Joey Lombardro - A Tricky Clown Leaves a Cold Trail on Grand Avenue

Mistakes have been made by news organizations covering the secretive Chicago Outfit, and my newspaper has made two in recent days, misidentifying civilians as mobsters.

I'm not trying to minimize what happened. Folks in this newsroom feel terrible about the mistakes. But it also reminds me of another mistake I almost made, trying to identify the Outfit boss Joe "The Clown" Lombardo.

I figured I couldn't miss him, since he was sitting only three cattle-prod lengths away from me, in a Grand Avenue restaurant. There he was, hunched over his food, wearing a St. Christopher medal around his neck. Then he turned into a Jewish gentleman named Goldman and disappeared. That's the Clown for you. He's tricky and devious.

"Clown? What clown?" deadpanned the restaurant manager. "Clown? What are you talking about, clown?"

The manager had worked on Grand Avenue for years, so naturally he knew he'd never heard of Lombardo. He insisted the fellow's name was Goldman.

Here's what happened:

I had ordered the cavatelli and cold rapini. My colleague, the legendary Slim the Legman, had pasta with peas and a cream sauce. Slim didn't talk much, as he was still upset with me over his last Outfit-related assignment.

I'd politely ordered him to report on the gay mobster lifestyle. It was a tough job that had to be done, but happily not by me. That's what legmen are for.

Besides, it wasn't even my idea. The gay Outfit angle was the pride of the Chicago Sun-Times. The tabloid--which loudly insists it's the unofficial paper of City Hall, perhaps overcompensating--ran a story a few years ago on the terrifying mob killer "Fifi" Buccieri.

He used cattle prods, meat hooks, you name it. But that wasn't news. The news--blared by the Sun-Times--was that Fifi was gay and had a lover named Vic. The newspaper reported that the information came from a burglar who hated Vic. And Vic was dead, as was Fifi, so there wasn't much of a chance of a defamation lawsuit, or a cattle prod session.

If Buccieri were alive, the Sun-Times would have had to find gay hit men to confirm Fifi's orientation. That may have proved difficult.

"If that reporter who called Feef a gay was around when Feef was Feef, that reporter wouldn't be too happy," a guy told me on Thursday. He can't be identified, so we'll call him Dat Guy. "Feef used blowtorches and cattle prods," Dat Guy said, "but he wasn't gay."

I'm not picking sides in the gay-or-not-gay mobster thing. That's the Sun-Times' business. Besides, a cattle prod in the hands of a psychopathic killer is still a cattle prod, no matter which way it swings.

So years ago, when the Sun-Times outed Feef and Vic, I asked Slim the Legman to go into the bars, restaurants and clubs on Grand Avenue to report on the gay mobster lifestyle.

Slim refused, and rather rudely too, for a Harvard man. "Can't I just work the phone?" he yelled. "Next, you'll be sending me to Bosnia to dig up land mines with a Popsicle stick."

He was rather standoffish for a long time, so when I got a tip that Lombardo was at a restaurant, I took Slim with me to make amends and serve as a witness if I turned into a carpet stain.

I wasn't planning to ask Lombardo about Fifi. We were going to inquire about Chicago politics.

As we walked in, Slim asked if I knew the place, and I said it was perfect for our purposes, a small family establishment where everyone minds his business.

"How's the food?" asked Slim.

It's good, I said. Try the veal--it's the best in the city. But Slim was still angry and stubborn, so he ordered the pasta and peas instead of the veal.

That's when I saw the fellow who looked like a picture of the Clown, but older, and not the one with two eyes poking through the newspaper.

So I removed the notepad, recorder and pen from my jacket (slowly) and placed them on the table, so he wouldn't be startled when I walked over.

He looked at me. If you've ever watched a National Geographic special on Komodo dragons, you'd know the look. He didn't flick his tongue, but he snapped his fingers. Instantly, a hive of busboys materialized, scraping his food into takeout containers, and he was gone.

Afterward, the manager insisted he didn't know any Clown, then checked a fistful of credit card receipts before insisting the fellow was "Irwin Goldman."

What about the St. Christopher medal? The manager shrugged.

