Whats up ladies and gents?! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer Thats why, Ill try to make your day even better with another free and never released before article, obviously because you dont need any paywalls or pay sites and because we are always here for you. Enjoy and Salut'

INTRO

As I already wrote in some of my previous projects regarding corrupt cops such as Thomas Durso and Richard Cain, we can obviously see that the line between police officers and criminals is quite thin, or in other words it’s quite easy for someone to cross it for whatever motives. For example, the impact of drug trafficking on the corruption of police in large cities, such as Chicago, have a high incidence of drug trafficking and drug abuse. Reports, as well as interviews with officials and academic experts, provides descriptive information on the nature and extent of known drug-related police corruption in certain large areas. Findings show that drug-related police corruption differs in a variety of ways from other types of police corruption, meaning there’s a huge difference between protecting criminals by taking money from them and ignoring their activities, and cops being directly involved in selling drugs. The most common pattern of drug- related police corruption involves small groups of officers who protected and assisted each other in criminal activities, such as the ones in the following story.

Even though it’s not possible to estimate the overall extent of drug-related police corruption during the old days and even today, still there are enough reports and details regarding that same activity. The government’s culture regrading code of silence, coexists with the same silent code of the criminal underworld in numerous cases. The unquestioned loyalty between police officers is at the same level as the one within the Italian Mafia or the Chicago Outfit, and when the two meet together, they become “two sides of the same coin”.

The so-called leaders of the Chicago Outfit once oversaw the most lucrative narcotics trade in their area, but they usually didn’t want to have any direct contact with the product or with the people who sold it. Since the old Chicago Mafia had its fingers in local corruption and politics, they managed to “force” many government individuals to oversee their rackets, including the selling of narcotics. In fact, during the old days the Outfit had insiders in almost every local police squad, including the narcotics control bureau. One of Chicago’s most corrupt and notable police crews was headed by Miles Cooperman, Richard Austin and the so-called “leader of the pack” detective Sheldon Teller, and these fellas protected many narcotics rings which stretched from coast to coast and top of that, sometimes they were the ones who were also involved in selling “dope”. This is just another of Chicago’s sad stories from the past, including the illusion regarding “serve and protect”.


Sheldon R. Teller

GOOD COP, BAD COP

Sheldon R. Teller was born on January 10th, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and was one of eight children to Morris and Nellie Teller. His parents were immigrants who in turn previously arrived from Poland, with his father Morris being a Rabbi, and later the family moved to Chicago where they all lived on South Oglesby Avenue. Sheldon Teller attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa; and also served the army at Camp Grant. During the early 1940’s Teller became member of Chicago’s police force and on January 10, 1943, he married Sybil Joyce Horberg at the South Side Hebrew congregation, and later they had two children.

For being a good police officer for more than ten years, later or in 1954 Teller became leading detective for Chicago’s P.D. narcotics squad. Two of his younger colleagues and also close friends were Miles Cooperman and Richard Austin, and together they made few good cases, here and there. Cooperman started as a deputy sherif and later became a rookie narcotics details detective, and his name first hit the newspapers back in 1953, when he and another young sherif managed to catch two bandits who stole money from a gas station. Later in 1954, Cooperman shot one dope addict in the right hip, who in turn was running away from the detectives. The detectives wanted to arrest the addict for giving forged prescriptions, and Cooper first three warning shots in the air, and later allegedly shot the suspect “by accident”. As for Austin, in 1956 he was one of the detectives in the infamous Grimes case, in which two female teenagers were killed in front of their home.


Miles Cooperman


Richard Austin

In January 1957, Teller and Cooperman posed as a “blind guy” and a “cripple”, and entered a restaurant located at 313 S. Halsted Street, known as Sorio’s restaurant which was owned by one Apolonio Sorio. When the “undercover” detectives realized that the owner wasn’t in the establishment, they decided to go to his apartment where Sorio got arrested, since the investigators found 100 kilos of marijuana. The dealer was facing around $160,000 federal tax bill because during those days transferring marijuana without being registered was the subject to a tax of $100 an ounce.


