Drug Cartel Suspected In Execution-Style Garage Shooting on Chicago's South Side

September 3, 2010 - Four men were found shot in a garage in Chicago's south side Lawndale neighborhood last night. Three were dead when discovered; one died later in hospital. Today, the media is catching up to us on this story that we first broke last night at 8:55 p.m. The Chicago Sun-Times says that "Police discovered four males inside a garage in the 6100 block of South Kildare Avenue about 8:30 p.m., said police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro, citing preliminary information. Sources said all four were shot." ... Actually, the four dead men were first discovered by the wife of one of the victims. The police did not discover them. A police source told Chicago News Bench last night that the dead men were found by a woman in a residential garage - that woman is the wife of one of the slain men. The Sun-Times report did reveal, however, that one of the victims was still alive when the police arrived. He died later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Oddly, the Sun-Times made no mention of the fact that all four men have Spanish surnames and that Mexican drug cartel involvement is strongly suspected by the CPD (we did). The Chicago Tribune has a good report today (posted at 2:45 p.m.). The actually name the victims (all Spanish surnames, as we reported last night). Oddly, the Tribune's otherwise excellent report made no mention of the fact that Mexican drug cartel involvement is strongly suspected by the CPD (we did). The Southtown Star reports that "Dead on the scene were Noel Casares, 25; Roberto Rivera, 30; and Alonzo Pena, who is believed to be in his 30s, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. A fourth man, Louis Santillian, 30, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at 11:01 p.m. at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn." Oddly, the Southtown Star made no mention of the fact that all four men have Spanish surnames and that Mexican drug cartel involvement is strongly suspected by the CPD (we did). A sister-in-law of one of Alonzo Pena is quoted by the Trib as saying, "As far as I know he wasn't involved with drugs." What does that mean? Nothing, of course. The Trib also noted that police say "multiple weapons" were found at the scene. Did the sister-in-law know about that? The Trib also paraphrased the sister-in-law as saying that "a good father who was around for family gatherings and barbecues where the children would play with cousins." (Again, meaningless. Tony Soprano could be described in the same way.) CBS2 posted a story at 6:12 a.m. today that they took from the Sun-Times Media Wire. Oddly, CBS2 made no mention of the fact that all four men have Spanish surnames and that Mexican drug cartel involvement is strongly suspected by the CPD (we did). FoxNews posted a story at 10:00 a.m. today. Oddly, FoxNews made no mention of the fact that all four men have Spanish surnames and that Mexican drug cartel involvement is strongly suspected by the CPD (we did). RELATED: Breaking news-4 shot dead less than a mile from Midway Airport!!! 6100 south Kildare

Chicago Sun-Times on Heartland Cafe

Three Chicago-Sun Times pieces on the Heartland Cafe health code violations. One here, another here, and another here. Left: In addition to cleaning up mouse feces, mold slime and fixing the refrigeration, the Heartland Cafe has been ripping the place apart. Here, a bunch of doors are left next to dumpsters in the alley behind the restaurant on Satuday, March 14. The city suspended the restaurant's license last week for several critical health code violations. The Heartland Cafe is located at 7000 N. Glenwood in Rogers Park, Chicago. Photo by Chicago News Bench. RELATED: Heartland Cafe Blames City for Health Code Violations Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

The Sun-Times Snagged My Quigley Tweet

Quigley Wiggly

Mr. Quigley's staff was not so amused, so I removed that post, but the Chicago Sun-Times snagged it and archived it. 

Ha! So, let me steal my own stolen copy and, with no apologies to Mike Quigley, reproduce it here: 

Mike Quigley Tweeted Me! Monday, February 09, 2009 Mike Quigley is running to fill the vacant 5th Congressional seat in Illinois. That's the one Rahm Emanuel occupied until he got a better gig with Oback Barama. Quigley is currently a commissioner on the Crook County Board. 

Mike's message to me today on Tweeter: Nice to tweet you. Stop by www.quigleyforcongress.com to check out why Mike's running for Congress. Say, Mike, here's a message for you: Stop by www.rogersparkbench.blogspot.com to check out why Tom will never support your run for Congress. Gad, get a frikkin' clue, Mike. Oh, and knock off the spam tweets, okay? 

