Guilty verdicts for 6 defendants in gambling trial
Post-Tribune (IN)
August 17, 1991
infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/10852D05ABA7B488?p=AWNB
"The jury's in," said a U.S. marshal as he hustled around the federal building notifying the waiting defendants, lawyers, sisters, wives, mothers and sons.
The verdict for six men on trial for racketeering, conspiracy, gambling and extortion: "Guilty."
Just before 4 p.m. Friday, Bernard J. "Snooky" Morgano faced his wife, Stephanie, and caressed her cheek with his hand.
"Are you okay?" she asked, patting away an imaginary wrinkle from the shoulder of his sports coat.
Her hands appeared to move automatically, as if she were once again tidying up her husband of 30 years and sending him off to work as a motion picture projectionist.
But Stephanie Morgano's troubled face betrayed her inner torment. Her husband leaned forward and kissed her.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Morgano said, and turned to his older son, Guy, who pulled close and kissed his father's cheek.
Moments later, Morgano, 54, a Valparaiso resident, walked into U.S. District Judge James Moody's courtroom where Morgano was about to answer for his alleged other occupation - mob boss.
Co-defendant and Gary steel worker Sam M. "Frog" Glorioso, 48, whom Morgano had known since boyhood and who the government says is a mob extortionist, walked in with him. Morgano and Glorioso were followed by dozens of friends and family members - theirs and those of their four fellow defendants already inside.
Morgano and Glorioso greeted the four. They walked around the courtroom's two defense tables shaking hands with Dominick "Tootsie" Palermo, 73, of Orland Park, Ill.; Nicholas Albert "Jumbo" Guzzino, 49, of Chicago Heights, Ill.; Peter "Cadillac Pete" Petros, 56, formerly of Gary, more recently of Cicero, Ill.; and Sam Nuzzo Jr. 45, of Merrillville.
As dangers to the community, Palermo, Guzzino, Petros and Nuzzo were jailed before the trial began. They had been brought into the courtroom earlier.
All six were on trial for racketeering and conspiracy.
Five also were charged with operating gambling businesses of their own, specifically a Greek dice game called barbotte and a sports betting and football parlay card operation.
In addition, five were charged with specific acts of extortion to further a scheme of extracting mob "street taxes" from other Northwest Indiana gambling operators.
Moody entered the courtroom and sat at the bench beneath the huge Seal of the United States. He called in the jury.
The foreman handed a sheaf of verdict forms to the bailiff, who passed them to Moody.
Moody scowled as he flipped through the forms, then handed them down to court clerk David Garrett to be read aloud.
"Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty
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