CRIME: Nix on Checks

This week in Manhattan, having been found guilty of evading $51,095 in income taxes, Racketeer Frank Costello, 63, got the bill. Federal Judge John F.X. McGohey sentenced him to five years, $30,000 in fines. Costello, his eyes red from weeping, had already indicated that he had learned his lesson—or, at least, one lesson. "Remember this," he told reporters in his familiar rasp. "When you spend money, spend cash and don't spend checks."