They were gonna build a restaurant out in Phoenix, then they dropped that theory. Then Dominick was gonna go into construction real big, he had construction businesses in Chicago, Joliet, but the best way Dominick could wash a lot of money was in real estate, so he bought a lot of land, he started the office with Sobel. Then he and Sobel somehow muscled the water rights for some land in Sun City. The rights belonged to a law firm, the DiContis. DiContis had an office on Central Avenue, across from the country club. They had the water rights and Dominick just stole them, he got them down on paper, they were worth half a million dollars. He was acting just like a muscle, he just muscled in on the water rights and now he was trying to sell them back to DiContis for half a million. Doug would come in with Lee by Old Man Kaiser’s house or by Dominick’s house and he would eat something, he would listen to them talk, and that was how he first heard about the Canadian. The Canadian was a real estater, he was the front man for the DiContis. He brought the money over in a briefcase one day, Lee said, half a million dollars of DiContis’ money. Doug didn’t see it, but Lee said the Canadian came by with a briefcase and that he had got the money from DiConti’s law office. They were supposed to give up the water rights then, but they didn’t give them. And the reason they didn’t give them was it was really Joe Bonanno’s money. That was Lee’s theory. Lee said DiConti was the fucking fall guy for Joe Bonanno — everyone knew DiConti was Bonanno’s lawyer — and Bonanno ain’t got no business over in Phoenix. Phoenix was wide open, he didn’t have no right down there. Lee was going back to Chicago, Tocco’s telling him we’re gonna go partners out there, this is gonna happen. So Lee was telling Dominick don’t worry about it. Lee DiFranco and Albert Tocco could handle Joe Bonanno. It was just that simple. This was everyone sitting in the den, Dominick sitting there in his undershirt smoking a cigarette and Lee’s sitting there hounding him, telling him, beating his fingers on the table telling him what’s going on and Dominick listening and thinking is it happening that way?
Dominick said maybe they should back off and give back the money, just take a percentage. Lee went through the roof. He’s not giving the money back — fuck DiConti, fuck Bonanno, fuck everybody. Lee hated the real estate guys. He hated Sobel, he hated the Canadian. The minute the Canadian brought the money in that suitcase Lee wanted to kill him. By the rule, you were supposed to. That was the way they all functioned, that was the way they all operated. The real estate guy, the Canadian, was threatening, he was telling him he was gonna go to the police, and Lee wanted him killed. He wanted everybody killed. Dominick says, okay, we’re gonna shake the bush and get the lion to jump out.
So that February, Old Man Kaiser called the Canadian up and set up this meeting at the country club. The Canadian was an older gentleman, very polite, just said his piece and nothing more. He was a big guy with a high-hairline, maybe in his sixties. It turned into a real voiceful conversation, lots of shouting, and Doug backed Lee off, said it’s a public place, there’s people around, let the guy go.
Lee killed him the next time they met. He choked him right in the back of Dominick’s Cadillac. They had driven back to Phoenix just a few days before. They brought three.22 pistols with holes drilled in the barrels. They hid it all behind Dominick’s house — Doug didn’t even know they were in the car until they got there to Phoenix. They hit the Canadian and then they hit another guy in a garage, three days later, another real estater. He worked in the same building as DiContis, worked for the DiContis’ law office. Worked for Joe Bonanno. Seemed like this guy in the garage done something to Dominick DiFranco or somebody that was affiliated with Dominick DiFranco. This was right after they hit the Canadian. They buried the Canadian out in the desert in a dry creekbed and no one ever found him. Doug never even knew his name. This other guy in the garage was all over the newspapers. His name was Ed Lazar.
There is no mention of Ned Warren’s name in Doug Hardin’s 214-page transcript. Of course, Hardin would not have been told Warren’s name in any case. Lee said, come on, we got a piece of work to do. I don’t think either of them knew who Ed Lazar was or why they were there to kill him.
16
Arizona Republic, June 6, 1974:
State Probes Realty Chief; Bribe Claimed
Allegations that monthly cash payments were collected from at least six land development firms and turned over to J. Fred Talley, Arizona real estate commissioner, are being investigated by the state attorney general’s office, an official disclosed Wednesday.
Ronald L. Crismon, chief of the attorney general’s Strike Force on Organized Crime, said that the payments reportedly funneled to Talley were “part of the allegations brought to my attention and which we are investigating.”
The 70-year-old Talley said he knew nothing about an investigation and denied any wrongdoing. He has been real estate commissioner for about 14 years and is an attorney and former Graham County school teacher.
Other sources revealed that the investigation stems from allegations made to Phoenix police and others that ex-convict Ned Warren, once known as Nathan Waxman and an Arizona land promoter, collected the monthly cash payments and allegedly delivered them to Talley….
The original allegations were made last Aug. 30 to Phoenix police by James Cornwall, 38, former president of Great Southwest Land and Cattle Co. of Phoenix.
Cornwall, who now lives in Virginia, is under a Maricopa County grand jury indictment in connection with the financial collapse two years ago of Great Southwest. Court records show he is charged with 66 counts of fraud. He is now reported to be pastor of a non-denominational Church in Virginia.
Warren, reached at his valley home, declined to comment or even listen to the allegations made against him by Cornwall.
“I don’t want to discuss it,” he told a reporter….
Cornwall asserted that the monthly payments to Warren by Great Southwest were a minimum of $100. Occasionally “heat” payments of as much as $500 in Great Southwest funds were made for “problems which required extra work on the part of Talley,” Cornwall is quoted in police reports.
At least five other land development companies made similar payments to Warren allegedly for Talley, Cornwall told police.
Cornwall said he made the same allegations “about two months ago” to other authorities, including the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Cornwall added that he had only two contacts with Talley, “both through Ned Warren.” However, Cornwall said, he had “no personal rapport with him (Talley).”
Although he is unable to substantiate fully Warren’s alleged claim that the money collected went to Talley, Cornwall said he is convinced it did.
Cornwall told a reporter he doubts that Warren kept the payments “because I can’t see him (Warren) taking hundreds (of dollars). Warren is a very egotistical guy and if, in fact, he could pass money to Talley from other people without it having to come out of his pocket and still be a hero, I can see him doing it. That’s why it is believable to me.”