Master thief tells how he survived Outfit vendetta
MOB'S MESSAGE | Burglars slain after break-in at Accardo's

July 26, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
First one burglar, then another, told their friend, master thief Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel, the same story: They had just been told about a great score and were going to a meeting to learn more.

Then they were never heard from again.

First, Siegel heard from John Mendell, who was going out to meet reputed Outfit killer and thief Ronald Jarrett.

Siegel passed on the meeting, and Mendell wound up in a car trunk.

'I knew I was on the list'
Next, Siegel heard from Bernard "Buddy" Ryan, who told him mob boss John DiFronzo had told him about a score with gold coins.
Ryan was found shot to death in Stone Park.

Then Siegel got a call from a man he knew, but not well, telling him about a great score -- involving gold coins.

"That's when I knew I was on that list," Siegel told jurors Wednesday in the Family Secrets trial.

It was a list of burglars to be killed to send a message about breaking into the home of mob boss Anthony Accardo in the late 1970s.


Took polygraph test
Siegel, 71, who is in witness protection, told jurors he originally believed the Outfit furor was over burglarizing a jewelry store owned by a friend of Accardo's.
As burglars he knew were getting murdered, Siegel took a polygraph test to show he had nothing to do with that burglary. Siegel passed the test, sent the results to the mob through attorneys, and survived.

Only later, Siegel testified, he learned from his friend, mobster Gerald Scarpelli, that the Outfit was killing burglars, not even ones necessarily involved in the Accardo break-in, to send a message. Scarpelli told Siegel, "There was a message they were trying to get out, but it didn't turn out the way they wanted."

The Outfit wanted to kill one burglar of every nationality, Scarpelli told him.

"You just happened to be the Jew," Scarpelli told Siegel.


Admitted 3 murders
Earlier in the trial, Siegel described how his mob boss in the 1960s, Angelo Volpe, the head of the South Side numbers racket, bribed top Chicago cop William Hanhardt to look the other way. Hanhardt got $1,000 to $1,200 a month and a new car every two years, Siegel said.
Hanhardt's attorney, Jeff Steinback, declined to comment. Hanhardt was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in 2002 for running a nationwide jewelry theft ring.

Siegel began working with investigators in the mid-1990s after he was convicted in a series of jewelry store robberies. In a deal with prosecutors, he admitted killing three people for the mob, including an informant for the federal government, but was never tried for murder.