Court Appearance for "The German"

Friends of ours: Frank "The German" Schweihs, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo

A reputed enforcer for the Chicago mob who eluded capture for seven months after being indicted on murder charges is expected to appear in court today. Frank "The German" Schweihs was captured two weeks ago in Kentucky.

Prosecutors say Schweihs has been moved to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago. He'll appear today before a federal magistrate judge for an initial appearance.

Schweihs is one of eleven defendants charged in a federal indictment with conspiring to commit 18 murders. The murders include the June 1986 hit on Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the mob's man in Las Vegas for two decades.

One other defendant remains at large. F.B.I agents are still hunting for Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who is thought to be one of the senior figures in the Chicago mob.

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Cops and Mobsters

Friends of ours: Colombo Crime Family, Nicholas Grancio, Bonanno Crime Family, Lawrence Mazza, Carmine Persico

There were two surveillance teams on the streets of southern Brooklyn that day in January, 1992. One was the law: a task force of federal agents and police detectives. The other was the mob: a crew of gangsters who had disguised their sedan with a fake police light and a cardboard cup of coffee on the dashboard.

Although they came from opposing sides, their target was the same: a Colombo family captain by the name of Nicholas Grancio. The agents and detectives wanted to tail their mark at the height of a bloody Mafia civil war. The gangsters, with revenge in mind, had a darker purpose: They wanted him dead. Soon after the detectives left that day, the gangsters arrived, and got their wish.

What eventually happened that day, near Avenue U and McDonald Avenue, is now the subject of a new investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's office, according to law enforcement officials who have been briefed on the case. Fourteen years after Mr. Grancio was murdered, investigators are trying to determine if a former F.B.I. agent, who supervised the government surveillance team, may have had a hand in his death.

The investigation has focused on that agent, R. Lindley DeVecchio, a career investigator and onetime head of the F.B.I.'s Colombo and Bonanno families squads. Mr. DeVecchio, who is now retired, had developed a remarkable mole within the Mafia, a grim Colombo family killer named Gregory Scarpa Sr. They became close, so close that Mr. DeVecchio would chat with Mr. Scarpa at his kitchen table while two of his F.B.I. colleagues waited in the living room. And close enough for other agents to whisper to their bosses that Mr. DeVecchio had crossed a line.

It was Mr. Scarpa's hit team that pulled alongside Mr. Grancio's car on Jan. 7, 1992, and dispatched him with a shotgun blast to the head. What investigators now want to know is if Mr. DeVecchio had ordered a withdrawal of his own surveillance team and, in so doing, cleared the way for Mr. Scarpa and his crew to swoop down on Mr. Grancio .

Word of the investigation has reached F.B.I. headquarters in Washington, where top-ranking federal officials have been briefed about the case. An F.B.I. spokesman, John Miller, said yesterday that he could not comment. Mr. DeVecchio's lawyer, Douglas Grover, has dismissed the current inquiry as baseless, insisting his client has done nothing wrong.

What breathed new life into a 14-year-old murder case remains unclear, though one law enforcement official said the district attorney's office recently received a tip from an informant. Among the people expected to be interviewed are two former police detectives who were on the surveillance team and who recall being pulled back by the F.B.I. to the agency's New York headquarters from the streets of Gravesend, Brooklyn, only hours before Mr. Grancio was killed.
Already, investigators have made arrangements to speak to a former mobster who was part of the hit team and now lives in Florida. The man, Lawrence Mazza, said in an interview that he remembers being surprised a decade ago when federal agents who arrested him kept asking him if he knew that the surveillance team had, in fact, been sent away before the hit team struck.

On the other hand, an F.B.I. agent who worked for Mr. DeVecchio and directed the surveillance team has filed an affidavit suggesting that Mr. Grancio was killed at a time when the authorities typically did not have him under surveillance. Remarkably, this agent was one of the first to raise his voice against Mr. DeVecchio, sparking an internal Justice Department investigation that examined charges against Mr. DeVecchio that his relationship with Mr. Scarpa had been untoward.

