Before we step forward to the next article, first I would like to thank all of you with your constant support either on this forum, or via private messages or emails. As all of you already know, I’m not doing this for the money because I have enough for a normal life, and I will continue my fight against all of those researchers who ask for money, just so you can receive “two words” articles and unconfirmed information, followed by fanatical ideas. This is for the everyday and hardworking citizen, and please boycott all paywalls. Cheers and enjoy!

INTRO

Previously I posted one article regarding the Outfit’s multi-million dollar heist, which in fact was one of the biggest scores that Chicago’s Mafia ever accomplished but this next story is completely different, since it’s about another Outfit-connected burglary group which was formed by an alliance of a different breed of street criminals and also corrupt men from the law or the government. This was a quite lucrative crew which operated from the late 1960’s up until the mid 1990’s and on top of that, they had their operations all around the country. They used very sophisticated methods of stealing, thus making millions of dollars during the process. So, to understand the origins of this particular group we have to go back in time and witness the life of one corrupt Chicago cop who managed to live a double life.

I’M THE LAW

We must understand the main job of our police officers and government people is to put their own lives on the line for our safety, every single day, and to be honest that’s a tough job to do because they are dealing with all types of criminals, including murderers. So, that constant fear for their own safety and also the safety of their own families, usually brings a large number of good cops into the world of corruption and organized crime. This situation is even more dangerous than some of the hitmen or mobsters who kill people on daily basis, because with the help of corruption those same murderers receive a “license” to kill or to do whatever they wish for.

William “Bill” Hanhardt became a Chicago police officer back in 1953, and through years he constantly made headlines by arresting criminals all over town. By the early 1960’s, he and one of his partners John Hinchy led the so-called “burglary squad” for the Chicago police department. Like for example in 1962, while staking out a North Side home, Hanhardt encountered three robbers with a submachine gun and ended up in a shootout in which two of the suspects were killed, allegedly by Hanhardt himself. After that, the man became a legend and was well respected all over the country. Hanhardt represented a tough individual but the reality was that his honest image was completely false, a situation which occurred quite often in the city of Chicago. In the fact, the cover-ups of the so-called “blue brotherhood” made the police force a dangerous entity, thus attracting the likes of organized crime.


William “Bill” Hanhardt

CORRUPT COP

Since corruption was inevitable, in reality Hanhardt constantly received bribes from Chicago’s top criminals, such as Outfit member Angelo Volpe, since during those days almost every cop was “on the take”, just like old days of Prohibition. Volpe was the younger brother of Prohibition beer baron Dominic Volpe, and also a guy who mostly operated as the overseer of the policy racket for the Outfit on the city’s South Side, but during this period Angelo also worked for the boss of the Melrose Park area and all western suburbs, Sam “Teets” Battaglia who in turn personally headed the so-called Grand Avenue crew.


Dominic Volpe

By being one of the syndicate’s payoff men aka “connection guys”, Volpe regularly gave Hanhardt his “cut” in all forms of bribes, from $1,000 a month to a new car almost every few months. From this point on, by being constantly in direct contacts with all kinds of burglars and mobsters, I personally believe that Hanhardt became so corrupt, thus started making and planning his own schemes, obviously with the help of those same criminals.

By the late 1960’s, most of the upper echelon members of the Grand Avenue crew such as Battaglia, Phil Alderisio, Joe Amabile and Rocco Pranno were all in jail, followed by Vople who by the early 1970’s answered question before several grand juries, and also story goes that he allegedly lost most of his gambling operation due to the constant government attention. So, the younger generation stepped up and took control of the crew, and Hanhardt’s new “sponsors” became Chuck Nicoletti, Joey Lombardo and Tony Spilotro. Some of these “wiseguys” were also former burglars, especially Lombardo and Spilotro, who later ended up as professional hitmen and extortionists, with Nicoletti as the Outfit’s underboss, followed by Lombardo as the new leader or capo for the crew, and Spilotro as his “representative” in Arizona and also in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides being a killer, gambler and loan shark, Spilotro also controlled two burglary crews, one in Chicago, which later transferred to Las Vegas and became known as the “Hole in the Wall Gang”, and another one in Arizona. Spilotro’s crew in Arizona was overseen by another Grand Avenue member known as Paul Schiro, who in turn later succeeded Spilotro as the new representative in that same state.


