The Chicago Syndicate
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Monday, August 08, 2005

Unbridled Rage: A True Story of Organized Crime, Corruption, and Murder in Chicago

`Unbridled Rage: A True Story of Organized Crime, Corruption, and Murder in Chicago " (Berkley/Penguin) is a book written by Gene O'Shea.

It is about the Chicago Outfit's favorite murderous horseman, Silas Jayne, and his associates, the obese hit man Curtis Hansen, and Hansen's brother Ken Hansen, a horseman accused of using horses to get close to boys.

It is also about a triple murder of three such boys, the Schuessler-Peterson murders, in 1955. Bobby Peterson was 14. John Schuessler was 13, and his brother Anton was 11.

They waited almost 40 years for justice, until John Rotunno and Jim Grady, two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, took up the cold case and followed it relentlessly. "John Rotunno and Jim Grady from ATF wouldn't let it go," O'Shea said. "Those investigators were motivated by their professionalism, and by the fact that they were fathers. And I just felt I had to write the story."

O'Shea spent years covering the crime and courts beats for the Daily Southtown. Currently, he's the official spokesman for the Illinois Gaming Board. "I could identify with the boys," O'Shea told me. "Can't you? We all wanted adventure, and thought it special to go downtown when we were kids. That's what they did. They roamed around and looked for adventure."

I remember being 11 and roaming a bit. Perhaps you do as well. But we were lucky. We came home.

The boys were going downtown to a movie, to see some picture called "The African Lion." They ran into Ken Hansen. Two days later, their naked bodies were found in a ditch on a bridle path. The murders terrified the city.

O'Shea's book comes out this fall, but since I heard he was writing about the Schuessler-Peterson murders, I've been pestering him for a chance to read it. He gave me an advance copy the other day.

I read it steadily, in two sittings at a neighborhood coffee shop late into the night. There was plenty of light inside and the casual conversation of strangers and waitresses, then, finally, there was only the sound of the busboy vacuuming the carpet and the owner muttering over the cash register receipts at closing time.

Both nights it was quiet and pitch dark on the way to my car, and each time, listening to the night, I kept thinking about one passage in "Unbridled Rage."

I'm still thinking about it. I'll think about it for a long time.

It was about Hetty Salerno and how she wasn't a stranger to screams.

She was no stranger to screams because she'd heard all kinds. Only 10 or so years earlier, she'd been an ambulance driver in London during the Nazi bombardment of that city during World War II. But the war screams were nothing like those she heard from a boy on the night of Oct. 16, 1955, near the Idle Hour Stable across the road from her home in unincorporated Park Ridge, a stable owned by Silas Jayne.

The screams were terrible, "like someone beating the hell out of a child," she said.

It was a solid lead and the crime was so sensational and sensationalized--a public murder, a heater--that City Hall made sure there were plenty of police. Perhaps too many. And one officer talked to Salerno. Yet for some reason, investigators didn't follow up. It may have been a horrible mistake. Another theory is that police were steered away from Salerno's story--and the Jayne stable--by the political clout of Jayne's associates in the Chicago Outfit.

Police concentrated on other leads that led nowhere, or to tragedy, like Anton Schuessler Sr., father of two of the victims.

He was questioned, and harshly. Whether it was grief or the questioning and resulting shame or a combination, the man lost his mind. He was put in a psychiatric institution and subjected to electroshock therapy. The poor man died of a heart attack a month after his sons were killed.

Jayne's connections with organized crime, called the mob by outsiders and the Outfit by Chicagoans, were lengthy. "He'd have Outfit guys out to his stables, people like Sam DeStefano would show up, and dress up in full cowboy regalia and jump on horses and start shooting their six-shooters."

I can imagine the torturer "mad" Sam DeStefano in cowboy clothes. The guns were real. The fat Curt Hansen worked for DeStefano.

Those who were in Silas Jayne's way found themselves dead, including his brother, and a champion rider, and perhaps missing candy heiress Helen Brach.

