Great story in the Chicago Sun Times alleging business as usual when a riverboat casino license is available.

Try the thin crust pizza, cheese-and-sausage, extra sausage next time you're at Armand's!


FBI agent: Rosemont mayor met with mob
July 19, 2005
BY MAURA KELLY LANNAN

Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens met with five members and two associates of organized crime in May 1999 regarding the mob's control of construction and operations contracts at a proposed casino in the northwest suburb, an FBI agent testified Monday.

Special agent John Mallul's testimony came during a hearing in which the state is aiming to revoke the dormant gaming license held by Emerald Casino Inc. The Illinois Gaming Board cited wrongdoing by Emerald, including alleged mob links, in rejecting the company's Rosemont casino plan in 2001.

Stephens vehemently denied Mallul's testimony, saying he was at a vacation home in Delavan, Wis., on the day the meeting allegedly occurred. He also said he's never been to Armand's, the Elmwood Park restaurant where the gathering was to have happened.

"This is lunacy," Stephens said, adding he hopes to set the record straight when he testifies, possibly later this month.

'The Clown' allegedly sat in
Mallul, an FBI supervisory special agent of an organized crime squad in Chicago, testified that the May 29, 1999, meeting he said Stephens attended included the following people whom Mallul identified as members of organized crime: Peter DiFronzo, John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Rudy Fratto and Joe "The Builder" Andriacchi.

''One topic of discussion concerned a casino in Rosemont, Illinois, and LCN [La Cosa Nostra] control of various contracts regarding its construction and operation,'' Mallul said, reading from an FBI memo that the Gaming Board said it requested two or three weeks ago.

Lombardo, long believed to be a leader of organized crime in the Chicago area, is among those charged in an April indictment in connection with at least 18 unsolved murders. He has so far eluded capture.

Mallul said the meeting also included William Messino and Rick Rissoulo, whom Mallul identified as associates of organized crime.

The information about the meeting came from a confidential source who was at the meeting, Mallul said. The source was a person whom the FBI has used for 30 years and who has helped with arrests and indictments, Mallul said.

AP, with staff reporter Chris Fusco contributing


Stephens willing to end casino push, for $50 mil.
BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter

Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens said Monday he's willing to pull the plug on his long casino quest -- if certain conditions are met.

"If we were made whole it would not bother me if the casino was not in Rosemont," Stephens told the Chicago Sun-Times.

To be "made whole," Rosemont would need to be paid about $50 million from a proposed sale of Emerald Casino's dormant gaming license to cover the cost of a parking garage the village built for Emerald. The rusting steel shell of what was to become Emerald's gambling barge remains visible outside that garage -- a reminder of how mob allegations derailed Emerald's plans for Rosemont.

Rosemont has since moved forward with a flurry of court cases to steer Emerald's gaming license to another company that could finish the barge. But those efforts haven't worked so far, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been among those to question whether Stephens is linked to the mob.

'I've got the armor of God'
Stephens guffawed when told of FBI special agent John Mallul's testimony Monday that Stephens met with five mobsters -- including two linked to a waste-hauling firm that did business at the Emerald site -- and two mob associates. Stephens said he was at his vacation home in Delavan, Wis., on May 29, 1999, when the meeting at an Elmwood Park restaurant, Armand's, allegedly occurred.

"I've never been in Armand's restaurant," Stephens said. "I've never had lunch with any of these people. I've never had breakfast with any of these people. . . . I've never went to the movies with any of these people. Nothing.

"This was Memorial Day weekend. I was at my home in Delavan."

Stephens stressed his willingness to walk away from the casino deal would be contingent on the approval of his fellow village trustees and the village's lawyers. When asked if doing so might appear to be an admission that Rosemont has links to organized crime and taint his nearly 50-year run as the village's only mayor, he replied, "I know that I haven't got those associations. . . . I've got the armor of God, and I'm not worried."

