Chicago Mob Trial

Intresting article about the trial of Joeseph 'Joey the clown' Lombardo coming up this tuesday.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4896853.html

Thanks! Should be an interesting trial.

Saw this on the news today, sounds interesting

Hey turnbull cant belive i did the link and it worked!thanks.
I will definetly be following this trial to see how it pans out,Should be very interesting

Chopper, please keep us posted.

This is definitely going to be interesting. Here in Chicago, I'm almost considering taking time off to actually watch the trial.

of course dc but maybe donatello could do a better job as he is a resident of the windy city although i will do my best as well.

2 more plead guilty in mob case

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 18, 2007, 1:40 PM CDT
Two more defendants in the sweeping Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial pleaded guilty today, one day before jury selection is set to begin.

Nicholas Ferriola, 32, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conducting an illegal gambling business. Ferriola's plea agreement spells out that he will not be called to testify in the upcoming trial.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars read the charges in court, outlining how Ferriola "agreed to participate in the affairs of the Chicago Outfit." Ferriola allegedly was a member of the Chinatown, or 26th Street, street crew, which included Family Secrets defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

Also pleading guilty today was Joseph Venezia, 71, charged with conducting an illegal gambling business and tax-fraud conspiracy. Both men are due in court Aug. 10.

The pleas today reduced the number of defendants expected to go on trial this week to five, all reputed mobsters whom the government has accused of forming the backbone of the Chicago Outfit during much of the 1970s and '80s.

Last week, Michael Marcello, the half-brother of a reputed top Chicago mobster, pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to conduct the affairs of organized crime, admitting he was a member of the Outfit's Melrose Park crew and passed information to his incarcerated half-brother, Nicholas Calabrese.

The defendants set to go on trial Tuesday are Joey "the Clown" Lombardo; James Marcello, named as the boss of the Chicago mob at the time of his arrest; Frank Calabrese Sr., a made member of the Outfit's 26th Street crew and once the city's reputed top loan shark; Paul "the Indian" Schiro; and former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle.

A judge ruled Friday that another defendant, reputed mob hit man Frank "the German" Schweihs, will be allowed to sit out the trial for health reasons and can be tried separately later.

The indictments were handed up in spring 2005.

Prosecutors are expected to tell the jury that Lombardo, Marcello and others helped control the crime organization that was born with Al Capone and has since flourished in all manner of illicit business, protecting itself through murder when necessary.

The most sensational of the 18 mob killings detailed in the indictment are the 1986 beating deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, who were found buried in an Indiana cornfield and whose murders were featured in the movie "Casino."

The trial, which is expected to last as long as four months, is expected to feature high-ranking turncoats, including made mob member Nicholas Calabrese, who will testify against his brother, giving the case its Family Secrets code name. The parade of prosecution witnesses also is expected to include hit men, pornographers, bookies, career burglars and other mob associates.



Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Great thanks

Cloaked mob jury to weigh 'Secrets'
Is anonymity needed to protect jurors -- or does it go too far and prejudice the panel?

By Jeff Coen and Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporters
Published June 19, 2007
When the much-anticipated Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial opens Tuesday, jurors will share their backgrounds, views on issues and reading habits -- but not their names.

In a rare move, the judge presiding over the landmark trial decided weeks ago to seat an anonymous jury. The five men accused of racketeering conspiracy for their alleged roles in controlling the Chicago Outfit will know who is deciding their fates only by court-assigned numbers.

In a sealed motion, the prosecution cited the safety of jurors for keeping their identities secret, even from defense lawyers in the case, those lawyers said. U.S. District Judge James Zagel agreed that was the best course.

Experts say seating an anonymous jury is a controversial practice. Judges must weigh juror safety against a defendant's right to an impartial panel. The risk is that the need for their anonymity could leave jurors thinking the defendants must be dangerous. Lawyers in the Family Secrets case said they strongly objected for just that reason.

"Now, of course, the jury can infer that these must be pretty nefarious people," said Ralph Meczyk, the lawyer for Anthony Doyle, a defendant in the case that is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection. "That puts in their mind the belief that we're dealing with very, very dangerous defendants."

In seeking to seat anonymous juries, prosecutors typically argue that panel members could be at risk, or at least that the nature of a case could leave jurors apprehensive if the defendants know who they are and where they live.

This is believed to be the first use of an anonymous jury in Chicago's federal court in 15 years, but there is precedent for the move here and across the country, particularly in organized-crime prosecutions.

The last time it was used here was at the trial of mobster Ernest Rocco Infelice, who was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and murder conspiracy.

Recently, an anonymous jury heard a Ku Klux Klan trial in Mississippi, and another decided the fate of reputed mobster John Gotti Jr. last year in New York.

Meanwhile, two more defendants from an original group of 14 pleaded guilty Monday in the Family Secrets case. Nicholas Ferriola, 32, admitted he was part of the criminal conspiracy, while Joseph Venezia, 71, pleaded guilty to being part of an illegal gambling operation. Left to stand trial in the conspiracy that allegedly included 18 slayings are reputed mob bosses Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Frank Calabrese Sr. as well as Paul "the Indian" Schiro and Doyle, a former Chicago police officer.

The 6th Amendment guarantees all defendants the right to "a speedy and public trial." But as some organized-crime and terrorism defendants have learned, that doesn't necessarily include the right to know who is sitting in judgment on the jury.

Judges can seat anonymous juries for safety reasons and to prevent juror tampering, though the move usually draws cries of unfairness from the defense.

"From the defense side, you worry that the signal it sends is: We've got to be really careful here. These are dangerous individuals," said Andrew Leipold, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "That's not the mind-set you want jurors to start a case with."

But the judge could have taken into account, Leipold said, that Lombardo, for example, is accused of killing a government witness -- an allegation that, if true, shows a willingness to use violence to subvert the justice system. He is blamed for the 1974 killing of Bensenville businessman Daniel Seifert, who was scheduled to testify against Lombardo in a Teamsters pension-fraud trial.

For judges, Leipold said, "it's difficult in that so much of this is predictions. What's the likelihood the jury will be tampered with? How likely is it that jury will be biased against the defense?"

Judges also must factor in the right of the public and media to an open proceeding, Leipold said.

In the George Ryan corruption trial last year, for example, reporters at the Tribune used publicly available juror information to discover that two jurors had misled the court about their criminal backgrounds. A federal judge dismissed the jurors as a result.

In the Family Secrets case, it's unclear exactly what evidence persuaded Zagel to keep the jury anonymous. Prosecutors made their arguments in a Feb. 16 motion that was filed under seal.

But anonymous juries are more common when defendants are allegedly part of a large criminal organization, with members outside the courtroom who have a strong interest in the trial's outcome.

The process to select the Family Secrets jury began earlier this year when prospective jurors in a special pool had their backgrounds checked and were sent questionnaires that asked for in-depth personal information. In addition to personal data, the jurors were asked dozens of questions about their opinions and perceptions of the justice system, the FBI and organized crime.

Jurors were asked what they read and listen to as well as what TV shows they might watch that touch on the mob. One prospective juror listed "The Simpsons," apparently a tongue-in-cheek reference to the character "Fat Tony" and his band of hoodlums from fictional Springfield's underworld.

Also among the questions was whether the prospective juror had ever written to the editor of a newspaper, and on what topic.

On Tuesday morning, the first 25 possible jurors will be led into the courtroom for questioning in person. Although they will not be shielded visually by a partition, they will be identified only by number. Another 25 will follow in the afternoon, and that pattern will repeat at least through Thursday until about 18 are picked. Twelve will be permanent jurors, the rest alternates.

Some of the defense attorneys in the case said because of the detailed questionnaire, they may wind up knowing a bit more about each juror than they would have otherwise. Still, it's a handicap not to know such basics as a person's name or where they live.

Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, said he, too, objected to the anonymous panel. He noted he has practiced law for 20 years and has never heard of a case of jury tampering in Chicago's federal court.

Openness in government is important, and jury tampering -- in real life, as opposed to Hollywood films -- is exceedingly rare, agreed Shari Seidman Diamond, law professor at Northwestern University.

"I'm not persuaded that [anonymous juries] are required or that they're useful or that they contribute to justice," Diamond said. "We prefer to have the jury be a source of light, not shadow."

But Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, said he's sure the judge has plenty of reasons to want the jurors' identities withheld in such a high-profile case.

"Frankly, I think the gravest danger the judge perceives are crank phone calls and media scrutiny," Halprin said. "He doesn't want the same kind of fiasco they had in the Ryan trial."

----------

jcoen@tribune.com

mjhiggins@tribune.com

Here's something I didn't know, will it boost sales of the Magnum P.I. Box sets among members of this forum???



Spilotro once showed 'Magnum' force


Published June 17, 2007


The Spilotro Hollywood moment is that scene in "Casino" with the cornfield and the baseball bats that the critics loved, though it really didn't happen that way.

That's how America remembers the Chicago Outfit's Anthony Spilotro and his brother Michael, whose famous murders are among 18 Outfit killings comprising the historic federal "Family Secrets" mob trial set to begin this week.

But there is another Spilotro Hollywood moment, long forgotten. In this one, actors don't play the Spilotros. Rather, Michael Spilotro played a tough FBI agent on the hit TV show "Magnum, P.I.," starring Tom Selleck.

Special Agent Spilotro appeared in the 1981 episode "Thicker than Blood." And you thought only Christopher from "The Sopranos" had a Hollywood urge.

Michael was the little brother of Tony, the Chicago Outfit's overseer in Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael received bit parts on "Magnum" and other shows. (I've got that "Magnum" DVD, but don't ask to borrow it.)

"Magnum" was a private-eye show set in Hawaii with a fancy red Ferrari and beautiful girls, gunplay, more beautiful girls, more gunplay and beautiful girls. That was when TV was TV. In the episode, a gang of wisecracking French drug dealers try to import loads of heroin. But G-man Michael Spilotro won't stand for such shenanigans.

Rather than wear a tie, Agent Spilotro wears a sports coat and an open shirt, but no gold chains. And Agent Spilotro did an interesting thing when he met Magnum in a parking lot in broad daylight. He reached for his gun. How rude.

Did Agent Spilotro think he was in some parking lot at Grand and Harlem?

Magnum was worried about his friend, TC, who'd been set up by the evil drug lords, so Magnum approached Spilotro to find out what happened to his buddy.

"He doesn't wanna talk," Spilotro informed Magnum and Rick (played by native Chicagoan and Michael's boyhood friend Larry Manetti).

Spilotro unleashed his lines in an unmistakably thick Chicago accent, about as thick as mine, with the same flat vowels.

Later, FBI Agent Spilotro is hiding outside a warehouse, peering through a window, clenching a bullhorn while watching the drug dealers unload their heroin. One of the villains, in a thick French accent, says quite sarcastically, "$10 million worth of heroin, courtesy of zee United States Coast Guard."

Just then, Agent Spilotro springs into action:

"This is a federal officer! The building is surrounded!! Come out with your hands in da air!!"

"Magnum" action music—including wailing guitars—pulsates to a disco beat. Agent Spilotro charges in, cornering the evildoers by firing his pistol into the air.

They surrender, and wisely. They didn't know if "Family Secrets" prosecution witness and Outfit enforcer Frankie Cullotta might have been hiding nearby, supporting Spilotro, with a vise that would fit several French heads. The vise thing was in "Casino," but it was drawn from Chicago Outfit war stories and, no wonder, since Cullotta was a technical adviser on "Casino" and knew what a vise could do to a head.

Spilotro may have been trying to increase his Hollywood profile for business reasons, but I don't think the old guys back home who ran things were too pleased about Michael raising his profile on TV.

But others disagree, including Manetti, who ran a Chicago construction company that helped build Rush Street clubs before getting into acting. Manetti says he's developing several projects, including a TV comedy about burned-out cops working the night shift and a movie about Cuban refugees.

"I didn't know Michael as a gangster, I knew him as a guy I grew up with in the neighborhood," Manetti said. "Michael wanted to be on TV, that's all. Who wouldn't? It was a top show. He had fun. He wasn't trying to be a movie star or an actor, he was having fun."

Common wisdom is that Tony was the tough guy and Michael was the innocent victim, though some law enforcement sources suggest Michael may have been more devious than his brother. But that's not how Manetti saw his friend, who visited him in Hawaii and was offered a bit part.

"I loved Michael. I don't know what the rumors are, he wasn't a bad guy. Everybody has aspirations of being a movie star. We thought about it. It was funny, you know, Spilotro, FBI agent. . . . With us, it was all fun, no bad stuff. I think we talked about him playing a guy named Zookie the Bookie once, you know, just fun stuff. He was OK as an actor, he wasn't so stiff."

Manetti, who lives in California, said he'll read the Tribune to follow the "Family Secrets" trial.

"I miss him. Listen, if it's about the guys who killed Michael, let them burn."

Some who ordered the murders have already been burned, and are likely burning still.

And though Michael Spilotro may have had fun on TV, I've got a feeling that a few Chicago critics who could make him or break him didn't like his performance as a crime-fighting fed.

They gave it two broken thumbs down.

jskass@tribune.com

The timeline for the Family Secrets trial from the Tribune.

I'm also recording reports from TV and probably will compile them into one for a video timeline.

Hey well done thats excellent reading.It would be great if you could do a dvd and post it on here.

Everything in this thread's very interesting. Thanks for the info, guys!
As for the anonymous jury:
There's adequate legal precedent for anonymous juries if the prosecution convinces the judge that naming the jurors would be dangerous to them. Of course it prejudices people. But during the voire dire (jury selection process) jurors are asked, by both sides, if they've heard of the defendants before, have any prejudice against them, read anything that might affect their opinion, etc. Jurors who want to stay on the jury will deny any such prejudice. If the defendants are convicted and they appeal on the basis that the anonymity effort prejudiced the jury, the appellate judge can always claim that the jurors had been asked if they were prejudiced, that they denied it--and the defense accepted them as jurors.

More fundamentally: an appeal can be based only on new evidence surfacing, or a provable contention that the defendants didn't get a fair trial. But the appellate judge is the decider. They have their own prejudices. And they have their politics: they won't want to put known criminals back on the street because of a technicality. Nor do they like to overrule fellow judges--looks bad going forward, when they might be up for consideration for a higher court.
Bottom line: when a case goes to trial, the issue isn't innocence or guilt, or even right or wrong: it's who wins and who loses.

I have newscasts from the morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night broadcasts from the major local news stations being recorded. When it's all over, I'll see what I can do with them.

'Hoax' bomb shakes Family Secrets trial
Device at home of defendant's son

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 20, 2007

A fake explosive device was found outside a suburban home owned by a son of a defendant in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial hours after jury selection began Tuesday, prompting a federal investigation, authorities said.

Investigators said a "hoax device" was left on the back porch of a house in Kenilworth and discovered about 1 p.m. A defense lawyer in the case, Joseph Lopez, said the object was found at the home of a son of his client, reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., on trial for racketeering conspiracy in connection with long-unsolved mob murders.

Public records show the home belongs to one of Calabrese's sons, Kurt, but not the son who is expected to take the witness stand for the government. The son who recorded conversations with his father and is expected to take the witness stand is Frank Calabrese Jr.

In addition, Nicholas Calabrese, Frank Sr.'s brother, is expected to be the government's star witness, naming his own brother in many of the murders.

Kurt Calabrese was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 1997 for helping conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits in connection with his father's loan-sharking activities.

Investigators said the device was not a working explosive. It was too early to know whether it was a prank or some kind of message, but authorities are concerned because of its timing as jury selection began in the trial.

The events followed U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel's decision to keep the identity of the jury anonymous as a safeguard.

Lopez said he was concerned that opening statements, which could begin as soon as Thursday, might have to be delayed.

"It's shocking, and it shouldn't have happened," Lopez said. "My client loves his children."

As jury selection began Tuesday in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Frank Calabrese Sr. sat in a powder-blue sport coat talking to Lopez. It marked the first time that the five men facing trial—Calabrese, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Paul Schiro and Anthony Doyle—have been in the same courtroom.

They are accused in a sweeping Outfit conspiracy blamed for 18 decades-old gangland killings.

With Zagel handling the questioning, jury selection moved swiftly Tuesday. By the end of the first day, eight people were selected to sit in the trial, which is expected to last at least two months. Eighteen others were interviewed and could be still be picked, lawyers in the case said.

With black-and-white portraits of judges staring down from the walls of the ceremonial courtroom, prospective jurors were questioned about whether they could be fair in a case involving the shadowy work of the Chicago Outfit. Lombardo, in a gray jacket and loose tie, flipped through questionnaires that prospective jurors had filled out before the trial.

Given the anonymity of the jury, Zagel questioned candidates by number only, asking them about their jobs and whether they could be fair. All those questioned Tuesday said they could be impartial. They were warned the trial will feature much evidence on Outfit staples such as gambling and pornography. Lawyers were expected to continue making selections Wednesday for a final panel of 18, six of whom will be alternates.



jcoen@tribune.com

Boy, this Calabrese guy has some resume, huh?

This really sounds as though it's going to be a very interesting trial with all the side dishes to go with it.

Fake bombs, threats, anonymous jurors.

Marty Scorcese better have his pen and paper ready for this one.

Given all the defendants who're turning rat, I wonder if anyone will be left to prosecute when the trial opens?

A statement made by Joe Lombardo to the Chicago Tribune after being paroled in 1992,
'I am Joe Lombardo , I have been released on parole from a federal prison.I never took a secret oath with guns and daggers,pricked my finger,drew blood or burned paper to join a criminal organization.If anyone hears my name used in connection with any criminal activity,please notify the FBI,and my parole officer,Ron Kumke'.

You think someone called them!

A Brief History On Joey the Clown,
Joey "The Clown" Lombardo (born as Joseph Lombardi[1] on January 1, 1929), also known as Joe Padula, Lumbo, and Lumpy, is an American mafioso and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit during the 1970s and 1980s. He is currently alleged to either be the Boss of the Outfit, or its consigliere.

Lombardo joined the Chicago Outfit in the 1950s. In 1963, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping; however, he was later acquitted. Lombardo was again on trial in 1974 with Allen Dorfman, an insurance agent, and charged with embezzling $1.4 million from pension funds of the Teamsters Union. The charges were later dropped after the main witness, Daniel Siefert, was killed two days before his scheduled appearance.

In 1982, Lombardo and Dorfman were again charged, this time with extortion of $800,000 from construction owner Robert Kendler as well as, with Teamsters President Roy L. Williams, attempted bribery of Nevada Senator Howard W. Cannon.

Lombardo was later implicated, by government informant Alva Johnson Rodgers, in the deaths of Daniel Siefert and Robert Harder in 1974, Sam Annerino and Raymond Ryan in 1977, and Allen Dorfman in 1983. Lombardo was also accused of personally murdering ex-police officer Richard Cain. Interestingly, Cain was believed to be a CIA agent as well. Cain was also a CI to Bill Roemer an FBI agent.


Lombardo and Williams were finally convicted of attempted bribery in August 1985 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Williams, who received 10 years imprisonment, later agreed to testify against Lombardo and several top members of the Chicago Outfit later charged with concealing Mafiosi ownership of the Las Vegas Stardust Resort & Casino of which over $2 million unreported income was skimmed from 1974-1978. By January 1986, five mobsters had been convicted, including Lombardo, who was sentenced to an additional 10 years, as well as Chicago syndicate leaders Joey Aiuppa and John Phillip Cerone, sentenced to 28 years imprisonment, Angelo Lapeer, and Milton Rockman.

On April 27, 2005, indictments were handed down in which 14 people, including Lombardo and Frank "The German" Schweihs, were named in the murders of 18 people. Despite being in his late 70s, Lombardo avoided capture. During his time as a fugitive, he wrote two letters to his lawyer, one claiming innocence in the charges brought against him, the other not yet made public. He was finally captured by FBI agents in Elmwood Park, Illinois on January 13, 2006, after being harbored on the 2300 block of N 74th Ave. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and also revealed to have medical problems with his arteries hardening. He told the court he had not been to a doctor during the time he was "unavailable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jlombardo.jpg

For the record, and to be completely correct, this was a listing in the classified advertising section of the Chicago Tribune and I have an original copy. Unfortunately it's stored with boxes of other memorabilia at one of those storage place and it would take me ages to determine what box it's in.

Unlike the trials of the old-time mobsters, stories of which I only know from reading, I'm old enough to remember every incident when it happened on the Tribune timeline from this current generation on trial. I am completely captivated by everything surrounding this event...the indictments, the trial, the radio, television, newspaper, and internet accounts of the proceedings. Totally compelling. These are all guys from my neighborhood.

If you read the opening chapter of The Original Godfather, Roemer's book about Tony Accardo, he proffers a different theory (which he presents as fact) about who killed #5, #6, and #7 on the Tribune timeline. Would an actual admission of guilt from Calabrese on those specific murders discredit Roemer? That's a huge implication for a large body of literature.

tony b.

Roemer's theories have often been criticised, haven't they?

I found WAR OF THE GODFATHERS completely unreadable.

Jurors chosen to hear Chicago mob trial


The Associated Press
Published June 20, 2007, 5:50 PM CDT
A jury was selected today in Chicago's biggest organized crime trial in years.

Defense attorney Joseph Lopez says 19 jurors have been chosen. That's a jury of 12 and seven alternates.

Opening statements in the trial of reputed mob boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and four other defendants are scheduled for Thursday morning.

Jurors will hear allegations against defendants accused of a racketeering conspiracy that included at least 18 murders.

Judge James Zagel questioned the anonymous potential jurors today. As he did yesterday, Zagel asked jurors about how much they know about the case and whether they could be fair.

Zagel previously took the unusual step of issuing a ruling that jurors' identities won't be revealed.

What was the current state of the Chicago Oufit before this?

A modest revelation from a respected investigative reporter in Chicago, from tonight's newscast...

Chuck Goudie's story on WLS-TV

Or cut-and-paste this URL if the hyperlink doesn't work:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=investigative&id=5407448

Please have your pencils and scorecards ready (or your early 1980's Chicago Crime Commission Outfit Family Tree) for today's correct starting line-up...

tony b.

Calabrese's son and brother are testifying against him? Suppose Calabrese had an accident of some sort, would they still have a case against the rest?