Ken Hansen was convicted of the Schuessler-Peterson killings in 1995 and again in 2002 in a retrial. By then, Curtis Hansen and Silas Jayne were dead.

"This tells people working cold cases to never give up," O'Shea said. "Somebody knows something, and for various reasons, they keep their mouths shut. Silas Jayne died, and those who lived in fear of him were no longer afraid of what they knew."

Thanks to John Kass


Thursday, July 28, 2005

Reputed Genovese Crime Family Members Indicted in Federal Court

Twenty people, including reputed members of the Genovese organized crime family, have been arrested and charged with wide-ranging racketeering counts, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan announced Thursday.

Among the arrested were Matthew Ianniello, an acting Genovese family boss nicknamed "Matty the Horse," and Ciro Perrone, a Genovese capo, said David Kelley, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

All were charged with labor racketeering, extortion, a large-scale loan-sharking operation and the operation of illegal gambling businesses, according to a statement released by Kelley's office.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of extorting a medical center that rented office space from a transit union, enforcing loans at extortionate rates of interest, and operating illegal card games.

Prosecutors said Ianniello rose to the position of an acting boss of the Genovese family after the imprisonment of longtime boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante. Perrone took over Ianniello's role as capo, they said.

All defendants were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in Manhattan federal court, said Heather Tasker of the U.S. attorney's office.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Top Ten Answers To The Question, "How Hot Is It In New York"

From Late Night with David Letterman's Top 10 Answers to "How Hot is it in New York?"

9. "It's so hot mob informants look forward to getting dumped in the river

RICO indictment anyone?

Dick Cheney spoke at a fundraiser in New York on Monday for Congressman Vito Fossella. He called Supreme Court nominee John Roberts one of the country's very best lawyers. 

Why do they always assume the Italians need a really good lawyer?

Thanks to Argus!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Reports of Rick Rizzolo Dining with the Chicago Outfit's Joey "The Clown" Lombardo Should Close Doors of Crazy Horse Too Strip Club #LasVegas #Chicago

Mob-watchers from here to Chicago are buzzing over the news that organized crime members dined and discussed ways by which they might profit from a casino development in Rosemont, Ill.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was at the head of the table, at least metaphorically speaking, when the meal and meeting occurred in May 1999 at Armand's restaurant in a Chicago suburb, according to an FBI informant who monitored the supper.

Lombardo was there along with several mob soldiers, according to the recent testimony of Chicago FBI organized crime squad supervisor John Mallul, who spoke at an Illinois gaming hearing. The meeting supposedly included controversial Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens, a charge he vehemently has denied.

Informant skinny is often inaccurate, but until it's refuted the development is damning. It makes it appear that traditional organized crime was involved in the creation of the Emerald casino project.

One element of the story isn't much in doubt: A face in the crowd at the Lombardo dinner was Crazy Horse Too topless club owner Rick Rizzolo. You might know Rizzolo as the hail-fellow-well-met who for many years has contributed heavily to political campaigns. That is, until one of his executives was indicted and his club came under FBI and IRS investigative scrutiny.

The protestations of Rizzolo's attorneys aside, his close friend, Al Rapuano, already has admitted under oath in a civil deposition that he and Rizzolo attended a dinner with Lombardo. Rapuano didn't specifically name Armand's in May 1999, but I presume the point of this exercise is the organized crime link, not whether they like their steaks medium rare.

Rizzolo evaded questions about the Lombardo connection from attorney Stan Hunterton during a deposition this week, but the Rapuano confirmation is rock solid. The Lombardo-Rizzolo link is an element of a story the Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported May 1.

If Rizzolo held a gaming license, he'd be toast. Although the adult license is considered privileged in Southern Nevada, this side of criminal convictions it's rare to see a licensee lose the privilege of selling overpriced booze to gawking tourists and having skinny girls dance with their tops off.

