Money, not honor, drove "goodfellas"
NWI Times
Jul 21, 1991
http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/money-not-honor-drove-goodfellas/article_a509c7d6-9cd8-5aba-9db9-bce27760ced6.html
HAMMOND - They fancied themselves Lake County's goodfellas, the wise guys of Northwest Indiana.
There was no family honor, no blood oaths in secret ceremonies. Money was everything. Payoffs went all the way to the top of local law enforcement, to the sheriff of Lake County, one defendant-turned-witness will testify.
Having a bad week? Too bad. Pay me. Your place got hit by lightning? Too bad. Pay me. Fall behind, refuse to pay? We have people "who can handle anything."
That's what the government hopes to prove Monday as the biggest mob trial ever in Northwest Indiana gets under way in federal court.
In December, 15 people were indicted in Hammond in connection with the Chicago crime syndicate's operations in Northwest Indiana.
Six of the top echelon go to trial this week. Six others have already pleaded guilty. Another defendant is believed to have fled the country and two more will go on trial in October.
Monday, the alleged leader of south suburban and Northwest Indiana mob operations, Dominick "Tootsie" Palermo, of Orland Park, Ill., will go on trial for racketeering, conspiracy and gambling along with several other reputed top mobsters.
Included among those are Nicholas Guzzino, Palermo's lieutenant; Bernard "Snooky" Morgano, of Valparaiso, the Northwest Indiana boss; Sam Nuzzo Jr., of Merrillville, the man who the FBI says controls 80 percent of Lake County's illicit gambling; reputed bagman and extortionist Peter "Cadillac Pete" Petros of Cicero, Ill., and Sam "Frog" Glorioso, of Gary.
Defendant Steve "Bozo" Sfouris, of Munster, allegedly fled the country and is a federal fugitive. He is believed to have returned to his native Greece.
Ned and Yolande Pujo, of Portage, are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 7. They run the Beer Barrel Tavern and Restaurant on U.S. 30 in unincorporated Ross Township, where large scale parley card betting reportedly took place under Nuzzo's direction.
Nuzzo's father, Sam Nuzzo Sr., his brother, Arthur Nuzzo, his two sisters, Jennifer Kaufman and Sandra Mynes, and Anthony "Potatoes" Ottomanelli pleaded guilty Tuesday. Ottomanelli will be a government witness. They face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Leone, already in prison on racketeering, conspiracy and gambling convictions, pleaded guilty to gambling, conspiracy and extortion charges and will testify as a government witness.
Among the testimony expected from Leone, laid out in a document filed in federal court, is that the sheriff of Lake County was "getting paid protection money" by the Outfit. Leone will testify he was told that by the Outfit boss of Northwest Indiana, Snooky Morgano, sometime in 1987.
Although the "sheriff of Lake County" is nowhere identified by name in the document, current Sheriff Stephen R. Stiglich was in office then, and had been since late 1985.
Stiglich has said, through spokesman Ronald Rybarczyk, "I am not going to dignify that allegation with a comment."
Leone also alleges that he and Morgano met in June 1987 with "the sheriff" and James A. "Sonny" Peterson, East Chicago's gambling kingpin.
Other allegations detailed in the 13-page document include:
* Testimony from Edward Strawmeier that Cadillac Pete Petros approached him in 1984 about cornering the market on video poker machines in the Michigan City-LaPorte area.
* Petros, a collector of "street tax," or extortion money paid by syndicate gamblers, is also suspected in the firebombings of gambling lounges in South Bend and Elkhart in the early 1980s.
* Arnold "Jew Arnie" Bard of Munster and owner of an auto parts store in Hobart will testify how he helped set up illegal gambling games with Sam Nuzzo Jr. at two Greek coffee houses on 45th Avenue in Gary in 1987 and 1988.
Bard, a local gambling figure, will also tell about playing barbooth, a fast-paced Greek dice game, at games run by Sfouris in Hammond and East Chicago.
* John "Mustache John" Mantis will testify how he ran gambling games out of coffee houses in East Chicago and was supposed to meet with Nicky Guzzino and a man known only as "Gino" at an East Chicago restaurant to discuss the payment of "insurance" for Mantis to continue his games.
When Mantis failed to show for the meeting, Guzzino and Gino showed up at his restaurant, and Guzzino allegedly told Mantis "he would tear his eyeballs out and nail them to the wall" if he did not buy the insurance. Mantis told them he was already paying, and refused to pay more. The two threatened the card dealers, who quit - putting Mantis out of business.
Mantis is also expected to tell how he gave Sfouris, his boss, a ride to the former Pepper Pot Pizza to pay protection money to the "Old Man." This reference is to Frank Nick Zizzo, the one-time boss of Lake County gambling, who died in spring 1986.
* Mob figure turned informant Ken "Tokyo Joe" Eto will testify Chicago mob boss Joseph Ferriola told him in 1980 not to take any more bets in Northwest Indiana, but that Zizzo would take all the "street tax" and that Guzzino was his bagman.
* Evidence is also expected that federal witness Daniel MacKinnon, subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury on April 22, 1988, was approached by the Pujos and told to say he remembered nothing.
Just before the grand jury date, two men walked up to MacKinnon in the Denny's restaurant in Merrillville, called out his name and said "if he opened his mouth he would be dead." A similar incident happened on May 19, 1988, the day before MacKinnon's second grand jury appearance, as he left a grocery store at 53rd Avenue and Broadway in Merrillville and was approached by a man who threatened him if he said anything.
* Jeff Dunk is expected to testify that Petros approached him in 1980 or 1981 and offered to put a video poker machine in his business, to which Dunk agreed and split the payoffs down the middle with Petros. In 1986, Dunk is expected to say, Petros told him he "had people who could handle anything" if he needed it.
The government also plans to call Anthony Rovy and Betty Tocco to testify.
Rovy, a self-proclaimed career criminal and a reputed mob enforcer, pleaded guilty in September to helping the late Sam Mann distribute cocaine and marijuana in Calumet City and several other south suburbs from 1981 to 1987.
Betty Tocco is expected to testify her former husband, imprisoned mob boss Albert "Caesar" Tocco, asked her to send a message to Palermo and Guzzino.
Tocco, confined to the Metropolitan Correction Center, allegedly wanted the two men to arrange for a witness against him to have a heart attack.
Guzzino's alleged reply to the message was "You know there is a lot of things going on. We are going to be in the same position as Albert."
Palermo was identified in a court memo during Tocco's trial as one of three men who met Tocco the night of the 1986 murders of the mob's Las Vegas overseer, Anthony Spilotro, 48, and his brother, Michael, 41, who were buried in a cornfield in Newton County, Ind.
Guzzino was identified in the memo as the one who dug the grave.
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