Feds set to unveil secret history of Chicago mob
FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL | Opening statements begin today

June 21, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
Federal prosecutors will reveal the secret history of the Chicago Outfit this morning as opening statements begin in the historic Family Secrets case.
The feds are expected to sketch out to 12 jurors and seven alternates a sweeping tale of the Chicago Outfit over the last several decades and the role of several top mobsters standing trial, including the reputed head of the Chicago mob, James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and alleged mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr.

At the center of the fed's case -- led by veteran mob prosecutors Mitchell Mars and John Scully -- are 18 previously unsolved mob hits from 1970 to 1986. The most well-known hit among them all is the double murder in 1986 of the Outfit's man in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro, and his brother Michael.

The slayings were immortalized in Martin Scorsese's 1995 movie "Casino," but the great director got it wrong. Scorsese had the characters based on the Spilotro brothers beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

Jurors will learn the real story of how the brothers were driven to a home in the Bensenville area, with Marcello allegedly behind the wheel. In the home's basement, the men were strangled -- then buried in Indiana.

Leading off the defense will be the colorful attorney Joe "The Shark" Lopez, whose nickname reflects his aggressive nature. Lopez represents Frank Calabrese Sr., who is accused of the most murders -- 13 -- of any defendant.

Defense attorneys are expected to say the prosecution's case is made up of the usual snitches telling the same old tales to curry favor with the feds.

The prosecution's case is built in part on a library of secret tape recordings the feds have made over the decades of various mobsters discussing their misdeeds.

Since the mobsters often talk in code, the defense attorneys likely will argue that the feds have misinterpreted the chats.

I just thought id post this as i found it interesting and have never seen it before.


The Oath of the Outfit By Chuck Goudie
June 20, 2007 - Federal documents reveal a new name in the upper crust of the Chicago outfit, a man that some mob experts believe may have become the mob's "elder statesman."

Documents filed by federal prosecutors in the case against 14 top mob figures revealed the identity of what some mobwatchers say is the Chicago outfit's current consigliere. The man's name was blotted out -- redacted --from the government filing. But tonight, the ABC7 I-Team reveals the name behind the black mark.
Mafia initiation ceremonies are not open to the public. The only pictures are cheesy Hollywood reenactments. So when Chicago wiseguy Nick Calabrese started deep dishing outfit details to federal authorities a few years ago, one story stood out. It is explained in a government filing known as a proffer, or play-by-play, of the case that federal prosecutors plan to put on against Chicago hoodlums charged in Operation Family Secrets. The proffer states that Nick Calabrese will testify that a number of individuals were "made" (or inducted) with him in 1983, including co-defendant James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.

During the "making ceremony," each 'inductee' was accompanied by his crew boss or "capo," according to the government. Two men "conducted the ceremony, which included an oath of allegiance to the organization."

One of the concelebrants was the late Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, then considered the top ranking boss of the mob. Aiuppa's partner in the blood ceremony was blacked out in publicly filed documents.

But tonight, the ABC7 I-Team has seen an un-redacted copy of the filing. We can reveal the name under the black mark: Alphonse Tornabene.

Tornabene is now 84 years old. He is known in mob circles as "Al the Pizza Man." A suburban pizza parlor is still in his family. Even though he owns a summer home in William's Bay, Wisconsin, the I-Team found Tournabene at the front door of his suburban Chicago house and asked him whether he was the grand mobster at an outfit initiation.

GOUDIE: "Know about that?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You don't remember?"

TORNABENE: "No."

GOUDIE: "You and Mr. Aiuppa?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You administered the oath of the Outfit according to the feds?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

"Well, it shows significance, one that they took him under their trust to make such a significant ceremony, in making some mob guys," said Robert Fuesel, former federal agent.

Former IRS criminal investigator Bob Fuesel says Tornabene grew up as an outfit bookie but was apparently being groomed for higher office. With the three elder statesman of the outfit all dead, Joey Aiuppa, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo and Sam "Wings" Carlisi, some federal lawmen believe that the role of consiglieri has fallen on Carlisi's cousin, Al Tornabene, who may have a hard time getting around these days, but is still meeting with known outfit associates.

GOUDIE: "The Crime Commission is saying that you run the mob?"

TORNABENE: (laughs) "I can't even move..."

On several days I-Team surveillance spotted Leo Caruso at Tornabene's home. Seven years ago Caruso was permanently barred from the Laborers' International Union after a federal investigation linked him to the mob's 26th Street crew. A Justice Department report stated that Caruso was "deeply involved with organized crime figures in a substantial manner."

TORNABENE: "He's just a friend..."

GOUDIE: "Mr. Caruso is a friend?"

TORNABENE: "Yes."

The FBI is currently investigating the disappearance of Tornabene's top lieutenant, Anthony "Little" Zizzo. The two men met frequently until last August, when Zizzo mysteriously vanished after leaving his west suburban condo for a meeting on Rush Street.

"Well, these indictments through the US attorney's office, just put everything in disarray, and so do they know what happened to Zizzo. I'm sure somebody does. It's hard for me to believe based upon his reputation that he has not been uncovered and/or is probably deceased," said Fuesel.

"Pizza Al" has no criminal record but comes from a mob family. His late brother Frank was convicted of vote fraud and prostitution and authorities say was active in outfit vice rackets.

The Tournabenes are also related by marriage to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Frank Tournabene was a great uncle to Blagojevich's wife Patty.

A spokeswoman for the governor's wife says that while she is aware of her late uncle Frank Tornaebene, she doesn't recall a relative named Al and has no memory of ever meeting such a person.

The I-Team attempted to reach former union boss Leo Caruso about his relationship with pizza l Tornabene. A woman who answered the phone at Caruso's Bridgeport home said he wasn't interested in talking.
The Oath of the Outfit By Chuck Goudie
June 20, 2007 - Federal documents reveal a new name in the upper crust of the Chicago outfit, a man that some mob experts believe may have become the mob's "elder statesman."

Documents filed by federal prosecutors in the case against 14 top mob figures revealed the identity of what some mobwatchers say is the Chicago outfit's current consigliere. The man's name was blotted out -- redacted --from the government filing. But tonight, the ABC7 I-Team reveals the name behind the black mark.
Mafia initiation ceremonies are not open to the public. The only pictures are cheesy Hollywood reenactments. So when Chicago wiseguy Nick Calabrese started deep dishing outfit details to federal authorities a few years ago, one story stood out. It is explained in a government filing known as a proffer, or play-by-play, of the case that federal prosecutors plan to put on against Chicago hoodlums charged in Operation Family Secrets. The proffer states that Nick Calabrese will testify that a number of individuals were "made" (or inducted) with him in 1983, including co-defendant James "Jimmy the Man" Marcello.

During the "making ceremony," each 'inductee' was accompanied by his crew boss or "capo," according to the government. Two men "conducted the ceremony, which included an oath of allegiance to the organization."

One of the concelebrants was the late Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, then considered the top ranking boss of the mob. Aiuppa's partner in the blood ceremony was blacked out in publicly filed documents.

But tonight, the ABC7 I-Team has seen an un-redacted copy of the filing. We can reveal the name under the black mark: Alphonse Tornabene.

Tornabene is now 84 years old. He is known in mob circles as "Al the Pizza Man." A suburban pizza parlor is still in his family. Even though he owns a summer home in William's Bay, Wisconsin, the I-Team found Tournabene at the front door of his suburban Chicago house and asked him whether he was the grand mobster at an outfit initiation.

GOUDIE: "Know about that?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You don't remember?"

TORNABENE: "No."

GOUDIE: "You and Mr. Aiuppa?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

GOUDIE: "You administered the oath of the Outfit according to the feds?"

TORNABENE: "I don't remember."

"Well, it shows significance, one that they took him under their trust to make such a significant ceremony, in making some mob guys," said Robert Fuesel, former federal agent.

Former IRS criminal investigator Bob Fuesel says Tornabene grew up as an outfit bookie but was apparently being groomed for higher office. With the three elder statesman of the outfit all dead, Joey Aiuppa, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo and Sam "Wings" Carlisi, some federal lawmen believe that the role of consiglieri has fallen on Carlisi's cousin, Al Tornabene, who may have a hard time getting around these days, but is still meeting with known outfit associates.

GOUDIE: "The Crime Commission is saying that you run the mob?"

TORNABENE: (laughs) "I can't even move..."

On several days I-Team surveillance spotted Leo Caruso at Tornabene's home. Seven years ago Caruso was permanently barred from the Laborers' International Union after a federal investigation linked him to the mob's 26th Street crew. A Justice Department report stated that Caruso was "deeply involved with organized crime figures in a substantial manner."

TORNABENE: "He's just a friend..."

GOUDIE: "Mr. Caruso is a friend?"

TORNABENE: "Yes."

The FBI is currently investigating the disappearance of Tornabene's top lieutenant, Anthony "Little" Zizzo. The two men met frequently until last August, when Zizzo mysteriously vanished after leaving his west suburban condo for a meeting on Rush Street.

"Well, these indictments through the US attorney's office, just put everything in disarray, and so do they know what happened to Zizzo. I'm sure somebody does. It's hard for me to believe based upon his reputation that he has not been uncovered and/or is probably deceased," said Fuesel.

"Pizza Al" has no criminal record but comes from a mob family. His late brother Frank was convicted of vote fraud and prostitution and authorities say was active in outfit vice rackets.

The Tournabenes are also related by marriage to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Frank Tournabene was a great uncle to Blagojevich's wife Patty.

A spokeswoman for the governor's wife says that while she is aware of her late uncle Frank Tornaebene, she doesn't recall a relative named Al and has no memory of ever meeting such a person.

The I-Team attempted to reach former union boss Leo Caruso about his relationship with pizza l Tornabene. A woman who answered the phone at Caruso's Bridgeport home said he wasn't interested in talking.

Chuck Goudie, Chief Investigative Reporter, ABC 7 News

This is great stuff, guys! Keep 'em coming!

I may have captured the video to go with that Chuck Goudie article.

For good pizza in suburban Chicago, try this place...

Villa Nova Pizzaria in Berwyn, Illinois

When they take an item off the menu, they don't re-print the whole menu. They just take a black magic marker and cross-off the item so you can't read it. But I have an un-redacted copy of the menu which names ALL of the appetizers and entrees...

tony b.

(this post is best appreciated after viewing the TV video from the special report posted earlier...and possibly archived by Donatello)

Feds: Mob defendants not the 'Sopranos'

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 21, 2007, 2:35 PM CDT
Calling four of the defendants "Outfit killers," a federal prosecutor in the Family Secrets conspiracy trial told jurors this morning that the alleged crimes were real, not TV shows and movies that glorify the mob.

"This is not 'Sopranos.' This is not 'The Godfather.' This case is about real people and real victims," Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully said during a 50-minute opening statement in the sweeping trial that is expected to last three months or more.

The government will attempt to detail the mob's grip on street gambling, juice loans, pornography and other aspects of Chicago's dark side, including 18 gangland slayings.

The four defendants are Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, a reputed capo in the Grand Avenue street crew; Frank Calabrese Sr., a made member of the Outfit's 26th Street crew and once the city's reputed top loan shark; James Marcello, described as the boss of the Chicago Outfit when the Family Secrets indictment came down in spring 2005; and Paul "the Indian" Schiro, a reputed mob enforcer.

A fifth defendant, former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, is also on trial but isn't accused of the slayings.

Scully said the Outfit is "corrupt, it's violent, it's without honor." He then described each of the five men charged, summarizing their alleged crimes. The prosecutor also flashed photos of the 18 murder victims in the case on an overhead screen and gave jurors background information about each.

Scully then went through each killing and gave an outline of how authorities believe the Outfit is structured and how it makes money though illegal gambling and street taxes, among other things. He described the mob hierarchy for jurors, saying it was an organization that existed to make money.

In his opening statement, Joseph Lopez, the attorney for Calabrese, asked jurors to keep an open mind as they handle the case. He urged them to ignore the media attention and their perceptions of organized crime.

Lopez said Calabrese has been out of organized crime since the 1980s, and his brother, Nicholas Calabrese, who is the prosecution's key witness, is the mob boss. "People reported to Nick Calabrese," the attorney said. "When Nick Calabrese was in prison, crew members came to see him."

No physical evidence links his client to any murder, but DNA evidence links Nick Calabrese to one, Lopez said.

In an unusual strategic move, defense lawyer Rick Halprin, who represents Lombardo, said he would withhold his opening statement until the start of the defense's case weeks from now.

Before the opening statements, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel swore in the jury panel, whose identities are being kept secret over the objections of the defense lawyers.

I was thinking today, when you're 60 or 70 and your name is "Joey The Clown", you've gotta be a wiseguy.

Or you have some serious mental problems. "Joey the Clown"? No one could think of a better nickname?

To see Joey's antics, you'll see why he's called "The Clown".

1st shots of Outfit trial
Defendants called killers, feuding kin

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 22, 2007
Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully walked over to the defense tables and pointed out the men on trial one by one as he addressed jurors in a low, tense voice. Frank Calabrese Sr., a reputed Outfit hit man charged in 13 slayings, sometimes used a length of rope to strangle his victims, Scully said on the first day of the landmark Family Secrets mob trial.

Reputed Outfit boss James Marcello, he said, lured Anthony Spilotro, the mob overseer in Las Vegas, and his brother, Michael, to their violent deaths.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, a reputed mobster for 40 years, was behind the slaying of a businessman who was shot in front of his wife and young child before he was to testify in court against Lombardo, the prosecutor said.

Paul "the Indian" Schiro, an associate of the Spilotros, assisted in the murder of a longtime friend, he said.

Lombardo, who had stood and chirped "good morning" to jurors when he was introduced moments before, stared past Scully from behind tinted glasses. The others appeared to show no reaction as well.

Scully asked jurors to dismiss the glamorized mob of the entertainment world as he laid out the government's gritty evidence in the most significant prosecution against the Chicago Outfit in years.

"This is not 'The Sopranos.' This is not 'The Godfather.' This case is about real people and real victims," Scully said Thursday. The mob, he said, is "corrupt, it's violent, it's without honor."

In his opening statement, Frank Calabrese Sr.'s colorful lawyer, Joseph Lopez, countered with humor and an appeal to fundamental legal principles.

Lopez, wearing his trademark dark suit, pointy Italian shoes and pink shirt and socks, said jurors would hear about what amounts to a family feud. Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nicholas, is expected to be the government's star witness, and his son, Frank Jr., secretly tape-recorded his father and agreed to testify against him.

Lopez contended that Nicholas Calabrese was the real Outfit boss, and that Frank Calabrese Sr. had stepped back from heavy mob involvement since the 1980s, when his health worsened. Frank Calabrese Sr. and his namesake son simply didn't get along, Lopez said.

Both Lopez and Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, stressed that authorities have no physical evidence linking their clients to the murders.

Lawyers for Schiro and Anthony Doyle, a former Chicago police officer who also is on trial, are scheduled to deliver their opening statements on Monday. Doyle is not charged in connection with any slaying. Lombardo's lawyer has chosen to give his opening statement after the government rests its case weeks from now.

Testimony is likely to begin Monday in a trial expected to last at least three months. The jury has nine men and 10 women, including seven alternates.

A large crowd watched as the opening statements played out Thursday in the biggest courtroom in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

The prosecution used a large screen to display mug shots of the 18 murder victims as Scully sketched out the killings and other crimes. Among the most notorious slayings are those of the Spilotros, who were beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield; William and Charlotte Dauber, a hit man and his wife who were shot in their car in Will County; and Daniel Seifert, a Lombardo friend who was to testify against him.

Scully said that Lombardo's fingerprint was found on a title certificate of one of the getaway cars used in the Seifert killing.

Much of the rest of the prosecution case will rely on secretly made tape recordings and the testimony of witnesses Nicholas Calabrese and Frank Calabrese Jr. The brother will testify about his involvement in 14 mob murders and knowledge of many more, while the son recorded his father talking about the Outfit.

Scully, a longtime federal prosecutor who has specialized in organized crime, was controlled and focused as he gave jurors an overview of the complicated case. The contrast with Lopez's remarks was stark. He mixed imagery of American freedoms with descriptions of which mobster attended which Calabrese wedding -- and what jurors should make of it all.

Jurors should settle in this summer and get to know the players in a trial that the whole city is watching, he said.

"You'll be able to take note of my wardrobe," Lopez joked. "You might think I'm getting out of line with somebody [during questioning], but I'm just doing my job."

When Frank Calabrese Sr. backed away from the mob because of bad health beginning in the 1980s, brother Nick took control, Lopez said. Frank wasn't a killer, but his brother was, he said. Lopez described Frank as a peacemaker. "He prays, he has medical issues," he said.

Lopez blamed a family feud for his client's legal troubles. Frank Calabrese Sr.'s son will try to portray his father as the evil one, Lopez said, but it was his son who used to throw his weight around on Rush Street and boast of his connections. "It was good for him then, and now he's saying his father was rotten," Lopez said.

Some jurors took notes while others just watched as Lopez brought several marriages into the fray.

Frank Calabrese Sr. and his son don't get along because the son's wife drove a wedge between them, Lopez said. And Nicholas Calabrese says his brother ruined his first marriage, Lopez said, but that wife was "a little kooky" anyway.

"She sewed his zipper shut because she didn't trust him," he said.

But Lopez urged jurors to look at photos of Nicholas Calabrese's second wedding. He said they'll see plenty of Outfit notables, including John "Johnny Apes" Monteleone and others.

"They went to Nick's wedding because Nick was the boss," he said.

Among the murders detailed by the prosecution was that of Michael Albergo, believed by the mob to be a government witness. Scully said Frank Calabrese Sr. strangled him with a rope and that he and brother Nick dumped the body into a hole at a construction site near old Comiskey Park.

In 2003 the FBI tore up the site, now a parking lot, on Nicholas Calabrese's word. Lopez pointed out that dozens of bone samples turned up no links to Albergo.

In fact, no physical evidence links his client to any murder, Lopez said. Yet DNA evidence links Nick Calabrese to the bloody shooting of hit man John Fecarotta, he noted.

He told jurors that they are "mini judges" and the key to the justice system.

"That's why that flag is there," he said, motioning toward the corner of the courtroom. "That's why they kicked all that tea into Boston Harbor."

The charts used by prosecutors were filled with names of those accused of involvement in the 18 killings, including some not charged in the case. Among them was reputed ranking mobster John "No Nose" DiFronzo, who was linked to the Spilotros' murders. DiFronzo is not charged in the slayings.

Marc Martin, Marcello's lawyer, dismissed the charges against his client by saying he had been dragged into the "crosshairs of that dysfunctional family," a reference to the Calabreses.

Calabrese is trying to save his own life by blaming numerous others for his own crimes, Martin said.

"The government has made a deal with the devil," he said.

----------

jcoen@tribune.com

One of Joey's mug-shots.



Theres another image of Joey coming out of court with a newspaper in front of his face, open, like he's reading it, with a square cut out so he can see where he's going.

Whadda clown

Is that top one a recent picture? Someone needs to tell him Hoover's no longer President.

Here he is after being on the lam for 9 months...

If the image doesn't appear in my post, follow this link for the vintage photo of The Clown hiding behind the newspaper with a small cut-out for his eyes so he can see where he's walking...

http://www.darchtimes.com/blog/oct2005/joeyclown1.jpg

I would date that photo as late 1980 or early 1981 since the top story on the back page sports section trumpets the White Sox' signing of Carlton Fisk as a free agent. Fisk left the Red Sox after the 1980 season and started the 1981 season with the White Sox.

Enjoy!

tony b.

...edited to acknowledge Donatello's post which occurred around the same time that I was learning to post pictures with my post...

Mob trial hits on badge, buried secrets


Published June 22, 2007

How do 18 Chicago Outfit murders remain unsolved for decades?

It might help to have the cops on your side.

This came out in the opening statement by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully in the historic Family Secrets trial, when Scully pointed at one of the accused, a fellow with the intriguing nickname of "Twan."

He's called Twan in the 11th Ward, in Bridgeport and Chinatown, where not only the wiseguys are nervous about this trial, but presumably some 11th Ward politicians, too, about information gushing from the mouths of Outfit informants.

Twan is a tough-looking fellow, with a muscly forehead and plates for eyebrows, a Chinatown Sammy Sosa in a nice suit, and the only one of five defendants not accused of being involved in the 18 murders.

The name Twan remains a mystery. If any of you know his longtime friend, Bridgeport's former labor boss, Frank "Toots" Caruso, and you ask Toots and he tells you, please call me. On a pay phone.

Scully's suggestion about how things work isn't in the name Twan, but in another, official name used by Twan:

Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle.

According to Scully, Doyle was with the Outfit and a loan shark, but Doyle also worked in the evidence section of the Chicago Police Department for a time. If Scully's allegations are correct -- and Scully was correct a few years ago when he put former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt behind bars for running the Outfit's jewelry-heist crew -- the Outfit's reach into local law enforcement will be demonstrated once again.

Good cops who make small mistakes are often publicly humiliated, trotted out and yelled at by politicians who wag their fingers for TV cameras. Their families are ruined. But law-and-order politicians somehow always forget to wag their fingers at cops like Hanhardt or Twan.

If you're a loyal reader, you might remember that I wrote about Outfit tough guy John Fecarotta years ago, after reporting that Chinatown crew member Nicholas Calabrese had sought refuge in the federal witness protection program, which started Family Secrets. Fecarotta was implicated in many of the 18 murders by Scully on Thursday, including the 1986 beating deaths of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. It was Fecarotta's job to bury them. He blew it by inserting them in a shallow grave in an Indiana cornfield.

After the Spilotros' bodies were found, Fecarotta was invited to go on another crime, on Belmont Avenue. But he didn't know he was the intended target until Nick Calabrese pointed a gun at his face.

There was a struggle, Nick was shot, and though Fecarotta ended up dead, a bloody glove was found, dripping with Nick's DNA. The glove ended up in the police evidence section where Doyle worked.

When the FBI began asking about the glove, Scully said Doyle became quite interested in this development, figuring that his Outfit superiors would be equally interested, if not more so. Scully alleged that Doyle told Nick Calabrese's brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., about the glove that could put the Calabrese family in the Fecarotta murder.

"He betrayed his oath to the public and decided to remain loyal to Outfit interests," Scully said.

There were other highlights in court Thursday, including Frank Calabrese Sr.'s lawyer, the dynamic and splendidly dressed Joseph Lopez, the only lawyer in town tough enough to pull off pink socks and work for mobsters while remaining a loyal reader of my column.

He described his client as a man ruined by an ungrateful son, another informant witness, Frank Calabrese Jr. Junior was a drug addict who didn't want to go into the trucking business and who cared more about a tarty wife than his own father's love, Lopez said.

He pointed to his client, who allegedly strangled several people until their eyes popped out but who was so soft and kindly-looking in court, he could have been in a TV commercial for facial tissue.

"Who is this man in the powder blue suit who could be a cheese salesman from Wisconsin?" Lopez asked the jury about Frank Calabrese Sr.

Gentle Wisconsin cheese salesman? I wonder where he read that one.

Other highlights included the lists of the Outfit soldiers allegedly in on the 18 killings. And the repeated mention of Bridgeport hit man Ronnie Jarrett, who worked for Bridgeport trucking boss/mayoral favorite Michael Tadin and was the model for the James Caan crime classic "Thief."

Jarrett was gunned down in 1999, about the time that Twan was getting worried about the glove. Jarrett's murder is not included in this case.

"Unfortunately," said Lopez, arguing that his client was not involved in other murders, "people get killed for various reasons all the time."

"The truth," Lopez said, quoting a lyrical Italian proverb, "is somewhere between the clouds."

But I think it's in the evidence room of the Chicago Police Department.

----------



jskass@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mob/index.html

http://blogs.suntimes.com/mob/

2 Links with info from my favorite paper...

Jury gets Mob 101 lesson

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 25, 2007, 3:53 PM CDT
The jury in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy case began hearing evidence today, with the government calling its first witness: James Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission.

Wagner walked jurors through the history of organized crime in the city, from the time Al Capone unified the criminal underworld into a force that he controlled. Since then, the Chicago Outfit has held control of vice here, making money through prostitution, gambling, loan sharking and extortion, Wagner explained.

The mob took the money it made and used it to corrupt politicians and law enforcement, Wagner said. Eventually, the Chicago mob wormed its way into labor unions and Las Vegas casinos, he said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars asked whether the organization has survived and prospered to this day. "It certainly has," Wagner said.

Wagner was expected to be back on the stand this afternoon.

His testimony followed the final opening statements in the case by lawyers for defendants Paul Schiro and ex-Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle.

Doyle's lawyer, Ralph Meczyk, raised eyebrows in court by wheeling in an old pushcart once used by the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation. He pointed to the yellow cart and told jurors that Doyle once worked as a street sweeper and has always earned money through legitimate means. He said Doyle is involved in the case because he had friends who were connected and stayed committed to them.

When he was finished with his statement, Meczyk tossed a copy of the indictment against Doyle into the cart and told jurors that eventually they would decide that's where the document belongs.

Besides Doyle and Schiro, the accused are reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and James Marcello. Lombardo, Marcello and Calabrese are in federal custody.

Schiro was convicted five years ago of taking part in a jewel theft ring run by the Chicago Police Department's former chief of detectives, William Hanhardt. All five have pleaded not guilty.



Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Jury sees 'street tax' video
Tape of reputed Outfit collector in action played at trial

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 26, 2007, 10:27 PM CDT
Reputed mob "street-tax" collector Frank "the German" Schweihs thought someone was moving in on his territory, and he wasn't happy about it.

"I don't care who it is," Schweihs barked in a secretly recorded video played Tuesday at the Family Secrets trial. "If it's Al Capone's brother and he comes back reincarnated. This is a declared [expletive] joint."

Schweihs was being recorded by William "Red" Wemette, an adult-book store owner who worked undercover for the FBI while paying the Chicago Outfit $1,100 a month in street tax to continue in business on the North Side. Prosecutors have told jurors that the collection of street tax—the mob's price for allowing certain businesses to operate—was one of many ways the Chicago Outfit profited. In some of the grainy videos from the late 1980s played in court, Wemette could be seen counting out his tribute as Schweihs looked on.

Wemette's recordings, filled with curses and slang, played a role in Schweihs' conviction for extortion in 1989. In one, Schweihs talked about "making a believer" out of one of Wemette's competitors. Schweihs also said that a mobster to whom Wemette used to pay street tax had vanished to "open up a hot dog stand in Alaska."

Some jurors shot amazed looks at one another as recordings played in court on the second day of trial testimony.

Schweihs, who is too ill to stand trial, is alleged to have acted as muscle for reputed mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, one of five defendants on trial. Also being tried for racketeering conspiracy are reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle.

In the recordings, Schweihs could be heard ranting when Wemette told him that an unknown man had been around his Wells Street porn shop inquiring about the owner.

Wemette, who no longer owns the shop, testified Tuesday that he had been put up to falsely telling Schweihs that a possible rival was paying visits to the store, all part of a ruse by investigators to draw a reaction from Schweihs.

"Tell him God is my [expletive] partner," Schweihs said in a gruff voice. Schweihs sometimes stood up and at other times remained in his seat as he continued to speculate about who could be attempting to lean on Wemette. "Maybe he's a [expletive] Rush Street gangster that's looking for something," Schweihs said. "[He's] gonna get something he ain't looking for."

Wemette raised the possibility that the individual could be related to the California supplier of his pornography. Schweihs laughed off that possibility.

No one would mess with a business connected to the Outfit in "Chicago's back yard," Schweihs said.

"Chicago has the worst reputation in the United States," Schweihs said in apparent reference to the Outfit, adding that even "New York doesn't want to come here to mess with us."

One Outfit rival had previously been warned to stay away from the shop, Schweihs said on the tape, allegedly using a nickname for Lombardo.

"Lumbo made it real [expletive] clear to him," Schweihs said.

Wemette could be heard laughing nervously as Schweihs continued to lose his temper.

"I'll be looking at the obituaries," Wemette said.

"Let's just say it's an act of God, whatever happens to him," Schweihs answered.

Defense lawyers are to cross-examine Wemette beginning Wednesday.

jcoen@tribune.com



Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Mafia boss's family feud led to murder conspiracy trial
CHICAGO: The family problems facing alleged Chicago loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr. make Tony Soprano's seem mild.

Calabrese and four other men are on trial in a Chicago mob case prosecutors have dubbed "Family Secrets." The government's key witnesses: Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., and his brother, Nicholas.

Prosecutors built parts of their case around secrets they say Frank Jr. and Nicholas helped spill. One of the other defendants even claims he is the victim of a dysfunctional family's feud.

Seventy-year-old Frank Sr. and the four other men — James Marcello, 65; Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78; Paul Schiro, 69, and Anthony Doyle, 62 — are charged with racketeering acts including 18 murders dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.

The enterprise, according to the indictment, is the Chicago Outfit, the city's organized crime family founded in the Prohibition Era by Al Capone.


All five defendants have sworn to fight the charges.

The proceedings got off to a surprising start last week during jury selection when word arrived concerning still another Calabrese relative.

Frank Sr.'s other son — Kurt — arrived at his home in the plush Chicago suburb of Kenilworth to find a plastic bag containing a digital clock, some wires and items resembling sticks of dynamite on his doorstep.

The bomb was a fake, and authorities have not said if they have any suspects.

The story of how the Calabreses started turning on one another traces back to 1995, when Frank Sr. and his two sons, Frank Jr. and Kurt, were charged with Uncle Nick in a federal loan-sharking indictment. All four pleaded guilty to roles in the family business.

"All I want to do is get my family back together," Frank Sr. told U.S. District Judge James Holderman, who sentenced him to almost 10 years in prison.

But it was while he was in prison that his family woes got worse.

Frank Jr. was in the same federal prison, at Milan, Michigan, and as the father and son walked around the exercise yard Frank Sr. allegedly spoke about some of the mob's darkest secrets — including long-unsolved murders.

Unknown to Frank Sr., his son was taping their conversations and jurors at the Family Secrets trial are expected to hear what was said.

Meanwhile, Nicholas was facing a murder charge and federal prosecutors were pressuring him to save himself and break the mob's code of silence.

Prosecutors allege that for a time Marcello was paying $4,000 a month to the jailed Nicholas's wife to buy his silence — especially about Marcello's alleged role in the murder in June 1986 of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once known as the Chicago Outfit's man in Las Vegas.

Nicholas eventually agreed to plead guilty and take the witness stand against his brother. As a so-called made guy who has taken the mob oath and goes back a long way, he appears to be in a position to tell secrets.

In his opening statement on behalf of Calabrese, attorney Joseph Lopez sought to discredit both Frank Jr. and Nicholas, hanging the family laundry out for the world to see.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Scully told jurors in the government's opening statement about a specific technique Calabrese is alleged to have used when he murdered some victims. He would strangle them with a rope then cut their throats to make sure that they were dead, the prosecutor said.

The Calabrese family's roots are on Chicago's South Side, in the shadow of U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. Investigators say the neighborhood was a hotbed of the mob.

"Everybody knew everybody," says Lee Flosi of Quest Consultants International, a private company made up entirely of former FBI agents that conducts investigations for corporate and political clients.

"You especially knew who the wiseguys were — the cars they drove, the clothes they wore — they needed them to get the respect they had to have," says Flosi. He says Frank Sr. was long known to the FBI as the top loan shark for the mob's 26th Street Crew, also known as the Chinatown Crew.

FBI agents once ripped up the concrete in one of the White Sox stadium's parking lots, hoping to find the bones of murdered mob loan shark Michael "Hambone" Albergo.

Prosecutors say Frank Sr. and others murdered Albergo in August 1970. But agents were unable to find Albergo's remains under the parking lot.

In all, the indictment accuses Frank Sr. of 10 murders.

Taking note of the Calabrese family's woes, Marcello attorney Marc Martin said his client might not even be in court if not for their problems.

My client," he said, "got caught in the crosshairs of a dysfunctional family."

The Associated Press

Sleuth accused of mob links
THE OUTFIT | Witness says he was Hollywood private detective's henchman

June 28, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
A top Hollywood private investigator, Anthony Pellicano, now in jail battling charges he illegally wiretapped enemies of the rich and famous, worked under reputed top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo three decades ago when Pellicano lived in Chicago, according to court testimony Wednesday.

Pellicano allegedly had a mob henchman, Alva Johnson Rodgers, blow up a Mount Prospect home and was upset when the man wouldn't torch a restaurant, according to Rodgers' testimony in the historic Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago.

Pellicano's mob past in Chicago has long been hinted at, but the trial on Wednesday offered the first public, detailed testimony on what Pellicano allegedly did when he was in Chicago.

Pellicano's attorney, Steven Gruel, could not be reached Wednesday but has rejected claims that his client was mobbed up.

Rodgers, 78, testified with a Texas twang as he described to jurors how he went from a petty car thief to hanging out with Outfit members after he befriended Chicago mobster Marshall Caifano when they were both in prison in the early 1970s.

Rodgers said he saw Pellicano with Lombardo several times.

Rodgers burned down a Mount Prospect home that no one was living in at the time after Pellicano paid him $5,000.

Another time, Rodgers said Pellicano wanted him to close down a Chicago restaurant after a woman who had invested in the place wasn't getting any return.

Rodgers hired some kids to knock out the windows but said he balked when Pellicano wanted him to burn it down because the place was open 24 hours a day.

Rodgers, who mainly stole cars, came under a withering grilling by Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, who mocked his testimony.

"You were, if you pardon the expression, just a bust-out loser?" Halprin asked.

"Probably, yeah," Rodgers conceded.

But Rodgers added that he did do 11 years in prison for a bank robbery. "Is that heavy enough?"

"I'm glad you're not modest," Halprin said. "The bank robbery is probably the highlight of your career?"

"Well, sort of," Rodgers said.

Through his questions, Halprin mocked Rodgers' plan in the 1970s to take over the porn industry in Chicago.

Halprin asked how Rodgers could get the loans to buy millions of dollars of pornography.

"Based on your good credit, right?"

Witness says he worked in Outfit for Lombardo

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 28, 2007
Alva Johnson Rodgers walked slowly into the Family Secrets trial Wednesday with a criminal record as long as his Texas drawl.

As Rodgers swore to tell the truth, he raised his left hand before quickly catching his mistake and thrusting his right hand into the air.

He's been in prison almost of third of his 78 years, Rodgers said with a hint of pride.

There were auto thefts in Arkansas, Arizona and California; a bank robbery in New Jersey; the counterfeiting case in New Orleans; fake stock certificates in Florida; and a plan to bring "a boatload" of marijuana from South America.

But he had never met a Chicago mobster until he helped free one from federal prison in Georgia. Rodgers, a jailhouse lawyer, said his legal research found a flaw in the sentence of his cellmate, reputed Outfit hit man Marshall Caifano.

"The Appellate Court believed us and turned him loose," Rodgers, testifying under immunity from prosecution, told a federal jury. Caifano didn't forget the favor, paying for the lawyer who was able to get Rodgers out too. It was 1973, and Rodgers was soon on his way to Chicago to start working for Caifano and his friends, including reputed mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, he said.

Detailing mob dealings

Lombardo and four others are on trial in an alleged conspiracy to carry out Outfit business that included 18 gangland slayings decades ago. Rodgers was called by the prosecution to tell what he knows about Lombardo's control over the mob.

Dressed in a dark suit, peach shirt and dark teal tie, the gray-haired Rodgers sometimes had to lean forward on the witness stand to hear questions. He was asked if he saw Lombardo in court Wednesday.

"Yeah, I see him. He just stood up," Rodgers said. Lombardo then sat back down, leaned forward and rested his chin on one hand, appearing to pay close attention.

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully, Rodgers said his first memory of Lombardo was when Lombardo was promoted within the Outfit ahead of his friend Caifano. Soon he and Caifano were taking orders from Lombardo, Rodgers said. Rodgers said he sometimes drove Lombardo around town when Lombardo had a police scanner in his car. Once, he said, they realized they were listening to their police tail.

"Apparently, they considered him to be 'the Clown,' and me 'the Rabbit,' " Rodgers said. "We heard every word."

Within a year, Rodgers said, Lombardo allowed him and Caifano to try to take over the porn industry in Chicago. Rodgers said he opened a fictitious business to make peep-show booths and among the visitors were Lombardo and Lombardo's friend Anthony Pellicano, who went on to become a Hollywood private investigator who is awaiting trial in a highly publicized wiretapping case.

The peep-show business was located just a few blocks from a Catholic church, Rodgers said.

"When Lombardo found out about it, he came around and told me not to put the store there," Rodgers told jurors. He said he eventually was sent to to take a cut of the profits from a business being opened on North Wells Street by William "Red" Wemette who also testified against Lombardo this week.

Rodgers said he went on to give Lombardo the idea of setting fire to a rival's giant warehouse of pornography as part of the bid to take over the distribution in Chicago. Rodgers also said he set a house fire for Pellicano and delivered cryptic messages to movie production companies to "join the association."

A lawyer for Pellicano did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the allegations.

Claims contested

On cross-examination, Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, mocked Rodgers and his alleged connection to the reputed mob heavyweight. Rodgers again leaned forward to try to hear.

"I know I'm not the government, so maybe you should lean back," said Halprin, who then asked whether Rodgers was involved only in minor crimes.

"You were just a bust-out loser?" asked Halprin, quickly saying he meant no insult.

"I did 11 years in prison for that bank robbery," Rodgers said.

"I'm glad you're not modest," the lawyer shot back.

Halprin asked Rodgers where he was planning to get $2 million to replace the pornography he planned to destroy in the warehouse.

"Your good credit?" said Halprin, who feigned a talk Rodgers might have with a loan officer. "Oh, 'And I met Joey Lombardo in a sandwich shop?' "

Halprin scoffed at Rodgers' claim that his dealings with Wemette were on behalf of the mob. He suggested the two were just close friends and noted that Rodgers had once driven Wemette's car to California.

Even some jurors smiled as Rodgers said that had been a stolen car -- with Wemette's plates on it.

Also Wednesday, prosecutors played for jurors undercover audio recordings of Lombardo from a 1979 investigation into labor racketeer Allen Dorfman. Lombardo could be heard threatening the life of a casino owner who failed to repay a loan.

And defense lawyers cross-examined Wemette, who had testified about paying street tax to the Outfit from his adult bookstore. Halprin asked Wemette when he had given the FBI information on the sensational 1955 murders of young brothers John and Anton Schuessler and their friend Robert Peterson. In a bid to undercut Wemette's credibility, the defense brought out that Wemette claimed that Kenneth Hansen had confessed to the triple murder in 1968 and that he tipped off the FBI in 1971. Yet Hansen wasn't charged and convicted until the 1990s.

"The people I did speak to about it were really not interested in what I had to say." Wemette said.

Prosecutors repeatedly objected, and Halprin was forced to drop the matter.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Wife alleges mob role in husband's slaying

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 28, 2007, 2:41 PM CDT
The former wife of a man allegedly gunned down because he planned to testify against reputed mob boss Joseph Lombardo gave a moment-by-moment account of his killing today in the Family Secrets trial.

The woman, identified in court as Emma Seifert, said her husband, Daniel, had been in fear in the weeks leading up to his death and had armed himself. Federal prosecutors have said Daniel Seifert was to testify in a labor pension fraud case against Lombardo, which was dropped after Daniel Seifert was killed.

Emma Seifert said that on Sept. 27, 1974, she arrived at work before 8:30 a.m. with her husband and her 4-year-old son, Joseph, who was with the couple because he wasn't feeling well. She said they went into their Bensenville business, and she began to make coffee as her husband set down some toys for their son and went back outside to the car.

Suddenly a door in the office burst open, and two men in ski masks jumped out, she said.

"Two men in ski masks came through with guns and they were pointing them at my son and myself," she said, being led through her account by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully.

"I believe they said, 'This is a robbery, and where is . . .' and I don't know if they said my husband or 'that S.O.B,'" she said.

Daniel Seifert came back in, not knowing what was going on, she said, and was immediately struck with a gun and then chased outside. The next thing she knew, she and her son were being pushed into a bathroom at gunpoint by one of the men, she testified.

"He told me to be quiet, and not to worry," she said.

"Then I heard a gunshot, and the man left my side," she said. "Then I didn't hear anything for a few seconds."

The woman said she told Joseph to stay where he was, her voice breaking momentarily as she spoke to the courtroom. She said she looked around the corner out the front door of the business, and was able to catch a glimpse of her husband running across the parking lot of their office complex toward another building. Waiting in that direction was another man holding a sawed-off shotgun, she said.

He too was wearing a mask, she said. His weapon gave off a glint, she testified, leading her to believe it could have been nickel-plated. The woman said her husband made it to the neighboring building.

"That was the last time I saw him," she said, "running into the other business."

The woman testified that she believes one of the men that day was Joseph Lombardo, the man for whom her young son was named. "I can't say definitely, but I got the feeling that one of them was Joseph Lombardo," she testified.

"By his build, the way he moved," she said. "He was light on his feet. He was agile in his day. He was a boxer . . . And it just struck me that that was who it was."

Defense attorney Susan Shatz asked why the woman had never reported that before being interviewed by the FBI in 2003. Emma Seifert said she had told one agent in the weeks after the killing, but was unclear if that agent ever recorded what she said.

jcoen@tribune.com

Thanks DN this is one hell of a trial with plenty more to come!

I was going to post the raw video from the first week of the trial, however as I was converting it to mpg, the program crapped out. It may just be better if I try to produce it down.

Victim's widow implicates Lombardo
Witness testifies about 1974 murder

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 29, 2007
Emma Seifert was a young mother preparing coffee at her husband's Bensenville business when two masked men burst through the office door, brandishing guns at her and her 4-year-old son.

More than three decades later, Seifert, a poised woman now in her early 60s, recounted those horrible moments for federal jurors Thursday as the Family Secrets trial ventured for the first time into the bloody details of one of the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the landmark case.

"I believe they said, 'This is a robbery and where is' ... and I don't know if they said my husband or that S.O.B.," she testified in a calm, even voice.

Within minutes, her husband, Daniel Seifert, who was scheduled to testify against reputed mob boss Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, was chased down and fatally shot.

Jurors looked up from their note-taking at one point Thursday to view a large photo of Daniel Seifert's crumpled body lying in the grass outside his plastics firm.

In what is thought to be her first public comments on the 1974 murder in more than 30 years, Emma Seifert said she believes one of the gunmen was Lombardo, for whom her son was named. Lombardo and her husband had once been close friends.

Even though the gunmen wore masks, Seifert said she thought she recognized Lombardo "by his build, the way he moved."

"He was light on his feet," she testified. "He was agile in his day. He was a boxer."

But the defense questioned Seifert why she had never reported her suspicions about Lombardo's involvement until an FBI interview in 2003. She insisted she had told an agent in the weeks after her husband's death but wasn't sure if he wrote it down.

Seifert's voice dropped only when she talked about her son, Joseph, who was at his father's business that day because he was feeling ill. Now a grown man, he sat in the second row of the courtroom gallery and listened to his mother's testimony.

Lombardo listened intently too. He looked on as Seifert, dressed in a dark pantsuit, worked a laser pointer with an overhead projector to show where she stood in the office when the gunmen surprised her.

Lombardo looked up at the screen and over to Seifert and then sat scratching his head.

There had been warnings in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting, Seifert testified. A federal trial was just a few weeks away. Lombardo and several others were charged in a fraud case linked to the Central States Pension Fund of the Teamsters.

Among the defendants was Irwin Weiner, whom Seifert knew because Seifert had done carpentry work for him, Emma Seifert said. Weiner also had put up money for International Fiberglass, a company Seifert managed and one of the businesses to which investigators had traced fraudulent funds.

Daniel Seifert and Lombardo had a falling out and by late 1972 Seifert was fearful. Emma Seifert told jurors she had seen Lombardo drive slowly by their house as she stood waiting for her older son, Nick, to come home from school.

"I told [Daniel] they had driven by," she said. "He told me to keep the children inside and keep the doors locked, to get a gun and he was going to call the police."

Ronald Seifert, Daniel's brother, testified Thursday that Daniel told him that he had told Lombardo he was cooperating with the government in the case. At one point, Lombardo called him, Ronald Seifert told jurors.

"He said I'd better straighten Danny out, or 'You know what's going to happen to him,' " Seifert said.

Seifert said he told his brother about the call, but it didn't matter.

"He said, 'To hell with them, I'm gonna testify against them,' " Seifert said.

But he never got the chance.

Emma Seifert testified that she screamed when the gunmen rushed into the office, but her husband was returning from their car and didn't hear her cry out. He was knocked down when one of the assailants hit him with a gun, she said.

The courtroom grew still as Seifert described what happened next. She and her son were pushed into a bathroom at gunpoint by one of the men, she said.

"He told me to be quiet and not to worry," she said.

"Then I heard a gunshot, and the man left my side," she said. "Then I didn't hear anything for a few seconds."

Seifert's voice broke momentarily as she recalled telling Joseph to stay put. Seifert said she looked out the front door and caught a glimpse of her husband running across the parking lot toward another building. Waiting there was another gunman, holding a sawed-off shotgun, she said.

He, too, wore a mask, she said. His gun gave off a glint, leading her to believe it could have been nickel-plated, she said.

Seifert said her husband made it to the neighboring building.

"That was the last time I saw him," she said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully.

Arriving for work was Ken Norten, who also testified Thursday. He said he heard a shot and looked up to see a man running around a building across the street and in his direction.

"There was another gunshot, and he grabbed at his knee," Norten said.

Seifert fell, Norten said, and a gunman ran up from behind.

"He pointed his shotgun at him and stood right above him and shot him," Norten said.

Seifert's brother, Ronald, backed up Emma Seifert's testimony that she had told people at the time that Lombardo was involved in the killing.

"What she told me is that she knew it was Joey that held her in the washroom," Seifert said, "her and her son, Joey."

The defense did not cross-examine the witnesses who followed Norten, including those who talked about the two cars the gunmen apparently drove from the scene.

They left one at a car dealership and outran police in a powder blue-and-white Dodge Challenger.

The one left behind was a brown Ford LTD outfitted with a quick-change license plate holder, switches to kill the brake lights, heavy shocks, a police scanner and even a siren. Also found in the car were two ski masks like those worn by the gunmen.

Prosecutors have said they can link that car to Lombardo through a fingerprint they allegedly found on the title certificate filed for the car.

Some of that evidence is expected to come into the trial next week, at which point Emma Seifert's sons said they will speak more openly about their father and his killing.

As they left court Thursday, they stopped only long enough to say they were proud of their mom.

"She held up," Nick Seifert said. "It was a lot of strain and stress."

----------

jcoen@tribune.com

Donatello -

Thanks so much for providing us with these daily updates.

A very interesting case here.

Not a problem.

But wait!! There's more...

Bookie mum at mob trial, jailed for contempt

By MIKE ROBINSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Published July 2, 2007, 7:09 PM CDT
CHICAGO -- A convicted bookie was abruptly jailed Monday at the trial of five reputed Chicago mobsters after refusing to say whether he ever paid extortion money known as "street tax" to one of the defendants.

"I respectfully refuse to testify," Joel Glickman, 71, of Highland Park said repeatedly despite federal Judge James B. Zagel's warnings that he had received immunity and his continued silence could land him behind bars.

When Glickman proved stubborn, Zagel made good on his promise -- holding him in civil contempt of court and ordering him jailed.

"I'm going to order Mr. Glickman to be taken into custody forthwith," Zagel said. Husky federal marshals then escorted Glickman to the lockup.

Attorneys said he could be held there for the duration of the trial expected to last all summer and into the fall.

Behind the scenes Monday morning, Zagel had given Glickman immunity from prosecution for anything he might say on the witness stand.

Specifically, Glickman was asked if he had ever paid "street tax" to convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., one of the five reputed mob bosses and followers now on trial on racketeering conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors have told jurors that mobsters extort money, or "street tax," from adult bookstores, bookies and other shady business operations.

One former pornography shop proprietor, who unknown to the mob was an FBI informant for decades, testified he feared he had to pay or be killed.

Glickman was convicted of bookmaking in 1976 and sent to prison for two years. Glickman lawyer Loraine Ray refused to comment on his jailing.

Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez told reporters his client and Glickman have not had a relationship since the 1960s or early 1970s at the latest.

"The man made a decision," Lopez said. "Why he made the decision I don't know. But it's his decision. Maybe we'll find out more tomorrow."

Before sending him off to spend the night behind bars, Zagel told Glickman: "You can end your confinement simply by notifying authorities that you are willing to testify."

With that, Glickman was led away.

The five men on trial are charged with a racketeering conspiracy that includes 18 murders, illegal gambling, extortion and loan sharking.

Much of Monday's testimony focused on the Sept. 27, 1974, murder of businessman Daniel Seifert, 29, who had promised federal prosecutors that he would testify against reputed mob boss Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo in a fraud case. He was shot to death before he could get to the stand.

Seifert's widow and brother already have told the current trial that Lombardo, now 78 and one of the defendants, had threatened the youthful businessman.

Prosecutors concentrated Monday on what they believe were two getaway cars used in the shotgun killing outside Seifert's Bensenville office.

Police, responding to a radio flash about the fleeing killers, closed in on two suspected getaway cars in an Elmhurst parking lot. One of the cars, a Ford LTD, was abandoned. The other, a Dodge Challenger, got away.

Two FBI experts testified that a print from the little finger on Lombardo's left hand was discovered on the LTD's vehicle registration application filed with the secretary of state's office in Springfield.

The car was registered to a security service at an address where friends of Lombardo's ran a dry cleaning store, federal prosecutors said.

Three witnesses said they believed Lombardo bought a police radio scanner found in the abandoned car from a store where they were employed.

Another witness, Francis A. Mack, testified that the Challenger had come from his brother's Dodge dealership. He said the car vanished from the lot overnight but that, pressed by authorities, he was able to find papers showing that it had been sold to a Henry Corona with a Chicago address.

Former FBI agent Michael Byrne said he went to the address days after the killing and found no Henry Corona living there.

But the retired operator of another dry cleaning store, Frank Mendoza, said he owned the apartment building at the address and was a boyhood friend of Frank Schweihs, a Lombardo associate charged in the indictment.

Schweihs, alleged to be an extortionist who shook down adult bookstores and strip clubs as a member of Lombardo's Grand Avenue street crew, has serious medical problems and is not being tried at this time.





Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

Associated Press reports...


Wasn't too keen about the Ford LTD, but I wondered whether or not that Challenger might have become a collector car (although I think Chrysler had dumped the big block 400+ ci hemi in favor of a smaller V-8 by that time)...

...if it didn't get the torch and chop shop treatment...

tony b.

On capturing video I came across this link that was discussed:
U.S. Attorney's exhibits in the "Family Secrets" mob trial.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/

Reputed mobster's son recalls growing up in the family business

By MIKE ROBINSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Published July 3, 2007, 6:39 PM CDT
CHICAGO -- The eldest son of reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. on Tuesday told a jury a nightmarish story of how loan sharking, extortion, beatings and even a firebombing all were just part of the family business.

Frank Calabrese Jr., 47, took the stand as one of the government's two star witnesses at the trial of his father and four other men charged with running the Chicago Outfit for decades as a racketeering conspiracy.

Tapes he secretly made of conversations with his father while the two men were in prison together are expected to be a highlight of the trial.

On the first day of his expected weeklong testimony, however, the younger Calabrese mainly focused on the agony of life with a mob father.

"He pulled out a gun and stuck it in my face and told me, 'I'd rather have you dead than disobey me,"' Calabrese said, telling of a session in an Elmwood Park garage where the father kept cars with bogus titles.

"I started crying, I started hugging and kissing him," the son said.

Calabrese admitted he had angered his father by stealing $600,000 to $800,000 in cash from him, investing $200,000 of it in a restaurant and squandering the rest on vacations and his cocaine addiction.

"I blew all the money, I spent it wildly," he admitted.

He said he was initiated into the world of organized crime as a teen. His father had him and his uncle, Nicholas Calabrese, collect $3,000 to $5,000 in quarters from peep shows at an adult bookstores and skim $300 a week before turning in the rest to a man he knew only as Vito.

When Vito started putting dabs of colored paint on the quarters to test for skimming, he came in for a slapping around from the elder Calabrese, the witness testified. He said his father told him Vito also was paying him $1,800 a month in "street tax" to keep doing business.

Street tax is a mob expression for extortion payments, much the same as the old-fashioned protection money mobsters forced businesses to pay.

Convicted bookie Joel Glickman was held in contempt and jailed by U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel on Monday after being granted immunity from prosecution and still refusing to say if he paid street tax to Calabrese.

Glickman remained in federal custody Tuesday night.

The younger Calabrese testified that his father once took him to a garage owned by a business associate "who had not met his obligations to us." Once they arrived, the son said, his father gave him a box stuffed with newspapers and soaked in a mixture of gasoline and kerosene.

He testified that on instructions from his father he leaned the box against the garage and inserted a lighted flare. They then drove away.

The younger Calabrese said his father later told him he had returned to the site and that "the fire department was there -- it was a success."

Eventually, he said, his father had him keeping records involving the money the mob took in through gambling, loan sharking and extortion. But in 1997, both men were among several members of the 26th Street or Chinatown crew imprisoned for loan sharking.

It was while they were in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., that the son agreed to cooperate with law enforcement officials and make tapes of things his father said while the two of them strolled the prison yard.

Among other things, the father allegedly told the son which members of the Chicago Outfit were "made guys" and who was responsible for a number of long-unsolved mob murders, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro.

Spilotro, once known as the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, inspired the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother, Michael, were beaten to death and buried in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

After court, Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez told reporters he could not comment on why the younger man turned against his father but said the motive would become obvious on cross examination.

Lopez did say his client was "happy to see his son -- he hasn't seen him in a long time."

Asked how the elder Calabrese felt about the role his son, who now manages a deli carryout in Arizona, is playing at the trial, Lopez said: "It's very difficult for any parent to see his child testify against him."

The government's other star witness is expected to be Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nicholas, who has pleaded guilty, admitted his role in the murder of a fellow mobster, and agreed to testify in exchange for a break when he is sentenced.

Son testifies against reputed-mobster dad
'He pulled out a gun and stuck it in my face'

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 4, 2007
Frank Calabrese Jr. had barely introduced himself and testified that he lettered in football at Holy Cross High School before his father sneered and leaned over to whisper into his lawyer's ear.

The start of his testimony Tuesday was one of the most anticipated moments of the trial -- code named Family Secrets because defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.'s son and brother had done the unthinkable, squealing on a reputed mob brother and blood relative.

The 47-year-old Calabrese Jr., stricken with multiple sclerosis, limped into court on a cane, taking the witness stand a mere 10 yards from his father. Even though Calabrese Sr. swiveled his chair for a direct look at his son, the two did not appear to make eye contact.

He was on the stand for just 45 minutes before jurors were sent home for the holiday, but Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully led the younger Calabrese through a quick personal history: how he joined the family's mob business as just a high schooler and now operates a pizza joint.

He said he's been living near Phoenix running a strip-mall restaurant that serves pizza "Chicago style."

The balding Calabrese testified in a white casual shirt with thin green stripes, his remaining hair buzzed close. He leaned into the microphone to answer each question and occasionally paused to take sips from a water bottle.

Early induction

Calabrese testified he was a teenager when he joined the 26th Street crew, collecting quarters from peep-show booths in mob-controlled pornography shops with his uncle Nicholas.

It is Nicholas Calabrese, Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, who is expected later in the trial to implicate his brother in as many as 13 decades-old gangland slayings.

Eventually, Calabrese Jr. said, he graduated to keeping the books -- gambling, juice-loan and street-tax records -- with his father.

Once, Calabrese said, his father took him along when he slapped around an associate nicknamed "Peachy" for spending Outfit gambling money. Another time, his father had him use a flare to ignite kerosene against the garage of someone who wasn't following orders.

"He wasn't taking care of his obligations to us," Calabrese said.

The elder Calabrese, 70, sat with a sarcastic smile through much of the testimony, talking repeatedly to his lawyer, Joseph Lopez. His son appeared to focus mostly on the prosecutor asking questions from a few feet away. In the son's brief time Tuesday on the witness stand, no mention was made of the hidden recording device Calabrese wore to secretly tape conversations with his father while the two were imprisoned in Michigan in the 1990s.

That promises to be the highlight of the son's testimony in the trial's coming days.

But Calabrese revealed how his relationship with his father soured.

Calabrese said he was moving from job to job and using powder cocaine when he went to one of his father's hiding spots and stole $200,000 in cash to help open a Lake Street restaurant. Later, he went back for hundreds of thousands of dollars more, he said.

"I blew all the money," he said. "I just would spend it all wildly."

On discovering the thefts, his father slapped him and threatened him, Calabrese testified. At one point, his father drove him to an Elmwood Park garage where Outfit "work cars" were kept.

"He pulled out a gun and stuck it in my face and said, 'I'd rather have you dead than disobey me,'" Calabrese said. "I started crying. I started hugging and kissing him.

"I said, 'Help me. Help me do the right thing,'" he said.

After court Tuesday, Lopez, the elder Calabrese's lawyer, told reporters that his client had not been fazed by the son's testimony.

"He's happy to see his son," Lopez said.

Asked why the elder Calabrese appeared to be smiling during parts of his son's testimony, Lopez replied, "He's a happy-go-lucky fellow."

Extortion alleged

But another government witness Tuesday painted a starkly different portrait of the elder Calabrese. James Stolfe, the soft-spoken co-founder of the well-known Connie's Pizza restaurant chain, said he made "extortion payments" to Frank Calabrese Sr. and the Chicago Outfit for 20 years beginning in the 1980s.

Stolfe said he sold his 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire to buy his first Connie's location on West 26th Street near Chinatown, and he operated for nearly two decades before the mob paid a visit. Stolfe said he thought the two men, one large and one small, were salesmen, but he quickly learned differently.

Stolfe didn't have time to talk, he said he told them.

"They said, 'Find time,'" he said.

The two demanded $300,000 -- or else, Stolfe testified. "They said that it was no joke, and if I didn't pay that I was gonna get hurt," he said.

Stolfe said he went to Calabrese, whom he knew from the Bridgeport neighborhood where the two had grown up, to intercede on his behalf. Strangely enough, Stolfe said, Calabrese had just been to his office for the first time in years, the only hint in Tuesday's testimony that Calabrese was in on the extortion from the beginning.

Calabrese said he would see what he could do, Stolfe said, and soon said the payment "only" had to be $100,000.

Fearing that he could be beaten or his business burned down, Stolfe said, he agreed to pay. He said he handed over the first payment of $50,000 cash to Calabrese.

That prompted the prosecutor to ask Stolfe if he saw Calabrese in the courtroom.

Calabrese, in a gray jacket over a black shirt, didn't stand up but stuck up a hand and waved toward the witness stand as Stolfe pointed him out.

The white-haired Stolfe, 67, said he confided in only his close associate, Donald "Captain D" DiFazio, about the payoffs, keeping even his wife in the dark.

Stolfe said he eventually put Calabrese on the payroll as a "spotter," ostensibly to keeptrack of pizza delivery trucks. In reality, it was to hide the monthly payoffs of about $1,000.

Stolfe acknowledged Tuesday that he had lied to a grand jury investigating Calabrese in 1990, concealing the nature of the payoffs to Calabrese and his relationship with the reputed mobster. He told jurors Tuesday that he had been intimidated by Calabrese.

Stolfe said Calabrese even invited himself on his family vacations.

On cross-examination, attorney Lopez tried to portray the two as pals.

"Did anyone put a gun to your head and say you had to go play handball with him?" Lopez asked.

The attorney pointed out that when Stolfe halted the payoffs in 2002 when the Family Secrets investigation became public, no one burned down a Connie's Pizza restaurant. Prosecutors also called DiFazio to the stand, who testified that he carried the payoffs to the mob for years. For the final payoffs, DiFazio said, he gave the cash-filled envelopes to Frank Calabrese Jr., who was already wearing a wire for the feds.

DiFazio, testifying with a gravelly voice and heavy Chicago accent, said he is still director of special events for Connie's.

"I'm supposed to be at Taste of Chicago," he said.

"Another tough guy"

He said he still lives in Bridgeport and described each mob figure he testified about as "another tough guy."

He said he was once confronted by Anthony "Tony the Hatch" Chiaramonti when Connie's sought to open a location in Lyons. Those plans were scrapped, DiFazio said.

"The name speaks for itself," he said of Chiaramonti, who was gunned down at a chicken restaurant in the suburb in 2001.

On cross-examination, Lopez sometimes made small talk with DiFazio, who wore an expensive-looking suit. The attorney, who had exchanged his trademark pink socks for red ones Tuesday to match a blazing red tie, said he had heard DiFazio is a sharp dresser.

"You were a tough guy, too, weren't you?" Lopez asked. "The whole neighborhood was filled with tough guys."

DiFazio finally gave in.

"Absolutely," he said.

----------



jcoen@tribune.com

i know its not about the outfit but here goes anyway

Mafia puts Conrad Black in the shade

Media baron Conrad Black's fate is hanging in the balance, as the jury consider whether he is guilty of fraud and what the US authorities call "racketeering".


Conrad Black could go to jail for the rest of his life

But while the former chief executive of the Hollinger press empire waits to hear whether he will go to jail, a new trial has begun in the same court building.

Four former mafia bosses stand accused of a lifetime of involvement in organised crime.

They are all in their 60s and 70s. The oldest - Joey "the Clown" Lombardo - is 78.

The offences alleged include 18 murders.

The trial has been dubbed Family Secrets by the US press, because two of the key witnesses are the son and brother of one of the accused.

It's a landmark case, according to Jim Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission, because of the sheer number of crimes of which the men stand accused.

Media split

The American media have turned up in force to cover the Family Secrets trial, which is taking place on the 25th floor of the dark skyscraper which houses the Federal courts in Chicago.


Joey Lombardo is the oldest defendant in the mob trial

Meanwhile, the Canadian and British media wait outside the Conrad Black trial courtroom 13 floors below.

Most British newspapers have a reporter in Chicago to cover that verdict, whenever it comes. The Canadian media are even more heavily represented.

Conrad Black was born into a wealthy Canadian family and rapidly built his own business empire. He and his business partner, David Radler, took over numerous Canadian newspapers.

They then took control of the ailing Telegraph newspapers in Britain, giving Conrad Black a position of real influence in British politics.

He was made a British peer in 2001 and gave up his Canadian citizenship, to the consternation of some Canadians.

Curious connection

Lord Black finds himself on trial in Chicago because the company he built up, Hollinger International, was based in the city.

The accusation against him is that he defrauded company shareholders out of millions of dollars, by taking fees which were not properly authorised by the board of directors.


Canadian and UK media await the Black trial's outcome

David Radler has pleaded guilty to a single charge in return for a sentence of 29 months in jail, of which he is only likely to serve six months.

He gave evidence against Lord Black, but was attacked by defence lawyers as a "serial liar".

The most serious charge against Lord Black is racketeering, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail.

The prosecution claim that he ran Hollinger International as a "criminal enterprise" as defined by Rico - the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. This US law was introduced as a way of prosecuting organised crime families.

So there is a curious connection between the two big trials in Chicago. Alleged murderers and mobsters are on trial on the 25th floor. A former media mogul is on trial on the 12th floor, under a law designed to prosecute the mob.

Lord Black is 62 - and if found guilty of racketeering and other offences, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

It is the same fate as that which awaits the alleged murderers in the court upstairs.

By Nils Blythe
Business reporter, BBC News, Chicago

'Made' in the Chicago mob
Undercover tape details Outfit initiation ceremony, and reputed mobster's son tells jurors why he decided to turn on his dad

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 10, 2007
In one of the first undercover tapes played at the Family Secrets trial, a speaker identified as reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. recounted for his son the ceremony at which Outfit members become "made."

The underboss, the Outfit's second-in-command, and capos, who led the street crews, initiated new members one by one, cutting their fingers and then burning a holy picture in their hands, the elder Calabrese said in the 1999 conversation. The bosses checked out if anyone flinched in pain, according to the tape played Monday in court. Candidates had to have a murder under their belt.

"You know what I regret more than anything?" said Calabrese, accused by prosecutors in 13 gangland slayings. "Burning the holy pictures in my hand. That bothers me."

In his first full day on the witness stand, Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., who identified his father on the tape, testified about murder and intimidation as his father glowered at him from under furrowed brows, his chin jutting forward in defiance at times and amusement at other times.

The younger Calabrese, dressed in an unbuttoned blue, red and white polo shirt, largely avoided his father's gaze, looking straight ahead as he responded to the questions of a federal prosecutor, often pushing out his lower lip and knitting together his eyebrows in the same manner as his father.

For the first time, Calabrese told why he had turned his back on his father and wore a hidden recorder for the feds as the two talked in a federal prison.

When the younger Calabrese was about to go to prison in the loan-sharking case, he said, he had a meeting at his attorney's office that his father unexpectedly attended. Calabrese had violated his bond by taking drugs, and his father made him promise to go clean, he said.

"Promise me you'll never do drugs again" and be "a good person," the older Calabrese told him, the son testified

At the same time, Calabrese asked his father to "semiretire" from the Outfit, and "he said he would," the son testified.

After he went to prison, the younger Calabrese said he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, leading him to decide to indeed change his criminal ways. But Calabrese said he realized his father never intended to reform.

Switching sides

The younger Calabrese said he contacted federal authorities from prison and offered to cooperate. Now he is one of the government's star witnesses at the trial of the senior Calabrese, 70, reputed mob figures Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as Anthony Doyle, a former Chicago police officer. At the heart of the prosecution are 18 long-unsolved murders.

In an undercover tape played in court Monday, the elder Calabrese expressed some regrets at being made a full-fledged member of the Outfit in the secret ceremony years earlier. On the tape, the elder Calabrese said he told his sponsor, Angelo LaPietra, boss of the 26th Street crew in the early to mid-1980s, that "I didn't want it."

"I would be strapped down and if I wanted to do something else, I couldn't," Calabrese was heard on the tape telling his son.

The elder Calabrese told his son that to qualify, a made member had to have committed at least one murder, though the initiation could take place years later, the son said.

