Joey 'The Clown' Lombardo's FBI files show Chicago Outfit mob boss complaining about city inspectors

Known for a wicked sense of humor as well as a penchant for violence, the late Chicago Outfit boss Joseph Lombardo was known as "Joey the Clown.”

But newly released FBI files on the hoodlum, who died in 2019, showed he also could be, well, kind of prickly.

The once-secret paperwork — FBI files generally can be released, on demand, only after a person’s death and, even then, often only with large swaths blacked out — shows Lombardo complaining about government inspectors descending on a suburban company he was employed by in 1971.

“He noted that he was in dirty work clothes and industrially employed in the production of fiberglass sinks at the time he was contacted,” according to one document. “Lombardo stated that the fiberglass business is good and that they were working very hard to meet their production schedules.

“Lombardo stated that the Village of Elk Grove is harassing him by having frequent inspections conducted by the Fire Department and very closely watching this fiberglass operation for fire violations.

“He stated he does not really mind this as he expects to abide by the law and if on any occasion he feels that he is being discriminated against, he will make an issue of it in the courts.

“Joseph Lombardo stated that people like himself have more problems with the law enforcement authorities than the general public and as a case in point he explained the circumstances of his arrest when he was mistaken for Joe Lombardi and actually taken to court by the Chicago Police Department, where he was not identified by the victim.

“He stated that at the time of this arrest he was pushed around by the Chicago police, who would not listen to him when he stated that he was the wrong man.

“Lombardo advised that he as a matter of practice is polite to policemen until he is placed under arrest, at which time he refuses to discuss anything with them and generally replies to their queries with obscenities.”

Months later, investigators visited Lombardo again at his work place, and he “noted that they had recently cleared up the premises due to a complaint of the Elk Grove Fire Department.

“Lombardo would disclose only general subjects, however was very emphatic in his opinion that the Italian American people are discriminated against in that they are classified as hoodlums.”

He pointed to being a member of the YMCA but being “dropped” from its “Executive Club,” his dues returned without explanation, except that “his membership was not desirable.”

Upset, Lombardo said that “he talked to an attorney concerning this and was advised that inasmuch as it was a private club in the YMCA, he had no recourse.

“Lombardo stated he was bitter.”

The records also briefly mention one of Lombardo’s former business associates — Daniel Seifert, who was gunned down in 1974 outside his Bensenville factory to stop him from testifying against Lombardo in a pension fraud case.

The Seifert killing was one of 10 killings that Lombardo and other mob bosses were found liable for when they were convicted in 2007 in the landmark Operation Family Secrets mob trial.

Just before charges were announced in 2005, Lombardo fled. He was tracked down in early 2006 in Elmwood Park and put on trial.

The 124 pages that were released by the FBI all appear to be regarding Lombardo’s earlier years, when he was rising in the Outfit and not yet one of the top bosses.

One document in Lombardo’s FBI file shows that, when a car he was traveling in was pulled over in the early 1970s, one of his associates tried to bribe a Niles cop and an “altercation” ensued.

“Information was later received . . . that as a result of an alleged $1,000 payoff to the Niles Police, all charges against [REDACTED] were dismissed and all reports relative to the arrest and assault were destroyed,” FBI records say.

According to another document, an informant told authorities Lombardo and fellow mobster Anthony Spilotro “pulled” a 1966 Tiffany robbery that saw hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry taken from a Michigan Avenue store.

The records also show Lombardo had a host of other nicknames and aliases besides “The Clown,” including Joe Padula, Little Joey, William Baker, Milton Snyder, Harold McBride, Frederick Bomberd, George S. Carroll and Henry Jones.

The files show the lengths to which investigators went to track down Lombardo decades ago, even contacting his mother, then living in Park Ridge. She “refused to disclose his residence, activities or associates.”