Springfield, IL Mafioso: Baptista (Bobby) Bommarito

By the 1950s, Bobby Bommarito was being carried on the books of the FBI as a documented "soldier" of the Frank Zito Family of Springfield, IL. His affiliation with them was known to date back to at least the mid-1920s.

Baptista R. (Bobby) Bommarito - aka "Baptiste Bommarito" and "Robert Bommarito" - was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Sicilian immigrant parents Vincenzo and Josephine Bommarito (nee’ Catanzaro) on June 12, 1908. He was one of nine children the Bommaritos had. His siblings, five sisters, and three brothers were named Rose, Sarah, Mary, Antoinette, Pauline, Louis, Samuel, and Anthony (aka Toots).

Upon arriving in the United States near the turn of the century, Vincenzo and Josephine made their way to the midwestern City of St. Louis, Missouri. This is where they decided to set down their roots and raise their family. And this is where Bobby would live on and off for years to come.

As a young man, he relocated to nearby East St. Louis in St. Clair County, Illinois. Sometime later, he relocated once again to the City of Springfield, Illinois, less than one hundred miles away from East St. Louis.

Bobby soon met and fell in love with a local girl, three years his junior, named Agnes Ann Kudis. And before long, the young couple welcomed two sons into the world, Robert V. Bommarito (who was named after his dad), and Thomas A. Bommarito.

Unfortunately, these happy milestones for the Bommarito family were overshadowed by the devastating losses of both his parents at a very young age. Bobby was a mere 17 years old when his father Vincenzo died in 1925. His mom, Josephine, passed away in 1934 when Bobby was only 26.

Over the years, the Bommaritos resided at various addresses within East St. Louis, including 717 Carr Street (1937), the 4000 block of Tholotan Avenue (1949), 3990 Bowen Street, and later, 3930 Bowen Street (1955).

Ostensibly, through the years, he listed his occupation as a truck driver, an employee of the Ritz Soda Company, and a tavern owner.

But local and federal law enforcement authorities say that since the time he was a teenager, Bommarito had been closely affiliated with top racketeers and mafiosi connected to the local Mafia Family. As time went by, he reputedly became a member of the Frank Zito Family, which was the Cosa Nostra borgata in control of the City of Springfield and its nearby territories.

A Loyal Soldier

By the 1950s, Baptiste Bommarito was being carried on the books of the FBI as a documented "soldier" of that Mafia Family. His affiliation with them was known to date back to at least the mid-1920s.

Over the years, police say he was involved in everything from liquor bootlegging, robberies, extortion, strong-arm work, and suspected murder to gambling rackets like horse bookmaking, operating illicit casino games, and bribing police officers.

By 1960, Bommarito’s criminal file with Illinois State law enforcement authorities reads like a laundry list and includes at least 20 arrests for kidnapping and assault, conspiracy, felonious assault, driving intoxicated, reckless driving, speeding and driving erratically (10 days in the workhouse, $50 fine, and 3-month license suspension,) and gambling. In fact, local police reported that, through the years, Bommarito had been arrested at least 15 or 16 times for various gambling offenses alone.

Young "Bobby B" Makes the Front Page!

One of the highest profile criminal investigations he was ever connected to, which eventually led to his arrest and a highly publicized criminal trial in November 1930 was when he was nabbed along with five other Springfield-based mafiosi for the kidnapping and beating of a local grocer named Sam Scorfina. The victim later told police that his kidnappers abducted him off the street, threw him in a car, drove him to a remote farmhouse where they held him against his will, and then demanded $2000 for his release.

Note: There was some information that later came out, but was never confirmed, that suggested Scorfina was actually a gambling rival and that he was kidnapped in order to "shake him down" and eliminate competition from the mob’s control of Springfield’s racket operations .

At the time they were apprehended by police, local newspapers described the five defendants as young "Sicilians" from St. Louis.

Bommarito, who was only in his late teens then, was identified by police as a strong-arm man and young enforcer for the group. His codefendants included a notorious gunman by the name of Vito Impastato , Sora Mantia, Michele (Mike) Lombardo, and another very notorious character by the name of Francesco (Frank) Agrusa. The sixth man charged in the case, a convicted bank robber by the name of Carl Fiorita, later had the charges against him dropped.

