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Monday, November 22, 2010

Chicago, IL, Bomb blast delivered message to gambling rival, jury told

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Andy Grimm
Source: chicagotribune.com
Berwyn gambling-machine operator testifies he received threats before tavern blast
Pipe bombs and f-bombs were the tools alleged mob boss Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno used to deliver messages to rivals, the owner of a Berwyn video poker business alleged Thursday at Sarno's federal racketeering trial.
Vince Dublino told jurors a livid Sarno cussed him out outside a bar in 2002 after learning that Dublino's C&S Coin Operated Amusements was going to install illegal video gambling machines in a Lyons diner in Sarno's territory.
"(Sarno) said, 'Hey you (expletive) punk, I wanna talk to you,'" Dublino said. "I said, 'Who you calling a (expletive) punk?'"
"He said, 'Stay the (expletive) away from the 47th Street Grill stop.'"
In the days that followed, Dublino said, two men visited the bar he owned in Berwyn to deliver a cryptic message that "the clocks would run backward" if he didn't "stop what (he) was doin'." Threatening, anonymous calls followed. Then, at about 1 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2002, a pipe bomb blast destroyed C&S's storefront on 16th Street in Berwyn.