Testimony: Pellicano worked for mob boss
A top Hollywood private investigator, Anthony Pellicano, now battling charges he illegally wiretapped enemies of the rich and famous, worked under reputed top mobster Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo three decades ago when Pellicano lived in Chicago, according to court testimony Wednesday.
Pellicano allegedly had a mob henchman, Alva Johnson Rodgers, blow up a Mount Prospect home and was upset when the man wouldn’t torch a 24-hour restaurant, according to Rodgers’ testimony in the historic Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago.
Pellicano’s mob past in Chicago has long been hinted at, but the trial on Wednesday offered the first public, detailed testimony on what Pellicano allegedly did when he was in Chicago.
Pellicano’s attorney, Steven Gruel, could not be reached Wednesday but has rejected claims that his client was mobbed up. Pellicano is currently in jail awaiting trial because he allegedly tried to hire unnamed Chicago mobsters to put out a hit on a witness against him, an allegation his attorney denies.
In court on Wednesday, Rodgers, 78, testified with a Texas twang as he described to jurors how he went from being a chronic car thief to hanging out with Chicago mobsters, after he befriended and helped Chicago mobster Marshall Caifano when they were both in prison in the early 1970s.
Rodgers said he saw Pellicano with Lombardo on several occasions.
Rodgers played handball with Pellicano a few times. Pellicano, a martial arts aficionado, got the better of Rodgers in a scuffle at a gym.
“We were going to have a tussle, and it lasted a few seconds,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers burned down a Mount Prospect home that no one was living in at the time after Pellicano paid him $5,000, Rodgers said. Everything was supposed to be off in the home, and no one was home, but a pilot light went on as Rodgers was spreading accelerant, and the home exploded. Rodgers made it out alive but suffered bad burns.
Rodgers went down to Florida to recuperate but when he returned, Lombardo asked for a meeting to chew him out.
Lombardo told Rodgers he needed Outfit permission to do such things as burn down a home, according to Rodgers’ testimony.
Lombardo also said Pellicano complained to him that Rodgers took the money but didn’t do the job.
Rodgers said he replied: “As far as I’m concerned, the house isn’t there any more, so I did the job.
At one point, Pellicano told Rodgers he would be reporting directly to him, Rodgers testified. The Sun-Times has previously reported that federal authorities have identified Pellicano as part of Lombardo’s crew.
Rodgers balked, though, at reporting to Pellicano and griped to his friend Caifano about it.
Another time, Rodgers said, Pellicano wanted him to close down a Chicago restaurant after a woman who had invested in the successful place wasn’t getting any return.
Rodgers hired some kids to knock out the windows a few time and hurt the business. But he balked when Pellicano wanted him to burn it down because the place was open 24 hours a day, Rodgers testified.
Again Pellicano complained, and Rodgers was in the hot seat with Lombardo, who reminded him about the need for getting permission.
Rodgers figured that since the job was coming from Pellicano that Pellicano already had permission, but it turned out that a top mobster, James “Turk” Torello ate at the restaurant.
Rodgers, who mainly stole cars as a criminal, came under a withering cross-examination by Lombardo’s attorney, Rick Halprin, who alternately mocked his testimony and tried to poke holes in it.
“You were, if you pardon the expression, just a bust-out loser?” Halprin asked.
“Probably, yeah,” Rodgers admitted.
But Rodgers added that he did do 11 years in prison for a bank robbery.
“Is that heavy enough?” he shot back.
“I’m glad you’re not modest,” Halprin said. “The bank robbery is probably the highlight of your career?”
“Well, sort of,” Rodgers said.
Through his questions, Halprin mocked Rodgers’ plan in the 1970s to take over the porn industry in Chicago, based on Rodgers’ previous modest criminal career.
Halprin asked how Rodgers could get the loans to buy millions of dollars of pornography.
“Based on your good credit, right?”
Maybe Rodgers would mention he knew Joey Lombardo, Halprin suggested.
“You figure he’s gonna be a co-signer?” Halprin asked.
At one point, Halprin said Rodgers had taken the car of a partner in the porn business, William “Red” Wemette, on a trip to California, but Rodgers corrected him.
“I used a car I had stolen, that had “Red” Wemette’s license plate on it,” Rodgers said.
Earlier in the day, Halprin took a crack at Wemette himself, who was also a witness at trial and said he paid street tax to Lombardo’s underlings to keep his gay porn store open in Old Town.
Wemette admitted under Halprin’s questioning that he never paid a dime to Lombardo personally.
Wemette also acknowledged lying on a sworn affidavit he signed for IRS investigators that falsely described street tax payments as a business deal.
But Wemette later said he had a secret source relationship with an FBI agent, to whom he told the truth about the street tax.