Blitzstein case moves closer to prosecution

Monday, April 12, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

Federal prosecutors have taken a giant step toward closing the book on the January 1997 murder of Chicago mob associate Herbie Blitzstein.

Friday's decision by Alfred Mauriello to plead guilty in the murder plot and testify for the government is expected to put added pressure on his co-defendants who are scheduled to stand trial April 26 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Philip Pro.

The 72-year-old Mauriello acknowledged in court that he received $10,000 from the late Los Angeles mob associate, Peter Vincent Caruso, to kill Blitzstein as part of a scheme to take over Blitzstein's loan-sharking and insurance fraud operations. Caruso died in January while in federal custody.

In last week's plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's Organized Crime Strike Force, Mauriello acknowledged that he paid co-defendants Antone Davi and Richard Friedman a total of $7,000 without Caruso's knowledge to carry out the murder.

The government has alleged that Blitzstein, once a top lieutenant of slain Chicago Mafia kingpin Anthony Spilotro, was shot to death at his home by Davi and Friedman Jan. 6, 1997.

Prosecutors expect Mauriello's plea will pave the way for more deals before the trial gets under way.

Awaiting trial on murder charges are Davi, Robert Panaro, a reputed member of the Buffalo mob who prosecutors believe approved the plot to kill Blitzstein and Stephen Cino, a Los Angeles mob associate who allegedly was involved in the planning.

Another underworld associate, Anthony DeLulio, is charged with burglarizing Blitzstein's home and leaving the door unlocked for his killers, and Louis Caruso, a reputed "capo" of the Los Angeles crime family, has been accused of taking proceeds from the burglary.

Friedman won a separate trial, which is expected to take place after this month's trial.

Mauriello's testimony, meanwhile, is expected to firm up the government's case against the two shooters and shed more light into why he was killed.

Joining him as a witness at the trial will be Joseph DeLuca, a former auto shop owner and Blitzstein associate who also has pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and agreed to cooperate with the government.

DeLuca, who helped the killers gain entry to Blitzstein's home, is being called upon primarily to provide additional evidence against Panaro and Cino.

Both Mauriello and DeLuca now are being protected by the government.

As part of Mauriello's deal, the government will recommend at his July 9 sentencing that he receive no more than 12 years in prison and that he'll be able to serve his time at a federal facility run by the Witness Security Program near his home in New York City.

Blitzstein's murder occurred in the middle of an undercover FBI investigation into an attempt by the Los Angeles and Buffalo crime families to take over Las Vegas street rackets.

In February 1998, a total of 16 underworld figures, including Carmen Milano, the reputed underboss of the Los Angeles mob, were charged with Blitzstein's killers in a 50-count racketeering indictment. Milano and rest of the defendants not charged in the murder are expected to stand trial later this year.

Several undercover FBI agents and informants participated in the massive, two-year probe that also made use of court-approved wiretaps and other forms of electronic surveillance.

Blitzstein was murdered a month after the state Gaming Control Board nominated him for Nevada's Black Book of undesirables banned from casinos. His nomination was the result of his ties to former Horseshoe Club executive Ted Binion, who was murdered last September.

Authorities considered Blitzstein the right-hand man to Spilotro, who oversaw the Chicago mob's street rackets in Las Vegas until his brutal slaying in June 1986.

The Chicago mob controlled the rackets here during Spilotro's tenure on the streets.