During the mid 1960’s, the so-called Melrose Park “burglary crew” still ran wild all over Chicago and since most of the members were out on bond and some kept low profile, other prominent Outfit members from the same area decided to enter the robbing venture. One of those members was Rocco Salvatore who also controlled a burglary crew which was involved in numerous burglaries such as the robbery of the National Tea Store on West Madison Street and the Armoured Express job at North Riverside. This crew was mainly formed by six individuals, including Joseph Lombardo, Mario DeAngelis, Frank DeRosa, Guy Cervone, John DeMaria and Tony Scudiero. This crew was very active during this period and was also loaded with cash that kicked it up straight to the bosses. Story goes that with the help of a police contact, Salvatore frequently checked just to see if any government heat was placed on his burglary crew. But the guy on the top of the robbing business was still Daddano who took his operations on another level.


Daddano and Varelli and another member from the Melrose Park Crew, Rocco Infelice gathered a new crew of hijackers and robbers, including John Borsellino, Albert Cardenas, Max Heckmyer, Angelo Boscarino and Thomas Bambulas. Again, some of these guys worked as enforcers or collectors for the Outfit, such as Cardenas who was a long time collector in the coin machine and loan sharking businesses for Daddano around Kane County. Also, Heckmyer and Varelli together operated a very lucrative semi-legal operation known as the Newport Construction Company. So even though some of them had the money and robbing should’ve been the last thing on their minds, they still went to business, mainly hijacking trucks and trains, or doing it old school style. It was the time when the Chicago crime syndicate was on the downfall because of the many government attacks and indictments and so there was no time for fooling around, meaning no more moves such as the Franklyn Park job. Daddano, Pranno and Infelice owed to their bosses more than few fat envelopes and to make those envelopes fat, now the boys picked more lucrative targets such as the Brink's Incorporated U.S. or the Spector Freight System Inc. and Interstate Motor Inc.


One of the crew’s key individuals in the operation was Borsellino who in fact was usually the “inside guy” at the security service companies such as the Spector Freight System Inc. where he spotted the valuable loads for the gang. The rest of the gang such as Cardenas, Boscarino and Bambulas acted as getaway drivers, hijackers and kidnappers. Also other criminals from nearby territories which included in the operation were Emil Crovedi who headed the old Franklyn Park group which by now was formed by Tony Legato, Frank Gallo, John Ziad and Joe Rossi. Other criminals of higher stature involved in the operation included Morris Saletko who was a known loan shark around the First Ward area, or Roy Nielsen from the South Side, who controlled a multi-million dollar counterfeit ring or even Kenneth Bratko, close associate of Outfit member from the Melrose Park crew Marshall Caifano in the insurance fraud business. In just one year the crew managed to rob almost a dozen armoured trucks and stole almost $3,000,000 worth of merchandise.


For example, one of the thefts occurred on June 17, 1964, when the boys intercepted a quite lucrative intestate shipment from various consignors in the New York area which was filled with very expensive Peruvian art objects. Since many of the objects were very unique, the robbers such as DeLegge Sr. and D’Argento decided to keep them for themselves. But the boys really hit the spot on August 24, 1964, when they managed to intercept a $350,000 shipment of 500 boxes of cameras, photographic material and film, which belonged to the Polaroid corporation. But I want to share some information on another particular heist which occurred on December 28, 1964, when a Brink’s truck was making its last pickup at a Catholic Church rectory in Norridge, Illinois. While the guards from the truck were greeted by two priests, suddenly three masked men with guns tied up everyone, including the guard who was driving the truck after being tricked in opening the door. There was more than $150,000 stolen in this robbery and the main participants were D’Agento, LaJoy, Tomaszek and DeLegge Jr. From the scene of the crime, the robbers fled straight to the house of one Frank Cullotta, who in turn helped the boys in counting the money in his basement and later providing them with a getaway car. But like any other “normal” criminals, some of the boys such as Cullotta and DeLegge Jr. started buying new and quite expensive cars obviously with the help of the stolen loot, which brought some attention from the cops. So one day, some members of the local police department decided to play dirty by “inventing” a witness against D’Argento regarding the heist. So D’Argento decided to call one Outfit lawyer and fixer known as George Bieber, who in turn realised that this was pure shakedown made by law enforcement officials. Bieber decided to contact the crooked cops and made a deal in which they had to make the main witness fail to identify D’Argento who in turn had to pay the cops $10,000 for their “favour”. Obviously D’Argento didn’t have the money right away so Bieber helped him out by lending him the whole amount, thus making him a loan shark victim because that’s how things go in the underworld.


