MARCH 2024
Also inside ...
It’s your lucky day trip, for a wee bit o’ St. Patrick’s Day fun
Enjoy a taste of Italy — and more — at Costa’s
The tale of a policeman turned P.I. turned author reads like a true-crime story
A really great grandfather played a part in Lake Carroll’s history
Patrick’s Day is one of those holidays where it doesn’t matter who you are, we’re all a weebit Irish.
March 17 is the day when people wear at least a pinch of green, hoist a green beer, find the Golden Arches at the end of the rainbow for a Shamrock Shake, and maybe even buy an extra lottery ticket in hopes that the luck o’ the Irish will rub off on us. It’s also a welcome day of celebration that provides some much-needed medicine for the cabin fever of winter’s waning days.
Oftentimes, those who celebrate the day don’t know who St. Patrick is, or what he did to deserve a holiday of his own (or maybe they even confuse him with someone named Patty after a few too many green beers).
The true name of the Emerald Isle’s St. Patrick has been lost to time, but he lived during the fifth century and is venerated — but not officially canonized — as a saint in the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Church of Ireland and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is responsible for bringing Catholicism to Ireland, and the country continues to maintain a strong Catholic following. Several stories of lore are often attributed to St. Patrick, the most notable of which is an alleged banishing of snakes from the island country, but most historians do not believe this happened.
March 17 was declared to be his feast day well after St. Patrick himself died, and the native Irishmen held the day in high regard, given his importance to the island even during the years when it was part of the United Kingdom, from 1801 to 1921. It was during that period when events such as the Great Potato Famine led to mass emigration to other countries, including the United States. Those coming to America brought the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day with them, and it grew to become the holiday of green, gold and four-leaf clovers that we’ve come to know and love.
While it’s not in the same league as Christmas, St. Patrick’s day manages to hold its own. According the National Retail Federation, consumer spending is on the rise. An article at nrf.com last year said consumers planned to spend $6.9 billion — or about $44 per person — on St. Patrick’s Day, over a billion dollars more than in 2022. Men tend to spend more green than women on the day: $48.71 as compared to $39.15, according the NRF.
All this holiday hoopla hasn’t gone unnoticed by businesses and communities. St. Patrick’s-themed promotions and celebrations are as common as three-leafed clovers, and it’s a day of fun for the whole family.
With the holiday falling on a Sunday this year, many places are turning the event into a weekend celebration. Among the area celebrations, downtown parades are scheduled during the early afternoon in Dixon, Galena and Rockford for Saturday, March 16, where floats and entertainment will fill the streets — with as candy for the kids, of course. In Dixon and Rockford, the Rock River will be dyed green, another favorite activity in riverside cities.
A roundup of area St. Patrick’s Day activities appears on the following pages, so get ready to hit the road and have some fun — and may the luck of the Irish bless you with green lights all the way there ...
has been
in Byron since 1991. “We don't buy anything pre-canned or anything like that. I’ve been doing it like that for 33 years, where many people in my position, after so many years, struggle. I stick to my old roots, and do things the way my mom, grandmother and dad do it, the way it should be done, in my CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SHAWMEDIA.COM
he menu at Saro Costa’s restaurant may be well-rounded, but it didn’t get that way by cutting corners
That’s because when you sit down at Costa’s Pizzeria and Ristorante in Byron, you’d be hard-pressed not to find something you’ll like. While Italian fare is his bread and butter (and that bread’s made from scratch, he’s proud to say), he’s got a diverse menu the whole family can enjoy.
That idea of offering something for the whole family is important to Costa, because it’s family he owes his success too — the family who instilled in him a love of cooking and the value of hard work, the family he’s built with his wife Robin, and the families who’ve helped make Costa’s restaurant a dining destination for more than 30 years.
Family is all around him at the restaurant, from the photos that occupy a place of pride on the walls to the kitchen where he carries on generations of family traditions, mixed in with his own tried-and-true techniques.
It’s been a long journey for Costa, from shining shoes to owning a restaurant, but he’s proud to say he didn’t take any shortcuts to get there.
“I won’t cut corners just to make a buck,” he said. Much of his menu is made in-house and from scratch, and the pastas, pizzas and other dishes that customers enjoy today haven’t changed since Saro opened for business in 1991.
It’s that kind of respect for tradition and taste that’s kept customers coming back for more, and, he says, sets Costa’s apart from other restaurants.