So whether the Outfit has gay bosses or bisexual hitmen is for the other paper to investigate.

I'm still trying to find the Jewish guy wearing a St. Christopher medal on Grand Avenue.

Thanks to John Kass.

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Mob better watch out: Best mayor is getting mad

Today, readers reflect on the big news about the FBI's Operation Family Secrets investigation, which led to the indictment of several Outfit bosses and the closing of 18 previously unsolved mob killings.

Hey, John, the Outfit is in serious trouble now. Forget about the U.S. attorney and the indictments. Know who's mad at them? The mayor. The mayor's mad at the hoods and the mob. He says they run drugs and everything else and he's really, really mad at the mob. Wow, are they in trouble! When Mayor Daley starts fighting them, look out. T.P.

Dear T.P. -- Jeepers, you are a sarcastic Chicago resident. Are there more of you? It's just another reason why he's the best mayor in the cosmos. I'm calling TIME Magazine right now, mister!

I feel prompted to write you after reading your April, 26, 2005, column ("Mob charges tell a story, but more isn't told"). When you discussed how the Chicago Outfit's survival has been dependent upon help provided by crooked politicians, judges and cops, it reminded me of a book I read as a teenager, CAPTIVE CITY CHICAGO IN CHAINS. Have you read this work? Can you recommend any other books that cover this topic? I've been fascinated by this subject matter since I was a teenager. Thanks. P.P.

Dear P.P. -- When I first started covering Chicago politics in 1980, someone lent me a worn paperback copy of Demaris' "Captive City," which fascinated me by detailing the incredible web of political connections between civic leaders, politicians and the Outfit. It was so good that, naturally, I stole it. It is the best book on the subject I've ever read. If you'd like to read more about the mob and politics, I'd recommend reading this newspaper and also "The Outfit" by Gus Russo. (Appropriately enough, a friend gave me Russo's book while we were having a drink on Rush Street.) Also, the William Brashler book The Don about Sam "Momo" Giancana, and Mafia Princess: Growing Up in Sam Giancana's Family by Giancana's daughter, Antoinette, who makes a great pasta sauce. And, the Web site of the Laborers International Union of North America (http://www.laborers.org/.) has plenty of information. If anyone can recommend other books on the Outfit, please share them with me and I promise to steal them too.

John, my son-in-law gave me the book "The Outfit" for Christmas. I was enjoying it but had to take a break because suddenly, everything I saw was "connected." I was stunned to realize that the Outfit probably provided the bottles of milk I drank in elementary school. I started looking over my shoulder; the Outfit seemed to dominate my thinking; and every businessperson, waiter, delivery guy looked like they were part of it. I would mutter "mob connections" in unlikely places. My family became concerned that I had developed some kind of mob dementia. They would laugh, but I would nod knowingly, like some old crone in Sicily. J.H.

I had a similar experience recently. A friend mentioned the great philanthropic family, the Annenbergs, and I said they started as tough guys in Chicago's old newspaper circulation wars, under the tutelage of Paul "The Waiter" Ricca. The friend looked at me as if I was crazy. I just smiled, knowingly.

It's commendable that they round up all these old mob guys. I'm sure they've all done something one time or another. But it's Godfather 4. What are they going to do, put them in the retirement home? How about the drug gangs, Chinese mob, Russian and Ukrainian mobs, the black gangs. What about the sex offenders? They just grabbed another one. But they put a monitor on Martha Stewart's ankle, so we feel safe at night. So they're going to put these mob guys in the senior citizen home? Big deal. B.D.

You're not the first American of Italian descent to have such feelings about the mob story. Another is my wife. When I asked her, she said: "So I'm the token angry Sicilian in the column, the one who's angry about how these criminals reflect on us? They're criminals, but we all look bad." I don't think the indictment of Joe Lombardo makes Italians look bad. It makes Lombardo look bad. But I also think that because Italians are now considered white, which wasn't always the case in the U.S., writers take more liberties with the Outfit than we do with the equally ridiculous behavior of the black and Latino gangs.

