Now if we do the math regarding the stolen cash, $1.5 million was restored by the feds, according to Gushi $500,000 was given to Jimmy Catuara and the Chicago Outfit and something around 1.5 million dollars were stashed away in the Grand Cayman banks. So according to my accounts almost one million dollars were still missing and nobody knew where the hell it disappeared. For example, I personally have more than few questions to ask regarding all of the mysteries which occurred in the story. First, I have a question regarding the FBI surveillance before the robbery occurred. I mean, they already received info from their undercover informant Martin Pollakov that something big was going to happened in the next few weeks. So my question is on why the hell the FBI didn’t continue with their surveillance over their main suspects when they already had the information? Here’s their statement regarding the situation “The Illinois Bureau of Investigation maintained careful surveillance of the group for several weeks, but when no major burglary occurred until Sunday, October 13, 1974, the Bureau informed the Commission that it did not have sufficient manpower to continue such an extensive surveillance any longer.” So who you are going to blame, the Bureau or the Commission? Next question is on why DiFonzo got away so easily? Did he transfer the missing cash to someone from the higher circles in society or the Mob? Or maybe he simply transferred the cash to himself? Obviously, we will never know.
And my last question is regarding the Marrera case. Did someone from the Outfit, which I seriously doubt, tried to poison Marrera and fry his brain, or maybe someone from the government was too stubborn and got carried away in finding out where the rest of the stolen loot was? A lot of so-called mysterious situations occurred for one “lousy” million dollars which might mean that a lot more cash was involved in the game. And if someone loves to read about conspiracy theories, well according to some reports there’s also another side of this case. According to court reformer and criminal sleuth Sherman Skolnick, his investigation of the Purolator robbery showed different results from the official government version. Skolnick reported that the stolen $4.3 million were in fact $25 million dollars and that a massive government corruption took place in the Purolator case…but that’s another story. So as I previously stated that the Purolator heist has been eclipsed as the largest heist and still retains the record in Chicago but I also think that it was one quite “unclear” case, since many awkward situations occurred during the so-called “crime saga”.
Now, I want to show you one, quite different example or should I say opposite example. By “opposite” I mean when the professional burglars turn against their mobster “friends”. During the late 1970’s, the top and undisputed boss and also elder statesman for the Chicago Outfit, was still Mr. Anthony Accardo. When the Outfit’s so-called “father” Paul Ricca died back in 1972, Accardo became the last old time “Mafia Don” who continued to rule supreme over his underworld organization. He was not the official boss of the Outfit but still, he commanded huge respect over his underlings, who in turn were the group’s top criminal administration at the time. The old Mob boss still took his cut from every highly lucrative scheme, including the street tax, and for the ones who opposed the old rules, they were obviously killed. But by the late 1970’s, one particular burglary group from the West Side area decided to test the Outfit’s power by simply targeting Accardo who by this time was considered as the oldest and most respectable member. When I first read about the story I always wondered on what was the reason for someone to commit that kind of dangerous foolishness but I later found out that it was pure “blindness” which was caused by simple vengeance. So from this point, we have to go back in time for almost 20 years so we can understand the core of the problem.
Back in the early 1950’s, the so-called West Side faction of the Chicago Outfit was in full effect, with quite bloodthirsty and at the same time very lucrative leadership which was established by criminal faces such as Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana and Sam Battaglia, all backed up by Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna. Accardo was considered the official crime boss at the time but he still held a lot of influence in the Elmwood Park area through Tony Capezio and Jack Cerone, as for Giancana, he was considered the number two guy within the organization but still held a lot of influence over the so-called Taylor Street crew and Battaglia was the boss of the Melrose Park area and all Western suburbs. They represented the “younger” generation of the Outfit which also brought many new criminal individuals within the organization. For example, one of Giancana’s most notorious crime pals was a guy known as Salvatore Moretti, who worked as Melrose Park policeman. According to some reports, Moretti was one of the most devious individuals around Giancana with a quite scary look, who with just one sight, he was able to create chills up your spine. There was something about the way he looked at you because he didn’t quite look right into your eyes as a normal individual usually do, but instead somehow he looked through you, which I believe is the real so-called “killer look” according to the looks of numerous profiles of various killers and gangsters.
