Tapes Provide Rare Glimpse of Union‐Crime Dealings
By Alan Richman
Oct. 28, 1979

October 28, 1979, Page 26Buy Reprints
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PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 27 — Friends of Francis J. Sheeran, president of Local 326 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Wilmington, Del., paid $100 apiece to attend his 59th birthday party at a motel restaurant Thursday night. The aonations were intended to help offset the cost of prime steaks, a Las Vegas band and Mr. Sheeran's defense on charges of murder, attempted murder, arson and embezzlement.

The partygoers, unidentified despite intense interest on the part of the local news media, arrived in dozens of luxury cars bearing license plates from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The day before the affair, which Mr. Sheeran called a “fund‐raising party,” he held a news conference at the same motel, the Treadway Roosevelt Inn in northeast Philadelphia. He asserted that the source of his legal difficulties was “harassing and hassling” by the Federal Government and newspapers and television over the last 15 years.

“In their opinion, if you are a union official, you are a bad person,” he said.

Named in a Sept. 24 indictment as a codefendant with Mr. Sheeran on Federal racketeering charges is Louis J. Bottone, former president of teamsters Local 107 in Philadelphia. Both men are free on bail, pending trial early next year.

Named as co‐conspirators are Russell Bufalino, a former teamsters business agent and reputed head of organized crime in Pennsylvania's coal region; Angelo Bruno, reputed head of organized crime in the Philadelphia area, and 15 other men, some of them present or former union officials.

Mr. Sheeran is alleged to have conspired to murder Francis J. Marino, also known as Big Bobby, a 300‐pound Philadelphia labor organizer who died in 1976 after being bludgeoned and shot five times, and Frederick John Gawronski, shot to death the same year in a tavern in New Castle, Del. He is also charged with four attempted murders, arson in the bombing of a hotel in Delaware, arson in the burning of a teamsters office here, and the embezzlement of $3,780 from his own local to pay for beatings and violent acts.

Mr. Sheeran denied all the charges. “1 have been a working man for over 45 years,” he said at his press conference.

Charge in 1967 Killing Dropped

He said he had not seen the late Mr. Marino since 1967. (In the same year, Mr. Sheeran was charged for murder in the death of Robert DeGeorge, who was killed in a shootout in front of Local 107 headquarters. The case was dismissed in 1972 on the ground that Mr. Sheeran had been denied a speedy trial.) He said of the late Mr. Gawronski, “I met him for two minutes.”

Of the key witness for the prosecution, Charles Allen, who has confessed to murdering for hire, Mr. Sheeran said, “Sure I know him. I don't know what he does.”

Mr. Allen made a secret deal with prosecutors after being arrested in July 1978 on a charge of manufacturing amphetamines. In exchange for a written agreement from the Federal Government that he would not have to serve more than seven years in prison, Mr. Allen confessed to a variety of crimes, including a murder committed for Mickey Cohen about 30 years ago, a conspiracy with James R. Hoffa to kill his successor as teamsters president, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, and the actual murder of Mr. Marino.

That September, investigators from the Philadelphia Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force supplied Mr. Allen with a recording device. He returned from as many as 15 meetings with Mr. Sheeran and Mr. Bottone with taped conversations that make up the bulk of the evidence against them.

Tapes Provide Vivid Look

Peter F. Vaira, the United States attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, said that the tape recordings provided “one of the most vivid, most explicit” looks into a relationship between organized crime and labor unions.

The indictment charges that in about December 1975, Mr. Sheeran, Mr. Buttone and Mr. Allen agreed to kill Mr. Marino, a teamster organizer and alleged loan shark, and William Mario Brown, a former secretary‐treasurer of teamster Local 500 in Philadelphia.

According to documents filed in court by the prosecution, this was the scenario:

Mr. Allen went to Frank Sindone, reputed to be a lieutenant in the Angelo Bruno crime family and known to be owner of Frank's Cabana Steaks, a sandwich shop in South Philadelphia, for permission to carry out the murders. The elimination of Mr. Brown was found acceptable, but not the killing of Mr. Marino. Nevertheless Mr. Allen was told by Mr. Sheeran that Mr. Bufalino had approved the killings and that he should proceed.

Mr. Allen failed in several efforts to get a clear shot at Mr. Brown. He did succeed in killing Mr. Marino. Mr. Allen was very nearly marked for death by Mr. Bruno because he had not approved the Marino murder. Only when Mr. Bufalino interceded and Mr. Allen apologized did Mr. Bruno spare his life.

Further Indictments Possible

The United States attorney, Mr. Vaira, said that since a wide range of conversations were recorded by Mr. Allen, further indictments could result. But he said that he did not anticipate “any great wave” of legal activity against organized crime emanating from the Allen tapes.

In his agreement with the Federal Government, Mr. Allen promised to cooperate with investigations of a number of activities of which he had first‐hand knowledge, including the suspected murder of Mr. Hoffa. Although Mr. Sheeran was once a close associate of Mr. Hoffa and later became a suspect in his disappearance, Mr. Vaira said the information supplied by the Allen tapes “fills in one more gap, doesn't break the case.”

At his press conference last week, Mr. Sheeran denied any involvement.

“Anything I got I owe him,” he said. “If it wasn't for Hoffa, I wouldn't be where I am today.”

Associated Press

Francis J. Sheeran, president of Local 326 of the teamsters’ union, In a Phila- delphia motel lounge Wednesday after charging news media harassment.