by Villain » Fri May 08, 2020 4:00 am
Heres another interesting case from the early 1950s era...
Fred Romano was an attorney and Outfit associate, who ensured the organization with his protection with the help of many government and police connections. In addition, Romano's boss was Ross Prio and took his orders directly from him.
One of Romano's connections was a police Captain Redmond P. Gibbons, who was a chief of the uniformed police and commander of the Hudson Av. police district. Gibbons had a good reputation as a policeman but all of his colleagues in the force knew about his shady connections with the underworld.
In 1953, Police Commissioner Timothy O'Connor started an investigation and pressed charges against Gibbons that were under the direction of Philip Breitzke, the deputy commissioner. The investigators found a little red memo book, which Gibbons admitted it was his, which contained addresses and telephone numbers of gambling places, clubs, and business enterprises in the Hudson Av. police district.
The book also contained mysterious numerical entries, ranging from 10 to 100, after some of the names. The numbers raised speculation about being "payoffs." Gibbons defended himself by saying that he didn’t fully acknowledged that the red book was his, but he said he had kept such a book while he was in command at Hudson av. back in 1949 and 1950. He said he kept data on his automobile and camera in the book.
Gibbons also said that he listed in it the names and addresses of friends and as well as information needed for police investigations. Gibbons also added that the addresses and telephone numbers which were traced to gambling establishments were in fact collected in the investigation of the murder of Marvin Bas, an attorney, who was shot and killed on September 25, 1950. The murder was not solved.
It was reported that Bas was about to give information to the United States senate crime investigating committee about his underworld connections. The biggest problem was that the book contained the phone number of Romano who by that time shared an office at 134 N. La Salle St, together with Prio.
The State's Attorney at the time, John Gutknecht also took the heat because his name was also been drawn from the entries in the book. When asked about this, he said that he had no intention of firing Romano, who by now he was also one of his assistants.
But some sources say that the reality was Gutknecht hired Romano with the full knowledge that he was a very close friend of Prio and the Outfit. Attorney William Mannion, who had screen Romano as a candidate, said that as far he was concerned, both Romano and Prio were “respectable businessmen” with no prior criminal record.
Now heres the most interesting thing.
You see, Prio’s criminal record dated from 1929 but because of a case such as this one, a court order was issued for the record to be destroyed, including the records of dozens of Chicago's big time hoodlums at the time, have been removed from the police bureau of identification regarding the previous years or decades.
Such removals were granted in cases where there was no evidence in the records that the hoodlums had ever been convicted. So the government was completely powerless against Romano and Prio, since the removals already took place prior to 1951, or more than two years before police commissioner O'Connor ruled against such action.
Heres another interesting case from the early 1950s era...
Fred Romano was an attorney and Outfit associate, who ensured the organization with his protection with the help of many government and police connections. In addition, Romano's boss was Ross Prio and took his orders directly from him.
One of Romano's connections was a police Captain Redmond P. Gibbons, who was a chief of the uniformed police and commander of the Hudson Av. police district. Gibbons had a good reputation as a policeman but all of his colleagues in the force knew about his shady connections with the underworld.
In 1953, Police Commissioner Timothy O'Connor started an investigation and pressed charges against Gibbons that were under the direction of Philip Breitzke, the deputy commissioner. The investigators found a little red memo book, which Gibbons admitted it was his, which contained addresses and telephone numbers of gambling places, clubs, and business enterprises in the Hudson Av. police district.
The book also contained mysterious numerical entries, ranging from 10 to 100, after some of the names. The numbers raised speculation about being "payoffs." Gibbons defended himself by saying that he didn’t fully acknowledged that the red book was his, but he said he had kept such a book while he was in command at Hudson av. back in 1949 and 1950. He said he kept data on his automobile and camera in the book.
Gibbons also said that he listed in it the names and addresses of friends and as well as information needed for police investigations. Gibbons also added that the addresses and telephone numbers which were traced to gambling establishments were in fact collected in the investigation of the murder of Marvin Bas, an attorney, who was shot and killed on September 25, 1950. The murder was not solved.
It was reported that Bas was about to give information to the United States senate crime investigating committee about his underworld connections. The biggest problem was that the book contained the phone number of Romano who by that time shared an office at 134 N. La Salle St, together with Prio.
The State's Attorney at the time, John Gutknecht also took the heat because his name was also been drawn from the entries in the book. When asked about this, he said that he had no intention of firing Romano, who by now he was also one of his assistants.
But some sources say that the reality was Gutknecht hired Romano with the full knowledge that he was a very close friend of Prio and the Outfit. Attorney William Mannion, who had screen Romano as a candidate, said that as far he was concerned, both Romano and Prio were “respectable businessmen” with no prior criminal record.
Now heres the most interesting thing.
You see, Prio’s criminal record dated from 1929 but because of a case such as this one, a court order was issued for the record to be destroyed, including the records of dozens of Chicago's big time hoodlums at the time, have been removed from the police bureau of identification regarding the previous years or decades.
Such removals were granted in cases where there was no evidence in the records that the hoodlums had ever been convicted. So the government was completely powerless against Romano and Prio, since the removals already took place prior to 1951, or more than two years before police commissioner O'Connor ruled against such action.