2015 Chevrolet Silverado HD Review

autoguide.com

 Review thanks to  Autoguide.com and  Stephen Elmer Feb. 05, 2014  Links provided:
 
GM updated its heavy-duty pickup truck line in 2011 with a host of mechanical upgrades, but now the interior and exterior styling has been thoroughly upgraded. 

A new look wraps the Silverado and Sierra HDs, but like all Chevy pickups, it relies on evolutionary styling and remains rather conservative. Most of the truck's looks come straight from the half-tons, just like the innards, but there are a few key differences.

New Style

The first, and most obvious, are the two thick chrome bars that now adorn the grille of the Chevrolet HD. Although the front end appears to have more flat metal pushing through the air, this truck is actually more aerodynamic than the previous generation.


As for the GMC, the truck looks like a larger half-ton, that is to say, they look almost identical except for size.

Engine and transmission choices carry over from the old trucks, which isn’t a bad thing. Chevrolet arranged a head-to-head comparison in the hills of Arizona against both a Cummins-powered Ram heavy duty and a Ford Super Duty with the 6.7-liter Power Stroke and GM's HD ran away from the other two while climbing up a six-percent grade.
The 6.6-liter Duramax diesel still makes 765 lb-ft of torque and 397 hp and is mated exclusively to an Allison 1000 six-speed transmission. The base engine, which tends to be less popular, is a 6.0-liter gasoline V8 that puts out 360 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque. Chevy says that it mostly sells those trucks to fleet buyers interested in base trim trucks, as anyone interested in doing any especially heavy towing simply must bump up to the diesel.
Brake pedal feel has been improved and offers confidence-inspiring stopping power. The top of the pedal travel feels light, with the meat of the pedal being found halfway down with progressively increasing resistance. Heavy-duty trucks tend to have touchy brakes and Chevrolet did a splendid job of avoiding that without giving up the feeling of serious stopping power.

Help on the Hills

Chevy also upgraded its auto-grade braking system to better control weight on the hills. It works by through the Allison transmission and the diesel exhaust brake to hold the truck at a constant speed while traveling downhill. During testing, the grade braking proved to be well set up and always capable of holding the truck at the desired speed, even with a 13,000-lb trailer hooked up to the back. The updated exhaust brake, which is actually a variable vane turbocharger that acts as an exhaust brake, is among the quietest in any HD. It is also manually controllable, with a toggle switch on the center stack to activate it. 

Uphill slogs are helped by the addition of hill-hold assist, which keeps the truck from rolling backwards when starting on an incline and is calibrated – like everything else on this truck – to hold back tons of weight… Literally. While I didn’t have the chance to tow with the truck at its maximum capacity, it felt strong enough with the trailer I did have to expect it would be totally capable of its rating. 
The last update that actually changes the operation of the truck is a revised steering feel, which like the brake pedal is quite progressive. At the center, there is a large dead zone, which is actually too large for my taste, but as you turn into it provides more feedback, and mid-turn it feels solid.

Interior Reinvention

 Now, as mentioned, the interior of the HDs comes straight out of the new half-ton pickups and just like in those trucks, it makes these heavy duties very hospitable places to spend long trips. Chevy's MyLink infotainment works well and is paired to a responsive eight-inch touchscreen, while connectivity is plentiful with five USB ports, three 12-volt charge ports and one 120-volt three-prong outlet. 

 The steering wheel-mounted controls have a tactile feeling thanks to the rubber that coats them and the 4.2-inch color info display between the gauges is simple to leaf through and understand. Another thoughtful addition comes to the info screen this year, a diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) fluid meter. It is calculated in percentage, and the truck will begin warning you about low DEF 1,000 miles before it is time to fill up. It’s also worth noting that the tank is designed to be re-filled in conjunction with regular oil changes. The filler cap is underneath the hood, and isn’t particularly hard to get to, but it would be nice for it to be beside the fuel tank like in the competition. 

Interior changes aren't just cosmetic, as the rear seat has been made bigger, and the cab configurations have changed slightly this year. GM is replacing the old extended cab model with what it calls the new double cab, eliminating the suicide doors in favor of new front-hinged doors. The crew cab is the other model that grows, gaining two-inches of legroom, which provides a huge backseat.
Two new bed configurations, a 6.5- and eight-foot version are now available, and they are fitted with the latest in bed tech from the general, including bumper integrated steps, LED lights in the bed, and a spray-on bed liner available right from the factory.