Copyright © The Sun-Times Company


tony b.

Thanks, Tony. Sounds like business as usual.

Interesting story Tony. It's good to get some inside mob news from other states. I wish that others would bring us up to date from time to time with any legitimate mob news that is reported in their area.

Thanks.


Don Cardi

This has been an ongoing soap opera for the last several years. The State currently prohibits land-based casinos and has a fixed number of riverboat casino licenses. The tax rate isn't particularly onerous, so despite a cap on the number of gaming seats an operator can have, the riverboats are a virtual lock to make money in year one of their operation.

To meet a gaming requirement of 20% ownership by minorities, the partnership created for the Rosemont riverboat casino set aside exactly that amount and assembled a "who's who" of Chicago notables to each invest the $1.5 (m) million dollars necessary for a one percent share. I once saw a complete list of investors, but I can't lay my hands on it right now. But here\'s a link to an older article with a few of the names involved in the venture.

The Illinois Police and Sheriff\'s News has a great web page, much of which is devoted to organized crime. Although this particular article from Chicago Magazine, archived on the IPSN web site, is a few years old, it's a nice resource for the chronology of the Rosemont deal.

The sale and transfer of the original license which required the gaming law to be rewritten to make this single exception for the geographical transfer, allegations of organized crime connections within the group of Rosemont investors, appointments to the Illinois Gaming Board alleged to have been made specifically to gain approval for the Rosemont casino, the allegation of a meeting between the village mayor and "outfit" bosses, and the Illinois Attorney General saying that there are too many "red flags" to not become involved in this...boy, you just can't strong-arm anyone anymore!

Finally, have you looked at a map? Can you name the body of water the Rosemont "riverboat" casino was supposed to float on?

tony b.

More news...


Brutal mobster Infelise dies in prison at 82

July 26, 2005

BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter Advertisement

Ernest Rocco Infelise rose to the heights of the Chicago mob with a combination of brutality and ruthlessness unequaled by few of his peers, investigators say.

Those same qualities landed him in federal prison for 63 years, where he died last week, authorities said Monday.

Infelise, 82, was once the third-ranking mobster in the Chicago area.

He was hit with effectively a life sentence in 1993 after a lengthy federal trial in which he and other members of his crew were convicted of conspiring to murder bookmaker Hal Smith, who refused to pay a $6,000-a-month mob street tax. Infelise was also convicted on charges related to running an illegal sports bookmaking operation and tax crimes.

Mob bookie William Jahoda, who turned federal witness, secretly tape recorded Infelise and others talking about the Smith murder. The testimony of Jahoda, who died in May last year, was critical to the federal case.

Infelise and his colleagues would talk about murder "like you would discuss the Sox game last night. That was what made it so chilling," recalled retired IRS Special Agent Thomas Moriarty, who is credited with flipping Jahoda for the feds.

Jahoda taped some conversations with Infelise while Jahoda was in the high-rise Chicago apartment that the feds had set him up in. Jahoda had a constant fear that if he were caught taping, Infelise would throw him off the balcony.

Infelise died Thursday in a federal prison medical center on a decommissioned military base at Fort Devens, about 40 miles west of Boston, authorities said. The Massachusetts State Medical Examiner would not release his cause of death late Monday. Infelise was transferred to the medical center on March 8 from the federal prison in El Reno, Okla., records show.

At trial more than a decade ago, Infelise came across as a feisty tough guy, ready for battle, unlike many aging mobsters who often gripe about their health or appear feeble. His wife, Ann, was often in the courtroom to observe, dressed in the best fashion.

"The whole time Jahoda testified, [Rocco Infelise] just glowered at him," said William Paulin, an IRS special agent who investigated Infelise.

Even after Infelise was convicted, he lashed into the judge, telling then U.S. District Court Judge Ann C. Williams that "I really don't think we had a fair trial, your honor, from Day One."

Contributing: Stella Foster