Gino Lazzari, 85, FBI agent

For a 1986 story about changes in the Philadelphia mob, Inquirer reporter George Anastasia went to former FBI agent Gino Lazzari.

"They're not as cautious as the older guys," Mr. Lazzari said of the newer generation.

"They really don't give a damn.

"They love to trade on that Godfather image. Hey, look at me. I'm a tough guy."

Mr. Lazzari spoke with authority, because for most of his years in the Philadelphia office of the FBI, he investigated organized crime.

On Saturday, Mr. Lazzari, 85, of Springfield, Delaware County, died of cardiac arrest at Riddle Memorial Hospital.

Jack Howell, an FBI agent from 1951 to 1979, said of Mr. Lazzari: "You can be in that work and be nasty. And he wasn't. He was extremely religious."

Howell said "he was my partner for 10 years before I became a supervisor," and then Mr. Lazzari "was on my squad, the organized crime squad."

As street agents, Howell said, that often meant they were "sitting in a car during the night until the guy came out in the morning, and then following him 'till he met someone," who would be yet another link in the daisy chain of the mob.

At other times, he said, "we would rent an apartment," overlooking a suspect's home and relay information "to cars below who would follow them. An interesting life if you like to work long hours."

An Inquirer report about his 1979 FBI retirement dinner stated that Mr. Lazzari began his career in 1947 as an FBI fingerprint clerk.

After being appointed a special agent in 1955, Mr. Lazzari worked in FBI offices in New Orleans and Chicago before moving to the Philadelphia office where, the story reported, he "established his reputation as an expert in organized crime."

A 2008 story reported that Mr. Lazzari spent much of his career "tracking the Philadelphia-South Jersey organized-crime family and trying to build cases against the mob back when it was headed by Angelo Bruno . . .

"He loved the challenge of going up against smart mobsters and their big-time lawyers.

"He loved it so much, in fact," the reporter wrote, "that the day he retired in 1979, fellow agents had to pry him away from wiretaps and literally push him out the door."

Mr. Lazzari, 82 at the time of the story, said, "I still miss it. I really enjoyed it thoroughly. I looked forward to going to work every day."

Born in Washington, Mr. Lazzari earned a degree in accounting at Southeastern University there.

His daughter, Nancy Lazzari, said he was an infantryman in Europe during World War II.

Mr. Lazzari's military discharge document states that he fought in the Rhineland and central Europe and earned a Bronze Star.

His daughter said that, after he left the FBI, Mr. Lazzari was an investigator for the Pennsylvania Crime Commission from 1979 to 1989.

For the last 20 years, she said, he was a volunteer at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby, mostly as a greeter.

Besides his daughter, Mr. Lazzari is survived by sons Paul and Mark, and four granddaughters. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1986.

A visitation was set from 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 27, at St. Dorothy Church, 4910 Township Line Rd., Drexel Hill, followed by an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass there, with burial in Sts. Peter & Paul Cemetery, Springfield, Delaware County.