By being the real mastermind behind everything, Hanhardt has taught some of the boys on sophisticated stealing techniques, which he learned during his days as commander of the police burglary squad. He even sometimes devised the plans himself and later gave them to Schiro, who in turn would be released like a “pit-bull” after the target. If people from the Outfit were not available, Hanhardt immediately hired some of his close friends within the police force or private detectives for surveillance of their potential targets. There was also this “trick” which the thieves often used and that was the swapping of the salesman’s bag with another identical bag. With the help of this kind of trick, the gang once netted over $1,000,000 worth of diamonds in Dallas from a representative of the J. Schliff and Son Company. According to one jewellery industry official at the time “I’ve not seen anything as detailed and as lengthy as the dossiers they put together on the travelling salesmen,” thus calling the gang’s work “unprecedented.” In other words, this particular Outfit group took the burglary business on another level.
The business relationship between Hanhardt and Spilotro was quite profitable and since in the underworld money is everything, the boys had a good reason to have a lot of respect for each other. Proof for that is when in 1986, Hanhardt managed to discredit Frank Cullotta as a witness against Spilotro during a trial. Hanhardt appeared as a so-called surprise defence witnesses for Spilotro and undercut the testimony of Cullotta, which was expected to be the government's “star witness” but instead it came out to be the government’s failure, thanks to Hanhardt. In reality, Hanhardt publicly or right in front of the eyes of the public and justice system, defended the bad guys. In the end there was a mistrial and Spilotro went home. But the main problem was that short time later Spilotro and his kid brother Michael were brutally murdered and later buried in the ground in an Indiana cornfield. After the murder of the Spilotro brothers, Hanhardt’s main connection became Schiro and to tell you the truth, nothing really changed, meaning the burglary operations were always on the up and up. For example, two of their most prominent and lucrative operations included the October 8, 1984 theft of one hundred eighty Baume & Mercer watches valued at approximately $310,000 from Paul Lachterman in Glendale, Wisconsin; and also $500,000 worth of Rolex watches in Monterrey, California in 1986.
Back in 1986, right after the Spilotro murders, Hanhardt retired from the police force and left to be remembered only as an honest cop who perfectly accomplished his duty. And so, even after retiring from the Chicago Police Department, Hanhardt still continued to wield huge influence there, given how many people he had helped to find jobs and at the same time to upgrade their careers. The thing was he never retired from his other business, which was the burglary “racket”. For example, a theft of jewellery worth approximately $125,000 from a Gordon Brothers Corporation salesperson in Englewood, Ohio, which occurred in August 1989, a theft from a Gem Platinum salesperson of jewellery worth approximately $1,300,000, in Dallas, Texas, in June 1992, a theft from another Gen Platinum salesperson of jewellery worth approximately $1,000,000 in Flat Rock, Michigan, in June 1993; a theft from a H.K. Mallak, Inc. salesperson of jewellery worth approximately $240,000 in Mankato, Minnesota, on August 3, 1993; a theft from jewellery company representatives of jewels worth approximately $170,000 in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 7, 1994; and a theft from safety deposit boxes at a Columbus, Ohio hotel of jewellery and United States currency worth approximately $1,500,000, on August 27, 1994. Hanhardt was also responsible for the August 23, 1995, Esagh Kashimallak robbery, which occurred in a hotel room in Brookfield, Wisconsin, where two individuals struck the salesperson in the head, displayed a gun, tied his ankles and wrists with tape, and took his jewellery case, which contained over $500,000 gems. I mean, what can I say more?! Story goes that the time period between 1984 and 1996, the crew managed to accomplish more than 100 robberies on jewellery salespersons in at least seven states, and at least nine burglaries, which all were valued in excess of $40 million.
