Lenny Patrick, the geriatric gangster whose crimes stretch back to the era of Al Capone, was sentenced to a reduced 6-year prison term Wednesday for extortion in light of his extensive cooperation against former top mob associates.
“I’m very sorry about everything,” said Patrick, 79, who pleaded guilty last April to ordering mob musclemen under his control to use violence and threats to extort huge sums from numerous successful business owners.
“I assure you I won’t get in no more trouble,” he repeated several times at the quick, 12-minute hearing.
U.S. District Judge James Alesia, lauding Patrick for wearing a secret microphone to record mob associates and testifying after a car bombing outside his daughter’s home, imposed a 6-year prison term agreed to by prosecutors and Patrick’s lawyer.
Patrick, who has been in custody since his indictment in late 1991, will be eligible for parole in December after serving 2 years in prison.
Patrick, the highest-ranking leader in the city’s mob history to rat on his allies, was instrumental in the conviction last October of longtime mob boss Gus Alex on racketeering and extortion charges.
In one of the most remarkable mob trials in Chicago history, a wisecracking Patrick entertained a packed courtroom for three days, detailing on the witness stand how Alex approved the extortions with the admonition: “Be careful.”
Last month, Alesia sentenced Alex, 76, reputedly the mob’s chief political fixer for decades, to 15 years and 8 months in prison.
Patrick also recently testified in San Diego at the federal trial of John DiFronzo and Samuel Carlisi, two reputed, top Chicago mobsters, and is expected to testify against Carlisi in an extortion trial in Chicago and other yet-to-be-indicted organized-crime cases.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Chris Gair, who prosecuted Alex with Mark Vogel, acknowledged that Patrick was “getting off too easy.”
“It’s an unfortunate price we have to pay . . . to punish as many members of organized crime as we can,” Gair said.
Patrick’s legal problems, though, might not be over once he completes his federal prison term.
Without first obtaining immunity from Cook County prosecutors, Patrick admitted at Alex’s trial that he was the triggerman in two killings, one in 1932, and ordered the murders of four bookmakers in the 1930s and 1940s.
“I don’t get a kick out of killing people,” Patrick said at Alex’s trial. “I done it to protect myself.”
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office, caught off guard by the admissions, won’t decide whether to charge Patrick with any of the murders until after he completes his cooperation with federal authorities, a spokesman said Wednesday.
