Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
In Chicago, the United States attorney, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, announced at a news conference the indictment of 14 reputed mob members and associates on charges of plotting at least 18 murders as far back as 1970.
In Mob Sweep, Feds Hope to Send Up the Clown
By MONICA DAVEY
CHICAGO, April 25 - The names read like a who's who from some faded blotter left behind at the Chicago Police Department's old State Street headquarters: Joseph (the Clown) Lombardo, Frank (the German) Schweihs, Frank (Gumba) Saladino, and on and on.
But on Monday, 14 men, including several who have for years been reputed to be in the city's top level of organized crime leaders, were being rounded up in connection with 18 murders that stretch back over four decades and had gone unsolved and, in some cases, been nearly forgotten.
Several of the accused are in their mid-70's now, and one, though only 59, was found dead, apparently of natural causes, when the authorities arrived on Monday to arrest him in the hotel room where he lived. A few of the others accused, meanwhile, had moved away to places like Florida and Arizona, better known for retirement.
Describing the 9-count, 41-page racketeering conspiracy indictment as putting a "hit on the mob," Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney here, said in a written statement, "After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime."
While arrests of organized crime figures are hardly unique in a city where Al Capone once worked, rarely have so many of its reputed high-level leaders been charged all at once. Nor, federal authorities said, has the entire "Chicago Outfit" before been deemed a criminal enterprise under federal racketeering laws.
"This really lays out the whole continuing criminal enterprise that is still going on," said Thomas Kirkpatrick, president of the Chicago Crime Commission, an anticrime group created in 1919 by Chicago business leaders who were increasingly worried that it could become too dangerous to conduct legitimate commerce in this town.
"People tend to forget what these guys are about," Mr. Kirkpatrick said. "They watch 'The Sopranos' or some of these movies about the mob, and they think it's just some colorful characters. The thing is, they're still doing this. These characters are still doing this."
Among the most notorious murders the authorities say they have solved with Monday's announcement: the 1986 death of Tony (the Ant) Spilotro, the organization's chief enforcer in Las Vegas, and his brother, Michael, who were buried in an Indiana cornfield. (Joe Pesci portrayed a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 movie "Casino.")
The authorities here say the indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday and unsealed on Monday, was years in the making. The Federal Bureau of Investigation dubbed their probe "Operation Family Secrets," and agents from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service began arresting the accused in Illinois, Florida and Arizona on Monday morning.
The indictment reads like a grade school textbook on Chicago's organized crime web, laying out its command structure (a boss, an under boss and crew bosses), its business endeavors (absurdly high-interest loans, sports bookmaking and video gambling enterprises), and its methods of avoiding the police (listening to police radios, talking on pay phones and using remote control devices to keep away from actual murder scenes).
Among those indicted were men the authorities say guided three of the city's most powerful neighborhood crews: James Marcello, 63, of the Melrose Park crew; Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, of the South Side/26th Street crew; and Mr. Lombardo, 75, of the Grand Avenue crew.
Mr. Calabrese "absolutely" denies the allegations against him and will plead innocent to the charges at trial, Joseph Lopez, his lawyer, said late Monday. "His reaction is that he's going to put this case in the hands of God and justice will prevail," Mr. Lopez said.
Mr. Lombardo, who lives in Chicago, was one of two accused whom the authorities were still seeking on Monday evening. On Monday afternoon, Rick Halprin, an attorney for Mr. Lombardo, said he did not know where Mr. Lombardo was and was uncertain whether Mr. Lombardo was even aware of the charges against him.
Four lawyers who represent some of the others named in the indictment did not return telephone calls from a reporter late Monday.
Eleven of the men are charged with racketeering conspiracy, including planning or agreeing to commit murder on behalf of the outfit or taking part in other illegal activities such as collecting "street tax," running gambling operations or obstructing justice on behalf of the organization. The three others were charged with illegal gambling or tax conspiracy.
Two retired Chicago police officers were among those arrested. The indictment says that when Anthony Doyle, now 60, was on the Chicago police force, he helped a mob leader by keeping him informed on an investigation of one of the unsolved killings. When that leader went to jail at one point, Mr. Doyle passed his messages to other members of the Chicago Outfit, according to the document.
The indictment also accuses Michael Ricci, 75, who retired from the police department and the Cook County Sheriff's Office, of helping pass messages from a jailed mob leader to others and of collecting money the leader was extorting.
The federal authorities declined to say how they had now solved 18 murder cases dating from 1970 to 1986, but Mr. Kirkpatrick, of the crime commission, said he understood that the authorities had been helped, in part, by analyzing DNA evidence.
On Monday, the authorities said their investigation would continue and that more arrests were possible.
The indictment itself has already spurred at least one new mystery. When agents on Monday arrived to arrest Mr. Saladino, they found him dead in the hotel room in Kane County, west of Chicago, where he had been living. Beside his body was tens of thousands of dollars in checks and cash. The authorities would not say where the money had come from.
Gretchen Ruethling contributed reporting for this article.
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