But as I said countless times before, every glorious story has its own end and Hanhardt's end became quite “glorious” because it started with his biggest burglary score in his whole criminal career, which occurred in 1994. That same year, during the summer, a precious jewellery show was organized at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, which was near the Greater Columbus Convention Center, thus providing accommodations to travellers, or in this case jewellery salesmen. Two months before the happening, one of the crew members checked in the hotel under the name “Sol Gold” and asked to store valuables in the hotel's safe-deposit boxes, which were in a secure room behind the front desk. He systematically copied the keys and later gave the copy to Hanhardt who in turn was able to create a master passkey. Then the plan was for one of their female companions to enter the safe-deposit room under the name of "Mrs. Sol Gold" and to take only the most valuable gems. In the end, the safe-deposit boxes of eight gem dealers were relieved of some $2 million in valuables. It was the prefect “party” for the gang. So few days later, somebody made the female companion quite angry over something, and my life experience says that you don’t make a woman mad especially if you’re involved with her in something illegal. The same problem occurred in the Guido situation back in the 1960’s, which was described in the previous story. And as expected, she decided to inform on the gang to the FBI.
Although Hanhardt and the boys managed to hit the biggest score in their criminal lives, still a lot of damage has already been done and the worst part was that nobody was aware about it. So the feds had no problems regarding their surveillance over Hanhardt and his associates, who in turn had no problem in doing their job because as I previously said, they did not have a clue on what was really going on. But there was one huge problem for the federal squad which was assigned to catch Hanhardt and his gang, and that was the so-called “shield” which protected the suspects. The “shield” was formed by loyal colleagues of Hanhardt who worked on the police force on vital positions and blocked almost every move of the so-called “Get Hanhardt-squad”. This guy’s connections went so far that those agents even faced some initial institutional resistance within the FBI when they even first proposed for an investigation. But the good thing was that those same agents did not hesitate to explain to the public on how Hanhardt managed to prosper at the same time as a cop and a crook.
Nothing happened for almost a year, or at least that’s what the feds thought, and then in the fall of 1996, Hanhardt’s crew managed to hit the radar. In October that same year, Hanhardt, Basinski, Brown and Schiro joined on a scheme to steal watches which were valued at $500,000 from one Illinois jewellery salesman known as Paul Lachterman. They planned to steal the watches while Lachterman travelled through Wisconsin and Indiana and after that, to transport the stolen watches back to Chicago. Hanhardt and Basinski had already stolen from Lachterman back in 1984, and just for the fun of it, they decided to target him again. Between April and September of 1996, they stalked Lachterman, gathered more information on him and even managed to make a duplicate key to the trunk of his car. Basinski contacted Schiro in Phoenix, who immediately drove to Chicago, thus bringing Brown with him so he can assist in the theft. On October 1, 1996, the four conspirators followed Lachterman in two cars as he drove to Wisconsin and met with customers. On October 2, 1996, they followed him as he drove to Indiana and there, while Lachterman was in a restaurant, Basinski and the others used the duplicate key and stole a case of watches valued at $58,000, which had been provided by the FBI. Realizing that the case contained only a fraction of the value they expected, the burglars quickly returned the case to the trunk. They obviously received false info regarding the loot, which in reality unknowingly saved them from being arrested by the feds.
But the problem was that they weren’t quite saved because the whole thing was in fact a trap, since the feds had it all on a video tape and Lachterman knowingly was the bait. Surveillance showed the burglary crew operating while right across them, several FBI agents sat in a van and were videotaping the whole scene. The agents became happy the most when they successfully filmed one of the look outs in the robbery which was Hanhardt himself. The feds continued with their surveillance and by the beginning of 1998, all of the suspects were arrested, including Hanhardt and Schiro, and they all were shown videos and played tape-recording of an intercepted conversations which was a quite bad thing for all of them.
