Joe Ferriola was a very greedy mob boss who attracted significant attention shortly after taking over as head of the Chicago Outfit. He constructed a $500,000, 14-room home on Forest Glen Lane in Oak Brook, Illinois and also owned a home in Florida and a tri-level log home in Green Lake, Wisconsin. So one thing led to another and he started having legal problems with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Because of the constant heat made by the government and the pressure of being the Outfit’s boss, Ferriola started having health problems. So by 1987, Sam “Wings” Carlisi occupied a supervisory position within the Chicago Outfit. In that capacity, Carlisi coordinated the activities of his crew and at the Lenny Patrick Street Crew. Carlisi used his position to authorize criminal activities which benefited his crew and the Outfit in general. Carlisi provided funding for the Patrick Street Crew’s juice loan operation and took an interest in the profits from that business. Again, Joe Vento as a member of Carlisi’s crew, was assigned to supervise the juice loan operation of the Patrick crew, together with Tony Zizzo. The interest rates on all of these loans were between 2.5% and 5% per week, and the loans were made to debtors with the understanding that violence could occur to them if timely payments were not made. In 1988, Lenny Patrick contacted Carlisi and asked him for permission to expand his juice loan business. Carlisi approved and gave Patrick permission to do so. Carlisi told Patrick to contact Jimmy Marcello who scheduled a meeting between the three. During the meeting, Carlisi and Marcello agreed to advance Patrick $100,000 for juice loans, with the understanding that Patrick would repay the entire investment before taking any profits and that thereafter Carlisi and Marcello would receive a one-third share of any juice loan profits generated by Patrick’s operation. Few days later Marcello met with Patrick and gave him $100,000 in cash in a paper bag. Several weeks later, Patrick contacted Marcello again, and requested additional $100,000 in cash. Marcello approved and gave him the cash. Periodically, Patrick arranged to meet Marcello and repaid him from $10,000 to $20,000 on the funds advanced. During 1988, Patrick’s juice loan business was booming. Once he handed down $75,000 in cash to Sam Cralisi and also gave periodically $5,000 to Vento and Zizzo as supervisors for the racket. Patrick steadily repaid the loan, and within 2 years the seed money had ballooned into $ 500,000.
Sam Carlisi
The same year Marcello called Patrick and arranged for the two of them to meet at a restaurant in Westchester, Illinois. Marcello spoke on behalf of Carlisi and told Patrick that they had a job for him. Marcello advised Patrick that there was a problem between the owner of the Lake Theater in Oak Park, Illinois, and the projectionists union. Willis Johnson owned a chain of movie theaters and had been in a labor dispute with the projectionists union since 1983. In 1985 Johnson decided to automate projection at one of his cinemas, the Lake Theater. In early 1988, when negotiations with the union broke down, Johnson announced plans to automate all of his theaters. This didn't sit well with Carlisi, Marcello, and Zizzo, whose sons just happened to be card-carrying members of the projectionists union. As a result, Marcello contacted Patrick and explained that Carlisi wanted him to give Johnson "a little trouble" and make him "join the union.” Patrick agreed to undertake the job.
Patrick than called one of his best enforcers, Mario Rainone and instructed him to scare the owner of the Lake Theater. Mario Rainone met with his subordinate, James LaValley, explained the situation, and told LaValley to use an incendiary grenade to start a fire at the theater. LaValley and another member of the Patrick’s Crew, Nicholas Gio, surveilled the Lake Theater on a number of occasions to determine how to undertake the job. LaValley decided to throw an incendiary grenade on the roof of the theater. Rainone approved the idea and provided LaValley with the incendiary grenade. On a date unknown, LaValley and Gio traveled to the Lake Theater with jugs containing gasoline and the incendiary grenade. They punctured holes in the gasoline containers and threw them on the roof. LaValley then attempted, but failed, to get the incendiary grenade on the roof. Later the same night, on the instructions of Mario Rainone, LaValley and Gio returned to the Lake Theater and attempted to ignite the roof by throwing a homemade “Molotov cocktail” on the roof. That device also failed to start the fire. Within a few days after these attempts, Mario Rainone and another individual went to the Lake Theater and threw a Mark II military explosive-fragmentation hand grenade on the roof of the theater. The grenade malfunctioned and did not detonate and was later found by a janitor, who promptly turned the dud over to the police. In reality Rainone failed and made the Outfit look like incapable organization.
