Something Fishy in Chicago

It is a cold, dark January night. John Mendell, 31, and Steve Garcia, 29, both burglars by trade and members of a gang of jewel thieves, creep up to a sprawling ranch-style house in the swank Chicago suburb of River Forest. The owner is vacationing in Florida, and there is $1 million in jewelry inside--jewelry they believe is rightfully theirs. A conversation can be imagined:

"Do you think we ought to risk it, Johnnie? I ain't so sure I want to mess with Big Tuna."

"Clam it, kid. It's our stuff; we stole it clean. We should never have let him take it from us."

Messing with Big Tuna is not a smart move, as the gang soon finds out. Six of them end up dead.

TIME Correspondent David S. Jackson pieced together the bizarre tale of the hapless group of thieves who made the mistake of crossing Mafia Boss Anthony ("Big Tuna") Accardo. His report:

Led by Mendell, the gang last December broke into a vacant building near a police station in a seedy section of Chicago's Near North Side. With acetylene torches, they burned their way into a jewelry store next door, used an electronic device to circumvent a burglar alarm and stole more than $1 million worth of jewelry, silver and furs.

After the police discovered the burglary, the store's owner, Harry Levinson, did little to help their investigation. Griped a detective on the case: "He was the most uncooperative victim I've ever seen." But Levinson happened to be acquainted with a prominent figure in a different sort of enforcement business, Big Tuna. Levinson complained, according to a police informant, about his misfortune. For reasons of his own, Big Tuna sympathized. An order soon went out from River Forest: return the swag. The gang reluctantly obeyed, handing over the loot to Accardo who, police and FBI officials believe, kept it at his home, which is guarded by an elaborate alarm system.

But the thieves, who could have been called "the gang that couldn't think straight," belatedly decided that they had a raw deal. So at least two of them, Mendell and Garcia, broke into Accardo's house while he was in Florida. Police are not certain whether the gang recovered the loot but assume they did. Accardo did not file a complaint with the police and refused to cooperate when they learned about the burglary.

Ten days after the breakin, Mendell, who according to one investigator had been "running from pillar to post" in an attempt to hide from Big Tuna's wrath, disappeared. His body turned up six weeks later in the trunk of an Oldsmobile on Chicago's South Side. His arms had been bound, his neck slashed and a rope tied next to the wound to slow the flow of blood. Explained one investigator: "They forced him to watch himself bleed to death."

On Jan. 20 Bernard Ryan, 34, an adept burglar thought to be part of the gang, was found shot to death in a car in suburban Stone Park. Two weeks later police discovered the mutilated body of Garcia in the trunk of a car at a motel near Chicago's O'Hare Airport. A fourth jewel thief associated with the gang, John McDonald, 43, was shot to death in a North Side alley in April.

Police recognized the killings as the Mob's handiwork but were stumped about the motive. They kept associates of the gang under surveillance, tapped their phones and pressed informants for underworld gossip. The break finally came when an associate of the thieves, who had fled West, was picked up by the FBI.

He told the bureau all about Big Tuna's vengeance, saying there had actually been six slayings. The other two, which police at first did not think fit the pattern, took place in February, when Vincent Moretti, 52, a Mob fence and loan collector, and a friend, Donald Renno, 31, were found stabbed to death in a car parked behind a tavern in suburban Stickney. Almost all of Moretti's ribs had been broken. According to police, Moretti was killed because he had not told Mob bosses when the gang asked him to fence the loot. On the day of his death, Moretti had discovered that his car's power steering had been tampered with. So he asked Renno, who had no known Mob connections, to drive him to his destination. Renno was presumably killed because he had witnessed Moretti's murder.

The FBI hopes the investigation will enable them to make a case against Accardo. Despite his age (72) and a heart ailment, Accardo, a former bodyguard for Al Capone, heads the ruling Chicago crime triumvirate, which also includes Jackie ("the Lackey") Cerone and Joe ("Doves") Aiuppa.

So far, the diamonds and other goods have not been recovered, and investigators doubt that they will soon be fenced: in this case, those who deal in stolen ice may be reluctant to play with fire. qed

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