CHICAGO - After years in the witness protection program, mobster Robert G. Siegel emerged Wednesday at the trial of five alleged underworld figures and told how organized crime used to buy off the Chicago police.

The 71-year-old admitted stickup man and killer said that when he set out on a life of crime in the 1950s, mob members rarely went to prison.

"Most of the police were on the payroll," said Siegel, whose nickname on the streets of Chicago was "Bobby the Beak."

He said that William Hanhardt, who rose to become Chicago's chief of detectives, was receiving $1,000 or perhaps $1,200 a month from the mob. Hanhardt also received a new car every two years, Siegel testified.

Hanhardt, once known as one of Chicago's most successful crime-busting detectives, pleaded guilty to racketeering in 2001 for masterminding a ring of thieves who stole more than $5 million in watches and jewelry.

Hanhardt is now protesting his sentence of almost 16 years in prison.

One of the defendants in the current trial, Paul Schiro, 70, was sent to prison after pleading guilty to being a member of Hanhardt's gang.

Also on trial are Joseph Lombardo, 78, James Marcello, 65, convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese, 69, and retired Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, 62. They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included illegal gambling, loan sharking extortion of "street tax" from businesses and 18 mob murders.

Siegel testified that he started committing crimes at age 13 and was involved in armed robberies by the age of 16. He said he was an admirer of the mobsters in those days because "they had the money" and avoided jail.

But he said things changed once the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act - a key element in the government's war on the mob - went into effect. He said mobsters started going off to prison, and those who once boasted that they were "made guys" became secretive.

He testified that he was ushered into the mob by loan shark Frank "The Calico Kid" Teutonico, who hired him to collect so-called juice loans.

Debtors who failed to pay up got a visit from the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Siegel. He said that mob boss Turk Torello once sent him to Las Vegas to see a debtor who was behind in paying alleged bookie Lefty Rosenthal - and to force the man to pay.

"You would have committed murder if you'd had to," suggested Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez.

"Uh, yeah, I probably would," said Siegel.

"You went out there to see the debtor and he paid," Lopez said.

"Yeah," said Siegel, who has an unusually husky, foggy voice.

"You were sent out there to be the muscle, right?" asked Lopez.

"Yeah," Siegel agreed.

Siegel said that in January 1978, he was marked for death by the mob.

Jewels that had been stolen from a downtown jewelry store were in turn stolen in a burglary of the basement vault at the home of Anthony Accardo, at that time the most powerful man in the Chicago mob.

Siegel said that his longtime friend, burglar John Mendell, was murdered after telling him that he was being offered a money-making opportunity by a member of the mob's 26th Street or Chinatown crew.

Then another friend, burglar Buddy Ryan, was invited to a meeting to discuss stealing gold coins from a real estate offices in suburban Cicero.

"We never heard from him no more neither," Siegel testified.

When he got a call a week later from a man known as Snuffy, offering him a plan to steal the gold coins, Siegel knew he would be murdered next, he said. But he said his lawyer got him out of trouble by giving him a lie-detector test on which he denied any part in the jewelry burglary.

Siegel echoed what a number of former mobsters and lawmen have suggested, namely that Mendell and several others killed may have had nothing to do with the burglary of Accardo's home.

Siegel said a friend later told him that mob higher ups, enraged by the Accardo heist, were trying to send a message by murdering one burglar of each ethnic group.