Alleged Mob Boss Lombardo Is Caught

CHICAGO —  A reputed mob boss charged along with 13 others with plotting several organized-crime slayings was taken into custody Friday after nine months on the run, the FBI said.

Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, 76, was caught in suburban Elmwood Park and was expected to spend the night in a Chicago jail, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said.

Lombardo lawyer Rick Halprin said his client would appear at a detention hearing Tuesday.

“Osama bin Laden has a better chance of getting bond,” Halprin said. “So it will be a formality.”

Federal agents grabbed Lombardo when he met with someone they had under surveillance, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday night on its website, citing FBI officials.

Lombardo and 13 others were indicted in April in a long-standing investigation of unsolved mob hits.

The indictment says that Chicago hoodlums and mob associates conspired in at least 18 slayings, including that of Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, once known as the Chicago Outfit’s man in Las Vegas, and his brother Michael.

Joe Pesci played a character based on Tony Spilotro in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie “Casino.”

Lombardo and Frank “The German” Schweihs are specifically named in the 1974 killing of Daniel Seifert.

Schweihs, 75, a reputed mob enforcer, was captured in Kentucky last month after eight months as a fugitive.