I believe that the main reason for the change was “family connections”, meaning DeLegge Sr. became brother-in-law to Daddano, and DeLegge Jr became the son-in-law of another Outfit member from that area known as Nick Palermo, and also DeLegge Sr. was employed at Palermo’s Melrose Park Plumbing Company. Also, DeLegge Sr.’s daughter was the wife of William Fiorito, son of Carl Fiorito. Even Outfit enforcer John Varelli transferred his loyalties from the Elmwood Park group to the Melrose Park crew or to be exact, to Nick Palermo. On the other hand LaJoy was Daddano’s nephew and Donny O'Brien was very closely connected to Phil Alderisio, another high profile Outfit member from the same area. And so with these connections, the Melrose Park crew had easy access to some of the most professional burglars at the time. This was one of the most deadly mixes of burglars, which became a band of "good fellas" who terrorized the entire metropolitan area during the early sixties. By this time there was no other and more lucrative burglary crew than this one in the city of Chicago but the problem was that some of these guys weren’t too smart and too honest with each other, which became the main reason for the destruction of the group during the next few years.
At beginning of September, 1963, the crew decided to go on a stealing rampage all over the country. On September 13, 1963, Pat Schang, Garry Tomaszek and John Cook went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they executed a robbery at the Leonard Taylor Jewellery Store and managed to get away approximately with $100,000. That’s same month, or one week later, four members of the crew including LaJoy, DeLegge Sr, D’Argento and Fletcher were in Michigan to commit a bank robbery and the target was located in the Livonia area and this bank was in fact one at which checks were cashed by winners from the trotting race track in that same area. They went to motel and made a plan which was to hit the guard and then jump the counter and obtain the money, simple as that. They drove to the airport near the area and managed to steal an Oldsmobile to be used as a getaway car and another 1963 Ford to be used as a second getaway car. The trick was to leave the first getaway car, and use the second one for their travel to Chicago. But they also had another plan which was for DeLegge Sr. to be placed on a bus to Chicago together with the loot, in case the boys get caught by the cops. However none of the plans did not go through, because the moment the group stepped foot on the parking lot, a security truck came on the scene and took all the cash away from the bank.
After that the group returned to Chicago, and while driving through the Franklyn Park area, DeLegge Sr. spotted the Franklyn Park Bank and developed an idea to simply rob the establishment. Some of these guys were quite desperate, meaning they were in debts to dangerous underworld individuals and so they badly needed to obtain funds. So the other day, the boys met at Sansonetti’s Restaurant which was located at Grand Avenue and Mannheim Road, but this time they also included Varelli on the meeting. One week prior to September 23, 1963, DeLegge Sr, D’Argento, Varelli and Fletcher were waiting in a car right across the Franklyn Park Bank and prepared for to go on the job. While getting ready, two police cars stopped by their car and questioned the boys on what was the reason for being on this location and their answer was the obvious “waiting for a friend”. But during the questioning, the boys noticed Mendola passing by with his car and in their minds they immediately concluded that he might be the one who informed the cops to arrive at the exact location. Later, the boys called on Mendola to question him regarding his unusual appearance during the police questioning and in his defence he said that he was taking his daughter to the doctor and that he had no knowledge regarding the cops. The boys believed him but since he was still a suspect, they forced him to come with them on their next job, which was again the Franklyn Park Bank, now planned for September 23. The boys also decided that few more people should join the heist, including DeLegge Jr., Tomaszek and Patrick Schang. From this point on, the only guy who decided to back off was John Varelli. You see, he worked directly under Outfit member Nick Palermo, who in turn has forbidden for his son-in-law DeLegge Jr. to be involved in any criminal activity and Varelli thought that he might end up responsible if anything happens to Jr. The other issue was Fletcher, who on the same date as the planned robbery, he had to appear in court on some non-related charges. Plus, he was known as a very nervous guy with more than few chances to screw the whole situation. So regarding the two issues the rest of the participants agreed and went on with their plan.