Tony Spilotro

BUSINESS PARTNER

Known by his Outfit peers as the “Indian” because of his similar looks of a Native American, it was all “feathers and drums” for Schiro since Arizona was considered by the National Crime Syndicate as “open territory” and everybody had their own operations. For example, Schiro was big in the prostitution business by controlling an extensive network of massage parlors in Phoenix, Tucson and Scottsdale, which were often visited by all kinds of lawyers, politicians, businessmen and judges, who were availing themselves with prostitutes and orgies. But “pimping” prostitutes to high clientele wasn’t Schiro’s main business, but instead it was burglarizing. One of his main operations was stealing systematic diversion of gold and other precious metals from Motorola plants in the metropolitan Phoenix area. According to some reports, during the 1970’s, many millions of dollars in gold per year were being used as plating on circuit boards and in other electronic components and the Outfit was taking its cut.

Schiro was also a killer for the Outfit and was a suspect in more than few murders. For example, he and another hitman Joey Hansen were the key suspects in the “Godfather” style murders of four businessmen on July 22, 1977; in an elevator of a Park Ridge office building. Burglar-turned-informant known as Frank Cullotta allegedly told investigators that he had overheard some of his mob associates discussing the Park Ridge murders and saying something like "Paulie does things in bunches." In plane words, Schiro was no joke.


Paul Schiro

By the mid 1980’s, Schiro was very well acquainted with police officer Bill Hanhardt, a connection that created one of the most sophisticated criminal operations which included stalking jewelry salesmen around the country and later robbing them from their precious stash. The trick was that Schiro and the Outfit needed an inside information on these lucrative travelers such as their travel routes, resting places like hotels and apartments, and also private dealings. Obviously, the answer was through Hanhardt, since he had easy access to the police database and he also had the authority and people for surveillance over their targets. Most of this help came from Hanhardt’s old colleagues on the police force, since he had them all in his pocket because he was the one, who previously skyrocketed their careers. So, after receiving the needed information, Schiro would send few of his specialized goons to make duplicate keys of the target’s car or home and also to collect private information from close sources. Sometimes they would send a prostitute to some rich businessman, who after a few hours usually remained only with his socks on.


Hanhardt being labelled as one of Chicago’s top policemen during the 1970’s

THE CREW

The group was formed by a bunch of Grand Avenue crew operatives and associates, such as Sam DeStefano Jr., William Brown, Joe Basinski, Sal Romano, Jimmy D’Antonio, Robert Paul and Guy Altobello, and all of these guys were also professional burglars and they also knew an army of small-time thieves. Some of these fellas came from a long bloodline of criminals, like for example DeStefano who in turn was the nephew of the late “Mad Sam” DeStefano, one of the Outfit’s most gruesome former members and also close associate of the Grand Avenue crew. The so-called “masterminds” of the group obviously were Schiro and Hanhardt, but the real “leader of the pack”, meaning the burglary crew, was allegedly Basinski. He was a long-time partner in crime with Hanhardt and was the one who gathered all the men and later directed their activities.


Sam DeStefano Jr.

Basinski’s job was to identify the potential targets by doing physical surveillance and running database searches, and later through telephone calls he informed his people regarding the target. If it was needed, he even recruited additional members for big time jobs and later fenced the stolen loot. Altobello’s job was to provide the other members of the crew with information regarding jewelry salespersons who conducted business with Altobello Jewelers, Inc., which was his personal jewelry store, and in addition to identifying salespersons, Altobello also provided information about the type and quality of merchandise they carried and how it was transported, their schedules, the vehicle license plates, and the type of vehicles they drove. In fact, he provided crucial information about the targets, thus making him an important and a significant link in the whole chain. Some sources say that Altobello was also close associate of the Fiore Buccieri - Jimmy Torello crew.


