08171991 - News Article - Six mobsters found guilty - Courtroom overcome with sobs

Six mobsters found guilty
Courtroom overcome with sobs
NWI Times
Aug 17, 1991
nwitimes.com/uncategorized/six-mobsters-found-guilty-courtroom-overcome-with/article_34bcd41b-58cc-5afe-a330-0220a20e8014.html
HAMMOND - The heart-wrenching sobs of an 11-year-old girl gripped a federal courtroom Friday as family, friends, defendants and their lawyers tried to comprehend a verdict that stunned perhaps everyone but the government.

The child began crying even before her mother and family members entered the courtroom to hear the verdicts of her father, Nicholas "Nicky" Guzzino, 49, of Chicago Heights, who could spend the rest of his life in a federal prison for his crimes. She stayed outside the court while the verdicts were read.

The child's wails could be heard from inside the courtroom, tearing at the emotions of the lawyer who defended her father and the lawyers of the five co-defendants who were all found guilty of running a gambling and extortion racket for the Chicago "Outfit" organized crime family.

"I think it's outrageous," said lawyer Ronald Menaker, who left the building with red eyes and few words.

Of the 57 racketeering, conspiracy and gambling-related charges the six men faced, the jury found them guilty of 56. Only Guzzino was found innocent of one of the nine charges he faced of the use of interstate travel in the aid of racketeering.

The six could spend the rest of their lives in a federal prison, with possible prison terms ranging from 70 to 150 years and fines as high as $3.5 million.

The jury took 18 hours over two days to reach its verdict about 4 p.m. Friday. Many of the family members waited while the jury deliberated. For the reading of the verdict, they sat as they had during much of the trial, shoulder to shoulder. Family members filled almost three court benches, holding hands as the verdicts were read, some of them crying quietly.

Outside the courtroom, members of the defendants' close-knit Italian families hugged and consoled one another, lamenting their disbelief that the jury of three men and nine women could deliberate for 18 hours and decide that all of the men were guilty of practically all of the charges.

One of the jurors also appeared shaken by the experience; one shielded her face and another nervously twiddled her thumbs as the verdicts were read by a clerk.

After the verdicts were read, the defense lawyers shook their clients' hands, and tried to reassure them as they were led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals who planned to take all of the defendants that evening to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.

The lawyers then sat back down, trying to soak in the loss as family members filed out of the courtroom to release their anger and sorrow.

"I am very disappointed," said Richard James, who represented Bernard "Snooky" Morgano, 54, of Valparaiso, a father of two sons and a daughter who gave birth to a daughter this week - the Morgano family's first grandchild.

James searched for the words to describe his feelings. "These guys are nothing like they were made out to be," he said.

Scott King, who represented Sam Nuzzo Jr., agreed: "The image of them as some sort of mobsters doesn't fit them."

King said he will "vigorously" appeal the extortion charges. The loss was hard to swallow for King, who thought his client had a chance to escape everything except a minor gambling charge.

The Nuzzo family was not present for the reading of verdicts. Sam's father, Sam Sr., brother Arthur and sisters Jennifer Kaufman and Sandra Mynes were indicted with him, but pleaded guilty last month to the single gambling charge they faced. They have yet to be sentenced.

Defense lawyers don't always get to represent nice people with nice families, and this was one such case, said Robert Truitt, a court-appointed lawyer who represented Sam "Frog" Glorioso, a steelworker from Gary whose wife and daughter joined him in the wait for verdict.

Truitt said he believes Glorioso, who got behind in his gambling debts, tried to settle his debts by doing favors. "I feel bad for Sam. He didn't go to them looking to be employed as a money collector."

Outspoken Chicago lawyer Kevin Milner, who represented Palermo, said he was too upset to share his thoughts after the guilty verdicts were read. If one of the defendants had a chance, he believed it was his client.