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by Mike Robinson, AP Legal Affairs Writer
CHICAGO (AP) ― Prosecutors showed jurors Tuesday an FBI mole's shadowy videos of a reputed mobster collecting thousands of dollars in extortion money from an adult bookstore owner and claiming that organized crime had given him exclusive rights to squeeze the store for such "street tax."

Anyone else pressuring the store for such protection money will be in trouble with the mob, Frank "The German" Schweihs says on the videotape.

"I don't care if it's Al Capone's brother come back reincarnated, this is a declared joint," the alleged extortionist thunders on the 20-year-old videotape played for jurors at Chicago's biggest mob trial in many years.

The videotapes made by undercover FBI mole William "Red" Wemette, who ran the Peeping Tom pornography shop in Chicago's Old Town for 18 years, offers a glimpse into how such businesses are pressured to pay shakedown money to the Chicago Outfit, according to federal prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchel A. Mars asked Wemette why he didn't defy Schweihs and refuse to pay $1,100 a month he was demanding.

"Something would happen to me," Wemette testified.

"What were the consequences you feared?" Mars asked.

"I feared death," Wemette said.

Those on trial are James Marcello, 65; convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70; Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70, and former Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62.

All five deny the charges in the eight-count indictment which says that that they took part in a racketeering conspiracy that included 18 mob murders as well as extortion, loan sharking and illegal gambling.

Schweihs was also charged but has been severed from the trial by U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel because of unspecified health problems.

Wemette's tapes were played once previously at the trial of Schweihs and another man on charges of plotting to extort money from businesses.

Unknown to the mob, Wemette was feeding information to the FBI for most of the years that he ran his store. And even though the tapes focused on Schweihs who is no longer on hand, prosecutors played them anyway because Schweihs was allegedly a member of the mob's Grand Avenue street crew which the government claims was headed by Lombardo.

Repeatedly on the tapes, Schweihs is seen counting his street tax.

But the highlight of the tapes comes on May 24, 1988, when Wemette on instructions from the FBI begins an elaborate ruse, apparently aimed at getting Schweihs to say more about his operations that he normally would.

Wemette tells him that a stranger has been poking around the shop, asking about the identity of the owner. In reality there's no such person.

"Tell him God's my partner and don't come by this joint no more," Schweihs says, lacing most of his remarks with the extremes of profanity.

But Schweihs seems worried about who might be asking questions.

"Maybe he's a Rush Street gangster looking for something," Schweihs speculates. "He's gonna get something he's not looking for."

According to Wemette, Rush Street was the turf of another crew, not Grand Avenue, and the Rush Streeters had no right to squeeze extortion money out of a store on Wells Street where Wemette had set up shop.

At another point, Schweihs says he can't believe its "a wiseguy" because "he knows that this joint is spoken for."

"Joey told them," says Schweihs, referring to Lombardo.

"I gotta say its an undercover copper, probably," Schweihs says.

Wemette volunteers that it might be one of the California organizations that supply him with his pornography. Schweihs doubts it, saying the Californians would be afraid to work on Chicago mob territory because the Chicago mobsters are known as the most violent in the nation.

"Chicago is the worst," declares Schweihs. "Even the New Yorkers don't want to come in here and mess with us."

Wemette asks Schweihs what he would do to the interloper if he turned out to be a member of the mob who was poaching on his territory.

"Whatever happens," says Schweihs, "is an act of God and nothing can be done about it."

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)