ANTHONY ACCARDO - Boss of the Mafia's Chicago Outfit
Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo
Chicago mob boss indicted
June 5, 1981
By HUGH HOUGH Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Chicago crime syndicate chieftain Anthony J. Accardo and 15 other people were indicted yesterday on labor racketeering charges by a federal grand jury in Miami.
The indictment charges the 16 with conspiring to give and receive more than $2 million in kickbacks in connection with life- and health-insurance contracts of the Laborers International Union of North America. Accardo, who has faced many charges but has never spent a night in jail, 'was taken into custody in Chicago shortly before the indictment was announced.
U.S. Magistrate Carl Sussman set bond for Accardo at $100,000. Half of that was a personal-recognizance bond, meaning no cash had to be posted. Of the remaining $50,000, a 10 percent cash deposit, or $5,000, was required for freedom.
After the hearing, Accardo lawyer Carl Walsh immediately went to the 20th-floor cashier's office in the Dirksen Federal Building, where he produced a roll of 51 $100 bills, peeled off 50 for the cashier and returned the remaining one to his pocket.
Takeover plot charged
In the indictment, Accardo is accused of plotting an underworld takeover of the insurance business of the 630,000-member union.
Those named in addition to the 75- year-old Accardo were:
— Alfred Pilotto, 70, president of the union's Local 5 here and a refuted overseer of crime-syndicate operations in the south and southwest suburbs. Pilotto appeared along with Accardo in a now-famous photograph of 10 underworld leaders.
— Angelo Fosco, 60, president of the international union.
— Paul Fosco, 32, son of Angelo, described in the indictment as president of the PF Insurance Agency.
Dental plan trustee
— James-Caporale, 60, secretary treasurer of the Chicago and Vicinity District Council of the Laborers International Union and a trustee of the union's Chicago dental plan.
— Dr. Paul A. Di Franco, 51, identified in the indictment as a practicing dentist and vice president of Dental and Vision Care Centers of
Miami.
— James F. Norton, 50, described as president of a firm called Consultants and Administrators and a. vice president of the Dental and Vision Care Centers of Miami.
— James Pinkard, 45, described as the owner of Pinkard and Associates and as the son-in-law of Pilotto.
— Santo Trafficante, 67, of Tampa, Fla., a reputed Florida underworld leader.
Union leader
— John Giardiello, 49, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a union leader.
— Seymour Gopman, 56, of Miami, legal counsel to the Dade County (Fla.) .Health and Welfare Funds, which include a number of union welfare funds.
— Louis Ostrer, 58, of New York, operator of a firm called Fringe Benefits Inc.
— Terrence J. O'Sullivan, 51, of Washington, D.C., former secretrary- treasurer of the international union.
— George Wuagneux, 48, of Scottsdale, Ariz., president of a Florida real estate development firm.
Convicted swindler
The indictment says Joseph Hauser, a convicted insurance swindler, held a 1974 meeting in Chicago with Accardo, Pilotto and Angelo Fosco.
At that meeting, it is charged, Accardo said the group planned to make Hauser's insurance company "the largest in the United States," with the profits to be funneled through Paul Fosco's PF Agency. Furthermore, it is charged Accardo made it known at that meeting Hauser was "family," or a member of the mob's inner circle, on the recommendation of Angelo Fosco. The indictment says Accardo in 1975 had a conversation with Hauser in which Accardo stated the union's insurance business would be controlled "by the family," with Trafficante overseeing the southern portion and Accardo controlling the Midwest.
Hauser, between 1974 and 1976, caused $223,000 in kickbacks to be made to the PF Agency, the indictment alleges."
Kickback checks
Pinkard, it's alleged, received checks totaling $452,000 as kickbacks, and Wuagneux was said to have received $425,000. Accardo, the underworld elder statesman, was asked later if the indictment came as a surprise. "It sure did," he replied as he walked out of the Dirksen Federal Building.
