"The Clown" Obviously Clowned Around In English Class

By Sam Bakken in News on May 4, 2005 10:45PM

U.S. District Judge James Zagal, presiding over the big "mob" indictments handed down last week, recently received a letter from Joey "The Clown" Lombardo explaining why he didn't answer the indictment, proclaiming his innocence and laying out the terms for his surrender. The letter was dated Monday with a Chicago postmark. Zagal answered with an arrest warrant yesterday.

In the 4-page letter laden with grammatical and spelling errors, for which Lambardo apologizes, he says he's worried the judge won't give him bond and won't give him a trial separate from the other defendants. He also explains that he doesn't know the majority of the other defendants, hasn't given a penny to or received a penny from any of them, knew nothing about any of the murders mentioned in the indictment, isn't part of an enterprise of "racketering" and had no part in anything the indictment mentions.

At the end of the letter Lambardo includes a P.S., a PSS., a P.SS and a P.S.S.S. In the P.S.S.S. he writes (we're editing it a bit for clarity):

1. Give me a $50,000.00 recognizance bond
2. A separate trial by myself after the other defendants go to trial
3. Then I will turn myself in with my lawyer

Zagal doesn't appear willing to negotiate. In his letter, Lombardo wrote that if the FBI finds him, he'll go peacefully.