Reputed Chicago mob enforcer

Frank “The German” Schweihs, 78, reputedly one of Chicago’s most feared mob enforcers, died Wednesday at a Chicago hospital while awaiting trial on charges that he took part in a conspiracy involving numerous organized-crime murders.

Schweihs, who had cancer, had been in federal custody for more than two years.

Federal law enforcement officials said Schweihs specialized in beatings and murders. An indictment charged that the conspiracy involved 18 long-unsolved mob murders. Prosecutors said Schweihs was responsible for killing two people: a Phoenix man whom mobsters deemed a potential federal witness and a suburban Chicago businessman who had evidence that might have sent another mobster to prison.

Star witness Nicholas Calabrese, brother of one of the defendants, testified last fall in a trial against five other major mob figures that Schweihs came up with the idea of using an Uzi submachine gun to kill Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, the Chicago mob’s longtime man in Las Vegas.

Spilotro was the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the movie “Casino.”

Calabrese said the Schweihs plan called for gunning down Spilotro, his brother Michael and defense attorney Oscar Goodman. The plan fell through, but both Spilotros were later beaten to death somewhere in the Chicago area and buried in an Indiana cornfield. Goodman is now the mayor of Las Vegas.

Before his arrest in 2005, Schweihs had lived in South Florida for many years.