By the end of 1988, Outfit boss Joe Ferriola had serious health problems and was replaced by Sam Carlisi to oversee the day to day operations. On March 11, 1989, Ferriola died at The Methodist Hospital, in Houston, Texas, after receiving a second heart transplant, so Carlisi became the top boss of the Chicago Outfit. During his time of rule, Carlisi made a fatal mistake on the request of his connection guy, Gus Alex. All of the cooperations and convictions began with the plot to kill one of their associates that caused flipping domino effect which inadvertently changed the face of the Outfit.
Anthony “Jeep” Daddino was an associate of the Grand Ave. crew and worked together with Tony Zizzo in the collection of juice loans and the operation of a card room in Franklin Park, Illinois. On September 29, 1989, Daddino together with another Grand Ave. ruthless associate Frank “The German” Schweihs were found guilty and convicted on many charges. The Outfit higher-ups were very worried about the convictions, but the bosses knew The German would never talk, but Jeep was another matter. So Carlisi decided that something had to be done. He arranged a meeting with met with Jimmy Marcello and Lenny Patrick. Again, Patrick took the job. He discussed and planned the murder of Daddino with Mario Rainone. Patrick advised Rainone to meet with Marcello to get the details. Marcello then met with Rainone and told him that his job will be to pick the lock on Daddino's house in order to let the two hit men in. The two hitmen were Rudy Fratto Jr. and “Willie the Beast” Messino. Marcello also told Rainone that the hitmen were not going be there but they would only arrive after he radioed that all was clear to enter the house so he lend Rainone a walkie-talkie to make sure the job went off without a hitch.
On October 1989, Rainone drove in his pickup truck to Rosemont and located Daddino’s house. When he got near the door of Daddino’s home, he saw two guys sitting in a car down the street. First he thought they were cops but then he noticed that they were two familiar faces. When the guys in car saw that they got noticed by Rainone, they ducked down behind the dashboard of their car. Rainone figured it out that those guys were in fact Fratto and Messino. The deal was that they should’ve wait for his call on the radio to enter the house so Rainone knew something was not right. He realized that he was not the hunter, but the prey. Without a moment more of thought, he got back to his truck and fled away with high speed.
The other day, Rainone got in touch with Patrick and told him what happened. Patrick assured Rainone that there wasn’t a contract on his life, but Rainone didn’t believe him. And he was right. Patrick knew about the double-cross because his boss Gus Alex ordered the murder. Alex got a word that an extortion case was on the way and that he feared Rainone would talk because Alex received 25 percent of the proceeds in the extortions. In fact it was an old Outfit trick. One man is ordered to kill another and both are slain at the same time. However, the scheme didn’t go according to plan and Rainone, fearing for his life, decided to call the FBI and told them that he was ready to cooperate. He met with the FBI agents and they told him to wear a wire on his boss Lenny Patrick. Rainone agreed. Few days later, Rainone went to Patrick’s house unannounced because he feared that Patrick would set him up again. Rainone managed to tape several incriminating conversations, including one over the phone where he and Patrick discussed the set up in the Daddino conspiracy. So now the feds caught a real break and they went after the big fish. They raided Lenny Patrick’s home and found many incriminating documents that involved many members of his crew and also certain intelligence that he was involved in with Gus Alex. The feds also played to Patrick some of the tapes that Rainone recorded. The old man took off his reading glasses and thought about the 50 year period of loyalty to the Outfit and felt tired. Patrick didn’t want to die in jail so he agreed to cooperate too. Also few months later another member of Patrick’s crew, Gary Edwards, began cooperating with the FBI.