At the prompting of attorney Walsh, he answered no more questions from the news representatives who followed him. In Miami, U.S. Attorney Atlee Wampler Jr. said the single-count indictment charged the 16 defendants with conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO).
Racketeering pattern
Specifically, Wampler said, they're accused of conspiring to conduct union affairs through "a pattern of racketeering activity by giving and receiving unlawful kickbacks for the-granting of union pension fund, life insurance, vision and dental business."
The defendants are charged with liability for repaying $2,064,000 in alleged kickbacks as well as $12,460 in alleged kickback money found in seven white envelopes during an FBI raid on a union office here in 1976.
The indictments climaxed a two year investigation here and in Florida by a task force that included Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as well as investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, 'the inspector general's office of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Justice Department's Strike Force against organized crime.
Alleged Florida crime czar Trafficante made headlines in 1978 when he testified before the House Assassination Committee that he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency - in the early 1960s in a plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro. Eis motive, he said, was patriotism. But Trafficante denied the assertionby another witness that Trafficante had said former President John F. Kennedy would become a "hit" victim before Kennedy was killed in 1963.
Hauser previously has served as a key source of government information. Last year he helped implicate New Orleans rackets boss Carlos Marcello and others, including political figures, in an alleged insurance kickback scheme. Hauser then was aiding a federal investigation tagged Brilab — for bribery involving labor groups — in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Chicago Tribune
By James Warren and John O`Brien.
May 7, 1987
The U.S. Department of Labor will seek to recover more than $12 million for a union employee benefit plan that it alleges was manipulated by Chicago-based union officials and organized-crime figures over a 10-year period, sources disclosed Wednesday. The department`s effort, outlined partly in a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here, charges that the Laborers Union`s health and welfare plan paid unreasonable and excessive compensation to a Chicago firm for dental services and that kickbacks were paid to former trustees of the plan.
The suit follows the recent criminal convictions in Miami of four Chicago-area men, including the son of Angelo Fosco, Laborers Union president, for conspiring to swindle the union. The suit names as defendants Consultant and Administrators Inc., 220 S. Ashland Ave., which provides dental benefits to the Laborers Union; key officers of the firm; and 19 current or former union and management trustees of the union`s health and welfare plan.
The current or former trustees named as defendants include Paul Fosco, 37, of Chicago, son of the union president; Ernest Kumerow, president of Laborers Local 1001 in Chicago; Alfred Pilotto, a former top Laborers Union official and onetime south suburban rackets boss; James Pinckard, who is Pilotto`s son-in-law and head of a company that worked with Consultants and Administrators on the union contract; and Donald Dvorak, president of the Builders Association of Chicago.
No estimates of lost funds were mentioned in the lawsuit, which was filed on May 1 and announced Wednesday. Government officials previously had charged that such losses exceeded $2 million. But sources said Wednesday that Labor Department officials will ask Chief U.S. District Court Judge John Grady, to whom the suit was assigned, to broaden the scope of the action, which could result in the recovery of more funds.
As filed, the suit focuses on alleged wrongdoing that occurred between 1974 and 1977, the same time period covered by two related criminal trials in Miami. Sources said the Labor Department wants to extend the period from 1977 to the present and believes another $10 million has been similarly swindled during that time.
The civil suit results from the indictment in 1981 of 16 men for allegedly conspiring to swindle the union through manipulation of lucrative benefit plans. Essentially, prosecutors charged that kickbacks were paid to union officials and mobsters so that a Miami insurance firm, controlled by convicted swindler Joseph Hauser, could get the union`s health, vision and dental insurance business.
In 1982, a jury convicted Pilotto and seven others. Those acquitted, however, included Anthony Accardo, reputed boss of the Chicago crime syndicate, and Angelo Fosco.
Other defendants were brought to trial this year and on April 25 a jury convicted four in connection with the same conspiracy: Paul Fosco, 37, of Chicago; Pinckard, 50, of Chicago Heights, who allegedly ran a dummy insurance firm as part of the scheme;
James Norton, 56, of Lake Geneva, Wis., president of a firm which processed insurance claims; and Dr. Paul DiFranco, a Park Ridge dentist and vice president of a Miami firm created largely to treat union members.
