United States v. Cerone

• Decision Date: 28 February 1972
• Docket Number: No. 18551,18622 and 18635.,18555,18551
• Citation: 452 F.2d 274
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Philip CERONE, Sr., et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

452 F.2d 274 (1971)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Philip CERONE, Sr., et al., Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 18551, 18555, 18622 and 18635.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

September 15, 1971.

Rehearings Denied October 26, 1971.

Rehearings Denied November 9, 1971.

Certiorari Denied February 28, 1972.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Julius Lucius Echeles, Chicago, Ill., for James Cerone.

Harry J. Busch, Jack P. Cerone, Chicago, Ill., for John Philip Cerone, Sr.

Louis Carbonaro, Carbonaro & Carbonaro, Chicago, Ill., for Joseph Ferriola.

John Powers Crowley, Chicago, Ill., for Dominic Cortina.

Anna R. Lavin, Edward J. Calihan, Jr., Chicago, Ill., for Donald J. Angelini.

William J. Bauer, U. S. Atty., Jeffrey Cole, Deputy Chief, Appellate Division, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee; John Peter Lulinski, Michael D. Marrs, Donald C. Shine, Thomas G. Dent, Robert A. Filpi, Asst. U. S. Attys., of counsel.

Before SWYGERT, Chief Judge, and STEVENS and SPRECHER, Circuit Judges.

Rehearings Denied in Nos. 18551 and 18555 October 26, 1971.

Rehearings Denied in Nos. 18622 and 18635 November 9, 1971.

Certiorari Denied February 28, 1972. See 92 S.Ct. 1169.

SWYGERT, Chief Judge.

These consolidated appeals challenge the validity of judgments of conviction entered upon jury verdicts which found defendants John P. (Jack) Cerone, Sr., Donald J. Angelini, Dominic Cortina, James Cerone and Joseph Ferriola guilty of conspiring to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1952 in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and which found Angelini guilty of a substantive violation of section 1952 as well. Because the defendants each challenge, inter alia, the sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions, we shall recite the facts adduced at trial in some detail, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government as we must.

The major source of the Government's evidence against the defendants was Louis Bombacino, a paid informer who had been involved in the operation of defendants' alleged gambling conspiracy from late June of 1965 until about August of 1967.¹ Bombacino had been a rather unsuccessful criminal for much of his life, alternately attempting mail theft, forgery, robbery, extortion and the confidence game to support himself between the several prison terms he received for his endeavors. In April of 1965 while he was in jail awaiting trial on a state charge of robbery, Bombacino agreed to become an informer. Most of what follows is based upon his testimony.

Prior to the disposition of the robbery charge in September of 1965 (when he was placed on probation for a period of five years) but subsequent to his agreement to become an informer, Bombacino contacted Angelo Kokas, an old friend, on June 25, 1965, and, pursuant to their conversation on that date, returned to the MGM Lounge in Chicago at about midnight on the following day. When he arrived, Kokas, Frank Aureli (a defendant as to whom a mistrial and severance were ordered because of his sudden illness during the trial), defendant Ferriola, "Turk" Turello and John Varlas were seated together at a table in the restaurant portion of the Lounge. Bombacino went to the table and shook hands with Aureli, who inquired as to whether Bombacino was "going to give up getting himself in trouble all the time, back and forth, in and out of jails." Bombacino replied that was the reason he wanted to see Aureli, that he wanted to go to work for him. Aureli then looked at Ferriola, who nodded and told Bombacino : "You go to work for Frank Aureli, but be careful. There are a lot of G heat on the street."²

In accordance with the foregoing conversation, Bombacino went to work for Aureli as an employee of the bookmaking operation conducted out of Aureli's apartment at 4355 South Sawyer. Bombacino's and Aureli's daily activities were essentially the same each day at the Sawyer street address, except that on Monday mornings Bombacino would go to Johnny Manzella's sausage stand to pick up baseball betting sheets which showed the teams scheduled to play for the week with various columnar rulings which were used to record the pitchers for each team and the "line," that is, odds and point spreads on each game. Except for that Monday variation, each day Bombacino would go to 4355 South Sawyer at about 10 or 11 a. m. The line would be obtained by a telephone call placed by Aureli, and he and Bombacino would then remain at the apartment taking calls from bettors and recording bets until about 4 to 6 p. m. The total of the day's bets taken in by Aureli and Bombacino on June 27, 1965, Bombacino's first day on the job, was about $15,000, the record of which was turned over that evening to Johnny Manzella who was identified as "the boss of the district."

