Former Metra Boss Pagano Supported Multiple Homes

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 7, 2010 4:20PM

You really want to know why we find the story of former Metra boss Phil Pagano's tumbleweed finances so interesting? It's because a new wrinkle comes out every time we think the story is done, like trying to fight termites.

Wrinkles like the discovery that Pagano was supporting two other households besides his own.This goes a long way to explaining the $1 million in debts Pagano's suicide left in the lap of his widow, Barbara. Barbara Pagano revealed the news of the other households in bankruptcy court last week.

Barbara Pagano's attorney James Mulally said that she didn't want to engage in "innuendo and hearsay" before disclosing that Phil Pagano was supporting households in Palatine and downtown Chicago, in addition to his home with his wife in Crystal Lake. But the mere acknowledgment of multiple households fuels the "innuendo and hearsay" that Mulally seeks to avoid.

The revelation of Phil Pagano supporting multiple households give his widow and Mulally ammunition to fight the debts that she's now responsible for. Mulally said that, since Barbara Pagano had no knowledge of the other two households, she would fight every claim while going after every asset left behind by her busband, who had no will filed in McHenry County.