Excerpt for The Chicago Way

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 KEN “TOKYO JOE” ETO

      February 10, 1983 was Eto’s lucky day, He had been set up by mob bosses  Joe Arnold and Joey DiVarco who told him to meet two friends of his, Jasper Campise and John Gattuso at an American Legion hall at Narragansett and Addison Ave. Then they would meet Solano for dinner around Grand and Harlem Ave. Eto told investigators that he smelled a rat but there was nothing he could do about it.

       He met the two mob guys in the parking lot and they suggested that they use Eto’s car, Gattuso sat in the back and Campise sat next to Eto in the front. The conversation revolved around a great Italian restaurant they were going to the only problem was there probably wouldn’t be any parking in front because the place is that busy. Gattuso suggested Eto park in the back lot behind the restaurant, which he did. After Eto parked Gattuso shot him three times in the back of his head, Eto stated that. He heard all three shots and pretended to be dead by lying on the seat. After he heard the car doors open and close he waited a few minutes before he got out of the car. Eto realized that he was bleeding profusely and wasn’t sure how bad he had been injured.

       He staggered to a drug store and asked the manager to call the police and an ambulance as he had been shot in the head. When the ambulance arrived they looked at Eto and couldn’t believe he was still alive. Investigators believe that the killers had used faulty ammunition or the silencer on there gun was faulty, in any case Eto was very much alive and ready to get even with his assailants and mob bosses.

        Eto 63, told investigators how Jasper Campise and John Gattuso tried to kill him under orders from his mob boss Vince Solano. He also gave detailed information how he split gambling proceeds with Solano, Joseph “Joe Nagall” Ferriola ,Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo and others. Eto, his head ringed in bandages applied to three bullet wounds gave the FBI a first hand look at how he ran the Bolita gambling operations for the mob. Two former pals of Eto’s were arrested and charged with attempted murder after Eto identified them as the pair that tried to kill him.

       Gattuso was identified as a Cook County deputy sheriff assigned to the civil section as a process server. He and Campise appeared in court where their bail was set at $500,000 each. They both were released later in the day after posting 10% of their bonds in cash. The two men were offered protective custody but they turned it down. They apparently thought that they were in good shape with their mob bosses and they wouldn’t get whacked for their foul up hit. They were wrong, five months later in July 1983 the bodies of Gattuso and Campise were found in the trunk of Campise’s car in a parking lot in Naperville, Il. Both had been stabbed numerous times. I remember locking up Campise in his store at 4820 W. North Ave. where he was running an Off Track Betting Parlor. He was a smart ass then and called us a few nasty names. “Bye Bye Jasper.”

       In 1982 gambling boss Ken Eto and his top lieutenant, Ray Tom 45 were served with a Cook County grand jury subpoena concerning a high stakes game called Monte, a game similar to blackjack in which players try to beat the house, in this case Eto and the mob. Sgt. Ray DelPilar and his squad made the raid in a house at 4868 W. Concord Pl. “At the time I lived in a house at 4907 W. Concord Pl. which was across the street about seven houses west of the game. DelPilar said that the game would have netted the mob at least 1 million a year and was organized by Eto.