Side Note: At least two of these men, Impastato and Agrusa, were determined to have been important mafiosi. Frank Agrusa was said to have been the reputed one time head of the St. Louis Mafia. In later years, Vito Impastato, a mafia soldier would rise up the criminal ladder to become one of Springfield Mafia’s top "capo di decina" and one of that city’s controlling underworld leaders, reputedly second-in-command only to Family boss Frank Zito himself. By the 1950s, Impastato was repeatedly identified by the FBI, the FBN, and during testimony at several United States Senate Hearings as one of Springfield, Illinois’ most dangerous and important Mafia figures.

The Kidnapping Trial

In court, the presiding judge hearing the case was Judge Bernreuter. During the trial, prosecutors described it as a ransom-kidnapping of Sam Scorfina, ostensibly a simple grocer. But confidential underworld sources and later trial testimony later confirmed that, in fact, Scorfina was a racketeer in his own right. And the circumstances surrounding his abduction were murky and convoluted at best.

For their part, the defendants generally sat quietly, listening to the proceedings. News reporters described them as neatly dressed young men and freshly shaven. They described Mantia and Agrusa as looking a little pale and nervous. Impastato was, as usual, cool and calm. And Bommarito and Lombardo, the two "kids" of the trial, who had earlier been the most impressed by the court proceedings, had become completely nonchalant in their demeanor.

Despite the outwardly calm demeanor, the defendants were essentially fighting for their very lives because prosecutors had stated they would seek the death penalty upon conviction.

In a sense, the subsequent trial to determine the defendant's guilt or innocence became something of a three-ring circus after very contentious, and ultimately conflicting, sworn testimony by several prosecution witnesses, not the least of which was the prosecution's chief witness, the kidnap victim himself.

Sam Scorfina later completely recanted his prior sworn testimony and told the prosecutor that he could no longer positively identify any of the defendants as his assailants.

Side Note: Information later came out that unnamed "friends" of the defendants had threatened Scorfina’s life and that of his family if he dared to testify for the prosecution. Scared for his life, Scorfina allegedly assured these "friends" that he would not identify the defendants in court.

In fact, Scorfina was so scared that he refused to even attend the trial unless he received better police protection. Subsequently, a squadron of 15 police officers was assigned to accompany Scorfina to trial each day his appearance was required in court. But, ultimately, it would make no difference.

Standing Room Only

Newspapers reported that the courtroom was packed solid each day with every seat in the house filled and that an additional crowd of at least 25 to 30 spectators who could not get into the courtroom congregated in the corridor outside the courtroom.

Defense attorneys made a successful argument to the judge that since all spectators in the courthouse had been thoroughly searched for weapons, Scorfina, the state’s star witness, should be allowed to enter the room without police guards because there was no danger to him.

They also requested that no uniformed policemen be allowed in the courtroom while Scorfina testified. The contention of the defense was that the presence of police officers and a heavy guard would intimidate their chief witness as well as possibly prejudice the jury pool.

The judge agreed with the defense and granted both requests. But he also ordered Impastato’s brother Jack to be removed from the courtroom since he might have been there solely as a possible intimidation tactic to scare the witness.

Nonetheless, a small regiment of several dozen armed officers remained stationed outside, patrolling the exterior of the courthouse and checking for trouble along several side streets.

Despite the prosecution's best efforts, once Sam Scorfina chose to recant his earlier testimony, it was all over for them. The trial judge was obligated to declare a not guilty verdict and dismiss the case. The State’s entire case completely fell apart. Subsequently, Bommarito and his four "compare" were immediately released from police custody.

I can only imagine that the defendants went out and had themselves a big Italian dinner with lots of Sicilian specialties and more than a few glasses of homemade red wine to celebrate their good fortune. For they knew they’d just narrowly missed a date with the Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, the pressure he was under from both the Mafia and law enforcement caused Sam Scorfina to suffer a complete nervous breakdown while under police protection. The Mafia’s threats to his life and prosecutors pushing him to testify had simply proven to be too much for the man.

