Chicago Movie Mob
Jack Rooney
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Biography ]
Movies. Mayhem, the Mob
...and All the Players in Between
A $5.5 million-dollar low interest loan from the munificent City of
Chicago honchos to a private consortium or enterprising and rising
entrepreneurs endeavoring to build a deluxe film center and sound stage was
nipped in the bud at the 11th hour. What happened? It seems a major player
in line for a piece of the action was revealed to be - of all things in the
Windy City - mob-connected.
The proposed Studio Works project, a 100,000-square-foot sound stage
planned for construction in the blighted Near West Side, is a limited
partnership that includes several "connected" people, and heavy hitters tied
to - of all people - William Hogan, Jr. Hogan and his family controlled
Teamster's Local 714 , that represents many Machinery, Scrap Iron, Metal and
Steel, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, Handlers, Helpers, Alloy Fabricators,
Theatrical, Exposition, Convention and Trade Show Employees as well as some
law enforcement officers.
Billy Hogan, Jr., who, until this past year when his term expired,
reigned as Chairman of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, a 1,500
member organization with the proper City Hall scrutiny, runs 714, the
Teamster Local with a big stake in the local economically powerful movie
industry. Hogan has made a lifelong career our of promoting himself as a
labor leader after inheriting this union local from his father and making
big money by his golden touch - for himself.
Mayor Daley appointed Hogan to the high profile post of convention
chairman as a political "thank you" to the conniving Teamster's Local
top-gun, whose Local 714, over the years has been tainted by a hoodlum
influence that the Mayor conveniently overlooks. In its sordid history,
Local 714 has been of assistance to syndicate figures by adding them to the
payroll at McCormick Place and as it turned out, some of these wise guys
were also dealing dope for added revenue. Important trade shows were
discouraged from returning to Chicago because of "high payroll" overhead and
the intrusion of Teamster Local 714's personnel in the phases of efficient
operation - and of course possibly fear to. Two Teamsters assigned to screw
in a light bulb or carry an exhibitor's briefcase from a curbside taxicab
into a massive showroom was the standing joke of the era - but unhappily,
one with some ring of truth to the comedy.
The attending scandal, the 74-count federal indictment and conviction
of a top Local 714 union steward named David P. Kaye on charges of labor
shakedowns, undermined the credibility of the "Hogan family Local" as labor
people call it.
Daye served a prison term in Florida for the attempted murder of an
African-American man who refused to carry our a direct order to kill a Miami
laundermat owner. At the time, before graduation to the hierarchy of the
Hogan Local 714, Kaye was an organizer for the International Laundry Workers
Union, an organization that according to sworn testimony hired young black
men to hurl rocks at laundry trucks. When Kaye's victim refused to carry out
the order he was shot five times and beaten to within an inch of his life.
Miraculously he survived and his testimony put Kaye behind bars.
In 1976, Kaye was convicted on Taft-Hartley violations, and was
sentenced to two years in prison by Judge Alfred Y. Kirkland who noted in
this closing comments: "This was a case of unconscionable greed. He enriched
himself unjustly for work he never performed. His argument of innocence
which he maintains to this point insults the fair mind." Kaye was accused of
raking in $191,000 as a paid "consultant" to the exhibition contractors at
McCormick Place, even though he performed no actual work. The payoffs were
made to preserve labor peace in the convention hall.
Now, juxtapose the comments of Judge Kirkland to what William Hogan,
Sr. said. In his own words, Hogan, Sr. described Kaye as "one hell of a
guy."
Lately Billy Hogan has been, according to those in the know, "bending
over backwards" to maintain a good image within the film industry in
Illinois. Suzy Kellet, who was the former Director of the Illinois Film
Office (an appointee of Governor Jim Edgar), praised Hogan's efforts on
behalf of movie makers coming into Chicago. This branch of the Governor's
office functions as a liaison to the Hollywood studios and assists the
filmmakers in the initial process of selecting neighborhood locales for the
upcoming shoot.