Cooperman (left) and Teller (right) posing for the media as blind and cripple, and showing marijuana and a pistol which they seized during the raid

So, these guys were obviously doing their job and represented real tough and crafty detectives, and it seems that detective Teller always received the best info regarding certain narcotics dealers but the problem was that it didn’t come from informers but instead there was another “source”. At first, they all looked like honest cops who gave their oaths to serve and protect years ago, mainly because nobody knew all the details except for the detectives themselves and in fact, no one questioned them. But if you receive all the details, one just might look at the whole situation from a different angle or through a criminal perspective. For example, were they taking money under the table from certain criminals, or they were simply eliminating rivals in Chicago’s narcotics trade, but for who?


Teller and Cooperman examining heroin needles and narcotics

CROSSING THE LINE

Teller’s prime source for his findings and arrests was Edward Gayles, a former narcotics agent who later a defense attorney specializing in narcotics cases. Gayles obviously knew on who was who in Chicago’s underworld, especially in the African-American narcotics trade, and was also known for “fixing” cases usually with the help of one of his lawyers known as Joe Clayton, who in turn through a planned payoff system to Chicago judges and narcotics officers, made the operation look very easy and smooth. So, few of Gayles narcotics officers who were also on his payroll, included Teller, Cooperman and Austin. Besides being involved in corruption, all three detectives took their criminal careers on a higher level, thanks to Teller and Gayles’, the main connection between corrupt detectives and African-American drug peddlers.


Edward Gayles

Teller’s “greatness” was not because of his corruptness, but instead it was because of his connection to one quite lucrative group, which distributed narcotics all around Chicago’s South Side. The leader was one prominent African-American gangster known as Jeremiah Pullings, who besides selling heroin, he was also involved in all kinds of gambling operations and in the sale of illicit alcohol. One of Pullings’ most prominent co-operators was Nathaniel Spurlark, who had connections to other African-American narcotics peddlers from different cities such as St. Louis, Huston, Los Angeles, Iowa, Indianapolis, and even Cleveland and Detroit. These so-called “out of town” crews largely contributed to Pullings’ national drug peddling network and he allegedly received his shipments from the east coast, mainly from the city of New York. Or, Morris Rosenguard who was a pharmacist and operated a drug store at 3037 Wentworth Av. on Chicago’s South Side, which in fact was outlet for selling narcotics and was under Teller’s protection. The truth is that drug peddlers like Rosenguard, Spurlark and Pullings operated freely under the “umbrella” of detective Teller and his squad, and because of the large amount of cash, another criminal syndicate became quite interested in Teller’s operations.

THE MOB

Alleged Chicago Outfit member from the North Side, Salvatore “Sam” Canzoneri, was an officer for Chicago’s Police Department, magazine publisher and also close friend of Mafia boss Sam Giancana. Story goes that Canzoneri was also closely associated with detective Teller, and reports say that both Teller and Canzoneri were partners in a joint known as the Rivoli Club, which was a “rock and roll” spot on the city’s North Side. Canzoneri was also quite interested in the same dirty business as Teller, and also had connections to certain Mafia members who were ready to invest in the narcotics trade at any given time. Besides that, both Teller and Canzoneri also acted as “talent scouts” for the Mob, mainly with the help of their connections to corrupt prison guards, who in turn picked the “candidates”. Such example is when, in 1957 Teller and Cooperman arrested the “leaders” of one large crew of drug peddlers from the South Side, which was headed by one quite notorious African-American gangster known as Nolan Mack. The detectives arrested Mack, his wife Helen and also one of his associates Solomon Smalls. Story goes that during his stay in prison, Mack allegedly caught the eyes of some of Teller’s associates who in turn recommended him to the detective.


Sam Canzoneri (right)

When Mack got out of jail one year earlier, he was approached by Teller and his men and assured the gangster that he was going to continue selling drugs, but under the Mob’s protection. Later, Mack was introduced to Outfit caporegime Frank “Skids” Caruso, the boss of Chinatown and parts of the large South Side area. This meant that Caruso was going to finance Mack’s drug deals who in turn had to oversee the selling of the products in Caruso’s areas, under the protections of Teller’s police squad, obviously for a certain price. According to some government records, Mack’s “junk crew” supposedly made somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 on “a good day”, or around $400,000 in today’s cash. This means that Teller became valuable connection for the Chicago Mob, mainly because of his protection over the huge income which they received from the narcotics trade.


