Hit man: 'I was a chicken, a coward'
FAMILY SECRETS | Nicholas Calabrese says he should've run from Outfit, but 'I didn't have money'

July 20, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter swarmbir@suntimes.com
Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese called himself "a coward," "a chicken" and "a rat" on the witness stand Thursday, but saved his harshest words for the brother he's testifying against, Frank Calabrese Sr.

Nicholas Calabrese had testified for the prosecution over four days for the prosecution. He spilled the Outfit's Family Secrets -- the murders he committed for the mob, from stranglings to shooting a man in the head as the victim begged for his life.

On Thursday, as defense attorneys grilled him, Nicholas Calabrese revealed some of the Calabrese Family Secrets -- the hatred, violence and turmoil that consumed the family.

Nicholas Calabrese has admitted to taking part in at least 14 mob murders but balked when one defense attorney called him a serial killer.
"I am a killer," Calabrese said. "I am not a serial killer."

Calabrese took responsibility for what he did but laid heavy blame on his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., who allegedly committed some of the murders with him. Nicholas Calabrese Sr. is testifying against his brother and other alleged mobsters in the Family Secrets trial to avoid the death penalty and try to get something less than life in prison.

Nicholas Calabrese said his brother brought him into the Outfit.

Frank Calabrese Sr. would call him an idiot and a coward over the years, Nicholas Calabrese acknowledged.

"There's not many names he didn't call me," Nicholas Calabrese said.

But he feared his brother would do more than call him names if he didn't go through with the Outfit hits they were allegedly on together.

He figured his brother would kill him.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph R. Lopez, dressed all in black Thursday, from his eyeglass frames to his socks, scoffed at that.

Lopez asked if Nicholas Calabrese really believed his brother would have killed him if he froze on a hit and let a victim escape.

"My brother would have, yes," Nicholas Calabrese said.

Nicholas Calabrese blamed himself, in part, for not walking away from Outfit life.

"I was loyal because I was afraid. And I was a chicken and a coward because I didn't walk away from it."

"To run away, you need money -- I didn't have money," Nicholas Calabrese said. Plus, he had a family.

Nicholas Calabrese saved his harshest words for how Frank Calabrese Sr. treated his own children, Frank Calabrese Jr. and Kurt Calabrese.

The four men were charged in 1995 for their roles in the street crew Frank Calabrese Sr. ran. Nicholas Calabrese blamed his brother for not doing more to save his sons from prison, especially Kurt Calabrese, who had a limited role in the operation.

Kurt Calabrese "was forced to do what he did by his father," Nicholas Calabrese said.

"His father didn't put a gun to his head, did he?" Lopez asked.

"No, but he put a fist in his face," Calabrese shot back.

When did the beatings happen? Lopez asked.

"You name the time," Calabrese said. "The kids went through hell with their father."

"And they gave 'em hell, didn't they," Lopez asked.

"No," Calabrese said firmly, "they did not."

Nicholas Calabrese said he would have taken his nephew Kurt Calabrese's prison time.

But there was nothing he could do because his brother Frank Calabrese Sr. wasn't interested in helping out early on in the case.

"No, because it had to be both of us to do something," Nicholas Calabrese said of him and his brother.


"I am a killer. I am not a serial killer."