By the end of 1989 Rainone had cooperated with the government briefly by joining the witness protection program because he feared a hit had been put out on him. But when the Outfit got wind of the situation, they bombed and blew to bits the front porch of his mother’s home. The bomb was placed by Nick Calabrese on the orders of Jimmy Marcello. Rainone got the message and eventually stopped cooperating and pled guilty to extortion charges and was sentenced to 17½ years in prison. "He didn't tell them anything," his lawyer said. Also word got to the Outfit about Edwards’ possible cooperation with the feds. So now the top guys ordered Patrick to shut down his loan operation. But despite the order, Patrick continued to funnel Edwards with a $ 5,000 payment to Carlisi's crew through LaValley. Patrick was a very smart guy. He persuaded LaValley to talk to Zizzo to overrule the order and allow the crew to resume its loansharking activities. But later LaValley heard that Edwards was really cooperating with the FBI, became frightened, returned the money to Patrick, and called Zizzo to ask if he would be rubbed out for unwittingly aiding Edwards. Zizzo told LaValley not to worry and that he would let Marcello and Carlisi know of Edwards' defection.
Now Lenny Patrick took the situation in his own hands. He called Gus Alex and arranged a meeting, while wearing a wiretap. Patrick managed to secretly tape a recording where he and Alex discussed payments to an unnamed union official. But Patrick’s cooperation with the feds came to a halt when the government realised that he still continued to pocket money from illegal activities even after the FBI paid him $7,200 over two months. For example, when Rainone went with the feds, old man Lenny started personally collecting the monthly extortion payments. So the government indicted him on racketeering and extortion charges and tossed him in jail. The indictment was handed down in 1991, which charged Patrick, Nicholas Gio, Mario Rainone and Gus Alex with various offences. James LaValley was also mentioned in the indictment but he also decided to cooperate with the feds.
Old man Patrick
Lenny Patrick was a guy that would sell his mother short. He entered a guilty plea to extorting more than $300,000 from two restaurants and a car dealership and attempting to shake down other businesses and to avoid a long jail term he agreed, once more, to testify against Gus Alex. But before Patrick went to trial, on May 19, 1992 his daughter parked her 1987 BMW in the driveway of her home in Rogers Park. Several minutes later the car exploded and the bomb left a driveway crater 5 inches deep and 2 feet across. It was probably activated by remote control, perhaps by someone positioned nearby on North California Avenue, in view of the house. Nobody was hurt during the blast. One of the cops that investigated the explosion, told the reporters that "If the motive for the bombing was to get Patrick to shut up, I don't think it will work," "Lenny and Sharon Patrick don't get along. They haven't spoken to one another in years. So I doubt the bombing is going to seriously upset him."
The cop was right. On September 16, 17, 18, 21 and 22, 1992, Patrick testified in a packed courtroom in the Dirksen Federal Building, against his former associates. The old man talked in foul language and made jokes from time to time. In other words he was like your typical uncle, laughing and making cracks. When asked about the 1947 slaying of bookmaker Harry “the Horse” Krotish, Patrick said "I did murder him, but he didn't have a horse," "If he did, I would have jumped on it and run with it." Also when Patrick recalled his involvement in the murders of Herman Glick, Edward Murphy, David Zatz and Milton Glickman, one of the lawyers asked if he had killed anyone other than the murders he mentioned, Patrick replied, "No, I've run out of cemeteries." One of Alex’s lawyers attacked Patrick and called him an "evil incarnate," "this diabolical piece of slime" and "one of the most cunning, conniving, evil, twisted people that you'll ever see." "There's no limit to this man," the lawyer said of Patrick "There's no limit to what he will do or say." Patrick replied "Yes. I am the dirtiest thing living on Earth. I don't have feelings for anybody. Everybody's so afraid of me they shiver when they see me. They put on an extra coat."
