Like a lot of homeowners, Charles and Rebecca Bingham decided one winter day they should have the furnace in their Northwest Side bungalow checked and cleaned. They ended up getting checked and cleaned themselves.
Over the last five years, seven of the Chicago area`s most notorious and unscrupulous heating repairmen showed up at the Binghams` front door, authorities say. Most left a few thousand dollars richer.
The Binghams, a retired couple in their 60s, were persuaded to buy two furnaces and three central air conditioners. They had their house rewired. They had new pipes installed. They had their chimney fixed–three times.
They spent $22,801.42.
”It seemed like everytime we called, somebody different would come out and say he owned the company,” Mrs. Bingham said. ”We were trusting souls.” What happened to the Binghams (not their real name) is not unusual, said Tom Warden, an investigator in the Illinois attorney general`s office. State consumer protection laws failed to protect them from the convicted con artists who circled their house like vultures. Their nightmare is a lesson for any homeowner.
The Binghams` name and address likely ended up on a ”mope list” of easily conned victims, Warden said. The list probably was passed around within the fraternity of con artists who operate in the Chicago area.
If the list wasn`t passed around, it was likely stolen, Warden said.
”These guys are always fighting over the people they`ve been bilking,”
Warden said. ”They break into each other`s businesses to steal the files.”
One by one, the con artists swooped in on the Binghams` house and pecked away mercilessly at their savings. Together they comprise a virtual Who`s Who of home-repair frauds in the Chicago area, investigators in the attorney general`s office say.
Three of them face trials on felony theft charges arising from Operation Homecon, an investigation into home-repair fraud by the attorney general`s office that resulted in 18 indictments in January, 1985.
Two others continue to sell furnaces in defiance of court orders barring them from engaging in the heating business. Two stand charged with felonies for an alleged abduction. One openly confesses he killed his ex-wife.
But none of them likely will be charged in the Bingham case, authorities say. The Binghams, despite keeping a file bulging with receipts for all the work, have no proof that they didn`t need all the equipment and repairs for which they paid so dearly.
That, too, is not unusual.
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The Binghams were cast into the uncertain world of furnace repairs just as many homeowners are: The repairman they had patronized and trusted for years died, and his company went out of business.
One day a flyer advertising a bargain on furnace cleaning and inspection appeared in their mailbox. They decided to call the company, Heat-Cool City, to take advantage of the offer, though they had purchased a new furnace less than a year earlier.
Four times between March and October, 1980, a Heat-Cool City repairman came to the Binghams` house, receipts show. On the first and last visits, the repairman checked the Binghams` furnace and charged them nothing. In between, on May 9 and May 24, the repairmen sold them a new damper and duct work for $642.
The cost was not exorbitant, especially measured against fraud schemes where $10,000 or $20,000 is taken at one swipe. The work may have been legitimate. But that call to Heat-Cool City, a company long since shut down, may well have landed the Binghams on a mope list, authorities say, because the operator of the company was John Ashley.
Ashley, 48, is a twice-convicted bank robber. His real name is John Rimanich, but he has used the Ashley alias for years, authorities say. He surrendered himself earlier this month on a felony warrant charging him with unlawful restraint and is free on $50,000 bond.
The warrant resulted from a turf battle over mope lists. The fight began Dec. 11, Chicago police say, when a group of rival heating repairmen ransacked Ashley`s storefront heating business, Windy City Heating, 5107 W. Montrose Ave. The business is now boarded up.
The next night, police believe, Ashley and three allies armed with semi-automatic weapons–Peter Lewis, 32, Raymond Lugo, 34, and Carroll Ray Johnson, 33–forced their way into the Elmhurst house of Henry J. Thompson, 44, a con artist permanently enjoined from the heating business in 1979.
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Ashley and the three other men allegedly roughed up Thompson`s family and abducted Thompson, in an effort to force him to tell the location of one of the men Ashley believed had ransacked his business. Thompson later escaped.
Before the latest incidents, authorities say, Ashley had been lying low. He was last in court in 1982 when the guardian for a senile Franklin Park man sued him, Johnson and their heating company, Schiller Park Heating, for allegedly extorting $55,000.
The suit charged that Ashley and Johnson blackmailed the man by setting him up with a prostitute, and then telling him she was a minor and threatening to turn him in to police. The guardian recovered $25,000 before the attorney pursuing the case dropped it because she figured she would never get the rest. The year before, attorneys for a defunct advertising agency sued Ashley and Heat-Cool City for $127,000. The company alleged that Ashley failed to pay for a TV ad campaign they bought at his direction, forcing the company into bankruptcy. The attorneys dropped the suit, they said, because they concluded Ashley had no real assets to recover even if they won.