According to some reports, the government went really hard against Hanhardt by ordering his trial on October 16, 2001, only two weeks after he had undergone a testicular cancer surgery. On that morning, his counsel asked for a continuance because of his client's inability to be in court but later it came to light that Hanhardt had allegedly attempted a suicide by drug overdose and was in the hospital. Based on that information, the court found that Hanhardt was responsible for his failure to appear in court and so the court issued an arrest warrant, staying it until October 20, 2001, when the defendant was due in court and if Hanhardt did not show up on the 20th then the warrant was to have been executed. On October 25, 2001, nine days after the case was scheduled to begin trial, he entered a blind plea to the indictment and was the last of all defendants then before the court to enter a guilty plea. His lawyer read a one and a half page statement to the court that admitted to the elements of the offence. After the government detailed the evidence that would have been presented against him, Hanhardt responded, "I don't agree with everything he (Assistant United States Attorney Scully) said." When the court asked Hanhardt whether he was pleading guilty to Count One as alleged in the indictment, Hanhardt responded, "In its entirety, no, sir." During his sentencing hearing in May 2002, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully said “His greed and loyalty was to the mob and to his mob-associated jewellery theft crew, which were more important to him than his family, the Chicago Police Department or the citizens that he was sworn to protect.” In the end, Hanhardt pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiring to transport stolen property across state lines in eight heists in seven states over more than a decade. He agreed to pay $4,845,000 in restitution for stolen jewellery, gems and watches and was eventually sentenced to 12 years behind bars. As for Paulie Schiro, on May 12, 2002, he was sentenced to nearly 5 1/2 years in prison on charges for aiding a sophisticated theft ring. Schiro's lawyer, Paul Wagner, said his client admitted joining in the thefts in late 1992, well after the ring had begun stalking and stealing from jewellers but nobody believed in the story. In the end, Schiro apologized to the court and the victims of the thefts, saying, "I'm sorry I got involved in this."
Hanhardt in later years
During his stay in prison, Hanhardt dealt with a series of health problems, including cancer and heart disease, but according to some reports, he remained strong and focused on getting back home to his family. Hanhardt was very close connected to his family, since he and his wife Angeline had been a couple for 72 years in total, and on top of that they had 18 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Many people said that Hanhardt had a presence and sometimes was larger than life but after the conviction, only few people remained to say some positive things regarding Hanhardt and the truth was that they were all overshadowed by the case. Story goes that there was this tremendous physical toughness about him, but an even more powerful mental toughness, especially in the part of the brain where criminal thoughts thrive. As additional info, Hanhardt survived jail and defeated cancer but on December 30, 2016, he died from complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Highland Park Hospital. As for his buddy Paul Schiro, was again convicted for racketeering and involvement in murder in the infamous Family Secrets trial and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
And finally, the last story of this long burglary saga is about the theft of an egg sized diamond from a fancy London jewellery store, known as the Marlborough Diamond, which became the target of two Chicago Outfit associates and at the same time professional burglars and hijackers, known as Joseph "Witherhand" Scalise and Arthur “The Brain” Rachel. Since, they both grew up in tough criminal environments and around “connected” criminals, these two fellas pulled off one of the greatest robberies in which the Chicago Outfit had its claws in, thus leaving their mark in the history of the burglary business.
Joseph Scalise, or Jerry as he was known, was born in December, 1937, and grew up in very hard conditions and on top of that, he was born minus four fingers on his left hand, thus receiving the nickname "Witherhand". So I believe that one just cannot imagine the toughness of Scalise’s childhood and there’s no question on why he choose to become a criminal. His criminal, and quite “colourful” record states that until 1970, he was arrested almost 20 times and also convicted for offences such as robbery, burglary, damaging property, numerous weapons offences, assaults, larceny and also obstruction of justice. Like in June, 1961, Scalise was sentenced to 5 years probation after he was convicted for burglary and later that same year, in November, Scalise was again convicted for a theft and this time he was sentenced to 75 days in jail. By the late 1960’s, Scalise enjoyed to company of up and coming criminals in the so-called Mob-business world, such as Joe Ferriola and Albert Tocco. By this time the Outfit was heavily involved in the car theft and “chop-shop” businesses and that’s when Scalise’s first big fall occurred in December, 1971, when he got convicted for possession of stolen car parts from an interstate shipment and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. When he got out, Scalise became connected with two Outfit terrorists such as Jimmy Inendino, Butch Petrocelli, Harry Aleman and Gerry Scarpelli. In such company, Scalise became involved in murder, like driving the van with a hit team which was unleashed to find one William Dauber, a known Outfit hitman, who was shot to death along with his wife Charlotte on July 2, 1980.