About July 2, Aureli told Bombacino that Angelo Kokas was pocketing some of the bets he received and that they were going to Domenick's Pool Room. When they arrived at the poolroom at about 1 p. m., defendant Angelini, Kokas, Manzella and Joe Giancanna were already there. The group went into the poolroom section of the establishment (it also had a barber shop and candy counter) where Angelini told Kokas he was to call in all bets of $50 or more to Aureli. Kokas acquiesced without protest, and Aureli then gave Kokas a telephone number, whereupon Aureli and Bombacino departed.

About the middle of October, 1965, Aureli told Bombacino that they would be moving to Maywood, that they would be working for defendants Angelini and Cortina, and that Bombacino would no longer pick up schedules from Manzella. A day or two later, Bombacino and Aureli did move to 321 West Lake Street in Maywood. The location was described as a small store with a barricaded back door, equipped with two telephones and two buckets of water.³ Bombacino and Aureli operated in the same fashion as before, except that on Monday mornings Bombacino would pick up schedules from the office of Angel-Kaplan Sports News Service (wholly owned by Angelini) at 236 North Clark Street in Chicago and he also drove Aureli to and from the Lake Street location each day. In addition, Bombacino began to make the daily telephone calls to Angelini's office to obtain the line. Sometimes he spoke to Angelini personally in that regard. While at the Lake Street location, Aureli introduced Bombacino to John DiDomenico whom he identified as the bookkeeper for defendants Cortina and Angelini. DiDomenico picked up the betting records from Aureli and Bombacino on a daily basis, and on Sundays he "hung around" the Lake Street book and took bets over the telephone.

Three or four weeks after the move to Lake Street, Aureli and Bombacino moved again to a new location at 6955 West Grand Avenue shortly after Aureli informed Bombacino that they would so move. The characteristics of the new site and its equipment were essentially the same as at the former location. A day or so after the move, Aureli introduced Salvatore (Sammy) Molose to Bombacino at the book, stating that Molose was a good friend of Cortina's and that Aureli was going to teach him "the business." Bombacino's duties remained the same, however.

On January 7, 1966, the date another bookmaker named Andy Federenko was arrested, Aureli told Bombacino that they were going to the MGM Lounge to meet with Ferriola. They met Ferriola and Turello at the Lounge at about 7:30 p. m. Turello inquired of Aureli whether he knew anything about Federenko running an unauthorized book with Edward Bisacky that was taking in $50,000 per month. Aureli denied any such knowledge, and Ferriola instructed him to contact Federenko and determine whether he knew of any such book. The next evening Aureli told Bombacino that they were going to meet Federenko at the Division Street Bath House. They did so, and, in a conversation in the steam room, Federenko denied knowledge of the book. Aureli expressed disbelief and stated to Federenko that he would have to answer to Ferriola since he had told Aureli to inquire of Federenko about the book. On January 10, Bombacino, Aureli, Manzella, Federenko and Ferriola met at a sausage stand, and Ferriola ordered Manzella to get Manzella's betting records for Ferriola's inspection. Ferriola further ordered Federenko to take no more bets and to turn over all his bets to Aureli.

Early in February, 1966, Aureli told Bombacino that the betting was getting too heavy so that the bettors could not get through to him on the telephone and that Cortina was looking for a new telephone. Bombacino offered to use his home telephone for receiving bets. Aureli said he would let Bombacino know as to whether that was acceptable, and within a day or two Aureli told him that he should get a telephone and that he "would be taking all out-of-town sports action at his home." Bombacino had a telephone installed at his apartment at 2540 North Mannheim Road and began booking at his apartment. His duties remained the same—Mondays only, pick up schedules from Angelini's office; daily transport Aureli from his apartment to his book at 6955 West Grand; daily get the line from Angelini's office; daily take bets over the telephone from about 11 a. m. to about 6 p. m.; and daily turn in betting records to DiDomenico in the evening. Bombacino received almost daily telephone calls from Nate Wigod, a "big bettor from Detroit."

Near the end of April, 1966, Aureli went to Miami, Florida for a week to ten days. During that period, he called Bombacino in Illinois every evening to inquire how the book had fared for the day.

During May or June, 1966, on the occasion of his taking some money to Angelini for Aureli, Bombacino had a conversation with Angelini in the latter's office. When Bombacino inquired as to how Angelini was doing, Angelini replied that he "didn't like baseball because it looks like Angelini was losing another $200,000 this year on baseball."

In the early part of June, 1966, Aureli told Bombacino that...