Alleged Mobster Said He Would Use Blowtorch to Force Lawyer to Open Safe: Feds

CHICAGO, IL — An alleged mobster faces gun charges and is accused of planning to steal around $750,000 from the safe in an elderly lawyer's suburban home after federal agents arrested him trying to buy an Uzi, an AK-47 and other firearms Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Charles "Chuckie" Russell, 67, was charged with two counts of firearms possession by a felon, and his bail hearing is scheduled for early next month, the report stated. The charges were revealed when a 26-page complaint against Russell was unsealed Thursday, Dec. 22, the report added.

Russell, an alleged soldier in the Chicago Outfit's Grand Avenue crew, was arrested Wednesday, Dec. 21, trying to buy eight guns from an undercover agent in a South Loop deli, the report stated. The potential gun buy was one of a series of recorded meetings this month between federal agents and Russell, who was looking for help robbing the suburban house of a lawyer in his 70s, the report added.

"The fun for me is the score," Russell reportedly said on tape during one of the meetings, according to the Tribune. "That's how I get my adrenaline."

Russell allegedly discussed his robbery scheme with an undercover agent and an informant on Dec. 16 at a restaurant and bar in the Wicker Park neighborhood, the report stated. He allegedly said he had been casing the lawyer's home for years and knew the location of all the valuables, including a safe he believed had $750,000 in it, the report added.

Russell also allegedly told the agent and informant how he planned to get the money out of the safe if the lawyer wasn't cooperative, the Tribune reports:

"If he doesn't open it, we're gonna make him open it. They always open for me, believe me. I bring my butane torch, put it on the bottom of their feet, they open it."

During these meetings, Russell allegedly bragged about his past glories and accomplishments as a mobster, claiming he was a "top-ranking" member of the Outfit who led a gang responsible for numerous burglaries over the years, the report stated. He also allegedly took credit for the murder of another man police confirmed had been killed last month, the report added.

In 1992, Russell was sentenced to 35 years in prison for aggravated criminal sexual assault but was acquitted of attempted murder in that same case, the report stated. He was paroled in March of 2011, the report added.

More via the Chicago Tribune

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