But the elder Calabrese gave plaudits to Mario Puzo, author of the "Godfather," saying the book's depiction of the making ceremony was "very close" to the real thing, his son said.

Calabrese told jurors that his father and his uncle, Nicholas Calabrese, had confided to him years earlier the details of how brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro had been killed in one of the Outfit's most infamous murders.

Nicholas Calabrese is expected to testify for the government, implicating his brother, Frank Sr. in as many as 13 murders. The cooperation of the elder Calabrese's brother and son led to the code name for the federal investigation, Operation Family Secrets.

In the mid-1980s, the Outfit was unhappy with Anthony Spilotro's handling of its interests in Nevada, and Nicholas Calabrese and John Fecarotta went out to Las Vegas to kill Anthony Spilotro and someone else, the younger Calabrese testified.

They were unsuccessful, but while they were there, Fecarotta won a lot of money while gambling. Casino records placed Nicholas Calabrese there for the Las Vegas trip. The two older Calabreses were furious when they learned of the records because Nicholas Calabrese and Fecarotta had killed another Outfit associate - - whose name Calabrese Jr. said he could not remember - - while they were in Las Vegas.

When the first attempt to kill Anthony Spilotro failed, members of the Outfit decided to bring the Spilotro brothers to Chicago, under the pretense of initiating Michael Spilotro as a "made" member, Calabrese Jr. said. The Spilotros were led to a Chicago-area home and to the basement, where "a whole bunch of guys" surrounded them, he testified.

The brothers were strangled, and beaten to death as some of the Outfit members held their legs, he said. The older Calabreses told him that "Michael didn't put up much of a struggle," but Anthony Spilotro struggled and warned those who were killing him, "You guys are going to get in trouble!" Calabrese Jr. testified.

Nicholas Calabrese later shot Fecarotta to death because Fecarotta was assigned to bury the Spilotros' bodies, which were discovered in an Indiana cornfield, but Nicholas himself was wounded in the hit, Calabrese Jr. testified. When his uncle recovered, he asked Calabrese Jr., at the time a supervisor at the Chicago Department of Sewers, to retrieve the gun used in the shooting from a sewer where Nicholas Calabrese had dumped it. The younger Calabrese said he arranged it so his work crew carried out repairs in the area where the gun was dumped. Under the pretense of cleaning the sewer, Calabrese found the gun and returned it to his uncle, he testified.

Jurors and defendants alike paid rapt attention to much of the testimony Monday, even when Calabrese Jr. detailed high-interest juice loans, street taxes on businesses and other Outfit operations.

Brief laughs

The serious atmosphere of the courtroom was broken only a few times, including once when Calabrese Sr. decided to get up to leave the courtroom for a restroom in the middle of his son's testimony. The elder Calabrese, who is in custody, went to a bathroom in a lockup hidden from the view of jurors.

A few minutes later, outside the jury's presence, Judge James Zagel admonished the defendants that they were allowed to leave for a restroom break during testimony, but by doing so they waived their constitutional right to be present for testimony.

Lombardo, whose nickname of "the Clown" has long matched his history of colorful antics, piped up: "I go pretty often, judge!" drawing laughter from the packed courtroom.

Much of Calabrese's testimony Monday dealt with the minutiae of Outfit life, such as how he spoke in code with his father, how juice loans were calculated and his work with his uncle in enforcing bans on illegal activity in parts of the Chicago area without Outfit approval.

Calabrese Sr. also told his son, in one of their taped conversations played Monday, that federal authorities did not always know who were actual members of the Outfit. Asked by Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully whether that meant that the Outfit had "sleepers" who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes, Calabrese said, "Yes."

The only other testimony Monday came from Joel Glickman, a former mob-connected sports bookmaker who previously had refused to testify, despite being given immunity from prosecution, and had been jailed for contempt. After a week in jail, Glickman decided to testify after all. He said he took out a juice loan for his boss at an insurance company from Calabrese Sr.

OUTFIT ETIQUETTE

DO:
--Ask for permission when starting a new criminal racket.
--Always obey your capo (street crew boss).
--Put the Outfit above everything, including family and God.


DON'T:
--Take drugs.
--Steal from the Outfit.
--Talk of the Outfit to anyone outside the organization.


----------

lford@tribune.com

Donatello Noboddi, thanks for continuing to post very interesting articles on the trial!

From the "Bright One" (that's the hip, new catch title for the Sun-Times)

'Business as usual'
According to Frank Calabrese Jr.'s frighteningly detailed testimony Monday, when Nicholas Calabrese told brother Frank Sr. he had to kill someone out West, the mob boss' sentiment was little more than ...

July 10, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
Frank Calabrese Jr. was being groomed to take over the family business when he learned he was going to have to step up and take more responsibility.

His uncle, Nicholas Calabrese, was leaving his day-to-day duties temporarily to handle a job out West.

Nicholas Calabrese had to go kill somebody, he told his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., and nephew, Frank Jr.

What was Calabrese Sr.'s response?
"Business as usual," Frank Calabrese Jr. said in testimony Monday during the Family Secrets mob trial.

Calabrese Jr. described to jurors in compelling detail the crime family's alleged usual business of muscling people for street tax, squeezing them on juice loans and, when necessary, killing people.

Outfit hit man Nicholas Calabrese was assigned to kill Anthony Spilotro, the mob's man in Las Vegas, who was bringing too much heat.

Eventually, after some missteps, the Outfit got the job done, by luring Anthony Spilotro to a Bensenville-area home where they told him his brother, Michael, was to be "made."

In the basement were top mob killers, including Nicholas Calabrese, who told his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., and nephew, Frank Jr., what happened next.

As Anthony Spilotro and his brother Michael came downstairs, the killers jumped them and strangled them.

Anthony Spilotro put up a fight, telling the mobsters, "You guys are going to get in trouble." Michael Spilotro submitted to his fate.

Calabrese Jr. went from collecting quarters at mob-controlled peep shows when he was a teenager to role-playing in planning scenarios set up by his father and uncle as they plotted out how to kill someone. Calabrese Jr. once retrieved his uncle's murder weapon that had been thrown in a sewer, made easier since Calabrese Jr. ran a city sewer crew.


'To see if you'd budge'
Calabrese Jr. isn't charged in the Family Secrets case but secretly recorded his father while they were in prison together on another case in 1999 and is testifying against him at trial. It's the only way he can get the man out of his life for good, he indicated.
Before Frank Calabrese Jr. was sentenced to prison in the mid-1990s, it became clear he had a cocaine problem, and father and son had an emotional meeting before they headed to prison.

They hugged. Calabrese Sr. begged his son to stop using drugs.

The son agreed, but in return asked his father to step back from Outfit life.

His father agreed but soon was up to his old tricks, Calabrese Jr. said.

"At that point, I realized there was no hope. My father wasn't going to change his ways," Calabrese Jr. said.

So Calabrese Jr. got his ever-cautious father to talk of murders and mob rituals while recording him.

In one February 1999 conversation, Frank Calabrese Sr. allegedly told his son how he got made with other men.

"Their fingers get cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down, then they take pictures. Put them in your hand. Burn them," Frank Calabrese Sr. said.

"Pictures of?" Frank Jr. asked.

"Holy pictures," Frank Calabrese Sr. said. "And they look at you to see if you'd budge. . . . And they . . . wait till they're getting down to the skin. Then they take them out of there."

"What happens if you budge?" Frank Jr asked.

"Then it shows fear," the father replied. "You have fear."

Earlier in the day at trial, a surprise witness hit the stand -- longtime bookie Joel Glickman who refused last week to testify even after being given immunity.

Glickman did not say what made him change his mind. But after eight days of solitary confinement, Glickman hit the stand.

He admitted under the prosecution's prodding he was afraid to testify because of Calabrese Sr.

Not a problem.

Reputed mobster suspected brother was helping feds

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 10, 2007
Reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. suspected his brother was cooperating with federal authorities and could bring down the entire Chicago Outfit, according to videotapes played today in federal court in Chicago.

In videotapes recorded secretly in 1999 while Calabrese was in federal prison in Milan, Mich., Calabrese used Italian slang and off-color code words to describe how his brother Nicholas Calabrese might be cracking under pressure from federal investigators.

The grainy black-and-white tapes show Frank Calabrese and two associates sitting in a visiting room in the prison, as children screech in the background and other prisoners and visitors move in and out of the video camera's frame.

Calabrese had learned from one of the men on the tape, co-defendant Anthony Doyle, at the time a Chicago Police officer working in the evidence section, that a bloody glove his brother had left at the scene of the killing of mobster John Fecoratta was being examined by federal investigators.

On the tapes, Calabrese, Doyle and Michael Ricci, another former police officer, talked about who might be working with federal investigators. The tapes were introduced by stipulation of all the attorneys in the case.

In court today, Frank Calabrese Jr., one of the government's star witnesses in the case against his father and five others, explained what some of the code his father used in the conversations meant.

In several of the conversations, Calabrese Sr. refers to a "sister" who might become a "whore" or a "prostitute."

"The one sister could hurt the whole family," Calabrese Sr. says on the videotape.

He was actually talking about his brother, the younger Calabrese told the jury today.

"If my uncle decides to cooperate, it could be a problem, and nobody seems to see this," Calabrese Jr. said.

In another conversation, Calabrese Sr. said that he worked hard to help Nicholas Calabrese over the years, and brought him into the Outfit only after Nicholas Calabrese asked.

"If my uncle didn't want to be involved in murder . . . he should have told him . . . he just wanted to be told," Calabrese Jr. said.

At the same time, Nicholas Calabrese suspected that his brother was suspicious of him, according to Calabrese Jr.

Nicholas Calabrese is also expected to testify for the government, implicating his brother in as many as 13 murders.

The cooperation of the elder Calabrese's brother and son led to the code name for the federal investigation, Operation Family Secrets.

Reputed mob figures Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro are also defendants in the case. At the heart of the prosecution are 18 long-unsolved murders.

lford@tribune.com

Screeching children, possible fratricide...

These people have been watching too many Coppola movies.

Musings, murders and morals
Tapes of reputed mobster portray life in Outfit

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 11, 2007
FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL -- As an imprisoned Frank Calabrese Sr. began to suspect his brother, Nicholas, might be cooperating with federal authorities, he expressed betrayal on undercover tapes played Tuesday in court, saying he had brought his brother into the Outfit.

In what he thought was a private conversation with his son in a federal prison, the elder Calabrese said he left "in God's hands" if other Outfit members felt his brother needed to be whacked.

"I don't wanna see nothing happen to him, but I'm gonna tell you something," Calabrese Sr. told his son in a 1999 recording. "If somebody feels that's it, it's either them or him, he's gone. That's the bed he made."

Asked if he would be angry if someone killed his brother, the elder Calabrese told his son, "In fact, if something did, I will send my blessing."

Jurors and defendants alike sat glued to computer monitors at the Family Secrets trial as the prosecution aired audio and video recordings throughout the day in the packed courtroom, the largest in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

The recordings touched on a loan the elder Calabrese said he and another mob boss made to a prominent Chicago union leader and how the same boss, Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, ordered the killing of the Outfit's overseer in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro.

At times on the tapes the elder Calabrese, 70, waxed philosophical, once telling his son, Frank Jr., that he liked the Old Testament because "God was a little stern. He was stern, and I appreciate that."

Prosecutors accuse Calabrese of taking part in 13 long-unsolved gangland slayings. He is on trial with reputed mob figures Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as Anthony Doyle, a former Chicago police officer.

Authorities code-named the federal investigation Operation Family Secrets because of the extensive cooperation of Frank Calabrese Sr.'s son and brother. In testimony Monday, the son said he decided to turn on his father after he failed to follow through on a promise to reduce his mob activities. When he testifies later in the trial, the brother is expected to implicate Frank Sr. in many murders.

Both mob turncoats secretly tape-recorded conversations with Frank Calabrese Sr., his guard down as he talked with trusted relatives and Outfit associates. Nicholas' tapes will be played when he testifies.

On grainy videotapes played in court Tuesday, Frank Calabrese Sr. conferred with Doyle and Michael Ricci, also a former Chicago police officer, about who might be cooperating in a federal investigation of the Outfit. The scene unfolded in a waiting room in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., where Calabrese was serving time for operating a violent loan-sharking operation.

On the tapes, children screeched in the background as other prisoners and visitors moved in and out of view. The video shows Calabrese in tan prison clothes seated next to a plaid-shirted Ricci. Doyle, in a green polo shirt with his back to the camera, sits hunched over in metal bench chair across from the other two. The two cops allegedly passed information to and from the imprisoned Calabrese. Ricci died before he could go to trial.

According to prosecutors, Doyle, then working in the police evidence section, had tipped Calabrese that federal investigators were examining a bloody glove left by Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, at the scene of the 1986 murder of John Fecarotta.

Authorities have said Fecarotta was killed for botching the burials of Spilotro and his brother, Michael. The brothers' bodies were discovered in an Indiana cornfield. Calabrese feared that investigators, armed with DNA from the bloodied glove, could force Nicholas to cooperate, a fear that proved to be valid.

In a taped conversation with his son, Calabrese, feeling betrayed by his brother's apparent cooperation, said that he worked hard to help his brother over the years, bringing him into the Outfit only after he asked. But he didn't force him to become a killer, he said.

In another conversation with his son, Calabrese talked about how Aiuppa had ordered that Anthony Spilotro be killed. Aiuppa and other top members of the Outfit were about to go to prison in connection with skimming profits from Las Vegas casinos.

"Aiuppa had a meeting before they all went to jail and he told them he wanted him knocked out," Calabrese said on the tape played Tuesday. "'I don't care how you do it, get him. I want him out'," he quoted Aiuppa as saying.

Calabrese Sr. displayed more of his Outfit-style moralism as he spoke with his son about one of the factors that helped lead to the Spilotros' killings - Anthony's rumored affair with a married woman.

"That's a friend, and that's a commandment," Calabrese told his son. "He, right then ... nail went in the coffin, right then, that was one nail."

The younger Calabrese also testified that his uncle, Nicholas, suspected that his brother was suspicious of him and feared retaliation from his brother and Outfit associate Ronnie Jarrett. Nicholas Calabrese believed his brother and Jarrett were responsible for the deaths of William and Charlotte Dauber, who were gunned down by rifle and shotgun blasts in a car chase on a rural Will County road in 1980, Frank Jr. testified.

"My uncle was telling me that if he went with Ronnie Jarrett and my father, he would be killed, because ... Ronnie Jarrett, he was with my father when the Daubers were killed," Frank Jr. said.

Frank Calabrese Jr. said his father often spoke in a crude code when he talked with trusted associates in the Milan prison. In one taped conversation, Frank Calabrese Sr. speculated with Doyle and Ricci whether it was his brother or another Outfit associate who has spoken to "Scarpe Grande." Frank Calabrese Jr. said "Scarpe Grande" was Italian slang meaning "big shoes" or "wingtips" and referred to the FBI.

------------

lford@tribune.com

'I would send my blessing' to kill own brother: tape
IF OUTFIT FINDS RAT | Jurors hear Calabrese Sr. on recordings secretly made by son

July 11, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
Reputed Outfit killer Frank Calabrese Sr. was stewing in federal prison, obsessed with figuring out who the rat was in his mob crew and how to stomp him out.

Even if it was his brother, Nick Calabrese.

"I don't wanna see nothing happen to him," Frank Calabrese Sr. said in a secretly recorded conversation he had with his son, Frank Jr., while they were in prison in March 1999. "But let me tell you something, if somebody feels it's, it's either them or him, he's gone."

Brother cooperating with feds
Frank Calabrese Jr. is testifying against his father, who sits only yards away in the large, ceremonial courtroom from his son. Calabrese Sr. often wore a smirk or a scowl during his son's early testimony, but now his eyes are riveted to the transcripts of the secret recordings, occasionally looking up to comment to his attorney. The son isn't facing charges in the Family Secrets case but is testifying against his father in hopes of sending him to prison for good. He recorded his father by wearing a special set of earphones rigged with a microphone by the FBI.
And in the coming weeks, Nick Calabrese will make his brother's nightmare a reality by taking the stand against him and another reputed top mobster, James "Little Jimmy" Marcello. Nick Calabrese started cooperating with the feds after DNA tied him to a 1986 mob hit. He has admitted killing at least 14 people in his guilty plea.

In one taped conversation played Tuesday, Calabrese Sr. told his son he didn't even want fellow mobsters to ask his permission to kill his brother. If something was required from Calabrese Sr., "I would send my blessing," he said.


Says Aiuppa ordered Spilotro hit
In the taped conversations played for the jurors Tuesday, Frank Calabrese Sr. talks about murders he allegedly committed and other Outfit murders he knew about and offers advice.
Calabrese Jr. got his paranoid father to talk about the murders by pitting his father against his uncle.

Calabrese Jr. told his father that his Uncle Nick once told him that his father killed an innocent woman who was slain with her husband, a mob enforcer, in 1980.

Calabrese Sr. shot back to his son that his uncle was involved in killing "an innocent Polish guy" when he and another Outfit killer gunned down two men -- one on the Outfit hit list, the other a bystander -- outside a Cicero bar.

Calabrese Sr. also told his son that then-top Chicago mob boss Joseph Aiuppa ordered the murder of the mob's top man in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro.

One of Spilotro's sins: sleeping with the wife of a mob associate.

When Aiuppa "found out that he was f - - - - - - that guy's wife. That is a no-no. That is a no-no," Calabrese Sr. said.

A "nail went in the coffin," Calabrese Sr. said.

"The little guy wouldn't happen to be fucking the Jew's wife, would he?"

Spilotro murdered after romantic fling violated mob code
The Associated PressPublished: July 10, 2007 CHICAGO: Mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro was pocketing money he made from side deals behind the mob's back and boasting that some day he would occupy the throne of organized crime in Chicago.

Making things worse, Spilotro was having a romantic fling with the wife of a Las Vegas-based mob associate.

"Right then a nail went in the coffin," convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese is heard saying on a tape made secretly — by his own son — and played Tuesday at the trial of Calabrese and four others accused in a conspiracy that included 18 murders, including Spilotro's.

"Right then, that was one nail," Calabrese repeats.

Spilotro was known as the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas and inspired the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother, Michael, were murdered in June 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.
"That is a no-no, that is a no-no, that is a friend and that's a commandment," he tells his son, who secretly recorded the conversation to help the FBI gather evidence against his father.

In short order, Spilotro and his brother both were murdered — on orders from the big boss of the mob at the time, Joey Aiuppa, Calabrese says.

"Joey Aiuppa had a meeting before they all went to jail and he told them he wanted him (Spilotro) knocked down," Calabrese says, then quotes Aiuppa as saying: "I don't care how you do it. Get him. I want him out."

Calabrese, 69, is on trial along with James Marcello, 65; Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; and retired Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, 62.

They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included the murders of the Spilotro brothers and 16 others.

Aiuppa was the top boss of the Chicago mob. He died in 1997 at age 89, shortly after his release from prison where he served time for a casino skimming conviction. Lombardo was convicted in the same case.

The tapes that have been played for three days now were made at the Milan, Mich., federal correctional center where Calabrese and his son, Frank Calabrese Jr., were serving time for a loan-sharking conviction.

Unknown to the elder Calabrese, his son was helping the FBI, saying he believed his father would never leave the mob and he wanted to "expose my father for what he is." Jurors also have seen videos made at the prison.

On one tape, Calabrese Sr. also says it was Aiuppa who got Edward Hanley a position with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. Hanley rose to become international president of the union, which represented employees ranging from bartenders to room maids.

Hanley, a one-time member of the AFL-CIO executive board, was repeatedly investigated by federal prosecutors but never charged. But experts often cited the union as an example of mob influence in labor.

On the tape, both Calabreses refer to Hanley — who retired from the union in 1998 and died in a Wisconsin auto accident — as "Uncle Ed" and the father says Aiuppa got him his first union job.

"He started him off in the Cicero local," Calabrese Sr. says.

The tapes are a catalog of Chicago mob murders.

Calabrese Jr. interprets some of his father's remarks as confirming that he was on hand, watching from a scout car, when former mob enforcer William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, were murdered in Lake County July 2, 1980.

And likewise for the Sept. 14, 1986, murder of mobster John Fecarotta, allegedly by Calabrese Sr. brother Nicholas Calabrese, who has pleaded guilty to racketeering and is expected to be a prosecution witness.

Calabrese Jr. also testified that his father once drove him past a South Side parking lot and "gave me a nudge."

"I understood there was a dead body there," the son testified.

He apparently referred to the last remains of Michael "Hambone" Albergo, a mob figure whose body has long been sought by the FBI. Agents dug up a parking lot near U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, several years ago but have not said exactly what they found there.

Calabrese Sr. attorney Joseph Lopez said in his opening statement that they found "thousands of bones" but none traceable to Hambone Albergo.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/11/america/NA-GEN-US-Mafia-Trial.php

Mob hit detailed on tapes

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 11, 2007, 4:20 PM CDT
On secretly recorded tapes played in a Chicago federal court today, reputed mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. described his role in the 1983 slaying of two men in Cicero, and bragged to his son about how he could have become head of the Outfit's 26th Street Crew.

Tapes played in court today were made from April 1999 through early 2000, as Frank Calabrese Jr. was getting set to be transferred to another federal prison after being incarcerated with his father at Milan, Mich.

Calabrese Sr. told his son how he, his brother Nicholas Calabrese and James DiForti killed Richard D. Ortiz and Arthur Morawski as they sat in a parked car outside a Cicero tavern. Calabrese Sr. said they had gotten shotguns and tested them out near a club in the west suburbs before using them in the hit.

"All the signs [near there] were shot up," Calabrese Sr. said in the recording. "We used to do that to try the guns."

The hit was to be on Ortiz, a drug dealer who had at one time paid street tax to the mob, but who started making juice loans without Outfit approval. Calabrese Sr. described how he drove his brother and DiForti to the location of the hit, and they killed Ortiz and Morawski, even though Morawski was an innocent bystander.

Calabrese Sr. also told his son that he never wanted to become an Outfit leader, but that he was in line to become head of the 26th Street Crew and probably was passed over because of illness.