Patrick also admitted extorting money from some well-known businesses and people, including insurance executive Allan Dorfman, who was killed back in 1983. He said that his former partner in crime, the late Dave Yaras extorted $300,000 from Dorfman and that he and Yaras split $75,000 and gave the rest to syndicate bosses. In a gruff voice Patrick also explained on how he even leaned on his own relatives by threatening his brother Mike`s son-in-law to coerce Mike to pay off a $250,000 debt. And in the late 1980s, he also extorted $187,000 from his common-law wife`s nephew. He just added ``It was my own money``. Also one of the lawyers asked Patrick "Why are you talking in a low, conspiratorial tone?" "I got a bad throat," Patrick replied. "If I had a Scotch I'd be better off." This caused laughter in the room and also caused the judge to again warn Patrick to “stop the running commentary, this is a court room, not a night club.” He also showed a bit of self-deprecating humor when he described how a lifelong friend scammed him by getting him to put up $165,000 to finance a non-existent bookmaking operation. The friend disappeared, and Patrick had another man he suspected of being involved in the scam severely beaten. Patrick said he got the idea to extort money from the owner of Father & Son Pizza after the owner`s son stopped in a pizza-delivery vehicle and helped push Patrick`s car. ``I wanted to give him a few dollars, but he wouldn`t take it,`` Patrick said. ``But you decided to take some money from him?`` asked the prosecutor. Patrick replied ``That`s what happened``. In the end Patrick also added that Sam Carlisi and John DiFronzo, muscled him out of his "street taxes". Now Gus Alex’ lawyers saw a chance to make it clear that Patrick received orders from DiFrozno and Cralisi, not Alex. But Patrick defended himself by saying "Come on, come on, you're getting out of the tune there," "Now you're trying to tell me I didn't give Alex any of the profits from extortions. That's out, that's out."
In the end, the facts and evidences were too overwhelming so the defendants were found guilty. Alex, Gio, and Rainone received (Gio received additional years because he was already in prison) prison sentences of 188, 137, and 210 months, respectively. Alex was also fined $ 250,000, and both he and Rainone were subjected to heavy forfeitures. For Alex, 76 years old at the time, the prison term was a death sentence. The judge, James Alesia, who was the nephew of bootlegger Roger Touhy who was killed by the Outfit in the past, ordered Alex to pay the cost of prison, about $1,400 a month. To make sure he paid, the government froze almost $1 million in cash and securities as well as his two condominiums, on Lake Shore Drive and in Florida. Old man Alex pulled a folded handkerchief from his pocket, pushed his reading glasses out of the way and wiped the tears that rolled down from his eyes. He was then escorted in a wheelchair out of the court room surrounded by a dozen US Marshals. Patrick was sent to 6-year prison term but because of his testimony it was reduced to 2 years.
Gus Alex
But there was a problem for Lenny Patrick. He admitted, without immunity from prosecution, ordering or personally carrying out six murders in the 1940s and early 1950s. Murder cases carry no statute of limitations. Patrick`s confession caught Cook County States Attorney Jack O`Malley’s office off guard, angering county prosecutors because U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman`s office had not forewarned them. So that meant that Patrick could be charged with decades-old murders by state officials despite his extensive cooperation with federal authorities in the prosecution of top mob figures. So Foreman personally begged O’Malley to delay a decision on Patrick until after Sam Carlisi and John DiFronzo, were tried on separate charges in San Diego and Chicago. Carlisi and DiFronzo were scheduled to go on trial on January, 1993 in San Diego on charges of conspiring to gain control of an Indian reservation`s gambling casino. Also “someone” destroyed some of the records thus making it more difficult for Patrick to be charged with the six murders. Later O’Malley approved for Patrick to testify in the Carlisi trial.
