Posted on 01/14/2006 2:33:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO - With a long beard and hair reaching his shoulders, reputed mob boss Joey "The Clown" Lombardo sat stunned as FBI agents ordered him out of his car.
Lombardo had been a fugitive for nine months, but it was Friday the 13th and his luck had run out, FBI officials said Saturday as they described Lombardo's arrest on racketeering and conspiracy charges.
The 77-year-old man had been missing since April when he and 13 others were indicted in connection with at least 18 unsolved mob murders, including one that was graphically portrayed in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie "Casino."
Lombardo didn't respond at first when agents told him to get out of the silver Lincoln, staying put even when the car's elderly driver got out, said FBI agent Robert Grant.
Not until an agent opened the car's door did the unarmed Lombardo give up his driver's license and allow the agents to take him in, Grant said.
Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, said Saturday his client is not guilty.
Authorities believe Lombardo hid by moving among the homes of trusted associates in the Chicago area.
While missing, Lombardo had written letters with local postmarks to his attorney and to U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is presiding in the case.
Grant said Lombardo was tracked down by "just good old-fashioned police work" as agents pieced together bits of information.
Lombardo was caught in an alley behind a house in suburban Elmwood where the FBI believes Lombardo had been staying. Dozens of agents prevented him from escaping by blocking the alley with their vehicles, Grant said.
Agents seized a suitcase full of clothing and a large amount of cash from the car, said Grant, who wouldn't say exactly how much money was taken. The man driving the car, believed to be an associate of Lombardo's, was not arrested.
The April indictment charged that Chicago hoodlums and mob associates conspired in at least 18 unsolved murders, including that of that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once known as the Chicago Outfit's man in Las Vegas, and his brother Michael.
The Spilotros were beaten to death and buried in a cornfield. Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie "Casino."
Lombardo and reputed mob enforcer Frank "The German" Schweihs are specifically named in the 1974 murder of Daniel Seifert in Bensenville. Schweihs, 75, was arrested on Dec. 16 in Kentucky.
The FBI had offered $20,000 rewards for information leading to the arrests of Lombardo and Schweihs.
Seen in these undated photos released by the U.S. attorney's office Monday, April 25, 2005 in Chicago is Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo in the photo at center and in a more recent photo at left. Lombardo is long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in Chicago. Lombardo, 76, was caught in suburban Elmwood Park Friday Jan. 13, 2006 and was expected to spend the night in a Chicago jail, said FBI spokesman Ross Rice. (AP Photo/HO, U.S. Attorney Office)
Friday the 13th! It'll do it every time!
I am curious about how he got the nickname "The Clown". He doesn't seem like a very funny guy to me.
Look at that wig he is wearing , that should give you some idea.
"I am curious about how he got the nickname "The Clown"."
Before a hit he would dress up as Ronald McDonald. Honest!
He used to ride around in a really, really small car with 14 other mob associates.
I see a passing resemblance to Jerry Lewis; but that doesn't seem like much.
Curtis Sliwa will be all over this in his Mob-Talk segment... that man plays with fire..
He was never without his trademark bottle of seltzer water and his cow bell.
Do you know why cannibals don't eat clowns?
They taste funny.
Mob fugitive hid here [Chicago]: FBI
Federal investigators Saturday described how Joey "the Clown" Lombardo evaded an international manhunt by staying for weeks at a time with several associates throughout the area.
At a Loop news conference at the Dirksen Federal Building, federal investigators said they always believed that Lombardo, who became a fugitive in April, had remained in Chicago this whole time.
Lombardo's life on the lam ended Friday at 8:10 p.m. outside a home in the 2300 block of North 74th Street in Elmwood Park, said Robert D. Grant, special agent-in-charge of the Chicago FBI office.
Lombardo was sitting in the passenger side of a car driven by an elderly man who lived nearby, Grant said.
"He did not resist, but he was not cooperative," Grant said. "He was a passive individual that seemed to be stunned that he had been found. … The agents had to approach the car, open the door and assist him to get out."
Lombardo's appearance was a big departure from photos taken as late as 2002.
"He has very long hair down to his shoulders. He has a very long beard, a baseball cap," Grant said, describing the scene when 12 FBI agents apprehended Lombardo. "For all intents and purposes, the (arresting) agent said he looked like Saddam Hussein."
Lombardo was carrying a suitcase full of clothes, a large amount of money, and his Illinois driver's license, Grant said. He was not armed.
Grant said there were people who assisted Lombardo in hiding out and that possible charges against those people "will be evaluated later."
Agents had been surveying the area periodically as new information came in, Grant said. He said they "were interested in that particular location" on North 74th Street where the arrest was made.
Prosecutors charged Lombardo and Frank "The German" Schweihs with the 1974 murder of Daniel Seifert, a Bensenville businessman scheduled to testify against Lombardo and others in a Teamsters pension fund fraud case.
Schweihs also was charged with joining co-defendant Paul Schiro in a 1986 gangland murder in Phoenix. Schweihs was a fugitive for eight months before being captured last month in a small town in Kentucky.
FBI officials said Lombardo and Schweihs had apparently disappeared a "significant time" before the indictments to avoid capture.
The search for Lombardo included a number of federal agencies, including the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. Clues had raised suspicions that Lombardo could be in the Caribbean or in Mexico.
Lombardo, a longtime resident of Chicago's West Town neighborhood, has two federal convictions in the 1980s, for conspiring to bribe U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon of Nevada for help in defeating a trucking deregulation bill and for scheming to skim $2 million from a Las Vegas casino.
Joey "The Clown" Lombardo
Saddam Hussein
Thanks to FReeper Liz comes this appropriate graphic!
The kingpin of the Chicago mafia that we've been hearing so much about lately, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo (pictured here) got his nickname from the press and it refers to his corny behavior and lame jokes. At then end of one of his trials "Joey the Clown" tried to evade photographers by taking a newspaper and making a mask with eye-holes and running out of the courtroom. He also once told reporters that his jewelry was made of "canarly stone" becuase you "canarly see it". Get it? Can hardly see it!? har.
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