by cavita » Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:40 pm
The evening of April 11, 1991 began promisingly for David Hall at his 2727 Edgewood Drive home in Rockford. Hall was hosting a high stakes gambling game that night as he had two to three times a week and had many participants show up that night. The game had been going on for a while when sometime around 11:20 p.m., the doorbell rang and Hall went to the door and asked “Who’s there?” but received no reply. It was then that some of the players noticed a smell like something electrical was burning so a couple of them got up to check the outlets and stove. Just then there was a loud and powerful explosion that blew Hall backwards and down the stairs. Stefanos Christidis, 55, who had just walked up to the porch and was the one who rang the doorbell was more severely hurt so someone put a blanket over him while the police and paramedics were called.
Soon afterwards, Hall was interviewed by the FBI and they reported that although Hall “made and proofread a statement of what had happened, he would not sign it because we (the law) could not provide [him] with enough security 24 hours a day to protect him and it wasn’t worth getting hurt over. [Hall] read the statement attached and stated it was correct but again stated he would not sign it.”
Who or what was David Hall so afraid of? It seemed that in the months leading up to the bombing Sebastian “Knobby” Gulotta had kept telling Hall that “the boys wanted a piece of the action” and that they wanted 30 percent of the rake from his card game. About two or three weeks before the bombing Gulotta called Hall up and told him, “You’re out of business.” Who exactly was Sebastian Gulotta? The FBI had been keeping tabs on him since the mid-1960s noting that he became a fully initiated member of the Rockford LCN in January 1965 after the murder of Charles LaFranka. Rockford Police had reported that by the early 1980s Gulotta had been bumped up to the capo position which included the responsibility of making collections of the “street tax” for all illicit operations in the Rockford area including the floating poker games.
The FBI interviewed many people confidentially, one cooperating witness in particular stated there were some “Greenhorns” in the area that may have had something to do with the bombing. This individual’s meaning of Greenhorns was that it referred to “people from Sicily” and he was not sure where the label came from but that’s what he had heard. He stated these so-called Greenhorns owned some ma and pop type pizza parlors around town and were trying to expand their businesses. Two of the pizza parlors that he was aware of were Sam’s Pizza on Charles Street and Gerry’s Pizza on East State Street.
Further, he stated that these people were in a position to bring heat down whenever they wanted and they also had a good-sized card game at times in one of the back rooms at their pizza place that brought in some outsiders.
Sources also stated that it was widely rumored that Gulotta and his associates were responsible for the bombing of a Little Caesar’s Pizza restaurant at 617 Harlem Road in Machesney Park on December 18, 1983. Later FBI files stated that the reason for this bombing was a message that there was to be no competition near the Sam’s Pizza down the road at 1031 Harlem Road.
Apparently, what came out from interviews with many people was that there were many, many floating poker games all over the Rockford area that were connected to the Rockford LCN and these games had been going on regularly for the previous 30 years. Besides games in and around Rockford, there were high stakes games played at various Holiday Inns in Crystal Lake and Itasca, Illinois and other Holiday Inns in Lake County and at times in Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Reports of Gulotta “and his goons” arriving at a poker game hosts’ place of business or house and not leaving until they obtained an agreement of 30 percent of the rake of that particular game was becoming all too common. One particular source advised, “GULOTTA had informed [the source] that he (GULOTTA) “represented a strong organization,” that he (GULOTTA) was “now a partner” (in the illicit gambling business) and that he wanted “30 percent of the proceeds” from the gambling business.”
The source advised he suspected that GULOTTA was a member of the “mafia” based upon GULOTTA’s reference to being a member of a “strong organization” and demanding 30 percent of the proceeds from his associates gambling business.
One of those that was noted as being an “enforcer/collector for (this strong organization) for monies owed in relation to gambling, prostitution, or drug debts, drove a 1989-1990 black Cadillac Eldorado” was clearly Frank “Gumba” Saladino. Other FBI files from the time noted that Saladino drove this exact car during this time period and those in and around Rockford knew that when Saladino entered a strip club or other illicit business, he was there to collect money. Saladino had been one of those named in the Family Secrets trial in Chicago who had died right before FBI agents could arrest him for his involvement in murders and gambling violations while involved with the Chicago Outfit.
