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Bill Roemer FBI
\nBill Roemer was one of the first FBI agents assigned to Chicago’s Organized Crime Squad. He and his fellow agents in the C-1 Squad (organized Crime Squad) lost their access to many off-the-books wiretaps and hidden microphones. Once the Omnibus Crime Control Bill passed in 1968, Congress made it illegal and punishable by a prison sentence to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant. To replace that source of intelligence on the Outfit, Chicago agents started developing “deep throat” informants. Gary Jenkins examines two of Roemer’s most important informants. In FBI documents, they were identified as Sporting Goods and Romero.
\nSporting Goods
\nRoemer claimed that \u201cSporting Goods\u201d was a \u201cstreet boss\u201d who was considered a source for more than ten years. It is not known exactly when but I believe he had been providing tidbits since the early 1970s and some people allege he started full bore about 1974. Romer never mentioned his ethnicity, never said he was Italian, Jewish, or other.
\nA Chicago Outfit street boss would be a guy who managed a crew and directed gambling, bookmaking, and other criminal activities within an assigned territory. The traditional Outfit territories were the South Side of Chicago, the North Side, and the Loop. The Outfit unlike the New York Families was not a La Cosa Nostra Organization from top to bottom. Sporting Goods likely was not an \u201cinducted member\u201d of the Mafia or a Made Guy. Some non-Italian mobsters like Jake Guzik, Murray Humphreys, or Gus Alex had crews and managed others and Accardo and bosses since Al Capone gave them a lot of power and responsibility. Romer claimed that \u201cSporting Goods\u201d provided the FBI with names of corrupt politicians, law enforcement members, updates on the general activities of Outfit members. Roemer talked about how he and \u201cSporting Goods\u201d maintained an ongoing close friendship and even had dinner together every Friday for years. Roemer introduced \u201cSporting Goods\u201d to his wife and she often talked to him on the phone when he called Roemer at home and even joined them for dinner once in a while. \xa0\xa0\u201cSporting Goods\u201d suffered a heart attack in the middle 1980s and died. Romer claimed that \xa0\u201cSporting Goods\u201d offered to give Roemer him a large sum of early retirement money. Roemer later recalled this death with sadness indicating the closeness of that relationship.\xa0Romer provided clues that \u201cSporting Goods\u201d was an older man with polish and intelligence. He was a successful mobster, but he was developed emotionally to develop a real friendship with Roemer and his wife. I believe that the guy was not a member of the LCN because Romer specifically identified \u201cRomano\u201d as an LCN member.
\nRomano
\nRoemer described \u201cRomano\u201d described as a \u201ctop tier\u201d mobster who was \u201chigh up in the rank of the Chicago mob.\u201d Furthermore, he described him as an inducted LCN member. In Accardo, Roemer indicated that Romano was a capo. He wrote, \u201cWhen Dominic DiBella, the capo on the North Side of Chicago, died, we weren\u2019t able to ascertain who his successor was. I went to my source, the made guy who was in the same position as DiBella, and learned that it was Vince Solano. Another interesting fact about this revelation is that just before DiBella died, the entire hierarchy of the Outfit met at a restaurant to pay him some tribute. You all will know this as the famous \u201cLast Supper\u201d photo taken just before DiBella died. So Romero had to be there and the name of every mobster at the meeting is known. Of all the mobsters who were present that day and could be called a capo and a made member of the LCN, only Vince Solano and Dominic Butch Blaise are possibilities. It is well known that Romano had informed on Sam Giancana during the 1960s and had even visited him in Mexico. Romano remained was close to Giancana after his return from Mexico in 1974. Roemer wrote about how he dealt with Romano.