Another quite lucrative robbery occurred on April 19, 1965, when a truckload of 23,000 pounds of silver and silver alloy which was valued over $250,000 and belonged to the Handy and Harmon company, was taken from an Interstate Motor Freight depot in Cicero. Also on May 7, 1965, the boys intercepted a Spector Freight truck on Eisenhower expressway in Hillside, and managed to getaway with 646 bars of dore bullion, valued over $350,000. This lucrative shipment belonged to the International Smelting and Refining Company in New Jersey. Also, on October 7, 1965, another truckload of 20,000 pounds of silver bars which was valued almost $400,000; was again taken from the Spector Freight Company when few of the boys, kidnapped the driver of the truck, while he made a stop at a plaza on the Indiana toll road near La Grange. The robbers took the driver along for a ride and released him somewhere around Shabbona in De Kalb County. This also quite lucrative shipment belonged to the Kennecott Copper Corporation from Utah but who also had offices in Newark, New Jersey. Now, since many of the robberies occurred so often, some of the damaged firms decided to sue the security companies who failed to deliver the goods, who in turn constantly complained to the FBI which made the whole situation quite disorderly.


So the gang managed to form a huge so-called “burglary net” around the Chicago area which was involved in stealing and re-selling valuable merchandise and Daddano was on top of it. But the thing was that this so-called “net” didn’t end up in Illinois but it went all the way to the east coast. You see, it was sometimes hard for Daddano and the rest of the gang to get rid of the quite expensive stolen merchandise in no time, so the crime boss asked for some help from one of his cohorts in the New York Mafia from the Staten Island area, known as Michael D'Alessio a.k.a. Mickey Dee, member of the Gambino crime family. During this period the Gambinos, Genoveses and the Luccheses were closely allied with the Chicago Outfit and Sam Giancana and so D'Alessio gladly helped Daddano in disposing most of the stolen merchandise around the east coast with the help of his underworld contacts. Another of Daddano’s Gambino contacts was John “Scootch” Indelicato, a guy who was mostly based in the Florida area and was in constant contact with the Outfit. So in other words, none of the stolen loot has ever been recovered. This so-called Gambino-Outfit connection might indicate that Daddano was not only a high level member of the Chicago Outfit but he was also a “made” member of La Cosa Nostra, which was an organization on national level. This also means that sometime during this period, Daddano might be one of the capos or so-called area bosses for the Outfit.


But usually when most things in life go on the up and up, trouble always lurks from around the corner. On October 25, 1965, out of nowhere, the feds arrested Patrick Schang, who still awaited trial for the Franklyn Park job, Dan Bambulas and one Richard Frederick, for their alleged involvement in the silver hijackings, especially for the one which occurred back on October 7th. From this point on, the situation became quite paranoid and above all, quite deadly. Now the obvious thing was that someone was talking to the feds and was feeding them information regarding the robberies but the main question was on whether that particular informant was outside the group or within the group. Because of questions such as this one, many criminals, innocent or not, lost their lives under the clouds of suspicion.


All of the arrested were placed in custody at the county jail where few quite “interesting” situations occurred. While Schang sat in his prison cell, right across sat the boss himself, meaning Sam Giancana. He was in custody on another charge and his cell companion was none other than Paul Panczko, the gang’s former leader. Panczko fed Giancana’s mind that the informer they are looking for, might be right across them, meaning Schang. So Giancana with the help of his contacts with the prison guards was able to obtain Schang’s personal letters and was reading them on weekly basis. Schang was very upset for being locked in jail because he was no fool and had the ability to feel the pressure from across. He constantly wrote letters to his wife in which he stated that he was very sorry for being in jail, and that he felt responsible for the whole situation, but he also stated that the guy who ratted him of might’ve been Angelo Boscarino.


