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The body of Michael Raso was found in a garbage can behind this property on the 1400 block of West Flournoy Street on August 22.
File 2011/J. GEIL

The man whose body was found in a trash can in a Little Italy alley last week was a local man with deep ties to the neighborhood — and a long criminal history.

It was 53-year-old Michael Raso whose body was found behind the 1400 block of West Flournoy Street by a scavenger on Aug. 22, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. Raso was a former firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department and a resident of Little Italy.

Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, his father, Anthony Raso, confirmed that his son was dead, but said he had nothing to say.

“He passed away and that’s it,” Anthony Raso said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Michael Raso had a long criminal history and was in and out of prison several times in the last decade, according to court records. Most notably, in April 2001, he was arrested and charged with armed vehicular hijacking, armed robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.

According to reports from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, Raso pointed a knife at two Chicago Public Schools principals who were in a car in the 900 block of South Carpenter Street. Raso demanded money from the two, and when one of the principals only gave him $30, he got in the car and went with one of the principals to a cash machine. There, the other principal got out of the car and ran away.

Then-Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas told the Tribune Raso was looking for money to buy drugs.

Raso was convicted of armed vehicular hijacking in 2002 and sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Since 2000, Raso has been arrested several times. In 2000, he was charged with and convicted of criminal damage to property, battery and resisting arrest.

In 2004 he was charged with domestic battery, pleaded guilty in 2005 and received a year in jail. In 2006 he was charged with violating an order of protection, but found not guilty.

Raso in 2009 was also charged with possession of cocaine, which was dismissed; and in 2010 of battery, which was also dismissed.

In 1999, Raso filed for bankruptcy with more than $86,000 in debt, much of it from credit cards, despite pulling in close to $4,000 a month in salary from his job as a firefighter. According to the fire department, Raso served as a fireman from 1980 until 2000 before leaving the department for medical reasons.

Raso’s most recent listed address was in the 1100 block of West Vernon Park Place, in an old building with the first floor rented out by University of Illinois at Chicago students. One of the students living in that building said they hadn’t known Raso.

A local mail carrier said he thought Raso had been staying at his parents’ place in the 1000 block of West Polk Street. In the midst of bustling Polk Street as UIC students walked past, a group of older neighborhood locals sitting in lawn chairs on the sidewalk grew quiet when asked about Michael Raso.

“You better talk to Tony [Michael’s father],” said one of the men.

Police are still looking at the case as a death investigation, rather than a homicide, pending a final ruling on Raso’s death from the medical examiner. That might not come for a few weeks, the examiner’s office said, as they wait for the results of toxicology reports on Raso.

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