Pilotto, who was sentenced to 20 years, is the only defendant in prison. The others convicted in both trials are either out on bond pending appeals or have not yet been sentenced.
The lawsuit alleges that trustees violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act by assuring that the fees of Consultant and Administrators were excessive, "grossly" overstating the value of its services, not securing competitive bids and through kickbacks paid former trustees Pilotto and James Caporale.
Copyright 1998, The Tribune Company.
By JEFF HARDY
DATELINE: MIAMI July 21, 1987
Four Chicago men were sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for racketeering conspiracy in a scheme to skim about $2 million from Laborer's International Union insurance plans in Chicago and South Florida.
Defendants Paul A. DiFranco, Paul Fosco, James F. Norton and James Pinkard each received the same sentence from U.S. District Judge James Kehoe. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in November after a juror said another juror tried to influence her with the mention of a newspaper article. The second trial began in April.
The 6-year-old racketeering case at one time included 16 defendants. Twelve have been convicted. Three others - Chicago mob boss Anthony Accardo, laborers union president Angelo Fosco (Paul Fosco's father) and union official Terrence O'Sullivan -- have been acquitted.
The government claimed the $2 million was paid to labor and organized crime bosses, including Tampa organized crime figure Santo Trafficante, who was indicted but never was tried because of his ailing health. He died earlier this year. "This is the conclusion of the trial for all the defendants," said federal strike force prosecutor Mike Owens. "The first defendants have been ordered to report to jail July 27. The last remaining vestiges of this case are the appeals for DiFranco, Fosco, Norton and Pinkard."
The case involved kickbacks from dental and medical insurance providers to officials of the Laborer's International Union of North America. In return, the union bosses used their influence to steer business to the providers.
The government received a tip in 1976 on the illegal activity from the son of a man involved in the scheme.
That year the FBI conducted a search of Consultants and Administrators in Chicago, a service provider for labor unions with a parent company in South Florida called Dental and Vision Care Center.
Joseph Hauser, a convicted insurance swindler, became a government witness in January 1978 and participated for about six months in 1979 in an FBI undercover operation called "Brilab."
As a result of Operation Brilab, the search in Chicago and other information, the government in 1981 charged each of the 16 original defendants with one count of racketeering conspiracy.
Witness Says Tony Accardo is Top Boss in Chicago
April 21, 1982
MIAMI (UPI) - A government witness Tuesday identified mob boss Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo as the "the No 1 man" in the Chicago crime syndicate and in the Laborers' International Union.
Accardo, once Al Capone'a bodyguard, showed no emotion as convicted swindler Joseph Hauser rose to his feet in the witness stand and pointed him out. Accardo and 10 other defendants are charged with violating anti-racketeering statutes by attempting to monopolize the insurance business of the Laborers" Union. The trial is being heard by US. District Judge James W. Kehoe.
The defendants are accused of milking $2 million from union benefit funds. The racketeering count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine upon conviction. Accardo, who will be 76 Wednesday, has never been in prison despite an association with organized crime that extends back to the early days of the Chicago "outfit." In 1950, Sen. Estes Kefauver's crime investigating committee Identified Accardo as the nation's No. 1 gangster.
HAUSER, WHOSE insurance agency was to be the recipient of the business, said he paid kickbacks to Accardo and others involved with the union.The amounts, he said, ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 a month, "depending on the circumstances." At one point, he said, he was invited to a party at the home of Peter Fosco, then general president of the Laborers union. Also present were Fosco's son, Angleo Fosco, who succeeded him as general president, and Al Pilotto, president of the Chicago-area Local 5.