It's also no crime to chew the fat with the Godfather, as long as you're not paying him tribute and he doesn't secretly have a piece of your topless club.

It does, however, tend to make a laughing stock out of the City Council and Metro licensing investigators who, at least in theory, are supposed to keep the wiseguy element out of our proliferating girlie rackets. Let's just say they've fallen short of the mark on this one.

Authorities would like to call Lombardo to have him confirm the meeting, but that's not possible. He's made himself scarce since being indicted in a separate, murder-riddled RICO case. He's currently wearing funny-nose glasses, calling himself John Smith or some other obvious alias, and I guess Rizzolo's friend and former employee Rocco Lombardo, Joey's brother, doesn't know where to look for him.

Hanging with an infamous mob boss, albeit one who in 1999 had paid his societal debts, is pretty cavalier for a man whose license to practice T&A in Las Vegas is revocable. Who knows, maybe Rizzolo was picking up pointers from Lombardo on how to deal with local politicians. ("Gee, Mr. L., should I purchase them one at a time, or save money by buying in bulk?" "Well, Rick, it's been my experience that it pays to stock up on politicians for use at a later time.")

Allowing Rizzolo to continue to operate in the face of all this controversy and the promise of a federal indictment makes the City Council look particularly weak.

News reports don't equate to felony charges, and no realistic person expects the gentlemen's club racket actually to be run by gentlemen, but Rizzolo's cover as the bon vivant of the silicone circuit pretty much has been blown to pieces by his mob connections.

Unless Rizzolo bought tickets to a "Goodfellas" fantasy weekend, breaking bread with a big-time gangster should be more than enough to close the Crazy Horse Too.

Thanks to John L. Smith.

More from John L. Smith


Monday, July 18, 2005

Junior Gotti Writes of Regrets

The son of late Mob boss John Gotti says he regrets "involvement in this life" and doesn't want his children to follow his path.

John "Junior" Gotti, set to go to trial next week on charges he tried to kill the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group, never defines "this life" in an interview published Monday in the New York Post. "My father was such a dynamic figure that you felt the need to be around him," Gotti wrote from the Metropolitan Correctional Center. "Whatever the sacrifice, he would never betray what he believed to be right -- for better or for worse."

Sunday, July 03, 2005

The Mafia Boss

Mafia BossI found a pretty cool simulation Mafia game which you can find by clicking on the icon. This is a free web based Massive Multiplayer Online Game, based on the Real Mafia Life so called "La Cosa Nostra".

You wanna be a real Mafia Don like Al Capone, John Gotti or Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo and have all the little mafiosos "Kiss Your Ring ... or Die"?

Enter the The Mafia Boss World, where you will become a boss of a crime gang. You have the choice to collect money from your casinos, whorehouses, loan sharks and gambling dens. You could also produce drugs, liquor and Counterfeit money. You will use bribes, and minor crimes during your daily routine. You will embark in street wars against other gangsters for control. You can bring your gang forth to join a Crime Family with a well structured hierarchy or even form your own Crime Family. The options are endless under a proven business logic with extra scope for illegal businesses and use your legal businesses to clear out the money.

When first starting out, building a strong crew is the best way to go. Keep your happiness levels up, or else your units will start to leave you. Buy liquor and have coke for your operatives; defensive units need guns, weed and liquor. Assure that they are enough defensive units to protect your operatives. If all else fails to keep your operatives happy raise the payroll, see what makes each group happy. Glocks are the best for a starter, when you can afford it go straight up to AK's. Cars can make a difference while doing a drive-by or being attacked. Best car to get, of course, is the S-CLass Limo but if u cant afford it go with the next best for you. The last thing to remember is try everything in the game!! If you don't like the city you're in, leave! If you aren't making enough money try other ways to get money (attack someone in your range) but this is the real Mafia World "an eye for an eye, an arm, and a leg"

Affliction!

Affliction Sale

Flash Mafia Book Sales!