“We’re one of the few … left that truly go out of their way to make sure that the product we put out on the table is superior, in my opinion,” Costa said. “We don’t buy anything pre-canned or anything like that. I’ve been doing it like that for 33 years, where many people in my position, after so many years, struggle. I stick to my old roots, and do things the way my mom, grandmother and dad do it, the way it should be done.”
Family pictures adorn a wall at Costa’s in Byron, prominently featured in the center are restaurant owners Saro and Robin Costa, and daughters Adrianna and Antonina. Family has played a big part in Saro’s success in the restaurant business, including his cousin, who sparked Saro’s interest in a career cooking: “I went to go work with my cousin at a pizzeria, and seeing how fun it was doing that, little by little grew into becoming a chef.”
� ::,
Premier Senior .'A..vartments
NO ENDOWMENT FEES, MONTH TO MONTH RENTALS
Don't spend another winter alone, enjoy peace of mind at Liberty 'Estates
Don’t spend another winter alone, enjoy peace of mind at
◊Studio, one bedroom and two bedroom apartments
◊Two delicious home-style meals daily
◊Safety features and a secure environment
◊All utilities paid (except telephone)
◊
Weekly housekeeping and linen service
◊Wireless Internet & Satellite TV
Call Ashley to schedule your IN-PERSON tour (815) 233-2400
2080 Navajo Drive, Freeport
Not-For-Profit-Provider I] Finduson Facebook
Simy(y tlie finest in retirement Civing
Breads, noodles and olive oils are all made in-house, and Italian beef is both roasted and sliced fresh onsite. Even the seemingly little things are a big draw for customers. Costa said some customers simply stop in for a salad and loaves of bread.
“It’s a lost art,” Costa said. “Places like ours don’t make their own bread anymore. It’s a lot of work,” and it makes great French toast, too, he adds.
Pastas are Costa’s specialty, with lasagna the biggest seller; it’s a fivelayer combination of Italian sausage, ground beef and a blend of different cheeses. Other Italian dishes on the menu include spaghetti (including a variety tossed in fresh garlic and olive oil), ravioli, tortellini, mostaccioli and fettuccine alfredo , as well as a scampi Mediterranean, eggplant parmigiana pasta, and cannelloni and manicotti tubes.
Pizzas come in both regular and deep dish varieties, available with a variety of toppings. Some specialties include a chicken alfredo pizza, an Italian beef “sandwizza,” and a “mostapizza” with stuffed mostaccioli.
Dinner and drink ... Want to pair the perfect wine with your meal? Enjoy a little libation at the bar? Or just sit back with a brew and relax with friends? Costa’s offers a wide selection of wine, liquor and beer.
The menu isn’t all Italian, though. Diners can also enjoy steaks, seafood, burgers and chicken sandwiches.
“It’s a very diverse menu,” Costa said. “Anyone can come in here and have dinner. It’s a full menu.
You can’t leave here and say ‘there wasn’t anything there for me to eat.’ There’s a little bit of everything. We have steaks, we have seafood, we have chicken dishes, we have many other options, it’s not all just Italian.”
Costa’s family emigrated to Rockford from Messina, on the Italian island of Sicily, in 1966. Saro was born shortly after they came to America, and developed a passion for hard work as a child. He shined shoes at Palace Shoe Service in downtown Rockford as a teenager before working for a cousin at a pizzeria in town, where he developed his true niche.
“I went to go work with my cousin at a pizzeria, and seeing how fun it was doing that, little by little grew into becoming a chef,” Costa said. “I think it’s every kid’s dream that when you’re working for somebody and you see what they’re doing, especially when they are successful, you always get that itch to know that if I can do it for him, I can do it for myself. That, and realizing, too, how hard they work to get where they’re at.”
Pizza and pasta are big sellers at Costa’s but its menu has “a little bit of everything,” says Saro Costa — steaks, seafood, chicken and more — and you can top it all off with a treat from the dessert menu
Costa came to Byron in 1991 and opened a restaurant downtown before moving to his current location on state Route 2 in 2001, after the building he was renting ran into air conditioning problems. With business picking up, and faced with the prospect of repair delays, he decided the time was right to find a place of his own. When he found it, he knew then it was the right fit — he pulled the for sale sign out of the ground and was on his way to owning his own building.
The location also helped draw more traffic, sitting along the main highway between Dixon and Rockford.
“I thought I was okay with that little storefront downtown, but we kept on getting busier and busier and just basically outgrew it,” Costa said. “If I had the opportunity to buy that, I’d probably still be down there, but I have no regrets.”
