An ABC7 I-Team Investigation
By Chuck Goudie
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago crime boss Anthony Zizzo
disappeared a decade ago on Wednesday. He is believed to be one of the outfit's
last hits.
On August 31, 2006, George W. Bush was president and the
Cubs were nearly in last place. And on that day 10 years ago, Zizzo kissed his
wife goodbye and left their Westmont townhouse destined for lunch on Rush
Street. He had been summoned to meet with some outfit colleagues, but Zizzo
never returned. Now AWOL for 10 years, he vanished without a trace.
"Anthony Zizzo has connections to La Cosa Nostra which
may have played a part in his disappearance," FBI Special Agent Garrett
Croon said.
La Cosa Nostra, which means "this thing of ours"
in Italian, is the favored federal lingo for the mob of which Anthony Zizzo was
a high-ranking member.
"He was the underboss - traditionally a tough guy's
job," said John Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit."
Binder said Zizzo had left his house here in suburban
Westmont and told his wife he had a lunch meeting on Rush Street. His car was
found empty near a restaurant in Melrose Park.
Zizzo is said to have a falling out with mob boss Michael
"Fat Boy" Sarno concerning illegal video poker machines.
"As they often do, they were going to sit down and
smooth this out. But no - that's your death sentence," Binder said.
Investigators consider top hoodlums Joe "The
Sledgehammer" Andriacchi and Albie "Falcon" Vena as possible
suspects in Zizzo's disappearance, but no one has ever been charged.
Without a body, the FBI reiterates its $10,000 reward for
information in the case.
"We need the public's help. Telephone the FBI. Tell us
what you know if you were in that area at the time or you were around the rest
or you knew Anthony Zizzo. Call us, tell us your information, no matter how
small you think it may be," Agent Croon said.
"It's interesting that the FBI itself offered a $10,000
reward for information into the whereabouts or the disappearance of Tony
Zizzo," Binder said. "Honestly, they would have seen him as valuable
to them dead or alive in one sense or another. Possibly if they thought they
could solve the Zizzo murder that would lead to a whole second round of indictments."
Zizzo vanished as the government's Family Secrets mob murder
case was shifting into high gear 10 years ago.
A second round of Family Secrets indictments was always
expected but never came. It isn't known whether authorities saw Zizzo as a defendant
or thought they could turn him as a witness, but after he became unavailable,
all the Zizzo options were off the table.