Joe Basinski

D’Antonio’s job was to provide the gang with all the needed tools and instrumentalities for the operation in order to assist in gaining access to vehicles, hotel rooms, safety deposit boxes and other locations, also tools to avoid detection or to escape law enforcement, including locksmith tools, key-making machines, related publications, automobile instruction books, automobile keys, hotel keys, key blanks, lock picks, "slim jims," smoke grenades, fake mustaches and fake beard, key cutting dies, wrenches and other hand tools, evasion devices, taser, cam set, key cutters, bullet proof vests, cameras, listening devices, and key code books. In other words, D’Antonio had everything and he also had direct contact with Schiro, Spilotro and their capo Joey Lombardo. Robert Paul was the guy with the mobile phones, walkie-talkies and all kinds of electronic communicators and Sal Romano knew how to handle alarms and he often travelled to Las Vegas where he operated with the “Hole in the Wall” gang, which in turn later will be betrayed by Romano because he wore a wire for the feds since 1979.


Jimmy “Legs” D’Antonio

Now, usually the guys which did the street stuff or “dirty work” were Billy Brown, Basinski, DeStefano and Schiro or sometimes, only Schiro managed to finish the job all by himself. Schiro used simple techniques such as kicking the victim in the head, tying his hands and feet, and in the end, walking away with his or her stash. Information from confidential informants identified Basinski and Brown, along with Schiro and D’Antonio, as members of Lombardo’s Grand Avenue Crew of the Chicago Outfit and described that group as an organized crime jewelry theft crew that worked closely with Hanhardt.

By being the real mastermind behind everything, Hanhardt has taught some of the boys on sophisticated stealing techniques, which he learned during his days as commander of the police burglary squad. He sometimes even devised the plans himself and later gave them to Schiro, who in turn released his “pit-bulls” on their target. If people from the Outfit were not available, Hanhardt immediately hired some of his close friends within the police force or private detectives for surveillance of their potential targets. There was also this “trick” which the thieves often used and that was the swapping of the salesman’s bag with another identical bag. With the help of this kind of trick, the gang once netted over $1,000,000 worth of diamonds in Dallas from a representative of the J. Schliff and Son Company. According to one jewelry industry official at the time “I’ve not seen anything as detailed and as lengthy as the dossiers they put together on the travelling salesmen,” thus calling the gang’s work “unprecedented.” In other words, this particular Outfit group took the burglary business on another level.

The connection between Hanhardt and the Grand Avenue crew was quite profitable and since money is everything in the criminal underworld, the boys had a good reason to cement their business relationship. Proof for that is when in 1986, Hanhardt managed to discredit mob informant Frank Cullotta as a witness against Tony Spilotro during a trial. Hanhardt appeared as a so-called surprise defense witness for Spilotro and undercut the testimony of Cullotta, which was expected to be the government's “star witness” but instead it came out to be the government’s failure, “thanks” to Hanhardt. In reality, Hanhardt publicly or right in front of the eyes of the public and justice system, defended the bad guys. In the end there was a mistrial and Spilotro went home, but the main problem was that short time later or in 1986, Spilotro and his kid brother Michael were brutally murdered and later buried in an Indiana cornfield.

HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE

After the murder of the Spilotro brothers, Hanhardt’s main connection became Schiro and to tell you the truth, nothing really changed, meaning the burglary operations were always on the up and up. For example, two of their most prominent and lucrative operations included the October 8, 1984 theft of one hundred eighty Baume & Mercer watches valued at approximately $310,000 from Paul Lachterman in Glendale, Wisconsin; and also $500,000 worth of Rolex watches in Monterrey, California in 1986. That same year Hanhardt retired from the police force and was remembered only as an honest cop who perfectly accomplished his duty. And so, even after retiring from the Chicago Police Department, Hanhardt still continued to wield huge influence and the thing was that he never retired from his other business, which was the burglary “racket” and still made millions of dollars.


