The Outfit on trial

Seifert was murdered on Sept. 27, 1974, as he, his wife and 4-year-old son, Joey, were at Seifert's fiberglass factory in Bensenville.

Prosecutors offered the testimony of attorney Matt Lydon, who prosecuted a Teamster pension fund fraud case in the 1970s. Lydon said Seifert was the only witness linking Lombardo to two checks that were key evidence in that case.

Lombardo contends the checks from Seifert's company, International Fiberglass, were for back wages, but Seifert would have testified that Lombardo was really calling the shots and directed him to make the checks out that way, but Seifert did not know what they really were for. The money came from another company that the feds contend was a key to the scheme to rip off the Teamster pension fund.

When Seifert died, so did that case against Lombardo.

Perhaps the strongest testimony on the Seifert murder came from Daniel Seifert's widow, Emma. She testified that one of the masked gunmen she saw attack her husband matched the size and build of Lombardo. She said she could not be definitive on her identification, but that one of the attackers was light on his feet, as was Lombardo, who was a boxer.

Lombardo's defense tried to undermine her testimony by noting that Emma Seifert didn't tell the cops or the FBI immediately of her suspicions about Lombardo. Emma Seifert countered she kept mum out of fear for her family.

But she did tell someone the day of the slaying, she said. Her brother-in-law.

Seifert's brother, Ronald, confirmed that during his testimony.

Emma Seifert also recounted a phone call she said she got from Lombardo soon after her husband was slain.

"He says, 'You have something that belongs to me,'" Emma Seifert testified. "I said, 'Anything I would have would be in the possession of the FBI because they had already gone through Daniel's things.'"

The hit on Daniel Seifert was botched, despite apparent weeks of planning. The killers appeared to have stalked Seifert for weeks, according to court testimony.

One of the so-called mob "work cars" used in the hit was recovered by police. Evidence related to that car, a brown Ford LTD, was used at trial to tighten the circumstantial net around Lombardo.

Lombardo left a fingerprint on an application for the car title that was filed with the Illiinois secretary of state, according to not one but two FBI agents who testifed at trial.

Lombardo's prominent attorney, Rick Halprin, tried to stress in his questioning that there were other prints on documents related to the purchase of the car - and the FBI doesn't know who they belong to.

The car's owner was listed as Acme Security Service, a fake company, at an address on Grand Avenue, which actually belonged to anolther company. Lombardo was a friend with the owner.

The title for the second work car used in the hit, which wasn't recovered, was in the name of a man who didn't exist at an address for an apartment building. The building's owner was a childhood friend of Frank "The German" Schweihs. Prosecutors say Schweihs was involved in the Seifert murder.

A police scanner radio was recovered from the work car used by the killers in the Seifert slaying. Using the serial number on the scanner, FBI agents tracked down the store where it was purchased.

Testimony from two former salesman at the store and from retired FBI agents who talked to them showed the employees identified Lombardo at the time as the man who bought the scanner or who was a frequent customer at the store. Lombardo allegedly bought many police scanners under the ruse that he was buying them for a tow truck firm whose drivers listened to police frequencies to find out where car accidents were.

Halprin pointed out that the former salesman who allegedly sold Lombardo the scanner found in the work car had no memory today of identifying Lombardo back then.

A government informant, Alva Johnson Rodgers, offered a variety of evidence regarding Lombardo and his alleged role as a top mobster in the Outfit and offered this nugget regarding the Seifert case.

The day after Seifert was killed, Rodgers met with Lombardo at a golf driving range - Lombardo was a big golfer - and Lombardo and an associate were laughing over the Seifert murder.

Lombardo called Seifert a "son of a b----" and noted he wouldn't be testifying against any one now, Rodgers testified.

Halprin tried to undercut Rodgers testimony through ridicule, noting Rodgers was nothing more than a failed car thief but had grand plans of taking over the pornography business in Chicago.