Comfortable and Quiet

Thanks to aerodynamic improvements, new inlaid doors and added sound deadening, this is the quietest GM HD yet, and it is also the quietest compared to the competition. It does get rid of some of the classic diesel rumble that many of us so enjoy, but you can't complain about the quiet ride.
Hundreds of miles melt away behind the wheel of this truck, even with 13,000 lbs hitched up to the fifth wheel. That is about half of the truck's 23,200 pound fifth-wheel tow rating, and it feels light on the back. Pushing that weight to the limit likely wouldn't elicit any worry either, or that is at least how confident this pickup felt while towing.
As for payload, the GM HDs can handle 7,374 pounds, while the trucks are rated to pull 19,600 on the rear hitch. Nothing we threw at the truck seemed to upset its powertrain or handling.

Base pricing stays almost stagnant for the trucks, starting at $32,405, a nice touch considering the new content. Some packages in the higher trim levels have jumped up by a larger margin, again because these trucks are packed with more technology than ever before.

For example, the four-wheel drive Silverado 3500 LTZ used to tow the trailer mentioned above costs $66,160 as tested, including delivery.

The Verdict

The combination of a great interior along with a quiet and comfortable ride brings the Silverado's already stellar powertrain into the modern era. Rather than catching up to the pack, it leap frogs the fray to become the segment’s best.

http://www.autoguide.com/manufacturer/chevrolet/2015-chevrolet-silverado-hd-review-3730.html

Nothing Blocks a Highway Like a Semi Whose Skidding Wheels Led It Astray

truckinginfo.com

Nothing Blocks a Highway Like a Semi Whose Skidding Wheels Led It Astray - Trailer Talk - TruckingInfo.com

Milwaukee's Sally Papia - A life lived on the edge

Bill Janz was a long lime writer for the Milwaukee Sentinel and Journal Sentinel who retired in 2000. Having spent many years as an investigative journalist, he wrote the following shortly after Papia's death from an auto accident in 2005. Article from the Milwaukee Journal Seninel archives with links provided:
By BILL JANZ (Milw Journal-Sentinel)

Posted: Jan. 13, 2005
Sally Papia loved being the show.
Despite her openness, Papia took secrets with her.
Papia's life revolved around restaurants, mobsters. She also loved being the mystery, the long-ago woman in black, engaged to a mobster, or dating a cop or a banker or a lawyer. Now the show is over, and her death left a mystery that probably won't be solved.

Her daughter, Candy, 51, drove their speeding car into a tree and was
killed on an icy road in Waukesha County. Sally, a widely known
restaurant operator, died later of injuries suffered in the crash. Her
funeral was Thursday night.

Sally and Candy had a love-hate relationship, "as much hate as there
was love," said Franklyn M. Gimbel, a community leader, noted defense
attorney and friend of Sally's.

He called Candy "erratic" and said that "we'll never know if a big
fight was going on in the car" just before the crash. He wondered if
Candy might have driven the car off the road while arguing with her
mother.

***
Sally could be charming or volatile. She could be warm or boisterous.
She could be loving or vengeful. She could be smart or naive. She not
only could be, but was, a mess of contrasts.

She was a lovable scamp, who could be more outrageous than a
firecracker in a convent.

One time she lighted a match and held it up, an implied threat that she
was going to burn down the restaurant of a man who owed her money. Yet
she was extremely generous and gave money to every organization ever
invented. And when a homeless man wandered into her classy restaurant,
she seated him at a table and fed him.

She was friends with many public figures, including judges, one of whom
brought her his homemade chili, in a jar. Yet more than 30 years ago,
before Sally left on a trip to Las Vegas, local mobsters gave her
$25,000 in a box that looked like a birthday present. She took the box
as carry-on luggage on the plane, and a courier picked it up at a
casino; it was money laundering, probably, but she said she didn't
know.

When local mob boss Frank Balistrieri's sons - Joseph and John - were
petitioning to get out of prison during the 1980s, she hoped they'd be
sent straight to hell. She sounded as if she hated them. Yet, at the
time of her death, she was managing the Savoy Room, in a building owned
by Joseph Balistrieri.