"Very accommodating," is how Ms. Kellet describe the Local 714 boss
and his past relations with her office. But then one would wonder why Billy
wouldn't be anything else but friendly and loquacious while working with
this branch of state government.
It is interesting to note, and a strange aside to this story that Ms.
Kellet and Charles Geocaris, an appointee of James Sheahan, the director of
the Mayor's office, and the city's liaison to Hollywood responsible for
coordinating the actual logistics of the movie shoot with the Police
Department and other city agencies at One North LaSalle Street, both should
leave their posts at exactly the same time in October 1995.
It is rather curious that less than three months after the movie
brouhaha first hit the front pages, that both Geocaris and Kellet should
suddenly step down from their positions. Kellet resigned in order to accept
a similar position for the State of Washington in Seattle. Geocaris
explained that he wanted to get into the "creative" side of the business.
Still, the timing of it seems so unusual.
It is reliably reported that Billy Hogan siphons off a percentage of
jobs to non-union personal ( a no- no for a union guy), in order to keep
manpower costs down and avoid the possible stigma of another 714 scandal of
the McCormick Place type from exposing him to further unwanted publicity.
He cannot afford adverse press coverage at a time when his Local and
other ties are under intense scrutiny from the United States Government and
reform-minded people in the Teamster union hierarchy itself. Ron Carey, the
reform-oriented President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has
undertaken an aggressive campaign to rid the Teamsters union of corruption
since his election by the members in 1991. It can be assumed that Carey will
investigate any possible Teamster-linked corruption raised by he Studio
Works deal. Carey has an established record of rooting out mob-influenced
corruption in other Chicago Teamster locals in the Chicago Metropolitan AEA
such as Local 705 and 743 where aggressive action put mob-linked figures on
the run.
These issues were raised by the Chicago press in their coverage for
this potentially explosive story of mob infiltration of the local movie
industry. Potential is applicable word because all of the facts have not yet
surfaced.
In 1993, Billy Hogan took the helm as president of Teamster's Joint
Council no. 25, representing 120,000 members and affecting (conservatively)
billions of dollars of their moneys in one form or another.
Since that time the fast-moving Billy has fiercely resisted efforts on
the part of International Teamster's President Ron Carey to clean up the
entire union's corruptive mob ties nationwide and purge various locals
across the country of long-standing, questionable connections. Carey ousted
Hogan from the directorship of the Convention and Trade Show Division of the
Teamsters and he didn't do so without having a good reason. Hogan has
declared his opposition to Carey's reform campaign by joining the ambitious
James P. Hoffa, "Junior" who is leading the campaign to turn back the clock
and stop reform within the union.
Hoffa the Younger, who worked for years as a well-paid attorney, was
chosen to run for president by a small group of anti-reform union officials
including William Hogan. Jimmy Junior and Hogan are raising money and
running to oust Carey in order to assume the positions of General President
and Secretary-Treasurer, the number two position in the union. They want to
go back to the glory days of mob influence, corruption, and the pillaging of
pension funds - a time when rank-and-file members lived in fear of speaking
up at unions meetings.
In a letter sent by Billy Hogan to U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas,
one of the nation's most virulent union-busting politicians, he strongly
urged Gramm to eliminate the federal oversight investigation into Teamster
shenanigans, and indicated his eagerness to travel forthwith to Washington,
D.C. to discuss the matter further.
"I strongly believe this is an issue worth looking into," Hogan writes
in his December 1994 correspondence to Gramm. "Your initial comments
pertaining to this matter are encouraging to me and other concerned officers
and members of subordinate bodies whose only interest is to return our
Teamsters union back to its members." Gramm, a Texan, is not exactly the
working guy's compadre.
In recent months "Hoffa the Younger" has received valuable advertising
by puffing O'Brien's Restaurant on Wells Street in Chicago via lavish
fullpage pictorial ads appearing in the Sun Times. O'Briens is where many of
Chicago's in crowd like to be noticed, gather. Billy Hogan paved the way.