Salvatore Moretti was one of six children who had grown up on Chicago’s West Side, including his identical twin brother Vincent who by 1951 also worked as Melrose Park policeman, the oldest one Lawrence, a deputy bailiff, Michael who worked as a state’s attorney policeman, and Thomas, a simple restaurant owner. Since the beginning, all of the brothers were considered quite notorious and in reality, some of them represented killers with a badge, meaning if Giancana had a problem with someone, sometimes he called for William Daddano, who in turn called Salvatore Moretti to take care of the problem. You see, even though Moretti was sometimes direct with Giancana, still he was placed to work under Daddano. Since Moretti was fired from the park police force in 1952, later he worked as a "bird dog" in selling autos, meaning he worked as a broker who puts buyers in touch with auto dealers and collects a commission but his “second job” was being Outfit enforcer.
Sal Moretti
Some of the Moretti brothers, such as Michael or Thomas, were so notorious that they though anybody can be beaten or killed at any time. The main “fuel” for the so-called Moretti “killer machine” was hard liquor and that was that. For example, Thomas was fined $150 after a jury found him guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, meaning he violently fought with the policemen before they arrested him on the complaint of a woman that he harassed her as she passed one of his hamburger stands at 2002 Lincoln Park West. As for Michael Moretti, one night on August 24, 1951, with no particular reason, he shot three people, while being heavily under the influence of alcohol. Witnesses said that Moretti was walking down the street with a gun in one hand and his other hand concealed behind his back and allegedly captured three young people who according to him, allegedly were involved in a narcotics ring. Five or six of his policeman colleagues tried to stop him since they were with Moretti in the lot after the three young men were captured and they knew that there was going to be trouble. So Mike Moretti decided to fire one shot in the air, just to scare away his policemen buddies, took the three alleged suspects in a car and took them to the police station.
Mike Moretti
Next thing you know, it turned out that two of the alleged suspects were dead and one was wounded. But the worst thing was that the two dead individuals were in fact quite young, such as 21 year old Edward Salvi and 15 year old Arthur Gambino. Even though the third wounded individual and also survivor Leonard Monaco testified on trial that Mike Moretti was drunk as hell and started shooting at them on purpose, it turned out that the other policemen, who were at the scene when Moretti arrested his victims, have never been identified. Also it was enough to place him in jail by just looking at his three statements which were taken three days after the shooting. The first one stated "I don't remember a thing and I don't remember what happened," the second one "At this time I don't remember. My mind is hurting me" and during the third statement, Mike Moretti gave the investigators 34 pages report describing his activities fully on the night of the shooting. I mean what do you expect, this was the 1950’s and the Outfit was the real government of the city of Chicago at the time but by the end of the day, the prosecutors provided too many witnesses who saw the violent behaviour of Moretti and testified before the jury, which in the end, found Moretti guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.
As for Salvatore’s twin brother Vince Moretti, he was a little bit different than the rest of his violent brothers, because he was a man of a different action. You see, even though later he was also suspended from the police force because he falsely testified during Michael’s trial, he once managed to make a citizen s arrest of a man carrying a loaded .44 caliber pistol. One Waldo Gibson was waving his gun and shouting as the pedestrians scattered but out of nowhere, Moretti jumped out of his car and approached the man. A few feet away Moretti shouted "No, no, don't hit him" to a mythical assailant behind Gibson. When Gibson whirled, Moretti made a flying tackle and grabbed the gun from Gibson's hand and kicked him to the floor. So this shows that he had qualities to be an honest man but life sometimes can be quite the opposite. As additional info, by the early 1960’s, all of the brothers were dismissed from their public duties.
Lawrence (left) and Vince (right) Moretti
So with these previous examples I wanted to show you separately the mentality of some of the brothers so we can easily understand the point of the story. In March, 1957, Daddano received an order from Giancana to find Salvatore Moretti and to give him the “murder contract” on one banker and land developer known as Leon Marcus. This guy was knee-deep in shit because he was under federal indictment for misapplication of bank funds and making false entries in bank records, which became a huge scandal and Giancana was behind it. Marcus’ trial was scheduled for September 23, 1957, and there was a huge possibility that he might talk and so on March 31, 1957, Marcus was met by few guys including Moretti, at 2135 West 51st Street, and they told him to get in their car. Marcus allegedly said “Leave me alone and I’ll give you anything I got” and struggled with the attackers but in the end they managed to bring him in their dark collared Chevrolet. In a short time, Marcus’ dead body was found six blocks away from the kidnapping scene in the vacant lot at 4198 Campbell Avenue. He laid on the ground face up with a bullet hole in the back of his head.
