June 22, 2020 — The long arm of the law showed a little mercy for the long arm of the Chicago mob. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Leinenweber granted Chicago Outfit soldier Mario (The Arm) Rainone motion for compassionate release Monday, letting the 65-year old wiseguy out of his gun case almost a decade early due to health concerns (prostate cancer, liver damage and a heart condition)/ Rainone has been locked up since 2009 and wasn’t scheduled for release until 2028. He used to be a collector for old North Side crime bosses Lenny Patrick and Gus (Slim) Alex, building a citywide reputation for himself as a menacing mob enforcer in the Outfit of the 1980s. His old-time Outfit running buddy, Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena, is alleged to be running the Chicago mob these days as the Outfit’s overall street boss. Vena and Rainone were Patrick and Alex’s top collection team. They were arrested together as a burglary tandem as well. But in 1989, fearing for his life after a falling out with Patrick, Rainone betrayed his Outfit superiors and briefly agreed to enter the Witness Protection Program; before changing his mind and backing out of his cooperation deal when his mother’s front porch was firebombed. It’s not clear how or if Rainone was let back into the Chicago mob after he played ball with the feds, even if just for a short period of time. In March 2009, Rainone was arrested for possession of a handgun found on his bedroom nightstand when his Addison residence was searched in the hours after he was suspected of burglarizing a Lincolnshire condo. The North Side crew was disbanded in the late 1990s and rolled into the Grand Avenue-Westside regime. For years, Lenny Patrick ran the Outfit’s Jewish faction out of Rogers Park. Slim Alex was a top advisor and political fixer for longtime Chicago mob boss Tony (Joe Batters) Accardo and controlled vice in the “Loop” business district downtown. Patrick flipped on Alex and was the star witness at Alex’s heavily-covered racketeering and extortion trial in 1992, resulting in a guilty verdict for Alex and him spending the rest of his life behind bars. Tony Accardo died peacefully of natural causes in the months preceding Alex’s trial. Today, Albie Vena headquarters off Grand Avenue at Richard’s Bar. The status of Vena and Rainone’s current relationship is unknown.