At the Family Secrets trial, the FBI displayed surveillance photos from 1989 of Saladino and another Rockford LCN-connected individual named Salvatore Galluzzo. The photos seemed to show Saladino walking behind Galluzzo in a position of deference leading one to believe that perhaps Galluzzo was an upper echelon member. Galluzzo had been noted as a Rockford LCN member as far back as the early 1980s and some had thought he earned his membership with the murder of Rockford LCN member Joe Maggio in 1980.
FBI agents doggedly surveilled Galluzzo, his brother Natale, Saladino, Gulotta and many, many others all over Rockford and the surrounding areas. These surveillances and interviews of many witnesses turned up information that the Rockford LCN was controlling not only illegal gambling, but they were involved in extortion, narcotics, counterfeiting and prostitution. It was long known by the FBI and those in Rockford that the undisputed boss in Rockford was Joe Zammuto until his death in May 1990 at the age of 94. One confidential witness stated that “during the tenure of Mr. Joe, the atmosphere within the “mob” was live and let live,” however about six to twelve months after his death, Gulotta started letting it be known they wanted a portion of all the action.
It seemed that the “live and let live” days of the Rockford LCN was over and the remaining members were running a tighter ship. The FBI noted that “GULOTTA is a long-established and currently active member in the Rockford LCN, and has historically been socially and professionally linked to Rockford LCN figures in relation to his extensive gambling activities and as a “collector” of monies for the Rockford LCN.” The cooperating witness went on to say that Gulotta “works for people that are higher up in the group than him.”
Continuing their investigation into March 1993, the FBI interviewed a cooperating witness who told them “a high-stakes poker game which was held in various locations around the Rockford, Illinois, area, primarily in hotel rooms. Each player had to have $5,000.00 minimum to get into the games. Pots were no limit, and “table stakes” (the amount of money the player brought to the game with him) determined the player’s limit. The CW required players to buy chips with the money they brought to the game, thereby indicating to him the amount of money each player had.” The source also stated that some bookies in Rockford, Illinois handle as little as a few thousand dollars a week, while others handle as much as $70,000 to $80,000 a week.
With that, the FBI sent out information on Gulotta to other field offices they started their heading in this way: “For the information of Legats, Bonn, Brussels, Ottawa, and Rome, the captioned subject is a suspected member/enforcer of the Sicilian Mafia faction in Rockford, Illinois. Instant matter was opened in May, 1991, and was predicated based upon a bomb that exploded at the site of a high stakes poker game, seriously injuring two of the participants. Investigation determined that in the weeks prior to the bombing, captioned subject had been involved in attempts to extort “street tax” from the host of the game, who refused to pay. Numerous sources believe the subject to be responsible for the bombing. Recent investigation centers around the discovery of a newly established meeting site, a location frequented by most of the individuals suspected of being Sicilian Mafia members in the Rockford, Illinois, area. Activity at this location is consistent with that of illegal gambling/bookmaking, but additional details recently obtained point to these individuals’ involvement in narcotics activity.”
In October 1993 the Illinois Department of Revenue and FBI were investigating the Rockford LCN and “targeting the owners/operators and employees of Rockford Casino Players for their operation of an illegal gambling business in the guise of “casino night” fundraisers for charitable organization through violation of federal mail fraud statutes.” By June 1995 they finally raided three such “casino nights” in Rockford, Schaumburg and Des Plaines and these gambling ventures seemed to be a partnership between the Rockford LCN and Chicago Outfit as one of those arrested was Joseph A. Zeno, age 60, out of Melrose Park who at the time was connected to the Elmwood Park crew.
The FBI continued investigating the bombing of David Hall’s residence, illegal gambling, narcotics and extortion in Rockford but ultimately the Assistant United States Attorney declined prosecution based on a lack of evidence and the unwillingness of witnesses to fully cooperate. Having escaped prosecution, Gulotta himself died on March 15, 2000 at his winter home in Mesa, Arizona.
