Mob debt collector’s cooperation pays off with light sentence

A delinquent debtor once wet his pants at the sight of George Brown, a mob associate known for his 300-pound frame and mixed-martial arts skills. Brown left after collecting the man’s car as partial payment.

Soon after, FBI agents came calling for Brown, who decided to work as muscle for the feds, becoming a star witness in federal cases targeting higher-ranking members of the Chicago Outfit. For nearly two years, Brown allowed the FBI to listen in on his phone calls, and wore a wire in meetings with mob boss Paul Carparelli and other members of his crew.

Brown’s visit to the Wisconsin businessman with the soggy pants was just one of the collection calls described in a half-dozen federal indictments that took out Carparelli and a dozen other players from the already depleted ranks of Chicago’s mob. Friday, a federal judge extended credit for those good works to the hulking collections goon, shaving more than a year off the 38 months of prison time prosecutors had wanted and giving Brown a two-year sentence instead.

“I firmly believe I have become a changed man,” Brown told U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, wearing an oversized gray shirt that was taut over his bulky shoulders, but inches too long for his arms.

“If anyone told me 10 years ago I would be cooperating with the U.S. Attorney and the FBI, I would’ve told them they were nuts.”

Brown, a single father of two, said he turned to Carparelli after suffering a shoulder injury that landed him on disability.

“Put it plain and simple, your honor, I was broke,” he said. “I started using narcotics, and I honestly believe it affected my judgment.”

Carparelli, a rising member of the Outfit’s Cicero crew, put Brown to work injuring others, specifically juice loan customers who fell behind on their payments. Brown testified that while his shoulder troubles left him unable to raise his arms above his head, he could still “kick at six-feet six.”

Brown and Carparelli had a falling out before Brown began working with the FBI, Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather McShain noted, but at the direction of case agents, Brown approached Carparelli and began recording their conversations.

McShain said Brown’s cooperation interrupted potentially violent schemes, including the planned “break-both-legs beating” of the nephew of Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico, who owed Carparelli $300,000.

Carparelli was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, in an extortion case built largely on recordings of his foul-mouthed conversations with Brown, including a rant in which told his trusted soldier, prophetically, “as long as you don’t steal from me, f— my wife or rat on me, you’re my friend 1,000 percent.”

Carparelli was given to 42 months in prison last month, though McShain said the government may appeal the sentence. Several of Brown’s associates also received prison time, including five years for Robert McManus, four years for Michael “Mickey” Davis, 46 months for Mark Dziuban and Frank Orlando, 38 months for Vito Iozzo and six months for James Amabile.

Brown testified about Outfit leaders, agreeing that Carparelli is an “idiot,” Solly DeLaurentis is “a major figure in the organized crime world,” and Pete DiFronzo is “the street boss of the entire organized crime structure in the city of Chicago.” Brown testified that breaking legs is “not a five-second thing … it’s not like the movies.” And when asked if the going rate for breaking legs is $10,000, he said, “that’s pretty much in the ballpark.”

Friday, Brown told Chang that whatever sentence he serves, he will live in fear that his former employers might send goons after him one day.

“I’m a marked man. I have a target on my back,” he said. “We can all agree that we’re dealing with people who have the means, the money and the time to retaliate.”