The full page picture is an insidious, but highly effective way of
keeping the Hoffa name prominent before the Chicago metropolitan area
rank-and-file membership, portraying this attorney as a man of the people
during the crucial juncture when the Teamster's union stands at an important
crossroads in its brutal history. The outcome of the election for
International President could bode good or evil for millions of working men
and women.
Associates of "Junior" Hoffa's allies including some former disciples
of Lyndon LaRouche, the right-wing political hate monger, convicted and
imprisoned for fraud back in the 1980s, are responsible for an ugly smear
campaign launched against Ron Carey by some journalist within the national
media. The three member Independent Review Board, an entity of the federal
courts, found the accusations of Carey's alleged mob ties to be "empty and
baseless." The charges were raised for self-serving purposed by the Hoffa
clique, which Billy Hogan is an integral part of.
Over the years, the Hogan family-led Teamster Local has been the
target of various probes searching for the organized crime links of those in
control. And despite feverish denials by Screen Magazine, and other film
industry insiders anxious to downplay the negative fallout of government and
news media sources alleging that there has been a continuous pattern of
racketeering activity in Chicago's movie industry the allegations refuse to
disappear. The story of the mob and Illinois movie making had its origins in
California, where it was first reported that independent service suppliers
were being strong-armed by outfit muscle in the Chicago area. Historically
the wise guys have always found the movie industry ripe for an extorted buck
or two - especially by the Chicago mob.
Presently, two major studios have quite plainly been saying that they
would not come back to the Windy City because of wide-spread theft of
equipment from the lots, implying that some of the local personnel might
have had a hand in the crimes. The disappearance of electric cable,
communications equipment, radios, and assorted movie paraphernalia is a
chronic, discouraging, and costly nuisance. It all sounds so familiar.
To repair the negative damage already done to his hand in the fiasco
and to curtail future adversity, Hogan and a delegation of leaders from
several other union involved in the local Chicago movie business flew to
California. It seems they wanted to provide personal assurances to the
powers that be at the Warner Brothers and Walt Disney studios that any
culpable parties would be expelled from the unions, and prosecuted if
necessary. Such remains to be seen. But of course would anyone expect them
to say anything else? Only if they're naive. Just review the history of the
movie industry and its relationship with the "wise guys" here in the Windy
City.
"We know of many bad business practices which exist in every other
industry as well - but none that even remotely resembles a mob connection,"
retorts Ruth L, Ratny of Screen Magazine, an industry trade publication
catering to those involved in the local movie business.
Is her head in the clouds or is Ms. Ratny simply overlooking the
obvious in order to assuage a skittish industry that could pull the plug on
Chicago at any time, and move their production companies to Pittsburgh,
Denver, Toronto, or a half-dozen other cities lining up the business?
When a movie studio sets up in town, Hogan designates three of this
most trusted and key guys - "transportation coordinators" they're called -
to meet with the film company to establish the logistics of the shoot,
provide equipment to the production company, and decide which Teamster
working people will be hired for the prized jobs.
Inevitably one of the Hogan's point guys the movie people will come
face to face with is Richard "Dickie" DeAngelo, a Local 714 "transportation
captain" since 1983 and an ex-Chicago cop who was discharged from the
department on March 16, 1965 after he was convicted of official misconduct
by Criminal Court Judge Thomas H. Fitzgerald for accepting a $20 to clear a
traffic ticket bribe form a West Side man.
In his testimony before the court-appointed independent review board
established to oversee anti- corruption efforts in the Teamster's union in
July of last year, DeAngelo put an entirely different spin on the events
leading to his leaving the CPD.
Q - How long did you serve on the Chicago force?
A - Five years.
Q - Were you honorably separated from the department?
A - I packed it in because I was making more money at the bars.
Q - All right. Was it an honorable discharge is probably the question
I wanted to ask you. Was it honorable?
A - It wasn't honorable, it was just, you don't get discharged. You
just quit. You're discharged when ---
Q - What I mean is the equivalent ---
A - Yes.
Q - ...you left?
A - Yes.
Q - When you ---
A - Under good circumstances.
