In February 1990, a wing of the Chicago mafia’s historic Cicero crew headed by Outfit underboss Ernest (Rocky) Infelise, was indicted in a huge racketeering and murder investigation dubbed Operation Good Ship Lollipop. Infelise and his notorious mob crew called themselves the Good Ship Lollipop, an ironic reference to the 1934 Shirley Temple song, and they were all convicted in the case in the coming years.
The federal probe into Infelise and his inner circle began with the cooperation of crew member William (B.J.) Jahoda, a high-ranking Outfit associate, valued gambling lieutenant and driver for Infelise then second-in-charge, Salvatore (Solly D) DeLaurentis, the man most experts point to as the Chicago mafia’s acting boss today in 2017. Jahoda wore a wire for the feds and recorded DeLaurentis and his gangland running buddy Louis (Louie Tomatoes) Marino, who at the time oversaw Outfit affairs in Lake County and parts of McHenry County.
Solly D did 14 years in prison and got out in 2006. Marino did almost a decade more in the can, was released in 2014 and died of natural causes back in the winter. Infelise, a former paratrooper in the U.S. military, died behind bars in 2005.
Below are some transcriptions of conversations taped by the feds and used in the case against the future don.
Solly D talking to Jahoda about what will happen to the Infelise crew when the Operation Good Ship Lollipop indictment finally drops:
DeLaurentis: What the fuck?… I’m going to try and keep this thing going. Let’s say they scoop [arrest] us. I’m putting guys in right now to keep this fucking thing going. One thing is going to jail, but if you still got everything going on the street, and you know that everything is being looked after, like we have in the past, you’ll be okay.
Jahoda: Oh yeah, for sure.
DeLaurentis: It’s another thing to go away and we’re all closed up for business, you know what I’m saying. So I’ll try to get a couple of guys in line now for when none of us are home. But we don’t know whose going away, it gonna be either me or Rocky [Infelise] or Louie [Marino], one of us, two of us or all of us. Things will be a lot better…a lot easier if one of us is still out on the street.
Jahoda: True.
DeLaurentis: If we’re all gone, then the guys behind us have to step up. We might lose a little money, somebody might steal a little along the way, ’cause we can’t trust those guys like we can trust our own guys, but we still got something going out here so our families can eat.
Another FBI informant taped this interaction between DeLaurentis and Marino and a debtor at a local restaurant:
Marino: He got any money today?
DeLaurentis: He ain’t got nothin’, nothin’. He ain’t got shit.
Marino: Nothin’? … You motherfucker! I wish we weren’t here (in public). You lucky motherfucker. I should give it to ya’ right here, ya’ dirty mother, come on, I should stick you right here on the spot [at this point in the conversation, Marino picked a knife up off the table and placed it in Hospodar’s chest]. What do you got, motherfucker? What do you got right now, right here? You got any jewelry, anything’, any cash, the pink slip to your car? What do you got, I want everything you got mothefucker …
Debtor: Here ….. This is all I got with me now. It’s a bond, it’s a hundred dollar bond.
DeLaurentis: What the fuck is this?
Debtor: That’s how a guy made payment to me
Marino: Hold this (passing the bond to DeLaurentis and grabbing the debtor by the collar again).
Debtor: That’s all I got, what the hell?….stop it….. I don’t …
Marino: Where the fuck is my money comin’ from motherfucker?
Debtor: Lou, I ain’t got it. I ain’t got nothin’. I got nothin’ at all, I swear, I ain’t lying to ya, I swear.
Marino: Hey, you’re taking a shot at me by not paying me what you owe, you understand motherfucker? This is my profession. You’re taking a piss on my leg. What do I look like, an asshole nitwit?
Debtor: No, no, no, no, of course not, Lou. I told the guy I got a buyer for the lot. Let me try and sell the goddam lot and I’ll get you your money back, I promise.
Marino: So, now you’re telling me I’m gonna have to wait until you sell the fuckin’ lot? What the fuck do I look like to you?
Debtor: Well …
Marino: I want my money motherfucker, I don’t give a fuck where you find it, rob a 7/11, I don’t care. I want this motherfuckin’ money. I want my money tonight! You hear what I’m tellin’ you. I want the money tonight, you motherfucking cocksucker! Do you understand. No more waiting. I want it tonight. You got nowhere to hide motherfucker, we know where you live, we know where you work, I
Debtor: I never hide from anybody, Lou. I pay my debts. I just don’t have anything to give you right now.
Marino: I don’t want to here it. I’ll be goin’ to sleep with you at night and I’m gonna be getting you up in the morning until you bring me my fuckin’ money. I want it now. Bring it to me tonight! You hear what the fuck I’m telling you? No more excuses. Give me my motherfucking money or you’re gonna get seriously hurt. I don’t have to tell you how serious this is. We’re getting to the end of the line here.
