07311991 - News Article - Graczyk stole to pay off bets - Lost $100,000 in gambling operations

Graczyk stole to pay off bets 
Lost $100,000 in gambling operations
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 31, 1991
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The crime syndicate loves guys like Robert J. Graczyk.

He's a gambler. Football. Baseball. Basketball. He'd wager on horseshoes if someone would take the bet.

He bet as much as $800 on a single game. He did it almost every day, depending on the season.

Sometimes he won. Usually he lost.

He told a U.S. District Court jury Tuesday that he lost about $100,000 betting on sporting events in 1987 and 1988. His testimony came during the trial of six alleged gamblers and members of the crime syndicate. The trial focuses on collection of a street tax from Northwest Indiana gambling operations.

He lost more than he had and turned to white-collar crime to get the money to pay off what he owed.

Graczyk, 35, a Highland resident at the time, said he was down about $20,000 the night a couple of heavies pushed him around his living room wanting their money.

Graczyk said he placed most of his bets through the Nuzzo family in Merrillville. Sam Nuzzo Jr., 45, is one of the six defendants.

"I was home with my two daughters," Graczyk said, when guys named Bob and Bingo knocked on his door.

Graczyk said the men told him, "We are trying to get our money and can't collect it because Nuzzo said you hadn't paid them."

"I told them I was trying to get money and make good," Graczyk said. ''They grabbed me and threatened me and my family. They went outside for two or three minutes then took off. They parked across the street on two or three other occasions."

Graczyk was an estimator for Union Tank Car Co. in East Chicago making about $37,000 a year. His wife was making $24,000 annually.

He took a couple of part-time jobs to pay off his debts and stole from both companies.

He took a $19,841 check from Ardillo Co., a valve firm in Hammond, and another $50,000 from Clark Material Handling Inc. of East Chicago. He formed a company known as Indiana Rail and stole $15,000 from a customer.

And he said he took $35,000 from his parents.

"My mom knew what was going on," Graczyk said. "She knew I had a problem with my compulsive gambling."

Graczyk, who said he still owes $6,000, said he paid off his debts to Artie Nuzzo, Sam's brother. Artie has pleaded guilty to illegal gambling and awaits sentencing.

The government, according to a document introduced prior to the trial, contends Sam Nuzzo gave 20 percent of what he took in to the crime syndicate.

Graczyk was charged and pleaded guilty in connection with the Ardillo theft. He faces from eight months to 10 years when he is sentenced. He won't be charged for the other thefts.

Besides Nuzzo, the 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 LaPorte, now of Cicero, Ill.

FBI special agent James Cziperle took the stand Tuesday with the jury out of the courtroom to outline a conversation he had with Morgano as the two were walking into the courthouse on July 15.

"He (Morgano) said he had anxiety and was pointing to his chest," Cziperle said. "He said 'I'll be glad when this ---- is over. You play with fire and you get burned.' "

Most of Tuesday morning was taken up with the testimony of the operators of tobacco stores that fronted for gambling operations in Michigan City and LaPorte.

Edward C. Strawmier, 40, said he and his uncle, Charles Kallil, operated the United Cigar Store, 719 Franklin Square, Michigan City, until 1989.

Strawmier said he and his uncle each cleared more than $200,000 a year from sports betting, parlay cards and punch boards. He said he began paying Anthony Leone $500 a month in protection money in the fall of 1986. Leone, who also was indicted, has pleaded guilty and will testify later in the trial.

"I figured him to being connected to a syndicate, the mob," Strawmier said. "I felt intimidated. I didn't know what these people were capable of."

In the fall of 1987, Strawmier said he met Leone in a parking lot across the street from the Minos restaurant on U.S. 421 in Michigan City.

"He told me to lift up my shirt and he frisked me," Strawmier said. "He said he felt like he was being followed."

Several of the defense attorneys focused on the issue of selective prosecution, pointing out that Strawmier was granted immunity to testify about what the defendants are charged with doing.

"You consider yourself a lucky man," said Chicago attorney Kevin Milner, representing Palermo.

"Yes, I do," Strawmier said.

"You are just going on your merry way making money and everything else," Milner said. "You are not even going to have to stop your business (gambling), are you?"

"No," Strawmier said.

Donald Pytel, the owner of Lucky's Tobacco Store in LaPorte, another bookmaker, said he paid Leone $400 monthly.

The defense attorneys also suggested that Leone was acting on his own and conned Pytel and Strawmier. When Leone stopped collecting the monthly payments, no one else came around to collect the money, each said.

"I don't know if I was conned or not, but I gave it to him," Pytel said.

The government played two short tapes recorded at the Guzzino family's Taste of Italy restaurant in Calumet City, Ill.

Guzzino is heard telling Morgano to collect money, but he doesn't say for what or from whom.

There also is a reference to "Curley" wanting money collected from someone "behind on the rent." Curley is one of Palermo's nicknames. It was the first reference to Palermo.