![]() Scheduled to testify against Lombardo and other Outfit members in a Teamsters pension loan fraud case, Seifert was slain by shotgun blasts by ski-masked men outside his Bensenville plastics factory as his wife and 4-year-old son watched.įederal prosecutors hope DNA from a hair strand lifted from one of the ski masks found under a getaway car in that case could link Lombardo to the crime scene. ![]() Working on the tips, federal investigators have fanned out across the Chicago area, swabbing more than 30 known Outfit associates for DNA samples to try to link them to some of the area’s most notorious gangland slayings. Nick Calabrese, a high-ranking crew member, spent years in a Michigan federal prison before turning informant and fingering past associates in several murders, according to sources. Prosecutors not only have new DNA technology drawing out evidence from old cases but also have cooperating witnesses, including at least one member of the notorious 26th Street Crew, sources said. The crime commission is a non-profit group of civic leaders that aim to improve public safety. The Chicago Crime Commission counts 1,111 Chicago-area gangland slayings since 1919, but only 14 have ended in murder convictions and three cases were cleared when the suspected killers were murdered before being arrested, according to the commission. Sources close to the investigation–dubbed Operation Family Secrets–and attorneys for some of the alleged mob members say they expect the grand jury to hand up indictments as early as next month.Ĭonvictions on this scale would be unprecedented. Lombardo, a longtime Chicago Outfit leader who publicly swore off his mob ties after being released from prison in 1992, is one of more than a dozen mob bosses and associates who are subjects of a new federal probe into long-dormant mob murders, some dating as far back as three decades.Ī federal grand jury is investigating at least 16 unsolved killings, making it one of the biggest law-enforcement strikes against organized crime in Chicago history. The agents dabbed the inside of Lombardo’s mouth with the swab–gathering DNA–and were gone in less than two minutes. One agent waved a grand jury warrant, another carried a cotton swab. ![]() Joseph “the Clown” Lombardo was at a workbench in his small Near West Side shop, where masonry saws and tools are sharpened, when 10 federal agents swarmed in. Tribune staff reporters Ray Gibson and Art Barnum contributed to this report By Rick Jervis and Liam Ford, Tribune staff reporters.
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