Contrasts.
For many years, every Christmas she sent plants to some state and
federal judges who ate in her restaurant, including the judge who sent
her to prison in the 1970s. But she also knew - very well - mobsters in
Chicago and pleaded with them to save an employee from being murdered, she said.

"Chicago was the boss, and Chicago loved me," she told me in December, 1986. "They respected me.

"Fifi (Buccieri) and (Tony) Accardo, they loved me. I fixed them
special dishes," she said, referring to top Chicago mobsters. "I fixed
Frank (Buccieri) special dishes, too."

She was engaged, in the 1970s, to Frank Buccieri, a Chicago hoodlum and
brother of the notorious Fifi, who was recorded laughing about a fat
man squirming on a hook on a wall. The terrifying transcript was the
preface to "The Exorcist."

Sally and Frank never married. He abused her, she said, including
bruising her face after I interviewed Sally and wrote my first story
about her. I expressed sympathy, but she said Buccieri was her problem,
not mine.

Maybe because she took the bruises and didn't blame me, we became
friends; she always knew I was a journalist - one who appreciated her
energy, her food, and her sporadic outlandishness, but not some of the
things she did, and I'd write about them. It was a fine line, but we
walked it.

Occasionally, when we talked in her old office at Sally's Steak House,
in the Knickerbocker Hotel, or on the telephone, she'd say something
similar to what she told me in October 1988:

"If you don't want to come to a young person's funeral, don't say
anything," she said, always referring to herself as young. For her, the
second worst thing about death was that her secret age, 70-something,
would be published. But not by me.

As a courts reporter, I met Sally in the early 1970s, when I was a
friend of several friends of hers, and still am. She told me about her
wild ride on an expressway, when a member of another local restaurant
family shot at her from another car. "The goofy Italian," as she called
him, was beaten and chased out of town, lucky to keep his life.

Truth, and a little extra
The following came from notes I took during many conversations with
Sally, whose truth occasionally had its attachments. She didn't lie,
friends said, but sometimes she exaggerated her own role in a good
story that didn't need any help.

Many of my notes are from the 1980s and early 1990s, when she was being
pressured by the government to stay out of prison by telling what she
knew about criminal figures.

She was having fun, but she was having fury, too: "I went with a
gangster, I don't care. I've been known as a Mafia sweetheart, I don't
care." But the government shouldn't expect her to get herself out of
trouble by getting someone else into trouble.

"I'll never be a stool pigeon," she said.

'I'm so afraid'
In early 1989, a car owned by Maximillion J. Adonnis, a felon and
former maitre d' for Sally, was shot up when he wasn't in it. She
tipped me off: "Max's car looks like Swiss cheese."

Adonnis had served nearly two years in prison for imprisoning a man
suspected of burglarizing Sally's home during the 1970s. Adonnis and
another employee of Sally's beat up the suspect, who suffered a broken
jaw. The employee put a bullet into the floor next to the man.

A large man with a larger personality, Adonnis was a glad-hander, and
customers liked him, although "Max could never walk a straight line,"
Sally said, and she wasn't referring to his balance.

After Adonnis' car was riddled, Adonnis was murdered. Sally told me
that Adonis had called her the night before he was shot to death and
wanted to meet with her. She was too busy to see him, she said.

Shaken, she couldn't decide if the murder involved drugs or - because
of Adonnis' call to her - "someone wants to put me away forever," she
said. "They could have had two of us at the same time and blamed me for
being mixed up with cocaine."

During early April 1989, I called her at home and asked again about
Adonnis' call: "Maybe he just wanted to tell me what he was going
through," she said. Later, she said: "I'm so afraid. I know so much,
they're afraid I'm going to talk."

Keeping secrets
She never told me what she knew, except for what I've quoted here. But
she occasionally would worry about her life span.

In October 1986, I was with her when she received a note, and she
laughed and said, "I'm lucky it wasn't a dead fish."

Talking about appearing before a grand jury, she asked me, probably
with those dark eyebrows of hers at attention, "What was that I took,
the 6th Amendment?"

Sally could mix things up, whether it was words or lettuce.

