge is going to ask is there a threat that would be posed to the community? Is there some reason that he should not be released early? Has he done everything he's supposed to do? Does he have a sufficient age and health condition that the odds of his doing anybody harm are very low?"

"He's a senior citizen, Chuck, I mean, aren't we all? But he's just about ready for Shady Acres pretty soon," Lopez told Chuck Goudie.

Lopez says Shady Acres is a nursing home that Rainone may be a model candidate for. Rainone's attorney Joe Lopez also tells the I-Team that when the aging hoodlum becomes a candidate for a cemetery plot, it will be Mount Carmel -- the final resting place of Al Capone, Sam Giancana and other Outfit luminaries. The US attorney tells the I-Team they'll have no comment on Rainone until a hearing next month.