Local notables testify, admit gambling with Nuzzo ring
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 26, 1991
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A physician, an insurance broker and the owner of a chain of sporting- goods stores testified Thursday that they each bet about $500 weekly on football and basketball games through the Nuzzo family, but just one of them fingered Sam Nuzzo Jr.
Dr. Charles Yast, a Merrillville ear, nose and throat specialist, said he began placing bets with bookmakers George Petroff and James "Jungle Jim" Tonevich but switched to the Nuzzo family in 1984 when Petroff died.
Yast said he bet on five to eight football games per weekend and 10 to 12 basketball games weekly.
Over the years, Yast said, he lost a very small amount of money.
"It probably would be close to what I spend at the movies for less fun," Yast said.
Yast said he placed his bets by telephone with Jennifer Kaufman and Sandra Mynes and that Arthur Nuzzo would stop by his office weekly to drop off his winnings or pick up his losses. Arthur is Sam Nuzzo Jr.'s brother and the two women are their sisters.
Those three, as well as their father, Sam Nuzzo Sr., all of Merrillville, have pleaded guilty to illegal gambling.
Sam Nuzzo Jr. is one of six defendants in U.S. District Court charged with racketeering, extortion and gambling. He is the alleged leader of the sports betting operations in Northwest Indiana.
The other defendants are Dominick "Tootsie" Palermo, 73, of Orland Park, Ill.; Nicholas "Jumbo" Guzzino, 49, of Chicago Heights, Ill.; Bernard ''Snooky" Morgano, 54, of Valparaiso; Sam "Frog" Glorioso, 48, of Gary; and Peter "Cadillac Pete" Petros, 56, formerly of Gary and now of Cicero, Ill.
Of the four who testified to placing bets through the Nuzzo family, just William Mercer, an area insurance broker, fingered Sam Nuzzo Jr.
Mercer said he approached Sam Jr. at HyDad's, a Merrillville tavern owned by the Nuzzos, and asked if he could bet football games through him.
"He gave me a code number and a telephone number," Mercer said.
He said he settled up twice during the football season, once with Sam Jr. and once with Art.
Michael Stolarz, owner of the five Mike's Sporting Goods stores in Northwest Indiana, said he began making weekly football and basketball bets in 1980. He said he placed them by telephone with Kaufman and Mynes and that Art came by his Glen Park store to handle the money transactions. Stolarz didn't mention Sam.
Stolarz said $600 was the most he lost on any weekend. He said he also played football and basketball parlay cards on a weekly basis.
"Somebody dropped the parlay cards off at the Gary store," Stolarz said. ''I believe it was a gentleman by the name of Frog (Glorioso)."
Michael Waisnora, the general manager at Stolarz's Glen Park store, said he placed bets during the 1987 football season and picked up his winnings or paid off his losses through Ned Pujo at the Beer Barrel Tavern in Ross Township. Waisnora said he never met Sam Nuzzo Jr.
Pujo and his wife, Yolande, the operators of the tavern, will be tried later on gambling charges.
Also Thursday, two video poker machine distributors testified that Petros attempted to extort protection money from them on behalf of the crime syndicate.
Charles Hescher, owner of Star Amusements of Calumet Township, said Petros told him he "had to pay the piper. He said we had to pay for having these things. I was confused. I really didn't believe it. I was scared."
Hescher, who had 30 video poker machines in area taverns, said Petros wanted $1,000 a month. Hescher said he never paid and never heard again from Petros.
Gus Iatrides, the owner of Cassidy's, a Hammond tavern, said he had about six machines in his tavern and placed a few others at Fanny's in Gary and Caper's in Hammond, both strip joints. Fanny's recently burned.
"He said he was sent in by the boys," Iatrides said, adding that he told Petros he would take his machines out rather than pay. He didn't pay and the machines stayed.
Iatrides said Petros came back and gave him a stack of parlay cards. He said he threw away the parlay cards and never heard again from Petros.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Thill spent much of the day going through the laborious process of introducing tapes gathered by telephone wiretaps and microphones placed in the Taste of Italy restaurant in Calumet City, Ill.
Several defense attorneys questioned the value of the tapes because the FBI agents acknowledged that the court order allowing for the wiretaps mandates the agents not listen to or record conversations unless they pertain to the matter being investigated.
Many of the comments on the tapes might be out of context because the agents had to selectively listen, the defense lawyers argued. U.S. District Judge James T. Moody admitted more than 200 of the recordings. They will be played at a later date.
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