February is a busy month for the restaurant, with a special Valentine’s Day menu served on the holiday, its annual reservation wine dinner where Costa prepares special meals served with choice wines from all over the world, and catering packages for Super Bowl Sunday. Many menu items can be incorporated into catering packages for parties, or for a carryout dishes to bring home.
Saro enjoys keeping busy in the kitchen, but he always finds time to pull away from the culinary commotion to meet and greet customers who come to enjoy the meals that he and his crew make with pride.
“With a lot of restaurants, it’s starting to be a rarity that they make 30, 40, 50 years,” Costa said. “There are many different challenges in the industry, and a lot of people don’t have the fortitude to work through it. I feel that accomplishing that is great, and what I feel proud of the most is being able to sustain it for 33 years. It’s knowing that after all of these years, I take a lot of pride in it.”
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
Costa’s Pizzeria and Ristorante, 133 E. Blackhawk Drive in Byron, is open from 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 4 to midnight on Saturday, and 4 to 11 p.m. on Sunday. Find it on Facebook, go to costasbyron.com or call 815-234-4707 for orders or more information.
Members of Lake Carroll’s snow plow team have a tough task keeping the roads clear when snow drops in for a visit. Among the crew are, from left:
By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media
hen snow falls, Lake Carroll can be a winter wonderland.
Against the backdrop of blue, the landscape is transformed into a sea of white waves covering the rolling hills, trees sparkle in the sunlight as snow clings to branches that have traded their colorful coats of fall for a blanket of white.
But winter loses some of that wonder when you’re behind the wheel, so it’s a good thing Lake Carroll’s maintenance department is behind their wheels.
When the snow falls, the team rises to the occasion, manning a fleet of plows and doing their part to keep drivers safe, shoving snow aside and clearing cul-de-sacs throughout the communities’ network of roads.
Operations Manager Patrick McQuilkin oversees a team of drivers and equipment — the “snow fighting arsenal,” as he calls it — who work hard to clear the way for residents and visitors.
With one eye on the radar and another on the sky, he makes sure his crew is ready to tackle the task, no matter when duty calls — and it’s a job that starts before the first flakes start to fall. With most of the 11-person team living outside of Lake Carroll, McQuilkin has to make sure his crew gets in before their own roads become impassable.
Lake Carroll Operations Manager Patrick McQuilkin leads a team of dedicated snow plowers whose job of making sure the community’s roads are safe in the winter time begins before the first flakes fall. “When you start hearing a little inkling of when there might be a storm next week, you start to watch that storm,” he said. “That big storm we had, we talked about it for 10 days before it happened.”
“When you start hearing a little inkling of when there might be a storm next week, you start to watch that storm,” McQuilkin said. “That big storm we had, we talked about it for 10 days before it happened. Once it started, it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. We were looking at five different weather stations and weather scenarios and trying to put all of those together. Then it boils down to me making the call on when to bring people in.”
Clearing the private communities’ roads also comes with its own set of challenges. Unlike municipal crews whose streets are mostly straight shots with curbs and other markers to help them make their way through their community, Lake Carroll’s crew has to clear a lot of winding roads without curbs. Oftentimes, mailboxes are the best way to tell where the roads run.
Also, unlike city streets, there are very few street lights to help plow drivers navigate at night.
Dan Smunt has plowed streets for more than 40 years, including the past seven in Lake Carroll. In addition to his duties behind the wheel, he also helps out under the hood, as the maintenance shop’s mechanic.
The team was challenged this year when a wallop of winter weather dropped several inches of snow in mid-January, with the bulk of it coming on a Friday and Saturday when some residents were making their way to Lake Carroll from their primary homes. Smunt has plowed through several bad winter storms,
WEALTH MANAGEMENT MADE PERSONAL.
Keeping Lake Carroll’s roads clear comes with its own set of challenges: Finding snow-covered roads without curbs and navigating at night without as many streetlights as city streets can be tough.
Jake Ernst put in several hours behind the crew’s largest truck, a 2010 International Max Force 7400 WorkStar. But no matter how big a truck can be, a storm can be bigger.
Ernst said. “Driving the big red truck around [Lake Carroll] Boulevard, you get from one side of the lake to the other, and the road was back covered again; so it was nonstop, go, go, go.”
McQuilkin splits his crew into three groups, one serving the area near the West Marina, another around the East Marina, and another around Three Tubes. Lake Carroll Boulevard is the crew’s first priority, with its three access points to Carroll County roads, followed by Old Wharf Road and Grandview Drive. Roads that are school bus routes and those that have first responders living on them have a higher priority. To get to Section 30, which is on the south side of Zier Road, the crew drives over from Lake Carroll Boulevard to plow it; it does not plow any part of Zier Road per county regulations, and likewise, if that road is impassible, the team will need to wait for the county plows to clear it first.