The murder was perfectly completed by Moretti but he made one fatal mistake since he forgot to check Moretti’s pockets for any implicating records, such as the name of the boss himself, Sam Giancana. And that’s what happened. When the cops found some small papers with Giancana’s name on it, Moretti’s fate was sealed. On April 12, 1957, Salvatore Moretti’s strangled and bullet riddled body was found in a car trunk on a country road south of Plainfield, Will County. The coroner report said that Moretti had cuts and bruises all over his face which indicated that he was pistol whipped before being strangled and then shot twice in the chest and twice in the head. One bullet went through the lower lip and then angled up in the cranium, while the other bullet went through the right cheek, up between the eyes, and out the left front of the skull. The news fell hard over his twin brother Vincent, who in turn never forgot the death of his brother, nor the hatred towards Daddano, Giancana, Battaglia and Accardo. He knew that his brother visited the residences of those individuals on daily basis, and he also knew that they were the ones behind his murder plot. But according to some “unwritten” underworld rules, no matter who you are related to, because if the individual next to you is killed, you are expected to say not even a word about it. And that’s what Vince Moretti did, he kept it to himself but deep inside of him, I believe that he grieved for revenge. There are many examples in the Mob where members are ordered to kill their brothers or to keep silent about it but in Moretti’s case, my personal belief is that the feelings between twins and ordinary brothers are a little bit different, but that’s just me.
As the years passed by, Vince Moretti didn’t have to lift a finger since many of the mobsters, which he personally hated, fell into the hands of the government and by the mid 1970’s, Giancana, Daddano and Battaglia were all dead. Also, by now Moretti belonged to a burglary crew which was previously controlled by one former burglar and fearsome Outfit member known as Anthony Spilotro. In reality, after the imprisonment and death of William Daddano, the one who took his “job” as the extortionist of all burglary crews around the Chicago area, was Tony Spilotro. You see, Spilotro used to belong to the Melrose Park crew but by now, many of the members of that Outfit group, transferred to the “newly” formed Grand Avenue crew which was controlled by one former burglar known as Joey Lombardo. As I previously stated, back in the old days Lombardo used to work for one Outfit member from the Melrose Park area known as Rocco Salvatore. So when Spilotro was sent to Vegas, Moretti became one of the most important members within the burglary crew since his family shared common history with the Outfit for such a long time.
This group was leaderless, meaning they didn’t have any leading member but instead they received “jobs” through Moretti or through one of his closest friends known as Gerald Carusiello. Now this guy really brought the 1970’s to a style, since he was known as a very, very flashy dresser with different kinds of women around him, all fuelled up with high quality dope and booze. He committed all kinds of robberies and burglaries all around the country especially in Florida, where he controlled a different burglary gang. In fact, there was another reason for Carusiello’s expensive lifestyle and that was his involvement as a substitute driver for some of the Outfit’s top bosses such as Joey Aiuppa. Obviously, being a driver for the bosses is not a small thing, or to prove my point again that almost every member in the crew was almost equally important. For example, John Mendell was another quite important member who was qualified in using sophisticated electronic devices such as “black box”, usually to bypass expensive alarm systems, which were connected to monitoring security services. But Mendell’s so-called “specialty” wasn’t only his electronic device knowledge, but he was also a high profile jewel thief who brought a trio of burglars or should I say “old-timers” with him, such as John McDonald, Bernard Ryan and John Borsellino. But Moretti’s oldest and most loyal associate was Steve Garcia, another very flashy dresser who loved women, booze, coke and burglarizing.
