Prosecutor in landmark mob trial honored posthumously

Mitchell A. Mars, who died just months after leading the government's landmark Operation Family Secrets case against the mob, was honored Thursday as a man dedicated to waging war on organized crime.

"Mitch thought the mob was the epitome of evil," first assistant U.S. Attorney Gary S. Shapiro told hundreds of prosecutors, judges, attorneys and friends of Mars crowded into a federal courtroom for the ceremony.

Mars died in February at age 55 after a battle against lung cancer.

A federal court jury in September returned guilty verdicts against Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and other top mobsters in the Family Secrets case involving 18 long unsolved organized crime murders.

FBI agent Michael W. Maseth recalled that in the closing months of the trial it became obvious that there "was something wrong with Mitch." The prosecutor coughed repeatedly and was sometimes short of breath, he said.

But he recalled how Mars continued to prosecute the case energetically, comparing him to Tiger Woods who won the U.S. Open golf tournament while suffering from a leg injury.

Besides Lombardo, those convicted at the Family Secrets trial were alleged mob boss James Marcello, convicted loan shark and hit man Frank Calabrese Sr., convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro and corrupt police officer Anthony Doyle.

Mars also led the government's team at the trial of former Cicero town President Betty Loren Maltese and won convictions against alleged mob bosses Sam Carlisi and Rocco Infelice at other major trials.

Friends recalled Mars as a hardworking, down-to-earth man who loved to play golf, read, travel and the White Sox and never lost an opportunity to play good-natured pranks on his friends.

"His was a full life," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Marsha McClellan. "It was just not the number of years that it should have been."