One member of the crew in each of the three groups is designated for emergency calls to get to homes in case first responders have to get to them. Each truck has a radio for members to coordinate their tasks with one another.
Plowing a path comes first, then comes widening it to the roads’ edges. Then comes figuring out where
to get rid of all that snow. Doing so on the cul-desacs is difficult, and the drivers have to use their judgment — no matter how long they’ve been plowing — to figure out where to pile it up while avoiding blocking someone’s driveway, a task that gets trickier in the cul-de-sacs that have as many as seven or eight driveways.
This SnowEx liquid sprayer, mounted on the snow crew’s pickup, is a new addition to Lake Carroll's maintenance department. It sprays calcium chloride over roads to prevent ice from bonding to the surface. It’s been used at some of Lake Carroll’s trickier spots.
“We have multiple driveways in our culde-sacs, and it’s up to us to figure out where to put the snow,” McQuilkin said. “When we had those big snows, it was very difficult because the trucks had a hard time pushing them around the corners to get people’s driveway [entrances] cleared. We have to do our due diligence to not block people’s driveways, and that can be hard at night when the wind’s blowing and you can’t see anything.”
On a good day, it can take five hours for the entire crew to take care of the entirety of Lake Carroll. When the snow really piles up, so do the hours. Sometimes they can be in the driver’s seats for 16 hours a day.
plow driver Tony Nampel said. “It’s tough. Your neck is always compressed into your shoulders.”
“I don’t think people realize how big of a toll it takes on your body and your wits with a shift that’s 12 or 16 hours long,” Ernst said. “Everybody’s like, ‘You’re just driving a truck.’ Well, you’re driving the truck, you’re watching the plow, watching all of the snow blow across your windshield, mailboxes, there’s a lot of things that you’re watching.”
“There have been times during the day when I’ll be driving and it’ll feel like I’m in a fever dream,” Lowden Preston said. “I’m staring at the same thing, and I’ll think I was on one road and it turns out that I’m on the other side of the lake.”
Even the most experienced drivers can struggle to get their bearings.
“It can be very scary sometimes, and sometimes you’ll come on a road and not even know where you’re at because you can’t see where you’re at,” Smunt said. “Sometimes I think I’m on Lake Carroll Boulevard but I’m really on another road, or an offshoot of Lake Carroll Boulevard that’s another offshoot of it.”
Most of the crew have had at least one winter at Lake Carroll under their belt, but this was Curt Murphy’s first. Fortunately, he didn’t get snowed under. “I got along alright, and everyone said I did a good job,” he said.
When the wind dies down and snow subsides, the crew can finally breath a well-earned sigh of relief. Then comes getting the roads salted, which isn’t as much of an arduous task as plowing. They also check for any damage done to roads so it can be fixed.
“It can be taxing and can take your wits being in a storm like that,” Ernst said. “You’re going by feel and sound. There may be some road edges that get torn up that we have to go back and clean up, but it’s all feel and sound and can get to the end
of your nerves at the end of the night. It was a pretty wicked storm, the worst I’ve seen in a while.”
McQuilkin and his crew are proactive in finding new ways to make the hand that winter deals them less of a problem. This year, the maintenance department used a new pre-wetting sprayer to coat calcium chloride on some of Lake Carroll’s trickiest and most slippery spots to prevent ice from bonding to the road.
After all was said and done, McQuilkin was pleased with the way his crew handled the challenges.
“It went well,” McQuilkin said. “We weren’t able to take breaks because we don’t have big enough equipment like the county and the townships, where we could have laid off and come back in and open the roads back up, so we had to keep going.”
Long hours, stress, aches and pains — most people probably don’t think about what plow drivers go through to clear the way, but the people behind the plow are proud of the job they do.
“Getting up to be at work before 5 a.m., and then sitting behind the wheel of a truck, it can really wear you down to a certain point,” Preston said. “I realize that it’s my best opportunity for us as a whole group to prove how much we do for the community out here.”
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
ifty years ago, Vito Colucci could have turned his patrol car onto any street in Stamford, Connecticut, but it was the one he turned down that led to a series of events that would change not only his life but the city he’d sworn to serve and protect , and eventually help lead to a national effort to root out corruption and organized crime.
