Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise stole the Marlborough Diamond from a London jewelry store.
Scalise, 74, has been tied by the feds to mob murders, but never convicted.
And he’s been a consultant to Hollywood movies, on the criminal life.
On Tuesday, the high-line thief was on the verge of going to trial again in federal court in Chicago, this time for allegedly planning with two other senior citizens the robbery of an armored car and the home invasion of the Bridgeport house of a dead mob boss. But the proceedings were abruptly stopped as both sides appeared to near plea deals for Scalise and his codefendants, sources said.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys had no comment as they left the courtroom Tuesday afternoon, before even selecting a single juror in the trial of Scalise and two of his colleagues, Arthur “The Genius” Rachel, 73, and Robert Pullia, 70.
The three men are scheduled to appear for their pleas early Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, although plea agreements can always unravel at the last minute.
The possible pleas come after the judge set the defense back Tuesday morning. Defense attorneys had asked that a series of conversations that the FBI secretly recorded between the three men be banned from the prosecution’s case, but the judge decided that many of the potentially damning conversations would be allowed in at trial.
The conversations, according to authorities, would show a highly organized theft crew planning two crimes: the robbery of an armored car doing a cash pick-up outside a LaGrange bank and the break-in of the home of feared late mob boss Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra.
FBI agents put together a painstaking investigation of the men, putting them under secret surveillance as the men themselves allegedly did surveillance numerous times on the bank and the home as part of their planning.
An FBI listening device in Scalise’s van allegedly captured conversations about picking locks, using toothpaste to mask drill holes in mortar and the best way to dress when you “wanna flatten somebody.”
