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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Anthony Pellicano Worked for Mobster Lombardo?

Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Cullotta
Friends of mine: Anthony Pellicano

Private investigator Anthony Pellicano shot to fame working for Hollywood stars. But when he worked in Chicago 30 years ago, Pellicano hustled for an alleged rising star of a different kind: Infamous Chicago mobster Joseph "Joey The Clown" Lombardo.

Pellicano's investigative work from 1974 on Lombardo's behalf could provide Lombardo an alibi for the brutal murder of Daniel Seifert, who was to be a key witness against Lombardo in a Teamster fund embezzlement case. Lombardo is charged in Seifert's death in the upcoming Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago.

These days, Pellicano has his own problems as he sits in jail awaiting trial on charges he illegally wiretapped the conversations of the enemies of his rich and famous clients. Those allegations have rocked the Hollywood elite. But in 1974, Pellicano was working for Lombardo, compiling information to show Lombardo was far away when Seifert was gunned down the morning of Sept. 27 outside his Bensenville factory.

Prosecutors are expected to tie Lombardo to the Seifert murder by pointing to his fingerprint on a title application for a car used in the slaying.

Pellicano's investigation, though, contends Lombardo was at the International House of Pancakes in the 2800 block of West Diversey the morning of the murder. After Lombardo left the restaurant, he noticed someone had stolen his wallet from his car's glove compartment. Lombardo went back inside the IHOP and reported the theft to two cops having breakfast. They wrote a report, which is included in Pellicano's work. There's a signed statement from one of the cops and another from a driver's license facility supervisor who says Lombardo came in the morning of the murder for a duplicate license.

Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, called his client's alibi "rock solid." He said Pellicano's current difficulties have no impact on his work for Lombardo.

In another court document obtained by the Sun-Times, a government informant, former mobster Alva Johnson Rodgers, a Lombardo associate, alleges in late 1973 or early 1974 that Pellicano asked him to burn down a Mount Prospect building. Rodgers alleges he did just that, but Pellicano was never charged.

Pellicano is being held in custody because he allegedly asked unnamed Chicago mobsters to put a hit on a witness against him, according to a government court filing.

Pellicano's attorney, Steven F. Gruel, disputed the allegations and said he's seen nothing to buttress claims his client is tied to the mob.

Also, on Monday, Lombardo's attorney filed a motion asking the feds for a pre-publication copy of a book by a government informant, mobster Frank Cullotta. Cullotta may be a witness at the Family Secrets trial, and his book could provide fodder for the defense.

Prosecutors should have access to Cullotta, who is hiding under a new identity, Halprin noted. "For all I know, he's Ann Coulter," Halprin quipped.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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Joey the Clown Denies He was a Fugitive to Avoid Mob Arrest

Friends of ours: Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Frank "The German" Schweihs, Frank Calabrese, James Marcello, Paul Schiro, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro

Reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo pleaded not guilty today to a charge that he went on the lam to avoid arrest.

In a brief hearing in federal court, Lombardo pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice. The charge was tacked onto a sweeping indictment of several defendants in a federal investigation of long-unsolved mob murders and other crimes.

Lombardo and Frank "The German" Schweihs allegedly went on the run to avoid FBI agents after prosecutors unveiled the first version of the Operation Family Secrets racketeering indictment in April 2005.

Schweihs was captured in Kentucky in December 2005, and Lombardo was caught in Elmwood Park in January 2006. Schweihs was not in court Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Lombardo attorney Rick Halprin said the government could not charge Lombardo with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution because it could not prove that he had crossed state lines -- a key provision of the law. He said the second choice was charging Lombardo with attempting to "impede and obstruct" efforts to arrest him. But Halprin said that at no time did Lombardo's absence from court impede and obstruct the case.

Reputed mobsters Lombardo, Schweihs, Frank Calabrese, James Marcello, and Paul Schiro and nine others are charged with conspiring to commit 18 murders going back three decades. The murders include the 1986 hit on Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, the mob's man in Las Vegas.

The charges grow out of a decades-old federal investigation known as "Family Secrets." Jury selection is expected to start in May, and the trial is expected to last four or five months.

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Aleman Parole Vote Case Ends in Acquittal for Officials

Friends of ours: Harry Aleman, Joseph Ferriola

A former state parole board member was cleared Monday of charges that he voted to free mob hit man Harry Aleman in exchange for help in getting his son a gig as an entertainer in Las Vegas.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley found both Victor Brooks and former ranking prison official Ron Matrisciano not guilty of charges that included official misconduct and wire fraud in the case brought by the office of Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan.

Kelley delivered a directed verdict for Brooks and Matrisciano, meaning the defendants did not even have to present their side before the judge ruled the attorney general's office had not proven its case, defense attorneys said. "We believe this case should never have been indicted in the first place, and this view has been borne out by the outcome today," said L. Lee Smith, a former federal prosecutor who represented Brooks.

Brooks, 56, formerly of Batavia but now living in Florissant, Mo., was the only member of the Prisoner Review Board who voted in 2002 in favor of parole for Aleman, who remains in prison serving 100 to 300 years for killing a Teamsters official. Matrisciano, 52, formerly a high-ranking prison official, testified on behalf of Aleman and eventually lost his job with the Illinois Department of Corrections as the case unfolded.

The indictment alleged Brooks agreed to vote for Aleman's release in exchange for Matrisciano's help in landing Brooks' son, a singer, a job in Las Vegas. Prison officials have said Matrisciano told them he is a family friend of Aleman's. But the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence of an alleged quid pro quo, Smith said.

