Mobster's Fingerprints Matched By FBI

Friends of ours: Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo

A retired FBI fingerprint analyst testified today that a fingerprint from reputed top Chicago mobster Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo appeared on an application for a car title for a Ford LTD that was used by the killers in the 1974 murder of government witness Daniel Seifert.

Roy L. McDaniel, a 40-year veteran of the FBI laboratory, told jurors in the Operation Family Secrets mob trial that he identified a fingerprint that matched the left middle finger of Lombardo after he received the material in October 1974.

Police recovered the car after the Sept. 27, 1974, murder of Seifert, who was to be a witness at a federal criminal trial against Lombardo, his former close friend.

Lombardo was accused of helping rip off a Teamster pension fund, and prosecutors say Seifert was the only witness who could link him to two checks they said were part of the scheme. When Seifert was killed, the case against Lombardo was dropped.

The brown Ford LTD was recovered at an Elmhurst car dealership where prosecutors say the hit team met after killing Seifert. It had been outfitted as a so-called Chicago Outfit “work car,” equipped with four switches under the dashboard that let the driver turn off all exterior lights of the car, so it could be driven completely dark at night. The license-plate holders were on spring-loaded flip brackets, so the plates could be quickly switched, according to prosecutors.

The owner of the car, listed on the title application as Acme Security Service, turned out to be fake. But there were other prints on documents related to the purchase of the car that were examined by the FBI that did not match Lombardo’s prints or those of anyone else the FBI was looking at.

Lombardo’s attorney, Rick Halprin, elicited that information during his questioning, apparently in an effort to show that other people handled the documents besides Lombardo and that the FBI doesn’t know who they are.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir