Longtime gangster lived like retiree in Deerfield Beach until his murder
In the early '80s, James Tortoriello lived like a retired grandfather on a quiet Deerfield Beach street. But cops said he was really the South Florida muscle for the Chicago crime family headed by Sam Giancana. After all, his nickname was "Mugsy."
In 1982, two carloads of gunmen sprayed his house with bullets. A week later, the feds raided the same house, seizing guns and ammo from the convicted felon whose criminal record spanned 52 years. They found a pistol on a shelf under Mugsy's trademark derby.
Two years later, Mugsy, age 73, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in a warehouse near the Fort Lauderdale-Holywood International Airport. The murder was never solved.
Two of Mugsy's sons apparently followed in their father's profession. The youngest, Mark Tortoriello, was shot and killed outside a Tamarac home at age 29 during a drug deal. Another, James Tortoriello, also said to be connected to the Chicago mob, was sentenced to three years in federal prison in the early 1980s for theft of paintings that were later found to be forgeries.
Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report rnolin@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4525
When Illinois lawmakers voted to legalize video gambling six years ago, supporters hailed it as a way to boost state revenues and end decades of illegal video gambling that had long been a lucrative enterprise for organized crime.
Proponents argued that state officials would have the authority to weed out shady characters through video gambling regulation, but the Tribune found the state has issued licenses to people with ties to crime and illegal gambling anyway.
The findings raise questions about the state's vetting process for license applicants and whether many of the same people who illegally operated video gambling machines for years are still part of the process now that the machines are legal.
The board also licensed a man previously charged with felony syndicated gambling for allegedly working with his father to install illegal video gambling machines in McHenry County bars. Those charges were later dropped as part of a plea deal. That man now serves as president of a trade organization that has lobbied for video gambling.
And the board said it didn't know a Rockford restaurant owner it licensed was a convicted felon who once stole $146,000 from a South Carolina hotel.
Nonetheless, Gaming Board officials said they were satisfied they made the right decision in granting licenses to the first two individuals and while national criminal databases did not reveal the third man's criminal past, "database errors like this are rare."After the Tribune found the conviction in a routine records search, the board said it may take action on the license at its Wednesday meeting.
Applicants for video gambling licenses must fill out a disclosure statement, submit to background checks, and pay fees ranging from $50 for terminal handler licenses to $5,000 for terminal operator licenses. Owners of establishments where operators place the machines do not have to pay an application fee but must also submit to a background check. Licensed terminal operators and establishments each pocket 35 percent of the profits from the terminal.
The Gaming Board has broad powers to deny licenses to individuals or businesses based on criminal history, past personal or business activities and associations, or involvement in illegal gambling. To date, the Illinois Gaming Board has issued nearly 7,000 licenses, the bulk of which have gone to about 5,000 establishments where a combined 20,000 machines have been installed. Fewer than 400 applicants have been denied a license.
"It certainly raises very serious questions," said Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, who last year unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation that would have strengthened the Gaming Board's ability to deny licenses.
"At a minimum, the General Assembly should be looking into how the Gaming Board is carrying out its duties and conducting its investigations and making determinations about licenses. Ultimately, this is an issue of public trust."
Gray games
Vince Dublino didn't want to say anything when he was approached by a reporter last month in one of three bars he owns along a two-block stretch of Roosevelt Road in Berwyn.
"I really don't want to talk about it," he said, as lights from video gambling terminals flickered and flashed behind a low wall at the back of Vinny's Cafe.
He was more talkative at the 2010 trial of Mike "The Large Guy" Sarno and other Chicago Outfit members, where he told a federal jury that he had for years installed illegal video poker machines at local watering holes.
Testifying under a grant of immunity, Dublino said he would visit each bar every week or so to count up the money and split the proceeds with the bar owners after paying off the winners under the table. He told the jury he then underreported the income on the machines on his taxes and on the tax forms he filled out for the taverns he serviced. On top of that, he told jurors he was still operating the so-called gray games at the time of his testimony, when video gambling in Illinois was still illegal.
Dublino testified that in summer 2002, an irate Sarno accosted him outside a Berwyn bar after learning the witness planned to install illegal video gambling machines in a Lyons diner that was on the mobster's turf.
"(Sarno) said, 'Hey you (expletive) punk, I wanna talk to you,' " Dublino told jurors. "I said, 'Who you calling a (expletive) punk?' ... He said, 'Stay the (expletive) away from the 47th Street Grill stop.'
A short time later, two men delivered a cryptic message that "the clocks would run backward" if he didn't back away from his plan. After the visit came a series of threatening, anonymous phone calls. Then, at around 1 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2003, a pipe bomb blast destroyed Dublino's business on 16th Street in Berwyn.
Sarno was convicted of the bombing and is serving a 25-year sentence.
Dublino's admissions of illegal gambling and tax fraud weren't sufficient to bar him from receiving a handler's license from the Gaming Board in 2013. The following year, the board granted him his first establishment license at his bar in Berwyn, Nonna D's, which allows him to pocket 35 percent of the profits from each of the five machines he installed. This year, the board granted establishment licenses allowing him to install five machines each in Vinny's Cafe and another bar he owned.
"The board's investigation revealed no evidence that Dublino is a member of organized crime but did indicate that he cooperated with law enforcement by testifying against organized crime at the trial of Mike Sarno," Gaming Board spokesman Paul Prezioso said in an email response to Tribune questions about Dublino's licenses. "Mr. Dublino's known record does not disqualify him from licensure."
'Mob associates'
The Gaming Board also knew about the 2001 arrest of Philip A. Webb Jr. after a McHenry County Sheriff's Department undercover investigation into illegal video gambling.
Both Webb and his father, Philip R. Webb Sr., owned ASAP Vending & Games Inc., which supplied video gambling machines to local bars and split the proceeds with them, according to police reports.
At the time, the elder Webb told investigators "he used to have to pay 10 percent of all gambling proceeds to his mob associates but that for the past several years he has been able to pocket all the proceeds because most of his mob associates have either been killed or been sent to prison."
Both Webbs were subsequently charged with felony syndicated gambling and felony obstruction of justice, but Philip A. Webb Jr. did not have to stand trial because his father agreed to plead guilty if prosecutors dropped the charges against his son, Webb Sr.'s defense attorney Tom Loizzo said.
According to state business filings, Webb Jr. continued to operate the company. In 2012, the Gaming Board issued him a handler's license and granted his company, now called R.A.W. Vending & Games Inc., an operator's license.
Webb, who did not respond to a request for comment, now serves as president of the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, a trade organization that represents companies that make, sell and operate amusement devices, vending machines and video gambling terminals.
The organization lobbied for legalizing video gambling in Illinois and has poured money in the campaign coffers of legislators who championed the Video Gaming Act.
Prezioso noted Webb was never convicted and that the board has "no evidence that would disqualify him from licensure."
Former Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe said that while he doesn't recall what investigators presented to the board regarding Dublino and Webb Jr., he would not have approved licenses for either man based on the Tribune's findings.
"Is it possible to drop the ball? Absolutely," said Jaffe, who left the board in November. "I don't know who did the examination; I don't know if they looked at the court records or what they told the board on this particular case. But most of the staff is made up of state troopers, and they do know how to do an investigation."
Licensed felon
While the Gaming Board knew of Dublino and Webb's backgrounds, it said it knew nothing of John J. Conforti's criminal past.
In 1997, a grand jury in Horry County, S.C., charged Conforti with felony breach of trust with fraudulent intent for stealing $146,000 from a Days Inn Hotel he managed, according to court records. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 5 years probation and a $75,000 fine.
A few years later, he moved to Rockford, where he opened Mr. C's Family Restaurant. When Conforti applied in 2013 for a license to have five machines in his business, he answered "none" to the question about whether he has ever been convicted of a crime.
He said to the Tribune that his attorney in South Carolina told him the conviction had been expunged and that if he was ever asked if he had a conviction, he should say no. Horry County officials said a conviction for that crime cannot be expunged.
But Conforti didn't have to talk about that case when Gaming Board investigators interviewed him as part of his background check. He said they asked him questions about his restaurant and brought up a minor arrest for marijuana possession in 1975 when he was a teenager, but they never mentioned his South Carolina case.
Gaming Board records show Conforti's machines have grossed a little more than $200,000 since he obtained his license in December 2013.
