Even though the gang was responsible for at least 17 home invasions and few bank robberies in just two months, still the main problem was the fear which they managed to spread along the North Shore, through their violent methods and animalistic behaviour. They were the street guys or “runners” who were the constantly on the streets, hustling and giving a percentage of their proceedings to the Chicago Outfit. But besides their evilness, they were still considered the “first line of defence” against the government’s attacks, meaning if some of the young criminals got “pinched” by the feds, old or young, that was the end of him. And that’s what really happened. Two of Yonder’s associates in the key-stealing business at the beauty parlor, were nabbed by the feds. The two unlucky fellas were Leo Johnson and Herbert Kwate and these two young criminals got scared for only walking in the police station. Later their bonds were paid and so Guido and Yonder looked at them as expendable and with Buccieri’s permission, they went for the kill. Guido gave the “contract” to his brothers Louis and Don, who in turn plotted the murder and later gave it to Gary D'Allessandro and Alex Wallace, two of the gang’s best “hitters”. On June 1, 1962, the bullet-riddled body of Johnson popped up in a West Side alley and also more than two weeks later, on June 17, the lifeless body of Kwate was found near Carpentersville in Kane County. Right after the Kwate murder, the feds realised that another car hiker was gone and this time it was William Collins. In fact, Collins disappeared the next day, after the cops found Johnson’s body. Collins’ body was never found.


The killings of the two young car hikers, was the last straw in the eyes of the federal government and so they decided to take the situation under control. The government quickly issued warrants for the arrest of Guido, Yonder and the rest of the gang and so on June 18, 1962, the cops visited Guido’s home in search of Guido and Yonder. The problem was that neither was present, but Guido’s wife Patricia was home. She told the cops almost nothing but right after the police visit, she received three telephone calls from her husband, who in turn managed to make a huge mistake. You see, Guido was a real scumbag who had no respect for his wife and three kids, and so during their telephone conversation, he threatened his own wife to keep her mouth shut or else. Now, how stupid can a guy get in a situation such as this one? I mean his wife already has proven herself by not telling anything to the policemen and on top of that, Guido had to put additional pressure over her. Well, after receiving the last call, on June 20, Patricia Guido made a decision to contact the Joliet police and, in the presence of the State's Attorney's police, sheriff's police and Joliet police, unearthed the hidden canisters which contained some of the stolen property from the Botthof job. After turning the canisters over to the police, Patricia was arrested and charged with taking part in the Botthof robbery but after that, she was subsequently released on bond.


Even though she still kept her mouth shut regarding Guido and the rest of the gang, her husband’s senseless threats did not end up there. While being hunted all around the Midwest by the police, Nick Guido again somehow managed to send word down to his wife that if she opened up her mouth ever again, he was going to kidnap their own kids and that he was going to hurt them. Immediately, at Patricia’s request, she was placed in protective custody by the State's Attorney's office to remain like that until the trial, of course, in return for every information that she possessed regarding the Guido gang. So from this point on, started the so-called “domino effect” of the gang’s fall. Next to “spill the beans” was Duane Pinkowski who got also indicted for armed robbery, decided to testify against his former colleagues as a state witness. He detailed for the feds on how he was allegedly forced into going on the Botthof robbery under the threats to harm his wife and child by Guido. Pinkowski said that Guido first offered him to forget about a $1,000 loan which he had made to Pinkowski, if he would take part in the robbery. Also, the feds raided a drug store at 43d street and Drexel Boulevard, which was used by the gang to keep some of their stolen loot until it was sold. In fact, Guido reported to the parole agents that he was working as a purchasing agent for the drug store. Owners of the place were Mrs. Grace Pine and her daughter Mrs. Delite and both were charged with possession of stolen property, which forced them to open their mouths. Meanwhile, one of the gang’s “hitters” Alex Wallace also opened his mouth, and had signed a confession in which he said he fired the first shot into his accomplice’s body and charged D'Allessandro, who allegedly fired four more shots. The slayings, according to Wallace, were ordered by Guido himself. In the end, even though he helped the government, Wallace was again sentenced to no less than 33 year in prison regarding the Kwate murder. After this there was a national hunt for Guido and Yonder with a “shoot on site” warrant.