First, Mendola and D’Argento stole a car, a Chevy Impala SS, and also they have stolen different licence plates. Later, the boys went to DeLegge Sr.’s garage and there they removed the back seat from the stolen car, so three guys can crouch down and be out of sight while two are driving in front. Second, DeLegge Jr.’s job was to make a prank call to the police station before the robbery and to tell them that there’s a bomb in some school, away from the bank. His father’s job was to the drive the so-called crash car, meaning he was to follow the getaway car and if a chase with cops occurred, he was to try and crash with the police patrol and later claim that he was in panic and was confused because of all the noise and excitement. Plans previously made also included the determination of a train which passed through Franklyn Park on daily basis at regularly scheduled time. So the plan was for the train to cross the main street and to assist the boys in keeping the police in one place, at least for a while.
On the exact planned date, the stage was set for the Franklyn Park Bank job and so on that same day, D’Argento, Tomaszek and Mendola met at Daddano’s bowling alley and informed the boss about their plan, besides in the end they still had to give him his share from the stolen loot, or in other words, they had to pay the Outfit’s so-called street tax. They received Daddano’s “blessing” and later were picked up by Pat Schang with the stolen getaway car. D’Argento, LaJoy and Tomaszek lied down in the back, while Schang remained on the wheel and Mendola sat right next to him. Most of the robbers were armed, like for example Tomaszek had a .38, Medola had a .25 automatic, D’Argento had a carbine and LaJoy also had a .38. When the group arrived at the bank, first they circled with their car at least twice and Schang drove into the parking lot and pulled by the front entrance of the bank and in a matter of seconds, D’Argento, Mendola, LaJoy and Tomaszek jumped out of the car with ski masks over their heads and raincoats and headed into the bank. Mendola also carried small buckets of lead weights and used them to prop open the doors. When they entered inside, Tomaszek and D’Argento started shouting at the people and workers in the bank to hit the floor and then the two of them, together with Mendola went for the loot. LaJoy took a position near the entrance of the bank and at the same time kept order among the hostages while waving his .38. He also kept count of the time during the robbery, and after two minutes, he announced that time was up and it was time for them to go and so the four burglars rushed out of the bank and went straight to the getaway car and got off.
As expected, a Franklin Park police patrol car saw them and quickly headed directly towards them. DeLegge Jr. made the prank call to the police station and claimed that there was a bomb placed in the local high school but the good, and at the same time, rare thing was that the patrol men ignored the call because they suspected it might be a hoax and so they continued with the high speed chase. Now it was the old man’s turn, meaning DeLegge Sr. went for the police car and tried to crash into it but there was one “small” and maybe at the same time funny problem. The problem was that DeLegge’s so-called crash car was too slow for the police patrol car and obviously was unable to crash into it. But the good thing was that Schang was one helluva driver and so he made few quick turns and tried to loose his tail but the patrol car was still on to them. Then D’Argento got out from the rear window of the car and fired few rounds at the cops, thus forcing them to hit the breaks and lost control of their vehicle. In a state of panic, D’Argento fell against the seat, while discharging the carbine he was carrying, almost hitting one of his cohorts. Glass from the rear window flew all over the car.
Suddenly another police car passed them by and while making the turn, Schang hit the gas and headed for Rose Street to Chestnut, then quickly north to Scott Street and then west on Minneapolis to the alley between Sarah and Dora Streets, straight into the garage of DeLegge Sr.’s residence. While entering the garage, in a state of panic, Schang opened his door while the car was still moving thus completely breaking it. D’Argento, LaJoy and Schang remained in the residence but Mendola and Tomaszek fled the area through nearby yards and alleys. While running and jumping over fences, luckily the two robbers ran into Ralph Sansonetti, owner of a restaurant and one of their close friends, as he was driving around the neighbourhood. They got into his car and drove of to Mendola’s residence. The robbers who remained in DeLegge Sr.’s house collected all of the coveralls, hoods and other items which were used in the robbery and destroyed them. But as they exited the residence, they were observed by an older woman from a nearby house, which made particularly LaJoy quite nervous. Few hours later, LaJoy called the old woman on the phone and threatened her in some manner, to keep her from identifying them. Sansonetti also received a threat through his daughter, who was friendly with LaJoy, to remain silent regarding the activities of the robbers and his transportation of Mendola and Tomaszek. And so with that they managed to escape the law, at least for awhile.