The evening of April 11, 1991 began promisingly for David Hall at his 2727 Edgewood Drive home in Rockford. Hall was hosting a high stakes gambling game that night as he had two to three times a week and had many participants show up that night. The game had been going on for a while when sometime around 11:20 p.m., the doorbell rang and Hall went to the door and asked “Who’s there?” but received no reply. It was then that some of the players noticed a smell like something electrical was burning so a couple of them got up to check the outlets and stove. Just then there was a loud and powerful explosion that blew Hall backwards and down the stairs. Stefanos Christidis, 55, who had just walked up to the porch and was the one who rang the doorbell was more severely hurt so someone put a blanket over him while the police and paramedics were called.
Soon afterwards, Hall was interviewed by the FBI and they reported that although Hall “made and proofread a statement of what had happened, he would not sign it because we (the law) could not provide [him] with enough security 24 hours a day to protect him and it wasn’t worth getting hurt over. [Hall] read the statement attached and stated it was correct but again stated he would not sign it.”
Who or what was David Hall so afraid of? It seemed that in the months leading up to the bombing Sebastian “Knobby” Gulotta had kept telling Hall that “the boys wanted a piece of the action” and that they wanted 30 percent of the rake from his card game. About two or three weeks before the bombing Gulotta called Hall up and told him, “You’re out of business.” Who exactly was Sebastian Gulotta? The FBI had been keeping tabs on him since the mid-1960s noting that he became a fully initiated member of the Rockford LCN in January 1965 after the murder of Charles LaFranka. Rockford Police had reported that by the early 1980s Gulotta had been bumped up to the capo position which included the responsibility of making collections of the “street tax” for all illicit operations in the Rockford area including the floating poker games.
The FBI interviewed many people confidentially, one cooperating witness in particular stated there were some “Greenhorns” in the area that may have had something to do with the bombing. This individual’s meaning of Greenhorns was that it referred to “people from Sicily” and he was not sure where the label came from but that’s what he had heard. He stated these so-called Greenhorns owned some ma and pop type pizza parlors around town and were trying to expand their businesses. Two of the pizza parlors that he was aware of were Sam’s Pizza on Charles Street and Gerry’s Pizza on East State Street.
Further, he stated that these people were in a position to bring heat down whenever they wanted and they also had a good-sized card game at times in one of the back rooms at their pizza place that brought in some outsiders.
Sources also stated that it was widely rumored that Gulotta and his associates were responsible for the bombing of a Little Caesar’s Pizza restaurant at 617 Harlem Road in Machesney Park on December 18, 1983. Later FBI files stated that the reason for this bombing was a message that there was to be no competition near the Sam’s Pizza down the road at 1031 Harlem Road.
Apparently, what came out from interviews with many people was that there were many, many floating poker games all over the Rockford area that were connected to the Rockford LCN and these games had been going on regularly for the previous 30 years. Besides games in and around Rockford, there were high stakes games played at various Holiday Inns in Crystal Lake and Itasca, Illinois and other Holiday Inns in Lake County and at times in Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Reports of Gulotta “and his goons” arriving at a poker game hosts’ place of business or house and not leaving until they obtained an agreement of 30 percent of the rake of that particular game was becoming all too common. One particular source advised, “GULOTTA had informed [the source] that he (GULOTTA) “represented a strong organization,” that he (GULOTTA) was “now a partner” (in the illicit gambling business) and that he wanted “30 percent of the proceeds” from the gambling business.”
The source advised he suspected that GULOTTA was a member of the “mafia” based upon GULOTTA’s reference to being a member of a “strong organization” and demanding 30 percent of the proceeds from his associates gambling business.
One of those that was noted as being an “enforcer/collector for (this strong organization) for monies owed in relation to gambling, prostitution, or drug debts, drove a 1989-1990 black Cadillac Eldorado” was clearly Frank “Gumba” Saladino. Other FBI files from the time noted that Saladino drove this exact car during this time period and those in and around Rockford knew that when Saladino entered a strip club or other illicit business, he was there to collect money. Saladino had been one of those named in the Family Secrets trial in Chicago who had died right before FBI agents could arrest him for his involvement in murders and gambling violations while involved with the Chicago Outfit.