DeAngelo and another police officer were observed by officers from the
Internal Investigations Division (IID) accepting two $10 bills dusted with a
fluorescent powder from one Rudy J. Havel who picked the two patrolmen out
of a lineup the following day.
Just about a year later Dickie DeAngelo was involved in a fatal
shooting outside the Bisto-A-Go-Go Club at 7055 Higgins Ave. It made his
reputation as a tough guy and someone to be feared and heard form in the
future. The circumstances surrounding the killing are still nebulous to this
day but it's easy to read between the lines.
Piecing together the events of this night, the facts show the pizzeria
cook Larry Stubitsch was pronounced dead at Resurrection Hospital four hors
after the two gunshot blast tore into his mid- section. DeAngelo, who was
amending to the affairs of the nightclub at the time, told Area 5 homicide
detectives that he was confronted by four armed robbers as he was sweeping
out the place. The whole melee spilled out onto the sidewalk before the
fatal shots were fire, cutting down Stubitsch. The police never did locate
the murder weapon. An unusual occurrence. No money had been taken from the
registers and the investigators were hard pressed to reconstruct the
sequence of events. Dickie's version of the story appears contrived.
DeAngelo was charged with keeping a disorderly house and employing
minors as a last recourse, but the case was thrown out by Magistrate Earl
Neal at the East Chicago Avenue Police Court when it came up for a hearing a
week later.
Just who is this Dickie DeAngelo, deposed during a high-level Teamster
probe? He drifted into Teamster circles in 1978, and rose to a key position
the movie business part of the action several years later. He was arrested
in 1984 by detectives from the 25th District in Chicago, but the IR record
was expunged. Of greater concern to the Teamster Independent Review Board
investigating mob ties for the U.S. District Court, were his alleged ties to
local mob figures. DeAngelo said that Marco D'Amico and Salvatore
DeLaurentis used to stop by one of the taverns he owned from time to time,
but he only knew Rocco Infelise, Jackie Cerone, and the other big time
players from what he had read in the newspapers. Philip "Philly Beans"
Tolomeo, whose career as a juice loan extortionist (now in the witness
protection program), was a nightly habitue of the Bistro-A-Go-Go, and some
sources believe that he might have had a piece of the joint at one time.
John J. Flood, the President of the Combined Counties Police
Association was one of several Chicago Crime Commission members who were to
question Billy Hogan about the serious allegations of shakedowns and
widespread theft in the movie industry. Hogan agreed to appear before
Commission members for whatever his own self-serving reasons were, and to
possibly apply damage control in the wake of these potentially explosive
revelations of improprieties in Chicago's movie business.
Also present for this meeting was Lee Flosi, a highly credentialed
former FBI agent who headed field operations in Southern Europe, the Middle
Ease, and Africa at one point during his illustrious career, then later as
the Supervisor of the Chicago Organized Crime Task Force and Coordinator of
the Chicago Division's Organized Crime Program. Mr. Flosi's presence did not
seem to bother Hogan. However, John Flood is familiar with Billy's
background and that did. The Local 714 boss turned tail and ran after being
apprised that Flood was to be one of his interrogators. Hogan refused to
make a presentation and be queried - instead, exiting the Crime Commission
in a huff.
William Galioto and his son Salvatore owned Movies in Motion, Inc., a
local Chicago-area production company that rented vehicles and provided
transportation for Hollywood film companies shooting on local highways and
byways in the Windy City.
Jimmy Hogan was a principal investor with Movies in Motion. No direct
competition always keeps things rolling along at a fast clip. A monopoly -
possibly.
Their company receive city permits dating back to 1976, Movies in
Motion enjoyed a virtual lock on this business until it was dissolved on
September 1, 1995.
William Galioto is another ex-Chicago cop with mob ties. He is the
brother-in-law of James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello, a former chauffeur for Sam
"Wings" Carlisi. Up until the moment he went off to prison, Marcell was one
of the up and coming outfit bosses on the West and Southwest Sides until the
Feds turned up the heat. James Marcello is currently serving a 12-year
sentence for racketeering and tax fraud but he'll be back as a big player.