Nolan Mack

Another so-called Outfit associate who also allegedly used Teller’s services, was Ken Eto who in turn was the main guy who operated many lucrative gambling operations among the African-American and Hispanic populations from around the large North Side area and its suburbs. As we already saw, Teller and members of the Mob mainly used gangsters from different ethnic background, obviously because it was quite hard to connect them to the whole scheme, since the product was mainly sold, again to addicts from those same different ethnicities, and Eto was one of those guys who were perfect for the job.

BUMP ON THE ROAD

Even though the corrupt detectives mostly acted as protectors of certain narcotics peddling rings, and even acted as “go-betweens” and “talent scouts” for the Mob, still the money wasn’t enough and they started controlling their own operations. Teller and his cohorts were quite aware of the large amount of cash that was made from selling drugs, and they obviously weren’t satisfied from the “protection money” which they took from numerous gangsters, and that’s why they created a direct contact with the product and started selling it on their own. And so, when greed prevails, usually trouble comes somewhere down the way and in fact, Teller and his friends completely forgot on which side of the law they belong to, and became gangsters themselves.

The problem occurred when Teller, Cooperman and Austin, managed to sell one quarter of a kilogram of heroin to one dope peddler known as Otis Sears. The problem was that they sold the product directly to Sears, who in turn managed to get himself arrested by the feds and started talking about everything, obviously to get a lighter sentence. Sears mainly talked about the three corrupt detectives and their close associates Pullings and Spurlak, and also regarding their narcotics connections in New York and around the Midwest. So, in less than a week, all of the men were arrested were arrested and brought in custody. In October 1960, 13 defendants stood trial including the three detectives and they all pleaded not guilty. The three corrupt cops were charged with conspiracy to violate narcotics laws by buying, selling, and aiding in the transportation of the same narcotics and the same story went for the rest of the defendants.


Austin, Cooperman and Teller being questioned by Detective Chief John Ascher

The whole case became spectacular which was followed by a series of clashes between Chicago’s police and federal narcotics agents. Teller already had a good reputation and was respected by many of his colleagues, obviously because none of them knew his true nature. During the trial, which occurred before Judge Sam Perry in the federal District court, Teller and Cooperman gave testimony which conflicted with that given by federal agents and so, Judge Perry quickly decided that the testimony of Teller, Cooperman, and Austin, made the federal agents' testimony false. There’s no evidence if they were protected by the Judge and their own boys from Chicago’s P.D., but the case developed an unbelievable “twist” which made the three defendants look not guilty. And so, in April 1961, all three detectives and two of their associates also from the police force were acquitted on all charges, and as for Pullings, Spurlak and the rest of the gang, or the so-called “sacrificial lambs”, all received heavy sentences between 5 and 12 years in jail. Since he was allegedly suspended from the police force because of the situation, in the end Teller even received his old job back.

The scandal even reached the office of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, who stated that the justice department will file a complaint against Judge Perry. The Atty. General also stated that the Judge was allegedly pressuring the jury and prevented them in reaching a verdict on the defendants, especially the three detectives. This situation clearly shows that Teller and his associate still held a lot of influence within Chicago’s judicial and police corruption. Besides Teller’s personal connections within the courts and police, there’s also a great possibility regarding the Mob’s involvement in the corruption of the whole case, especially Mafia members which were already infiltrated within Chicago’s politics and police departments, although this is just a theory.

MY OWN THING

Teller felt untouchable and continued working as a detective for Chicago police force but mainly in solving murder cases. As usual, Teller again showed his efficiency in solving crime and his career was going smooth because he managed to solve few murders, and also began collaborating with the federal bureau by giving them surveillance reports regarding certain individuals. By this time, Teller’s previous two accomplices Cooperman and Austin were “out of the game” and abandoned all illegal activities, and his new partner in crime became another detective who went by the name of John Sullivan. So, according to the following information, it seems that Teller never learned his lesson from the previous incident which almost landed him in prison for the same reason which was narcotics, and so by 1963, Teller still sold large quantities of heroin on the city’s streets, and also continued “moonlighting” for the Mob as one of their protectors, procurers, collectors and even dope peddlers.