"Hone-y-y-y-y-y-y," she'd begin sentences, as if the word had 6 y's.
She could charm a smile out of a terminal pessimist.

Twenty-five years ago, we got locked up together while she showed me
her new liquor room. A man she disliked appeared in the doorway and
Sally shouted, "I'm busy," and slammed the door in his face; the door
locked automatically and could only be opened outside. An employee,
referred to as "The Enforcer" in a court case, heard Sally's shouts -
you could probably have heard them on Lake Michigan - and unlocked the
door.

Dressed stunningly, she'd work the crowd in her restaurant, leaving red
imprints of her lips on the faces of pet customers - she kissed them
when they arrived and she kissed them when she left. My wife always
knew when I'd visited Sally.

Her personality was as bold as her handwriting. She used a large
alphabet. Her signature always looked like a headline.

After being arrested in the 1970s for threatening a former employee who
owed her money, she wrote a statement for me and her signature was an
inch high: "As a successful business operator there would be no reason
for me to resort to street fighting tactics to solve small problems
like the debt of a former employee."

Whether Sally was 40-something or 70-something, she had one admonition
for me when I wrote about her: "Would you please say that I look
younger and more beautiful?"

'I changed their diapers'
During the 1980s, Frank Balistrieri and his sons, Joseph and John,
served time in federal prisons for extortion. On Dec. 14, 1986, Sally
called me at home and said that the federal prosecutor "is trying to
use me as a pawn (to get more on the Balistrieris)."

"When I went to jail" in the 1970s, "they (the Balistrieris) didn't do
anything for me."

Referring to the sons, Sally said, "I baby-sat for them when they were
growing up." More than once, she said loudly, "I changed their
diapers." Laughing, I told her once that I was interested in
investigating the Balistrieris, but not their diapers.

"They had silver spoons in their mouths when my family never had a
spoon," she said. "You touch their hands, they're like silk. Even the
girls, their nails are a mile long."

She'd been working since she was a child, and she hated wealth without
sweat.

Sally expressed disgust when I wrote about Joseph and, while detailing
his problems, described him as intelligent and a brilliant writer who
loved opera. She said I didn't know him the way she did.

She was furious when the brothers asked for a sentence reduction from
Federal Judge Terrence T. Evans, now on the 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals.

"I hope to God, Judge Evans - bless him for the wisdom he's had so far
- I hope he doesn't do anything," Sally said. "They'll come out like
King Kongs."

Ironically, at the time of her death, Sally was managing a restaurant
in a building owned by one of the brothers.

She was "enlisted" by the Balistrieris to manage the Savoy Room, friend
Gimbel said. She was bored, and running a restaurant "energized her,"
he said. But in the last six months, she had talked often about
leaving, he said.

Gimbel never met anyone with so much charisma, "a stand-alone person,"
he said, "who was the candle in the middle of a dark room."

After sentences were reduced for Joseph and John, Sally said loudly,
"All BS, of course. It's BS. It shocks me, it shocks me, it shocks me,
that a judge would be so naive."

I was in her office one day in 1989, facing her across a bunch of
bananas on her desk, as she threw a fit about "the boys." Over and
over, she slapped the table with packets of sugar, angrily, nearly
histrionic, over the coming release of the Balistrieri brothers.

"Four or five years ago," she said, a member of Frank Balistrieri's
group was slapped in the face by a local businessman. The man who was
slapped informed Frank Balistrieri, she said.

"They took his whole company away from him (the man who did the
slapping)," she said. "And 96 stitches were taken across his face.
Today, the last I heard, (he) is a big, fat, sloppy bartender in
Nevada."

Sally knew, firsthand, what happened to people who bothered Frank
Balistrieri.

She named a widely known man in the Italian-American community. She
called him "a bookie and a gofer. Frank (Balistrieri) doesn't want to
do things, he has him do it."

But, she said, doing things for Frank made the man feel he was more
important than he was. He even mimicked Frank, holding his hand in his
pocket, the way Frank did, she said. Sally was along, she said, when
several of Frank's friends took the gofer to Chicago, knocked him
around, and decided to impress upon him his status in Frank's outfit.

"They peed all over him," she said.