Prezioso said the board missed the conviction because South Carolina authorities did not report the case to national law enforcement databases. The Tribune found evidence of it using a popular public records aggregator and quickly confirmed it in readily available public records.
Jaffe had no recollection of Conforti's case but said board staff conducts thousands of investigations and "some states are more helpful than other states." He said the board has been short about 100 staff needed to handle the influx of work that came with legalized video gambling.
"I do think it's important that we were never fully funded to have all the people that we were supposed to have," he said. "And I imagine that with cutbacks now, it's going to be even worse."
During my tenure as the Chief Investigator I wrote a column for our quarterly news letter. Here is a look at the past.
THE CHIEF SAYS.....
by Chief
Investigator, Wayne A. Johnson
ORGANIZED CRIME IN
CHICAGO
Crain’s Chicago Business has stepped up to the
plate, and in my opinion hit a triple. Their summer report regarding recent
misappropriations of the North Loop tax-increment financing district known as
(TIF) funds sends a strong message to those handing out no-bid contracts for
the City of Chicago. The message is: “ we are watching”. It seems this story
has raised some concerns in City Hall, and just maybe certain companies,
especially those with Organized Crime ties, will not be awarded such valuable
contracts or do business with the City at all. There are just too many quality
companies out there, to being doing business with the Chicago Outfit.
UNION NEWS
Since July of 1997, the City of Chicago has hosted
hearings by the Office of the GEB Attorney, of the Laborers’ International
Union of North America. The hearings are being conducted by Peter F. Vaira, an
Independent Hearing Officer and have been held at the Chicago Federal Building
and The Midland Hotel in downtown Chicago. These hearings are in response to a
Complaint for Trusteeship filed by the GEB Attorney who is charged with the
oversight of the Union. In laymen’s terms this is an action put forth that can
take control of the union away from those now in power. The reason for this
action is that investigators foundindividuals who are serving, or have served as officers, trustees, and
employees are members,associates, or
relatives of“Chicago Outfit” members.
Twenty-Three individuals were characterized in this manner and listed in the
Complaint. This is very unsettling for the vast majority of the union
membership, who are honest, hard working, dues paying members. The Chicago
Crime Commission took great pride in working with attorneys and investigators
to carry out these hearings. A finding should be released by the end of 1997
and we wait with great anticipation and hope that such unscrupulous individuals
are removed from the union.
VIDEO POKER MACHINES
The Gambling Committee of the Chicago Crime
Commission has identified Video Poker as a primary source of concern in our
efforts to fight legalized Gambling in every front. In a fact finding process
the Committee members were presented with an initial report. This report
synopsizes some very startling facts regarding gambling and the beginning
stages of the epidemic. Environmentally it is a shared belief that kids are
encouraged to gamble because it is considered cool by their peers. Along with
that belief we also see that video arcades prepare these young gamblers for an
easy transition to activities such as Video Poker. A recent high school survey
showed that 2/3 of the kids in a northwest suburban high school gamble in some
manner. This information has led to belief by the Chicago Crime Commission that
states: “Gambling is not dangerous because it is illegal, it is illegal because
it is dangerous”.
Mob has a direct connection to Goodfellas in Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in the acclaimed 1990 Martin Scorsese film.
Liotta says he was intrigued by the real mob stories. "I'm reading (the narration) and every now and then I said, 'Oh, my gosh. They did this? They did that?' I was surprised by some of the stuff they came up with."
David describes the series, which covers more than 50 years of history through 1963, as "a docu-drama, a mix of dramatic scenes, archives, visual effects, talking heads and voiceover." By focusing on the real-life mobsters, depicted by actors, the hope is that viewers will become invested in their stories and the accompanying high stakes.
Interview subjects include former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman; Lansky's grandson, Meyer Lansky II; former mob associate Sal Pelosi; singer Frankie Valli; and actors Chazz Palminteri, Joe Mantegna and Frank Vincent. Sopranos stars Vincent Pastore and Drea de Matteo also are featured.
Mobsters have long been featured in movies and television, and fans aren't the only ones who have picked up on gangster style. Organized crime figures took note of the clothing and attitudes sported by silver-screen icons such as James Cagney in 1931's The Public Enemy and Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in 1939's The Roaring Twenties.
