Eugene Zipperstein, a pharmacist, was abducted from one of the many clinics he owns in Chicago and shoved into the back of a panel truck. An hour later, he was dumped in the street, his face and body viciously slashed and punctured He was rushed to the hospital where, at this writing, he remains in critical condition.

It was the fifth violent incident surrounding an investigation of what may be the most profitable Medicaid operation in the country Four other principals in the case either have been murdered or have died under suspicious circumstances. Some sources suggest their deaths may mark the beginning of open warfare for the billions of federal health dollars pouring into programs to aid the poor and elderly. Others believe the crime lords are jockeying for even bigger stakes. If they can get their hands on Medicaid money, they will be in a position to siphon off even more staggering sums from the national health  insurance program, which is expected to pass Congress in the future.

The first to die in the Chicago case was Allen Zipperstein, father of the kidnap-knifing victim. In late 1974 a stranger walked into the pharmacy and asked for Allen Zipperstein. When Zipperstein identified himself, the man raised a shotgun over the counter and pulled the trigger. Zipperstein's death was instantaneous.

Three months later, his Medicaid partner, Robert Fields, was murdered in a similar manner as he closed up shop for the night. A shotgun blast out of the dark caught him in the chest and nearly blew him in half. At the time of their deaths, the partners controlled a multimillion-dollar medical syndicate which had gained a virtual monopoly over welfare medicine on the south and west sides of Chicago.

According to Chicago police, the shotgun hit-man was William Roderick Hill who has confessed to the killings. He is now awaiting execution.

But here's where the story gets curious. He is said to have told authorities he received $25,000 for the double killings from Dr. Max Kaye, an aged dentist, who owned the Medicaid clinic where Hill was employed as a security guard. The dentist is described by police as a former associate of the dead partners. "Zipperstein and Fields were making millions," Chicago homicide chief Joseph DiLeonardi told our associate Bill Halamandaris, "and Kaye wanted a piece."

But other sources close to the murder investigation tell us a different, more seamy story. They say the partners received an offer from the mob they were not supposed to refuse. The murder of Allen Zipperstein was intended, they say, not only as a warning to Fields but also as an object lesson to other health care providers. The late Fields refused to cut the mob in on his Medicaid windfall.

DiLeonardi admitted underworld elements "control a lot of the pharmaceutical business and are probably heavy into Medicaid in Illinois." But he insisted the police had no information linking the mob to the deaths of the two partners. Unfortunately, the witness who might have established that connection is no longer around to tell his story. Dr. Kaye died shortly after a murder warrant was issued for his arrest. His death is said to have been caused by cardiac arrest.

"I have never been able to buy Kaye as the mastermind of the operation," Miike Stein, a spokesman for the Illinois State Legislative Advisory Committee on Public Aid, told us. "He was over 80 and nearly senile. He hardly knew what was going on."

The link between Zipperstein and the mob, Stein told us, was Irwin Weiner. He is thought to be the underworld's major financial figure in the Midwest. Weiner is listed in police intelligence documents as an associate of Louis Rosanova and Anthony Accardo and was considered a close friend of the late trigger man Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio.

Weiner is said to have been the brains behind the attempted partnership of notorious underworld figures and Teamster Union officials in a national network of medical clinics for Teamster use. He was also an early backer of Zipperstein. On one point—the motive for the deaths of Zipperstein and Fields—there is complete agreement. DiLeonardi said the partners were making "exorbitant amounts of money." Other sources tell us that less than a month before his death, Zipperstein had bragged he had taken Medicaid for more than $10 million the previous year. One highly knowledgeable source said a conservative estimate of $25 million was bled off by the combine since 1973.

Footnote: Irwin Weiner was indicted in 1975 for defrauding the Teamster' Pension Fund of $1.4 million. He was acquitted after the principal witness against him was murdered. Less than a month before Weiner's trial was scheduled to begin, two gunmen wearing stocking masks brazenly stalked through a busy factory in broad daylight, found the witness in his office and efficiently executed him.