Chicago mobster Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo, serving life in jail for the murder of a friend who was shot by masked men in front of his four-year-old son, dies in prison aged 90

  • Infamous mobster, Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo, has died in prison aged 90
  • Lombardo was the former boss of a crime syndicate and had suffered cancer 
  • He was serving life in a Colorado jail for the high-profile murder of  his friend, Daniel Seifert, who he learned was going to testify against him  
  • He continued to proclaim his innocence and  in July this year claimed he had proof of it in a court filing

Infamous mobster, Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo, has died in prison aged 90 while serving a life sentence for murder. He is pictured in a 2006 mugshot from the US Attorney's Office

Infamous mobster, Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo, has died in prison aged 90 while serving a life sentence for murder. He is pictured in a 2006 mugshot from the US Attorney's Office 

Infamous mobster, Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo, has died in prison aged 90 while serving a life sentence for murder.

Lombardo, who gained his nickname for his jokey demeanor, was a former boss of the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American organized crime syndicate that was founded in 1910. 

A cause of death wasn't reported but Lombardo had previously suffered from throat cancer, according to the Chicago Tribune

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu announced Lombardo’s death in a one-page court filing that read 'the defendant, Joseph Lombardo, died on or about October 19, 2019.'

Federal Bureau of Prisons records had listed Lombardo as an inmate at the federal supermax prison in Colorado.

Lombardo was sentenced to murder in 2009 for killing his friend, Daniel Seifert, while his wife and four-year-old child were present in 1974.

Lombardo is believed to have ordered masked men to beat and shoot Seifert to death after finding out that he was planning on testifying against him in court. 

Seifert's son, Joseph, told a court how he 'stood frozen' while he watched his father's blood 'splatter the walls and the floor'. 

Lombardo, who gained his nickname for his jokey demeanor, was a former boss of the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American organized crime syndicate that was founded in 1910

 Lombardo, who gained his nickname for his jokey demeanor, was a former boss of the Chicago Outfit, an Italian-American organized crime syndicate that was founded in 1910

Lombardo continuously denied having anything to do with Seifert's murder, according to the Chicago Sun Times

'In the end, we are judged by our actions, not by our wit or smiles,' said U.S. District Judge James Zagel when he sentenced Lombardo. 

'In cases, like this, we are judged by the worst things we have done, and the worst things you have done are terrible.' 

Lombardo filed correspondence for federal court in July which was littered with misspellings. 

In it he complained: 'Im 90 years old, on 12 pills a day, had 32 radiation on my throat cancer, had 4 stents in my arterys at 4 different times, had gul bladder removed, had 4 polips cut, all my teeth are gone, Ive waited 6 months for dentures they tell me I have to wait my turn.'

He also wrote of having  'positive proof' of his innocence in the murder of Daniel Seifert.  

Federal prosecutors say the crime was committed in front of Seifert’s wife, who was holding her young son in her arms. He was found guilty of murder in 2009.

'We were friends until he was killed,'  Lombardo wrote earlier this year.

Lombardo ended up being questioned during the trial. Lombardo had purportedly learned his once-close friend was going to testify against him in federal court on a Teamster pension fund fraud case. 

Lombardo is believed to have ordered masked men to beat and shoot Daniel Seifert to death after finding out that he was planning on testifying against him in court

Lombardo is believed to have ordered masked men to beat and shoot Daniel Seifert to death after finding out that he was planning on testifying against him in court

Reputed gangster Joseph 'Joey The Clown' Lombardo uses the paper to hide his face as he leaves court on March 11, 1981

Reputed gangster Joseph 'Joey The Clown' Lombardo uses the paper to hide his face as he leaves court on March 11, 1981

His crew then tried to handcuff the Bensenville businessman and take him away.

Seifert got free and ran off. 'Then you had your crew chase him down and shoot him down, isn’t that true, sir?,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars asked Lombardo in court.

'That’s not true, sir,'  Lombardo said. Lombardo denied knowing Seifert was going to be a witness against him. He claimed that he did not have seniority in the mob and was not a boss.  

On the day Lombardo received his life sentence, he told U.S. District Judge James Zagel: 'I was not given a fair trial,' The Chicago Sun Times reported. 

'And now, I suppose, the court is going to sentence me to life imprisonment for something I did not do.

'I want the court and the Seifert family to know that I did not kill Danny Seifert, and also did not have anything to do with it before, during or after.'

Frank Calabrese Sr.
James Marcello

At the climax of the 2007 Family Secrets trial - the biggest mob trial in decades - a jury convicted Frank Calabrese Sr. (left) and James Marcello (right) alongside Lombardo for their involvement in ten gruesome murders

U.S. District Judge James Zagel sentenced Lombardo over the murder of Daniel Seifart in 2009 and claimed he had 'done terrible things'

U.S. District Judge James Zagel sentenced Lombardo over the murder of Daniel Seifart in 2009 and claimed he had 'done terrible things' 

Lombardo earned his nickname for his supposedly jokey demeanor, showcased when he was leaving court in 1981 holding up a newspaper with a rectangle cut out for his eyes. 

He was also sentenced to prison in 1983 for conspiring to bribe a US senator and his role in a scheme to steal $2million from a casino in Las Vegas.   

He started as a young thief before becoming a driver the the Outfit and rising through the ranks. 

Defense attorney Joseph 'The Shark' Lopez, remembered Lombardo as a 'very knowledgeable, very intelligent person', according to the Chicago Tribune.

At the climax of the 2009 Family Secrets trial - the biggest mob trial in decades - a jury convicted Frank Calabrese Sr. and James Marcello alongside Lombardo for their involvement in 10 gruesome murders.

The federal government’s investigation, called Operation Family Secrets, started in 1998 when imprisoned Chicago crime figure Frank Calabrese Jr. wrote a letter to the FBI offering to help agents build a case against his father, hit man crew chief Frank Calabrese Sr. 

They were both incarcerated at the time in a federal correctional facility in Michigan where they were serving time for racketeering. 

The FBI had Frank Jr. place a wire in his portable Walkman tape player to record his dad's stories of his crimes for two years while the pair were in prison. 

Those on trial were Calabrese Sr., James Marcello, Joseph 'The Clown' Lombardo, Paul The Indian Schiro, and Anthony Twan Doyle.

They were found guilty in 2007 of a racketeering conspiracy that involved decades of extortion, loan-sharking and murder intended to eliminate anyone who dared stand in the way of the Chicago mob.

Lombardo was born on New Year’s Day in 1929 and raised with 10 siblings in a tough Italian section of the city’s Near West Side known as 'The Patch.'

He started as a young thief in the neighborhood until he became a driver for Outfit figures and rose through the ranks, according to Jeff Coen’s book Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob.

Observers had long seen Lombardo as a possible successor to the city’s syndicate after former crime boss Anthony Accardo.  

'This guy Lombardo, he’s done everything,'  retired FBI agent William F. Roemer Jr. and author told the Tribune in 1992 following Lombardo’s release from prison.

'If I wrote a job description of what a mob guy must do to be boss, he’d fit the description. 

'He’s done it: corruption, murder, gambling. But he is not a clown, as his nickname belies. He is a sharp guy.'

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