Organized crime, the Mafia, or the Outfit as it is known in Chicago, is surrounded by a false glamour that elevates mobsters to the level of swashbuckling folk heroes whose ready violence and savage murders are too often excused in the public mind as acceptable because they only hurt each other. Similarly, illegal gambling, the bread-and-butter racket inevitably combined with loan-sharking and extortion, is widely tolerated because it is perceived to be a victimless crime.
Donald H. Herion, a US Army veteran during the Korean War, who grew up in a neighborhood where there was a bookmaker on every corner, sometimes two or three, learned just how wrong all that was when he returned home from the Army and joined the Chicago Police Department. He wasn’t sure that he was doing the right thing at the time because he really never liked cops, but if he didn’t like it, he could always quit he thought.
After six years learning the ropes in the patrol division collaring burglars and stick up men, chasing daredevil drivers, calming adversaries in domestic disputes, and riding herd on drunks and dope dealers, he was promoted to plainclothes as a vice cop investigating illegal gambling, narcotics, prostitution and gang bangers.
He quickly learned that chasing bookmakers and busting up wire-rooms was a fight against organized crime. Illegal gambling was organized crime’s biggest money maker, the Golden Calf that financed most of its other illicit activities ranging from stock and bankruptcy swindles to the narcotics trade.
Herion and his partner were transferred to the Vice Control Section of the Organized Crime Division at police headquarters at 1121 S. State Street. He now had jurisdiction to make raids anywhere in the City of Chicago instead of only in his district.
He was promoted to detective, then sergeant, he rubbed shoulders with degenerate gamblers, bookmakers, prostitutes and stone-cold killers, while witnessing first-hand how gambling destroys lives. He broke up more than 4,000 gambling operations, arrested hundreds of mob controlled bookmakers and other racketeers.
Herion also had the pleasure of busting up the mob’s biggest floating crap game eight times costing the crime syndicate millions of dollars. To accomplish this it was necessary for him to work on his own time as well as city time. The mob moved the game into the suburbs, which was out of his jurisdiction so Herion worked with Chicago Tribune crime reporter Bob Wiedrich to get the job done. The crap game took every precaution necessary to keep from being discovered. Lookouts with walkie-talkies roved the area where the game was held to warn the operators of the game of any police in the area. One suburb had a local police lieutenant and sergeant as lookouts, the lieutenant who became aware of there presence in the area stuck his gun in their face wanting to know who they were. Herion had used his own car to conduct a surveillance hoped that the lieutenant didn’t check his license number. When the reporter explained to the lieutenant that they were watching a crime syndicate crap game going on in a building down the street and would he like to accompany them on a raid, the lieutenant at this point made an excuse and left the area. This of course caused some heat, but the reporter had already had his story about the game which made headlines in the Chicago Tribune the next day.
On another occasion the game began again and was next to a railroad track in another suburban building in Melrose Park, a suburb west of Chicago. There was only one road in and out, lookouts with walkie-talkies were posted everywhere in the area. Herion had his son Don print a sign on plasterboard 4’ by 6’ with large letters in red paint, CRAP GAME operated by Mob Boss JACKIE CERONE, with an arrow pointing to where the game was being held. Herion nailed the sign on a telephone pole on the road leading to the game. Wi