The Binghams, who last summer reviewed mug shots of long-time con artists shown them by Warden, say they can`t recall if Ashley ever came to their house. The name John appears on one receipt.
Ashley, through his attorney, declined to be interviewed.
The next company to visit the Binghams was Airflow Heating & Cooling Co., 5627 N. Milwaukee Ave. On July 13, 1981, receipts show, Airflow salesmen
”Bob” and ”Frank” pulled out the Binghams` old furnace and central air conditioner and installed replacements, at a cost of $4,905.26. Two days later, an unidentified Airflow salesman returned to install a ”chimney energy vent” and an ”electronic air cleaner,” at a cost of $1,300.
The Binghams did not know it, but they were among Airflow`s first customers. Robert White, 51, had incorporated the company in his girlfriend`s name barely two weeks earlier. White, placed under a permanent injunction in 1979 ordering him never again to engage in the heating business in Illinois, used the name Robert Blackwell on the incorporation documents.
White, of 2424 Shagbark Trail, Arlington Heights, has a long record of deceptive practices arrests and convictions stretching from 1963 through 1971. In 1977 he bilked an elderly widow of $25,000, a crime for which he was convicted in 1979 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In 1978 he was placed on probation for five years for federal income tax fraud and a year later received the permanent injunction. In 1980 a judge ordered White to repay $45,700 to a Northwest Side man he victimized.
Later civil lawsuits allege that White defrauded an elderly man of $100,000, a business partner of $90,000 and a bank of $172,000.
White, a short, pot-bellied man with a mop of white, curly hair, continues to run Airflow and make service calls. He is due in Cook County Circuit Court Feb. 5, when the attorney general`s office will try to prove that he is violating the 1979 injunction. He declined repeated requests for an interview.
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Charles and Rebecca Bingham are not senile and they are not stupid. They are simply decent people who trust others, perhaps more than they should.
”My husband and I are both retired, and we don`t know anything about repairs,” Mrs. Bingham sighed as the couple sat at their dining room table, their woeful pile of receipts spread out before them. ”They really could talk us into anything.”
Bingham, 66, worked as a clerk in a city department until a heart problem forced him to retire. He reaches out to visitors with a strong, friendly hand, but has some trouble walking and speaking.
Mrs. Bingham, 68, is a retired secretary. Since her husband`s illness, much of the daily work of taking care of their warm, impeccably clean 70-year- old home has fallen to her. They have no children.
”My husband has this heart condition, so when they tell us there`s a gas leak, I figure that`s it, we have to get it fixed right away,” Mrs. Bingham said. Several furnace repairmen who visited them through the years told them they had a gas leak, Mrs. Bingham said.
The Binghams, like almost all people who fall prey to professional con men, had been completely trusting. Often they would leave the repairmen the keys to their house while they went out for the day.
”All that money gone,” Mrs. Bingham lamented quietly. ”We`re hurting. We didn`t have any pictures of anything as proof. We never thought of that.
”I`m beginning not to trust anybody now. It`s hard, though, when you weren`t raised like that.”
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Before the Airflow repairmen left the Binghams` house back in 1981, they generously offered them two years` free service, parts and labor on the equipment they installed. But when the Binghams called Airflow in July, 1982, for service on their malfunctioning air conditioner, the company refused to come out.
So they called another company that had stuck a flyer in their mailbox.
This time, it was A&D Heating, which at the time was located at 3942 N. Central Ave. Two A&D repairmen came out on July 20 and found some valves that were not open as they should be. Otherwise, the repairmen indicated on the receipt, ”unit is working OK,” but they added that the Binghams` chimney liner could use some work. They charged $57.50 for the service call.
Three days later, an A&D repairman returned and told them the air conditioner and chimney liner needed to be replaced.
”I said we just had the chimney done,” Mrs. Bingham recalled. ”He said no, it had to be replaced.”
The Binghams consented. The bill came to $1,899.
In October, 1982, the Binghams called A&D again because they were having furnace problems. Though there is no proof of it in this case, authorities point out that fraudulent repairmen will often intentionally damage a furnace during a summer service call to ensure a return trip the next winter.
”They said there were holes in the top of the furnace, that it was all rusted out and we needed a new furnace,” Mrs. Bingham said. ”So we went ahead with that.” The bill was $1,275.
At the time of these calls, authorities said, A&D Heating was run by Peter Lewis, and the name ”Peter” appears on several of the Binghams`
receipts.