"We presented all of the evidence to the court," said Robyn Ziegler, Madigan's spokeswoman. "The court considered that evidence and reached its decision, and we respect that decision."

Matrisciano and Brooks had been friends for more than 20 years.

Matrisciano, a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, merely had suggested a couple of people to call during a lunch in Nevada with Brooks' son, Smith said. "Ron said, `When I'm out there (in Las Vegas), maybe I can get him a couple of leads,'" said Terry Ekl, who represented Matrisciano.

The indictment also alleged Matrisciano knew he should have been speaking as a private citizen to the Prisoner Review Board and falsely portrayed his statement as a recommendation from the Illinois Department of Corrections, but the allegation was also tossed aside, Ekl said.

Evidence showed Matrisciano, who is seeking his job back, had brought the matter up beforehand to superiors and received approval and that he had not identified himself as representing the department, Ekl said.

The indictments were the latest twist in the long saga of Aleman, the nephew of reputed former rackets boss Joseph Ferriola.

His conviction in 1997 made American legal history as the first time a criminal defendant had been retried after an acquittal. A mob lawyer later admitted that he bribed the judge in the first trial, and Aleman was subsequently convicted of the 1972 murder.

The Tribune first reported that Matrisciano, while serving in his role as an assistant deputy director of the Illinois Department of Corrections in December 2002, testified before the Prisoner Review Board in favor of paroling Aleman.

After a parole hearing at Dixon Correctional Center, the parole board officer overseeing the matter recommended Aleman's bid for parole be denied. Such recommendations are usually upheld unanimously by the full board. But when the full board considered the matter, Brooks made the unusual request for a roll call vote and cast the only vote for Aleman's parole.

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Correction Officials Found Not Guilty

Friends of ours: Harry Aleman

A Sangamon County judge Monday issued a directed verdict of not guilty in favor of a former state Department of Corrections official and a former state Prisoner Review Board member who had been accused of abusing their positions.

Both Ronald Matrisciano of Lockport, a former assistant deputy director of Corrections, and Victor E. Brooks of Batavia, a former prison warden and member of the Prisoner Review Board, were indicted by a Lee County grand jury in 2005 on charges of wire fraud and official misconduct in connection with a 2002 parole hearing for Harry Aleman.

Aleman is serving a 100- to 300-year sentence for the September 1972 shooting death of a union steward at a Chicago trucking company.

According to the indictment, Brooks agreed to vote in favor of paroling Aleman in exchange for help getting Brooks' son a job as an entertainer in Las Vegas. That help allegedly was going to come from Matrisciano, who testified during a parole hearing at Dixon Correctional Center in December 2002 that Aleman was "a model prisoner."

Matrisciano also was indicted on a charge of perjury in Sangamon County for allegedly lying during a February 2005 deposition. In that deposition, Matrisciano said he did not appear at the parole hearing in his official capacity as an assistant deputy director at Corrections. The attorney general's office alleged that he had represented his position as that of the department, and that Brooks and Matrisciano schemed to try and get Aleman paroled.

All the charges were consolidated in Sangamon County about six months ago, and Matrisciano and Brooks went on trial without a jury before Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley on Monday.

After hearing the attorney general's office's seven witnesses, Kelley allowed motions by attorneys for the defendants for directed verdicts of not guilty on all counts.

Matrisciano's attorney, Terry Ekl of Clarendon Hills, said that Kelley looked at the transcripts of Matrisciano's testimony before the Prisoner Review Board and found the evidence "fell far short of what the prosecution alleged."

Kelley also found the prosecution produced no proof of Matrisciano and Brooks conspiring to have Aleman paroled or that they used any electronic device to further any kind of scheme.

"There was no proof of any scheme, and the evidence fell short of establishing any illegal activity," Ekl said. "It wasn't even a close call."

Brooks was represented by Peoria attorney Lee Smith.

Ekl said his client, Matrisciano, "has gone through a living hell since this began."

"He's lost his job, and he lost his marriage as a direct result of losing his job," Ekl said. "He broke down in tears when the judge announced his ruling, and he is absolutely elated at the outcome," Ekl said. "He hopes to get his job back."

The Prisoner Review Board denied parole for Aleman, a reputed Chicago mob hit man, despite Matrisciano's testimony.

Aleman was charged in 1972 with murdering a Teamsters official. He was acquitted in 1977, but it later was determined that the judge in the case had been bribed. He was tried again, convicted in 1997 and is serving 100 to 300 years in prison.

A federal lawsuit filed by Matrisciano in 2003 claiming that Illinois corrections officials retaliated against him for testifying at Aleman's parole hearing was dismissed in U.S. District Court in Springfield last year.

U.S. Judge Richard Mills granted summary judgment to Corrections Director Roger Walker Jr. and former acting director Donald Snyder in the case.

Matrisciano had said in his lawsuit that he told Snyder and an associate director he was considering giving a statement to the Prisoner Review Board and that no objections were raised.

About a week after the hearing, Matrisciano was reassigned to a northern Illinois reception facility, which he claimed was a demotion in retaliation for his testimony.

When Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office in 2003, Matrisciano was laid off in a department reorganization unrelated to the controversy over his testimony. Under terms of the layoff, he became eligible to return to work in March 2004 but immediately was put on paid administrative leave while aspects of his testimony were investigated.

Springfield attorney Howard Feldman, who represents Matrisciano in the civil suit, said the dismissal has been appealed to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thanks to Chris Dettro

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