John Mendell
In November, 1977, before leaving to Las Vegas, Nevada, Spilotro called for Moretti and informed him about a possible job, like for example a monster of a diamond known as “Idol’s Eye,” which arrived in Chicago, and was kept at Levinson’s Jewelers Inc., a jewelry store located at 739 North Clark Street. In the end, Spilotro also informed Moretti that if the job gets done, he expected a cut. During Spilotro’s flight to Vegas, Moretti already set the plan in motion. He knew that the Levinson’s store was equipped with up to date alarm systems, which were probably plugged into a monitoring security service, and so he decided to call Mendell and get some advice regarding the alarm security problem. Later on, Mendell also brought Ryan, who in turn was the guy with the equipment such as acetylene torches, and so the trio went to work. On a very, very cold night of December 17, 1977, Mendell managed to bypass the alarm system of jewelry store, with the same, maybe a little bit more sophisticated, “toys” which were previously used in the Purolator case and after that Ryan climbed up onto the roof and cut through the security bars with torches and they continued with the same activity inside the store, through four wall safes. The burglary started on Saturday and continued throughout Sunday and ended somewhere around the early morning hours on Monday. In the end, the burglars left the “Idol’s Eye” but got away with more than one million dollars of jewels.
When the owner Harry Levinson came to the store, he was stunned and quickly ran to check if his precious diamond was still in place. When he saw that the diamond was untouched, Levinson felt quite relieved but later realized that the stolen jewels cost much more rather than his precious stone. The strange thing was that Levinson did not report the burglary to the police, but instead it was the monitoring security company which did it, a couple of hours after the discovery. According to the police report, Levinson was one of the most uncooperative victims in the city’s history, by refusing to answer almost every simple question regarding the damage which was done to his establishment. The problem was that Levinson had one small “dark secret” which was the main reason for his disrespectful character towards the law. In reality, Levinson was a so-called old friend of the Outfit. Back in the old days, Levinson used to work together with one Outfit member known as Hymie Levine, prime lieutenant for Jewish mob boss Jake Guzik on the city’s Near South Side and Loop. You see, until World War II, Levinson’s one and only Mob connection was Levine but by that time, Tony Accardo became the acting boss for the crime syndicate and during one New Year’s Eve, Levin had the pleasure to introduce Levinson to the Outfit’s boss. From that point on, Accardo and Levinson became close friends. So I personally believe that this was the main reason for which Levinson decided to keep his mouth shut and take the problem to the city’s “other government”. You see, even by that time the Chicago Outfit, or should I say the old Mob, used to keep certain order on the streets, by knowing and extorting every possible criminal in their area. In plain words, that’s how they controlled crime.
Chicago Outfit boss Tony Accardo
Thirty years later, Levinson decided to call his old friend and to ask him for a favour and so Accardo agreed, and the duo met at a restaurant which was located on the city’s North Side. During their meal, Levinson explained his problem to Accardo and told him that if he doesn’t get the million dollar loot back, he’ll be ruined. The old boss tried to calm down Levinson and told him not worry and that he’s going to get his jewels back. After the lunch, Accardo immediately sent a message to Tony Spilotro, who by now was overseeing the Outfit’s rackets in Nevada, if he had the information on who might’ve been involved in the Levinson robbery. I really don’t know if Accardo already knew but he certainly managed to pick the right guy, which was Spilotro, who in reality somehow ordered the burglary. Spilotro told Accardo’s people to contact Moretti regarding the stolen loot, who in turn became pressured to return the stolen jewels.
When a criminal such as Moretti was pressured by the Outfit to return something that didn’t belong to him, it meant that somebody might get hurt. Obviously, Moretti was furious regarding the requirement and at first he reportedly said that he had sold the loot but later he was reminded to stop lying and to tell truth, or else. With no other choice, Moretti met with Mendell and Ryan and told them about the bad news and they all agreed to return the jewels. Since by now the Outfit had a structure of a more traditional La Cosa Nostra organization, Moretti was forbidden to contact directly with the bosses of the Outfit but instead he had to give the loot to Carusiello who in turn gave it to Accardo. Now the old man returned the million dollar jewels to Levinson, just in time before the Christmas holidays. I really can’t tell if Accardo kept some of the jewels for himself but I seriously doubt that he didn’t or at least Levinson probably gave him as “reward”, no questions asked.