As Calabrese Sr. reminisced about achievements such as getting members of the Outfit to talk in crude codes and giving them nicknames, he tried to figure out whether federal authorities were investigating his Outfit operations, his son testified today.

Despite his worries about a looming federal probe tied to the killing of John Fecoratta that involved Nick Calabrese and himself, Calabrese Sr. told his son that "I still don't believe that those Wandies [federal investigators] will tie me to it."

Calabrese Sr. also scoffed in one conversation with his son at the idea that Anthony Centracchio, identified in some news reports in the late 1990s as the leader of an Outfit crew, was in the mob hierarchy. Centracchio wasn't even a "made" member, Calabrese Sr. told his son.

lford@tribune.com

Mob-trial tapes promise new, improved Outfit

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 12, 2007, 3:48 PM CDT
As federal investigators turned up the heat in the Operation Family Secrets case, Frank Calabrese Sr. told his son that the Outfit as outsiders knew it would fall like an old Christmas tree, and a stronger, secret one would grow in its place.

In a videotaped conversation played in court Thursday, Calabrese Sr. told Frank Calabrese Jr. that people who believe that Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Joe "The Builder" Andriacchi and others were leaders of the Chicago crime syndicate were wrong. Once Calabrese Jr. got out of prison, Calabrese Sr. told his son that he would tell him the truth.

Calabrese Jr. got out of prison in 1999, and Calabrese Sr., who thought his son was set to rejoin him as an active member of the Outfit, told him that they could be part of a better, stronger crime syndicate. Too many members of the Chicago mob were being too public about their roles, even bragging incorrectly that they were Outfit leaders, Calabrese Sr. said in one videotaped conversation in the prison visiting room.

But with a few "good guys," a stronger Outfit would be built, Frank Sr. said.

"It's not going to be the Christmas tree … it used to be," he said. "It's going to be a smaller Christmas tree that's going to have the loyalty that was once there."

Calabrese Sr. also told his son that he no longer was angry that his friend Ronnie Jarrett was killed, because federal investigators had been following him and planned to use him as the centerpiece of a racketeering indictment against Outfit leaders. Jarrett, who worked in criminal rackets with Calabrese Sr., had been lying to Calabrese and using cocaine, which the Calabrese thought investigators would use against Jarrett.

"Everything happens for the best," Calabrese Sr. told his son.

The playing of dozens of videos made in the visiting room of a Milan, Mich., federal prison where both Calabreses were imprisoned -- and of audio recordings Calabrese Jr. used a wired set of headphones to make -- ended Thursday.

Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joe Lopez, questioned the son about why he began cooperating with the FBI, about his stealing large amounts of cash from his father, about his drug use and about his relationship with his family.

Calabrese Jr. admitted that his father had always hated drugs and told him to stay off them. Calabrese Jr. said that after he felt his father reneged on a promise to retire from the mob, "I wanted to see him locked up."

Son says he was 'schooled' on mob
Calabrese takes heat from dad's defense

By Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 12, 2007, 10:20 PM CDT
Frank Calabrese Sr. smiled broadly, sometimes chuckling, as his son, Frank Jr., underwent cross-examination Thursday, denying that hatred motivated his decision to cooperate against his father.

Testifying at the Family Secrets trial for a fifth consecutive day in court, the younger Calabrese said he still loved his father but worked secretly for the FBI in an effort to keep the reputed mob boss imprisoned.

"I know he loves me, just not some of my ways," Calabrese, referring to his own drug use, said of his father. "I love him, just not some of his ways."

But in a 1998 letter in which he offered his cooperation to a federal agent, the younger Calabrese wrote, "I feel I have to help you keep this sick man locked up forever."

The elder Calabrese is on trial with three other reputed mob figures and a former Chicago police officer in connection with 18 long-unsolved gangland murders.

At times, Calabrese appeared flustered by the rapid-fire questioning of his father's lawyer, Joseph Lopez.

Calabrese, whose secretly recorded conversations with his father in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., dominated the trial this week, denied he steered his father into talking about several murders or the inner workings of the Chicago Outfit.

His father was trying to "school" him in the ways of the mob so that he could exert control of the father's criminal operation on leaving prison, the younger Calabrese said.

"He's schooling me because I'm telling him I want to be involved," Frank Calabrese Jr. said.

Lopez hit hard at Calabrese's on-again, off-again estrangement from his father over the years. Calabrese acknowledged that despite his father's genuine concern for him, he stole $600,000 to $800,000 in cash stuffed in a duffel bag from him.

After his father discovered the theft several months later and came to confront him at his house, the younger Calabrese fled out a window.

"I didn't want to be around him no more," Frank Calabrese Jr. said.

After they went to prison in the mid-1990s in a loan-sharking operation, Calabrese said he hoped his father would keep a promise to semiretire from the mob. But he decided to contact the FBI when it became clear that "he was not going to change his ways," he said.

The elder Calabrese had not worked outside of the Outfit since about the 1960s when he worked for the City of Chicago as a stationary engineer, his son said. He did have a remodeling business for a while, but it was funded with Outfit money, Frank Calabrese Jr. said.

The elder Calabrese is on trial with reputed Outfit members Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro, as well as Anthony Doyle, a former Chicago police officer. The case centers on charges of conspiracy to commit the homicides as well as loan-sharking and illegal sports bookmaking.

The aging defendants have been the center of attention at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, as waves of spectators crowd the courtroom to take in a few minutes of the real-life mob tale.

Lopez, wearing a pinstripe suit and a pink shirt and tie, questioned Frank Calabrese Jr. repeatedly about his relationship with his uncle, Nicholas Calabrese, whom Lopez implied the younger Calabrese favored over his own father. Nicholas, one of seven defendants to have pleaded guilty in the case, also secretly recorded brother Frank Calabrese Sr. and is expected to implicate him in numerous murders.

Calabrese agreed with Lopez that at times he spoke with Nicholas Calabrese, as well as other uncles, about things he did not tell his father.

Frank Calabrese Jr. acknowledged that he lied to investigators in the 1990s in an unsuccessful bid to avoid prosecution in the loan-sharking case. Calabrese said he lied at his father's direction.

"I did that for my father, for the crew, for myself," he said.

Calabrese said his father had confronted him several times while he was taking drugs and stealing family jewelry to feed his cocaine addiction.

His father expressed his concern about the thievery, telling him, "People will cut your hands off for doing things like that," Calabrese testified.

Earlier Thursday, in some of the last of numerous video surveillance tapes played this week in court, the elder Calabrese told his son that those who believed that Lombardo and others led the Chicago crime syndicate were wrong.

The elder Calabrese, believing his son was set to rejoin the Outfit as an active member on his release from prison in 1999, told him that they could be part of a better, stronger crime syndicate. Too many members of the Chicago mob were being too public about their roles, even bragging incorrectly that they were Outfit leaders, the elder Calabrese said in one videotaped conversation in the prison visiting room.

With a few "good guys," a stronger Outfit would arise, the elder Calabrese said. "It's not going to be the Christmas tree . . . it used to be," he said. "It's going to be a smaller Christmas tree that's going to have the loyalty that was once there."

lford@tribune.com

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."

Family Secrets trial update...
On Thursday: The son of reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. testified he still loves his father but cooperated with the FBI because his father would never abandon his Outfit ways. Frank Calabrese Jr. was grilled by his father's attorney, who suggested the son got the father to make empty boasts while recording him for the government.

Expected on Monday: No trial on Friday. Two bookies allegedly tied to Calabrese Sr. are expected to testify Monday.
Calabrese Jr. is one of two star witnesses in the historic case. The other is Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother, Nick Calabrese, who has admitted to killing at least 14 people for the mob and said he and his brother went out on hits together.
Calabrese Jr. decided in 1998 to cooperate against his father. He and his father were in prison together on another case. Calabrese Jr. wrote the FBI that he wanted to "keep this sick man locked up forever."

Judge imposes gag order at Chicago organized crime trial

Associated Press
Published July 13, 2007, 6:42 PM CDT
CHICAGO -- The federal judge at the trial of five alleged members of Chicago's organized crime family on Friday imposed a gag order, saying it would "enhance my ability to conduct a fair trial."

Judge James B. Zagel's order bars attorneys "from making extrajudicial statements regarding the merits of this case that a reasonable person would believe could be publicly disseminated."

He said the order would help him to conduct a fair trial because it was likely any commentary on the merits would prejudice the jurors.

Zagel said barring parties from making comments to the news media may limit coverage and "prevent these proceedings from taking on a carnival atmosphere."

The indictment in the case outlines a racketeering conspiracy by the mob that includes 18 murders, gambling, extortion and loan sharking.

Charged are Frank Calabrese Sr., 69; Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78; James Marcello, 65; jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70, and retired Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, 62.

Zagel said his order would apply only to commentary or opinions on the merits of the case and would not block lawyers from providing reporters with information about scheduling and other such matters.





Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

U.S. District Judge James Zagel has issued a gag order over the lawyers in the Family Secrets case.

The order, which is unusual at the federal courthouse in Chicago, comes after the attorney for Frank Calabrese Sr., Joseph "The Shark" Lopez, got into hot water for verbally bashing a few witnesses on a blog on the case.
The judge's order raises some interesting points.
The order allows the attorneys to comment on scheduling and other factual matters.
They cannot offer their opinion on the proceedings, to help ensure a fair trial.

But don't attorneys have First Amendment rights, just like everyone else?

Haven't the jurors been told, repeatedly, not to read, watch or listen to any media about the case?

And if they do happen to accidentally see something, aren't they sharp enough to know that the attorney making the comment is an advocate for his or her client?

But also, consider the flipside.

The government has spent millions of dollars to prosecute this case.

The men on trial deserve a fair trial, and the allegations involve seriously evil stuff.

The trial is already getting a ton of coverage, and the judge doesn't want to sequester the jury, since those folks are already sacrificing a lot by being on the trial.

copy right Steven Warmbir

And as the judge notes in his ruling, closing arguments should be reserved for . . . closing arguments.

Two interesting sides

for anyone thats interested:-
Within an hour or so after the Conrad Black verdict came down Friday, the Los Angeles Times played the news high up on its Web site -- right below a Paris Hilton story. On the Washington Post's site, the Black decision didn't even rate an easy-to-find headline.
Meanwhile, Canada's leading media sites were brimming with Black. Maclean's, the nation's leading news magazine sported a big "GUILTY" headline next to a dour photo of Black, and offered a smorgasbord of content, including feeds from two bloggers live at the courthouse in Chicago.
Outside of Chicago, where Black is big local story, and perhaps New York, this country's media center, the Black verdict is just another headline, a story destined for the business section. But in Canada and the United Kingdom – particularly the former – the Black verdict is boffo, stop-the-presses stuff.
In Canada, he built what would become the world's third-largest English-language newspaper empire, as well as a reputation for both erudition and bombast. When the Canadian government refused to let him accept a British lordship, he renounced his citizenship, a stinging rebuke to some of his countryman.
Whether he's liked or loathed, "Black has been a larger-than-life personality in Canada for quite awhile," said Christopher Waddell, a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.
It's been the same in the United Kingdom, where Black once owned the Daily Telegraph, one of the country's larger newspapers.
Black, aka Lord Black of Crossharbour, and his wife Barbara Amiel are members of the celebrity A-list in Britain, along with Becks and Posh, the Royal family and the ghost of Princess Diana. Black's downfall, a tale of power, greed and private jets to Bora Bora, is what London's tabloid's live for.
In this country, Black has been for the most part another foreign businessman. And it was his business' ownership of the Sun-Times that helped ultimately lead to his trial here on fraud and racketeering charges. It's been a media circus since it started in March, but the bulk of the 300-plus journalists covering it are from outside this country. Indeed in Canada, it's been dubbed "the trial of the century."
In the courtroom Friday, Canadian bloggers typed furiously. On a Maclean's blog dubbed "Black Friday," the posts came minute by minute as the verdicts were read. Down in the courthouse lobby, Canadian TV reporters did live feeds while they waited to get a shot of the press baron leaving the building.
Chris Selley, in article posted on the Maclean's Web site Friday morning, summed up the reasoning behind the mob. "Black does strange things to people, journalists included,'' he wrote. "Some advocated passionately for his acquittal. Some oozed almost deranged contempt."
That black-and-white view of Black was on display, too, Friday among readers of the Toronto Star's Web site. There was this: "The rich and the powerful need to know they are not immune from punishment for committing crimes," wrote Henrietta Penny. "A classic case of greed."
And there was this: "We are truly losing a great Canadian icon," wrote Michael Weir. "I hope that his appeal will not bankrupt him and that justice for Conrad Black finally prevails."
The British press, too, Friday featured a bounty of Black.
"It looked for 11 days as if, against all the odds, Conrad Black would get away with his financial crimes," journalism professor and former editor Roy Greenslade wrote in his blog for The Guardian, a major British paper. He was referring to 11 days of jury deliberation. "But the jury has finally found the swaggering, blustering media mogul guilty of multiple charges of fraud and a single count of obstruction of justice. It's hard to know what took the jurors so long."

Still, Greenslade said he couldn't "gloat much" over the verdict. "Black, for all his many bad points, was not the worst of newspaper owners. Many of the editors who worked closely with him and who I respect...have found much to praise about him in the past. That does not excuse his crimes, far from it."

The Daily Telegraph, the London paper Black once owned, was quick to point the finger at his wife, Amiel, dubbing her the "ultimate hardnosed gold-digger." Amiel once wrote a serious but much derided public affairs column for the paper.

"Having lived a privileged but relatively unostentatious existence," the Telegraph said, [Black] suddenly became involved with a woman whose extravagance -- as she famously admitted herself -- "knew no bounds.""

mhughlett@tribune.com thundley@tribune.com

a few pictures to look at


http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/u...etOaIvJfgRsaMYA

Brother against brother
Mobster tells Family Secrets jury of 'hits'

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 17, 2007
The man whose testimony is expected to lift the shadow on some of the Chicago Outfit's most notorious murders over the last three decades looked harmless enough.

Nicholas Calabrese took the witness stand Monday wearing a gray sweatsuit and rounded eyeglasses. With his white hair neatly parted, he looked more like a doughy banker in his pajamas than a "made" member of the mob who has admitted to taking part in 14 gangland killings.

As one of the highest-ranking turncoats in Chicago's inglorious mob history, the testimony of Calabrese, 64, promises to be the pivotal moment of the Family Secrets trial, providing first-hand accounts of the Outfit's secret induction ceremony and a long list of hits. He is expected to spend several weeks testifying against his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., and four co-defendants.

For Frank Calabrese Sr., the testimony represents a second nightmare come true. Last week his son, Frank Jr., testified against him as federal prosecutors played a series of undercover tapes that the son had secretly recorded of private prison conversations with his father.

But Nicholas Calabrese's testimony could be far more damaging. He also secretly recorded his brother and has more intimate knowledge of his brother's alleged wrongdoing as the two worked side-by-side for the mob as reputed made members.

As his testimony was about to begin late Monday afternoon, Nicholas Calabrese stared ahead at a darkened computer screen placed on the witness stand. His brother sat just yards away. Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars asked whether Nicholas Calabrese was familiar with an organization known as the Outfit, and whether he was a member.

"Yes, I was," Calabrese said.

Mars asked whether Calabrese had committed a murder with reputed mob boss James Marcello, one of the defendants on trial, as well as a murder in Phoenix with co-defendant Paul "the Indian" Schiro and yet another murder with his brother.

"Yes," was the answer each time, in a matter-of-fact tone.

With that, Frank Calabrese Sr., who during an earlier break Monday leaned back in his chair and appeared to take a catnap, pitched forward at the defense table and straightened his glasses.

Some of the murders were to make an example of someone, Nicholas Calabrese said. Others were to protect the Outfit from anyone who might talk to authorities.

As part of his deal for cooperating, Nicholas Calabrese said, he understands that he won't be prosecuted for any of the 14 homicides as long as he testifies truthfully. In addition, the government will recommend something less than the life in prison he could have faced if he had been convicted of even one murder. Ultimately, U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who is presiding over the trial, will impose his sentence.

"When I'm on the stand, I can't lie," Calabrese told jurors, most of whom took notes throughout his first hour of testimony, which came as the trial was ending for the day.

Calabrese did not look in his brother's direction as he answered questions. Frank Calabrese Sr. chuckled with a hand to his mouth at some points. At other times, he leaned over and looked animated as he whispered to his lawyer.

Nicholas Calabrese, pausing to clear his throat and sip from a cup, said his association with the mob dated to 1969. He began cooperating in 2002, he said, after being confronted with DNA evidence on a bloody glove that linked him to the 1986 killing of mob hit-man John Fecarotta.

Calabrese said he was joined in that murder by his brother and reputed mob figure John "Johnny Apes" Monteleone after Jimmy LaPietra, the reputed crew "capo" or captain at the time, gave his approval.Federal prosecutors have told jurors the Chicago mob is a decades-old criminal enterprise that protected itself with murder when necessary.

Calabrese said he worked for his brother in the mob's 26th Street, or Chinatown, crew. There were other crews as well , he said, including Rush Street, Melrose Park, Chicago Heights and Grand Avenue, which he said was led by co-defendant Joey "the Clown" Lombardo.

At the top of the Outfit hierarchy in the 1970s was the boss, Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, and the underboss, Jackie Cerone, known as "One and Two," Calabrese said.

Every murder had to be cleared by higher-ups, he said, and disputes were settled in "sit-downs" with bosses. For example, he said his brother once had a dispute with mobster William "Butch" Petrocelli and Aiuppa himself had to become involved.

"He said, 'If you guys can't straighten it out, I'll straighten it out,'" said Calabrese, quoting Auippa. Asked by Mars what that meant, Calabrese answered, "They'd probably both get killed" if they didn't take care of the dispute themselves.At one point in the 1970s, a sports-gambling operation pulled in $500,000 to $750,000 a year for his brother, said Nicholas Calabrese, who told jurors that he did the paperwork for the crew. Some of the profits were passed up to LaPietra, he said.

Even as the trial was ending for the day, Nicholas Calabrese avoided looking at his brother. He stood facing the jury box as jurors left the courtroom, his back to the defendants until court security led him away.

Frank Calabrese continued to laugh, shaking hands with his attorney, as he walked out to a lockup by the courtroom. He remains in custody..

In earlier testimony Monday, a 55-year-old Bridgeport native with swept-back, salt-and-pepper hair, testifying with immunity from prosecution, told jurors he formerly ran surveillances for the Outfit.

Michael Talarico, admitting he still works as a bookie, recalled how he once left a dead rat, a rope strung around its neck, at the office of someone who apparently ran afoul of his uncle, reputed mob boss Angelo LaPietra.

He said he left the rat on instructions from LaPietra. "He never gave me a reason," Talarico said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk asked whether Talarico had gotten the rat at a pet store. "Yeah, I believe so," Talarico said.

LaPietra put him in business with the Calabrese brothers, Talarico said, and he made payments for running his gambling operation and also gave out juice loans on their behalf.

On cross-examination, he said Nicholas Calabrese once cut off the head of a puppy and placed it on someone's car, a gesture that also went unexplained.

Also testifying Monday was Richard "Richie the Rat" Mara, who told jurors he was an agent for jockeys as well as a Teamster at McCormick Place before pulling off burglaries and armed robberies for Frank Calabrese's crew.

He said he once saw Frank Calabrese Sr. "beat the [expletive]" out of someone making unauthorized juice loans.

----------



jcoen@tribune.com

Calabrese: I killed with my brother
MOB TRIAL | 'If you got an order, you'd have to do it'

July 17, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
Looking more like a senior citizen heading out for an early bird special than an Outfit killer, Nicholas William Calabrese took the witness stand Monday and calmly told jurors how he murdered people for the mob with his brother Frank and with the reputed head of Chicago mob, James Marcello.

"Were you in fact, what was known as a made member?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars asked Nicholas Calabrese.

"Yes," said Calabrese, 64, wearing a gray long-sleeve T-shirt and white sweatpants.

As a star witness in the Family Secrets case, Calabrese is testifying against his older brother, Frank, who is accused of 13 Outfit murders, and Marcello, the reputed head of the Outfit, who allegedly paid Nicholas Calabrese $4,000 a month to keep him quiet when they were both in prison.
Nicholas Calabrese is considered by many in law enforcement to be one of the most important cooperating witnesses ever in the history of the Chicago Outfit.

Nicholas Calabrese began testifying late Monday afternoon, so jurors heard little more than an hour of testimony that is expected to take weeks to complete.

Nicholas Calabrese explained the structure of the Outfit and its leadership when he was active. He told jurors how the Outfit makes money and how he got his start in the mob with his brother's help.

Nicholas Calabrese has pleaded guilty in the case, admitting to killing at least 14 people, and faces life in prison. Prosecutors can recommend a lesser sentence depending on his cooperation, but it's ultimately up to the judge to decide Calabrese's fate.

As Nicholas Calabrese described his deal with the prosecutors, his brother Frank, sitting just yards away in the courtroom, broke out into a wide grin and shot a comment to his lawyer, Joseph "The Shark" Lopez.

Nicholas Calabrese began cooperating in January 2002 after DNA evidence linked him to the 1986 murder of reputed hit man James Fecarotta.

"Did you in fact murder James Fecarotta?" the prosecutor asked him.

"Yes, I did. It was me, my brother Frank and Johnny "Apes" -- Johnny Monteleone. We got the OK from Jimmy LaPietra, who was our capo," Nicholas Calabrese told jurors.

Frank Calabrese began working in the Outfit first, his brother testified. One day in May 1970 Nicholas Calabrese got a call from his brother that his brother had gotten the OK from his supervisor in the mob, and Nicholas Calabrese could come work for them.

Nicholas Calabrese testified he learned the juice loan business from his brother but worried that they would get into serious trouble because Frank Calabrese was shorting the money he was supposed to be passing on to their supervisors.

"And that could lead to me and him -- my brother Frank -- getting killed," Nicholas Calabrese said.

Nicholas Calabrese knew he was not entering an easy life.

"If you got an order to go kill someone, you'd have to do it," Nicholas Calabrese said.

Nicholas Calabrese did not limit his violence to people.

Once, he cut the head off a puppy and put it in someone's car to send a message, according to court testimony earlier in the day.

