Salvatore Cautadello served time in the mid 1980s for shaking down businesses for the Chicago mob. Today, he is still a suspected mobster, but just not locked up and facing trial like so many of his cohorts. Cautadello lives in Park Ridge with his ex-wife, just a few doors from slain plumbing contractor Gerald Dhamer. Their addresses are similar.
"I don't know if you have a dyslexic hit man or if you have someone who's inexperienced," said Jim Wagner, head of the Chicago Crime Commission."
Wagner noted Cautadello belongs to the ill-fated Cicero crew. One member was slain recently and a second disappeared in August.
CBS 2 spoke with Cautadello's lawyer Friday afternoon. Alex Salerno said there is no reason anyone would want to kill his client. He added that the botched hit theory is ridiculous. Salerno says he's defended people in a number of murder cases and finds it unlikely that a professional hit man would make such a dumb mistake.
If the killing was a Mob hit the hired hand better make a bee line and fast. Its now been alleged the deceased was the wrong mark. I doubt the Mob connection who hired the killer will be satisfied with that turn of events. We also know the so called Mob does not fancy publicity let alone bad publicity and this is definitely bad publicity but we still don't know if it was a hit. Story to be continued eventually, maybe.