Mob Bones Belong to Cousin of Hit Man Harry Aleman

Friends of ours: Harry Aleman
Friends of mine: Robert Charles Cruz

Just days after his cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, was sentenced for a murder, Robert Charles Cruz disappeared from his Kildeer home.

For nearly 10 years, authorities suspected Cruz had purposely vanished, but his credit cards and bank accounts never were touched. Last week, construction crews digging new sewers for a townhouse development in unincorporated DuPage County came across the body of a man wrapped in tarpaulin and carpet, buried 8 1/2 feet down. On Wednesday, the DuPage County coroner's office publicly identified that the man as Robert Charles Cruz, 50. He had been reported missing on Dec. 4, 1997.

Cruz's body was found just 50 yards from where two other organized crime-connected bodies were found in 1988. An informant had told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of former mob syndicate member Joseph Jerome Scalise.

At the time, an FBI task force descended on the area near Bluff Road and Illinois Highway 83 for five months and found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge, a minor associate of Gerald Scarpelli, a crime syndicate killer-turned-informant; and Mark Oliver, another minor organized crime figure.

Now, the FBI and DuPage County authorities are investigating Cruz's murder. Law enforcement sources said it appeared Cruz had been shot.

Cruz's body was identified through fingerprints and through tattoos on his arm, said Tom Simon, special agent and spokesman for the FBI. Family members have been notified, he said.

In addition to his familial relationship to Aleman, who remains in prison, Cruz had his own brushes with trouble. He spent 14 years on Death Row in Arizona before his conviction for hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law on New Year's Eve in 1980 was overturned and a new trial ordered. .

Prosecutors at the time said Cruz hired the men, including two from Chicago, to murder Patrick Redmond because the man refused to sell an interest in his Phoenix printing shop to Cruz, who wanted to use it to launder money from Las Vegas connections. Redmond's 70-year-old mother-in-law was visiting and died after her throat was cut.

Cruz was tried four more times. He was acquitted in 1995 after the jury decided the state's primary witness, a participant in the killings, was unreliable.

Cruz later moved to Kildeer and was a fixture at Harry Aleman's 1997 trial for the murder of a Teamsters' union official. Cruz sat every day in the courtroom where the attorney in his Arizona appeal, Kevin McNally, defended Aleman.

Cruz had been instrumental in Aleman's decision to change attorneys and hire McNally just before the trial. Days after Aleman was sentenced to 100 to 300 years in prison, Cruz disappeared. He had last been seen hanging Christmas lights from the gutters of his home.

Thanks to Angela Rozas and Maurice Possley

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Mob Hit Man Harry Aleman's Cousin Found in Mafia Graveyard

Construction workers laying sewer pipe found the skeletal remains of a former death row inmate with mob ties at a suburban Chicago site about 50 yards from where the bodies of two other men connected to organized crime were found in 1988.

The DuPage County coroner's office identified the latest body, found wrapped in a blue tarp, as Robert Charles Cruz. FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the body was identified through fingerprints and tattoos.

Cruz was 50 when he disappeared from his Kildeer home on Dec. 4, 1997. His cousin, reputed mob hit man Harry Aleman, had just been sentence to 100 to 300 years in prison for the 1972 murder of a Teamsters official. Cruz had been in the courtroom each day of Aleman's 1997 trial.

Cruz had also spent 14 years on death row in Arizona for allegedly hiring three men to kill a Phoenix businessman and his mother-in-law. That conviction was overturned in 1980 and a new trial was ordered. Cruz was tried four more times and acquitted in 1995.

The construction workers found Cruz's remains more than eight feet underground while laying sewer pipes for a new townhouse development.

Federal and county authorities are investigating Cruz's death as a homicide.

The other two bodies found in the area were located after an informant told the FBI there was a mob burial ground in DuPage County near the home of a former mob syndicate member. FBI agents found the remains of Robert Anthony Hatridge and Mark Oliver, both described as associates of organized crime figures.

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Sopranos Looking to do a Job

Friends of ours: Soprano Crime Family

The cast of "The Sopranos" is less worried about getting whacked than getting new jobs once the series is over in June.

At last night's humungous premiere at Radio City Music Hall, followed by a party that swamped Rockefeller Center, that seemed to be the uppermost thought in the minds of everyone from actors to crew.

Nevertheless, James Gandolfini, whose work has been so stellar as Tony Soprano, told me he's taking a year off after the show wraps. The final episode is still being worked on. "At least a year," he joked with me.

Gandolfini's running joke is that while he has been on the show, every movie he made has been so bad that it has wrecked the career of the star he "supported" in each film — think Ben Affleck.

In the next couple of weeks, he opens with John Travolta in a film that's being dumped, essentially. It's called "Lonely Hearts" and, well, fugeddaboutit. "That's right," Gandolfini laughed when we recalled the old joke. But it's also possible that he was so successful with the TV series, he may have to wait for success in films, I offered. "I hope you're right," he said. "But I'm still taking the time off."

Lorraine Bracco laughed heartily about the future. "They love you when you're on top. But wait 'til you're on the bottom," she cried.

Bracco's had a long enough career to know this isn't the end, but it may take a while to get over "The Sopranos." Most of her family, except her ailing mom, came to the premiere: her dad, two daughters, sister and brother-in-law, actor Aidan Quinn.

There were plenty of other Sopranos, dead and alive, all at Rockefeller Center, including Edie Falco, who left the party early to make a morning shoot for the show; Vince Curatola, who does such a magnificent job as Johnny Sack, head of the New York mob; Michael Imperioli, who plays Christopher; Drea de Matteo, whose Adrianna is still being discussed; Jamie-Lynn Sigler; Robert Iler; Dominic Chianese; Steve Schirippa; Aida Turturro; Steve Buscemi; and "Little" Steven Van Zandt, aka Silvio.

Curatola, by the way, doesn't have to worry about future work. He's just made an independent movie called "Frame of Mind" with "Law & Order" star Chris Noth. And he still sings occasionally with the rock group Chicago.

Buscemi, of course, is always busy. And Van Zandt is putting together a TV pilot for his "Underground Garage" station that he does on Sirius Satellite Radio — that is, when he's not playing in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Imperioli told me he's making movies in Portugal and Iceland.

Thanks to Roger Friedman

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