Exclusive Photos: Friends of Blagojevich Offices

This is the location of a Friends of Blagojevich office at 4147 N. Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, 60613-2472. (Click picture to make it embiggered.) Chicago News Bench went there to grab some file photos on January 1, 2009. Lo and behold, 13 days later the Sun-Times reported that "Federal authorities used a video camera as part of their cache of tools to investigate Gov. Blagojevich in the final weeks of 2008 before his arrest, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned." Well well. The Sun-Times could have used CNB's photos of the place. (They didn't run any pix of the location.) Fortunately, our photographers did not have New Year's Day off. We are, after all, a non-union shop. Rest assured, however, that plenty of rum spiked egg nog was served to our photo team upon their return. "The camera, which likely was remote-controlled, was trained on the Friends of Blagojevich offices, 4147 N. Ravenswood, to help FBI agents identify individuals entering and leaving the campaign offices -- and to identify who was talking on bugs agents covertly planted inside." Full Story... Subscribe to Chicago News Bench

Sun-Times Closing 12 Local Papers

The Chicago Sun-Times is on its death bed. Or, at least, it's doing a good impersonation of someone in their last throes. The Sun-Times Media Group will close 12 of its local newspapers and slashing wages of employees (the remaining ones, that is). The newspapers to close are the Algonquin Countryside, Arlington Heights Post, Cary-Grove Countryside, Des Plaines Times, Elk Grove Times, Hoffman Estates Review, Mount Prospect Times, Niles Herald Spectator, Palatine Countryside, Proviso Herald, Rolling Meadows Review and Wheeling Countryside. (Source: The Inquisitr) Those newspapers were part of the Pioneer Press publication family, which was acquired by the Sun-Times Media Group in 1989. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times announced today that they have hired Jim Dyer, 46, to be their new VP of Classified Advertising. A press release from the Sun-Times says, "Jim knows the classified newspaper and online advertising market inside and out. He is the ideal person to help leverage the strength of the Sun-Times News Group and navigate this challenging market, and help our advertisers better benefit from the Sun-Times News Group footprint in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana," said Barbara Swanson, Group Vice President of Advertising and Marketing of the Sun-Times News Group." That press release, it should be remembered, comes from a company that reported a $168 million loss in the third quarter of 2008. Good luck, Mr. Dyer. Yer gonna need it. ALSO: Sun-Times Media Group to Close 12 Suburban Papers (Editor and Publisher) A history of newspapers in Chicago (Encyclopedia of Chicago) Subscribe to Chicago News Bench (unlike the Sun-Times, our subscriptions are free and we don't kill trees)

UPDATED: Media Blows Uptown Shooting Story

Amazing. The big media and STILL have the victim count of Friday's Uptown shooting WRONG.

UPDATE 8/31, 8:00 PM: KUDOS to UPTOWN UPDATE for their fine reportage on this sad story. They remain ahead of the "mainstream" media, having updated their report to show three shooting victims instead of two. For more great information, and great photos, see UPTOWN UPDATE. The Bench was at the scene 30 minutes after the shooting and spent two hours taking photos and talking to many witnesses and reported the following: THREE PEOPLE WERE SHOT, ONE KILLED in the 4800 block of North Sheridan Road in Uptown at approximately 3:30 this afternoon. One died immediately. Two other victims ran south, steps away, into the parking lot of J.J. Peppers convenience store. One collapsed, in serious condition, in front of a check cashing store. A third victim, shot in the left shoulder, ran into J.J. Peppers yelling, "They're shooting!" The manager called 911. [Aug. 29, 7:23 p.m.] Count 'em, folks. One dead. One collapsed. One ran into JJ Peppers. One plus one plus one is three, not two. Always has been, always will be. But two local blogs, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and the rest of the big media STILL have it wrong: August 31, Chicago Tribune: "One man, whose identity was not released," HUH? The News-Star broke his identity YESTERDAY, on August 30. Unfortunately, the News-Star also got the number of victims wrong. The Trib continued, "The other man, who is in his 20s and was shot in the chest and forearm..." WRONG. "Other man"? There were two other men, as The Bench reported on August 29. Amazingly, the Tribune said today that "Police went to the 4800 block of North Sheridan Road in the Uptown neighborhood about 3:20 p.m. and found two men shot in the street." The Bench was there and spoke to a lot of witnesses. HOW did the police not question the manager of JJ Peppers, who told The Bench about a THIRD VICTIM with a gunshot wound to his shoulder? WHY did the Tribune not - apparently - bother to visit the scene and talk to witnesses? This is truly astounding. August 30, Sun-Times: "One person was fatally shot and another critically injured in a shooting Friday afternoon in the North Side's Uptown neighborhood." WRONG. See above.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG: WBBM NewsRadio 780.com - One person is dead and another was critically injured in a shooting Friday afternoon in the Uptown neighborhood. 1 Dead, 1 Critical In Uptown Shooting (CBS2) - CHICAGO (STNG) ― One man was fatally shot and another suffered a gunshot wound to the chest Friday afternoon in the North Side's Uptown neighborhood. [NOTE: CBS2 didn't even pretend to cover the story themselves, but used an inaccurate Sun-Times News Group blurb.]