At the Family Secrets trial, the FBI displayed surveillance photos from 1989 of Saladino and another Rockford LCN-connected individual named Salvatore Galluzzo. The photos seemed to show Saladino walking behind Galluzzo in a position of deference leading one to believe that perhaps Galluzzo was an upper echelon member. Galluzzo had been noted as a Rockford LCN member as far back as the early 1980s and some had thought he earned his membership with the murder of Rockford LCN member Joe Maggio in 1980.
FBI agents doggedly surveilled Galluzzo, his brother Natale, Saladino, Gulotta and many, many others all over Rockford and the surrounding areas. These surveillances and interviews of many witnesses turned up information that the Rockford LCN was controlling not only illegal gambling, but they were involved in extortion, narcotics, counterfeiting and prostitution. It was long known by the FBI and those in Rockford that the undisputed boss in Rockford was Joe Zammuto until his death in May 1990 at the age of 94. One confidential witness stated that “during the tenure of Mr. Joe, the atmosphere within the “mob” was live and let live,” however about six to twelve months after his death, Gulotta started letting it be known they wanted a portion of all the action.
It seemed that the “live and let live” days of the Rockford LCN was over and the remaining members were running a tighter ship. The FBI noted that “GULOTTA is a long-established and currently active member in the Rockford LCN, and has historically been socially and professionally linked to Rockford LCN figures in relation to his extensive gambling activities and as a “collector” of monies for the Rockford LCN.” The cooperating witness went on to say that Gulotta “works for people that are higher up in the group than him.”
Continuing their investigation into March 1993, the FBI interviewed a cooperating witness who told them “a high-stakes poker game which was held in various locations around the Rockford, Illinois, area, primarily in hotel rooms. Each player had to have $5,000.00 minimum to get into the games. Pots were no limit, and “table stakes” (the amount of money the player brought to the game with him) determined the player’s limit. The CW required players to buy chips with the money they brought to the game, thereby indicating to him the amount of money each player had.” The source also stated that some bookies in Rockford, Illinois handle as little as a few thousand dollars a week, while others handle as much as $70,000 to $80,000 a week.
With that, the FBI sent out information on Gulotta to other field offices they started their heading in this way: “For the information of Legats, Bonn, Brussels, Ottawa, and Rome, the captioned subject is a suspected member/enforcer of the Sicilian Mafia faction in Rockford, Illinois. Instant matter was opened in May, 1991, and was predicated based upon a bomb that exploded at the site of a high stakes poker game, seriously injuring two of the participants. Investigation determined that in the weeks prior to the bombing, captioned subject had been involved in attempts to extort “street tax” from the host of the game, who refused to pay. Numerous sources believe the subject to be responsible for the bombing. Recent investigation centers around the discovery of a newly established meeting site, a location frequented by most of the individuals suspected of being Sicilian Mafia members in the Rockford, Illinois, area. Activity at this location is consistent with that of illegal gambling/bookmaking, but additional details recently obtained point to these individuals’ involvement in narcotics activity.”
In October 1993 the Illinois Department of Revenue and FBI were investigating the Rockford LCN and “targeting the owners/operators and employees of Rockford Casino Players for their operation of an illegal gambling business in the guise of “casino night” fundraisers for charitable organization through violation of federal mail fraud statutes.” By June 1995 they finally raided three such “casino nights” in Rockford, Schaumburg and Des Plaines and these gambling ventures seemed to be a partnership between the Rockford LCN and Chicago Outfit as one of those arrested was Joseph A. Zeno, age 60, out of Melrose Park who at the time was connected to the Elmwood Park crew.
The FBI continued investigating the bombing of David Hall’s residence, illegal gambling, narcotics and extortion in Rockford but ultimately the Assistant United States Attorney declined prosecution based on a lack of evidence and the unwillingness of witnesses to fully cooperate. Having escaped prosecution, Gulotta himself died on March 15, 2000 at his winter home in Mesa, Arizona.