Reputed Chicago mob associate dies in car bomb blast
Reputed Chicago Mafia associate Joseph Testa, 53, had escaped three previous bomb attacks.
But he wasn't so lucky that July 1981 evening when he backed his car out of a parking space at the Tamarac Country Club in Oakland Park.
A remote-control operated bomb, planted on the driver's side of the car, exploded. Testa was thrown 100 feet. His right leg and part of his right arm were blown off. He died two days later. The case was never solved, but police theorize the killing was mob related.
A wealthy builder, Testa bragged of Mafia connections, and was reportedly associated with the Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo family in Chicago. "Associates he traveled with in the Chicago area were known organized crime figures," a FBI spokesman said after his death.
Authorities suspect Marshall Caifano, a Chicago hit man who favored car bombs, had Testa killed from prison. Caifano, however, died of natural causes in his 90s in 2003.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report
rnolin@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4525
But he wasn't so lucky that July 1981 evening when he backed his car out of a parking space at the Tamarac Country Club in Oakland Park.
A remote-control operated bomb, planted on the driver's side of the car, exploded. Testa was thrown 100 feet. His right leg and part of his right arm were blown off. He died two days later. The case was never solved, but police theorize the killing was mob related.
A wealthy builder, Testa bragged of Mafia connections, and was reportedly associated with the Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo family in Chicago. "Associates he traveled with in the Chicago area were known organized crime figures," a FBI spokesman said after his death.
Authorities suspect Marshall Caifano, a Chicago hit man who favored car bombs, had Testa killed from prison. Caifano, however, died of natural causes in his 90s in 2003.
rnolin@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4525