That night, all of the participants in the robbery gathered at DeLege Sr.’s new residence with the loot from the robbery but there was a problem. The boys managed to steal only $20,000, which was obviously quite small amount for such a risky operation. They were seven people involved in the robbery and top of that, they have to give Daddano’s share of the loot. The first individual that went crazy over the situation was Mendola. He swore that there was more money obtained during the robbery and that someone wasn’t telling the truth. Suddenly a very violent and noisy quarrel occurred between the boys and in the end, Mendola commented that a lie test should be given to all of them so they can determine on who was lying and stole the cash. The next day, they took the problem to Daddano, who first doubted about the whole situation but when later some of the newspapers declared that $40,000 were missing from the bank, he made up his mind. In fact, the right amount was $43,097 and so more than $20,000 were missing, an amount which would get you easily killed by gangsters. And so Daddano was crazy enough to consider a lie test to every participant in the robbery because he was known as sadistic individual. Even with that, Daddano still had doubts about making such a move but later, one event occurred which made the situation quite scary. In the end, DeLegge Sr. and Jr. took $4,000, D’Argento, Tomaszek and LaJoy took also $2,000 each, as for Mendola and Schang, they didn’t took a penny because they felt disgusted about the whole situation. The rest of the stolen loot went in the hands of Daddano and the Chicago Outfit, who usually took from 30 to 40 percent of the net profits.
Four days later on September 27, out of nowhere, almost all of the participants in the robbery were arrested on bank robbing charges, including D’Argento, Tomaszcek, LaJoy and Schang. I said “almost” all of the participants because the only guy who got spared from the arrest was Mendola. In no time Daddano arranged for Rocco Montagna to bail everyone out of jail. “Schnibble Nose” as he was called was a known bondsman and very close associate of Daddano and Chicago Outfit boss at the time, Sam Giancana. Each got out on a $50,000 bond and the arguments continued right after their release. The first two guys, who asked the questions on whether somebody in the crew was an informer or not were John Varelli and one of Daddano’s underlings known as Emil Crovedi. The two enforcers went to see Daddano regarding the problem because if the rumour was true then everybody was in danger. During the conversation, Varelli gave his “bet” on Mendola and Crovedi blamed LaJoy. So now all of the participants on that meeting agreed to call on the boys and investigate them. When they all gathered, Daddano asked them on how it was possible that the cops found out about the bank job and their whereabouts and in the end he finished his question with an answer by saying that there was no way the cops could have found them so quickly unless there was an informant in the crew. The last statement has frozen the blood of everybody present in that room and like small children, all of the crew members started blaming each other. For example, D’Argento said that it was LaJoy because he was known for having very heavy gambling debts. Also Schang said that it was D’Argento and LaJoy thought it was Schang, which meant that the crew was slowly breaking up.