When Giancana’s eyes came across the sentences in the letter, his face went red and immediately called one of the guards and told him to call one of his lackeys known as Dominick Blasi. When Blasi came into the prison cell, Panczko was asked to leave but everybody knew on what was the point behind Blasi’s urgent visit. Giancana had a reason to be mad because he had previous info that Boscarino mingled with some people who knew things about the organization, which presented a danger. And so, on November 24, 1965, Angelo Boscarino was found slain in gutter on the city’s Southwest Side. He was stabbed in the throat multiple times with an icepick and had fractured skull, followed by a quite deep cut on his chin. There were also marks on his wrists and ankles which indicated that he had been trussed with rope before he was killed. In the end the killer carefully took everything from Boscarino’s pockets as he was looking for something, except for the victim’s driver licence which he left intentionally. When Schang heard about the bad news over the radio the next day, he went almost white, but the problem was that the radio was in some other prison cell far away and so he wasn’t sure on what he really heard. So instead, he asked Panczko and Giancana if they could throw him the newspaper so he can read it and see if the information was true. But Giancana acted as he never heard anything, and the same act was made by Panczko also. That’s when Schang realized that Giancana gave the order on Boscarino. Later, the cops received info that another crew member and also Outfit enforcer, John Borsellino was in fact the one who executed Boscarino but one way or another, in the end Borsellino was free to go since the cops acted on an “anonymous” phone call. I personally believe that Borsellino might’ve been the killer since during that period the FBI listed him as one of Giancana’s personal enforcers.


In Giancana’s mind, he thought or in other words, he hoped that he solved the problem because if not, the situation might get even more unstable. And that’s what really happened. So to make things worse, the next month Schang, LaJoy, D'Argento, and Tomaszek stood trial for the bank robbery in Franklyn Park which occurred back in 1963, and they all got convicted and each of them was sentenced from 10 to 15 years in jail. After this, Giancana’s paranoia was greater than ever because he did not trust any of the convicted burglars since all of them received long prison terms. And just like that, Giancana gave the “contract” on Schang to the “newcomer” D’Argento who in turn had to prove his loyalty towards the crime syndicate. Now to tell you the truth, this was one of the most, if not the only humorous move ever made in the Outfit’s criminal history because first of all, D’Argento was no killer and on top of that, he was one Schang’s best friends. I mean, I understand the theory by which you get killed in the Mafia by the one you trust the most but this was different, obviously because, as I previously stated, D’Argento wasn’t a murderer and he wasn’t planning to become one either. But the thing was that he had to take the “contract” on Schang because he was forced under the threat of death. Members of the Outfit threatened him that they would kill him and his family if he doesn’t take the job. So one day during lunch time, D’Argento told Schang that they should meet in the Cook County jail chapel to talk some urgent business. But the thing was that Schang was no fool and after finishing his meal, he went straight to his cell and never got out, which obviously made D’Argento unable to finish his task. Story goes that after the failure, D’Argento’s fellow inmates, acting on Outfit orders, had attempted three times to take his life and so he was quickly whisked from the prison in Kansas to Chicago over the weekend under heavy guard and lodged temporarily in the lockup of the Federal building.


Now this is the point where most of the big time criminals make their fatal mistakes, meaning sometimes they push people to the point where they no longer care about anything. Like for example, with the help of Giancana’s paranoia, the Outfit has created two unnecessary problems, meaning they created two potential informers. Both Schang and D’Argento were forced to make their final decisions by running straight into the arms of the feds. Schang was the first to “sing” and that is why, suddenly in April, 1966, the feds arrested all 18 men who were allegedly involved in the silver burglary ring, including Daddano, Infelice, Varelli, and the rest of the Chicago crew, and also Mike D’Alessio who was arrested in a Staten Island restaurant. Most of the men were rounded up in a series of pre-dawn raids by federal agents who acted on warrants who were secretly issued. I say “secretly” because at the time, the Chicago Outfit was still deeply involved in the city’s everyday politics. This attack which was made by the feds was regarded as one of the largest moves against members of the Outfit who masterminded operations of professional bands of hijackers and burglars. Also, in the indictment Daddano was named as the key figure behind the whole operation, who was arrested in front of his home as he returned from an exciting night with his mistress. Daddano was on trail for conspiracy and masterminding the hijackings and burglaries but in the end, all of the defendants were found guilty and got convicted except for the “untouchable” Daddano and D’Alessio. They were acquitted on all charges by the jury that involved the theft of the silver because the prosecutors couldn’t connect them directly to the crime and so the crime bosses walked free.



