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Publication Date: 08/14/91
'Street tax' collection impossible, wife testifies.
MYLINDA CANE
HAMMOND - A reputed mobster was unable to give the orders from his hospital bed
to collect a "street tax" from illegal gambling operations, his wife
testified Tuesday.
Stephanie Morgano took the witness stand in defense of her husband, Bernard
"Snooky" Morgano, contradicting testimony offered by Anthony Leone,
the man who claimed to be Morgano's right-hand man and who collected the
"street tax."
Morgano is on trial with five other men, who the government alleges conspired to
running illegal gambling businesses and extort protection money from other
gambling operations, all for the benefit of the Chicago "Outfit"
organized crime family.
Stephanie Morgano was one of a handful of witnesses defense lawyers put on the
stand for the first time Tuesday. One additional witness is expected today to be
called each by the defense and the government. Closing arguments will follow,
with the jury likely to begin deliberating later this evening.
Leone testified Monday that after Morgano's life-threatening heart attack on
April 16, 1986, he visited Morgano daily in the hospital to talk about
collections. He said Morgano's wife told him after the heart attack to call
another defendant, Nicholas "Jumbo" Guzzino, and ask him to "take
over."
Stephanie Morgano said only family members were allowed to see Morgano, who
underwent heart surgery and was unable to talk because his tongue was hanging
out of one side of his mouth and a tube was in the other side. Leone, she said,
is not related to the Morgano family.
She also denied telling Leone to call Guzzino. She said after her husband was
discharged from the hospital, she asked Leone to take him for a ride in the car
to help shake the depression and fear that overtook him after the heart attack.
She also helped the defense by offering another explanation about "getting
rid of Pete," saying they had a hunting dog they had to get rid of because
the dog couldn't hunt.
Leone testified that Morgano disliked Pete "Cadillac Pete" Petros and
wanted to get rid of him. Co-defendants Petros and Sam "Frog" Glorioso
allegedly collected the "street tax" with Leone. Leone was charged
with the other defendants, but pleaded guilty and testified against them.
As for the frequent meetings at the Taste of Italy restaurant in Calumet City,
where Morgano met with Guzzino and another defendant, Dominick Palermo, the
reputed territorial boss for the Outfit, Stephanie Morgano said her husband
would cook at the restaurant.
"Nicky (Guzzino) was a good cook," she said. She said her husband
would come home after the lunch time meetings and tell her about what they
cooked.
Like Morgano's wife, defense witnesses who testified Tuesday offered other
explanations for some of the actions of the defendants.
Frank Zeuberis, a field representative for International Laborers Local 5 in
Chicago Heights, said he rode daily with Palermo between 1987 and 1990 as the
two collected union dues from construction workers throughout northern Illinois.
Zeuberis said it was their job to collect money from construction workers who
had not joined the union. Most of the payments were cash, and at times they
would meet workers in restaurants to collect, he said.
However, under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thill, Zeuberis
said he never went to the Taste of Italy restaurant during the lunch hour with
Palermo.
FBI agents who conducted surveillance and placed a hidden microphone in the
Calumet City restaurant in 1987 recorded numerous lunch meetings with Palermo,
Guzzino, Morgano and other reputed mobsters at the restaurant owned by Guzzino's
brother Dominic.
Guzzino's job as a field representative for the labor's pension and insurance
fund in Chicago Heights also involved collecting money, testified his former
supervisor, Raymond Holheman.
Between August 1978 and December 1987, Guzzino had collected more than $2.2
million from construction employers who had failed to make pension and insurance
contributions. None was in cash, Holheman said.
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