Wife alleges mob role in husband's slaying

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 28, 2007, 2:41 PM CDT
The former wife of a man allegedly gunned down because he planned to testify against reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo gave a moment-by-moment account of his killing today in the Family Secrets trial.

The woman, identified in court as Emma Seifert, said her husband, Daniel, had been in fear in the weeks leading up to his death and had armed himself. Federal prosecutors have said Daniel Seifert was to testify in a labor pension fraud case against Lombardo, which was dropped after Daniel Seifert was killed.

Emma Seifert said that on Sept. 27, 1974, she arrived at work before 8:30 a.m. with her husband and her 4-year-old son, Joseph, who was with the couple because he wasn't feeling well. She said they went into their Bensenville business, and she began to make coffee as her husband set down some toys for their son and went back outside to the car.

Suddenly a door in the office burst open, and two men in ski masks jumped out, she said.

"Two men in ski masks came through with guns and they were pointing them at my son and myself," she said, being led through her account by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully.

"I believe they said, 'This is a robbery, and where is . . .' and I don't know if they said my husband or 'that S.O.B,'" she said.

Daniel Seifert came back in, not knowing what was going on, she said, and was immediately struck with a gun and then chased outside. The next thing she knew, she and her son were being pushed into a bathroom at gunpoint by one of the men, she testified.

"He told me to be quiet, and not to worry," she said.

"Then I heard a gunshot, and the man left my side," she said. "Then I didn't hear anything for a few seconds."

The woman said she told Joseph to stay where he was, her voice breaking momentarily as she spoke to the courtroom. She said she looked around the corner out the front door of the business, and was able to catch a glimpse of her husband running across the parking lot of their office complex toward another building. Waiting in that direction was another man holding a sawed-off shotgun, she said.

He too was wearing a mask, she said. His weapon gave off a glint, she testified, leading her to believe it could have been nickel-plated. The woman said her husband made it to the neighboring building.

"That was the last time I saw him," she said, "running into the other business."

The woman testified that she believes one of the men that day was Joseph Lombardo, the man for whom her young son was named. "I can't say definitely, but I got the feeling that one of them was Joseph Lombardo," she testified.

"By his build, the way he moved," she said. "He was light on his feet. He was agile in his day. He was a boxer . . . And it just struck me that that was who it was."

Defense attorney Susan Shatz asked why the woman had never reported that before being interviewed by the FBI in 2003. Emma Seifert said she had told one agent in the weeks after the killing, but was unclear if that agent ever recorded what she said.

jcoen@tribune.com