Barrier Island Graphics Forums - Mob Hit!
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fletcher
Official BiG Element
5042
Jun 2003
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Monday April 25, 2005 2:13 PM
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Feds bring indictments in old mob murders
By Mike Robinson
The Associated Press
Published April 25, 2005, 12:48 PM CDT
Fourteen reputed mob members and associates have been indicted on charges of plotting at least 18 murders, some going back as far as 1970, federal officials announced Monday.
Those indicted include Joey ``The Clown' Lombardo, long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in the Chicago area. U.S attorney spokesman Randall Samborn said authorities were looking for Lombardo.
The previously unsolved murders included those of the mob's top man in Las Vegas, Tony Spilotro, and his brother, Michael, who were buried alive in an Indiana cornfield, according to the nine-count indictment.
``This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the mob,' U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement. ``After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime.'
``Tony the Ant' Spilotro, a Chicago mob enforcer, ruled Las Vegas in the 1970s and early 1980s. Spilotro, 48, and brother Michael, 41, were last seen alive on June 14, 1986. Their badly beaten bodies were found buried in the Indiana field eight days later.
Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 movie ``Casino.'
FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents began arresting the defendants Monday morning in Illinois, Arizona and Florida as a result of a long-standing investigation dubbed ``Operation Family Secrets,' which was aimed at clearing unsolved mob hits.
One defendant was found dead by the agents, apparently of natural causes, authorities said.
The operation has been one of the biggest investigations of organized crime activities in the Chicago area in years and is believed to be aimed at some of the mob's top leaders.
Federal prosecutors said 18 previously unsolved murders and one attempted murder -- all of which took place between 1970 and 1986 in the Chicago area and one in Arizona -- are at the core of the racketeering indictment.
Among those charged were two retired law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.
They said all of those charged ``are members of or in some manner associated with The Chicago Outfit, a criminal enterprise also known as the Chicago Syndicate and the Chicago mob.'
Eleven of those named in the indictment were charged with conspiracy, including plotting to commit murder as part of such mob activities as loansharking and bookmaking.
The indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed Monday.
Prosecutors said that seven of the 11 defendants charged in the conspiracy count of the indictment actually committed murder or agreed to commit murder.
``The charges announced today are a milestone event in the FBI's battle against organized crime here in Chicago,' said Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.
The 75-year-old Lombardo was previously convicted in U.S. District Court in Chicago in another major mob investigation of corruption involving the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.
Besides Lombardo, those charged in the latest indictment are: James Marcello, 63, of Lombard; Michael Marcello, 55, of Schaumburg; Nicholas Ferriola, 29, of Westchester; Joseph Venezia, 62, of Hillside; Thomas Johnson, 49, of Willow Springs; Dennis Johnson, 34, of Lombard; Frank Saladino, 59, of Hampshire and Michael Ricci, 75, of Streamwood.
Prosecutors said Saladino, who formerly lived in Freeport and Rockford, was found dead by agents in a hotel room where he was living in Hampshire in Kane County.
Two defendants, Frank Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., and Anthony Doyle, 60, of Wickenburg, Ariz., were being arrested in their states Monday, officials said.
They said three defendants, Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62, of Chicago, his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, of Oak Brook, and Paul Schiro, 67, of Phoenix already were in federal custody.
Tribune Article
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You are the most shot ever. Game time is going to be hurtin time for you my friend!! --Clamdigger
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fletcher
Official BiG Element
5042
Jun 2003
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Tuesday April 26, 2005 4:25 PM
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Suspect found dead in motel
By Richard Wronski and Liam Ford, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Todd Lighty and Tribune wire services contributed to this report
Published April 26, 2005
Frank Saladino almost always dressed in black, wore a black baseball cap and paid his $1,200-a-month motel bill in cash from a wallet bulging with hundreds. The night clerk at the Super 8 in Hampshire joked with him, saying he looked like a mob hit man.
According to federal prosecutors, that's exactly what Saladino--also known as "Gumba"--was. But it was federal agents who were in for a surprise Monday when they showed up to arrest him at the motel where he had been living for two months.
Saladino was dead and had been for several hours, according to the Kane County coroner's office, which said he apparently died of natural causes, though a final determination was pending toxicology tests. About $25,000 in cash and $70,000 in checks were found in the room, officials said.
As word spread that Saladino was one of 14 men indicted in an alleged mob conspiracy linked to 18 murders and a web of gambling intrigue, workers at the motel and a local restaurant were left sorting out memories of Saladino, a large man who was often very sick.
