The charred pieces of Lucien Senese`s white Buick that rained down on South May Street last week were a shocking reminder of the violent history of Chicgo`s mob-which, despite a series of recent setbacks, continues to follow no rules but its own and metes out punishment with little regard for innocent lives.
Lucien Senese, a top-ranking and highly paid Teamsters union official, was critically burned when his union-owned car was blown to bits in front of 1006 S. May St. Thursday morning. Investigators speculate that the
assassination attempt was intended to rid Teamsters Union Local 703 of Senese, who was poised to take over the local`s affairs for his father, Dominic.
For reasons that are unclear, the ruthless tactics of Chicago`s mob can be seen in the bloody trail left behind by the Senese family.
The elder Senese, himself a victim of a botched assassination in 1988, was ousted from the local last month because of his ties to organized crime.
His facial wounds repaired through plastic surgery, Senese lives comfortably on several acres in a gated Oak Brook subdivision where he enjoys weaving his lawn mower between the vestiges of old Teamster-union horse-drawn wagons that decorate his grounds.
Following the attempt on his life, residents of the subdivision said they were shocked at revelations that Senese was linked to organized crime. He gave the local children the best candies on Halloween, they said.
In Little Italy, which like other city neighborhoods is rapidly gentrifying, its bakeries and social clubs giving way to upscale restaurants, the car bombing was equally distressing.
The powerful explosion that shattered windows and ignited a house fire occurred just 100 yards north of a Catholic elementary school on May Street, a potentially tragic mix of circumstances that has enraged longtime residents of the neighborhood.
”This goes back to the old days,” said Sgt. Joseph Gawlik, of the Monroe police district, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene.
In a restaurant at Taylor and May Streets just hours after the bombing, customers dined on ravioli and calamari with a warm breeze blowing through the shattered windows.
The attack has mystified organized crime specialists who consider the bombing the act of a maverick gangster, who in this case was sloppy, grossly irresponsible and, ultimately, a failure.
However, evidence gathered at the site of the bombing, and a fatal 1981 rivalry over the shipment of California lettuce, may have provided
investigators their first significant clues in the Senese case.
Bombs historically have been a tool of the mob, but their use in Chicago has often been limited to warnings or sending a ”message” to people, not to kill or maim them, authorities said.
The 1981 car bomb-slaying of Michael Cagnoni, a Chicago cartage executive who lived in Hinsdale, and the attack on Lucien Senese, were exceptions to that rule, investigators said.
The type of bomb used in each of the attacks appears to be similar, and both Cagnoni and Lucien Senese were involved in the lucrative hauling of wholesale produce, authorities point out.
On June 24, 1981, Cagnoni was killed by a car bomb in the midst of competing for lettuce-hauling business with other truckers, including Cicero trucking owner Paul Spano, an associate of Joseph Ferriola, the late Chicago mob boss, authorities said.
Local 703, which has been controlled by the Senese family, represents workers of Chicago`s wholesale produce market that handles meats, fresh fruits and vegetables.
The mob has sought to control the Teamsters because of the jobs the union itself offers, payoffs to union bosses by companies to expedite delivery of goodsand kickbacks derived from sweetheart deals between corrupt unions and employers.
Cagnoni`s firm shipped general merchandise to the West Coast and returned with California lettuce for markets here. Authorities said his firm frequently undercut prices of his competitors, including Spano.
The car bomb that killed Cagnoni was detonated by an electronic transmitter placed inside another car parked along the southbound entrance ramp of the Tri-State Tollway near Hinsdale. The explosion occurred when Cagnoni drove his Mercedes Benz by the other car and the signal from the electronic device set off the bomb. Cagnoni was blown out of his car.
Investigators said they were inclined to believe that the bomb that critically injured Senese was detonated with a similar device, probably controlled by a person standing between 300 and 1,000 feet from the rigged car. Although such transmitters can be operated from greater distances, Chicago police say evidence recoverd from the scene suggests the radio signal came from relatively close by.
Among the items found in Senese`s briefcase, sources said, was an invitation to the wedding reception last Saturday of a granddaughter of jailed mob boss John Cerone in suburban Itasca.
By surviving the blast, Lucien Senese, like his father, joins a select group of people to live through a mob hit. One of them, onetime mob gambling strategist Ken Eto, was shot in the head at pointblank range by two assailants in 1983. He recovered from head wounds and a temporary loss of hearing. His assailants, whom he identified, turned up stabbed and strangled in the trunk of a car.
Investigators say the failure to kill Senese bodes ill for the bomber and whoever ordered the attack.
”Not only was the murder botched, but the attempt was made near a school full of kids and in a neighborhood where that sort of thing isn`t done,” said one investigator. ”It was stupid and somebody`s going to show up dead for screwing up.”
Adding to the bizarre circumstances of the bombing is the hazy involvement of Lucien Senese`s reputed girlfriend, Mimi Garcia, whose house Senese was apparently leaving at the time of the blast.
Investigators said Garcia is a former girlfriend of Harry Aleman, a reputed mob assassin who is in federal custody awaiting trial on racketeering charges. Garcia is employed in an Italian restaurant near her home, authorities said.
Aleman`s lawyer, Allan Ackerman, said he ”categorically denies” any connection between his client and Garcia, and that ”he is happily married to his wife, Ruth.”
Investigators said it was doubtful that Aleman would have ordered the bombing because he is under close federal scrutiny.
It was unclear whether the attempt on Senese`s life had been
”sanctioned” or approved by Chicago`s crime bosses, or that it may have stemmed from a union dispute among maverick mobsters, investigators said.
The attempt on Senese`s life recalled another car bombing that claimed the life of mobster Charles Cavallaro and injured two of his sons, one fatally, in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1962.
The FBI, using a hidden microphone to obtain mob secrets, reported that, as a result of the bombing and resulting public furor, crime bosses across the country, including Sam Giancana in Chicago, had ordered a halt to the use of explosives in mob murders. The bomb ban lasted only a few years, however, as even the bosses found it impossible to control all their members.
