PUSH ON TO SOLVE `85 DISAPPEARANCE
PUSH ON TO SOLVE `85 DISAPPEARANCE
After a futile five-year search for an
Orland Park man who disappeared mysteriously, south suburban police say they now will begin digging for the man`s body in forest preserves.
The renewed search for Gary Kessen, an Orland Park entrepreneur who was last seen on Aug. 10, 1985, is the latest in a bizarre crime tale involving a Blue Island police officer who fancied himself a mob hit man and a
Palos Heights attorney sentenced to prison for an armored car theft.
''With the weather breaking and the information we`ve managed to put together from court transcripts and informants, we feel it`s a good time to start digging,'' said Dixmoor Police Chief Anton Graff. ''This is the best time of the year to do the search, when the ground first softens up and we can effectively use earth-prodding poles and metal detectors.`
Because several of the people who may have been involved in Kessen`s disappearance are in prison or are about to go there, Graff also believes that the search can now intensify without putting someone`s life in jeopardy. He referred to informants who had been afraid to cooperate with police until recently.
''These are very dangerous people,'' Graff said. ''They were concerned with their own glory, and if an obstacle were put in their way, they wouldn`t hesitate to kill.''
The hunt is being concentrated in the Calumet Grove, Kickapoo Meadows and Whistler Woods Forest Preserves, all close to Dixmoor and Blue Island, Graff said.
Kessen was a close associate of Ronald Tellez, the Blue Island police officer who was convicted last November of murdering his lover`s husband, according to police. Tellez is serving a life sentence at the Menard Correctional Center.
Tellez was overheard on several secret government tape recordings boasting of killing other men. In an apparent reference to Kessen, Tellez is heard on one tape saying that he would ''never be found buried in the valley of death.''
The attorney believed to be linked to Kessen is James Gentile, who has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to steal $50,000 from an armored car on Aug. 2, 1986. He is the son of the late Cook County Judge Henry Gentile, who was gunned down in his courtroom in 1983 by a disgruntled Chicago policeman.
Kessen had named Tellez an heir in a will that was drawn up shortly before he disappeared. The will was prepared by Gentile, who was a close friend of Tellez. Graff said police now have learned that Tellez, while a police officer, often frequented the forest preserves.
''Kessen himself often bragged that he had money buried in the forest preserves,'' Graff said. Police described Kessen as ''someone who would do anything for money.''
He left his Orland Park home on July 26, 1985, leaving behind a note for a nephew that said, in part, ''Never forget Uncle Gary.'' His car was found abandoned at O`Hare International Airport a few days later. Friends told police that he was going to Las Vegas, but he never got there.