Jurors also heard from Richard "Richie the Rat" Mara, a thief who once shot a criminal colleague in the late 1970s who he believed was ratting him out.

"Did you shoot him?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney John Scully.

"Yes," Mara replied.

"How many times did you shoot him?"

"Five times. Three in the face and two in the chest," Mara testified. The victim survived.

Mara did the attempted murder without Outfit permission.

Soon after the shooting, he had a meeting with his boss in the mob, James "Turk" Torello.

"We were told don't ever do that again," Mara said.

Mara came to know Frank Calabrese Sr. because Mara would allegedly accompany Calabrese Sr.'s juice loan collectors as backup muscle.

One time, in the 1970s, Mara said he saw Calabrese Sr. and Calabrese Sr.'s friend Ronald Jarrett attack another mobster, Joseph "Shorty" LaMantia.

What did you see them do? the prosecutor asked.

"Beat the s--- out of Shorty," Mara responded, provoking laughter in the courtroom.

The prosecutor asked for more specifics.

"They beat him with their fists, and Ronnie hit him a couple of times in the back with a bat," Mara said.

LaMantia's sin was making juice loans without Outfit permission, Mara testified.

Mara minced no words during his testimony, explaining succinctly why he once fled to Alabama for nine months after he knew he was going to have problems paying a juice loan from reputed mob killer Butchie Petrocelli.

He fled "because I knew if I didn't pay, Butchie was gonna break my leg," Mara said.

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Monday: The star witness of the trial, Nicholas Calabrese, took the stand, relating to jurors how he killed for the Outfit with his brother, Frank, and with the reputed head of the Outfit, James Marcello.

Expected today: Nicholas Calabrese should begin detailing murders he committed, including the brutal 1970 killing of a reputed mob enforcer, Michael "Hambone" Albergo.

Mob trial witness recounts bombing theater, restaurant
His brother, a defendant, chuckles at loan-shark testimony

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 17, 2007, 1:15 PM CDT
In his second day of testimony at the Family Secrets trial, key witness Nicholas Calabrese said he took part in bombings of businesses with his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., and ran "juice" loan operations on his behalf.

Nicholas Calabrese, who is expected to testify about his involvement in more than a dozen mob-related slayings, said he was never told why the Outfit wanted some of the businesses bombed.

He said he was part of a team that placed an explosive against a wall of the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace in the 1980s, before it opened. With him were his brother and Outfit figures John Fecarotta and James DiForti.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars asked whether the device went off.

"Yes, it did," Calabrese said. "We talked about how loud it was."

In another incident, Calabrese said he threw a dynamite-packed device in a bag onto the roof of Tom's Steakhouse in Melrose Park in the early 1980s.

"I lit the fuse in the bag," he testified. "I got out of the car and jumped up on a dumpster."

Calabrese said he threw the device near an air conditioning unit on the roof and it exploded.

Again, he said he had no idea why the business was attacked.

Earlier today, Calabrese, who has avoided looking at his brother during his testimony, was asked if he saw Frank Calabrese Sr. in court.

Nicholas Calabrese raised his left hand and pointed toward a defense table. Frank Calabrese Sr. leaned over and spoke to his attorney.

Nicholas Calabrese also described the daily work of collecting on high-interest loans, or "juice" loans, and explained how he tracked payments for the Outfit crew run by his brother.

At the height of the operation, Calabrese estimated his brother had several hundred thousand dollars available to loan out. When Calabrese said that, Frank Calabrese Sr. rocked back in his chair and chuckled.

Nicholas Calabrese said he would sometimes bring a man named Frank Saladino along to collect late loan payments. Saladino was over 6 feet tall and weighed 300 pounds, Calabrese said.

"I told him, You stand behind me and don't say nothing, just look at the guy," Calabrese said. "Give him one of those looks."

He said he would remind the debtor that the loan was not going away and that "next time, I'm not gonna come—he's gonna come."

jcoen@tribune.com

Outfit insider recounts his 1st hit
Mobster's big brother: 'We gotta put somebody in a hole'

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 18, 2007, 12:35 AM CDT
Nicholas Calabrese paused a moment in the silent courtroom, his voice dropping off as he spoke Tuesday of the first time he took part in a murder for the Chicago Outfit.

"We gotta put somebody in a hole," Calabrese said his brother, Frank Sr., told him without elaboration in the summer of 1970. At first, Calabrese said, he thought it was a test of his courage. The brothers then proceeded to dig the hole at a construction site near old Comiskey Park.

But the real test came days later, Calabrese said, when he helped hold down a man's arms while his brother strangled him with a rope—and then slit his throat just to make sure he was dead. Nicholas Calabrese, then in his late 20s, didn't even know the victim's name, he testified.

"He was put in the hole, and we started shoveling the dirt in," said Calabrese, again pausing to keep his composure. "During this time I wet my pants I was so scared."

His brother didn't catch on, Nicholas Calabrese said, because "I had a lot of dust and dirt on my pants so you couldn't really tell."

Sitting nearby on Calabrese's first full day on the witness stand in the landmark Family Secrets trial in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse was Frank Calabrese Sr., one of five defendants, who was resting his chin in his hand and smirking.

Nicholas Calabrese's testimony Tuesday was a flurry of mob imagery—multiple murders, bombings, scraps of paper with scribbled notes about "street taxes," a 300-pound enforcer nicknamed "Gumba" and buried Outfit cash. He spoke of sending warnings with dead chickens and puppy heads, and mice strung up with "little nooses" and left on a windshield.

And he used nickname after nickname. There was "Mugsy," "young Mugsy," Johnny "Bananas" and Johnny "Apes," not to be confused with Angelo "the Monkey."

And there was Michael "Bones" Albergo, a collector of high-interest "juice" loans. Nicholas Calabrese said Albergo had once warned that if he was going to jail, he wasn't going alone.

Calabrese said he only learned it was "Bones" in the hole near the White Sox ballpark years later when he saw Albergo's photo in a pamphlet put out by the watchdog Chicago Crime Commission.

Nicholas Calabrese, the government's star witness, is expected to blame his brother, a reputed leader of the mob's 26th Street crew, for more than a dozen Outfit killings in the 1970s and '80s. He began with the slaying of Albergo, whose remains authorities searched for unsuccessfully after Calabrese began cooperating in 2002.



Lurid details
While testifying in sometimes lurid details about the gangland slayings, Calabrese kept his composure, occasionally gesturing with his hands to make a point. He traded in the sweatsuit he wore on Monday for a palecollared shirt, worn untucked, and blue pants.

He sometimes leaned toward a computer screen on the witness stand to look at a betting slip or identify a photograph, a reflection of the image visible in his eyeglasses.

After describing Albergo's death, Calabrese recounted four more murders in which he said he took part.The next was the 1976 homicide of 27-year-old Paul Haggerty, a convict who was living in a halfway house and whom Outfit bosses wanted to question about his dealings with a suburban jewelry store.

Calabrese said he had arrived at his brother's Elmwood Park home and gotten another cryptic greeting. "He said, 'Don't make any plans, we're gonna be busy,' " Nicholas Calabrese said, continuing to refuse to look in his brother's direction after quickly identifying him in court earlier Tuesday.

For weeks, Calabrese said, he had followed Haggerty with a team that included hit man Frank "Gumba" Saladino and mob associate Ronnie Jarrett, nicknamed "Menz," the Italian word for half, because he was half Irish and half Italian.


Looking for patterns
The men watched Haggerty's movements for patterns, Calabrese said, following him to the bus and work. Eventually, they snatched him and drove him to Jarrett's mother-in-law's garage, he said.

After Haggerty was questioned, Calabrese said, he was left alone with him for a time, his hands cuffed and his eyes and mouth taped. He said he gave Haggerty some water and helped him use the bathroom, but the rest of the men soon returned with a stolen car to finish the job.

"I held him and Ronnie held him and my brother strangled him with a rope," he said.

Calabrese also testified about the murder of burglar John Mendell, who was killed in 1978 as an example for burglarizing mob boss Tony Accardo's home. Mendell was lured to the same garage where Haggerty was killed and then he was jumped, Nicholas Calabrese said. His brother strangled Mendell with a rope, but this time there was a twist, he said.

"My brother handed me the knife, and he said 'You do it,' " Calabrese said.

Asked by a prosecutor whether he did as instructed, Calabrese answered, "Yeah, yes I did." Next, Calabrese testified about the murders of thief Vincent Moretti, who was also killed in the wake of the Accardo burglary, and Donald Renno, who made the mistake of being with Moretti at the time.

Calabrese said he helped his brother kill Moretti at a Cicero restaurant using a rope, pulling one end as he braced a a foot against the victim's head. He said the brothers referred to the slayings in code as "Strangers in the Night," the song that was playing on the restaurant's jukebox as the slaying took place.

Though he wasn't an eyewitness, Nicholas Calabrese said, his brother told him of how in 1980 he drove a car that blocked one driven by federal informant William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, enabling mobsters to fatally shoot the couple from a passing van in Will County.

Earlier Tuesday, Calabrese told jurors about a variety of work he carried out for his brother beginning in 1970, collecting "street taxes" and juice loans and running gambling operations. He also dutifully followed directions when it came to extorting businessmen, he said, using dead animals as threats until he had to scare one into paying by blowing out the back window of his car with a shotgun.



Misplaced money
Calabrese said his brother had hundreds of thousands of dollars to lend on the street, a claim that caused Frank Sr. to rock back in his chair and chuckle with his hand in front of his mouth. Once, Nicholas Calabrese said, his brother misplaced more than $400,000 by losing track of a safety-deposit box. Another time, he said, the brothers buried $250,000 in cash in a steel box in Wisconsin. But on digging it up later, the money was wet, mildewed and smelly. "We tried to use cologne," Calabrese testified. "It made the smell worse."

Calabrese said cash collections had to be split, with half going to their boss, Angelo LaPietra.

Calabrese said he sometimes drove the payment to LaPietra's Bridgeport garage, stuffing the envelope into a barbecue mitt that was hanging from a nail. He flipped the mitt over and pointed its thumb in the opposite direction to alert LaPietra to the hidden cash, he said.

Calabrese said that in the 1980s he and his brother bombed several businesses, including the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace; Marina Cartage, which is owned by Michael Tadin, a friend of Mayor Richard Daley; and Tom's Steakhouse in Melrose Park.

Calabrese said he never learned the motives for the bombings, but prosecutors have said that the Outfit sometimes resorted to violence to extort street taxes from even legitimate businesses.


Theater bombed
An explosive was set off against the wall of the Oakbrook Terrace theater during off-hours. "We talked about how loud it was," Calabrese said.

Calabrese said he also threw a dynamite-packed device onto the roof of the steakhouse. It landed near an air-conditioning unit and exploded, he said.

"I lit the fuse in the bag," he said. "I got out of the car and jumped up on a Dumpster."

Calabrese said he sometimes brought along "Gumba" Saladino, who was 6 feet tall and weighed 300 pounds, to collect late payments on juice loans.

"I told him, 'You stand behind me and don't say nothing, just look at the guy,' " Calabrese testified. " 'Give him one of those looks.' "

Calabrese said he warned the debtors that the 5-percent-a-week loans weren't going away and that "next time, I'm not gonna come—he's gonna come." He said he then would point toward the imposing Saladino.

jcoen@tribune.com

Daley pal implicated in mob bombing
FAMILY SECRETS | Nicholas Calabrese testifies to group attack on suburban restaurant

July 18, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
Outfit hit man Nicholas Calabrese on Tuesday implicated a close friend of Mayor Daley's, Fred Barbara, as taking part in the bombing of a suburban restaurant in the early 1980s.

Calabrese is the star witness in the Family Secrets mob case and testified that Barbara, now a multimillionaire businessman, was one of six men who split up into teams to throw bombs on the roofs of two restaurants.

Barbara has never been charged in the case but allegedly teamed up with Chicago mob captain Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra and reputed mob killer James DiForti to bomb Horwath's Restaurant in Elmwood Park, which was a well-known hangout for mobsters.

On the same night, Calabrese allegedly joined up with his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., and reputed Outfit killer John Fecarotta to throw a bomb on the roof of Tom's Steak House in Melrose Park.
Nicholas Calabrese testified he didn't know why mob higher-ups targeted the restaurants. They shared a common owner.

It's not the first time Barbara has been accused of having ties to the Chicago mob.

Barbara was arrested in 1982 with three reputed mobsters, including his cousin, Frank "Tootsie Babe" Caruso, in an extortion sting set up by the FBI. A federal jury acquitted Barbara and the others.

In a court filing in that case, prosecutors said Barbara was "believed to be a major participant" in the illegal gambling operation run by LaPietra. Barbara is a nephew of the late Ald. Fred Roti, who has been identified as a made member of the Chicago mob.

Barbara has made millions of dollars through the years in trucking and real-estate deals with the city of Chicago.

Nicholas Calabrese's testimony made clear he did not see Barbara and other mobsters bomb Horwath's. Calabrese was busy bombing the restaurant he was responsible for. But when all the men met back after their work was done, the Horwath's group made clear their bomb went off, Calabrese said.

Barbara could not be reached for comment but has disavowed any connection to organized crime.

"Show me my connection to organized crime," Barbara said in an interview three years ago with the Sun-Times. "Did I turn the corner? You show me anything in the last 24 years that reflects to that nature."

A spokeswoman for the mayor could not be reached for comment.

In a full day of testimony, the mention of Barbara was a small part of Nicholas Calabrese's testimony.

Nicholas Calabrese described a series of arsons he did for the mob.

He also detailed how he killed people for the Outfit, allegedly with his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., who sat just yards away from him in court and appeared to suppress a smirk throughout the testimony. Nicholas Calabrese has pleaded guilty and admitted to killing at least 14 people for the mob. As part of his plea deal, he is testifying against his brother and other reputed mob leaders.

Nicholas Calabrese testified that when Frank Calabrese Sr. told him in 1970 they were going to have to find a place to dig a hole for a body, he figured his brother was kidding. It was to be his first mob murder.

The brothers found a spot, inside a factory that was being built a few blocks away from White Sox park. They lured a man, Michael "Hambone" Albergo, who Frank Calabrese Sr. feared would testify against him in a juice loan investigation, Nick Calabrese testified.

Inside a car, Nicholas Calabrese held one of Albergo's arms while another henchman held the other, and Frank Calabrese strangled the man with a rope, Nicholas Calabrese testified. Frank Calabrese Sr. slit the throat of Albergo even though he was already dead, just to make sure, Nicholas Calabrese testified.

They dumped him in a hole they had dug, threw lime in and filled the hole with dirt. "At this point, I wet my pants I was so scared," Nicholas Calabrese said.

In another murder in Cicero in 1978, Nicholas Calabrese and Frank Calabrese Sr. teamed up with other mob killers to rub out two men in a closed restaurant -- one had run crossways with the Outfit, the other was an innocent bystander, Calabrese testified.

The brothers referred to the killings by code, calling the Cicero one "Strangers in the Night."

It was the song playing on the restaurant jukebox as the Calabrese brothers allegedly killed the men, Nicholas Calabrese said.

In another murder in 1978 of burglar John Mendell, Calabrese Sr. strangled him, while Nicholas Calabrese helped hold the man down, Nicholas Calabrese testified.

This time, Calabrese Sr. allegedly gave his brother the knife to make sure the burglar was dead.

Contributing: Shamus Toomey and Carol Marin

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Tuesday: Star witness Nicholas Calabrese described a series of mob bombings and murders he took part in and implicates a close mayoral friend in the bombing of a suburban restaurant from the early 1980s.

Expected today: Nicholas Calabrese will detail even more Outfit murders.

That scene in Goodfella's where Ray Liotta as Henry Hill walks through the restaurant and introduces the audience to his crew...Horwath's was that kind of restaurant in Chicago. You'd walk in and you just knew everybody in the place. It was good guys and bad guys. Everyone from the local parish priest, the local politicians, and the neigborhood wiseguys went to dinner there.

If you needed a favor, a political hook-up, had to reach out to somebody, get a message to somebody (before cell phones connected us all at the hip), you'd go to Horwath's where you were sure to see someone who could make a connection for you.

Horwath's was the restaurant where Chuckie English, Sam Giancana's driver and confidant, was gunned down in the parking lot.

It was also used in an episode of "The West Wing." It was the story line in which press secretary C.J. Cregg, Allison Janney's character, returned to Ohio for a high school class reunion. There's a scene in which she's sitting in a car in a parking lot in what is supposed to be her hometown of Dayton and you can clearly see the Horwath's lighted sign through the windshield.

The building was demolished a few years ago. A Staples office supply store now stands on the property.

tony b.

A plea for a prayer before mob slayings
Insider details infamous hit on Spilotros

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 19, 2007, 12:27 AM CDT
Stepping into a suburban basement as his brother was wrestled to the floor, mobster Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro realized he had walked into a fatal trap and made a final plea.

"He said, 'Can I say a prayer?' " mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, testifying Wednesday at the landmark Family Secrets trial, said he overheard the feared Outfit killer say.

The dramatic testimony was the first public account by an insider of one of the most infamous Outfit killings in Chicago history. The Spilotros had run afoul of mob bosses for bringing too much heat on the Outfit's lucrative Las Vegas arm, headed by Anthony Spilotro, Calabrese said. Days later the brothers' bodies, one on top of the other, were discovered buried in an Indiana cornfield.

In two full days on the witness stand, Calabrese has laid out many of the 14 murders that he says he personally took part in. He has implicated his brother, Frank Sr., who is on trial with four others, in many of the murders, but not the Spilotros' killings.

Nicholas Calabrese said he had already tackled Spilotro's brother, Michael, around the legs when he heard Anthony ask to say a prayer.

What happened next?, a prosecutor asked.

"I didn't hear anymore," Calabrese said, still looking more like an average senior citizen than a hit man. He spoke calmly, almost in a monotone at times, and occasionally crossed a leg on the witness stand.

Calabrese said as many as 10 others joined in the 1986 fatal beating of the Spilotros, including defendant James Marcello, identified by authorities in recent years as the mob's top boss in Chicago.

In the months before the Spilotros were slain, a team of mob killers, Calabrese among them, had traveled to Las Vegas in hopes of killing the brothers there, Nicholas Calabrese said. The hit men tracked the brothers' movements, following Anthony Spilotro to his lawyer's office, located near the federal building in Las Vegas, and to the cul-de-sac on which his home was located.

At first, the plan was to use explosives or a silencer-equipped Uzi submachine gun, Calabrese said, but those attempts never panned out. Instead, he said, the Spilotro brothers were lured back to Chicago under the ruse that they would be promoted—Michael into the mob's inner circle as a "made" member and Anthony as a "capo" or captain.

Calabrese said he was told by mob hit man John Fecarotta that Anthony Spilotro had been targeted for having an affair with the wife of a Chicago bookmaker. Spilotro was also rumored to be involved in moving drugs with a motorcycle gang, he said.

Calabrese testified he had just returned to Chicago from a mob hit on an informant in Phoenix when he learned he had been tabbed to be part of the team to take out the Spilotros. He immediately told older brother Frank Sr., who has been charged in as many as 13 gangland slayings.

"He got upset and said, 'Why didn't they ask me? I wanted to be there,' " Nicholas Calabrese said of his brother.

Calabrese said he was told to wait at a shopping center on 22nd Street, west of Illinois Highway 83 in DuPage County, to be taken to the killing site. With him were Fecarotta and mob boss Jimmy LaPietra, a leader of the 26th Street mob crew that included the two Calabreses as members.

Marcello picked the men up in a "fancy blue van," Calabrese said. It was early in the afternoon on a Saturday, June 14, 1986, he said. Calabrese said the men drove north to a Bensenville subdivision, turning left before reaching Irving Park Road. There were homes and brick walls, he said he remembered, and one with a garage door up.They entered and were greeted by a group of top mob leaders—John "Bananas" DiFronzo, Sam "Wings" Carlisi and Joe Ferriola, he said.

Carlisi commented about Calabrese's tan from his Phoenix foray and made a passing remark about how much money Fecarotta had burned through there.

Fecarotta dashed into a bathroom, perhaps fearful the bosses had it in for him, Calabrese said.

"He come out, he was pale," Calabrese said. "I figured he thinks this is for him."

But it turned out Fecarotta wasn't yet a marked man. He would be killed three months later after botching the Spilotros' burial.

Joining the others in the basement were mob figures Louis "The Mooch" Eboli and Louis Marino as well as three individuals Calabrese did not recognize. All of them were wearing gloves, he said.

It was only 30 minutes before the Spilotros arrived upstairs.

"I remember hearing talking and somebody coming in and saying 'hello' to everybody," said Calabrese, exhaling audibly on the stand. "I'm wound up because I'm tense. I'm focusing on what I'm gonna do."

Marcello had no noticeable reaction as courtroom spectators hung on to Calabrese's every word.

First down the stairs was Michael Spilotro, Calabrese said.

"I said, 'How you doing Mike?' because I knew him," Calabrese said. Then Michael took a few steps toward Marino and the others, Calabrese told jurors.

"I dove and grabbed his legs," he said. "I noticed right away that Louis the Mooch had a rope around his neck."

It was then, Calabrese said, that he heard Anthony Spilotro behind him, asking for a final moment with God.

Calabrese said he handed DiFronzo a pocket-size .22-caliber revolver taken from Michael Spilotro's body. Michael's Lincoln was moved to a nearby motel, he said.

Calabrese said he wiped up a small spot of blood from where Anthony had fallen and had been beaten. He had nothing to do with disposing of the bodies, he said.

After the killings, Calabrese said he went for a cup of coffee.

The testimony came after Calabrese had described his rise in the Chicago mob—from helping his brother run street gambling to his initiation as a "made" member and sometimes bumbling hit man. He continued to weave a vivid tale of Outfit life, with all its customs and characters on display.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars walked him through a series of murders, including that of mobster William "Butch" Petrocelli and Hinsdale businessman Michael Cagnoni.

Petrocelli was killed for being "too flamboyant," Calabrese said. In 1980 the mob figure planned a downtown party with hookers on which his bosses frowned.

Calabrese said he, his brother and other crew members decided to use a remote-controlled bomb to kill Cagnoni after finding his movements too unpredictable for more old-fashioned methods.