When the government involved her family, she would have liked to have
hit the federal prosecutor with a cast-iron pot: During a telephone
call to me on Sept. 17, 1987, Sally, very upset, said, "The goddamn
government subpoenaed my 82-year-old mother. My mother never went to
school, never left the house. She doesn't even read."

On April 5, 1988, she said that a former employee was granted immunity
by the grand jury investigating payoffs to a union: "He has to do the
right thing," she said.

But Sally's former employee didn't say what she hoped he'd say, and
eventually Sally was convicted and imprisoned for less than a year for
paying a union not to organize.

Referring to the former employee, Sally said, on Jan. 10, 1990: "I
saved his life twice. I went to Chicago twice and asked special
permission (that he not be killed). Frank (Balistrieri) wanted him
dead. He could have been in the gutter, like Maxie (Adonnis)" if she
hadn't interceded, she said.

She called him "The Judas." And promptly renamed her dog, who was named
after the employee.

"Pimping all the time, he's still pimping," she said. "For businessmen
every day."

Sally said that the late Federal Judge John Reynolds, who sentenced her
to her first prison term, "wished me luck" before she went to prison.
Reynolds ate at Sally's Steak House, as did many judges and baseball
players. However, E. Michael McCann, Milwaukee County district
attorney, did not permit his assistants to eat Italian - at least not
there.

When an appeals court turned down her appeal, she said, on Aug. 13,
1990, "At least John and Joey know I'm not a stool pigeon."

Mother and daughter
Sally and Candy were estranged numerous times, and there were court
battles. Occasionally, over the years, Sally complained to friends
about "physical encounters" with Candy. Way back in 1988, Sally told me
that Candy was "sick, really sick."

Candy called me several times in the late '80s and early '90s and
criticized her mother unmercifully.

"She's got such a big mouth," said Candy, one of her more restrained
comments.

In late November 2004, Candy got herself into trouble again. An officer
of the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department went to Candy's home to
retrieve a credit card of Sally's. Candy, sliced up the card and was
cited for disorderly conduct, according to records. The citation was
filed a couple of days before the car crash.

The last time I spoke with Sally was on Thanksgiving, when she called
me at home and wished me, and my family, a happy holiday.

Many years ago, when I complimented Sally on her black outfit, she
said, "I love black, but don't bury me in it."
She should have been buried under Bartolotta fireworks.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20050114&id=NDIqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EkUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5930,3180851

More of my related Mob posts:
The Milwaukee Queen Bee of Organized Crime
"Mr. Fancy Pants" Balistrieri - Tracking Milwaulee's most dangerous mobster
Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggerio-The real story of the "wise guy"
The Beef That Didn't Moo - Wisconsin Ties to the Mob
Tales of the Milwaukee Mob and Two Cigarette Men!
Married to the Daughter of a Milwaukee Mob Boss-Our Pediatrician!
Tale of a Failed Milwaukee Mob Hit!
Lieutenant Uhura (of the Starship "Enterprise") - close encounters with the Chicago and Milwaukee Mob!
Part Two: The Milwaukee Mob and Lieutenant Uhura (Star Trek)
The New York Mob and Iowa Beef - Part 1
The New York Mob and Iowa Beef Processors - Part II
The Milwaukee mob hit on Anthony Biernat

Blue Tiger USA bringing a real tiger to the Mid-American Trucking Show!

The big show is almost here! Don't miss seeing "Blu"!

Blue Tiger USA, makers of the Blue Tiger Elite Bluetooth headset, are planning something a little different for the 2014 Mid-American Trucking Show in Louisville, KY.  For the first time in history, a live tiger will be appearing on the exhibition floor. 

“We’re hoping that our mascot, Blu, will bring in some visitors to the show and drive some excitement for the whole event,” said company founder and president, Fieras Saah.

Don’t worry, the excitement will be kept in check as Mr. Saah also promised that Blu, a fully grown tiger, will be kept caged when she visits on Friday, March 28^th.

“Blu” is being brought in for a celebrity appearance to assist in what Blue Tiger is calling “The Official Launch of the Elite.”

Blue Tiger’s Elite headset is touted as the new industry standard in professional communications devices featuring the longest talk time, up to 34 hours, most comfortable fitting headband, and clearest communication of any headset on the market.

