Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, Gary interviews Bulldog John Drummond. The listener learns about filming the Chicago Outfit up close and personal. Bulldog Drummond tells about a situation where it got almost too personal for Bulldog and his camera crew. Bulldog and his film crew watched as Chicago outfit associate and enforcer William “Billy” Dauber and his wife Charlotte left the Will County courthouse after the judge continued his hearing for cocaine and weapons charges. Bulldog wanted to follow the couple to find their county home because he had heard it was like a fortress. Bulldog’d editor ordered them back to downtown Chicago because he wanted coverage of another incident at the Cook County courthouse. The crew did not know that an Outfit hit team was waiting to follow the Daubers with guns, not cameras. They narrowly missed becoming witnesses and possibly victims of an Outfit hit team in the act of killing the Daubers.
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Transcript
Well, hey guys, all you wiretappers out there, another show of Gangland Wire back here in the studio. You can see my little library over there. A couple of last legal manuals I’ve got over there, those black and gold things, I need to get rid of them too. So today I went back to an old interview where I did with John Bulldog Drummond. You guys in Chicago will remember John Bulldog Drummond he was a very famous, very well known dynamic TV reporter at the time over the 50s 60s and 70s is kind of cut his teeth on the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Actually, I interviewed him years ago and and we just went on, I just let him have his head and he just told about all his different Bob stories and his relation to him. And he’s got some good ones we start off with let’s see, I had to make some notes here. We started off with what he remembers about Jerry Scalise and Rachel coming back on the airplane from England after they stole the Marlboro diamond and then when they got caught trying to break into Angelo law presenters house, then we go to oh, he he does the whole thing on Tony Spilotro and Lefty Rosenthal. But I think I think the best story in here, and it’s worth going through the early stories, he talks pretty fast, but I know you guys in Chicago will enjoy listening to Bulldog grumman’s voice again. But he almost got caught up in a mob hit of Billy Dauber, who was in a mob enforcer got killed with his wife. So he’s got a really good story on that. He’s got several other stories. A man named John, DeJohn, that he developed as a source was also talking to the Feds that that app the guy got killed shortly after the last time he met with him and the guy was telling him all kinds of good info about the outfit at the time. And it was kind of a minor guy, but he knew some stuff. And the guy got hit about a week later and Bulldog was told by somebody else that this guy was hit because he was getting too close to Bulldog and he was afraid that that Bulldog would expose too many of their secrets on the television on their own his new show. So it’s it’s a fun, interesting, wild ride through 70s and 80s Chicago outfit from the viewpoint of one of your more famous newsman John Bulldog Drummond.
02:29
What happened that day I recall when it happened, it was in 1980. When these two men actually released by the way, he had a reputation as a as an enforcer hit and some reputation found in certain murders. The story broke, the two men had gone into this this jewelry store in London, called graphs, which is a very prominent store of Britain in the Mayfair section. I think it was in London. I’m not sure what it was. But it was a nice nice for what I think was BayFirst. Anyway, they went in there and up and started to rob the place and obtained what was called the Marvel a diamond which according at the time, suppose we had a retail value in 1980 of $980,000. Probably the most larger significant jewel heist we’ve ever had. But according to what witnesses said at the time, the two men go in there, renders these weapons, get the jewelry put them in a bag, including the Marlboro diamond, and one of them had a mask and the mask fell down. That seems like these guys were sophistic I can’t believe what happened. They went out. So they took a car as you would think they took a cab to go back to the airport to the airport and try to get back to Chicago, which they did. But the point was it was all amateurs in this point. They had registered the hotel they apparently they rented a car for initially under their own name, which was left on the scene and they took a cab on the way to the airport, they stopped at the at one of the post offices in downtown London and mail the package to New York or somewhere like that, and authorities did this day. And by the way, the mile border diamond has never been recovered. And the authorities believe what happened was that they mailed that diamond and others goodies to friends or cronies in the United States particularly thought it was in New York, and then they boarded a plane by that time, Scotland Yard had relaxed who these individuals were they had cable to head to the FBI in Chicago and they got off of a plane in Chicago came into O’hare and were arrested immediately and searched but there was no diamond and by the way, I remember the time that made the Walter Cronkite show we were we were aware of what was coming in that shot coming coming through the plane so we got that on the air. And it turned out to be quite a quite a story. They were tried in London and they came were extradited back to the Great Britain and did some time there but the mystery remains in fact Scalise himself it was later when he got out of prison diamond of course is still a big story and as you indicated before on the air that that’s a story in itself but to my knowledge that nothing has ever happened on it nothing at all. Apparently, he’s not a kid he would be a man now about 80 years old and and the other gentleman Arthur brain, Rachel, would it be a little couple years younger? Apparently they wanted to action these men at last report are still doing federal time what they did after they got out of the jail in London in the states in Chicago for a while. The next thing we know They’re indicted on two things. Number one, a bank robbery in one of our suburbs and number two a break in at the home of a feared mob unfortunate one time Angelo LaPietra who was deceased, but her his widow and daughter were living there. And they went and figured that he had money in the house. And anyway, they were arrested again and here were men in their late 70s being charged because I think they wanted the action. I think they wanted action and they went back to prison time even despite they were geriatric rappers. At that times in the last I heard, the two men are in jail, and the mystery of the Marlboro diamond has never never been been solved. And I always thought that the our friend Mr. Scalise, who I talked to I remember at the last trial he was at in connection that is the trial where he was involved in the bank robbery and the break in attempt to break into the house. So this month here former mob figure that he went number one write a book. I think he was figuring in a movie deal because if you might have seen a movie came out at night 2000 Oh eight about John Dillinger. He was used as a consultant at that time. I remember that much. That was before. Before he got involved in the most recent trouble. But my knowledge he hasn’t he had no he can tell what happened with our board diamond. We don’t know to this day was it broken up? I think most of you will. Experts told me they would have been too hard to sell a rock like that. And one piece they think it’s been broken up if that’s the case. At any rate, the mystery the Marlboro diamond is still with us. When the biggest jewel heist of all time. And so far, nobody’s talking. So there’s a mystery for you right there. The opposition was that they were going to the leadership and the author was going to get a cut on it. They didn’t operate independently. No way. There’s no way about that at all. I think that’s what anytime scores like that. Mr. Scalise has always been alleged to have been involved in several major im Ricard robberies in the area and one in Hammond Indiana. There was big loot on those. And of course, when that happened down the of the outfit elders get to course and certainly, that’s why he got the money on that. And that I’m sure it was the same case with that. And I’m sure it also even though times have changed, they will probably totally keep their mouth shut. But of course that’s because that’s 37 years ago, and people are in command and no longer around of course, but they still there’s nothing just happened. And disgraced by the way while he was in London. Here’s a sidebar story. He lived in a suburb of Southwest suburb. And the FBI got from an informant told me there’s somebody’s buried on his property there and lo and behold, they did find it. They opened up they started digging, and it was to at least two people that were gangland slayers veterans that were found when they bought that property. But of course Scalise never had to shed any light on that either.