That connection remains to this day, David says, referring to a Mob story about crime kingpin Costello, who went to a psychiatrist decades before Tony Soprano did.
"I was like, 'Are you kidding me? That's true?' I've watched every Sopranos episode more than one time and I've seen Analyze This," David says.
Liotta has only played a couple of mob roles, but he understands the strong association with a film such as Goodfellas, celebrating its 25th anniversary.
He enjoys having "a movie that has this much staying power. If anything, it builds and grows. The only other movie I have like that is Field of Dreams. That still resonates with people." (In the small-world category, Liotta's Dreams character, Chicago White Sox star "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, is peripherally involved when Mob talks about organized crime's involvement in baseball's 1919 "Black Sox" scandal.)
David has a theory as to why some people seem perpetually fascinated with cold-blooded criminals, whether factual or fictional. "I think it's a male fantasy to live that way. There's some sort of freedom," he says, while acknowledging a down side. "Of course, you're probably going to go to jail or get killed, eventually."
During my tenure as the Chief Investigator I wrote a column for our quarterly news letter. Here is a look at the past.
THE CHIEF SAYS.....
by Chief
Investigator, Wayne A. Johnson
ORGANIZED CRIME IN
CHICAGO
The recent release of many Chicago Upper Echelon
LCN (La Cosa Nostra) leaders had concerned law enforcement officials throughout
the Chicagoland area. Many of these individuals are on parole and being watched
closely. My experience in Organized Crime tells me that some may slip up and be
violated, while most will become a little more efficient in their day to day
operations and continue to build million dollar homes in areas such as;
Naperville, Inverness, and other areas in DuPage and Lake Counties where nary a
Lawman can afford to reside. Well not to fret, some assistance has come to Law
Enforcement in the form of “Mother Nature” herself. It seems that during the
last year many of these lifelong criminals have died soon after their release.
UNION NEWS
Well, as the young Turks (the next generation of
Organized Crime Leaders) continue toabuse and steal from labor unions in the area, Some very dedicated
Special Agents from the U. S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector
General,continue the task of weeding
these individuals out of the Unions under the watchful eye of the Federal
Judiciary. But, like most Law Enforcement Agencies they are overworked and
understaffed. Recently, the Chicago Police, Gambling Unit provided some
assistance in this effort with the arrest of a Laborer’s Local President in the
possession of over $300,00.00 in wagers and a dozen cell phones, apparently to
carry out this sizable Gambling operation. It is imperative that we follow suit
with a conviction to facilitate his ejection from office. We at the Chicago
Crime Commission will pay particular attention to this case in the local
courts.
VIDEO POKER MACHINES
The devices
continue to plague the city and suburbs by taking millions of dollars from the
pockets of hard working citizens who have become hooked on the devices and the
dreams of a winning hand. In the initial research the Chicago Crime Commission
has amassed, we see some familiar names in Organized Crime, involved in the
distribution of these machines. It is this involvement more than anything else,
that inspires us to continue this research and ultimately provide our Lawmakers
with recommendations to alleviate this menace to society. Recently, Federal
Prosecutors have won a conviction in New Orleans and filed Racketeering Charges
against two former State Senators and several others alleging involvement in a
bribery scheme involving Video Poker. In the near future this case will be
reviewed to assist in our effort in solving this growing problem.
UIC ORGANIZED CRIME CONFERENCE
In March of 1997, The University of Illinois at
Chicago, Office of International Criminal Justice, held a
three day conference on Organized Crime, focusing on Non-Traditional Organized
Crime Groups, just as we at the Chicago Crime Commission near completion of our
new and timely publication “The New faces of Organized Crime”. At this time we
would like to commend the efforts of Crime Commission Member Dr. Richard Ward,
Sean Malinowski, and Gene Scaramella for their efforts. In my opinion it was the
most comprehensive consortium dealing with these issues the Midwest has ever
seen.
Fox & Davis Entertainment Developing Biopic About Mobster Johnny Roselli
Handsome Johnny Roselli was part of the Chicago Outfit that Al Capone built in the 1920s. He headed west and helped build Las Vegas and put the bite on Hollywood to pay for it. Hollywood is paying Roselli back with a movie.