Retired cop Bill Hanhardt

For example, the 1989 theft of jewelry worth approximately $125,000 from a Gordon Brothers Corporation salesperson in Englewood, Ohio; followed by the 1992 theft from a Gem Platinum salesperson of jewelry worth approximately $1,300,000 in Dallas, Texas. Also, the 1993 theft from another Gen Platinum salesperson of jewelry worth approximately $1,000,000 in Flat Rock, Michigan. That same year another theft occurred from a H.K. Mallak, Inc. salesperson of jewelry worth approximately $240,000 in Mankato, Minnesota. In May 1994, a theft from jewelry company representatives of jewels occurred in Phoenix, Arizona; which was approximately $170,000, followed by the theft from safety deposit boxes at a Columbus, Ohio hotel of jewelry and United States currency worth approximately $1,500,000. Hanhardt was also responsible for the August 1995, Esagh Kashimallak robbery which occurred in a hotel room in Brookfield, Wisconsin, where two individuals struck the salesperson in the head, displayed a gun, tied his ankles and wrists with tape, and took his jewelry case that contained over $500,000 of gems. Story goes that the time period between 1984 and 1996, the crew managed to accomplish more than 100 robberies on jewelry salespersons in at least seven states, and at least nine burglaries were valued in excess of $40 million.

But as always, every glorious story has its own end and Hanhardt's end became quite “glorious” because it started with his biggest burglary score in his whole criminal career, which occurred in 1994. That same year, during the summer, a precious jewelry show was organized at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Columbus, Ohio; which was near the Greater Columbus Convention Center, thus providing accommodations to travelers, or in this case jewelry salesmen. Two months before the gathering, one of the burglars checked in the hotel under the name “Sol Gold” and asked to store valuables in the hotel's safe-deposit boxes, which were located in a secure room behind the front desk. He systematically copied the keys and later gave the copy to Hanhardt who in turn was able to create a master passkey. Then the plan was for one of their female companions to enter the safe-deposit room under the name of "Mrs. Sol Gold" and to take only the most valuable gems. In the end, the safe-deposit boxes of eight gem dealers were relieved of some $2 million in valuables. Few days later, somebody made the female companion quite angry over something, and so she decided to inform on the gang to the FBI.

Even though Hanhardt managed to hit a big score, still a lot of damage has already been done and the worst part was that nobody was aware about it. So, the feds had no problems regarding their surveillance over Hanhardt and his associates, who in turn had no problem in doing their job because as I previously said, they did not have a clue on what was really going on. But there was one huge problem for the federal squad which was assigned to catch Hanhardt and his gang, and that was the so-called “shield” which protected the suspects. The “shield” was formed by loyal colleagues of Hanhardt who worked on the police force on vital positions and blocked almost every move of the so-called “Get Hanhardt-squad”. His connections went so far that the investigators even faced some initial institutional resistance within the FBI when they even first proposed for an investigation.

ONE LAST TIME

Nothing happened for almost a year, or at least that’s what the feds thought, and then in the fall of 1996, Hanhardt’s crew managed to hit the government’s radar. In October that same year, Hanhardt, Basinski, Brown and Schiro joined on a scheme to steal watches which were valued at $500,000 from one Illinois jewelry salesman known as Paul Lachterman. They planned to steal the watches while Lachterman travelled through Wisconsin and Indiana and after that, to transport the stolen loot back to Chicago. Hanhardt and Basinski had already stolen from Lachterman back in 1984, and just for the fun of it, they decided to target him again. Between April and September of 1996, they stalked Lachterman, gathered more information on him and even managed to make a duplicate key to the trunk of his car.

