love Dad, but not 'his Outfit ways': son
CALABRESES | 'Keep this sick man locked up forever,' Jr. tells FBI

July 13, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
The son of reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. testified Thursday that he loves his father but is working to keep him in prison because of "his Outfit ways."

"I love him but not some of his ways," Frank Calabrese Jr. said. "I decided to turn him in for his Outfit ways."

Calabrese Jr. made his comments as he was cross-examined in his last day of testimony in the Family Secrets trial.

Empty boasts on tape: defense
The FBI equipped him with a set of headphones that concealed a microphone. Calabrese Jr. recorded his father for hours as they walked the prison yards while Calabrese Sr. allegedly groomed him to take over his street crew and schooled him in the ways of the Outfit.
Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph R. Lopez -- wearing a gray suit with a subtle pink pinstripe, a pink shirt, light pink socks and an electric pink tie with matching pocket handkerchief -- hammered home during his questioning that Calabrese Jr. had a cocaine problem and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his father.

Lopez suggested through his questioning that Calabrese Jr., who had bit roles in two films that landed on the cutting room floor, was nothing more than an actor, coached by the FBI to draw out his father into empty boasts and record them.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors played excerpts from those recordings where Calabrese Sr. appears to talk in detail about killing people for the mob as well as how he was made into the Outfit.

"You were pushing the button and pulling the levers, weren't you?" Lopez asked.

Calabrese Jr. said he could bring up topics but certainly didn't control the conversations with his father.

The son also acknowledged he was willing to record his uncle, Nick, whom he had no problems with, if it meant building a better case against his father.

Lopez asked if Calabrese Jr. was so opposed to Outfit life, why he didn't walk away.

"I tried to get away before," Calabrese Jr. said. "But I was told I couldn't get far enough.

"I detested the Outfit," he said. "I didn't like what I seen."