William Galioto was indicted in DuPage county back in 1993 for running
a gambling operation. The indictment was dismissed a year later, but on the
application for the low-interest city loan to finance Studio Works, Galioto
answered "no" to the question of whether or not he had been indicted or
convicted of a felony in the last 10 years. He has also been accused by
federal prosecutors of failing file federal income tax returns dating back
to 1986.
Over the years, Salvatore "Sam" Galioto has been spotted in the
company of prominent organized crime figures including Michael Marcello and
Edward Tinari from Deerfield Beach, Florida. Recently, Salvatore Galioto and
several other parties were named as defendants in two civil lawsuits: one
for nonpayment of legal fees to Attorney Rodney C. Slutsky, and another for
defaulting on a loan granted by the First Colonial Bank of Rosemont.
Another name that bubbles to the surface in the movie business is that
of John Credidio, owner of Chicago Studio Rentals. Back in 1984, Credidio
attempted to expand the business at a site presently occupied by Oprah
Winfrey's Harpo Studio with the financial backing of city hall aficionado
Morgan F. Murphy, a former Democratic Congressman from the Second District
and a partner in the Loop law firm of Murphy & Boyle.
During the planning stages Rocco Infelise and his (then) boss and
mentor, the late Joseph Ferriola, an admitted "close friend" of John
Credidio, were observed coming and going form the building, which sparked a
public inquiry that eventually forced Credidio to withdraw his name from a
deal earmarking a $3.5 million Federal Economic Development Grant to fund
the expansion. The grant money sailed through the approval process once
Credidio was severed from the project although he would have all believe
that he was just another legitimate businessman.
Credidio's IR record lists an arrest for theft from interstate
shipment in June 1972 and another one in August 1973. He was sentenced to 18
months at Sandstone, Minnesota, a federal detention center for possession of
an interstate shipment. In 1983 former Lieutenant Governor Neil Hartigan
presented a chart of organized crime figures to a Senate panel investigating
organized crime. John Credidio's name was included on that listing, but in
the intervening years he has managed to stay out of trouble and is
considered to be a mover and a shaker in Chicago's movie industry action.
Credidio has polished his image and is seeking the respect of those within
the profession according to industry insiders.
As the former State's Attorney of Cook County, you would think that
Richie Daley would have an idea as to who is who, or if he doesn't, he might
have tried asking those under this thumb and in the know within the Chicago
Police Department.
Supposedly in the dark, and unaware of these deep and pervasive mob
ties, Mayor Daley brought the United Studio proposal before the City Council
on May 17th after the LaSalle National Bank and the Prime Group - developers
of the downtown RR Donnelley building - signed off on the deal which would
have provided a 3.4% interest loan to the United Studio Center. Not a bad
interest rate for an aspiring business trying to stand on its two feet. The
City Council Finance Committee approved the loan on June 8th. Then the
bubble burst. Movies in Motion and Studio Works became big news.
A reporter from WBBM News Radio assigned to cover the historic
ground-breaking ceremonies observed some of the instantly recognizable
"dignitaries" of wise guy origin and became suspicious. Alerted to the
presence of outfit characters, 14th Ward Alderman Edward Burke took note and
refused to move it from the Finance Committee to the full City Council for a
vote. Burke then relayed his concerns to Mayor Richard Daley and undoubtedly
the political consequences as well. The astute Burke is much sharper than
Daley on such matters. When the LaSalle Bank and the Prime Group pulled out,
the project was dead in the water leaving the faltering Daley administration
to assess the damages and lick its wounds - wounds that were now being
milked by the major news media. "The bottom line is that we both apparently
got taken for a ride," Gary Skoein, vice-president of the Prime Group told
the Chicago Tribune.
Where were the background checks? Police Superintendent Matt
Rodriquez, who was a Sergeant in the Organized Crime Intelligence Division
earlier in his career has not been heard from on this matter. Was he even
called? In their haste to break ground for a new public works project they
believed would benefit the West Side, Daley and his minions by design or
oversight - were very careless to say the least. Or have they reached the
point of arrogance where they believe they can do what they want whenever
they damn well please?