His buddy, Arthur Rachel was no saint either because he spent a big part of his life in prison. He was born on May 27, 1938, and grew up around Taylor Street and he was also a Mob connected guy who loved to steal, while doing loads of drugs and drinking tons of booze. Rachel’s quite “colourful” criminal record started when he was just 16 years old and in September, 1956, when he was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in jail for an assault with the intent to kill, larceny and armed robbery, but after year he was paroled. On January 9, 1958, Rachel was again convicted and sentenced to prison, but this time up to 15 years for counterfeiting. He and few other individuals printed phoney government bonds and travellers checks with the total values of $300,000. After 12 years of battle with the law, Rachel was released but again in 1972, he also pleaded guilty to the robbery of a savings and loan association office on the city’s South Side, in which $14,333 was taken. He was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment and during this prison term, Rachel learned how to operate on these new electronic things which were known as “computers”. According to the intelligence tests which were administered to him in prison, Rachel was considered a genius thus receiving the nickname “The Brain”. I also believe that during that same prison term, he also had the pleasure to meet his future buddy in crime, Jerry Scalise. They got out of prison around the same time, and while being thirsty for the old mighty dollar, they immediately went to “work”.
Scalise and Rachel
As I previously pointed out that by this time Scalise hung around one quite murderous Outfit faction which was controlled by one “capo” known as Joe Ferriola. So being in the company of names such as Petrocelli or Aleman, soon Scalise found himself being involved in at least six murders but the thing was that he wasn’t the everyday natural born killer. I mean don’t get me wrong, Scalise could’ve killed you in a matter of seconds but I personally believe that his prime passion was being a burglar. According to one wiretapped conversation between Scalise and one other individual, Scalise advised that being a burglar is the only criminal profession in which you don’t have to worry about being destroyed by competition because usually there’s none.
So right after the sensational and double murder of Billy Dauber and his wife, and since the situation became too hot, Scalise decided to take some time off with his buddy Rachel. The duo then decided to take a “vacation trip” to London, England, where they planned to drink warm beer and taste the famous fish and chips, but first they planned to satisfy their needs, which was not gambling or narcotics, but instead it was burglarizing. By the end of August, 1980, the newspapers in Chicago announced that the famous Marlborough Diamond was going to be placed for sale at one famous jewellery store in London. Graff Diamonds, as it was known, was a store which was located at the very fashionable Knightsbridge section of London and the owner Laurence Graff, publicly announced that the highly expensive diamond was finally for sale. Previously, the 45 carat diamond belonged to Gladys Marie, the Dowager Duchess who was married with the ninth Duke of Marlborough, who in turn was Winston Churchill’s cousin. But when Gladys Marie died in 1977, her family decided to sell the jewel, which was valued at $900,000. So when Scalise and Rachel saw this, they knew that their trip was going to be quite profitable. As we can see in this and also in some of the previous examples, that most of these burglars had quite crazy ideas which any normal person would at least first consider them, but these guys went “straight for the kill”, no questions asked. And while this being said, in September, 1980, Scalise and Rachel took the first plane from O’Hare Airport straight to London.
When they arrived, both gave the image of well dressed businessmen who were there on a business trip and pleasure at the same time. They checked into a hotel and went straight to the “place of business” which they planned to investigate thoroughly. First, they noticed that there was only one security guard at the store and second, they also noticed that the cops, who patrolled the street, were “armed” only with rubber sticks and nothing else. Also, I really don’t know if they smuggled it or bought it, but somehow the duo planned to use a hand grenade, instead of a gun to scare the people and possible security at the jewellery store, where the diamond was located. So on September 11, 1980, Scalise dressed up like he was about to buy the Big Ben Tower, and entered the Graff Diamonds store shortly after the opening. The idea was for the robbery to occur in the morning hours, just to elude any big number of possible customers in the store. So when he entered, Scalise was graciously greeted by the security guard who in turn showed him the way into the premises. Scalise started viewing some of the jewels which were placed around the store while at the same time eyeballing and counting the number of customers which was about two or three the most. Suddenly, he was asked by the manager of the store if he needed any help, and Scalise asked for the Marlborough Diamond because he allegedly was interested in buying it. Thinking he was a customer, one of the employees took out the diamond and the moment Scalise laid his eyes on it, he pulled out a gun and in a very calmed tone, he ordered the staff and customers to lie down on the floor. In a matter of few seconds, Rachel walked in with a fake beard, while waving a hand grenade and with his point finger over his nose, thus giving everybody in the store the sign for silence. Scalise ordered for one of the employees to pack the diamond into a briefcase, and on top of that he also ordered another employee to pack another briefcase with all of the most expensive jewels in the store, including a diamond ring worth $482,000 and African ruby worth $72,300. In a matter of few minutes, the two robbers fled the store and got into a getaway car, which was a Fiat Mirafiori parked about 50 yards away from the crime scene. While driving, somewhere along the way Scalise allegedly arranged for a London cabby to drop the stolen loot in a mailbox and then to be sent to unknown location.
