Details Emerge of the Chicago Outfit Connection to the Outlaws Motorcyle Club

Just as the mob reflects only a sliver of Italian America, federal authorities say hardened criminals make up only a small portion of the Outlaws motorcycle club, an element known in biker circles as the "one percent." But it is those Outlaws and their associates in the Outfit that authorities say have built a "Double O Alliance."

Prosecutors alleged that in 2003, the Double O Alliance bombed a videogame company in west suburban Berwyn.

C&S Coin Operated Amusements had been cutting in on the mob's illegal video poker racket, according to federal agents who say the bombing was a message from the mob.

Last week, the feds raided several Outlaw clubhouses in metro Chicago, seizing numerous weapons including a live grenade, police badges, a bulletproof vest and a stun gun. And they made two arrests. One man was 41-year-old Chicago Outlaw Mike Polchan, whose arm tattoo stands for "God forgives, Outlaws don't." The other was 84-year-old Samuel Volpendesto from Oak Brook. According to prosecutors, Volpendesto ran Outfit strip clubs and a call girl business.

According to federal charges, both men carried out the 2003 bombing of C&S Amusements. On a secretly recorded FBI tape played in court Wednesday, prosecutors say Volpendesto was heard describing the bomb had one long wick and a back up as well.

"You light both of them. In the event one don't work, you got at least a chance the other one will work," the recording says.

Volpendesto's family and his lawyer didn't want to speak publicly Wednesday, and Polchan's attorney declined an interview.

Prosecutors say a suburban Outfit member nicknamed "The Large Guy" ordered the Outlaws to bomb C&S. That would be the Chicago mobster - according to federal sources - Mike Sarno, the hoodlum who used to be known as "fat boy" before going to prison for mob crimes. Now out and all grown up at age 50, Sarno lives in the suburbs with a wife and kids. He is known as "The Large Guy."

When FBI and ATF agents raided Sarno's home last week, they seized a large quantity of cash, but he was not arrested. "No comment means no comment," Sarno said in response to questions.

The Outfit-Outlaw search warrants, executed at the same time last week, were no coincidence "It's been an ongoing effort from, perhaps, the beginning, for both the Outfit and the motorcycle gangs," said James Wagner, Chicago Crime Commission.

Their roots are in the same era. The Outfit grew from Al Capone's violent mob in the 1930s, just as the Outlaws motorcycle club was born in west suburban McCook in 1935.

The Outlaws' Chicago South Side club headquarters, at the corner of 25th and Rockwell, is non-descript. The front door on the corner though is solid steel. And there is a small bulletproof window. And if that wouldn't be enough to stop an attack, there is a sliding steel plate that can be drawn in front of the main door with its own bulletproof glass right in the middle.

The FBI says there are more than 250 Outlaw chapters worldwide and 38 affiliated gangs in metro Chicago. "You are going to have a small percentage who have a willingness to do other things than just ride a bike, and the Outfit will use that," Wagner said.

In the Berwyn bombing case, that 84-year-old defendant wants out on bond. He says he's suffering from cancer, heart disease, bad hearing, two artificial knees, poor blood flow, high cholesterol, carotid artery problems, herniated disc, sleep apnea and is on oxygen. Prosecutors want him behind bars and say he's "a career criminal who has not been slowed by Father Time."

Watch the Video Report from Investigator Chuck Goudie

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Sneak Peek at Classic Gangster Era Journal's Latest Issue

The latest issue of On The Spot Journal will be out soon. Some of the stories that they are currently investigating and putting together include:

Fred "Killer" Burke and Charles Skelly: A Fateful Meeting in Berrien County
by Chriss Lyon

Dutch Schultz's Missing Millions
by John Conway

Roy Gardner: Last of the Old West Badmen
by Robert E. Bates

The Last Days of the Brady Gang
by Richard Shaw

Plus Officer Memorials, News & Events, Book Reviews, etc.

And much more, including our FBI Centennial issue!

Be sure to check it out.

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Pop Culture Portrayals of the Mob in Tampa

•"GoodFellas" (1990) Tampa is featured in one of the best gangster movies. The mobsters played by Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro are sent from New York to get money from a man in Tampa. The short segment begins with the pair beating the man in a car, then taking him to the "Tampa City Zoo" and holding him over the lion cages. "They must really feed each other to the lions down there, because the guy gave the money right up," says Liotta.

•"The Punisher" (2004) John Travolta plays a ruthless crime lord who orders the death of FBI Agent Frank Castle's family - and then pays the price when Castle becomes the hero, The Punisher. Part of that price is getting dragged through a parking lot off Ashley Drive in downtown.

•"White Shadow." This 2006 novel by former Tampa Tribune reporter Ace Aktins provides a fictional account of Tampa during the life of Charlie Wall, the local crime king who ran things in Tampa in the 1930s and 1940s, only to eventually be moved out by Santo Trafficante Sr.

•"Donnie Brasco" (1997). The title character, played by Johnny Depp, is actually the FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrates the mob. A segment of the movie depicts a trip by Brasco and Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino) to Tampa, with shots of them at the beach and the dog track. The prosecutor on the case, Kevin R. March, was from Tampa.

•"JFK" (1991). Oliver Stone's labyrinthine film about the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 mentions the mob as one of the possible suspects, and mentions Tampa mob leader Santo Trafficante Jr.

•"Ocean's Eleven" (2001). They're not exactly the mob, but Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) come to Derby Lanes in St. Petersburg to recruit Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) for their team of thieves pulling off a heist in Las Vegas

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