“Really, the Elite was made available to our customers a few months ago, but demand has been so high, we’ve been unable to meet supply requirements,” Mr. Saah continued. “MATS is the perfect platform to finally make the headset available to all of our customers that have been waiting so long.”

Blue Tiger test

Stop by Blue Tiger USA at booth #64072 on Friday, March 28^th at the Mid-American Trucking Show in Louisville, KY to meet Blu, and the rest of the Blue Tiger USA team.

Last November I had the opportunity to put a brand new Blue Tiger Elite headset through it's paces and gave it the ultimate test. You read it by clicking this Link.

Driver of massively overweight truck receives massive ticket

kirotv.com

By Lee Stoll SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. — 

Story thanks to kirotv.com -  

A truck driver is blaming bad permits for putting him on a local bridge that should have collapsed right under the rig. The truck, hauling a power transformer, almost made it from Texas to Canada but it broke down on a Skagit county road in Mount Vernon. That's how state patrol learned the driver's directions were illegal. In order to get it off the road, the driver had to go through a roundabout—breaking street signs, and tearing up the concrete. State Patrol started writing tickets for more than $40,000 in fines. "This is the largest ticket I've ever seen," said Chris Baldwin with the Skagit County Sheriff's Office.

A few miles back, the damage could have been catastrophic. The driver crossed the bridge to Fir Island. The weight limit is 105,000 pounds. The truck is more than 232,000 pounds. "When I talked to one of the engineers at DOT this morning, he was surprised he didn't fall through it," said state trooper Ray Ensley

"Well, I just thank God I'm not in the water!" said the truck driver, Ken Green. Green said his employer, a Texas-based trucking company, uses a permit service for cross-country trips. Green had a permit for state roads like I-5. He showed us phone numbers for counties where he needed to get permits to use city and county roads to avoid low overpasses. There were no phone numbers for Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties so Green thought it was OK to use the side streets. State patrol says the truck would have been fine on the freeway.

KIRO 7 asked Green, "Do you think it's the permit company's fault?" "We think so, we're not sure but we think so," he answered.

WSDOT engineers will inspect the bridge for damage while Green waits for permits to drive through Whatcom County. It could leave him stranded for 10 days. "Somebody, something has malfunctioned somewhere," said Green. The $40,000 was issued to Green, not the trucking company. He has 15 days to pay it or contest it.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/driver-massively-overweight-truck-receives-massive/ncwk8/

The Milwaukee mob hit on Anthony J. Biernat

calumet412.com

Milwaukee mob screws up a hit: still manages to get away with it

For many years I have read bits and pieces about the 1963 murder of Anthony Biernat, a Kenosha business man who owned a jukebox vending company. The FBI and Police always believed that the hit men included Frank Balistrieri mob captain Steve DiSalvo and associate Frank Stelloh (Stelloh was a lifelong criminal, but not Italian and could never be a “made” man in the Italian mafia), but never had enough evidence to charge or convict them. After doing further research thanks to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Archives, I’ve learned more of the real(?) story. I always assumed that the hit was ordered by Milwaukee mob boss Balistrieri because of Biernat’s refusal to share the business. According to one or more unidentified informants, it was actually the Chicago “Outfit” mobsters who were shunned by Biernat and ordered Frank Balistrieri to handle the hit. A lot of the businesses that Biernat provided jukeboxes for were in northern Illinois and the Chicago mob could well have asserted control if they wanted. Although Frank Balistrieri was the Milwaukee godfather, he dared not pick a fight with the Chicago Outfit.

Whether or not the Chicago Outfit ordered the hit, it was carried out under the direction of Frank Balistrieri’s thugs who screwed up so badly, they should have gotten nailed for it.

Jan 31, 1963  According to information obtained by the James G. Wieghart of the Sentinel, the murder of Anthony J. Biernat was carried out for the Chicago crime syndicate by three hired killers who probably did not even know him.

The details of the brutal murder and gruesome burial of Biernat were learned from confidential sources who picked up the information from Milwaukee underworld figures.

the jukebox mafia

Biernat, 46, owner of Lakeside Music Co., was beaten and forced into a waiting car at Kenosha’s North Shore line depot parking lot about 10 p.m., Jan 7, 1963.

