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THE STAR: SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 1990Ex-cop recalls mob watchingRoemer tells of organized crime’s roots in South SuburbsBy Pete ReynoldsCorruption has greased the wheel of organized crime everywhere.Since the Mafia's early beginnings in the green hills of Sicily to the dank, dark alleys of New York City and Chicago, organized criminals have always counted on help from crooked cops, politicians and judges.Never before was it so evident as on a fine summer morning in late July 1959, when three young FBI agents, assigned to the bureau’s fledgling “top hoodlum program” in Chicago, learned of the connections the South Side mob had made.It was July 29 to be exact, remembers former FBI special agent William Roemer, a longtime South Holland resident. Roemer was the man who “watched the mobMor some 21 of his 30 years of decorated service with the nation’s police force.On that morning, FBI agents got their first look at how deep the cancerous roots of corruption extended under the skin of the South Suburbs.Through the use of an illegal bugging device planted by Roemer in a custom tailor shop at 620 N. Michigan Ave., the daily meeting place for the Chicago outfit’s major leaders, the agents heard the late Chicago Heights mob chief Frankie LaPorte rattle off more than 30 names of south suburban cops and officials who were on his payroll.“At first we couldn’t believe it,” Roemer said. “One of them was even an FBI National Academy graduate.”The names included chiefs of police, mayors, city officials, beat cops and even Illinois State Police officers and Cook County sheriff’s deputies.LaPorte, a Flossmoor resident, boasted they were all on his “pad,” receiving envelopes stuffed with cash each month in return for ignoring LaPorte’s gambling and juice loan operators, who were headquartered in Chicago Heights.Among the towns where officials or police were in league with the mob were Chicago Heights, South Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Dolton, Phoenix, Markham and Midlothian, Roemer said recently in an exclusive interview with The Star.“We couldn’t prosecute them because at that time we weren’t supposed to be able to listen in,” Roemer said. Not until the late 1960s were government agents able to get the courts to OK eavesdropping devices.“All we could do was listen, take notes, make transcripts and storeaway the knowledge for future reference.”And listen they did — for years, Roemer said, noting that bug and other strategically placed listening devices produced thousands of pages of transcripts.“That was one of our best bugs,” he said laughing. They dubbed it “Lil’ Al,” a tribute of sorts to Chicago’s most infamous gangster, Alphonse Capone.Events of that summer set in motion the FBI investigation of organized criminals and those officials who helped them that continues to this day. It was the beginning of a 21-year “association” between Roemer and the mob — an association he revealed recently in his first book “Roemer: Man Against the Mob.”In the book, Roemer details his association with Chicago’s top hoodlums. It contains true stories with Hollywood appeal: midnight walks with boss of bosses, Anthony “Big Tuna” Acardo, in which Roemer said he was able to convince “Joe Batters, as Acardo was known to some, to call off a hit of an informant “who went sour.” Another tale: breakfasts with another Chicago enforcer, whom Roemer later learned had defiled “my coffee before he served it.”The book touches on the south suburban syndicate at a time when LaPorte’s illegal business reins were turned over to Alfred Pilotto and in turn to Albert Tocco — a vengeful mobster who ruled the chop shop, gambling, prostitution and protection rackets with fear and intimidation.But the revelations of LaPorte’s meeting that morning on the Magnificent Mile with Chicago “connection guys” — the smooth talkers and sharp dressers who made the connections and corrupted the officials — gets only a brief mention in the book, Roemer said.Among those meeting that morning with LaPorte in the little tailor shop were Gus Alex, Murray “theCamel” Humphries (Public Enemy No. 1 in 1932 — a holdover from the days of Capone and Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti) and Ralph Pierce, who controlled the mob’s interests from Harrison Street south to 115th Street. South of there, and stretching to Will County, was LaPorte’s territory.LaPorte was in Chicago that day to make his cash tribute to the Chicago outfit. Some 75 percent of the proceeds from his south suburban organization went into the Chicago coffers, Roemer said.“LaPorte’s mainstay was book-making and loan sharking. Chop shops and prostitution would come later under Pilotto and his protege, bodyguard and driver Al Tocco,” Roemer said.Today, Pilotto and Tocco are serving lengthy prison sentences. LaPorte died of natural causes in 1970.The tailor shop bugging brought a time of high anxiety for Roemer and his FBI pals.J. Edgar Hoover (then director of the bureau) had personally sanctioned the illegal bugs. But Roemer and the other agents were told if “we got caught” the bureau would deny knowledge of their actions and characterize them as “rogue agents” acting on their own, he said.“There'd be no backing from the Justice Department on this one,” he added.An informant had supplied them with a key to the outside Michigan Avenue door, “But it was up to us to get in the tailor shop,” Roemer said. “I finally picked the lock one night” when the usually tight security supplied for the mob by crooked Chicago cops was lax.Although Roemer and his cohorts were never able to use the information supplied by “Lil' Al” to gain indictments, “we used it in other ways,” he said.United WayCrusade oF Mercy“We went to officials we knew to be honest in the towns where these guys on the take were employed and we let them know what we knew and that we’d never work with any of the men on the list.”A number of promising careers sputtered and died as a result of Roemer’s work.“It would serve no real purpose to identify these men now,” he said. “Many of them are dead and all of them eventually retired or found other work.”Roemer, 64, who now lives in Tus-con, Ariz. and writes and operates a private investigation agency.He was in the area last week to speak at Cook County Sheriff James O’Grady’s summit on gangs and drugs, where he told law enforcement officers that the government is in Round 11 of a 15-round championship bout with organized crime.“We’ve won about six rounds, two are even, and we’re still punching, he said. “We’ll win.”THE STARSouth Holland (USPS 503460) (ISSN 0746-5165)Lansing (Applied for)Calumet City (Applied for)Publication and business office at 1526 Otto Boulevard, PO Box 157, Chicago Heights. Illinois 60411 Business office at 2374 W. 172nd St.. Lansing CommonsTelephone 755-6161; 895-7260Norman A Rosmski, President and PublisherJames S. Meidell, Senior Vice President andGeneral ManagerLester G Sons. Vice President Executive EditorGeorge Perry, Vice President Advertising MarketingA Chicago Sun-Times Company Newspaper35 cents per tingle copySUBSCRIPTION RATESHome delivery by Star carrier, $2.10 per month, $25 20 per yearU. S. Mail delivery. Local trade zone and where Star carrier delivery is available. $26 00 per year payable In advanceU. S. P. S. Zones — rates available on requestSECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO HEIGHTS. ILLINOIS 60411 AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICESPostmaster: Send address changes to either post office box or publication address shown above
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Calumet City Star
Calumet City, Illinois, US
Sun, Aug 26, 1990
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