Respectable Citizen

Besides his “adventurous” career, Judge Sbarbaro was also very fond of sports especially baseball and basketball and so in 1944, he acquired control of the Chicago franchise of the newly formed Basketball Association of America. He has been known for sponsoring the basketball programs at the Chicago Stadium for many years later. But by 1946, all of the so-called alleged arrests of corrupted officials stopped, and the machine of corruption was back in full effect.

On April 2, 1947, former police detectives William Drury and Joe Connelly appealed their firings to the courts and the discharge was overruled in Superior court by Judge Sbarbaro, who in turn was overruled by the Appellate court, when the city appealed. The Appellate court decision was upheld by the State Supreme Court and so the United States Supreme court refused the detectives a hearing. Later in an unusual twist Sbarbaro also overturned his decision by discharging the detectives. The same month, Chicago Outfit big shots William and Edward Vogel, Tony Fragassi and Skokie's village president and its trustees were indicted and convicted on operating slot machines in Skokie, Illinois. So, on May 13, 1947, Judge Sbarbaro overturned the conviction on the Vogel brothers and all of the indicted in the conspiracy.

Even though sometimes Sbarbaro released the bad guys, he also knew how to keep some type of balance by being the “citizen’s man”. In 1950, Sbarbaro the Crawford business group sued the city, indicating they had a petition signed by owners on Pulaski Rd frontage supporting a return to the Crawford name. In 1951, Superior Court judge Sbarbaro did just that, and so after 18 years, Pulaski Rd. became once again Crawford Ave. Also in 1956, Sbarbaro was preparing to become one of the candidates for the incoming elections for becoming a Republican president but the only problem was that by now Sbarbaro was 67 years old or in other words, he was becoming an old man.


Judge John Sbarbaro blowing out candles on a cake for his 70th birthday at the “mob-owned” Tavern Club


Tragic Death

On March 10, 1960 Sbarbaro’s wife Mable flew to Miami, Florida to have a check on her back injury, and so a week later, on March 17, her husband John took the Miami bound Northwest Airlines turbo-prop plane, which later exploded high over Ohio River bottom lands and spewed wreckage over a five-mile area, killing all 63 aboard. At least 75 farmers and sportsmen in the rugged terrain below heard the double blasts, separated by a few seconds, and saw the tumbling pieces. One wing and an engine fell away from the cabin and were found three miles from the main structure. Farmers and police said they viewed a scene of horror. Clothing, bits of flesh, and fragments of metal had showered a field and were clinging to trees and bushes. A crater estimated 50 feet across and more than 20 feet deep in mixed mud and snow marked the grave, of all aboard. Government air experts were summoned with the first word of the accident, and they were quick to point out that this accident was almost exactly like an earlier still unexplained Electra in-flight explosion. The earlier accident occurred October 29, 1959, at Waco, Texas, when a new Electra plane blew up, killing 34 aboard. I believe this was one of the main reasons for which Sbarabro’s family filled up a $250,000 damage suit against Northwest Airlines for the death of the Judge and later they won. John Sbarbaro’s life ended at the age of 70 and besides his widow, he was survived by his brother Anthony and his sister Angelina.

The late John Sbarbaro remains in history as one of Chicago’s jurist who made major contributions to society both as a public official and as a private citizen. As a man of law, he is warmly remembered for his many acts of judicial enlightenment and compassion. But on the other hand, he also largely contributed in strengthening the connection between organized crime and politics, a connection which I strongly believe lasts even today.

Cheers