Tapes paint Matonovich as heavy bettor
NWI Times
Aug 8, 1991
nwitimes.com/uncategorized/tapes-paint-matonovich-as-heavy-bettor/article_eee5b96d-04cb-5169-b185-54879e53ccf5.html
HAMMOND - Taking bets from politicians and handing out bribes to cops were just part of a day's work, a veteran area gambling figure testified Wednesday.
The testimony of Franklin Burton, 66, formerly of Crown Point and now living in Florida, took up most of Wednesday as the federal government's case against six reputed organized crime gambling figures continued into its third week.
Burton, a self-confessed bookmaker who worked more than 30 years in Gary, was testifying under a grant of immunity from federal prosecution.
An audio recording Burton made while wearing a concealed tape device, played in court, implicated state Rep. John Matonovich, D-Hammond, as a heavy better with bad luck and a good record for paying his debts.
The conversation between Burton and Michael Primich took place Nov. 5, 1987, at the Hessville Tap, 6919 Kennedy Ave., Hammond, during which the pair discussed illegal football parlay card operations both were running.
Matonovich Wednesday said of Burton and Primich's allegations that he would "not dignify that with an answer," although he said he frequents the Hessville Tap. "It's in my district," he said, adding he went to high school with the tavern's owner.
In another conversation Burton had with a man identified only as "George" that same day at the Hessville Tap, he asks if Matonovich has come in with an envelope for him.
"No, he said he still owes you, what, 40, 60 bucks or something like that," George said. "He owes me more than that," Burton replied.
The two then talked about Matonovich's pending wedding, to which Burton said he had gotten an invitation, and the fact Matonovich had gotten a job for his fiancee with the county welfare department.
Later, Burton refers to Matonovich's first term in office. "I tell him U.S. Steel sent down $2 million, to be split up down there. I said bein' you're a junior state representative, you won't ... probably won't get that 'til first of year, 'cause after that Standard Oil (unclear) and that's gotta be chopped up someplace down there. You guys gotta get your (unclear). He says, well, I'll get into it pretty soon."
Burton also said he paid bribes to three Gary police officers to keep his job.
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thill, Burton said he paid $1,000 to officers Willie Ray Turley, John McBride and Thomas Houston in August 1986 after a series of police raids had left the gambling businesses in Gary reeling.
Thill said some of the officers bribed by Burton were secretly working for the FBI, and recorded Burton's transactions. Turley is expected to testify today.
Scott King, defense lawyer for accused gambler Sam Nuzzo Jr. of Merrillville, said it was the threat of federal prosecution for the bribes that got Burton to cooperate with the government, telling the FBI what it wanted to hear.
Kevin Milner, representing accused mob figure Dominick "Tootsie" Palermo, said Burton embellished his stories of mob gambling activity to ensure he was offered immunity for his "interesting" testimony.
Burton "is working off a beef" by cooperating, Milner said. "He cut himself a fantastic deal." Palermo, of Orland Park, is allegedly the head of the south suburban-Northwest Indiana operation for the Chicago "Outfit" and one of the top mobsters in Chicago.
Burton's testimony centered on his relationship with Nuzzo and Sam "Frog" Glorioso of Gary, a well-established gambler, at a time when the illicit gambling industry in Gary was in a state of confusion.
It was shortly after the death of Lake County mob chieftain Frank Nick Zizzo in spring 1986 that Burton claimed he began to get threatening telephone calls and shots were fired into his bookmaking business in the rear of the Magazine Mart, 3899 Broadway, Gary.
It was then, October 1986, that Burton turned to the FBI and offered to become an informant. Whether he was driven by the threats from the mob because he was not paying "street tax" or from the government because of the August police bribes is a matter of dispute between opposing sides.
What is known is that he called then-U.S. Attorney James G. Richmond, who set Burton up with FBI agents who wired him for a body microphone and recorder. By later that month, he was sent into action.
In all the tapes, both Nuzzo and Glorioso deny they know anything about the shootings and threats, although both say they will speak to their contacts in an effort to get whoever it is to lay off Burton.
On Nov. 14, 1986, Nuzzo and Burton - who is wearing a wire - meet at Hydad's, a tavern Nuzzo owns at 31 W. 80th Place, Merrillville, and Nuzzo says, "Everything's OK. You're with the right people. Do what you want to, you know, but you're with who you're supposed to be with, and that's just the way it is."
Later, Nuzzo says, "What? How? Who? I don't know nothing about, and I don't want to know nothing about." Pressed by Burton, Nuzzo says, "They're from the Heights and the area, to the best of my knowledge."
Defendant Albert N. "Jumbo" Guzzino is from Chicago Heights, commonly referred to as "The Heights."
Burton also repeatedly complained to Glorioso about the $1,000 a month the threatening caller wanted paid as "street tax," a form of extortion the Chicago "Outfit" collects from illicit gambling operators in its sphere.
When Zizzo died, it left Northwest Indiana open to others in the Chicago "Outfit." The threats against Burton and others were apparently attempts by unknown "Outfit" members to take over the Northwest Indiana operation.
Glorioso told Burton he was the designated collector, or bagman, for the "Outfit," but Burton refused to pay, saying Glorioso would have used the money to pay off his own gambling debts or go deeper into debt.
Glorioso's lawyer, Robert Truitt, said his client was a "warm and gentle man," to which Burton agreed. "Not a violent person?" Truitt asked. "No, not Sam," Burton replied.
Truitt suggested Glorioso was willing to act as the bagman only because he had gotten himself so deeply in debt to "Outfit" gamblers that working for them was the only way he could climb out of the monetary hole he had dug for himself.
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