Feds indict reputed mob figures in string of murders

Mike Robinson

Monday, April 25, 2005 | 11:15 a.m.

CHICAGO -- Fourteen reputed mob members and associates have been indicted on charges of plotting at least 18 murders including that of former mob kingpin Tony Spilotro, federal officials announced today.

Those indicted include Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in the Chicago area. U.S attorney spokesman Randall Samborn said authorities were looking for Lombardo.

The previously unsolved murders included those of the mob's top man in Las Vegas, Spilotro, and his brother, Michael, who were buried alive in an Indiana cornfield, according to the nine-count indictment.

Some of the slayings occurred as long ago as 1970.

"This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the mob," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement. "After so many years, it lifts the veil of secrecy and exposes the violent underworld of organized crime."

Spilotro, nicknamed "Tony the Ant," oversaw street rackets for the Chicago mob in the 1970s and early 1980s. His crime empire was run out of a small jewelry store, the Gold Rush, on West Sahara Avenue just off the Strip.

Throughout much of his time in Las Vegas, Spilotro maintained a high profile and was targeted in several federal racketeering investigations, including one that involved the skimming of profits from several Las Vegas casinos by the Chicago mob and other Midwest crime families.

His longtime lawyer was Oscar Goodman, who is now the mayor of Las Vegas.

Spilotro, 48, and brother Michael, 41, were last seen alive on June 14, 1986. Their badly beaten bodies were found buried in the Indiana field eight days later.

Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 movie "Casino."

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents began arresting the defendants this morning in Illinois, Arizona and Florida as a result of a long-standing investigation dubbed "Operation Family Secrets," which was aimed at clearing unsolved mob hits.

One defendant was found dead by the agents, apparently of natural causes, authorities said.

The operation has been one of the biggest investigations of organized crime activities in the Chicago area in years and is believed to be aimed at some of the mob's top leaders.

Federal prosecutors said 18 previously unsolved murders and one attempted murder -- all of which took place between 1970 and 1986 in the Chicago area and one in Arizona -- are at the core of the racketeering indictment.

Among those charged were two retired law enforcement officers, prosecutors said.

They said all of those charged "are members of or in some manner associated with The Chicago Outfit, a criminal enterprise also known as the Chicago Syndicate and the Chicago mob."

Eleven of those named in the indictment were charged with conspiracy, including plotting to commit murder as part of such mob activities as loansharking and bookmaking.

The indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed today.

Prosecutors said that seven of the 11 defendants charged in the conspiracy count of the indictment actually committed murder or agreed to commit murder.

"The charges announced today are a milestone event in the FBI's battle against organized crime here in Chicago," said Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.

The 75-year-old Lombardo was previously convicted in U.S. District Court in Chicago in another major mob investigation of corruption involving the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.

Besides Lombardo, those charged in the latest indictment are: James Marcello, 63, of Lombard; Michael Marcello, 55, of Schaumburg; Nicholas Ferriola, 29, of Westchester; Joseph Venezia, 62, of Hillside; Thomas Johnson, 49, of Willow Springs; Dennis Johnson, 34, of Lombard; Frank Saladino, 59, of Hampshire; and Michael Ricci, 75, of Streamwood.

Prosecutors said Saladino, who formerly lived in Freeport and Rockford, was found dead by agents in a hotel room where he was living in Hampshire in Kane County.

Two defendants, Frank Schweihs, 75, of Dania, Fla., and Anthony Doyle, 60, of Wickenburg, Ariz., were being arrested in their states today, officials said.

They said three defendants, Nicholas W. Calabrese, 62, of Chicago, his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, of Oak Brook, and Paul Schiro, 67, of Phoenix already were in federal custody.