Bill Dal Cerro, of the Italic Institute of America, is someone always on the lookout for anti-Italian images in the media. He just wrote me a letter saying it was important to focus not only on the gangsters, but also on those public officials--crooked politicians, judges, cops--who've allowed the Outfit to prosper in Chicago and suburbs.

"We hope you can pursue this line of logic," Dal Cerro wrote. "It is uncharted territory. You are going to get hell for it because it challenges the notion that `organized crime' is somehow an `alien' [read: Italian] thing which pollutes the pristine veneer of an `uncorrupt' nation. As my Uncle Louie used to say, `@#$$% {circ} &*!'"

Thanks to John Kass

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A Wiseguy's Son, Ronne Jarrett Jr., Tells How The Chicago Mob Rewards Loyalty

I thought I'd see Ronnie Jarrett's name on the chart of those 18 previously unsolved Chicago Outfit homicides this week, with the indictments of mob bosses in the FBI's Operation Family Secrets.

So did his son, Ronnie Jarrett Jr., 32, who told me what Outfit loyalty means and about the day his father was shot in 1999. "I slept late, and I was in bed and thought it was firecrackers and heard my mother run outside, and Mom was screaming and stuff," Ronnie Jr. told me Tuesday during an interview in his Bridgeport home.

"He was outside on the ground, and Mom was scared to go over by him. I ran out on the porch, and he was laying there by his car."

Ronnie Jarrett Sr. was a close friend of the FBI's key Outfit informant, Nicholas Calabrese, and was killed about the time Calabrese began falling out with his brother, mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr.

He had been a reputed hit man for the Chinatown Crew, an accomplished burglar, and a bodyguard for Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. On the day he was shot five years ago, he was on the books as working for Marina Cartage trucking boss and mayoral friend Mike Tadin.

I visited Tadin on Jan. 26, 2004, and taped our interview. I asked him why he hired Jarrett. "I know Ronnie all my life from being in the neighborhood," Tadin said then. "He needed a break. I helped him out. He did a good job here, never had no issues here, never had no complaints from the supervisors."

Absolutely. Tadin's supervisors aren't stupid, and you don't complain about a man who is handy with tools. Ronnie was with Nick and Frank Calabrese, and the other 26th Street guys, and nobody in the 11th Ward ever tells them what to do. But Jarrett's killing wasn't on Monday's list of solved homicides in the federal building. On Tuesday, I drove out to the 11th Ward, to Jarrett's home on Lowe Avenue, to ask what his family knew.

Convicted burglar Ronnie Jarrett Jr. was home, without a leg monitor, just getting used to the idea of not wearing one. He had been given an 8-year sentence for burglary and served it by spending a few weeks in the sheriff's boot camp and a few months at home. He thought Nicholas Calabrese's information would close his father's hit. "I figured that with Nick talking and everything, I figured if anyone knew anything it would be Nick," Ronnie Jr. said. "The FBI actually told my mother that it would be part of the indictment."

A federal official said such a conversation would have been highly unlikely and added that other mob homicides are still being investigated.

The FBI "called about 6 a.m. that day," he said, meaning Monday, indictment day, when Outfit figures such as Joey "Lumby" Lombardo and Frank "The German" Schweihs were among those indicted in a murder conspiracy and extortion plot.

The father was--and the son is--a convicted criminal. Yet the Jarretts were welcome at City Hall. The Jarrett kids got City Hall jobs. Ronnie Jr. was slinging asphalt in the Department of Tony (Transportation). His younger brother trims trees. Jarrett Sr.'s widow, Rosemary, also has a political job. She's a clerk for Cook County Circuit Judge Barbara J. Disko. Mrs. Jarrett declined to comment.

Ronnie Jarrett Sr. was shot outside the home on Dec. 23, 1999. "I ran and got the comforter off my bed because it was freezing out," his son said in our one-hour interview. "He was talking to me, like, `Oh, my arm.' He was in pain."

If Jarrett knew who shot him, he didn't say. "He never said nothing," said his son. "I always tell my mom I should have asked him."

A law-enforcement theory is that he was on his way to the wake of a relative. A Bridgeport theory is that he hated the relative and was on his way to see two men known as "the twins." Another theory is that the killing of Jarrett was a message to Nick to keep his mouth shut.