Willie Daddano


But the battle was far from over since the FBI had one more ace up its sleeve. On October 15, 1967, D’Argento decided to spill the beans also in order to save his family’s lives and also his own. The Outfit continued to send deadly messages to D’Argento’s family but when he decided to cooperate, the feds immediately relocated his wife and kids to a safer place. So now the government had two good reasons to place Daddano in jail but that wasn’t the end. Later that year, with the help of Schang and D’Argento, the feds again indicted Daddano, but this time they charged him for the Franklin Park bank job. Since the trial went under a review, which occurred in September, 1968, one other crew member decided to cooperate just to save his own skin. I don’t know if you noticed but Mike LaJoy is missing from the indicated list but that’s because he was the one who decided to cooperate with the feds against his own uncle, who didn’t gave two bits about his own nephew and so in a record time, all of Daddano’s top Outfit brass including Richard Cain, Rocco Montagna, John Varelli, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. DeLegge were indicted on the same charges.


By the end of the year, during the preliminary court hearing regarding the bank robbery, word got out that Varelli tried to hang himself in his prison cell but luckily he failed. So when he entered the court room he was all stressed up, with his eyes wide open, while whispering nonsense. Suddenly, Varelli pulled out a razor blade and tried to cut his neck. I’m not sure if Varelli only made an act just to fool everybody in the courtroom, but if he did than his trick really worked because the judge declared him incompetent to stand trial and sent him to medical prison in Springfield. After that, during the trial another quite funny moment occurred and that was Cain’s act as his own lawyer. Story goes that Cain couldn’t afford a good lawyer because one year before the trial, Cain had problems with his stature within the Chicago Outfit and his profits from the illegal schemes became limited. But even with his act as man of the law, Cain still failed to accomplish his plan because he and the rest of the defendants were destroyed by the prosecutors and their star witnesses such as Schang, D’Argento and LaJoy and one Mrs. Dorothy Sampson. She was the last witness during the trail, by being Frank DeLegge’s neighbour, and she said that at the day when the bank job occurred, she heard squealing of auto tires and she went out and saw three men run from DeLegge’s house. When she asked DeLegge Sr. who were those men, he told her that they were real estate agents, an answer she hardly believed in. So after her testimony and the jury’s decision, the judge asked for the defendants to rise. Daddano on purpose came to court dressed as a bum, which was in his way showing disregard towards the law, and stood proudly in front of the judge with his hands in his pockets, while waited for his sentencing.


The judge sentenced William Daddano to 15 years in prison and a fine of $13,000. The old mobster took his sentencing like a real man and while leaving the court room, he waved and smiled at the present people. Richard Cain received 4 years and a fine of $15,000, Rocco Montagna received 3 years, DeLegge Sr. also received 15 years and Junior received 7 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Now I personally have one remark regarding the prison sentences of the DeLegges. I mean common, DeLegge Sr. was the guy who supposedly was planning to crash into the speeding police vehicle but failed the job and for that he received 15 years in jail?! Also DeLegge Jr. made one unsuccessful prank phone call and he received 7 years?! Obviously the government thought that their participation was equally meaningful and important, thus making the DeLegges punishable same as the rest of defendants. In return for such a flawless victory, the government introduced their witnesses to the witness protection program and on top of that, the government has given money to the families of LaJoy, Schang and D'Argento in return for the information received.


