A Humphrey Bogart picture was given to me as a gift in 1975 by a gentleman named Joe Testa. The home where Joe originally kept the picture was destroyed in an “electrical fire” in 1976. Five years later, in 1981, Joe died when a wireless bomb exploded under the car he was driving.

My folks, Bill and Gen Hall, first met Joe Testa in the mid ’70s, through the sister of a friend. The sister, Betty, and her husband worked for Joe managing a trailer park not far from Seneca, Illinois. Joe was a wealthy guy who lived in the Chicago suburbs, but had multiple houses, including one near Seneca, and another in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. Mom and dad ran into him a few times and always thought he was a pretty nice guy.

Sometime in ‘75, mom and dad went to a party at Joe’s place near Seneca. In the rec room, a picture of Humphrey Bogart was hanging on the wall and mom told Betty how much of a Bogie fan I was. Betty later mentioned this to Joe, and also that I was a cadet at West Point. Joe replied with something like “That’s nice. I wouldn’t mind giving this picture to someone serving our country at West Point.” and gave Betty the picture to send to me. Betty gave the picture to mom and dad, who saw Joe one more time after that, and thanked him. At Christmas time, Bogie was waiting for me under the tree when I came home to Ottawa on break. I think it was one of the best Christmas gifts I ever received. Later, I sent Joe a note of thanks, but I didn’t hear anything back from him.

Now for the rest of the story…

A year or so after Joe gave me the present, the house near Seneca burned to the ground due to a somewhat suspicious “electrical fire”, while Joe was out of town. Then, five years later on June 27th, 1981, a wireless bomb placed under his car was detonated as he was leaving a golf course parking lot in Florida. The car blew up, severing one of Joe’s hands, and a leg. It didn’t kill him immediately, and he remained conscious for some time. The police asked him “Is there anyone you know who could have done this?” He replied “Yea, a lot of people“. Two days later, he died of his injuries.

It turned out, according to the press, Joe was a “reputed Chicago underworld figure” and had ties to Chicago mob boss Anthony “Big Tuna” Accardo. News reports at the time stated he was probably involved in money laundering activities in Chicago and elsewhere. He was also investigated for a reputed take over attempt of legal slot machines in Australia. There were at least four attempts made on his life, three of them by bombing.

The man who most likely killed Joe was a guy by the name of Marshall Caifano, part of Accardo’s mob. Joe allegedly owed him $2 million dollars and refused to pay. As a side note, Caifano is one of the names that often comes up in relation to the murder of Bugsy Siegel back in the ‘40s. He was a pretty nasty guy.

The framed picture was displayed in our home for nearly thirty five years. In May of 2013, we gave it to our niece, Tami, and her husband Jeff as a wedding present. Tami is a big movie buff, and graduated with a major in Film Studies from The Ohio State University. In the card accompanying the picture, we told the story of Joe and Bogie. We closed with “We hope the two of you write your own story as the years go by – may your tale be filled with love, joy, and an interesting life (but hopefully no car bombings…)”. Seven years later, as their anniversary approaches, they and the picture are doing just fine.

Addendum:

– Thanks to our niece, Tami Harmon, for providing the photo of the framed Bogart picture. In all the time we owned it, we’d never taken a picture.

– I remember when I received the Bogart picture, there were whisperings about not prying too deeply into Joe’s background, but didn’t think about it. When he died in ‘81, we were stationed in Germany. I believe mom mentioned his death in passing when we returned in ‘83, and she saw the picture hanging in our home. She said something about him dying in Florida under suspicious circumstances. In 2013 when we decided to give the picture to Tami and Jeff, I did more research and found the whole story.

– You can read a bit more about Joe at the links below. If you are doing your own research, make sure you type “Joe Testa Chicago”, as he is not the Joseph Testa crime figure in New York, who usually comes up first.

• The original June 1981 UPI story of the bombing, but before Testa died: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/06/27/Reputed-Mafia-associate-Joseph-Testa-had-his-right-leg/1672362462400/

• The Chicago Tribune obituary, June 30th 1981: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21612948/chicago-tribune/

• A subsequent Tribune 1999 story on Testa: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-11-02-9911020141-story.html

• An April, 2015 article on Testa: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-testa-brow100-20150510-story.html

• More info on Marshall Caifano: https://gangsterreport.com/chitown-mafia-confidential-marshall-caifanos-greatest-hits/