The whole “operation” looked like taking a candy from a baby, since the robbers quickly got what they wanted by picking out all the very special pieces and on top of that, no one was hurt and everybody around was unaware of what just took place. But there was one “small” problem which proved that the robbers were less efficient in covering their tracks rather than they were with the robbery. The problem was that one of the store employees ran out and followed the robbers and during the process, he somehow managed to note the registration number of the getaway car they used to escape. Now I’m going to show you an example where you can see the low level of intelligence of these gangsters, like the “unthinkable” thing which they did by using their real names when they rented the getaway car. So while the British investigators figured it out on who were the robbers, by now both men went straight to the airport and managed to board their Chicago-bound flight without any incident. But while they were up in the air, the British police found out about where the criminals came from, and so they quickly notified the Chicago FBI office about the whole situation. So when Scalise and Rachel stepped off the British Airways plane at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, they were immediately arrested by the feds and both have been held at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Scalise (second from left) and Rachel (first from right) being arrested by the feds
Now the main problem was that the British government and police force wanted the two criminals back to England to stand trail and so from this point on, the Chicago agents gave all kinds of deals and tried to convince Scalise and Rachel to become informants in return for shorter sentences or the chance to serve their remaining years in the U.S. But Scalise and Rachel have shown that they were true loyalists because they’ve decided not to violate the Outfit’s code of silence, because they knew what the real consequences were if someone decided to talk. So the two robbers fought an ongoing battle against their extradition to Europe for almost four years and Scalise always said to the feds that “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” In 1983, Rachel filed up a $6 million lawsuit while seeking $2 million each from Scotland Yard, Chicago police and the U.S. Secret Service, contending that his constitutional rights were violated when the agencies “conspired” to search his West Side home for the stolen gems after his arrest. But soon his lawsuit was denied since the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean realized that Rachel's suit was in fact a delaying tactic to keep him from being sent back to Britain for trial. So one thing led to another and in 1984, they were extradited to England, where they were immediately convicted and sent to 15 years in jai on the Isle of White prison, which was one of the worst prisons at the time. As for the Marlborough Diamond and the rest of the jewels, well they were never recovered since neither Scalise nor Rachel ever talked about them. Some reports say that Scalise has mailed the stones to New York, where they were allegedly “welcomed” by Scalise’s sister. Now, my personal belief is that the robbery was an Outfit-sanctioned job, and that the precious stones have ended up in their hands but I also believe that both Scalise and Rachel never saw a dime from the stolen loot.
There’s an old saying which I really don’t remember clearly, but it went something like “there’s always something lucky even in the unluckiest situation”, meaning while Scalise and Rachel sat in some dark UK prison cells, back home the FBI has declared war against the Outfit and many top bosses and their underlings were sent to quite long prison terms and on top of that many of their syndicate “friends” were being murdered along the way. I mean yes, the two burglars stayed in one of toughest prisons in the world but still they managed to avoid the long bloodshed and the government’s so-called mobster hunt, which by now has spread all around U.S. While in prison, the two Chicagoans had the pleasure to meet a different breed of criminals such as terrorists. In those days, the English prisons were filled with members and associates of the Irish Republican Army or the IRA, which was considered by British authorities as terrorist organization, considering all of shooting and bombings which occurred during that period. But this rebellious organization was mostly financed by illegal operations, and one being burglary. So my point is that both Rachel and Scalise had the time in their hands to meet a lot of these so-called Irish hoodlums who taught the two Chicagoans on many new stealing techniques. For example, drilling holes in the walls of houses, then removing the whole windows, and then using toothpaste to disguise the holes, a technique which was often used by the Irish Republican Army men.