Hauser testified Angelo Fosco "pulled me aside at the party and said he wanted to introduce me to the No. 1 man who runs the laborers union." At that point, he said, he was introduced to a man who identified himself as "Joe Batters" — Accardo's long-time nickname."MR, BATTERS said he was pleased and looking forward to great things from me," Hauser said. "He put his arm around me and said, 'You are now part of the family because Angelo stands up for you.'"When he was introduced to Pilotto at the same meeting, Pilotto shook him down for $2,500, saying "it would benice if you took care of some of the boys for Christmas," Hauser testified.
A grand jury several years ago investigatedthe torture-slayings of sixmen believed to have been involved ina burglary at Accardo's home in River Forest, IL. The grand jury also investigated the disappearance of Accardo's long-time houseman, Michael Volpe, who dropped out of sight after testifying.
No indictments were returned.
Who robbed Accardo? Secret out
April 20, 2007
It's the stuff of Chicago mob lore, cloaked in mystery.
Thieves rob the home of ruthless Chicago mob boss Tony Accardo while he's away.
Then one by one, in brutal retribution, they are rubbed out.
One well-known career burglar, not involved in the Accardo job, got so nervous he'd be killed anyway that he took a lie detector test to prove his innocence and sent it to mob bosses.
Now, the mystery around the burglary in the late 1970s is clearing as the fullest account yet of the crime and the bloody consequences is being offered in a court document made public Thursday.
It's just one of the tales on tap as part of the Family Secrets federal trial, involving the top names in the Chicago Outfit, including reputed mob leaders James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo.
Those alleged mobsters and others have been charged in a case involving 18 unsolved Outfit murders.
The trial won't only be about those murders. It will reveal a secret 40-year history of the Outfit itself.
On the Accardo burglary, ace thief John Mendell was simply out to get back what he had already stolen, according to the document.
Mendell had led a burglary crew that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry from Levinson's Jewelry. The only problem was that Accardo was a friend of the owner.
Mendell went into hiding as he learned top mobsters were angry with him and looking for revenge. He hid the loot in the rafters of his business.
But it wasn't safe there for long -- another group of burglars broke in and stole the items.
Mendell wanted his loot back and led his crew to break in to Accardo's home, where the jewelry was stashed in a walk-in vault.
The feds believe this because one of their witnesses -- whose name is blacked out in the court document -- allegedly went on the jewelry store burglary with Mendell but balked at pulling the heist at Accardo's home.
Mendell was lured to his death by a fellow burglar he knew and trusted, Ronald Jarrett, according to the new document. Jarrett worked for reputed hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. Jarrett died in 2000, shot in a mob hit outside his Bridgeport home.
Participating in Mendell's murder were Calabrese Sr., his brother Nick Calabrese, Jarrett and mob hit man Frank Saladino, the court filing alleges. Nick Calabrese is cooperating with the feds and expected to tell jurors in detail how Mendell was killed. He was beaten without mercy, his body punctured by an ice pick. Five other burglars met a similar fate.
The government filing also sheds more light on the slayings of Anthony Spilotro, the mob's man in Las Vegas, and his brother Michael in 1986. The brothers were lured to a Bensenville area home, on the promise of promotions within the mob, but they were beaten to death by several mobsters, authorities say.
In 1986, federal investigators had secretly wired phones at Flash Trucking in Cicero, allegedly the headquarters for years of the Cicero mob, as well as the home phone of Cicero mob boss Rocco Infelise. Investigators heard Infelise, James Marcello and top mob boss Joseph Ferriola exchange calls to set up a meeting with Outfit leader Sam Carlisi at a McDonald's in Oak Brook on June 13. The next day, the Spilotros were slain.
All of the witness names are blacked out in the heavily redacted court document, but the Sun-Times has reported the names of several witnesses, including reputed Outfit hit man and career burglar Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel, failed mob assassin Daniel Bounds, mob leg breaker James LaValley and burglar and mob killer Frank Cullotta, a close associate of Anthony Spilotro.
Cullotta is expected to be a key witness against Lombardo but will likely undergo a vigorous cross by Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin. "From what I've been told, Cullotta, in Sicilian, means mendacious," Halprin said.