When his father died in the hospital a month later, Ronnie Jr. noticed that his fathers' friends stopped visiting. "A few came, only a couple, that's about it," he said, adding that the condolence calls didn't resemble the movies, with bags of cash for the Outfit widow and kids.

Jarrett Jr. said that while on probation, he has had trouble finding a job. He remembers how great he thought it was to be a wiseguy's kid. "I'm not going to lie, it was cool. But now, you see them, you get the big hug and the big kiss in public, and you know it don't mean nothing."

His father spent much of his life behind bars and never squealed, even when facing 25 years in prison. "It's @#$% {circ} &* brutal, terrible," he said. "He did all that time for those guys, and the feds wanted him to flip and he didn't. I just felt [the Outfit] owed him more."

No matter what they owed him, they did pay him.

They paid him their way.

Thanks to John Kass

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14 Individuals Indicted for Alleged Organized Crime Activities in Operation Family Secrets in Chicago

James Marcello, 63 (Lombard)
Charges: Racketeering conspiracy (RICO); conducting an illegal gambling business; obstructing a criminal investigation; and tax fraud conspiracy

Joseph Lombardo, 75 (Chicago)
Charge: RICO

Michael Marcello, 55 (Schaumburg)
Charges: RICO; conducting an illegal gambling business; obstructing a criminal investigation; and tax fraud conspiracy

Nicholas Ferriola, 29 (Westchester)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and conducting an illegal gambling business

Joseph Venezia, 62 (Hillside)
Charges: Conducting an illegal gambling business; and tax fraud conspiracy

Thomas Johnson, 49 (Willow Springs)
Charges: Conducting an illegal gambling business; and tax fraud conspiracy

Dennis Johnson, 34 (Lombard)
Charge: Conducting an illegal gambling business

Frank Saladino, 59, deceased (Hampshire, Freeport and Rockford)
Charge: RICO

Michael Ricci, 75 (Streamwood)
Charges: RICO; false statements

Frank Schweihs, 75 (Dania, Fla., and Chicago)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and extortionate collection of credit

Anthony Doyle, 60, (Wickenburg, Ariz., and Chicago)
Charge: RICO

Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62 (Chicago)
Charges: RICO

Frank Calabrese Sr., 68 (Oak Brook)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and conducting an illegal gambling business

Paul Schiro, 67 (Phoenix)
Charge: RICO

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice

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Infrastructure of Chicago mob

The 14 Operation Family Secrets defendants indicted on racketeering, conspiracy, or gambling charges are part of the Chicago Outfit, which makes money for members and associates through illegal activities.

The chain of command:

BOSS
James Marcello
Leader of the Chicago Outfit, known as "No. 1"


CONSIGLIERE
Provides advice to the Boss

SOTTO CAPO

Second in command, also known as "No. 2," reports to Boss

CAPOS

Street boss/crew leader, reports to sotto capo

• Frank Calabrese Sr., South Side/26th Street Crew capo, continued criminal activities from jail through Nicholas Ferriola and others.
• Joseph Lombardo, Grand Avenue Crew capo

FOUR CREWS

Generally given territories throughout Chicago. May include "made men" --trustworthy people--usually of Italian descent, who have murdered for the Outfit.

1. South Side/26th Street or Chinatown

• Nicholas Ferriola - collected money made by extortion demands from Frank Calabrese.
• Frank Saladino
• Nicholas W. Calabrese - a "made man" and brother of Frank Calabrese Sr.

2. Grand Avenue

3. Melrose Park

• Michael Marcello - kept his jailed brother James informed on activities. Michael operated an illegal video gambling business.

4. Elmwood Park

ASSOCIATES

Assist the Chicago Outfit through criminal enterprise

• Frank Schweihs - an enforcer, collected and imposed "street tax" for himself and other members.
• Paul Schiro - a criminal associate of Frank Schweihs and deceased member Anthony Spilotro.
• Employees of M&M Amusement: Joseph Venezia, Dennis Johnson and Thomas Johnson operated video gambling machines in Cicero, Berwyn.

