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Career Criminal Pleads Guilty To Federal Weapons Charge

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2009

Thomas Guth

TAMPA - A man with a 34-year criminal record who was secretly recorded talking about two slayings and other crimes pleaded guilty this morning to a federal weapons charge.

Thomas Guth, 59, faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is being held without bail.

Formerly of Chicago, Guth made his way to Clearwater after being released from federal prison in 2003.

Before long, authorities say, Guth was selling a gun to another felon and planning an armed robbery. Investigators also suspect he was involved in mortgage fraud and a stock scheme, court documents state.

According to Guth's plea agreement, in January 2008 he possessed a semi-automatic handgun with a loaded magazine containing 26 rounds. In an exchange that was recorded on audio and video, Guth sold the gun for $1,000.

Guth was recorded as he talked about two slayings, killing a dog and bombing a liquor store, prosecutors say in court documents. After his arrest in March, he told agents he was responsible for a bombing. Agents think the bombing was connected to organized crime and happened in or near Addison, Ill., in 1982.

Agents are trying to identify the slayings. Guth didn't acknowledge those when interviewed by law enforcement, prosecutors say.

According to the defense, Guth served four years in the Army, including 16 months in Vietnam, and later was diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress disorder. The diagnosis was given by a doctor working in a prison where Guth was serving a 13-year sentence for drug conspiracy.

Guth told U.S. Magistrate Mark Pizzo this morning that he has been diagnosed with PTSD and last saw a doctor for it last week.

Guth told investigators he wanted to work in law enforcement after his military discharge, documents state. When that didn't work out, he started working in a massage parlor.

He opened his own massage parlors in the Chicago area and started associating with Italian mobsters, committing crimes with them, prosecutors say. Mobsters told him two Polish brothers who owned several liquor stores were not paying money to La Cosa Nostra and needed to be sent a message.

Guth said he agreed to blow up one of the stores, records state.

He was not arrested in that incident, but he has at least 19 prison sentences and arrests, starting with a 1975 arrest for keeping a house of ill fame, prosecutors say. He also was charged in 1975 with keeping a house of prostitution in Schiller Park, Ill., and arrested the next year for pandering, keeping a place of prostitution and soliciting for a prostitute in Waukegan, Ill.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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