Teller (first from left) inspecting stolen merchandise in 1965

Besides selling heroin, both Teller and Sullivan also sold marihuana and cocaine, and their shipments’ origin again came from member of the Mafia from the east coast and also from Florida. Since he once managed to elude the feds, Teller’s ego went through the roof and felt untouchable, like for example selling drugs straight from his own house. When Teller or Sullivan weren’t able to deliver the “goods”, the costumers went straight to Teller’s home where they were usually greeted by his wife, who in turn sold them whatever they wanted. When the two detectives were not on duty, they personally would tell the costumer to wait next to some particular phone post where they would simply throw the package and drive away.


John Sullivan

Two of Teller’s new customers who were among the rare ones that bought large quantities of drugs from the detective, were the African-American criminal duo James “Kid Riviera” Williams and Thomas “Shaky Tom” Anderson, and the reason for that was these two fellas were the prime operators in the policy business and also in the crap games operations around the old 24th Ward, under the auspices of the Chicago Outfit. In fact, Anderson was connected to the Mob since the late 1940’s, when he used to work as a bookkeeper and the interesting thing was that he held a university degree in accounting. As for Williams, he was one 300-pound enforcer who never finished 4th grade, and also personally knew Outfit guys such as Ken Eto and the boss of the whole North Side, Ross Prio. At the front of every building, Williams and Anderson had a lookout crew equipped with walkie-talkie radios, with the other half of the two-way radios set in some apartment, which were usually equipped with well-stocked bars, a bartender and bar maids, and besides gamblers, those same joints were also visited by narcotics addicts since many of the operators and bartenders were in fact runners for Williams for his drugs peddling business.


James Williams

And because of his “hard work”, Teller, his wife and two kids lived in a $60,000 (more than $600,000 in today’s money) home on Longwood dr., equipped with a swimming pool and a tennis court, and in his garage, Teller had three expensive cars. In other words, the famous detective was riding high and was making huge amount of cash. You see, there’s a huge difference between selling 10 kilos of heroin or cocaine all at once, and selling it on the streets in small doses, meaning there’s a lot more money to be made with the second scheme but obviously the risk is much higher.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

By 1965, detective Sheldon Teller was still selling heroin, weed and cocaine around the city’s North and South sides, but during his activities he made one cardinal mistake, all by himself. That same year, one of Teller’s dealers known as John D. Cage, was arrested for possession of large quantities of marijuana and heroin and was placed on trial. Cage was allegedly very loyal “soldier” and so detective Teller decided to write a letter to the assistant state’s attorney Lawrence Genesen, and in it Teller asked him to consider that in the past Cage had allegedly given the police narcotics squad valuable information for a series of burglaries. In return, Genesen replied that he already had considered asking the Judge to dismiss the charges because Teller had such an outstanding reputation as a police officer. But the problem was when Cornelius Casey, head of the narcotics detail, recommended that nothing be done at the time and that the police was to be given a chance to investigate the statements made in the letter by Teller. After the investigation, it turned out that Teller was lying since Cage was already in prison at the time when Teller had said that he was a police informant. So, after making such a bold move, all of the attention was now turned against detective Teller and his partner John Sullivan.

In April of 1966, the feds managed to hit one of the main gambling and at the same time, drugs peddling places for Teller’s associates Williams and Anderson. Around 15 policemen entered on the first-floor of a ten-story building at 2118 Warren Blvd. and arrested almost 50 men and women, which some of them were and gamblers, and rest were addicts. They also managed to arrest the main operator Vernon Bailey, who in turn tried to hide half-a-pound of heroin but failed. Shortly after, another of their African-American associates, Samuel Washington, was also arrested and later was forced by the investigators to telephone detective Teller numerous times, while the feds were listening on an extension phone. During their conversations, the two were mostly talking about narcotics deals and the feds realized that Teller was keeping his stash at home.

In no time, the agents obtained federal arrest and search warrants for Teller’s residence and during the search, the agents recovered large quantities of heroin, cocaine and marijuana, all valued at $150,000 (around $1,500,000 in today’s money), together with narcotics-making apparatus and more than $45,000 in currency (or $400,000). At the same time, detective Sullivan's apartment was also raided and the agents found several cards on which were recorded six automobile license numbers which had been assigned to narcotics agents. Immediately Teller and his partner Sullivan were indicted for the sale and possession of narcotics and their bonds were set at $5,000 for Teller and $2,500 for Sullivan. On November 6, 1966, the defendants were destroyed by the testimony of Washington and so, the detectives received their prison sentences, including Teller 18 years and Sullivan 9 years.