Retired Chicago Cops

• Michael Ricci - a retired Chicago police officer, assisted Frank Calabrese by delivering messages to crew members, collecting money generated by extortion demands and providing false information to FBI.
• Anthony Doyle - a retired Chicago police officer, who tipped off Frank Calabrese Sr. of law enforcement investigations into the murder of John Fecarotta and whether individuals cooperated with police about mob activities.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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U.S. drops hammer on who's who of mob: Charges range from murder to racketeering #FamilySecrets

Federal agents pinned decades of gangland killings on Chicago-area mobsters Monday, charging a dozen organized crime figures and two former police officers with running an outfit based on illegal gambling, loan sharking and murder.

In a city where mob hits are rarely solved, prosecutors charged La Cosa Nostra bosses and "made" members alike in connection with 18 slayings dating to 1970.

The killings were some of Chicago's most notorious, including the 1986 beating deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, whose bodies were found in a shallow grave in an Indiana field.

Moving out across Chicago and two other states early Monday, agents swept up numerous career mobsters. They arrested James Marcello, 63, the reputed boss of the local mob, at his Lombard home.

Agents were still searching for two of those charged Monday night, including Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, 75, once the reputed boss of Chicago's mob.

One alleged mob hit man--Frank Saladino--was found dead in a Kane County motel room by the federal agents who came to arrest him Monday morning. He apparently died of natural causes just hours before he was to be picked up, prosecutors said.

At a hearing in federal court, Marcello, identified by Robert D. Grant, FBI special agent-in-charge in Chicago, as the city's top mob boss, and six other defendants were questioned briefly by U.S. District Judge James Zagel before each pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Dressed in light gray sweat pants and shirt, Marcello said he had some sinus allergies in response to a question about his health. He was ordered held for a bond hearing later this week.

All told, the charges amounted to an unprecedented attack on the local Outfit. "This is the first indictment that I can recall that involves so many murders, which really gets to the heart of what the [La Cosa Nostra] is, and that is a bunch of murderous thugs," Grant said.

At a packed news conference, U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald identified the alleged participants in only one murder, saying Frank Calabrese Sr. and his brother, Nicholas, were charged with taking part in the slaying of John Fecarotta, a mob enforcer who reportedly was killed for botching the burial of the Spilotros.

A key break in the probe came after Nicholas Calabrese was confronted with DNA evidence that allegedly implicated him in the Fecarotta homicide. Calabrese then agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and fingered his brother and others in many of the killings, according to law enforcement sources.

It was the squabbling within the Calabrese family that led police to name the investigation "Operation Family Secrets."

Authorities said the lengthy investigation solved some brutal mob murders:

• Daniel Seifert, slain in 1974 before he could testify against Lombardo and others;
• William Dauber, a top Outfit enforcer, and his wife, who were gunned down in 1980 on a rural Will County road.
• William "Butch" Petrocelli, a reputed mob hit man who was killed in 1980 for allegedly stealing money.

In a surprise, Fitzgerald threw in a twist into the well-known story of the Spilotro brothers slayings, saying the men were killed in DuPage County. A 1986 autopsy had reportedly found dirt in the brothers' lungs, leading authorities at the time to believe the men had been buried alive in the Indiana cornfield where their bodies were later found.

Grant said the indictment delivers a significant blow to the Chicago Outfit, though not a fatal one. The FBI believes the Chicago mob has four street crews operating in the Chicago area--down from six--and estimates its members and associates at more than 100, Grant said.

In another wrinkle to the indictment, two retired Chicago police officers, Anthony Doyle and Michael Ricci, were charged with passing messages from the imprisoned Frank Calabrese Sr. to other Outfit members in a bid to find out if Nicholas Calabrese or another mob associate was cooperating with the FBI.

Doyle also allegedly tipped off Frank Calabrese Sr. that the FBI had pulled the file on the Fecarotta murder. Ricci, who was employed by the Cook County sheriff's department when he allegedly relayed messages, was also accused of lying to FBI agents.