In the end, Daddano had the last word by saying that he would make arrangements for a lie detector test, and even if it was his nephew, he would take care of the problem. In no time, Daddano called his Outfit “colleague” Richard Cain and asked him if he could bring a lie detector and check the boys to see if he can detect on who was lying. Cain, still a Cook County chief investigator at the time, contacted one of his co-workers at the Sheriff office known as William Witsman to bring one lie detector. Witsman and Cain were operating a company knows as Accurate Laboratories, which performed polygraph tests for the Sheriff’s office. So one day Witsman took one of the polygraph machines and headed for the Leyden Hotel in Melrose Park where he was requested to give lie tests to every crew member who participated in the heist. The boys were located just across the street at the Riviera Bowling Alley, waiting to join Witsman for the test. In a matter of minutes, all of the men were escorted by Rocco Montagna to the hotel room where Witsman was waiting and while walking towards the hotel, LaJoy allegedly told D’Argento that “If I don’t pass this test, Uncle Willie is going to hit me in the head.” When they finally all gathered, before the interrogation started, Montagna placed a loaded .38 revolver over the top of the machine, just to remind the members on what was going to happen to the ones who would fail the test. It was unnecessary pressure over the crew members, because no matter who was on that chair, with just one look at the pistol and the needle on that polygraph would start jumping for sure. The test itself consisted of the ten questions to determine reaction. For example, the first two questions were something like “What is your first name?” or “What is your second name?” and after that the questions changed to “Have you ever talked to any FBI agent or police officer?”, “Were you an informer on the Franklyn Park bank robbery and did you informed the feds about it?”, or “Where’s the rest of the cash which was missing from the heist loot?”.
The first guy who took the test was LaJoy, then D’Argento and then the rest of the guys. All had past the test except for Mendola because he didn’t show up at the meeting and because of that, Daddano had a visit from LaJoy and D’Argento regarding the problem. They asked their boss to call on Mendola and to make the test, who in return assured them that this would occur. A week later Daddano made an arrangements for Mendola to show up at Montagna’s house. Witsman was again waiting in the house basement with the lie detector and story goes that at first Mendola had few problems on the test but took a second one and it was all clear. Allegedly they even made a third test, and again it was clear. But the cloud of suspicion was already over Mendola because his partner in crime LaJoy couldn’t stop creating problems. Later, LaJoy again went to see his uncle and told him that Mendola and Montagna were allegedly together in the bail bond business and that Mendola allegedly gave $10,000 to Montagna to make sure that he passed the test. Now, in Daddano’s mind this was a huge problem because first he might’ve been swindled and Mendola got away with it and second, one of his underlings, which was again Mendola, was doing business behind his boss’ back, which was a big “no, no” in the Outfit. But Daddano missed two very important things. At first, Mendola did look guilty but he wasn’t the “rat” in the group, and he did not steal half of the stolen loot. Proof for that was the investigation which developed from the woman witness who saw the robbers at DeLegge Sr’s residence and later received a threatening phone call. Even with that that, she still had the courage and called on the cops and informed them about the situation. That is why I strongly believe that Mendola had nothing to do with the arrests. Second, Mendola did not have a private contact with the stolen loot but somebody else had. When the boys scattered after the robbery, the stolen loot remained in DeLegge Sr’s house for a while and then DeLegge Jr. took it to his girlfriend’s house, which was safer location. But my opinion is that a young criminal pair with big amount of cash before their eyes, could not remain calm, meaning they couldn’t get their hands of the money. My point is that DeLegge Jr. and his girlfriend Jeanette Fitzpatrick took half of the loot.
But the saddest thing was that eventually, guilty or not, Daddano asked for permission from his bosses to take care of the Mendola problem and they gladly gave thumbs down. On August 31, 1964, Guy Mendola parked his car alongside his wife’s auto in his home garage behind a three-flat building in which he resided at 1554 N. 43 rd. Stone Park. When he got out of a car, unexpectedly an unknown man with a ski mask blew away Mendola with five shotgun blasts. Now, since he was the known crime boss of that area, Rocco Pranno became the main suspect in Mendola’s killing. The next day he was arrested at his headquarters which was the Robert’s Lounge at 1800 Manheim Road in Stone Park. Now the funny thing was that Richard Cain took over the Mendola and the Franklin bank job cases, meaning he was the one to question Pranno. One Outfit member questioned another Outfit member, a situation which was similar to a funny TV show. Cain was forced to bring in Pranno, because three months before Mendola’s demise, the crime boss again gave a beating to the victim in a dispute over money from pin ball routes in Kane County. When Chief Investigator Cain asked Pranno on why he administered the beating over Mendola, the suspect simply replied “I didn’t want those kind of people hanging around in my joint” and Cain gladly accepted the answer. He also did some tests which revealed that Pranno had not fired any guns recently and so he was free to go. Rumours were that Outfit hitman Tony “The Ant” Spilotro was the actual “contractor” on Mendola’s life but he was never arrested nor questioned regarding the case. Thanks to Cain, both cases were “on hold”, meaning the Franklyn Park job and the Mendola thing.