His trussed up body was found Monday, the 28th, in a lime sprinkled grave in the basement of an unoccupied farm house on the abandoned Bong Air Force base site. Biernat died from three or four vicious blows to the back of the head, authorities said.

Information from underworld leaks began flowing to authorities last week after the announcement that the FBI officially entered the case.

One underworld tip given to a law enforcement official and relayed to the FBI helped locate Biernat’s body. “If you want to find Biernat’s body, look in the basement of an empty house in an abandoned area in Kenosha county,” the underworld tipster said. “They put him in a lime pit”. When the official asked the tipster to be more specific about the location of the house, the tipster replied: “Well, you can be sure of one thing, it (the body) ain’t going to fly away.”

It wasn’t until later that the authorities caught the significance of the last remark, obviously referring the defunct Bong base.

Events Reconstructed

The underworld sources reconstructed this apparent sequence of events in the murder:

On orders from the Chicago crime syndicate, Milwaukee hoodlums last November visited Biernat and told him they wanted a partnership in his business. Biernat refused, although he was warned he had no choice in the matter.

The Chicago syndicate wanted particularly to gain control of Biernat’s contract with the Great Lakes naval training station, Great Lakes, Illinois. They also wanted to gain a toehold in the jukebox business in Kenosha and Racine counties, where most of Biernat’s 85 machines were located. Biernat, although a respected citizen, was not totally unfamiliar with the Chicago mobsters. During the 1930’s, he repaired most of the syndicate’s slot machines in northern Illinois counties. He later worked for a Kenosha jukebox distributor, Stanley Miller, then took over Miller’s business while the latter went into service during World War II.

Because of Biernat’s outright refusal of a partnership, the Chicago syndicate decided to have him killed. The “contract” for his murder was arraigned though the Milwaukee (Frank Balistrieri) underworld. The Milwaukee mob decided that, if Biernat were kidnapped, murdered and his body carefully disposed of, authorities might eventually conclude that he had simply run off and was not a victim of foul play.

“City Killers Hired”

With that in mind, three Milwaukee killers were hired. A burial plot in a secluded area was selected and a grave prepared, possibly as early as December. To help speed decomposition of the body, the hoodlums obtained two bags of lime. They also got two bags of mortar. Their intention was to seal off the fruit cellar with cinder blocks, thus hiding the unfinished room from the rest of the basement.

Since the three killers did not know Biernat, it was necessary to obtain a “finger man” who could identify him. The mob impressed the services of a Racine gambler who had good mob credentials and knew Biernat by sight. On Jan. 7, the well prepared plot went into operation. The three killers waited near the parking lot until they observed Biernat pull in on his almost nightly errand to buy a Chicago newspaper. The killers pulled the kidnap car the lot and awaited Biernat’s return. The finger man fled. When Biernat approached his car, two of the men got out and ordered him to get in their car.

“Plans Upset”

From this point on, the carefully laid plans were upset, as a series of coincidences came into play. The coincidences, it is believed, caused the three killers to botch the job badly. Instead of getting into the car, Biernat screamed and put up a terrific fight. The driver of the kidnap car had to leap out and help subdue him and drag him into the car. One of the killers received a sharp blow from Biernat, which caused the killer to bleed.

The driver of the car then noticed several startled witnesses eye the car with suspicion as it pulled from the lot. The killers were by this time badly frightened, thinking the witnesses must have called the police. They sped to the burial site.

The two killers in the back seat continued their struggle with Biernat and finally subdued him by binding his hands and putting a wire choke noose around his neck. Biernat’s frantic struggle angered the hired assassins, and they apparently, lost control of their temper, particularly the injured one. They pummeled Biernat repeatedly. Biernat finally lapsed into unconsciousness. When they arrived at the secluded farmhouse, they forced the again conscious victim into the basement where they intended to shoot him. Biernat, although bound, renewed his struggle, kicking violently.

Because of the violent struggle, blood from Biernat and one of the killers was spattered around throughout the cellar. The killers hurriedly covered the burial mound with boards and tried to hide the blood trail with ashes and dirt. Plans to seal up the room were abandoned for fear the police, alerted by witnesses at the parking lot, might be on their trail.

The killers jumped into their car and fled, sticking to country roads until they reached a secluded area near a river. Ducking down a trail, they pulled up alongside the river. Here they washed the blood off their hands and discarded their bloody outer garments.