Basinski contacted Schiro in Phoenix, who in turn immediately drove to Chicago, thus bringing Brown with him so he can assist in the theft. On October 1, 1996, the four conspirators followed Lachterman in two cars as he drove to Wisconsin and met with customers. On October 2, 1996, they followed him as he drove to Indiana and there, while Lachterman was in a restaurant, Basinski and the others used the duplicate key and stole a case of watches valued at $58,000 which had been provided by the FBI. Realizing that the case contained only a fraction of the value they expected, the burglars quickly returned the case to the trunk. They obviously received false info regarding the loot, which in reality unknowingly saved them from being arrested by the feds.

But the problem was that they weren’t quite saved because the whole thing was in fact a trap, since the feds had it all on a video tape and Lachterman knowingly was the bait. Surveillance showed the burglary crew operating while right across them, several FBI agents sat in a van and were videotaping the whole scene. The agents were quite happy when they successfully filmed one of the look outs in the robbery which was Hanhardt himself. The feds continued with their surveillance and by the beginning of 1998, all of the suspects were arrested, including Hanhardt and Schiro, and they all were shown videos and played tape-recording of an intercepted conversations which was a quite bad thing for all of them.

BAD KARMA

According to some reports, the government went really hard against Hanhardt by ordering his trial on October 16, 2001 only two weeks after he had undergone a testicular cancer surgery. On that morning, his counsel asked for a continuance because of his client's inability to be in court but later it came to light that Hanhardt had allegedly attempted a suicide with the help of a drug overdose while in hospital. This was obviously a false information, which also shows the power and connections which Hanhardt still had at the time and so based on that information, the court found out that Hanhardt himself was responsible for his failure to appear in court and so the court issued an arrest warrant, issuing it until October 20, 2001 when the defendant was due in court, and if Hanhardt did not show up on the 20th then the warrant was going to be executed.

On October 25, 2001, nine days after the case was scheduled to begin trial, Hanhardt entered a blind plea to the indictment and was the last one of all defendants to enter a guilty plea. His lawyer read a one and a half page statement to the court that admitted, to an extent, the offence. After the government detailed the evidence that would have been presented against him, Hanhardt responded, "I don't agree with everything he (Assistant United States Attorney Scully) said." When the court asked Hanhardt whether he was pleading guilty to Count One in the indictment, Hanhardt responded, "In its entirety, no, sir." During his sentencing hearing in May 2002, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully said “His greed and loyalty was to the mob and to his mob-associated jewelry theft crew, which were more important to him than his family, the Chicago Police Department or the citizens that he was sworn to protect.”


Hanhardt going to trial

In the end, Hanhardt pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiring to transport stolen property across state lines in eight heists in seven states, over more than a decade. He agreed to pay $4,845,000 in restitution for stolen jewelry, gems and watches and was eventually sentenced to 12 years in the can. As for Paul Schiro, on May 12, 2002 he was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on charges for aiding a sophisticated theft ring. Schiro's lawyer, Paul Wagner, said his client admitted joining in the thefts in late 1992, well after the ring had begun stalking and stealing from jewelers but nobody believed in the story. In the end, Schiro apologized to the court and the victims of the thefts by saying "I'm sorry I got involved in this."

During his stay in prison, Hanhardt dealt with a series of health problems, including cancer and heart disease, but according to some reports, he remained strong and focused on getting back home to his family. Hanhardt was very emotionally connected to his family, since he and his wife Angeline had been a couple for 72 years in total, and on top of that they had 18 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Many people said that Hanhardt had a presence and sometimes was larger than life but after the conviction, only few people remained to say some positive things regarding him and the truth was that they were all overshadowed by the criminal case. Story goes that there was this tremendous physical toughness about him, followed by an even more powerful mental toughness, especially in the part of the brain where criminal thoughts thrive. In the end, Hanhardt survived jail and defeated cancer but on December 30, 2016, he died from complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Highland Park Hospital. As for his buddy Paul Schiro, he was again convicted for racketeering and involvement in murder in the infamous Family Secrets trial and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, as he remains even today.


