CHICAGO -- Reputed crime syndicate gambling boss William 'Butch' Petrocelli, whose decomposed body was found during the weekend, was ordered killed by a former partner who believed he had been double-crossed, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today.
The stabbed and burned body of Petrocelli, missing since Dec. 30, was positively identified Sunday -- one day after it was discovered in a parked car on the city's southwest side. The body apparently lay unnoticed on the car's backseat floor for two months, officials said.
Medical examiners said Petrocelli, 43, had been stabbed twice in the chest, his throat slit and his face burned beyond recognition. Authorities speculated a blowtorch was used to obscure his identity. His feet were found bound with rope and masking tape was stuck to his mouth.
The Sun-Times said Harry Aleman, serving a 30-year sentence for running an interstate burglary ring, ordered Petrocelli -- his alleged partner in mob executions -- killed when he learned of a scheme Petrocelli had used to collect upward of $100,000.
Petrocelli, as gambling boss, allegedly established new 'taxes' on mob bookmakers and independents paying protection money. The Sun-Times said he told Aleman he would use the money to help support Aleman's wife and to pay for legal appeals.
Aleman's wife, however, never received the money.
Police said Petrocelli's car, with license plates intact, stayed parked on the street for some two months until a 'curious' citizen investigated Saturday. Medical examiners said Petrocelli had been dead about seven weeks.
Petrocelli was thought to have been the hitman in the execution-style murder last November of restauranteur Eleftherios 'Nick' Valentzas, 36, who was to have testified in federal court against three mob figures.
Petrocelli's disappearance came three weeks before his alleged lieutenants -- Frank Renella, Donald Scalise and Nicholas Boulhanis -- went on trial for extortion in an alleged protection racket scheme.
Renella, 50, Petrocelli's alleged muscle man and street collector, also is missing. He dropped out of sight after it was revealed in a pretrial hearing that he once had been an FBI informant.
