Hitman Dies in Jail

Good riddance to bad rubbish:

• During the 1970s, just the mention of hit man Harry Aleman's name was enough to strike fear into those whose doorsteps he happened upon.

  "He was the hammer of the Chicago mob," said Lee Flosi, a former FBI agent who headed the Chicago office's organized crime section in the 1990s. "You never want him sitting the back seat of your car."

  But long stretches in federal and state prison and cancer took their toll on the 71-year-old. His state prison mugshot shows a man with sunken eyes, wavy gray hair and a wispy mustache.

He was an historical oddity - the only person ever tried twice for the same crime. He could have shed a lot of light on Chicago history, but he never would have talked. It certainly would have been interesting for a lot of people.