The Justice Department's two-year inquiry heard a host of complaints by colleagues - including charges that Mr. DeVecchio had leaked information to Mr. Scarpa and had helped him track rivals, which Mr. DeVecchio denied. And in September 1996, the government declined to bring charges. The tangled tale of Lin DeVecchio, the diamond-cuff-linked agent, and Gregory Scarpa, the gangster who died of AIDS in 1994, has long stood as one of the odder stories from the underworld. The current chapter homes in on a few short months in 1991 and 1992, after the boss of the Colombo family, Carmine Persico, was sent to prison and its opposing factions went to war.

Mr. Scarpa was a leader of the loyalist brigade and feared for his life. He suspected Mr. Grancio of having tried to kill him and, according to court documents, set about to seek revenge. The task force run by Mr. DeVecchio was charged with ending the gruesome violence that the war had wrought. To that end, two detectives, Joe Simone and Patrick Maggiore, were sent to watch Mr. Grancio on Jan. 7, 1992, from a post called Plant 26, near Avenue U and McDonald Avenue.

"It was a routine day," said Mr. Simone, who is retired and lives with his family on Staten Island. Then, he said, a call came in with orders to return to 26 Federal Plaza, the local F.B.I. headquarters, for a meeting. "It was kind of unusual," he said, to be pulled off in the middle of a tail. "Very unusual." According to Mr. Simone's duty log, he was at Plant 26 from 12:40 to 1:30 p.m. The next entry reads: "1330-1440 ERT 26 Fed Pl w/Maggiore," which meant that, with his partner, Mr. Simone was en route to the F.B.I. office from 1:30 to 2:40 p.m.

Around 4 p.m. that day, shocking news buzzed through the office: Nicky Grancio had just been killed. "We were called and we went back," Mr. Maggiore, also retired, said in a separate interview. "Then he gets whacked when we're supposed to be on him. We looked at each other and couldn't believe it."

The man who pulled the trigger that day was a fit young up-and-comer in the Colombo family named Larry Mazza. Over surf-and-turf at a Florida steakhouse, Mr. Mazza, having served his term in prison, recalled how he, Mr. Scarpa and a third man spotted Mr. Grancio, followed him through Lady Moody Square - close to where the detectives had been parked - and pulled up beside his car. Mr. Mazza leaned his torso out the back window, put a shotgun near his victim's head and fired, he said.

Mr. Scarpa admitted his role in the killing. And when Mr. Mazza was later arrested, he agreed to cooperate with the F.B.I. He said he remembered thinking it was odd that the agents who debriefed him kept asking him if the gunmen knew that the government surveillance team had been pulled back. A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, declined to comment.

Mr. Grover said that his client, Mr. DeVecchio, has been through this before - the long grind of an investigation. Indeed, during the F.B.I.'s internal inquiry, Mr. DeVecchio submitted an affidavit in which he presented his relationship with Mr. Scarpa as an appropriate law enforcement tool. The only thing he ever received from Mr. Scarpa, he said, was a Cabbage Patch doll, a bottle of wine and a pan of lasagna.

Mr. DeVecchio later told investigators he gave the doll away to a friend's niece. "I gave the bottle of wine to someone whom I don't recall," he said, "and I consumed the tray of lasagna."

Thanks to Alan Feuer

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Mafia Articles Re-Emerge in Rockford after 21 Years.

Friends of ours: Frank G. Saladino, Salvatore "Sam" Galluzzo, William Daddano Jr., Anthony A. Cardamone
Friends of mine: Nick S. Boscarino

The Chicago Mob has not limited its activities to just the Windy City. In fact, in the Rock River Top 10 , the Mafia jumped to #3 on the list of Rockford's top stories for 2005.

Even before U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced in late April the indictment of alleged Mob hitman from Rockford, Frank G. Saladino, The Rock River Times published articles concerning past Mob activity in the area. According to the Kane County coroner, Saladino was found dead of "natural causes" in a rural Kane County hotel room April 25-the same day he was indicted on federal charges of murder and other undisclosed "criminal" allegations that were performed by Saladino on behalf of the Chicago Mafia, which is known as "The Outfit."

After the indictment, several articles described Saladino's links to former business partner Salvatore "Sam" Galluzzo and the Rockford Housing Authority. Galluzzo was identified as an alleged Mob member in a March 4, 1984, article published by the Rockford Register Star.