Takin' His Buckwheats

Although he was acquitted of the underworld kidnapping and assault, Bobby Bommarito was now solidly on the police radar screen. And in the years following his acquittal in the kidnapping case, local authorities made it their business to keep tabs on him and break his horns whenever they could.

In fact, the St. Louis Police Department began a coordinated harassment campaign against all five men. Orders were issued to arrest them on sight, and after several months of continuous arrests and harassment, the gangsters decided to take refuge in Springfield.

A good example of this harassment took place in March 1937 when Bommarito’s tavern was one of six such liquor-licensed establishments to be brought up on various liquor law violations.

Bommarito operated a bar at 1113 Franklin Avenue. The five others involved were identified as Jack Orlando, who ran a nightclub at 3699 Olive; Joseph Murer, who had a bar at 1545 North Eighteenth Street; Paul Farson, who owned a tavern at 210 North Chambers Avenue; Mrs. Phyllis Fleischman, owner of a bar at 2871 South Thirteenth Street; and Sylvester Costello, who had a liquor license for 5017 Delmar Boulevard.

After review, Thomas L. Anderson, the Illinois Excise Commissioner, issued one liquor license revocation and five license suspensions. The suspensions were issued accordingly; Jack Orlando (10-day suspension), Joseph Murer (6-day suspension), Paul Farson (3 days), Mrs. Fleischman (3 days), and Sylvester Costello (4 days).

Yep, you have guessed it! Our boy, Bobby Bommarito lost his license to operate a licensed establishment after charges were lodged against him for allegedly “conducting a disorderly place.”

With his license now completely revoked, Bobby may as well have knocked the place down and turned it into a parking lot, because his bar business was now destroyed.

Note: The name given by bar owner “Jack Orlando,” may have actually been Giacomo (Jack) Impastato, the brother of Vito Impastato. Vito was known to sometimes use the alias “Joe Orlando.”

The Mafia's "Frequent Flyer" Program

The police pressure eventually convinced Bommarito and his fellow mafiosi to leave East St. Louis altogether and relocate themselves back to the friendlier climate of nearby Springfield, Illinois, which was under the purview and control of their Springfield-based Family headed by boss Francesco (Frank) Zito.

No sooner had they arrived back in Springfield when several bodies started dropping. Police reported that their "invasion of the Illinois capitol was marked by the murder of Charles Dawson, a known bookmaker, who resisted encroachment in his territory. He was shot down in broad daylight on a downtown Springfield street on December 28, 1931.”

In an unrelated incident, Mafia leader Frank Agrusa left Springfield for Hot Springs, Arkansas where he was reportedly killed in gangland warfare shortly thereafter. But Bommarito and Impastato successfully integrated back into the Springfield underworld and remained in the capital city for many years to come.

For the next twenty years or so, Bobby Bommarito remained in Springfield and served as a soldier and strong-arm man for the Zito Family. He reportedly also helped control the police bribery “pad” and operated gambling rackets.

By the late 1940s, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch released a series of news articles about official corruption in Springfield. This publicity eventually spurred an investigation that revealed payoffs from the underworld’s gambling and vice racketeers to city, county, and state officials in return for "protection" payments amounting to $10,000 a week (a whopping sum of money back in the 1940s.)

As a result of these revelations, all forms of gambling in Sangamon County were ordered closed down by State Attorney General George P. Cautrakon. This shutdown and law enforcement pressure continued for the next several years.

This "moratorium" on the mob’s rackets forced many former St. Louis-based hoodlums and gamblers to once again return to that city to conduct their illegal rackets. The newly elected Governor, Forrest Smith, had earlier reportedly promised that if elected governor, he would allow "wide open" gambling to return to the city.

So, counting on the underworld scuttlebutt, the gangsters started returning to their old haunts to set up handbooks, dice games, and other types of gambling rackets.

Bookin' Bets

On July 23, 1949, Bommarito was arrested for bookmaking.