The indictment charged six of the men with committing murder on behalf of the outfit: Marcello, Lombardo, both Calabreses, Paul Schiro and Frank Saladino. In addition, Frank "German" Schweihs, an Outfit enforcer, allegedly agreed to commit murder for the mob.

Also charged with racketeering conspiracy but not in connection with any murders were Marcello's brother, Michael; Nicholas Ferriola, son of the late reputed mob boss Joseph Ferriola; Doyle and Ricci.

The racketeering conspiracy count charged the 11 defendants also illegally collected "street tax," ran illegal sports bookmaking and video gambling businesses, made "juice loans" at extortionate rates and used extortion, threats and violence to collect the juice loans and other debts.

Authorities are seeking forfeiture of $10 million in illicit profits from those 11 defendants.

In addition, Michael Marcello, who owns Cicero-based M & M Amusement Inc., as well as his brother and three M & M employees--Joseph Venezia and Thomas and Dennis Johnson--were charged with conducting an illegal video gambling business since 1996.

Authorities said all but Lombardo, 75, of Chicago and Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., were taken into custody Monday.

At an arraignment in federal court in Chicago, the Marcellos, Ricci, Ferriola, both Johnsons and Venezia all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Schiro is in federal prison for a conviction for taking part in a sophisticated jewelry theft ring headed by William Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives.

All but the two Marcellos were released on $50,000 bails each. Prosecutors said they intend to seek the Marcellos' detention, saying they pose dangers to the community and flight risks. Zagel scheduled a bond hearing for Friday.

The FBI's Grant said he considers Lombardo and Schweihs fugitives--a claim scoffed at by Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin.

"I can't imagine Joey Lombardo running from anything, and that certainly includes an indictment," Halprin said.

James Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, called the indictment "vague."

"I cannot discern from it what my client is alleged to have done," he said.

Attorney Joseph Lopez, who represents Frank Calabrese Sr., said his client, who is in prison on a 1997 conviction for using violence to collect several million dollars in "juice" loans, hadn't yet learned of the indictment. "I'm sure he's like any other person who has a family member saying bad things against him," Lopez said in reference to the cooperation by brother Nicholas Calabrese.

Monday's indictment marks a milestone for law enforcement, which has long been frustrated by the secretive and violent Chicago Outfit and its ruthless effectiveness in silencing witnesses.

According to the Chicago Crime Commission, only 14 of 1,111 Chicago-area gangland killings since 1919 have ended in convictions.

The first major break came about five years ago when Frank Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Jr., who long had strained relations with his father, provided information to law enforcement when they were themselves being released from federal prison, according to a source familiar with the investigation. He also cooperated against his uncle, reputed mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese.

Realizing that Fecarotta's hit man had been shot in a struggle and bled, investigators sought Nicholas Calabrese's DNA and an X-ray of his arm.

Nicholas Calabrese's DNA matched blood found at the crime scene and in a Buick that was used for the hit, linking him to the murder, according to the source. And the X-ray showed that Calabrese had evidence of a long-ago injury, a through-and-through bullet wound in his forearm, the source said.

Confronted with the evidence, Nicholas Calabrese began spilling his family's secrets, according to law enforcement sources.

Authorities have also gathered additional information from court-authorized wiretaps at a federal prison in Michigan, sources said.

Lombardo, whose DNA was swabbed by investigators in early 2003, took out an ad to publicly swear off any mob ties after being released from prison in 1992.

When a reporter pointed that out to Fitzgerald, he said, "You can take an ad out in the paper; it doesn't stop an indictment if we have sufficient evidence to indicate otherwise. Otherwise, you guys would have lots of ads in about a week."