Thanks to their testimonies, the government managed to re-open many old cases and also to deny many appeals. Like for example, in March, 1969, five members of the gang, who had been convicted as being members of the silver hijacking ring and who won new trials from the United States court of appeals were re-indicted and convicted. All of the men were top echelon criminals such as John Varelli, John Borsellino, Thomas Bambulas, Max Heckmnyer and Albert Cardenas. The government managed to convict all of the defendants on one conspiracy charge rather than several. Also on July 8, 1969, Richard Cain again returned to court to face perjury charges in the Zahn Drug Company robbery in Melrose Park. Cain has discovered that his former colleague Bill Witsman was talking to the feds and that he testified against his former chief, which was Cain, who had given him a list of the questions, told him to go to a motel, then give the polygraph tests to men who would be produced by another man who he would meet there, not to interpret the charts, but to give them to that same man. Witsman also testified that he telephoned Cain and he told him not to worry about the charts because he had flushed them down the toilet. In the end, with no other choice, Cain decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to additional six months in prison.


In December, 1969, the feds decided to place the whole gang in prison, down to the last member including Varelli. Besides being charged for the Franklyn Park job again, this time the feds also charged him of conspiring to fraudulently obtain 1 million dollars in federal insured home improvement loans. As I previously stated, “The Bug” as he was known, was declared incompetent to stand trail and was placed in a medical prison. I don’t know if the government had anything to do with it, but later Varelli’s psychiatrist Dr. Glotfelty suddenly changed his story and reported that his patient was quite competent to stand trial and was capable of understanding the charges against him. During the hearing on January 2, 1970, Varelli again made an appearance by showing up with a long beard, while continuously shaking. And he again pulled out a razor blade but this time he managed to slice his wrists and spray blood all over the courtroom. He decided to pull the stunt when the chief psychiatrist testified that the defendant was capable of understand everything. Two deputy marshals leaped up and wrestled the blade from Varelli and after that they took him to the marshal’s lockup where his wrists were treated and bandaged. Later, Varelli was sentenced to serve his 15 years in prison.


While in jail, most of the Outfit members easily adjusted in that kind of ambient because most of them already spent some time during their criminal careers. But the situation was different for Cain since he previously worked for Sheriff’s office and to keep his job or his image as an honest cop, he had to place more than few guys, guilty or not, in jail. So now Cain also had more than few enemies at the Cook County prison but the good thing was that some of his Outfit peers were also imprisoned and so he had the backup. Story goes that Cain had a problem with one African-American inmate, and while in the prison yard, the inmate approached Cain and tried to provoke him but suddenly Daddano showed up and the inmate backed off and never tried to bother Cain ever again. Even though they did not have much respect for their boss, which was Giancana, both Daddano and Cain or every member who was direct to Giancana, were very loyal but the problem was that many of the members were also quite egoistic, meaning they couldn’t accept the fact that their days as the top echelon of the Chicago Outfit were long gone.


Following the imprisonments of Daddano, Cain and the rest of the crew members, the so-called burglary group was totally destroyed. But the thing is, by “destroyed” I don’t mean disbanded, but instead I mean some of them died in jail and the others were killed. For example, Richard Cain was released from prison on October 20, 1971, but two years later he was shot in the head by two shotgun blasts. Story goes that Cain wanted to be brought back in the game but the bosses obviously said “no” and that was that. Also, while serving his prison term at the Marion, Illinois, federal penitentiary, on September 9, 1975, Willie Daddano died of heart failure in his prison cell. Story goes that he couldn’t take the killing of his boss Sam Giancana which occurred 3 months before his death. On January 20, 1976, only a year as he was paroled from prison, Frank DeLegge Jr. vanished from the face of the earth. Two days later, his frozen throat-slashed body was found in a ditch in Elmhurst. Story goes that he was killed because of the money that he allegedly stole from the Franklyn Park job because the Outfit never forgets. There’s also another version of the story and that is DeLegge Sr.’s huge gambling debts. Story goes that Junior vouched for his father but the problem was that Sr. never managed to payback and so in the world of the Mafia, the one who vouch for another individual is responsible for the actions of that same individual. There’s even a third version regarding the reason for DeLegge Jr.’s slaying, and that was his violent style towards his wife who, as I previously stated, was in fact Nick Palermo’s daughter. After the murder of DeLegge Jr., Palermo immediately sold the DeLegge house and bought his daughter a new apartment.