Described in the newspapers as “a Sicilian gangster” who returned to St. Louis recently after 17 years participating in operating “wide open” gambling rackets in Sangamon County, Illinois (City of Springfield), the police said Bommarito was arrested inside a handbook he was then operating behind a vegetable stand and cigar store he ran as a front for his racket, at 2004 Gravols Avenue.

Bommarito, who was 41 years old at the time, and a gambling employee named Thomas J. White were nabbed after Bommarito unwittingly admitted an undercover member of the Police Gambling Squad into the front of the establishment and then failed to prevent the officer from pushing his way into a backroom betting parlor.

Both men were booked on two counts, suspicion of setting up and maintaining a gaming house and vagrancy.

The detective, who did not have a search warrant at the time, said the gambling squad had suspected for months that Bommarito’s storefront business was really a gambling operation. As the detective passed by the place, he peered through a window and said he saw the gangster seated by a telephone writing figures on a betting tab.

Although the door was locked, the detective reported that Bommarito opened it for him when he knocked but when Bommarito recognized him as a policeman, he tried pushing him out and re-locking the door. But the officer pushed him aside and rushed into the back room gambling parlor.

The arresting officer went on to say that four or five men, apparently betting customers, fled through a back door as he entered. He arrested Bommarito, Tommy White, and a third man who was later released. As they were being arrested, Bommarito and White took several pads of betting slips from their pockets and threw them to the floor. But the arresting detective picked them up and brought them to Police Headquarters as evidence.

Greasin' the Coppers

In 1950, the heat ratcheted up considerably on Bommarito after a major law enforcement investigation began to probe the previously mentioned, alleged pervasive local police corruption and bribery allegations.

This latest law enforcement probe really sent the bookies and racketeers running for cover. Gamblers were said to be so apprehensive to operate that they had completely disappeared off the streets and were taking extra precautions against being caught. The Globe-Democrat Daily Newspaper reported that the gamblers were "currently taking no bets from anyone they are not absolutely sure of, and are limiting their overall betting operations until they feel the pressure of the current investigation eases.”

Other newspapers also reported that bookmakers and handbook operators were going undercover as a result of the intense "heat" generated by the investigation into the transfer of a foot patrolman who had been warned not to make any trouble for a bookie parlor that he discovered while walking his beat.

Chief of Police Jeremiah O’Connell ordered his police inspector to conduct a full intensive investigation into the case of Patrolman Nathan Koldun, who was relieved of his regular patrol "beat" and reassigned to another shift in the Lynch Street District, one day after Koldun threatened to close down a suspected handbook betting shop at 2004 Gravois Avenue.

A subsequent police raid on the shop disclosed that Patrolman Koldun was correct. That the location was, in fact, an illegal bookmaking parlor.

On Chief O’Connell’s direct orders, Koldun was then returned to his former patrol beat - the same beat he had originally uncovered the betting parlor, which had led to his transfer.

O’Connell further stated that he would welcome any concrete evidence of corruption within his police force relating to the Koldun case and that he hoped to have a report ready for the Board of Police Commissioners the following month.

Following the raid on the Gravois Avenue handbook, John J. (Big Johnny) Michaels, who had a long record of arrests and was listed as a "KG" (known gambler), was arrested for being the bookmaker operating the gambling parlor.

Chief O’Conner also said that information obtained from his office showed that it was the second time in as many years that a handbook was found to be operating from that address. On July 23, 1949, Baptiste Robert Bommarito, acquitted in 1930 of the underworld kidnapping of Samuel Scorfina, was nabbed as the operator of another bookmaking parlor there. Bommarito was later found guilty and fined $250.

Bommarito and many others, policemen and hoodlums alike, were subsequently called in for questioning, but nothing would ever come from this probe.

Finding His Niche

On April 10, 1958, Illinois State Police raided an illegal gambling casino at the Colony Club in Alexander County and arrested seven men. One of the men arrested was identified by the authorities as Robert Bommarito of St. Louis, who they described as a close associate of East St. Louis rackets boss Frank (Buster) Wortman. At the time, authorities said that Bommarito and Wortman were partnered in various gambling rackets within the East St. Louis area.