Luckily for them, in November 1962, the two fugitives were caught and arrested by the police in Michigan State and after proving their sanity, by early January, 1963, they were taken to trial. Now, the whole thing was a huge spectacle. First, the defence was destroyed by all of the witnesses that took the stand such as Patricia Guido, Mr. and Mrs. Botthof, Pinkowski, Wallace etc. For example, Mrs Botthof was on the verge of insanity, while in tears she told of the agony she endured as the bandits tried to extract information from her and her husband. "Then he stood on my neck three times," she said, "he kicked, beat, and punched me. He dragged me across the room by my hair so that I could watch him beat my husband." Pinkowski also detailed for the jury how he was forced under threats into going on the Botthof robbery and also about Guido’s future plans and selection of a half-dozen banks in the Chicago suburbs as alleged targets of his gang. In the end, Guido was completely destroyed by the testimony of his wife Patricia. Here’s a part of her testimony regarding the Schamberg robbery: “Nick was told by some female who plays cards with Mrs. Schamberg, that she had seen Mrs. Schamberg with a five carat square cut diamond ring, and a black onyx watch with diamonds, plus other expensive jewellery. A few days later, Nick sent me to the women’s apparel store owned by the Schambergs at Devon and Western avenues. I saw Mrs. Schamberg and she was wearing a large diamond ring. Nick then made plans for the robbery. A few nights later I drove our T-bird [sports car] with Nick and Frank [Yonder] with me. Nick got out of the car and told me to drive Louie [Vasselli] and Frank to the Schamberg home. Nick told Frank, before we left, that Nick or I would call the Schamberg home, and that one of them should answer the phone. Nick also told them to try and disguise themselves with Mr. Schamberg's clothes and to take scarfs or something to hide their faces. That was it. So I drove Frank and Louie [to the vicinity of the Schamberg home] and dropped them off. I saw them go thru the woods toward the Schamberg house. I left and picked up Nick again. I stopped at a drug store and called the Schamberg house about 9:45 p. m. Frank answered the phone and I told him it’s me, and he said, “Hi, honey, call back in 10 minutes because I have company.” So I waited 10 more minutes and called again. Louie answered the phone and said that he and Frank would be leaving in five minutes. I told this to Nick and we drove over to pick them up. When Nick and I got to where Louie had his car parked, Louie was gone and Frank was standing there holding a pillow case with the furs and the costume jewellery. Nick told Frank to put everything except the good jewellery and the money in the alley behind the houses. Nick sent me home with the good jewellery to my home in Joliet. Nick counted out $1,100 in cash in front of me."


And so, on January 16, 1963, the jury found Guido and Yonder guilty regarding the Botthof robbery and were sentenced each from 60 to 100 years in prison. According to some reports, Guido received his sentence without any emotion and as for Yonder, he maintained a wry smile, which was the only expression he has shown throughout the trial. Minutes after the notorious duo had been sentenced to prison, as they left the courtroom, Yonder attacked and threatened to kill a police lieutenant, who stood nearby. Yonder lunged toward Lt. Edward King and slammed his head against the cell bars after spitting into his face. Later Yonder threw his arm around King's neck, and said "Now I'm going to kill you!" and attempted to grab King's .38 caliber pistol. In the end, Yonder was subdued by the court bailiffs, who handcuffed him to the cell bars. Later, Patricia Guido testified in another trial, against Louis Guido and again, against her husband Nick, regarding the dope peddling business, in which bother brothers received additional sentences.


Now, you would ask yourself on what was a highly organized criminal group such as the Chicago Outfit doing with psychotic criminals such as the Guido gang? Now criminals such as Carl Fiorito were one thing, and these guys were completely the opposite. They made a lot of noise and brought a lot of unwanted attention and we know that in those days the Outfit did not have a lot of respect for groups such as this one. There are many examples were the Outfit executed the killings of dozens of unlucky individuals in less than a year, so my point is, if somebody from the higher ups wanted these reckless fellas dead, they were going to end up dead, with no questions asked. But I believe that people like Buccieri, Battaglia or Giancana had a “thing” for psychotic gangsters, since they were quite easily talked into a murder. And on top of that, they peddled narcotics and stole whatever they found, so according to some terms, they might’ve been a quite lucrative crew. But as you can see, the violent bank robbing styles of the 1930’s were also back, out of various reasons, after 30 years. My personal belief is that during this period the feds declared war against the Chicago Mob, thus closing many of their illegal operations and so many of the “capos” or territorial bosses, pressured their underlings for more money, since they were already pressured by the top boss. So my point is that for one to plan a high score burglary, he or she needed some time for the whole planning, but since the bosses needed fast cash, robbery was always the fastest way of getting some fast money.