While in prison at Leavenworth Kas., in 1972 the Internal Revenue Service stated that Teller failed to pay income taxes from his sales on narcotics from 1963 until 1966, and so the IRS wanted for Teller to pay more than $600,000 in penalties. Teller filed a petition and claimed that he had no financial resources, except for a $10 prison job and few additional dollars sent by family and friends. As a result, Teller asked court to allow the IRS to apply the unspecified amount of money previously taken from his home to his back taxes and to order the IRS to write off the balance. I personally don’t have any additional info regarding this specific case but it is possible that the court approved Teller’s request.



BEING NOBODY

In 1977, 56- years old Teller finally received his early release and besides his family members, there was no one else out there for him anymore. By that time, he obviously couldn’t work as a cop and the narcotics business was being taken over by the criminal elements which he previously worked with, such as the African-American and Hispanic gangs. On top of that, during the 1970’s and 80’s the new leadership of the Chicago Outfit strongly opposed narcotics, and killed anyone from their organization who dealt with it. For example, 10 years later after Teller’s release from prison, his long-time associate and alleged Mafia member Sam Canzoneri was shot to death on the Outfit’s orders allegedly regarding the same situation.

Story goes that Teller couldn’t lift his head up and to look the people in the eyes from his old neighborhood because of the shame which he brought on himself and his family, and completely destroyed his reputation. He was looked upon as just another corrupt cop and former drug dealer, who did time in prison and couldn’t be trusted. That’s why, sometime during the following years Teller decided to leave the Chicago area and moved far way to Arizona, where he lived quietly until his death in November 1994, at age of 73.

If we look at the situation from financial and illegal angle, Sheldon Teller was one of the smartest and cunning gangsters in Chicago’s underworld history, but if we look at the situation from the opposite angle, he obviously failed and lied to everyone around him, including himself. The greed that overtook his mind, was the end of him and also the end of his reputation as successful cop. Teller was one of the “bridges” between crime and state security, and was also one of the main connections between the Italian mob and criminal gangs from other ethnic groups. In fact, when many “connection guys” like Teller were imprisoned back in the days, it signaled the end of the long-time lucrative cooperation between some of the city’s corrupt cops, the Mafia and African-American and Hispanic gangs. But the collaboration between informers and the government is much stronger, because it contributed a lot regarding the many arrests of corrupt individuals, mobsters and drug dealers, thus placing them in prison for a very long time. Even though Teller acted as a “kingpin” with his lucrative narcotics operations, still by the end of the day he was a peddler of misery which probably killed a lot of people and also destroyed many lives, and that’s why he was punished for everything that he did and later ended up as being a “nobody”.


Cheers

Austin and Teller examining seized weed and heroin in 1957.....

Policemen bending over the wounded addict who in turn was shot by corrupt detective Miles Cooperman back in 1954....

It seems that after his retirement from the police force and also from selling dope, former corrupt detective Cooperman entered the horse business, such as breeding and selling race horses on the tracks, and one of his close associates was Irwin Weiner, notorious member of the infamous Grand Avenue crew, who in turn received info from Cooperman on which horse is going to win the race.

Didn't have the time to read it, but looks good like always TD!

Thanks @H and believe me you wont be disappointed since there are some names that many people never heard of.

Even though he was closely connected to the Chicago Outfit, still in 1958 Teller arrested one of the mob's most notorious enforcers and hitman Alex Ross, who in turn worked as enforcer and collector in the vending machine business for Willie Daddono, Frank Laporte, Eddie Vogel and Hyman Larner, although it is believed that he officially belonged to Daddono's crew. I dont know if Teller was simply absorbed into the situation by his colleagues in the police force or Ross simply crossed the line and had to do some time.


Alex Ross

One of Teller's heroin dealers Daniel Escobedo, and also another pic of John Sullivan...


Escobedo


Sullivan

Teller's associate and caporegime for Chinatown and the Near South Side, Frank "Skids" Caruso Sr. and his son "Toots" Caruso Jr. is possibly running today's Outfit, or at least one of the two remaining groups...