Bones Likely from a Mob Hit

Friends of ours: Gerald Scarpelli
Friends of mine: Robert Hatridge, Michael Oliver

Visible injuries to bones found this week in west suburban Downers Grove Township have led investigators to believe the victim could have been the target of a gangland slaying, law-enforcement sources said Thursday.

The bones, which construction workers discovered Tuesday morning buried more than 5 feet underground, have not yet been positively identified, but are those of an adult male, the DuPage County coroner's office said. Investigators think the bones may have been in the ground for 20 years or more.

Law-enforcement sources said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now involved in the inquiry, and that a possible connection to organized crime has arisen because of the manner of death and obvious injuries to the body.

Three of the deceased male's fingers were sheared off, possibly with a bolt-cutting type tool. The man also had suffered a broken shoulder and two gunshot wounds in he back of the head, law-enforcement sources said.

The coroner's office said only that authorities are working to identify the male, whose approximate age couldn't be determined. The man was not an "old person," however, said DuPage Coroner Pete Siekmann. Authorities are trying to identify the remains based on fingerprints and a tattoo visible on the body, he said.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said the case is being investigated as a possible homicide.

Construction workers laying sewer pipes for a new townhouse development found the bones near Bluff Road and Illinois Highway 83. The bones were wrapped in a blue tarpaulin.

The location of the bones had neighbors speculating this week that they could be linked to organized crime. The bones were found less than a half-mile from a purported mob victim burial ground, where two bodies were found in 1988 and later identified as low-level organized-crime figures. A task force formed in the 1980s to solve cold mob cases got the tip for the location from an informant, and at the time sources believed searchers might find as many as seven bodies. But after five months of digging, they found only two bodies—those of Robert Anthony Hatridge, a minor associate of Gerald Scarpelli, 51, a crime syndicate killer-turned-informant who later committed suicide; and Mark (Michael?) Oliver, another minor organized-crime figure.

Investigators said part of the process of identifying the body would include working off a list of missing persons with connections to the Chicago Outfit.

After the bones were found, Darien authorities considered that they might belong to Xu "Sue" Wang, a Darien doctor who disappeared in 1999.

Thanks to Jeff Coen and Angela Rozas

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Mob Burial Ground Reveals Another Body

Friends of mine: Robert Hatridge, Michael Oliver

A new body was discovered at an old mob burial ground. CBS 2's Mike Parker explains: the FBI believed they'd closed the case two decades ago until a construction crew was surprised by human remains.

There are growing signs that this plot of land, just off Route 83 on Bluff Road, has been used again as a burial site for victims of the mob. “It's an interesting puzzle that's been opened up here," said Jim Wagner of the Chicago Crime Commission.

DuPage County officers are still guarding the scene where crews digging a sewer for a townhouse project found a body enclosed in a plastic tarp Tuesday. It was buried beneath the freshly turned earth.

The FBI tells CBS 2 there are signs the body could have been placed there as recently as five years ago.

Acting on a tip almost two decades ago in 1988, the FBI dug up the very same location for five days. They found two bodies buried there. Both were men, and both were described as low-level soldiers in the Chicago outfit. The bodies were identified as Robert Hatridge and Michael Oliver. Both men had been shot to death are their murders remain unsolved.

The latest discovery seems to suggest the possibility that the mob has moved back to its old, unofficial cemetery in more recent years. "If this has anything to do with organized crime then you suspect that somebody had a favorite spot they were going to continue to use, because they felt comfortable and safe," Wagner said.

When the body was found Tuesday, authorities believed it was within a half mile of the old discovery scene. Today, they realized it is the same spot.

The FBI says it is monitoring the case, waiting to see if the DuPage County coroner can identify the latest body and pinpoint the cause of death.

Thanks to Mike Parker

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Mobster's Cooperation Revealed

The Chicago crime syndicate suffered a potentially devastating blow Thursday with the disclosure that jailed mob rackets figure Gerald Scarpelli apparently has defected and become a government informant. The information, in a nine-page government report filed in U.S. District Court by prosecutors, said that Scarpelli has admitted having a role in mob killings and knowledge of at least one other murder. Some mob observers speculated Thursday that if Scarpelli is admitting his involvement in crimes, he probably is implicating others as well to improve his chances of making a deal with authorities. Prosecutors and Scarpelli`s defense lawyers have declined to discuss the contents of the document with the news media. In the past, however, defense lawyers have scoffed at suggestions Scarpelli had turned informant to help himself.

Scarpelli, 51, is believed to be one of the mob`s top killers. He was a close associate of several top mob figures, including Joseph Ferriola, until recently the Chicago syndicate`s operating chief. A burglar by trade, Scarpelli was not only a top hit man during Ferriola`s 1985-88 reign as boss, but became Ferriola`s chief gambling and juice loan collector on the Southwest Side and in the southwest suburbs, according to sources familiar with the Scarpelli case. Thus, they said, Scarpelli was familiar with the inner workings of the mob`s day-to-day activities under Ferriola and Ferriola`s chief henchman, Ernest Rocco Infelice.

Ironically, if Scarpelli turned informant, he did so after being arrested last summer on evidence provided by another gangland informant. Federal authorities haven`t named that informant, but he is believed to be Scarpelli`s longtime associate, James Basile, who is now in federal protective custody. In secretly taped conversations between Scarpelli and the informant, Scarpelli is heard talking about ``sitting down with`` bosses he identified as ``Joe, Rocky and Sam.`` The FBI said the three are Ferriola, Infelice and Sam Carlisi, who is believed to have succeeded the ailing Ferriola as the mob`s operating boss last fall.

The court document gave no hint that Scarpelli told secrets about them, limiting its revelations to the charges against Scarpelli that resulted in his arrest. In that regard, the document said Scarpelli had admitted taking part in the 1979 slaying of North Chicago nightclub operator George Christofalos, and the 1980 killing of mob assassin William Dauber, 45, and Dauber`s wife, Charlotte, 37. It said Scarpelli also provided information about the killing of mob associate Michael Oliver, whose body was found buried last spring in a field south of suburban Darien.

According to the document, all of the information allegedly given by Scarpelli was told to the FBI on July 16 and 17-the day of his arrest and the following day. The information is in a report filed by John L. Burley, a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department`s Chicago Organized Crime Strike Force concerning a meeting with Jeffrey Steinback, one of Scarpelli`s defense lawyers, to discuss the prosecution`s evidence.

Until now Scarpelli hadn`t been linked to the death of Christofalos, operator of a far-north suburban strip joint. But he has long been suspected by authorities of taking part in the slayings of the Daubers near Crete. Sources said Dauber was informing on Scarpelli to a variety of federal and state agencies. Dauber was an underling of Albert Tocco, the fugitive south suburban rackets boss who was captured by federal agents in Europe Thursday. Oliver is believed to have been buried in the Darien field by accomplices after he was slain during a botched attempt to rob a suburban pornography shop that competed with another porn shop.

Thanks to John O'Brien and Ronald Koziol

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