Now, while some Outfit-connected thieves were sent to jail, others were still out “running wild” on the streets of Chicago. By the late 1950’s, William Daddano became one of the area crime bosses for the Outfit who controlled various rackets, from gambling to extortion but still he answered to one area boss known as Sam Battaglia who in turn was the boss of all western suburbs. Because of his past activities, Daddano also became the main Outfit guy who had connections to almost every burglar or thief around the Chicago area and because of that, his main job was to collect street tax. You see, almost every criminal who operated on some of Daddano’s territories had to pay street tax to their so-called area boss or else. The thing was some of those “victims” were also bank robbers or jewel thieves and that is why Daddano spent the last part of his criminal career, which was the early 1960’s, while running a crew of independent thieves out of a suburban bowling alley in Melrose Park which he allegedly owned. It was named the Riviera Bowling Lanes and served as his headquarters and it was there where most of Chicago’s thieves dropped by to pay their “debts” to Daddano and the Outfit and everyone who was anyone knew that Daddano was extracting street tax from professional burglars throughout the Chicago area for many years and story goes that the street tax was non-negotiable and those who failed to pay usually ended up six feet under the ground. Daddano didn’t only extort the burglars, but he also recruited promising guys for other dirty operations because some of these guys were daring men with pure criminal minds, which made them perfect Outfit guys. In time they became the Outfit’s “property” and even carried out enforcement work, for example accomplishing syndicate-sanctioned killings. But Dadddano had a way of “buying” his associates by being very loyal to them and story goes that once he reportedly bought a new Corvette for a burglar and mob associate who did time in prison, as a reward for not ratting on his boss.


I believe that the old chief wanted to bring back the old days of entering a bank or a jewellery store in a quite violent style with people jumping down on the floor and woman screams filling the air. Now don’t get me wrong, after the war and by the early 1950’s Daddano became one of main players in the rising faction of the Outfit, and with all of that dirty cash, for some reason, he still loved orchestrating a good old bank robbery. Daddano’s contacts with robbing banks were obviously renewed by the people who paid him street tax. So Daddano and his crew of burglars operated mostly “old school” style, meaning they were robbing banks and hijacked trucks like John Dillinger’s gang back in the old days, but with ski masks. This crew of robbers was formed by guys like Johnny “The Bug” Varelli, Guy “Lover Boy” Mendola, John ”Joey D” D’Argento, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. DeLegge, Mike LaJoy, James “Legs” D’Antonio, Jim Martin, Angelo Boscarino, Steve Tomaris, Larry Fletcher, Mike Swiatek, Donny O'Brien, Jimmy Caporusso, Eugene Cacciatore, Tony Legato, Garry Tomaszek and Patrick Schang. The thing was that these guys were not just your ordinary burglars but instead some of them worked as enforcers or loan sharking collectors with long arrest records.


For example, James D’Antonio was a criminal with a record of almost 70 arrests or John Varelli, true name Schiverelli, who previously worked under the auspices of Elmwood Park Outfit member William Messino, as loan sharking or “juice” collector and jewel thief. Varelli had a quite dark history which fitted his nickname “The Bug” since he was born in an insane asylum where his mother was patient and that is why, through the years Varelli spent lots of time in foster homes and showed signs of schizophrenia all of his life. Story goes that Varelli once had a guy on “juice” but the problem was that the so-called “victim” couldn’t pay his debt and fled to California. In less than six months, Varelli found the guy, brought him back to Chicago and slashed him with a knife quite badly but didn’t kill him. Instead, Varelli told the guy that he, the victim, was going to take care of the payments for Varelli’s new car and the individual had no choice but to agree. In 1961, Varelli was caught in the act of stealing 24 barrels of scrap metal which was valued over $5,000 but instead of going to jail, he received five year probation.


Mike LaJoy was also one cruel individual and was known for setting up his own family members just to save his own skin. Once, LaJoy forced his father to take the blame and get pinched for stolen goods which were found in his store and were obviously placed there by his son. LaJoy was also related to the DeLegges who were also individuals with long arrest records. Together with D’Argento and Fletcher, they operated a very lucrative car theft ring which many of the cars ended up in the Detroit and other Midwest cities. These guys’ connection to the syndicate was also Outfit lawyer Mike Brodkin but there was also another connection and that was Richard Cain, real name Scalzetti, corrupt chief investigator for the Cook County sheriff's office and member of the Chicago Outfit. One day, D’Argento and one Paul Panczko were arrested by the police regarding the ownership of burglary tools which they planned to use for stealing a car which in turn was planned to be used in a robbery. So the boys decided to call for Cain who in turn gave the case to one of his corrupt colleagues James Donnelly and eventually the boys were released.


Frank DeLegge Sr. had a quite rough start in his criminal career since he was imprisoned for a long time period but later his son DeLegge Jr. introduced his old man to many Outfit-connected people. DeLegge Sr. started working together with one other prominent burglar known as Jerry Scalise, and they managed to pull few jobs here and there but the problem was that DeLegge Sr. was a degenerate gambler and always was in debt to someone. That’s why, in some way he was forced to do all kinds of robberies so he can payback his debts. Also the older DeLegge wasn’t some guy who would go on robberies with a gun but instead he always took the role as a lookout or a driver.


So to understand the origins of this burglary crew I have to say that most of these guys previously belonged to the so-called Panczko gang from the Elmwood Park area, which was a huge group of professional burglars who operated independently but sometimes they did jobs for the Outfit also, especially the Elmwood Park crew. Now, before we proceed about the Daddano’s and everything, first I want to explain the Panczko’s, since they were the so-called “roots’ of the gang and they also left a huge mark in Chicago’s history of the burglary business. The legendary Chicago burglary gang was in fact started by the three Panczko brothers who came from six children of Polish immigrants. They were Joseph a.k.a. “Pops”, Edward a.k.a. “Butch” and Paul a.k.a. “Peanuts” and they all grew up on the city’s West Side and they knew all of the Italian or non-Italian criminals from that particular area. As young kids, they stole peanut butter and cement mixers to help feed their huge family during the Depression era and then “graduated” on stealing fur coats, or chickens from the Fulton Street market, typewriters, and also jewels and cash later on. They were sort of a quite “interesting” family, and they all lived together with their sisters and their husbands, which one of them was a drug addict.



The Panczko brothers: Paul, Joseph and Edward


As I previously stated that the brothers knew and associated with huge number of other professional burglars, and besides LaJoy, the DeLegges, and D’Argento, others were Richard Kay, Edward Cook and Chester Zochowski. These guys did not operate only in the Chicago area, but they also operated around the country. For example, Richard Kay was a guy who very often operated on the east coast. He had a very interesting style of robbing big stores, by previously sending one of his associates to hide inside the store until closing. Then the guy would come out, take all of the jewellery and furs, and in the end he would break out and was greeted by Kay, who in turn was waiting outside with the getaway car. The crew just loved to steal and they managed to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars around the country but they were also caught by the cops many times.


For example, back in 1951, Edward Panczko and four other guys managed to steal two heavy safes from the national currency exchange office in Cicero, and after that they tried to place the two safes into their sedan. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two cops showed up and all five burglars raced to save their skins but one of the cops started shooting and managed to hit Panczko in the chest. Somehow he survived and on top of that, he even managed to “survive” the trial because his lawyers successfully argued that there was no chance for the police officers to know for sure on who was who that night because of the heavy fog, and so Panczko was free. Also, his older brother Joseph was no different. Once, he and few of his partners in crime planned to rob a jewellery store in suburban Wilmette but the problem was that one of their “friends”, who knew about the planned heist, tipped the cops and told them about everything. So on the night of the crime, one policeman armed with a shotgun was hidden at the back of the store and waited for the thieves. Suddenly, he heard someone breaking in, stood up and shouted at the burglars to stop and rise their hands up in the air. Quickly, one of the burglars threw something at the policeman and they all started running away from the scene. The cop took after them and as he ran, he managed to fire his shotgun, thus hitting one of the burglars right in the head. The wounded burglar staggered on the ground and screamed for help. When the cop arrived, he quickly realized that it was “Pops” Panczko. After that, the doctors pulled out two shotgun pellets from the back of his skull and another one from his brain. Later, during the trial, “Pops” was assisted by one Outfit-connected lawyer known as George Bieber and right across them, there were 17 witnesses against the defendant. But somehow, Bieber managed to convince the jury that “Pops” was in fact minding his own business when suddenly somebody shot him in the head. Believe it or not, in the end “Pops” Panczko was acquitted from all charges. The cop who arrested him allegedly said “I am at loss for words. It sort of hits you low, you do your best, then this.”