The biopic is being put together by 20th Century Fox and Davis Entertainment. The movie will be produced by John Davis (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Ira Napoloello, with Michael Ireland calling in the shots for Fox.
Roselli was born Filippo Sacco in 1905. Roselli is a mythic figure in some circles. He is responsible for getting Marilyn Monroe signed at Columbia Pictures. In 1959, the CIA called on him to help them put a hit on Fidel Castro in Cuba. He spent months trying to poison Castro’s food. Some people say Roselli contracted the job on President Kennedy. In 1976, Roselli he was called in to testify about the JFK assassination committee in the house. He never made it. His body was found in a steel drum in the Dumfoundling Bay.
A longtime associate of reputed Outfit bosses Peter and John DiFronzo was convicted Monday of extortion for threatening a deadbeat suburban businessman and then hiring a team of goons to break the victim's legs months later when he still wouldn't pay up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
"How are your wife and kids doing? Are you still living in Park Ridge?" prosecutors said Michael "Mickey" Davis asked the victim during a January 2013 confrontation at a Melrose Park used car dealership, according to trial testimony. "Does your wife still own that salon in Schaumburg?"
After two weeks of testimony, a federal jury deliberated about nine hours before convicting Davis, 58, on two extortion-related counts. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.
As the verdict was read, Davis, dressed in a light gray suit with his hair slicked back, raised his eyebrows, turned to whisper something to one of his lawyers, sat back in his chair and shook his head.
Prosecutors sought to immediately jail Davis pending sentencing, but U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan allowed Davis to remain free for now so he can go to a doctor's appointment. Davis could be taken into custody when he is scheduled to return to court next week.
In the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Davis' attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, vowed to appeal, telling reporters he was "disappointed that the jury could conclude from nothing but circumstantial evidence that it was proof beyond a reasonable doubt."
Davis' trial featured some of the biggest names in the depleted ranks of the Chicago Outfit, including the DiFronzo brothers and Salvatore "Solly D" DeLaurentis, all reputed leaders of the notorious Elmwood Park crew. While none of the aging bosses was charged with any wrongdoing, their names and photos were shown to jurors as evidence of Davis' purported connections to the highest levels of the mob.
The alleged victim of the extortion plot, R.J. Serpico, testified that he was well aware of Davis' friendship with the DiFronzo brothers and that he often saw Davis and Peter DiFronzo cruising past his Ideal Motors dealership in DiFronzo's black Cadillac Escalade. Serpico, who is a nephew of longtime Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico, said he also had heard that Davis was partnered with DeLaurentis, a feared capo convicted in the 1990s of racketeering conspiracy in connection with a violent gambling crew run by Ernest Rocco Infelice.
Durkin said Davis has known the DiFronzo brothers since childhood and that for years he has maintained a business relationship with them through his landfill in Plainfield, where two DiFronzo-owned construction companies have paid millions to dump asphalt and other construction debris. Davis and Peter DiFronzo were also golfing and fishing buddies, Durkin said.
"As many witnesses testified, growing up in Melrose Park, or growing up in Elmwood Park as Mickey did, you come to know those people," Durkin said Monday. "I don't think at this point Peter DiFronzo is anything but a businessman. I think it's unfortunate that he gets tarred with the same brush, but the government seems hellbent on continuing to put the Outfit out of business, and I don't begrudge them that, but I do begrudge them the means that they go about doing it."
Prosecutors allege that within months of the ominous January 2013 confrontation at Ideal Motors, Davis, infuriated that Serpico had still failed to pay back a $300,000 loan, ordered his brutal beating, enlisting the help of a well-known Italian restaurant owner in Burr Ridge to find the right guys for the job. The restaurateur went to reputed mob associate Paulie Carparelli, who in turn hired a team of bone-cracking goons to carry out the beating for $10,000, according to prosecutors.
Unbeknownst to everyone involved, however, the beefy union bodyguard tasked with coordinating the assault, George Brown, had been nabbed months earlier in an unrelated extortion plot and was secretly cooperating with the FBI. In July 2013, agents swooped in to stop the beating before it was carried out, court records show.