Cain acted as an honest cop but in reality he was a devious ruthless criminal. He reported directly to Sam Giancana, and if not available, then he reported to 1st Ward secretary and also member of the Outfit, Pat Marcy. At the time, Cain was quite powerful member of the organization with shady government connections and electronic surveillance skills but he also took a cut from gambling profits and the narcotics trade. But one day, Cain was also the part of a masterminding a burglary scheme. Since he was a high profile member of the Chicago crime syndicate, he also had connections to another burglary crew, including guys like Eugene Marino, John Monteleone, Angelo Pettit, Frank Rago and Robert Vaughn. In fact, these guys belonged to the boss of the Northlake area, which was again Rocco Pranno. Just so you won’t get confused, Pranno operated in the Stone Park, Franklyn Park and Northlake areas and answered to Sam Battaglia the boss of the Melrose Park crew and all Western suburbs. So Pranno had a quite lucrative idea on his mind by previously receiving an inside info, with the help of Cain, that the famous Zahn Drug Company which was located in Melrose Park, was about to receive a big and quite expensive shipment of drugs, or in other words, half a million worth of medical merchandise. And obviously Pranno’s idea was to steal the shipment.
Robert Brown was an employee of the Louis Zahn Drug Company. He was in charge of storing merchandise in the Zahn warehouse located in Melrose Park. On Friday, October 4, 1963, he received a trailer of Mead Johnson pharmaceuticals, but because of the lateness of the hour, unloading the trailer was delayed until Saturday. On Saturday, Brown started the unloading process. The top cartons of each stack were marked either "E-24" or "E-25" with a brush type pen. This was so the other employees would know where to place the boxes in the warehouse. Everything was unloaded and stacked on an enclosed loading platform when Brown left the warehouse on Saturday night. He checked and locked all the doors and activated the alarm system. On Monday morning, October 7, Brown reported back to work only to find that the merchandise which had been on the loading platform was missing, as well as the Mead Johnson trailer. The missing merchandise included large quantity of sleeping pills, tranquilizers, amphetamines, vitamins, and a small quantity of aspirins. The police suspected that the robbers must’ve been connected with someone from the inside because the burglar alarm did not set off and on top of that, the thieves used their own tractor to pull the trailer out from the warehouse and after that, the trailer was found in an alley west of the Loop. Later the robbers stashed that stolen goods somewhere in a garage which was located at the North end of Northlake and waited for the “heat” to pass.
After a month or so, 90% of the drug stores in the Chicago area were flooded with the stolen merchandise and that’s when Richard Cain stepped on the scene. Since he knew which drug store bought some of the stolen merchandise, obviously because he knew the guys who stole and re-sold them, Cain arrested many “innocent” owners and pharmacists and sent them to jail. He arrested people who bought from $200 to $400 worth of stolen merchandise and the sad thing was that one of the biggest so-called “busts” made by Cain regarding the case was in March, 1964, when he managed to recover only $5,000 merchandise back to the Zahn Warehouse. But “the ground started shaking” when the cops arrested Marino, Monteleone and the rest of the crew in a garage in Northlake. Previous of the arrest, one of Marino’s neighbours called the police and told them that he saw Marino and few other guys taking out medical boxes from their garage and placed them on a truck. At about 10:00 A.M. on April 13, 1964, Sgt. Henry Prokop and Sgt. Ralph McLean of the Northlake police department where in the office of Paul Heggaton, the Northlake chief of police. Chief Heggaton was the one who took the phone call, after which he directed Prokop and McLean to travel to 208 Major Drive, the home of Marino, as there was "something suspicious" going on there. As they drove onto the premises, they observed a large truck in the driveway backed up to the front of a garage.
