Indictment Names Reputed Mob Boss
15 From Suburbs, Indiana Charged
Chicago Tribune
December 19, 1990
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-12-19/news/9004140958_1_mob-boss-crime-family-fbi-agents
For eight years, federal authorities investigated organized crime in Chicago`s southern suburbs and nearby northwest Indiana, focusing on a reputed mob boss and 14 of his alleged crime family members.
On Tuesday, the results of that prolonged inquiry were made public in the Hammond federal courthouse with an indictment naming 15 people. Charges included racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and traveling across Illinois and Indiana state lines to engage in crime.
Dominick Palermo, 72, identified as the godfather suspect in the 1986 murders of Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael, in Indiana, was taken into custody by FBI agents in Chicago Heights.
Palermo, a field representative of the Laborers International Union, was accused in a 29-count indictment of crimes for which he could be imprisoned 70 years and fined $2 million.
Also snared in the undercover FBI probe, aided by detectives of the Indiana State Police, was Palermo`s alleged underboss, Nicholas Guzzino, 49, also of Chicago Heights.
Both face the racketeering, conspiracy and extortion charges.
Separate charges in the case ranged from taking sports bets over telephones to peddling football parley cards and organizing barbooth, a Greek dice game usually patronized by wealthy, high-stakes players.
James Richmond, U.S. attorney for northern Indiana, said the Palermo-Guzzino organization employed terror tactics to enforce collection of ``street taxes,`` or protection money, from vice and gambling operators in northwest Indiana.
He said that because the shakedown victims were criminals themselves, they didn`t complain to police, a factor the alleged mobsters counted on.
What they didn`t factor in was the FBI`s extensive use of wiretaps and informants, investigators said.
Richmond and Indiana FBI chief Wayne Alford described the indictment, obtained by Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Thill, as the most significant ever brought against alleged members of a single organized crime family.
They were joined at a courthouse press conference by Indiana State Police Lt. Col. Larry Delaney, whose troopers joined FBI agents in arresting Palermo, Guzzino and several alleged mob money collectors.
In addition to evidence obtained from raids and undercover operatives, Richmond and Alford said the operation netted ``300 days`` of wiretapped conversations among the defendants.
Alford`s Indiana agents were assisted by their Illinois counterparts, led by FBI supervisor John Johnson of the bureau`s office in suburban Orland Park. The indictment of Palermo and Guzzino was seen as an extension of a government crackdown on south suburban mob activities that began with the arrest and conviction last year of Chicago Heights mob boss Albert Tocco, who is serving a 200-year prison term.
His estranged wife, Betty Tocco, testified as a government witness at his trial in Chicago and said that Tocco told her that he, Palermo and Guzzino took part in the June 1986 murders and burial of the Spilotro brothers, whose bodies were later unearthed in a Newton County, Ind., cornfield.
Others charged in the indictment included Bernard Morgano, 54, and Anthony Leone, 51, both of Valparaiso, Ind.; Sam Glorioso, 48, of Gary; Peter Petros, 56, of Chicago; Sam Nuzzo Sr., 69; Sam Nuzzo Jr. 45; and Arthur A. Nuzzo, 33, all of Merrillville.
Others are Steve Sfouris, 55, of Munster.; Anthony Ottomanelli, 60, of Portage; Sandra T. Mynes, 43, and Jennifer Kaufman, 37, both of Merrillville; and Ned Pujo, 51, and his wife, Yolande Pujo, 55, both of Portage.
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