Witness says he got inside Chicago mob

CHICAGO - Straining to hear and with his right hand shaking badly, a career criminal who has been in and out of prisons for decades admitted Wednesday to passing worthless stock, pandering to pornography fans and even blowing up a house as a late-joining member of the Chicago mob.

Alva Johnson Rodgers, 78, a lanky, drawling Texan, was both the most improbable and most colorful witness to testify so far at the government's Operation Family Secrets trial of five alleged members of the Chicago mob.