- - -

14 individuals indicted for alleged organized crime activities

James Marcello, 63 (Lombard)
Charges: Racketeering conspiracy (RICO); conducting an illegal gambling business; obstructing a criminal investigation; and tax fraud conspiracy

Joseph Lombardo, 75 (Chicago)
Charge: RICO

Michael Marcello, 55 (Schaumburg)
Charges: RICO; conducting an illegal gambling business; obstructing a criminal investigation; and tax fraud conspiracy

Nicholas Ferriola, 29 (Westchester)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and conducting an illegal gambling

Joseph Venezia, 62 (Hillside)
Charges: Conducting an illegal gambling business; and tax fraud conspiracy

Thomas Johnson, 49 (Willow Springs)
Charges: Conducting an illegal gambling business; and tax fraud conspiracy

Dennis Johnson, 34 (Lombard)
Charge: Conducting an illegal gambling business

Frank Saladino, 59, deceased (Hampshire, Freeport and Rockford)
Charge: RICO

Michael Ricci, 75 (Streamwood)
Charges: RICO; false statements

Frank Schweihs, 75 (Dania, Fla., and Chicago)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and extortionate collection of credit

Anthony Doyle, 60, (Wickenburg, Ariz., and Chicago)
Charge: RICO

Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62 (Chicago)
Charges: RICO

Frank Calabrese Sr., 68 (Oak Brook)
Charges: RICO; extortion; and conducting an illegal gambling

Paul Schiro, 67 (Phoenix)
Charge: RICO

Thanks to Matt O'Connor and Todd Lighty

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Officials go after Lifeblood of Chicago Outfit

By targeting mob-owned video gambling and sports bookmaking operations in a grand jury indictment handed down Monday, federal authorities acknowledged the importance of illicit gambling to the Chicago underworld.

"The lifeblood of the Chicago Outfit is illegal gambling and the money and profits that it generates," Byram Tichenor, special agent in charge of the IRS in Chicago, said Monday at a news conference announcing criminal charges against 12 alleged local mobsters and two former police officers.

The indictments offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of a video gambling ring that netted millions of dollars in proceeds inside bars and private clubs in Cicero and Berwyn over and eight-year period that ended last April.

Authorities did not say how much money was taken in by M&M Amusement Inc. of Cicero, but the business is reportedly very profitable. Proponents of a bill to legalize video gambling in Illinois two years ago estimated the state could rake in $375 million from the 47,000 machines operating in the state.

M&M Amusement, operated by James Marcello and his brother Michael Marcello, allegedly installed an unspecified number of video gambling machines inside Cicero and Berwyn bars, restaurants and fraternal clubs beginning in January 1996.

To the uninitiated or outsiders, these machines were just time-killing amusements like a pinball machine or jukebox. But to bar regulars and other trusted people, the video gambling machines allowed players to accrue electronic credits that could be cashed in for real dollars, the indictment alleges.

Two indicted M&M Amusement employees, Joseph Venezia and Thomas Johnson, allegedly taught bar, restaurant and fraternal group representatives how to pay off winners and how to clear accumulated credits off the machines after the cash payments were made, the indictment alleges.

Venezia and Johnson further "warned the owners, managers and representatives only to pay money to winning customers whom they knew well, and to beware of law enforcement efforts," the indictment says. "Those customers who were not known were to be told that the video gambling machines were for amusement only."

Electronic counters inside the machines kept track of the number of games played, winning credits accrued and total number of credits cleared off each machine. M&M Amusement allegedly divided the proceeds from the machines with bars, restaurants and fraternal groups and reimbursed them for payouts.

The federal indictment does not indicate exactly how much money M&M took in between January 1996 and April 2004, but officials are seeking the forfeiture of $10 million from the defendants. Officials are also seeking to seize M&M Amusement's Cicero office building, which is owned by Michael Marcello.

Authorities gave few details about a sports bookmaking operation allegedly run between 1992 and 2001 by defendants Frank Calabrese Sr. and Nicholas Ferriola. The indictments state it was run in northern Illinois, involved five or more people and was in continuous operation for more than 30 days.

According to previous court filings, M&M Amusement served 44 clients, primarily in the west suburbs. A listing of the customers was found on the body of mobster Anthony Chiaramonti after he was gunned down in Lyons in 2001. Several of the customers were called before the grand jury that handed down Monday's indictment.

According to the previous court filing, one video poker customer said he received between $150 and $400 a week from his machines.

No one answered the door Monday at M&M Amusement's 5533 W. 25th St. property, where there are no business signs. A neighbor said he has not seen anyone working at the property since December.

Thanks to Brett McNeil, Ray Gibson, and Matt O'Connor

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