"I can't believe I called a hit man a hit man to his face," said night clerk Glenn Stanton, 35, who said Saladino was jocular when he wasn't ailing. Others found him to be gruff.
Clerks at the 2-story, faux stucco motel said Saladino, who had checked in Feb. 24, had been scheduled to leave the motel Monday.
"He was sick the whole time he was here," said Stanton. "I think he had the flu or something," and at one point, he did not leave his room for two weeks straight because of his illness.
The owner and a regular deliveryman at Maria's Pizza in downtown Hampshire, from which Saladino ordered about four times a week during his stay at the motel, also said the reputed mobster appeared ill when they delivered food to Room 101, a corner room on the motel's first floor.
"You could tell he was sick," said Chuck Perry, 49, the deliveryman.
Standing about 6 foot 2, Saladino weighed almost 400 pounds and walked with a cane because of a bad leg, Stanton and a day clerk at the motel said.
Marco Russo, 41, Maria's owner, said that when he made one delivery to the motel, the room was messy, and Saladino had an array of pill bottles containing prescription drugs and vitamins on a night table. On another nightstand Saladino had a picture of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix and a rosary.
Saladino kept his money in odd places--including under the bed, and in his refrigerator, Russo said. Saladino usually ordered three or four dinners all for himself, either spaghetti olio--with extra garlic, which he told Maria's staff was for his health--or chicken marsala.
And though Saladino carried a huge roll of $100 bills, Perry said he was not a good tipper.
Once when Perry was delivering food, Saladino asked him to go out to his 2000 black Cadillac to get him a pair of pants, because he did not feel like going out to the car to get them. The car was messy and full of laundry.
"When he first checked in, he was dressed real nice," but usually casually, said the motel day clerk, who asked not to be named. Saladino also wore jewelry, including "rings, bracelets, watches, all gold."
Despite suspicions, those who got to know Saladino did not seriously think he might be a criminal--until Monday. The day clerk at the motel had noticed that Saladino checked in using two construction businesses as his address references, but gave no address for the businesses. Court and other records indicated he may have been president of one of the businesses he listed, Worldwide General Contractors of Rockford.
Stanton and Perry would "just joke around" about what Saladino really did for a living.
They went so far as to give Saladino a fake mob nickname, and took to calling him Frank "The Hammer," joking he was a hit man or in the witness protection program. And he would good-naturedly kid around with them about it, Stanton said. They were stunned to hear on Monday that prosecutors had alleged Saladino was a member of the Outfit's notorious 26th Street or South Side crew.
One day Stanton was talking with Saladino and jokingly asked him "are you a hit man or something?" and Saladino just laughed.
Though the day clerk said Saladino was often rude, Stanton said he got along fine with him.
Saladino would leave the motel in the morning and come back every evening between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., often ordering food from Maria's.
He would carry briefcases and always have a lot of paperwork with him, Stanton said.
The day clerk said that on Sunday, Saladino called the front desk twice, both times sounding disoriented. His first call was accidental--he was trying to dial an outside operator to get a number, and forgot to dial the initial "8" that would have given him an outside line. The second call was to the motel's front desk to get the number for Maria's, the day clerk said.
"He was very disoriented," the clerk said.
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`Clown' missing from mob
Lombardo vanishes from regular haunts
By Ray Gibson
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 26, 2005
For more than 50 years, Joseph Lombardo has called the West Town neighborhood his home--at least, whenever he wasn't in prison.
An early riser, he was often seen since his 1992 release from prison riding his bicycle with a small cigar firmly planted between his lips.
But when federal agents went to the 2200 block of West Ohio Street Monday morning to pick him up, Lombardo was nowhere to be found.
Lombardo was one of just two of the indicted members of the mob not under arrest when the Operation Family Secrets charges were announced Monday afternoon.
Lombardo, 76, has known he has been a target for months. His attorney, Rick Halprin, has said Lombardo was being looked at as a suspect in the 1974 slaying of Daniel Seifert. Seifert was a Bensenville businessman scheduled to testify against Lombardo and others in a Teamster pension fund fraud case.
Halprin has said Lombardo was at a Chicago police station at the time of the slaying.
"We will have to wait and see," Halprin said of whether his client would surrender.
Halprin doubted Lombardo would be wearing the famous newspaper mask he made after a 1981 court appearance. It was that goofiness, and Lombardo's flair for the theatrical, that led police to give him the nickname "The Clown."
The indictment does not spell out what role Lombardo allegedly played in the killings. "It is pitifully sketchy," said Halprin.