Hanhardt’s tombstone

Hanhardt was only a “tip of the iceberg” when it came down to police and government corruption in the city of Chicago, and if he was from an Italian descent, I personally think that Hanhardt had the chance to become a member of Chicago’s Mafia brotherhood but instead, he got it even better by being his own “boss”, without following any special rules and according to the criminal mentality, he made millions of dollars by acting at the same time as a man of the law and also a criminal. Hanhardt died as a free man but with a completely destroyed image, a detail which he desired during all of his lifetime but failed to preserve it.

Cheers

Hanhardt (first from right) examining stolen loot in 1961

Hanhardt's death notice...

Beautiful work. Once again, you've totally outdone yourself. Thank you brother

Good work TD. Many corrupt cops with connections to the outfit. If you ever have the time, I recommend a story on Mike Corbitt. Jon Burge had contacts with outfit before joining the military and had contacts in the early 1970s as a patrol officer which helped him become a detective in a couple of years after joining. There are many to do a piece on.

Thank you @G and you're always welcome. Your constant support means a lot bro. Cheers



Thank you too @GV and yeah, I agree there are still many to do stories on, such as the Moretti bros, Durso, Matassa Sr etc. Regarding Corbitt, I think I already included him in my old Hy Larner article, although its a good idea to place him on my list regarding future articles.

Heres one article from 2002 regarding Hanhardt and Schiro...

Hanhardt with a Thompson submachine gun in 1962....

Have to say I always loved the Thompson

Really good stuff here. The part about them stalking jewelry salesmen around the country reminds of the scene in "Casino" where they have moles all over call and tell them where the loot is and when a good time would be to come and take it. Again, fantastic work here brother.

Thanks a lot bro. Stay tuned for more free articles.


Same here lol

Thanks a lot bro. Stay tuned for more free articles.


Big shoutout to you for always putting in the work and providing your articles here for free. Greatly appreciated and the content is always fantastic

Thank you again @Big_T and as I already said, Ill always fight against the new or modern paywall or "donation" shit. Where were they 12 or 14 years ago?! lol Legendary researchers like Prof. Biden and Mr. Luzi never asked for money regarding their work which was placed on the internet (of course except for their books), so cheers buddy and again, stay tuned for more free projects.

...this is from 1959 with Hanhardt arresting small time criminals...

Hanhardt arresting members of Chicago's infamous Panczko robbery gang during the 60's, something which indicates that not all Outfit-connected burglary crews were protected by corrupt law officials...

Begs the question how much these corrupt cops take home. I’m sure it varies but it’d be interesting to track time periods, what was done, and who it was done for

Thats right although we must not forget that the from the 1940s until the early 1990's the Outfit was taking street tax from most of the burglary crews and it didnt matter on who led the crews, but instead it was important on which Outfit guy was connected to them. For example, the Purolator heist was "overseen" by the Chicago Heights crew (Catuara, Rubino, Fidanzi) and they allegedly took 500, 000 out of 4 million, meaning the rest went to the robbers. I believe Handhart gave the same percentage to the Grand Avenue crew from every bruglary he was involved in, mainly through Schiro. Corrupt cop and alleged made guy Richard Cain was also connected to another burglary crew, same as Outfit capo Wllie Daddono. "Legend" goes that when DiFronzo became boss during the early 1990s, he allegedly nixed the street tax for burglars.

Forgot about the street tax!!!

No problem. The Outfit was probably one of the first families which took street tax from most of their local burglary groups. Although some Outfit leaders like Humphreys didnt want to have anything with those same crews. Ill repeat his statement which was caught on a wiretap regarding burglars, that I previously posted in my previous article regarding the Outfit's multi-million dollar heist....

“I don’t let thieves come around me, I don’t care what kind of scumbags they are. Once they are in the can, let the fucker stay in. They’re not like us guys. They’re just not like us guys. These fuckers that steal, they’re just not like us guys. You just can’t let them get close to you. You can let ‘em come with a bumper between you.” - Murray “Curly” Humphreys, high level and influential leader of the Chicago Outfit

.....and I think he was spot on since he was a corruptor, racketeer, extortionist, kidnapper and murderer, and so he looked at the larger picture from a different angle