Lewis, 32, is known to have operated at least 16 heating companies in the Chicago area in recent years, many of them out of the same storefront locations. He is wanted for felony unlawful restraint in the abduction of Thompson. He is also wanted on a felony theft warrant charging that he and Carroll Ray Johnson skipped out on a $1,500 hotel bill in Schiller Park.
In addition, Lewis is under a preliminary injunction issued last year as a result of a civil suit filed by the attorney general`s office, charging him with numerous violations of the Consumer Fraud Act. He could not be reached for comment.
In June, 1983, the Binghams again had problems with their air conditioner and again called A&D Heating. This time, Paul Jorgensun showed up. Jorgensun, according to the receipt, sold the Binghams yet another new air conditioner, for $2,120.
Jorgensun, about 50, possesses the most startling criminal record of any of the repairmen who visited the Binghams. On Christmas Day, 1968, Jorgensun shot and killed his divorced wife, wounded her mother and then shot himself in the head–all because the two women would not let him see a Christmas tree in their apartment.
Jorgensun recovered from his head wound and was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was committed to a mental institution, though it is not known how long he was there.
”I did it, and I have to live with it,” Jorgensun said in an interview, during which he insisted he is a reputable furnace repairman.
Jorgensun operates seven heating companies–Trask Heating, Baranski Heating, Solidarity Heating, Coles Heating, A-24 Hour Heating, A-Reliable Heating and A&D Heating–out of a storefront at 3328 W. Montrose Ave. There are no signs on the storefront`s exterior. Inside, to avoid confusion when picking up his many telephones, Jorgensun simply answers by saying,
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”Service.”
In February, 1984, the Binghams returned home from a vacation to find that the pipes in their bathroom had frozen and burst. They called A&D for help and were referred to Republic Heating, 6015 W. Belmont Ave.
A repairman from Superior Heating, at the same address, showed up and replaced all the pipes in the basement. The bill, receipts show, was $2,845.
At the time, a man named Ron Norton owned several heating companies at 6015 W. Belmont Ave. Warden said the Binghams were able to identify him as one of the men who came to their house. Norton, 47, is to be tried Feb. 5 on unrelated theft charges stemming from Operation Homecon. His attorney said he would have no comment.
Three months later, on May 21, a Republic repairman showed up unbidden to check the chimney and air conditioner. He thoughtfully waived any service charge.
But two days after that, the Binghams got another unsolicited visit and some very bad news from Superior repairman Art Sullivan: Their entire house would have to be rewired. Sullivan did the work, according to a receipt, for $4,600.
The Binghams received a curious form letter about a year later, in the spring of 1985, from Austin-Peerless Heating, at 2656 N. Long Ave. The letter, referring to work that Superior Heating had done in the Binghams` house, said, ”It has been brought to our attention that the services performed by Superior Heating & Air Conditioning Company have been less than
satisfactory.”
The letter, signed by ”Gerry Austin,” a person Warden believes does not exist, suggested that the Binghams call Austin-Peerless for service in the future.
The Binghams did just that two weeks later, on April 15, when they wanted their air conditioner checked. Art Sullivan–the same Art Sullivan who had previously worked for Superior–showed up, now working for Austin-Peerless.
Sullivan, receipts show, replaced some freon gas in the air conditioner and did some other work for $679.88. A month later he returned to install a new hot water heater for $348.89. And a month after that, in June, after unknown vandals destroyed the Binghams` air conditioner, Sullivan returned again to put in a new unit for $2,128.89.
”Art had been so extra special about everything, so helpful,” Mrs. Bingham recalled. ”He was very concerned about the way a lot of the work from the other companies had been done. Art didn`t seem like a criminal.”
In fact, Art is alleged to be a serious criminal. His real name, prosecutors in the attorney general`s office say, is Arthur Legace. Along with Norton, he is to go on trial Feb. 5 on theft charges arising from Operation Homecon. His attorney said he would have no comment.
Legace, 39, was indicted on the Operation Homecon charges in January, 1985. The Binghams might never have discovered that, Warden noted, had not the con artists` overwhelming greed finally tripped them up.
It happened one day last July, when yet another man charged in Operation Homecon, whom the Binghams later identified as Robert Mathis, showed up at their door offering to check their furnace and air conditioner.
”I told him we`re doing business with Austin-Peerless now,” Mrs. Bingham said. ”He said, `Austin-Peerless is a shyster outfit and Art is under indictment.`
”So I called Art right away and asked him what`s going on. Art said,
`Don`t let him in, he`s under indictment!` He told me to call the attorney general`s office to check.
”Well, that`s when I found out they were both shyster outfits.”