The young officer and his partner couldn’t have foreseen it then, but it really was a turn for the better.
nnn
Colucci, 75, has a mountain of stories to tell from more than 50 years of working in criminal justice, and today he’s telling those stories from a city not far from the hometown of a President who shared his commitment to fighting crime.
Having moved to Byron a couple of years ago to be close to family, Colucci recently found time to expand upon a book he wrote a few years ago, “Rogue Town,” (co-authored by Dennis N. Griffin) to include even more stories from his days behind the badge at the Stamford Police, and his time working as a highprofile private investigator.
The second edition of “Rogue Town” — on sale online or through Colucci himself (details on page XX) — chronicles a tale of crime and corruption that started with a routine arrest in an East Coast town and traveled all the way to the White House.
While Colucci draws on his own experiences for “Rogue Town,” he’s far from the only star. His book also shines a spotlight on and pays tribute to the efforts of his longtime patrol partner, Joe Ligi, as well as reporter Anthony Dolan, President Ronald Reagan and others who fought the good fight — a fight that culminated in Reagan’s increase in organized crime crackdowns in the early 1980s, and infiltration of the Genovese and Gambino crime families.
“The whole thing wasn’t just me, but Anthony Dolan, my partner Joe and everyone else,” Colucci said. “Here are guys that changed it all in the fight against organized crime. Reagan set up more than 500 new prosecutors. For the years that the police were always behind in fighting organized crime, first it brought them even in the fight. Then they got ahead.”
nnn
Stamford is about an hour’s drive along the Long Island Sound shore northeast from New York City. During the 1960s, it was home to the third largest
Vito Colucci spent more than 50 years as a police officer and private investigator. His book, “Rogue Town,” was recently expanded for a second edition.
number of Fortune 500 companies, and organized crime wanted a piece of their action, Colucci said — and they got it. Criminals not only got to many executives, but community leaders as well.
Growing up in Stamford, Colucci didn’t know how serious the organized crime problem was in his hometown until he joined the police department as a 21 year old in 1969. The son of a special (auxiliary) cop, Vito Colucci, Sr., he previously worked as a musician and gave guitar lessons until the jobs dried up. He worked on patrol and on the narcotics division during his nearly two decades in the department, and survived a shootout in 1971 that earned him the Combat Cross.
“I didn’t know anything until I hit the police department,” Colucci said. “Stamford had always been a town of about 130,000 to 140,000 people. I didn’t know any of that stuff. The cops filled me in. I hated corruption. Hated it. I wanted to do something about it. It was horrible. From the mayors to the police commissioners, there was corruption going on.”
In those days, it was risky to speak out and say the wrong thing in front of anyone — no one quite knew who was in or out with organized crime, but there certainly were suspicions. The mantra then was to simply keep your mouth shut and do your job, or else something bad would happen to you. For the people in organized crime, that silence was golden. The less people said, the more criminals could get away with.
A reminder of what fear can do hangs on a wall in Colucci’s home office in Byron a quote from the Dixon-born Reagan, who said: “Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.”
“Back then, everybody was afraid,” Colucci said. “People were afraid and didn’t want to bother anyone. Wives would say to their husbands, ‘Don’t go calling this guy up because we don’t want no problems. Let it go. We had nothing to do with that.’ It was good, honest people making these points to leave it alone.”
But there were people who didn’t want to leave things alone.
Arvil Chapman was one of those people. He wasn’t afraid to spill the beans, but he was afraid of going back to jail.
It was Chapman who Colucci and Ligi came across while on night patrol during the early 1970s. Colucci was driving when Ligi spotted Chapman.
“We’re driving down the street, and my partner goes, ‘That’s Arvil Chapman, move over, we’ve got warrants for him,’” Colucci said. “He knew more of the guys and I was still learning them. We pulled over, put him under arrest, and put him in the back seat. It was about 10 o’clock that night, and we start driving toward headquarters.”
not apply to the MULE
Freeport Kawasaki
3086 Route 26 N. Freeport, IL 61032 815-235-7549
FreeportHondaKawasaki.com
KAWASAKI CARES: READ OWNER’S MANUAL AND ALL ON-PRODUCT WARNINGS. ALWAYS WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR APPROPRIATE FOR THE USE OF THIS VEHICLE. NEVER OPERATE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DRUGS OR ALCOHOL. PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT. THE KAWASAKI MULE™ SIDE X SIDE IS AN OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLE ONLY, AND IS NOT DESIGNED, EQUIPPED OR MANUFACTURED FOR USE ON PUBLIC STREETS, ROADS OR HIGHWAYS. OBEY THE LAWS AND REGULATIONS THAT CONTROL THE USE OF YOUR VEHICLE. ©2019 KAWASAKI MOTORS CORP., U.S.A.