Now this the point from where the drums of rebellion started bumping, meaning Moretti became quite angry because of many reasons. First of all they killed his twin brother, second they made him pay street tax and third, they made him return the stolen loot. On top of that, Moretti’s twin brother was killed during Accardo’s position as semi-retired boss or one of the top advisors of the Chicago Outfit. Obviously Mendell felt almost the same rage because being a professional burglar is not an easy job. There’s a lot of pressure and danger involved, and for some one to take his “hard earned” loot just like that, was quite unacceptable. You see, Mendell was in his early 30’s and so he didn’t fully understood the respect towards the older mobsters such as Accardo, and so, fuelled with hatred by Moretti, he made one quite foolish decision which will bring the deaths of many Chicago burglars. The so-called dangerous decision was to retaliate directly, or in other words, they targeted Accardo’s "modest" 18 room ranch house at 1407 N. Ashland Avenue. There was nothing really special about Accardo’s house, except for the “small” detail which was a safe that was located in the home of one the country’s most dangerous crime bosses. Or in other words, it was a place no one dared to touch even if the loot was placed on the grass in the front yard.
I believe that first of all, the boys needed for someone to inform them regarding the location of the safe, meaning Accardo’s basement, and also regarding the safety systems in and around the residence. Also they obviously needed an inside info on when will the house be empty and for how long. And so the boys finally received an info regarding Accardo’s travel to Palm Springs, California, on January 5, 1978, and that same evening, the boys managed to disable the house alarm, got in, found the wall safe in the basement, they opened it, took the stash and fled the scene. We really don’t know how much money was gone from Accardo’s safe but the next day, Accardo’s long time caretaker and friend Mike Volpe came to check on the house and when he saw that the safe was blown up and all of loot was gone, he immediately called his boss and told him about the bad news. Story goes at first Accardo looked quite calmed and told his wife to pack their stuff, took the first plane to Chicago and quickly arrived at the scene. When the old crime boss saw that everything was gone, he went crazy. And I mean murderous crazy because the old man went so much red that he almost blew smoke out of his ears.
Obviously this was a huge slap in the face for the Outfit and La Cosa Nostra in general since one of the oldest and most ruthless boss of that same organization got robbed by few burglars. Accardo was very well respected by his peers not only because he stood by Al Capone or that he was at the top of a very long time, but instead they respected him mostly because he was smart. And I mean gangster smart. The so-called rebels succeeded in their mission and managed to prove a point but regardless of that, now it was the Outfit’s turn. First of all, Accardo has forbidden to everyone from his family or the house keepers, to report the robbery to the police because the old Mafioso never really trusted his government. Second, Accardo was a gangster’s gangster and so he didn’t need much time to figure it out on who might’ve been responsible for the burglary, and so he called for his protégé known as Jackie Cerone, the number two guy in the whole organization, to take some advice. At first sight, Cerone was a quite polite individual with a huge smile on his face but behind closed doors, he was a bloodthirsty killer who was almost every minute of the day under the influence of hard liquor. So perhaps when Cerone met with Accardo, obviously the old man was thirsty for blood, and instead of calming him down, I believe that Cerone pushed his boss to release the “contracts” or in other words to retaliate. But the thing was that Accardo already had another direct source for this kind of information, and that source was Tony Spilotro. “The Ant”, as he was known, advised the old boss that the only guy who was well informed on how to disable high-tech security systems was John Mendell.
Story goes that the two bosses, meaning Accardo and Cerone, made a decision to exterminate the whole burglary gang and on top of that, they also planned to make few examples of “innocent bystanders”, from various ethnicities, just to prove a point so no burglar in near future would think of the same idea as Moretti and Mendell. In end, Accardo added one small “warm” detail to the whole plan like cutting the throat from ear to ear of every possible target, which in many cases is the sign of many organized crime groups especially the Mafia. Cerone personally took the order to his capos in the organization, such as Joey Lombardo and Frank Caruso, who in turn picked the right men for the dirty work, such as Frank and Nick Calabrese, John DiFronzo, Frank Saladino, Ronnie Jarrett and possibly John Monteleone. In fact, most of these guys belonged to the membership of the Outfit's 26th Street or Chinatown crew. The so-called “hit team” was precisely combined since DiFronzo, Monteleone and Jarrett were former burglars themselves and personally knew and worked with the targets, and so with was easy for them to lure their victims into a trap. As for the Calabreses and Saladino, they were also former burglars but they were professional torturers and executioners always ready to kill or squeeze out any required information and afterwards to bury their victims, usually six feet under the ground or in some rare cases, chop them up to pieces. As additional info, by that same time period Frank Caruso might’ve been already replaced by another high ranking Outfit member Angelo LaPietra.