Debtor: I hear ya, Lou.
Marino: `Cause I’m gonna be in your house, on your doorstep, I’ll tear every motherfuckin’ thing down in there. I’ll tear apart the whole place. And don’t think I ain’t fucking capable. Ask anybody.
DeLaurentis talking to a wired-up porno shop operator regarding what he gets in exchange for paying protection to the Cicero mob troop:
DeLaurentis: I got you hooked up with the cops. They got your phone number now. If anything comes down, you’ll get a call and someone will say, “Your uncle’s on the way.”
Porno shop owner: Alright.
DeLaurentis: When they say that, be on alert. There could be a raid coming, there could be undercovers on their way. Go and clean up the place a little bit. Like if the girls see a stranger coming in, don’t let them even work on him. Let them know the cops could be coming, get them the message anyway you fucking can – no blow jobs, no nothing until we call you and tell you its alright, it’s all clear. I mean it ain’t rocket science. You know your regular customers and you know who is a stranger you’ve never seen before.
Jahoda and DeLaurentis discussing a bookie under Marino’s protection
Jahoda: Jimmy the Greek (the bookie) wants a bigger piece of the pie.
DeLaurentis: Well, Jimmy’s got hot nuts, you know. He’s all hot to trot…
Jahoda: Yeah, he’s dead wrong though. He’s so out of line. I can’t even talk to him anymore.
DeLaurentis: He thinks he’s going to set the world on fire now, that he’s got an OK, you know what I’m saying? It’ll come undone. It’ll fall apart in the long run.
Jahoda: Well, one thing that would look dumb down the road, is that we got the same dealers at the same game, but there ain’t nobody else that I know of, so I mean, I don’t mind, I don’t mind that at all.
DeLaurentis: See, I can’t interfere with that too much, because he’s Louie’s guy, you know what I mean?
Jahoda: I know. I know.
DeLaurentis: Like Louie can’t fuck with you. You know it’s the same thing.
Solly D talking with an associate about a run-in with another loan shark operating in Lake County:
DeLaurentis: Hey, ya know, the “Bull Dog,” Mike [Pascucci]? Looks like he could bite a hole in concrete wall, looks like a fucking tank.
Associate: Yeah.
DeLaurentis: Joe tells me he said he gave it [juice money] to him for him to put out. So, Joe says I got it from Mike. It’s Mike? Who’s the fuck told Mike to do anything in Lake County?. He says well, he’s with someone. I said I don’t give a fuck if he’s with Jesus Christ. So the kid, he called me and I says “listen you bulldog motherfucker, you” See he’s a real tough guy. and that’s how you gotta talk to those types right off the bat. You can’t let them get that first edge on you.
Associate: Right, absolutely.
DeLaurentis: I says “you bulldog mother fucker, you, if I ever catch you in fuckin’ Lake County again I’ll knock your mother fuckin’ head off. He says `well what about my money?’ I says it’s in my pocket. You wanna come and get it? He says well it ain’t my money, it’s Louie Marino’s. You want me to tell Louie that. I say you tell anybody the fuck you want. Okay. So now he’s figuring me and Louie will get in a beef, right? So, ah, he calls B.J. [Jahoda] for help. So B.J. says, fuck I can’t help you with Solly. What the fuck can I do with Solly. He say well I got to talk to somebody, so he says I’ll have somebody else call you. So Rocky called already he says Mikey, I’m going to tell you for the last time, when Solly says shit, you fucking squat `cause if I turn him loose, he will knock your fucking block off. I’m the only reason he hasn’t cracked your head in already. He says he wanted to put a fucking turban on your head. You know what that is don’t ya?
Associate: No, what is it?
DeLaurentis: You break a guy’s head, they have to wrap it in fucking gauze
Associate: (laughs)
DeLaurentis: Rocky tells him if it was up to Solly, you’d have been wearing a fucking turban already. He says now I am telling you, you fucking get out of line again, he’s got the “Go” sign now. He says if you take a shit in Lake fucking County and you don’t tell him about it first, he will put a fucking turban on your head. So he’s pissing himself.
Associate: What about Louie?
DeLaurentis: No, Louie didn’t know nothing about it.
Associate: He was bullshitting?
DeLaurentis: Yeah. I mean Louie gives out some cash, like here like let’s say I give you $5,000 to put out, I don’t know who you are giving it to to put on the street on your behalf. And you don’t want to know.
Associate: Right. That’s never good..
DeLaurentis: Yeah. Louie don’t give a fuck. The guy owes Louie the money now. But Louie and me are the same people. You know what I mean? Like this guy thinks Louie is going to go against me? Forget about it, you’re out of your fucking mind.
The post The Operation Good Ship Lollipop Tapes: Famous Chicago Mob Duo DeLaurentis & Marino Caught On FBI Wire In The 1980s appeared first on The Gangster Report.