It was then that Chapman dropped a bombshell.
Having been in and out of jail a few times, Chapman was adamant that he didn’t want to go back, Colucci said.
Colucci recalls: “He said, ‘Joe! Joe! If I give you something really, really big, can you talk to the prosecutor? I can’t afford to go to jail again.’”
“We’re all ears,” Colucci replied.
nnn
Colucci said Chapman told them that their boss, Larry Hogan, and [his sergeant] Duke Morris, were running the whole drug and organized crime throughout the whole county and whole state.
“So I pulled into a place called PitneyBowes, I pulled way in the back, and we proceeded to be there until, I think it was 4:15 in the morning. We just talked, and this was earth-shattering.”
Hogan was Colucci’s lieutenant on the narcotics squad. While behind his desk at the Stamford Police Department, Hogan had engaged in mob activity and operated one of the biggest drug rings along Connecticut’s Gold Coast.
There were rumors about Hogan at the time and now those rumors had legs — but proving them was going to be tricky. Speaking out was a problem: Who could be trusted to bring Hogan down? Too many members of law enforcement upper management were in cahoots with the mob.
“He could do anything he wanted to,” Colucci said. “If you were a major drug dealer, he could tell you, ‘Just give me $800 a week, and no one’s going to bother you.’ He was a really, really evil man. He didn’t care.”
That’s when another turn of events took things in another direction.
nnn
Not long after Chapman’s arrest, the Stamford Advocate newspaper hired Anthony Dolan as a police beat reporter. It didn’t take Dolan long to understand what was going on in town. He had a nose for news and it smelled corruption.
“He hammered away and hammered away,” Colucci said. “He had death threats. He had an apartment and someone threw a rock through his window with a note stuck to it, something like ‘Get out of town, we’re going to kill you.’ All of that went on, and he wrote 75 articles about all of this stuff, because everyone was calling him. The people who were formerly afraid, they just had to tell him and not give their name or number or anything.”
“He could do anything he wanted to. If you were a major drug dealer, he could tell you, ‘Just give me $800 a week, and no one’s going to bother you.’ HE WAS A REALLY, REALLY EVIL MAN. He didn’t care.”
Colucci would also help Dolan, feeding him information, anonymously, from a pay phone.
Dolan would go on to play a major role in “Rogue Town,” and Colucci would pay tribute in the book to the intrepid reporter who helped find the reality behind the rumors.
“If Anthony Dolan didn’t move to Stamford to take that job, I’d have no idea what that town would look like today,” Colucci said. “He knew what was going on. He would work his eight hours at the Advocate, and then he would do his ‘Larry Hogan time’ for hours. Me and Joe Ligi would work for hours and then do our ‘Larry Hogan time.’”
Hogan would eventually be ousted from his position when Victor Cizanckas took over as police chief in 1977. Cizanckas, who came from California, sought to clean up the department and he took special notice of Dolan’s articles and fired Hogan.
“He called Larry Hogan in. ‘You’re out. Put everything down, and get out of here. You’re not here anymore,’” Colucci said. “A week later, he calls me to the office. It’s never a party and balloons when the chief of police calls you in to see you. He knew who I was and what I worked.”
The meeting led to a plan: Colucci put in a fake resignation letter, and as a “disgruntled cop,” gained access to many places where the criminal action was. His efforts would help bring several people down, but his cover eventually was blown when a secretary in the city’s payroll department unwittingly admitted that she still processed Colucci’s paychecks.
While Colucci’s involvement in the case winds down at that point, Dolan’s career began to thrive. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Stamford’s corruption in 1978, and later was hired as Ronald Reagan’s chief speechwriter. With Dolan’s influence, Reagan would come to see that crime in the U.S. was “an epidemic,” as he said in a speech on Oct. 14, 1982, when he declared a war on drugs and organized crime.
As far as Hogan’s ultimate fate goes, Colucci did not directly bring him down while undercover but gathered enough information about him that law enforcement could use to link him to other crimes. Ultimately, Hogan was indicted in 1984 on a 1980 murder charge of a drug courier and died of brain cancer while awaiting trial.
“Good people came around back then,” Colucci said. “Evil is powerless if the good people aren’t afraid. That goes a long way. People became unafraid to talk. Reagan was president back then, and that’s what he stood for.”
