February 12, 2024

Murder on the Golf Course Part 1

11 minutes

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In 1981, Southside Outfit crew chief Al Pilotto was still watching his tee shot in the air on the 8th hole at Lincolnshire Country Club when a gunman stepped out from behind the bushes and started shooting. Al survived and will die a natural death. The hitman was an amateur hired by one of the golfers, Sam Guzzino. In the end, Guzzino’s brother, Richard Guzzino, and Robert Ciarrocchi were convicted of training and arming Daniel Bounds to murder Pilotto. The Outfit took care of Sam Guzzino in the usual manner. Daniel Bounds testified and left town. Check out Part 2 for an anatomy of how this murder was carefully planned by the Marx Brothers and carrried out by the keystone cops.

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[0:00] Hey guys, welcome all you wiretappers. Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Intelligence Unit detective here, back in the house again.

Hey, I got a short story here for you again.

Al Pilotto, he was a Chicago outfit crew leader, if you will, crew chief of the Southside crew.

He was also big in the labor union racketeering. He was the head of Local 5 in the Laborers International Union. Union. They liked to play golf.

Al Pilotto’s Assassination Attempt on the Golf Course

[0:31] Now, he was out playing golf on a nice warm July day back in, oh, when was that?

Back in 1980-something, 30 years ago or so.

Anyhow, Tony Splattro was out in Las Vegas.

Tony Accardo was running the outfit at the time because they both were co-defendants on a labor racketry charge.

And like I said, he was out playing golf. He was He was playing with one particular guy was Sam Guzzino.

And there was Rudy Bamonte and Nick Fusci. Early in the morning, 8 o’clock in the morning, they were just on the AT at the Lincoln Shire.

It was 1981 is what it was. I just glanced up to see what it was.

[1:17] Anyhow, he had a great tee shot off that AT, they say.

And somebody jumped out behind the bush that was there and started shooting at him. and shot him four or five times with a handgun and ran off.

Well, he goes down with his golf partners and supposes shot golf partners.

These guys, I don’t know if they teed up and played on through and left him back there, or they just ran off.

They didn’t call the police is the main point I’m trying to make here.

Lack of Police Involvement and Speculation on Motives

[1:45] They did not call the cops.

Some neighbor lady heard the shots and called the police, and they came driving up looking to see what was going on there. There’s our friend Al Pilotto, bleeding like a stung hog, probably.

So they take him to the hospital. He survives this assassination attempt, which there’s no other way to put it. It was an assassination attempt.

And Al Pilotto, if you think about it, his chief enforcer was Billy Dauber, who was killed by some of the guys that worked under Joey Lombardo, through the wild bunch in angelo la pietra so you know his chief enforcer had been killed they had these they had a kind of a war in that south side what they called the chop shop war there’s a bunch of people been killed in that war so you know with these mob heads you have to really look around for the motives and see who benefits but again like i said he had a.

Al Pilotto’s Indictment and Potential Motives for the Hit

[2:46] Indictment coming going down with tony accardo and you know maybe they were worried that he might talk although you know if you think about it in the outfit nobody’s ever talked especially somebody’s 70 years old spent his whole life in the outfit and and this is a racketeering thing i don’t think it wasn’t like a murder case where it was faced with death or something like that or probably not even life in prison although 70 years old you know a stiff sentence can be life basically but somebody wanted him out of the way there’s no doubt about it some some speculation that joy the crown lombardo i mentioned before wanted to take over his crew was a pretty ambitious guy he had his state taylor not taylor street crew the grand avenue so they kept him in the hospital the saint james hospital chicago heights this is like chicago heights is on the south side this is kind of like the boys from chicago heights the modern iteration of that crew who kept him under guard for 24 hours a day for several days while he healed up the local chief of police, Michael Siebert.

Al Pilotto’s Hospitalization and Speculation by Chief of Police

[3:49] I don’t know, and he was probably a little bit shaky himself.

He said it was probably a mob hit, and it was just lucky he didn’t get killed.

[3:57] Pilotto, of course, said, I don’t know who did it, and he nearly did, and I don’t think he did at all.

It’s some unknown guy. It wasn’t somebody he knew, but his golf partners knew. They knew a lot about it.

And there was a lot of rumor and speculation as i said the the fbi here’s a classic statement by them let me see what this says we don’t know the contract yet anytime you have something like that somebody waiting for somebody on the golf course it appears it could have been well yeah you had to know that he was on the golf course that morning and you had to know about what time he got to the eighth oh you know you could figure that out if you knew the teacher but yeah and And especially if you’re playing, one of your partners is setting this deal up.