During the raid on the Colony Club, police also confiscated a professional roulette wheel, two dice game (crap) tables, and a quantity of playing chips.

Six men pled out to disorderly conduct charges and were fined $25 apiece. They were identified as Eugene (Gene) Deboe, Daniel Picarella, Carl Wickmann, Millard Boatright, and Emanuel (Manny) Candela.

The seventh defendant, John Wilson, was charged with operating the game and possession of gambling equipment. Wilson was also identified as the former operator of the Thunderbird Night Club, a popular area nightspot.

Another gambling location Bommarito was connected to was identified as the Ranch House, a vibrant casino that mob guys had established in Centreville Township, which the State Police also later successfully raided and shut down.

Here We Go Again!

One year later, on April 28, 1959, Illinois State Police conducted another gambling raid at an East Side casino, The Checker Inn, located at 4500 Old St. Clair Avenue, and busted up another lucrative illegal casino operation. A raiding party of ten state troopers busted down the front security door with pinch bars and a sledgehammer to gain entrance while the casino was in full swing.

During the arrests, police also confiscated several dice tables, hundreds of gambling chips, dice, croupier sticks, and other types of gambling paraphernalia.

Side Note: This was the third police raid conducted at The Checker Inn within one year. After the first raid, state troopers kept the locations under surveillance, which led to the two subsequent raids.

Police Captain Elza Brantley, who led the raid, said they arrested dozens and dozens of gamblers, for a total of 39 suspects. They were arrested for participating in illegal gambling, but the official charge lodged against them was disorderly conduct (a common police practice at the time.)

Several others who were apprehended were charged with being the actual operators of the casino. Sixty-four-year-old Edward J. Recklein, the actual owner of the one-story building, was charged with possession of gambling equipment. Fifty-four-year-old Frank J. Wilson, and fifty-five-year-old Lonny Simmons Sr., were both charged with operating illicit gambling devices.

The three men pleaded not guilty and were each released on $1000 bail by Police Magistrate John J. Fiedler.

Although several others arrested were also suspected of “maintenance” of the games (Bommarito being one,) all the remaining arrestees were allowed to plead out to a count of disorderly conduct and received fines of $10 apiece and another $5 in court costs.

Bommarito, who was 50 years old at the time of this arrest, was booked under the name Robert Bommarito. Among the players charged included the following local residents: Vincent Gualdoni, John N. Anselino, Ernest Pistorious, Samuel E. Trube, Sam Ferris, Johnny Chapman, John R. Minor, William C. Martin, John Kertz, William P. Johnson, Frank Rider, Bernard T. Kilcullin, Louis Fox, Nathan L. Glickman, Ervin Kauffman, August F.J. Timm, John R. Gowley, Lynn D. Flowers, James Kirby, Alfred Duesing, Mrs. Dorothy Polowich, Henry Klare, Edward J. Weber, Alexander Thomann, Marcus Neiman, George A. Bates, Michael Nick, George G. Morgan, Glenn Cowgill, Sherman C. Hodges, Robert M. Brown, William Maxfield, Earl Goren, Victor H. Volland, and Fred Kreider.

The End of the Road

Bommarito died unexpectedly in a freak automobile accident on October 9, 1969, after the car he was driving violently collided with a freight train (Missouri Pacific Texas Eagle) in St. Louis in the 4700 block of Gustine Avenue.

Witnesses said that Bommarito, alone in his car at the time, attempted to drive around the guardrail. A red warning signal was in working order, but he apparently either didn’t see the signal or chose to ignore it. Police later reported that the train was traveling at a speed of about 30 miles per hour. The fatal accident occurred at about 5:45 pm.

He was given a full Mass of Christian burial and received the sacraments of Holy Mother Church and was then buried in the family plot at Interment Resurrection Cemetery.

At the time of his very "untimely" passing, mafioso Baptiste R. (Bobby) Bommarito was only 61 years old.

His beloved wife, Agnes, born in 1911, lived on for another thirty years, passing away at the respectable age of 88 in 1999.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Springfield, IL Mafioso: Baptista (Bobby) Bommarito

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Springfield, IL Mafioso: Baptista (Bobby) Bommarito

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