Paul S. Nicolosi, City of Loves Park attorney and owner of the law firm Nicolosi and Associates, P.C., was also business partners with Galluzzo in the development firm Buckley Partners LLC-a frequent contributor to local political campaign coffers.

During former Illinois Governor George Ryan's term, owners of Buckley Partners-Nicolosi, Galluzzo and Galluzzo's brother Natale Gallluzzo-were recipients of at least two state contracts. One of those contracts was between the Illinois Attorney General's office and Buckley Partners, which leased office space for the attorney general's regional headquarters at 7230 Argus Drive in Rockford. Nicolosi also announced he would develop a $5 million mixed-use office building at South Church and Chestnut streets, across from the new federal courthouse. Nicolosi or attorneys in his firm represent the municipalities of Rockton, Roscoe, Loves Park and Caledonia.

Also in the news was reputed Mob associate and millionaire Nick S. Boscarino of South Barrington. He purchased a local restaurant and other area properties since 2004. Boscarino is currently serving time in federal prison on fraud charges for bilking the Village of Rosemont of money related to undisclosed insurance fees.

And Rockford Police Chief Dominic Iasparro revealed he and other police officers destroyed files in the mid-1980s, which concerned alleged Rockford Mob members. Iasparro said the file purging was connected to a nationwide effort to destroy such files.

Rockfordian Joseph W. Saladino Jr., 59, a cousin of Frank G. Saladino, reported to federal prison Jan. 25 in Sandstone, Minn.

Joe Saladino's trip up the river to the Gopher State comes nearly eight years after being caught with a machine gun, butcher knife, bolt cutter, hand saw and other weapons in the trunk of his car.

The Rock River Times revealed Edolo J. "Zeke" Giorgi, former Rockford alderman and state representative, once worked for a Mob-owned distributing company. The now-defunct Northern Illinois Music, Inc./Midwest Distributing Company in Rockford was partially owned by Chicago Mafia members William Daddano Jr., and Anthony A. Cardamone.

Giorgi died in October 1993.

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FBI Agent assists Mobster?

Friends of ours: Colombo Crime Family, Nicholas Grancio, Gregory Scarpa Sr.,

The Brooklyn district attorney's office is investigating whether a former F.B.I. agent may have helped a Mafia mole murder a rival in a 1992 gangland killing. Investigators are looking into whether the former agent, R. Lindley DeVecchio, may have helped a Colombo family gangster, who was working secretly as his informer, kill a rival in the mob, according to a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the case.

The investigation concerns the killing of Nicholas Grancio on the streets of southern Brooklyn on Jan. 7, 1992, after a joint F.B.I.- New York Police Department surveillance team was called off of a mission to watch him. The official said investigators were trying to determine whether Mr. DeVecchio, a former organized-crime investigator for the F.B.I., was the one who withdrew the surveillance team and, if so, whether that withdrawal was timed to allow his Mafia informant, Gregory Scarpa Sr., to sweep down on Mr. Grancio with a well-armed hit squad and assassinate him.

When Mr. Grancio was killed - in his car, by a shotgun blast to the head - it was at the height of the Colombo family wars, an internecine squabble in which two factions of the family murderously fought each other for control. According to court documents, Mr. Scarpa was seeking revenge that day against Mr. Grancio: He was under the impression that Mr. Grancio had had a role in an attempt on his own life, the documents show. But the investigation by Brooklyn prosecutors is the first real indication that law enforcement officials are at least concerned that Mr. DeVecchio may have had a role in Mr. Grancio's murder. In the mid-1990's, Mr. DeVecchio was investigated for more than two years in an internal F.B.I. inquiry concerning allegations that he had had an improper relationship with Mr. Scarpa. Mr. DeVecchio was exonerated by the F.B.I. in 1996, and he retired shortly after the investigation ended.

Yesterday, his lawyer, Douglas Grover, said the current inquiry was baseless and "laughable." "He was innocent then," Mr. Grover said, "and he's innocent now."