FBI’s Statement and Possible Motives for the Hit

[4:40] The FBI said, you know, who knows? He’s 70 years old. He might not want to take in a long prison term.

Somebody might have worried about him caving in.

As I said before, there’s no way that he would have been a Turk.

So not at that point in his life.

[4:56] Eventually, two former Chicago Heights men will be convicted of orchestrating this bungled assassination. fascination.

And this golf course is in Crete, Illinois, which is a suburb out there.

I’m not sure where that is, but Richard Guzzino, remember that name Guzzino?

He was playing with a guy named Guzzino, wasn’t he?

And another named Robert Ciarochi were found guilty by a federal court of conspiracy, obstruction, injustice, and unlawful use of a weapon because they didn’t kill him.

[5:28] At a three-week trial, they were looking at 20 years in prison.

Well, how they got him, they hired a taxi driver named Bounds, B-O-U-N-D-S, who, when they got him, brought him in, he said, you know, I ain’t going down for this.

[5:46] And so he rats them out.

He also tells about how Sam Guzzino set him up, got him a gun trained him and and you know helped him practice set the whole deal up and was standing there while mr bounds david bounds daniel bounds while he popped out and shot him and ran off Sam Guzzino you know the you know the sentence you know you know the deal in Chicago if you try to to hit somebody like the two guys that hit tokyo joe or the Japanese guy joe suddenly i forgot his last name Tokyo joe he was a couple i didn’t get too so and i can’t remember the other guy’s name tried to hit him they they used bad gun or bad bullets and hit him in the head but he didn’t die and then he testified against a lot of people which is the problem if you don’t try to hit somebody they don’t die they’re going to testify against you aren’t they well Sam Guzzino recruited Daniel Bounds and, you know, the older brother of one of the actual hitmen that took a conviction on it.

Recruitment of Hitman and Subsequent Death of Recruit

[6:52] And two months after this attempt, he was found dead with his throat cut in a ditch in the south southern suburbs.

So that sounds like the Calabrese necktie, doesn’t it? Your throat cut.

[7:03] So that’s another little Chicago story of a bungled head up there.

But nobody was talking, really.

I mean, just the hitman who, you know, how do you do that? that you give it to Guzzino, who then gives it to his brother, who then gives it to some taxi driver.

[7:24] This is just, that’s like disaster. Had disaster written all over.

Anyhow, another short story out of the Chicago outfit.

It’s always an interesting place up there. I got to get back up there and do another tour.

Conclusion and Shoutouts to Chicago Contacts

[7:37] Gus Alex up there and Ben Alexson, and he both promised to take me out for lunch or dinner or something.

And so, and I did that with, with Ben before and Gus Alex and sent me a lot of information about Chicago.

So this goes out to you guys. I know you like me doing these Chicago outfit stories.

Appreciate it. Don’t forget if you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service.

[8:00] Go to their website va website and get that hotline and get some help there if you have a problem drugs or alcohol that goes hand in hand with ptsd why go see our friend Anthony Ruggiano down in florida he’s got a hotline number on his website or his youtube channel it’s Anthony Ruggiano former Gambino soldier and you know don’t forget i like to ride motorcycles i got my thing mixed up there a little bit like to keep you all guessing i like to ride motorcycles so watch out out for motorcycles when you’re out there don’t forget to like and subscribe tell your friends about us go to my gangland wire podcast group got about 50 000 members now and i think only about 10 i’ve listened to the podcast i don’t know i can’t figure out what the deal is but most of them don’t even know they they make comments you’ll find you guys will find this funny because you know who i am you know they make comments about their rats on this page oh but there’s rats i bet law Law enforcement reads this. Oh, man.

I made a comment one time. I said, well, this page is ran by a cop.

And a group is ran by a cop. And this guy’s just like, oh, gives me some kind of a weird, you know, like those little eyeballs that stick up and decide, I don’t know. It’s a crazy world, this mob world.

Sharing Stories of Al Capone and Other Infamous Figures

[9:15] But we have fun doing it. And I really appreciate you guys tuning in and listening, because i know you like the more down and dirty kind of if i do a story about Al Capone i don’t do his life story because everybody knows that i do a story about the time he almost shot her he did shoot himself on the golf course or some of these stories like al Pilotto getting shot on the the eight toll at the lincolnshire country club but those kinds of details like if you live up there you probably might drive by there you know say hey just eight oh maybe go play golf there it’s an idea hey guys when i come up in chicago somebody take me out to the lincolnshire golf course probably a public course i’m sure uh i have to rent some clubs if i want to ride the motorcycle up but but i’d like to play out there sometime if it’s still going let me know thanks a lot guys.

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