The Mayor's public naivete, and apparent unconcern regarding organized
crime's deep and historic penetration of the local film industry is
troubling, and raises larger questions. "I'm not the FBI," Daley snorted to
the press. "We have a restriction on spying you know. I'm not passing the
ball. We will look at it and correct it." However, as Cook County State's
Attorney for nearly eight years, Daley had freer access to criminal
intelligence files than the average FBI field agent. Richie Daley, more than
most office holders in the political limelight, was in a position to find
who was who in organized crime.
He should have known better, but then maybe he didn't want to know.
How else can one account for Daley's ties to John Serpico, recently ousted
from his post as the head of the grievance committee f the Laborer's
International Union of North America, and the Mayor's appointee to lead the
Illinois Regional Port Authority? Despite a firm admonishment from the
Chicago Crime Commission that Serpico was close friends with the late mob
boss Vince Solano and other hoodlums, Daley disregarded the storm warnings
and appointed Serpico to the post anyway.
The Mayor warmly embraces Eddie Hanley, President of the Hotel
Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU) whose mob
ties in Atlantic City and Chicago are well- documented. Hanley's Local was
chartered in Cicero by Joey Aiuppa. A federal consent decree bars Hanley
from operating in Atlantic City after his ties to the Nicky Scarfo crime
family of Philadelphia were revealed. More recently, the union was forced to
come to terms with its mob-tainted past by agreeing to a Justice Department
consent decree placing HEREIU under the close watch and supervision of a
three-member board for an 18-month period. Hanley's union was named as one
of the four most corrupt labor unions in the U.S. by a presidential
commission. The Teamsters, the Laborer's International (represented locally
by Serpico), and the Longshoreman's Association were the other three cited
by the Commission.
The fact that Daley continued to do business with Serpico and Hanley -
who routinely deal with known organized crime figures on much higher levels
than the Galiotos is mystifying.
Certainly Daley must have been aware of the mob's historic and brazen
attempt to shake down the Hollywood motion picture industry. In the 1940s
Frank "the Enforcer" Nitti assigned a former pimp named Willie Bioff to
enforce the edicts of mob-backed George Browne, who became president of the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Motion Picture
Operators.
Bioff muscled his way into Hollywood where he extorted millions for
the Chicago Syndicate after threatening the movie moguls that he would close
down every theater from New York to California through assorted acts of
violence and intimidation. Bioff and Browne were eventually convicted of
extortion and racketeering. After ratting on his former pals in return for a
reduced 10-year sentence, Willie bought a home in Phoenix, Arizona following
his release from prison. The mob retaliated. He was killed by a bomb that
had been connected to the starter of his pick-up truck on November 4, 1955.
In more recent times, the outfit and its associates who run legitimate
businesses continue to profit from their associations with Hollywood
production companies who have come to the Windy City in order to avoid the
costly overhead of shooting movies on location in New York City and Los
Angeles, where the theft problem is said to be acute.
When the present spotlight of controversy dies down, and the offending
parties are sifted from the ownership and management of Studio Works, the
building of the sound stage will probably go through. It's possible that the
city might even be sued for breach of contract by the injured parties. After
considerable legal wrangling the matter will probably be settled out of
court by the high- powered, finagling attorneys. The West Side will be home
to a movie studio. Chicago will recover its share of the film business and
everyone will be happy. Where will that leave the outfit? Lurking in the
background as usual...because that is the natural order of things with so
much money involved.
Still there is much good that can come out of all this. In the final
analysis the film studio flap provides the International Teamster President
Ron Carey's reform group camp with new and possibly far more explosive
ammunition in its bitter struggle with guys like Hogan for Teamster
supremacy and direction. Assuredly he Carey team will initiate a broad-based
investigation that will want to call the Hogans and other Local 714
officials to the carpet; one that may spell the final downfall of the
"family" in union circles.
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