Auto magnate's brother charged in 1985 slaying
Anne Warfield
Made-for-movies indictment
Auto magnate's brother charged in 1985 slaying
By Kirsten Scharnberg
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 11, 2002
In a case described as having all the intrigue of a Hollywood
whodunit, a man with family ties to the south suburban Mancari auto
dealerships, has been charged with a 17-year-old murder allegedly
carried out to silence a childhood pal on the verge of squealing to
federal authorities about a stolen car ring.
Bruno Mancari--the younger brother of Frank Mancari, who owns the
three automobile dealerships estimated to be worth nearly $20
million--was charged with the March 1985 slaying of Joseph Russo, a
small-time thief and drug dealer who had been friends with Bruno
Mancari since they were boys growing up in Chicago's Bridgeport
neighborhood.
Mancari, 51, who appeared Thursday in Cook County Criminal Court
unshaven and wearing a black leather jacket, listened without reaction
as prosecutors read a detailed description of the crime.
Standing before Judge Neil Linehan, who ordered Mancari held without
bond, prosecutors alleged that in the early 1980s Mancari and Russo
ran a successful "chop shop" that trafficked in stolen cars and cars
rebuilt from stolen parts.
All had been going well with the men's partnership, Assistant State's
Atty. Mike McHale told the judge, until early 1985 when federal
authorities began closing in on them. After Russo received a subpoena
to appear before a federal grand jury, Mancari began to fear that his
friend would not keep quiet, the prosecutor said.
"During this time, the defendant made it known to several associates
that he was concerned that the victim was going to implicate him in
the stolen car scheme because of the pressure being placed on the
victim by various law-enforcement authorities," McHale said. "As a
result, the defendant asked several witnesses to kill the victim."
Attributing the state's information to two witnesses described in
court documents as Witness A and Witness B, McHale said Mancari
scrambled to locate "an enforcer" who would kill Russo to keep him
from "beefing" to authorities.
The prosecutor said that after Witness A refused to commit the murder,
Mancari went to a south suburban White Castle to meet with Witness B
to see if he would take the job. According to McHale, Witness B, a man
authorities say had long threatened and roughed up people at Mancari's
request, agreed to kill Russo.
A plot was hatched to lure Russo to the home of Witness B's mother in
suburban Burbank, the prosecutor said. According to statements Witness
B has since made to police and prosecutors, Russo arrived at the home
about the same time as Mancari and a second man. Authorities said
Thursday the second man remains at large and has not been identified.
Victim found stabbed, beaten
Prosecutors allege that Mancari told Witness B to leave the house so
he would have an alibi because the killing would take place in his
mother's house.
McHale said Witness B returned two hours later to find Russo lying
dead in a pool of blood. The 35-year-old man had been stabbed with two
kitchen knives and bludgeoned with a hammer.
Mancari, who was 34 at the time, and the unidentified man left the
house, leaving Witness B with instructions to clean up the mess and
dispose of the body in the nearby suburb of Summit, the prosecutor
said.
McHale said Witness B mopped up the blood and washed off his mother's
knives, returning them to the kitchen. He left Russo's body in the
trunk of a car in Summit, keeping for himself six ounces of cocaine he
found stuffed in one of Russo's socks.
Although Russo's body was found about three weeks after the murder,
investigators did not have a significant lead until Witness B came
forward in 1996, Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine said at a
news conference Thursday.
Still, Devine said, solving the case took years because Witness A was
difficult to find and Mancari, now the manager of the used-car
division of Mancari's of Orland in Orland Hills, obviously wasn't
talking.
But in November, while Witness B was in an out-of-state prison on
unrelated offenses, he asked Mancari to pay him a visit, McHale said
in court Thursday. Authorities received permission from a judge to
record the conversation between the men.
Taped conversation
Mancari and Witness B talked extensively on tape about Russo's murder,
with Mancari broaching the topic first, the prosecutor said Thursday.
Mancari acknowledged the murder and the plotting that led up to it,
according to McHale, and the men further talked about the fact that
Mancari had been paying Witness B tens of thousands of dollars to keep
him quiet all these years.
In this prison meeting, the prosecutor said, Mancari made one last
effort to silence Witness B, telling him he would pay him another
$10,000 to keep quiet. The first installment of that payoff arrived to
Witness B on Dec. 6 in the form of a $5,000 cashier's check, McHale
said.
In asking that Mancari be held without bond, prosecutors argued that
he was a flight risk because he isn't a U.S. citizen and has a current
Italian passport. McHale further described Mancari--who has been
convicted in state and federal courts for auto theft, possession of an
altered vehicle title, mail fraud and drug conspiracy--as dangerous.
"The defendant's desire to prevent testimony against him was the very
reason Joseph Russo was murdered," McHale said.
Bond hearing
Frank Mancari attended his brother's bond hearing Thursday and later
said "this is obviously very unpleasant for our family."
Outside the courtroom, Devine marveled at the details of the crime.
"This case reads like a Hollywood plot," he said. "But this plot was
hatched in Cook County and carried out at a house in Burbank, Ill.,
not on a back lot in Burbank, Calif."
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0201110311jan11.story?coll=chi%2Dnewslocal%2Dhed
--
Anne Warfield
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