After the squad car came to a halt in the driveway, Sgt. Prokop noticed a person peer around the rear of the truck. He drew his revolver, as did Sgt. McLean. Sgt. McLean fired two shots, as persons were running away from the scene. Suddenly the police started chasing the men who in turn had jumped over the fences but most of them were easily caught. About one block away one of the cops managed to arrest Pettit and Monteleone. Marino emerged from the garage and ran into his house and then came back out, only this time his shoes were untied and his hair messed up, like he just got out of his bed. When he walked outside, he was arrested. Police officer Joseph Hermann patrolled the area around Mannheim and Grand in Franklin Park when at about 10:00 A.M. he received a radio message broadcast by the Northlake police and about 15 minutes later he received another message, whereupon he proceeded in the direction of the Roy School. He and his co-officer went to a nearby tool shed, opened its door, and observed a man sitting with his pants pulled down to his knees and were ripped. In response to a question of one of the officers, the man stated that he was only resting in the shed. The man was in fact Frank Rago.
At the station, the warehouse manager of the Louis Zahn Drug Company was called to identify the cartons discovered at Marino's property, which he really did. He further reported that in his opinion the fair cash market value of all the goods found in Marino's garage was about $50,000, and that the merchandise contained 25 cartons which the manager had marked before they were taken from the warehouse. For now, the burglars were only charged with the crime but they were not indicted, and that’s when Richard Cain came up with an idea, obviously to clean his own image. Since he was the chief investigator in the case, Cain tried to negotiate with the insurance firm and tried to act as a go-between guy in selling just a part of the stolen drugs worth $40,000 back to the drug factory. But the problem was that later this information was furnished to the Cook County State’s attorney office, which led to an investigation on Cain’s possible involvement in the burglary. So Cain got wind of the situation and made up a story in which he allegedly received a phone call from some anonymous individual, who previously gave true information more than few times, but this time he allegedly told Cain about a huge stash from the stolen merchandise from the Zahn firm. In reality, Cain’s plan was to make a phoney recovery and so on January 6, 1965, Cain led a police raid on the Caravelle Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, and in one of the hotel rooms he recovered what purported to be exactly $40,000 worth of stolen drugs. I personally believe that even the rats down in the sewers knew that it was a pure set up or at least everybody in Chicago knew that the hotel was personally owned by Sam Giancana and since the place was already Mob-owned, no arrests were made and no examination was made for fingerprints or any kind of evidence, in or out of the hotel room which makes it clear that Cain set everything up.
The reporters took photos of Cain all day long while he stood over the pile of stolen drugs with his machine gun like the hero of the day. But one of the reporters, known as Jack Mabley, who was personally called by Cain to get a scoop on the story, later returned to the hotel and asked to see the registration card for the hotel room that had been raided. Mabley found out that that the registration card was registered to someone only known as “Mathews” and so the reporter copied down the signature on several paper clips. He knew that the name was obviously fake but the signature was sent by the reporter to special investigators to see if they can find out whos handwriting was on the card. Mabley obviously gave the handwritings of few of his prime suspects like members of the Sheriff’s Office, such as Richard Cain, John Chaconas and James Donnelly and one came back positive. The investigators recognized the handwriting style and it belonged to Sergeant John Chaconas of the Cook County sheriff’s office, who reported directly to Cain. From this point on, the tower of cards started to fall down. Not long after the reporter published his story, Cain, Sergeant Chaconas and Lieutenant James Donnelly were indicted on charges for conspiracy to commit perjury. Since he was the main investigator in the case, in September, 1964, all of the previously indicted in the Zahn robbery case were sentenced to jail from 2 to 5 years prison terms. Also on December 15, 1964 Cain was discharged from the Sheriff’s office, personally by his close associate Sheriff Richard Ogilvie, which was a painful thing for him to do. Cain and his co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms from one to three years, but the sentences were subsequently overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court and Cain walked free, but not for long.
Richard Cain
