Alleged mob boss pays a call
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 7, 2007
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E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: Dominic Calarco said he went to his social club seven days a week to cook for its members, but that routine was broken by a knock on his door in January 2006.
He thought he knew the bearded man standing in front of him. But he wasn't sure until he heard the man speak, he told jurors Monday at the Family Secrets mob-conspiracy trial. The man asking for shelter at Calarco's Elmwood Park home was Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, an alleged leader of the Chicago Outfit who was on the run from federal authorities.
"He said, 'I got no place to go, can I stay with you for a couple of weeks?'" Calarco said.
Lombardo sat in the back of a row of defense tables at the trial Monday, and he didn't have any noticeable reaction to hearing about his last days of freedom. He tilted his head as he listened to Calarco, looking ahead through his tinted eyeglasses.
The two were once neighbors said Calarco, 85, and they had known each other for more than 70 years. He said he invited Lombardo in, and he said that although the case against Lombardo was "none of my business," he soon began to urge his fugitive friend to turn himself in.
There were nights Lombardo cried because he missed his family, and he appeared to be in poor health, Calarco said. They wouldn't have had far to go to find an officer, he added.
"I said all we've got to do is walk across the street," Calarco said, referring to his home being within a block of the Elmwood Park police headquarters.
"He said he had a few more things to do," Calarco said.
Among them was a visit to dentist Patrick Spilotro, the brother of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, for some dental work. The deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro are among the 18 mob-related slayings in the case.
Star government witness Nicholas Calabrese has also testified about seeing Spilotro for dental care. Spilotro is expected to testify Tuesday.
Lombardo was arrested in Elmwood Park soon after the visit with Patrick Spilotro, nine months after he was indicted along with the other defendants in the Family Secrets case.
Prosecution wrapping up
Calarco's testimony came as prosecutors are wrapping up their presentation of evidence, telling U.S. District Judge James Zagel that they expect to rest their case by Wednesday at the latest. Defense attorneys could begin putting on witnesses next week.
Earlier Monday, prosecutors added Sal Romano to the long list of underworld characters they have called to the stand since the landmark trial began in late June.
Romano was a burglar and government informant who turned on the "Hole-in-the-Wall" burglary ring of mobster Anthony Spilotro in the 1980s.
Now an elderly man with a tuft of gray hair, Romano was brought into court in a wheelchair, facing jurors in a blue sports coat and yellow tie. He spoke in a low, mumbling voice, talking about his life of crime in Chicago and Las Vegas, which Spilotro controlled for the Chicago Outfit.
He said he had a "rather good" childhood, and simply ran into the right people to become involved in burglaries.
"Locks and alarms fascinated me," he testified, telling jurors he would buy locks and take them apart to see how they worked. "I developed skills in those things."
At 26 or 27 years old, he began burglarizing different types of coin-operated machines around Chicago, he said. If he got caught, he would just pay off the police, Romano testified.
"You indirectly paid the lawyer they requested you get," he said.
Asked outside the presence of the jury which lawyers he was talking about, he named Dean Wolfson and Sam Banks.
Banks, who has not been charged with wrongdoing in relation to Romano's claims, could not be reached for comment Monday. Wolfson pleaded guilty in 1985 to bribing judges in an unrelated case.
Late in the 1970s, Romano said he was brought to Las Vegas by Peter Basile, who was later charged with the Hole-in-the-Wall gang. The group had been having trouble stealing artwork and other valuables because of alarm systems.
Romano said he knew Family Secrets defendant Paul Schiro during this time.
Spilotro once told him that if he was going to do anything with Schiro, he should do what Schiro said.
And Romano later said he was told by someone else that Schiro could be a dangerous man, though he acknowledged on cross-examination that he was never threatened.
Aborted burglary recounted
Romano said he once attempted a burglary at Schiro's request. The plan was to go into a home belonging to a friend of Schiro's during a family wedding in Phoenix, which Schiro would attend as an alibi.
Supposedly, the friend had $50,000 stashed in a home safe, Romano said.
The men entered after he had taken care of the alarm, Romano said, but a small dog then ran up "screaming, hollering and barking." Romano said he told his partners they should end the attempt, and they did.
Once safely outside and away from the home, Romano said he was asked why he hadn't just "taken care of the dog," meaning silence it for good.
"I said, 'I don't do dogs,'" he said.
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jcoen@tribune.com