The law enforcement official said prosecutors from the district attorney's office have already gone to Washington to brief the F.B.I. on their investigation, which adds yet another chapter to a tale long told among mob connoisseurs. Indeed, the tangled bond between Mr. DeVecchio, one of the agency's top mob investigators, and Mr. Scarpa, one of the Mafia's most brutal and ingenious killers, is one of the stranger relationships in Mafia lore.

The two started working together in the early 1980's, court documents show, when Mr. DeVecchio found Mr. Scarpa's name in a file of dormant Mafia informers and reactivated him. The two were close, with Mr. Scarpa giving his handler wine and freshly baked lasagna, the documents show. They spoke often, and Mr. DeVecchio often used the code name "the girlfriend" when calling his source, the documents show.

The relationship was close enough that some of Mr. DeVecchio's fellow agents complained to their superiors, which led to the internal F.B.I. investigation. That inquiry, however, never included allegations that Mr. DeVecchio might have played a role in the Grancio assassination. Mr. Scarpa died of AIDS in 1994.

Thanks to Alan Feuer

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Hired Truck probers: Cop, felon traded favors

Friends of ours: Sam "Blackie" Pesoli, Nick LoCoco

A high-ranking Chicago cop and a criminal traded favors all the time, federal prosecutors say.
The cop would ask for a break on construction work on his home.
The criminal would ask for a break on someone's DUI.
The cop would ask for help raising money for a policemen's fund.
The criminal would ask for a background check on a friend's employee.

Such was the routine, prosecutors say, between O'Hare Police Cmdr. Michael Acosta and John Boyle, a convicted felon and city worker, as the FBI secretly listened in on Boyle's cell phone in 2004 as part of the Hired Truck investigation. Boyle has since gone to prison for demanding bribes from trucking and construction companies in the city's Hired Truck Program.

Acosta, 59, is going on trial later this month for allegedly stealing $4,000 from a police fund set up to recognize excellent officers. He is also charged with lying to FBI agents about his relationship to Boyle and the favors he had done for him. Acosta, who retired from the Police Department in January last year, faced losing his job if top police brass knew he was violating a key police rule by associating with a known felon. Boyle had been convicted of stealing millions of dollars in money from the Illinois tollway.

Despite their close relationship, Boyle would gripe when Acosta got pushy, according to a new prosecution filing in the Acosta case. In one secretly recorded conversation, Boyle is talking to Vito Pesoli, at the time an assistant commissioner in the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation and a political operative. It's the first time prosecutors have mentioned Pesoli's name in the Hired Truck case.

Pesoli, 51, retired six months ago and went to work for his friend, trucking magnate Michael Tadin, whose business, Marina Cartage, has received work from Streets and Sanitation. Pesoli is not charged with any wrongdoing. He did not return phone messages Wednesday, including one left with his wife, Terri, who works for Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd).

In the discussion between Boyle and Pesoli, both men complain that Acosta wants an unspecified favor taken care of at the last minute.

"Commander Acosta called me this morning," Boyle says.
"Yeah, well, he's a little late, and I told him," Pesoli replies.
Later in the call, Pesoli says, "I told him, I said, 'This is the day before.' "
Then Boyle says: "I told him the same thing. Vito, we're on the same page."
Boyle continues: "And [Acosta] tells me, 'When guys get locked up for DUI, you call me the same time it happens and get him out.'"

Prosecutors want to play this conversation between Boyle and Pesoli to show at trial the close relationship between Boyle and Acosta. Pesoli also happens to be a nephew of a former Chicago cop with reputed mob ties, Sam "Blackie" Pesoli, who was sentenced in 1993 to nearly a year in prison for lying to a grand jury.

Acosta had a relationship with another city worker charged in the Hired Truck investigation. Nick LoCoco was a mob bookmaker who controlled what hired trucks got business in the city's Department of Transportation. He was charged in the scandal in 2004 but died in a horse-riding accident before going to trial.

When federal agents arrested LoCoco, he had two business cards on him from Acosta. On the back of one card was Acosta's cell phone number, court records show. On the back of the other was a handwritten message: "Please call me if I can help this individual, good friend," signed Commander M.J. Acosta, followed by a pager number.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir and Tim Novak

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