Colucci, meanwhile, left the police department and became a private investigator in 1990, opening his own agency, Colucci Investigations, which counted among its clients some famous names, including pop singer Michael Bolton and actor Woody Allen. He also played a hand in guiding Michael Skakel through his high-profile murder case.
Skakel, a nephew of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of Martha Moxley’s murder in 2002 and sentenced to prison. He was granted a new trial in 2013, and the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in 2016 to reinstate the conviction, but later reversed that decision and ordered a new trial. In 2020 the state said it would not retry Skakel.
nnn
The newest edition of “Rogue Town” highlights some of the cases he worked on as a PI, and ties up some loose ends on people in his police past.
The original version of “Rogue Town” was written in 2013. After surviving a serious illness in 2022, he updated the book for a re-release this past May. He also makes regular media appearances on television and podcasts. Sharing his experiences in “Rogue Town” is like getting a lot out of his head and out to the public, he said. He’s also the author of 2007’s “Inside The Eyes of a Private Eye.”
Colucci has largely retired from investigating since moving to Byron, but continues to own Colucci Investigations, with his staff back in Stamford. He has enjoyed getting to know the area and spending time with his wife Joanne, daughter Valarie Cortese and son-in-law Gary Cortese, who is a pastor at Beacon Hill Assembly of God in Byron and a Byron Police chaplain.
Gary, who also is from Stamford, heard many of his father-
in-law’s stories, as well as those from his grandfather, through the years, and like them, believes that it takes courage to step forward and do the right thing.
“I always knew from my grandfather that there was a whole different side to this,” Cortese said. “You realize that there are a few bad apples, and they spoil the whole bunch. It just takes one person to stand up and say, ‘I’ll do something,’ or, ‘I’ll do what I can.’ One person can make a difference. That was profound for me, but troubling, too, because of the corruption and the things that were done in the name of whatever — greed or power. This is the reality of our world, and the only way to rise above it is that one person takes a step forward.”
Or a turn down the right street.
“If we had went down a different street and [Chapman] had gotten arrested another way, a lot of these things maybe wouldn’t have happened. When Arvil told me all of that, and when I went ‘I’m all ears,’ that changed everything for us. If that doesn’t happen, who knows? If we didn’t arrest Arvil Chapman, we may never know what happened.”
Cody Cutter can be reached at 815-632-2532 or ccutter@shawmedia.com.
Nolan Bradley of Erie never met his great-grandfather, James Fouts. He did, however, get to know him better — including the role he played at Lake Carroll — thanks to a school project that helped him learn more about Fouts’ life and the impact he had on the people whose lives he touched and the communities he called home.
If Fouts’ name sounds familiar to longtime Lake Carroll residents, it’s the same James Fouts who lived there and served on the Property Owners Association board (as the current Board of Directors was called then) from 1987-88.
Fouts died in 1996, more than 20 years before Nolan was born, but Erie Middle School’s Ancestor Project helped him bring Fouts’ story to life. The project called for seventh-graders at the school to research a relative and share their stories in a written report. The joint lesson between the school’s English and history classes gave students a chance to not only learn about their family tree, but sharpen their skills in other areas — language arts, research and conducting interviews.
When Nolan decided to tell his great-grandfather’s
story, he turned to his parents and grandparents for help, interviewing them this past summer to learn more about Fouts. They showed him not just family photographs, but also gave him glimpses of Fouts’ life doing what he loved the most: educating students. Bradley’s task was helped by perusing through the many high school yearbooks the teacher and coach was featured in.
When all was said and done, and written, Nolan put together a nearly 1,000-word report that included anecdotes about his ancestor and the impact he had on his students, his family and his friends — including the ones he made at Lake Carroll, where he lived along Grandview Drive in Section 4 during a time of rapid growth for the private community, when the number of homes there soared more than 250 percent between 1985 and 1990.
Nolan Bradley
The papers Nolan and his fellow students wrote were featured throughout the second half of last year in The Review, a weekly newspaper for the Erie area published by Shaw Media (publisher of Lake Lifestyle). Nolan’s story appeared in the Dec. 12 edition.
On the following pages, Lake Lifestyle is pleased to share Nolan’s story of his great-grandfather with the Lake Carroll community, and promote the process of sharing family histories and the effort to educate young students on the nuts and bolts that go into research and writing ...
y great-grandfather James Fouts was a great coach and teacher for many years. He is an inspiration to the family. He really is a great person. He is a man that is idolized by many. James Fouts is an amazing person because of his childhood, the events of his adult life and many experiences of retirement.