Another quite interesting example occurred during the winter season when the Panczko gang was known for visiting the Miami Beach area and gloriously added to the number of thefts on that territory. On February 10, 1962, one of the brothers Paul Panczko and three of his associates managed to attract a nationwide publicity by robbing the Leonard Taylor jewellery store at Pompano Beach, Florida. The four robbers entered the store and at gunpoint, they ordered for the employees to fill their bags with jewellery which worth approximately $1,800,000. Later in the evening, with the help of reports from eyewitnesses, the Miami police managed to arrest Paul Panczko and two of his associates Eddie Cook and Richard Kay. The precious jewellery was found the next day, in a trunk of a car which was parked on a public parking lot in Miami Beach and the keys of the car were in fact found in the pockets of Panczko. This time the defendants were convicted and sentenced from 3 to 4 years in jail.


Now, the main connections to the Chicago crime syndicate were Paul Panczko, Mendola and DeLegge Sr and one of their first connections was Chicago Mob lawyer Mike Brodkin, who was almost like a member of the crime organization and represented all of these fellas and even knew some of their fathers. For example, Mendola was the toughest one in the group with an arrest record since 1943, and that is why his father very often visited Brodkin and begged him to help his son and force him take a different path in his life but the Mob lawyer did quite the opposite by introducing the young criminal to other criminals or in other words, he showed him the lucrative way of the streets. Mendola started his criminal career with his close friend Paul Panczko and together they served a 7 year prison term in a Tennessee jail for $100,000 jewel robbery. After he ended up working for Outfit crime boss of the Stone Park and Franklyn Park areas Rocco Pranno and during his career Mendola was arrested more than 40 times and served two jail terms in Birdwell and even though he was considered a low level criminal, Mendola still managed to mingle with many actual members of the Outfit and also knew a lot about their inner workings. According to one story, Mendola once told a friend of his that the Outfit managed to corrupt a high level FBI agent and that he knew the names of two Outfit informants. But sometimes the hot blooded Italian forgot about the limits in that kind of life which almost cost his life. For example, in 1962, Mendola had an argument with the crime boss Rocco Pranno. The duo had a violent argument at one of Pranno’s clubs, and that’s when the boss gave more than few cracks to Mendola’s mouth and after that Pranno administered a heavy beating over Mendola in the basement of the joint, while in the presence of a police officer. In the end, Mendola got out with a warning never to come back to Pranno’s place ever again.


The group’s so-called headquarters was a club known as the Twist which was located on Grand Avenue in Elmwood Park and was owned by one of their “dearest friends” John DiFronzo who worked under the auspices of the crime boss of that area Jack Cerone. In fact, DiFronzo acted as the group’s fencer, meaning he resold the stolen property and also collected street tax for his superiors. For example, one of the group’s most sensational robberies occurred during Christmas Eve in 1962 and their target was a truck which belonged to the Brink’s Inc. U.S. Services. With the help of their armoured trucks, the company made cash in transit, coin processing, cash handling, safes, check imaging, secure transportation, and atm services. The main participants in the robbery were Panczko, Tomaszek and Martin and together they followed the truck’s route for more than three weeks while watching every movement and expertly timing the absence from the truck by a guard. On December 24, the truck, loaded with money picked up from 35 firms near the close of the Christmas buying season, was held up by three men in front of the River Rand Bowl, a bowling alley at 191 N. River rd., north of Des Plaines. The three robbers wore hoods and black zipper jackets, and with the help of their guns, they forced their way into the truck, handcuffed the security guards, and drove the vehicle to a nearby brickyard. In fact they used special keys to open doors of the truck which indicated that they may had access to the armoured truck at night, when it normally was previously parked in some public garage. There they transferred the money bags in bushel baskets to a waiting auto and sped away, driven by a fourth man. With the speed of light, they drove to the Twist where the gang was met by DiFronzo in the joint’s basement. When they opened the bags, Christmas was right there in front of them because the boys managed to steal more than $250,000.



From Left to right: Americo DePietto, Chester Zochowski, Edward Rawa, James D'Antonio, Angelo Piscopo, Chester Majewski, John DiFronzo, Steve Tomaras, Frank Bono


But before Paul Panczko went to jail, there was some misunderstanding between him and some of the crew members such as Mendola, LaJoy, Schang and DeLegge Sr. The reason for that was Panczko’s alleged big mouth, meaning when he staged some big job, after that he usually bragged about his work so everybody can know that it was his “masterpiece”. But the problem wasn’t Panczko’s babbling about his jobs, but instead the main problem was if Mendola and some of the other guys staged a job, Panczko again bragged about the work, and took the credit for it. So it was all about egoistical emotions and that’s why the sponsorship of the group has changed and went from the Elmwood Park faction, to the Melrose Park group, under Daddano and Battaglia.