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| Sam the Sailor |
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| USS Robley D. Evans |
Samuel Volpendesto was a young sailor
in the U.S. Navy, when on May 11, 1945, Japanese kamikaze pilots attacked the
destroyer, USS Robley D. Evans. According
to Volpendesto’s lawyer, and undisputed by federal prosecutors, he volunteered
to risk his life by diving under water into the sinking ship to make repairs so
that it could be towed to shallow water. Other sailors were trapped in the bowels of the ship, but had found air pockets where they survived until the ship could be towed. The lawyer said numerous sailors owed their lives to his client. Sam was awarded
several medals for his service, including the Bronze Star, which is awarded for
acts of heroism.
But Sam Volpendesto came home and
apparently failed in several career attempts. Finally, he found a profession at
which he succeeded. He associated himself with the Chicago Outfit. He became
close to mobster Michael “The Large Guy” Sarno. Although arrested numerous
times, he was, according to defense court filings, never convicted of a crime.
That came to an end when he was eighty-seven years old.
The U.S. Attorney was
investigating the Chicago mob and as a result recorded several of Sam’s
conversations with other mobsters. He told of watching another target of the investigation,
Sam DeStefano, grind up human body parts in a meat grinder and bounce the
severed head of the victim against a wall. He was convicted of bombing a
competitor’s video poker business, driving a get-away car in a robbery, and
organized criminal activity.
At the age of eighty-seven, Sam
stood before the Judge, beside his walker, and pleaded that he wanted to
die with honor. He asked that he be allowed to return home, die, and be buried
in Arlington National Cemetery. The Judge was not amused. The sentence was
thirty-five years and he pointed out that he expected Sam to die in prison.
Sam’s attorney swore to fight for
his right to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, after a question arose
as to whether he still qualified after being sent to prison. There would likely have been
no question prior to the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing by Timothy
McVey. In 1997, Congress passed a law to prevent those convicted of capital
murder from being buried in a national cemetery because McVey was otherwise eligible
to be buried there.
Sam Volpendesto died in 2013
while in federal prison. My research did not reveal whether the lawyer pursued
internment of Sam’s remains at Arlington National Cemetery, but the mobster was
buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois. The heroic
acts of a young sailor apparently overshadowed the sordid criminal career of
Sam the mobster in the eyes of the Federal Government.
The decision to buy him at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery is a bit troubling. His heroism didn't define this guy. It amounted to no more than a nanosecond during his lifetime. The counter argument, I'm sure, is that his action in wartime overshadowed what he became when it came to his burial. But it's a real stretch to make a decision to inter him among the honorable.
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