James Fouts is a great person because of his childhood. James is my paternal great-grandfather. James was born and grew up in Prairie, Illinois. He came from a humble background. He lived with and was raised mostly by his grandmother, Lula Dunblazier. James put himself through college, attending Western Illinois University in Macomb. He graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. While attending WIU, he held various positions such as an officer in his fraternity, president of student council, Homecoming king attendant and Who’s Who organization. As you can see, James Fouts is a great person because of the experiences of his childhood.
James Fouts, seen here in a yearbook photo, began his career in education as a teacher at Liberty High School, near Quincy, in the late 1940s.
Not only did James’ childhood affect who he was, but so did his adult life. After college, James married Marjorie Litchfield. In 1948, he became a teacher and coach in Liberty, Illinois. He taught high school math and physics and coached high school baseball and basketball. In 1957, James moved to Prophetstown. By this time, he and Marjorie had four children, two sons and two daughters, and were expecting their fifth child.
In Prophetstown, he taught high school math and physics and coached high school football and basketball. One of his accomplishments in Prophetstown as a teacher and coach was leading the 1962 varsity basketball team to the first-place trophy of the Illinois State Regional Basketball Tournament, the first time in Prophetstown history.
The 1963 Prophetstown High School yearbook was dedicated to James Fouts.
The high school students dedicated the Prophetstown 1962 yearbook to the team. They stated in the dedication: “Behind the team stood a man who was criticized more than anyone else, who acted as a gentleman winning or losing and who asked for very little credit, but certainly deserved and received our thanks – our coach James Fouts.” The following year, the Prophet 1963 yearbook also was dedicated to Mr. James Fouts. The dedication stated, “We, the Class of 1963, proudly dedicate our Prophet to Mr. James Fouts, for whom we hold in such high regard
both as a teacher and a friend.” After nine years of teaching in Prophetstown, James moved his family to Lanark in 1966. There he served as the assistant superintendent of the Lanark School District, which was his first position in school administration. One thing he was noted for while serving in the Lanark school system was starting the sport of wrestling in high school. It is obvious that James’ adult life and all the lives he touched during this time helped him be a great person.
Then he and his family moved back to Prophetstown. By that time, the three oldest children had graduated high school, leaving the two youngest to finish their school years in Prophetstown. Here he served as the superintendent of schools. While living in Prophetstown and after retiring, he also served as a temporary superintendent of schools in both Morrison and Fulton for a short period of time.
When he retired, he moved to Lake Carroll, Illinois. While there, he served as president of the Lake Carroll Homeowners Association. He and his second wife, Ruth Sisler, lived there until his death in 19[9]6. James lived a full and fulfilling life. At the age of 71, he officially retired.
James had lots of hobbies. For example, he loved cooking, traveling, fishing and flying a small aircraft because he had his pilot’s license. He was very involved with whichever community he and his family lived in. He was a mentor to many high school students throughout his career as an educator and coach. He strived to ensure his children had a good upbringing and were involved with social activities such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, band, piano lessons and church activities.
Later in life he always hosted family holiday celebrations, ensuring that all of our grandparents had a place to go and could spend time with their grandchildren, which also gave us the opportunity to see them. He loved fishing and they used to take family vacations to Lake Kabetogama in northern Minnesota. He also used to lead a group of Prophetstown and Lanark friends to Lake Nungesser in Ontario, Canada, for many years. He loved that lake.
My grandmother Cathy also recalls the summer before he died, she and my Grandpa Bradley, along with my dad and uncle, were able to take a vacation with him to Lake Nungesser. After he died, they returned to that lake several times. They buried some of his ashes on one of the islands and placed a marker with the words “Fouts’ Gap” as that was his favorite fishing spot on the lake. She also recalls how when she or her siblings needed cheering up, he would say, “Look on the bright side as the sun will shine tomorrow.”
My reflection to this project is that I learned a lot about my great-grandfather and what he did and also that he was a great person and all the things that he did, I do feel closer to him because I know his story and I didn’t before and I should learn more about my family history. I really liked this project and how it taught me about my great-grandfather James Fouts.
After a long life, it is clear that James had a huge impact on other people. James Fouts, my great-grandfather, was a great person. James’ childhood contributed to being the great person that he was. Additionally, his adult life also impacted the person he was. James’ retirement and later years also played into the amazing man he was.
“Look on the bright side as the sun will shine tomorrow,” as James always would say.