“Kidnap Car Ditched”

They then traveled a short distance farther, ditched the kidnap car and jumped into a getaway car which was waiting for them and sped off. Left behind were a trail of clues, from the parking lot where Biernat’s bloody and torn coat, glasses, car keys and blood spattered newspaper were found, to the bizarre burial place, where the trio neglected to seal off the burial room.

Ironically, the alarm which they were sure had been spread by the parking lot witnesses, was not turned in because  none of the six witnesses called the police. One of the killers, injured and bleeding from Biernat’s earlier blows and frightened half out of his wits for fear the police had picked up their trail, lost control. Giving vent to his fury, he decided to beat Biernat to death instead of shooting him. After several savage blows to the back of the head from the killer’s gun butt, Biernat, dying, slumped to the ground. The killers dumped him into the grave, covered his body with lime, wrapped a canvas over it and filled the grave.

To this day, the 1963 murder of a Kenosha businessman has never been solved. It’s hard to believe with all the witnesses, evidence left afterwards and bungling that took place!

Credit and links:

James G. Wieghart

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Texas Justice! This will make your blood boil

I'm a pretty conservative person and generally support our law enforcement personnel. Of course there are bad people in any profession but I was amazed the prosecutor, police chief and judge all played a role in condoning the ridiculous actions of these two cops. These guys really stepped over the line. If you don't have anything on a guy, just man up and move on! Excellent video below tells the true story.

The preceding thanks to the National Motorists Association. You can join them for free by clicking the link. Help support citizen's rights.

http://www.motorists.org/

"Fight that ticket"

Confused Japanese tourists led to a Utah Highway Patrol chase, trooper says

ksl.com

This story should in the "You've got to be kidding me, right?" file. Story thanks to ksl.com and Natalie Crofts. Links provided:

ST. GEORGE — A Japanese tourist confused about what to do when police lights came on behind her prompted a chase by the Utah Highway Patrol Sunday.

The car had just crossed the border into Utah going only 37 miles per hour on I-15 when Lt. Brad Horne, commander of Utah's DUI squad, noticed it was wandering out of its lane. He suspected the driver was intoxicated and attempted to pull the car over, but the car sped up instead of stopping.

"They did not have a clue what they were supposed to do when there were red and blue lights behind them," he said.

The driver would alternately slow down and speed up while the patrol car followed, with speeds ranging between 40 and 75 miles per hour. The chase lasted about seven miles, according to Horne.

“The vehicle was all over the road — on the shoulder, in between the two lanes — and the vehicle didn’t stop,” he said.

Horne had his DUI squad with him in the area for the weekend, so troopers shut down both lanes of I-15 for a few minutes to conduct a felony stop and take the people out of the vehicle.

“The vehicle didn’t respond to lights or sirens and at that point since there were so many of our extra officers in that area, they were able to put the spikes out and we spiked three of the vehicle's tires,” he said.

After the car was stopped, a Japanese couple and their 7-year-old son were brought out of the car at gunpoint.

“That’s when we realized there was probably something wrong, because they could not follow any simple instructions or directions in that process,” Horne said.

He said it became apparent very quickly that it was a situation where there was a language and cultural barrier. The occupants of the car could not speak any English, so UHP contacted an officer in another area who could speak Japanese and act as an interpreter.

The couple and their son had arrived in California that morning from Japan and rented a car to drive to Bryce Canyon.

Horne said there didn't seem to be any intent to evade officers — the driver simply didn't know what to do in that type of situation. UHP could have charged them with felony evading, but based on the circumstances does not intend to do so.

Troopers helped the family get their car to a safe place and find a motel room where they could stay for the night.

Horne said it was an unusual case and that he wasn't sure if the driver was tired, or if any other factor played a role in the woman's erratic driving. The occupants weren't able to provide a driver's license to show officers, but Hertz requires a license to rent a car.

“It was a difficult situation, one that was unfortunate, but no one was hurt or injured," he said. "Obviously, if you’re going to drive here in America and Utah you probably ought to know something about our laws.”

Horne said local troopers told him they sometimes stop tourists, but that they have never encountered any problems on this level because usually the red and blue lights are universally understood.

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28843410#hPULhPC53emYTYR8.99