On February 17, 1993, 80 year old Lenny Patrick testified for the government in United States v. Carlisi trial in San Diego. But even as an old man, Patrick was still a liar to the core. Patrick agreed to fully cooperate with the government in any investigation in which he is called upon to cooperate. He also agreed to provide complete and truthful testimony before the federal grand jury and United States District Court proceeding. But Patrick breached this part of the plea agreement by testifying falsely in the Carlisi case. The government, therefore, revoked his plea agreement and reinstated the indictment against him. In reality Patrick perjured himself while testifying against Carlisi, which led to Carlisi's acquittal in this trial. Patrick claimed that he acted in self-defense in each of the 6 murders. Patrick, originally sentenced to 6 years in prison for extortion, was given an additional 3 years as punishment for the perjury. The judge also gave Patrick additional 1 year onto his sentence. Patrick called the additional year a “death sentence.” Patrick pleaded guilty again and agreed to continue his cooperation. But the damage was already done. Patrick's perjury meant Alex's lawyers had a new issue for their appeal and gave Carlisi's attorney a lot more fodder to cross-examine him in the Chicago trial.
In this case Patrick swore to tell the truth and repeatedly acknowledged the district judge's admonishments that he was under oath. Patrick was also aware of the consequences of perjury. With the previous experience, Patrick certainly knew that if he lied in this case, his sentence could be jacked up again and he would likely die behind bars. So on December 16, 1993, Chicago’s top bosses Sam Carlisi and six other crew members were convicted on racketeering charges. Lenny Patrick’s, now truthful, testimony sealed their fate on the Daddino murder conspiracy, the juice-loan operation and ordering the intimidation of the Oak Park theater owner for refusing to negotiate with the projectionists union. Carlisi remained in custody as a flight risk until 1996 when he was convicted of mob racketeering, loansharking, and arson in connection with an illegal gambling business in the Chicago area and the West suburbs and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. When the prosecutor accused Carlisi for being the head of the Chicago mob, Sam rose to his feet and shouted "That's a lie!", "I've sat here, and I can't listen no more! That's a damn lie!" Convicted with Carlisi were his underboss James Marcello, Anthony Zizzo, Anthony Chiaramonti, and Gill Valerio. In the end, all of it had been for nothing. All of the problems began with the plot to kill Anthony Daddino because of the suspicion that he will cooperate. The bosses underestimated Daddino because he remained loyal and went to prison. On January 2, 1997, Carlisi died with fluid in his lungs as he was being dragged out by prison guards in a prison unit to a waiting golf cart. On July 24, 1998 Gus Alex died of a heart attack while confined to a federal medical center in Lexington, Kentucky at age 82.
By now 83 year old Lenny Patrick was released from federal incarceration and eventually disappeared into the Federal Witness Protection Program. There’s not much info about his remaining years only that he reportedly suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last decade of his life. On March 1, 2006 Leonard “Lenny” aka “Blinkey” Patrick died of natural causes, apparently in the Chicago area, at the age of 92.
One thing we can be sure of that Lenny Patrick was brilliant in doing his crime activities. He maintained for a long time period because many people around him went down in their own blood by his hand or ended in prison for the rest of their lives. He was involved in many of the Outfit’s key murder hits in overtaking many different rackets that revolutionized their crime activities. Patrick also managed to lie his way out of many difficulties. When asked if the oath really meant anything to him, he replied, "No, it don't." Patrick moved among mob titans like Ricca, Giancana and Accardo, and knew some of the secrets that they knew. Not only the secrets of the forbidden anatomies of bookmaking and juice lending in Chicago, or gangland murders but also the secrets of politics and the Outfit, and maybe vaster secrets, like the one about of the fates of the Kennedys and such. He knew that the only true mysteries were those that can never be solved. All of his life he lived in the unseen heart of the “beast” and in the end he betrayed that same “beast” to save his own ass. Patrick was real life proof that evil really exists. He didn’t care much about his wife, daughters, cousins and neither for his associates in the underworld. He only cared for one person in his whole life…himself.
This article is completed from various infos that can be found on the internet.
