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Crime Story was an NBC TV drama created by Gustave Reininger and Chuck Adamson. It was executive produced by Michael Mann . The show premiered with a two hour pilot - movie, which had been exhibited theatrically, and was watched by over 30 million viewers. Crime Story then was scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights, and continued to attract a record number of viewers. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 10 pm to counter program it opposite ABC's '' Moonlighting ''. Set in the early - pre-Beatles -1960s, many of the early episodes were composited stories based on the Chicago mob, called "The Outfit", and the CIU, the special crimes and criminal unit of the Chicago Police Department that tracked the mobsters, and was run by Det. William Handardt. The series pitted two men against each other - Lt. Mike Torello ( Dennis Farina ) and mobster Ray Luca, ( Anthony Denison ) - in an obsessive drive to destroy each other. As Luca moved from street crime in Chicago, was "made" in the Outfit and was sent to Las Vegas to monitor their casinos, Det. Mike Torello followed Luca, as part of a special Organized Crime Task Force. Torello was based on Det. William Hanhardt , the real life head of the anti-mob unit. Hanhardt's exploits were legendary in Chicago's press and police files. Reininger and Adamson based Luca, on Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro . Spilotro started as the head of a sophisticated burglarly "crew." He attracted the attention of Chicago Outfit because he "fenced" his merchandise through their associates. Spilatro is considered by the FBI to have made his "bones" by assassinating the legendary head of the Chicago Outfit, Sam "Momo" Giancana, who had become a liability because of his involvement with the CIA in events surrounding the Bay Of Pigs . Spilotro went from street thief to mafia chief in record time. Eventually, he was sent to Las Vegas to monitor the unreported cash that was "skimmed" from Chicago-owned casinos back to their bosses in the Windy City, and then distributed to other Mob "investors" in Milwaukee , Kansas City , Detroit , and Cleveland . Spilatro was unsuccessfully prosecuted several times by Federal authorities. He never served jail time. In 1986, he was the target of a massive prosecutorial effort led by the Las Vegas and Chicago branches of the U. S. Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force. In early 1986, he was on trial in Federal Court in Las Vegas, being defended by attorney Oscar Goodman, who eventually was elected the Mayor of Las Vegas. Reininger was supoenaed as a material witness for Spilatro, who was alleging that the only way Reininger could have written scripts and the series "Bible" was by having access to Federal wiretaps of Spilatro. Reininger in turn discovered that his New York phones were being monitored. Reininger was served Spilatro's subpoena, and given a deadly warning, in a New York hotel bar by private detective Tony Pellicano, who in 2006 was imprisoned for illegal wiretapping, blackmail and harassment while representing notable Los Angeles entertainment figures. Ironically, Spilatro like Giancana before him, had become a liability to the "Outfit." On a weekend trial recess, Spilatro returned home to Chicago and was brutally murdered along with his brother Michael, and buried in an Indiana cornfield. The case was dismissed, and Reininger, who had sent all his "Crime Story" work materials to a former banking associate in Zurich, Switzerland, did not have to testify. Subsequently, Martin Scorcese directed and produced his movie "Casino" loosely basing it on elements of "Crime Story," which was recognized at the "Casino" premiere as an inspiration. Joe Pesci played the Spilatro character. With Spilatro dead, "Casino" writer Nick Pileggi was able tell much more of the details surrounding the Chicago "Outfit" and its Casino operations in Las Vegas. PRODUCTION |
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