Lombardo has done two stretches in federal prison. He was released in 1992 after serving 10 years on two separate federal convictions. He was convicted of conspiring to bribe U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon of Nevada for help in defeating a trucking deregulation bill and convicted in a mob scheme to skim $2 million from a Las Vegas casino.
Robert Fuesel, who worked organized crime for 28 years for the Internal Revenue Service, said Lombardo was not only the chairman of the board, but also an enforcer.
He said he once surrounded Lombardo's house with 10 agents as he hid inside to avoid being served with a subpoena.
Fuesel told Lombardo's wife that the agents were not going to leave, and Lombardo came out a half hour later and accepted the subpoena.
But Monday morning, Lombardo was nowhere to be found.
The victims
Among federal indictments announced Monday were charges related to 18 unsolved murders and one attempted murder between 1970 and 1986.
1 MICHAEL FRANK "HAMBONE" ALBERGO
Date of murder: August 1970
How he was killed: Disappeared
Motive for murder: Albergo was a mob enforcer who vanished after being charged in connection with a loan-shark operation.
In 2003, FBI agents excavated a parking lot near U.S. Cellular Field on a tip that his bones were buried there.
2 DANIEL SEIFERT
Date: Sept. 27, 1974
How killed: Seifert was killed with shotgun blasts ouside his Bensenville factory.
Motive: Seifert was scheduled to testify against Outfit leaders accused of defrauding the Teamsters' pension fund.
3 PAUL HAGGERTY
Date: June 24, 1976 (in Chicago)
How killed: Not available
Motive: Not available
4 HENRY COSENTINO
Date: March 15, 1977
How killed: His body was found in the trunk of a car at the Chicago auto pound.
He had been killed by blunt force to the neck.
Motive: Not available
5 JOHN MENDELL
Date: Jan. 16, 1978
How killed: He was found dead in the trunk of his car in Chicago after being tortured and having his throat slit.
Motive: He was wanted by police following the murder of a member of a burglary ring.
6/7 DONALD RENNO / VINCENT MORETTI
Date: Jan. 31, 1978
How killed: Both men were found in the back of Renno's car in Cicero with their throats cut.
Motive: Police suspect Moretti's burglary ring was fencing goods in Las Vegas against the mob's wishes.
8/9 WILLIAM AND CHARLOTTE DAUBER
Date: July 2, 1980
How killed: The Daubers were gunned down as they drove on a rural road in Will County.
Motive: William Dauber, a suspected mob killer, had been arrested on federal drug charges and Outfit leaders were afraid he'd turn informant.
10 WILLIAM "BUTCH" PETROCELLI
Date: Dec. 30, 1980
How killed: He was found in the back seat of his car in Cicero with his throat slashed and his face burned.
Motive: Outfit leaders reportedly suspected Petrocelli of skimming collection money and shaking down robbers without permission.
11 MICHAEL CAGNONI
Date: June 24, 1981
How killed: A radio-controlled bomb beneath his car exploded as he drove on a tollway ramp at Ogden Avenue and I-294 in DuPage County.
Motive: Sources said he supervised the mob's produce hauling operations and was suspected of holding back some of the profits.
12 NICHOLAS D'ANDREA
Date: Sept. 13, 1981
How killed: He was found murdered in the trunk of his car in Chicago Heights.
Motive: Mob associates suspect he was involved in arranging a hit on mob figure Alfred Pilotto.
13/14 RICHARD D. ORTIZ/ ARTHUR MORAWSKI
Date: July 23, 1983
How killed: Both men were shot to death while sitting in a car outside a Cicero bar owned by Ortiz.
Motive: Not available
15 EMIL VACI
Date: June 7, 1986
How killed: He was found shot in the head in a drainage ditch in Phoenix.
Motive: Weeks before his death he appeared before a grand jury investigating the Spilotro brothers in Las Vegas.
16/17 THE SPILOTRO BROS.
Date: June 14, 1986
How killed: The brothers were beaten, and buried in a shallow grave in a northwest Indiana cornfield.
Motive: Mob bosses allegedly were not happy with how Anthony Spilotro, an Outfit enforcer, was running operations in Las Vegas.
18 JOHN FECAROTTA
Date: Sept. 14, 1986
How killed: Fecarotta, a longtime mob muscleman, was gunned down outside a bingo hall on Belmont Avenue.
Motive: An informant later told federal agents Fecarotta was killed for botching the burials of the Spilotros.
Note: Charges also include the attempted murder of an unnamed victim in Lake County on April 24, 1982.
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You are the most shot ever. Game time is going to be hurtin time for you my friend!! --Clamdigger
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