Cagnoni, a trucking executive, died in June 1981 when a bomb under the seat of his Mercedes-Benz auto was detonated as he drove on a ramp from Ogden Avenue to the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294), scattering body parts and metal pieces across the highway.

The crew practiced using remote firing devices and blasting caps to determine how close they would need to be to set off the explosives, he said.

Calabrese acknowledged he was the gunman who shot Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986. Fecarotta was supposed to be involved, too, he said, but had headed to Las Vegas after becoming skittish.

Calabrese also described for jurors his own "making" ceremony, saying he he was driven to a restaurant on Roosevelt Road and led before a table of Outfit kingpins, including Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa.

Spread out before him were a gun, a knife and a candle, he said. Aiuppa threw a burning religious card onto the palm of his hand, Calabrese said, and had him repeat the same phrase. "If I give up my brothers," he said, "may I burn in hell like this holy picture?"

jcoen@tribune.com

Daley dodges questions about pal's tie to trial

By Gary Washburn
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 19, 2007
A peeved Mayor Richard Daley deflected questions Wednesday about his relationship with businessman Fred Barbara following federal court testimony linking Barbara to a mob bombing in the 1980s.

"I think it's ridiculous," Daley said when reporters asked him about Tuesday's testimony from Nicholas Calabrese, a mob turncoat testifying in the Family Secrets trial.

"I said it's ridiculous, just another headline you provide," Daley said when a Chicago Sun-Times reporter asked him about it. Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said afterward that the mayor was referring to the newspaper's display of the story Wednesday.

Pressed by other reporters on Barbara, Daley repeated his criticism. "I say it is ridiculous to place me in that position. That is how you [the media] do it, so I understand that," Daley said.

Calabrese made a glancing reference to Barbara when he testified Tuesday that two teams of Outfit soldiers carried out bombings on two suburban restaurants in the early 1980s. Calabrese testified that while he took part in the bombing of one restaurant, a second team that included Barbara attacked the other restaurant. Calabrese made no further reference to Barbara.

Barbara could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Barbara is a Daley friend from the Bridgeport neighborhood and a nephew of the late 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti, who served 4 years in prison for fixing court and zoning cases.

For decades, the Barbara family has had a huge stake in city trucking contracts. And Barbara's companies have done work under the city's controversial Hired Truck and blue-bag recycling programs.

gwashburn@tribune.com

The Ant's last words: 'Time to say a prayer'
from CNN.com
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- It didn't take Chicago mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro long to realize his time was up.

"Time to say a prayer," government witness Nicholas Calabrese quoted Spilotro as saying.

Minutes later, Spilotro's fellow mobsters beat and strangled him in a suburban Bensenville basement on a June afternoon 21 years ago.

An eyewitness account of the mob hit that helped inspire the movie "Casino" emerged Wednesday as Calabrese returned to the stand at the trial of his brother Frank and four other alleged members of the Chicago Outfit.

Spilotro was the model for the Joe Pesci character in the movie.

Nicholas Calabrese, an admitted mob killer, said he and two other men were driven to the scene of the crime by James Marcello, one of those on trial.

Spilotro had been lured with the promise he would become a "capo," or captain, in the Outfit -- as Chicago's organized crime family is known -- and his brother, Michael, would be initiated as a "made guy," Calabrese testified.

Michael came downstairs first, Calabrese testified.

"I said, 'How are you doing, Mike?' because I knew him," Calabrese testified. But he said a few seconds later, "I grabbed his legs and I noticed right away that Louie the Mooch had a rope around his neck."

While they were strangling Michael Spilotro, Calabrese said, he heard what may have been Tony Spilotro's last words. Several of the mobsters involved, including Louie "The Mooch" Eboli, are now dead.

Marcello, 65; Frank Calabrese Sr., 69; Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78; Paul Schiro, 70; and Anthony Doyle, 62, are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included gambling, loan sharking, extortion and 18 long-unsolved murders, including those of the Spilotro brothers.

During the last two days, Nicholas Calabrese has taken jurors through more than a dozen mob hits, mostly in gruesome eyewitness detail. On the stand Wednesday, he admitted being the trigger man in two of them.

He began cooperating with the FBI to avoid a death sentence after a bloody glove left at a murder scene was traced to him through DNA evidence.

Tony Spilotro was long known as the Outfit's man in Las Vegas.

But back in Chicago, mob bosses were unhappy with him, Calabrese said. He said Spilotro's deals "were bringing a lot of heat" on the Outfit and he also was having a fling with the wife of a casino executive.

A group of mobsters, himself included, went hunting for Spilotro in Las Vegas in hopes of killing him but couldn't find him, Calabrese said.

They then detoured to Phoenix where they murdered a man named Emil Vaci, whose knowledge of casino skimming made mob bosses nervous, he said.

Calabrese said after several failed attempts to kill Vaci, he surprised him outside a dress shop and pulled him into a waiting van.

"He said, 'Take my money, take my wallet,"' Calabrese recalled. "Then he said, 'Oh, no, I'm not going to say anything."'

"Did you say anything to him?" lead prosecutor Mitchell A. Mars asked.

"No," Calabrese said. Instead, he said, he shot him in the head.

A desert grave had been prepared for Vaci but the mobsters took a wrong turn and ended up dumping the body in a canal, Calabrese testified. The Spilotro murders came a week later.

Earlier, Calabrese told how he and his brother stalked a man named Richard Ortiz, who had been marked for death by higher-ups in the mob.

They caught up with him on a Cicero street on July 23, 1983, only to find that a man they had never seen before and didn't know was a passenger in his car. They asked for instructions from a mob boss watching nearby.

"Go ahead, both of them," Calabrese quoted Angelo LaPietra, the now-deceased capo of the Outfit's 26th Street crew, as saying.

Calabrese said he and another man blasted away with shotguns at Ortiz and hapless passenger Arthur Morawski, while his brother used a rifle.

He said he had misgivings about killing a man he didn't know and who had done no harm to anyone as far as he could tell. But he said he feared his brother's wrath even more

A MAFIA insider has told a US jury how he held a potential witness and another man while his brother strangled them with rope and cut their throats.

Nicholas Calabrese said he and his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr, gave codenames to the killings, referring to one as "Doo-be-doo" so they could discuss them secretly.

Paul Haggerty frantically gripped the roof of a car while Frank Calabrese and a huge man nicknamed "Goombah" punched him, dragged him into the back seat and drove him off to his death, Nicholas Calabrese testified quietly.

Michael Albergo was strangled at a construction site before Frank Calabrese cut his throat, his brother said.

"I wet my pants I was so scared," Nicholas Calabrese said.

He said they threw the body in a hole, covered it with lime and dirt and named the murder "Pit".

The testimony was in the Chicago trial of Frank Calabrese Sr, 69, James Marcello, 65, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, Paul Schiro, 70, and Anthony Doyle, 62.

They are charged with being in a racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, gambling, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved murders, including those of Haggerty and Albergo.

All five have pleaded not guilty.

Albergo was a loan shark who threatened to co-operate with prosecutors.

Of the Albergo killing, Nicholas Calabrese said his brother "pulled out a knife and cut his throat".

Assistant US Attorney Mitchell Mars asked: "Do you know why your brother did that?"

"To make sure that he was dead," Nicholas Calabrese said.

The same thing happened after his brother used a rope to strangle Haggerty in a garage belonging to the mother-in-law of a mobster, he said.

While much of the testimony at the trial has focused on loan sharking, gambling and the extortion of "street tax" - similar to protection money - from businesses, the heart of the case involves long-unsolved mob killings.

The Albergo case was the first among the 18 listed.

Yesterday, Calabrese said mob boss Angelo LaPietra was so eager to have one man killed in 1983 that he was willing to have the man's companion - a stranger - gunned down as well.

"Wrong place, wrong time?" asked prosecutor Mitchell Mars.

"Yes," Calabrese said softly.

Nicholas Calabrese began helping prosecutors to avoid the gas chamber after police linked him to one of the 18 killings.

He has pleaded guilty to racketeering and faces a possible life sentence.

Frank Calabrese Sr's lawyer, Joseph Lopez, has said Nicholas Calabrese dislikes his brother and is lying about him.


By Mike Robinson in Chicago
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22102990-663,00.html

Kinda relevant to Tony's story... The video from WMAQ TV from the 17th.

http://images.tekky.net/video/famsec-071707-sample.wmv

As I was going through recorded newscasts, I came across this great piece of reporting from John "Bulldog" Drummond of WBBM-TV:

http://images.tekky.net/video/famsec-071707-sample2.wmv

Mafia man tells of murder that inspired 'Casino'
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 1:47am BST 20/07/2007



A former gangster has recounted the gruesome details of more than a dozen murders in the trial of five Mafia leaders in Chicago, including a killing that helped to inspire the Hollywood film Casino.

Nicholas Calabrese, the star prosecution witness and self-confessed killer in two of the murders, has been giving evidence against his alleged former cronies, including his brother Frank, in a Mob trial hailed as the biggest in the city since Al Capone's.

The five - Frank Calabrese Snr, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, Paul Schiro and Anthony Doyle - are now in their 60s and 70s. They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included gambling, loan sharking, extortion and 18 long-unsolved murders.

advertisementThey deny the charges. Frank Calabrese's lawyers claim he is the victim of a spiteful brother who has told lies about him, but the accused has also had to listen to his son testify against him.

One of the killings by the Chicago Mafia - known as the "Outfit" - to be recounted in court concerned the Spilotro brothers. Their bloody deaths were dramatised in Martin Scorsese's Casino.

Nicholas Calabrese said that Tony "The Ant" Spilotro - the model for Joe Pesci's character in the film - had run the Outfit's interests in Las Vegas but had angered his superiors by attracting too much attention.

He was lured to a basement with the promise that he would become a mafia "capo", or captain, while his brother, Michael, would be inducted into the organisation as a "made guy". Within seconds of their arrival, Nicholas Calabrese had grabbed Michael's legs as an accomplice slipped a rope around his neck.

While they were strangling him, Calabrese said he heard Tony Spilotro, say: "Time to say a prayer", as he realising he had walked into a trap.

The trial continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/20/wmafia120.xml

Even Outfit hit men have feelings.

They can strangle tiny pet shop mice, fixing tiny nooses around their necks and hanging them from your windshield wipers as a warning. But that's work, not fun.

They can kill human beings with bats and ropes, though mostly with guns, shooting their friends as they beg for mercy.



But don't accuse Outfit assassin Nicholas Calabrese of being a serial killer. Serial killers do their thing with passion and hatred. Outfit killers do it for money and fear.

You're a serial killer, shrieked one of the defense attorneys in the historic Family Secrets trial of Outfit bosses and stooges.

Calabrese, the government's star witness, who has admitted to at least 13 hits, is a quiet, pale man. He became quieter still. His chin got longer, somehow, and there was some grief on the bones of his face. Outfit hit men don't let lawyers frazzle them, but he did sigh at the insult.

"I'm a killer, but I'm not a serial killer," Calabrese said.

Defense attorney Joseph Lopez, representing Calabrese's brother, Frank, ticked off a list of Nick's sins. Murders, lies, oaths broken, from the oath of silence when Calabrese became a made member of the Outfit to betraying friends before he shot them in the head. Lopez questioned Calabrese's manhood and loyalty.

"I was loyal because I was afraid. And I was a chicken and a coward because I didn't walk away from it," Calabrese said about his life in the Outfit's Chinatown crew in the politically heavy Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago.

Lopez: Aren't you a mass murderer?

"I killed a lot of people," Calabrese said. "I did it because I didn't want it to happen to me ... I was afraid if I didn't do what I was supposed to do, I'd get killed."

Lopez mentioned the holy pictures that burned in Calabrese's hands during the mafia ceremony, the made men declaring they'd burn in hell before betraying the Outfit.

Lopez: Aren't you going to burn in hell like those pictures? And you're going to burn in hell for killing all those people, aren't you?

"If I didn't [kill], I was in trouble with him," Calabrese said, referring to his brother Frank, who kept smirking and nodding like a madman from across the room.

The cross-examination from defense lawyer Rick Halprin, representing mob boss Joseph Lombardo, was equally fine, especially when Halprin brought up Nick Calabrese's killing of mobster John "Big Stoop" Fecarotta.

"I can't call Mr. Fecarotta to the stand to refute your testimony, because you killed him in 1986, correct?" Halprin asked.

Yes, Nick said.

These were well-crafted dramatic maneuvers to insult the killer, to force him to admit being a liar. And it gave the wiseguys on trial their money's worth, because they've been getting a pounding from the U.S. attorney's office and Thursday was the day their lawyers could fight back.

But all week I've sat near the jury, watching them watch Nick. When he explained that he killed his victims because he was ordered to do so and knew what would happen to him if he refused, and that he urinated on himself after the first murder because he was so afraid, it was more than theatrics. It was believable.

I know it's a mistake to try to think what's going on in the minds of a jury. And I've been waiting for this trial for years, since February 2003, when I wrote a column about Nick Calabrese disappearing from prison and into the witness protection program, which caused panic among Chicago gangsters and their political puppets.

On the street, they're frantic. New indictments in the Outfit stronghold of Melrose Park, including that of former Police Chief Vito Scavo, will be discussed Friday.

If the FBI starts checking on the political and Outfit relationships in Rush Street real estate and nightclubs, they might really cause a tsunami of fear, or perhaps a crescendo of worry.

Nick Calabrese doesn't sit before the jury like some caricature from "The Sopranos," dripping testosterone and attitude. He's not like that.

Rather, he comes off as what he is: a technician, calmly describing his craft in a professional monotone, describing how to tune the frequencies for remote control detonators for car bombs. And how to alter brake lights in cars to avoid police, and how to plan a hit. It begins by establishing behavior patterns, as the victim drives unaware, often for weeks, laughing, stopping off at restaurants, oblivious to the hunters following him, a dead man still animated, marked, ready for the hole that's been dug.

The gray-haired man in jeans and a sweat shirt with the wire-rimmed glasses could be a master plumber, an expert cabinet maker, a fellow of high intelligence and skill, with a lot of tools in the garage, all properly maintained.

Except instead of making cabinets, he killed people.

* * *

Note: Friday marks a tragic 15th anniversary at the Dirksen Federal Building. Deputy U.S. Marshal Roy Frakes and court security officer Harry Belluomini were killed in a shootout with bank robber Jeffrey Erickson, who was wounded by Belluomini, but killed himself before being captured.

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jskass@tribune.com

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Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Mobster: Fear led me to kill, then 'rat'
Outfit insider grilled by brother's lawyer

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
July 20, 2007
The lawyer started with "Good afternoon, Mr. Calabrese," but things didn't stay cordial for long.

Nicholas Calabrese, who had already acknowledged in testimony Thursday that he was "a rat" for testifying against his brother and other mob figures, was quickly cast by the defense as a mass murderer, racketeer, arsonist and liar.

Attorney Joseph Lopez, who is representing Calabrese's brother, seemed intent on provoking Nicholas Calabrese during cross-examination, even suggesting he could have avoided becoming an Outfit killer or mob traitor by hanging himself.



Calabrese, the government's star witness in the landmark Family Secrets trial in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, said he took part in 14 murders for the Chicago syndicate out of fear that he would have faced death himself if he refused.

"I was loyal because I was afraid," said Calabrese, barely raising his voice. "I was a chicken and a coward because I didn't walk away from it."

It was also his fear that he could be executed for murder that led him to turn stool pigeon for the federal government, he said.

"That's why you're sitting [on the witness stand] rather than sitting over at that table next to your brother," said Lopez, looking toward his client, Frank Calabrese Sr. The flashy lawyer, his normally colorful clothing toned down to an all-black suit, shirt and tie, paced around in front of Calabrese.

Frank Calabrese Sr. sat a few yards away, his eyes and head sometimes bouncing back and forth between his attorney and his brother like he was courtside at a tennis match.

During his four days of testimony this week, Nicholas Calabrese, 64, has described how he had gradually been drawn into Outfit life, collecting high-interest "juice" loans and keeping gambling books for his brother before graduating to an accomplice and then a triggerman in mob hits.

Calabrese portrayed himself as a reluctant participant, too scared to say no to his ruthless older sibling.

Lopez asked Nicholas Calabrese if his brother had ever called him a coward.

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

On Tuesday, Calabrese testified that he wet his pants while he, along with his brother, buried his first murder victim, a fact that Lopez couldn't resist in his questioning.

Reminding Calabrese of the time in early 2000 when he learned that the FBI had matched DNA to him from a bloody glove left at one murder scene, Lopez asked, "When you learned that, you really wet your pants, didn't you?"Calabrese admitted he was concerned. Lopez pressed him, asking if he knew he couldn't beat DNA evidence. "That's correct," said Nicholas Calabrese, staying mostly unruffled.

"You didn't want to get fried either, is that correct?" Lopez asked, referring to the death penalty.

"That's correct," Calabrese said.

The longtime mob insider acknowledged agonizing over his decision to assist the government. He said he waited until his daughter finished high school to avoid bringing embarrassment to his family. Calabrese said he contacted the FBI in 2002, offered to cooperate and rid himself of "a load" he had been carrying. He was then in prison, finishing up a sentence for helping his brother's violent juice-loan operation.

Lopez repeatedly challenged Calabrese's version of his Outfit work, asking him over and over why he didn't just leave Chicago and move to California or elsewhere to avoid the mob and his supposedly evil brother.

"That's why I'm a coward," Calabrese replied.

Lopez asked if Calabrese hadn't in fact reveled in the life of a mobster,"No, I didn't like the fact that people would look at me and respect me for that," he answered. "And it was only a very few people that knew."

Before his life of crime, Nicholas Calabrese said he had held legitimate jobs, working in radio communications for the Navy, an ironworker on the the John Hancock Center construction project and even as a Cook County security officer at the courthouse in Maywood.

But he drifted into organized crime, Calabrese said, eventually becoming his brother's "stooge." The two were convicted in 1995 in a racketeering case. Also convicted were his nephews, Frank Calabrese Jr. and Kurt Calabrese, who were forced into crime by their father, he said.



Lopez questioned Nicholas Calabrese about why he seemingly had no problem killing. Calabrese testified Wednesday he had a cup of coffee after taking part in the 1986 murders of mob figures Anthony and Michael Spilotro.

"You didn't have a problem drinking that coffee did you?" Lopez asked.

"Yes, I did," said Calabrese, his voice shaking slightly.

"You drank it anyway, didn't you?" retorted Lopez.

"I didn't drink it all," Calabrese answered.

Calabrese admitted he lied to the FBI after he began to cooperate, at first concealing co-defendant James Marcello's role in the Spilotros' killings because Marcello had been paying his wife $4,000 a month while he was in prison.

Lawyers for Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle, who are among those charged in the sweeping conspiracy case tied to 18 mob hits, also cross-examined Calabrese.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel halted the questioning at one point to tell Doyle's lawyer, Ralph Meczyk, to stop badgering Calabrese over inconsistencies in his statements to the FBI.

Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, leaned over a lectern, asking in a booming voice about Calabrese's accusation Wednesday that mob hit man John Fecarotta once told him in a restaurant that Lombardo had been involved in the murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert in 1974.

Halprin noted wryly that he couldn't call Fecarotta to the witness standbecause Calabrese had fatally shot him in the head. Still, Halprin scoffed at the idea that Fecarotta would have discussed the Seifert slaying with Calabrese.

"Did he order pie and coffee when he told you about the murder?" Halprin asked sarcastically.

Earlier Thursday, while still under questioning by prosecutors, Nicholas Calabrese detailed the Fecarotta slaying, the last of the 14 murders he said he took part in.

Calabrese said Fecarotta had displeased his mob bosses because of money problems and his once leaving Phoenix before completing a hit. Calabrese said he was selected to carry out the hit because Fecarotta, wary that he was a marked man, trusted him.

Fecarotta was misled into thinking he and Calabrese were headed to bomb the office of a dentist who had run afoul of the Outfit, Calabrese said. But as Calabrese reached into a bag to "light the fuse" of the bomb, he instead pulled out a gun as the two sat in a parked car outside the dentist's office.

"He caught the play," said Calabrese, testifying that a struggle ensued. "I believe I shot myself when I shot him."

Fecarotta fled from the car and Calabrese took off after him. As he chased his onetime friend, Calabrese said, he couldn't help but recall that two other mobsters had wound up in the trunk of a car dead after botching a hit.

"My mind is going, 'If I don't do this and he gets away, I'm dead,'" Calabrese testified. "I have to catch him and I have to shoot him."

Calabrese said he caught up to Fecarotta before he reached the back door of a bingo hall and finished him off with a shot in the head.

As he walked from the area, Calabrese said he thought he had slipped into his pocket the black golfing gloves he was wearing. But the gloves fell to the ground and were recovered by police. More than a decade later, blood on the gloves from the gunshot wound Calabrese sustained was matched by authorities to him through DNA, the break that enabled authorities to win his cooperation and construct the larger investigation that became Operation Family Secrets.

During his cross-examination, Lopez insinuated it was impossible to know when Calabrese was truthful, under oath or otherwise. Lopez asked Calabrese if he had lied to Fecarotta with a straight face before shooting him.

"If I had a straight face, yes," Calabrese replied.

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jcoen@tribune.com

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."

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Thursday: During cross-examination, Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese called himself "a coward" and "a chicken" for not walking away from Outfit life but blasted his brother, reputed hit man Frank Calabrese Sr., whom he's testifying against.

Expected Monday: Nicholas Calabrese will continue getting grilled by defense attorneys.

Mobster sticks to his story
Defendant's brother ends stay on the stand

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
10:38 PM CDT, July 23, 2007

Nicholas Calabrese's final hours on the witness stand in the landmark Family Secrets trial were much like the first—his face fixed in a frown and turned away from his brother, defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

To the end, the mob hit man maintained he turned on his brother and his Outfit cohorts out of fear of the death penalty, a desire to possibly see his family again, and to bring out the truth.Under cross-examination for almost the entire day, Calabrese denied that hatred for his brother played a role in his testifying."Hate consumes you," said Calabrese, 64. "I don't have much time left, so I don't hate him anymore."

Asked if that meant he thought he would die soon, Calabrese said, "We all die." .

Calabrese spent his fifth and final day on the stand in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse defending his account of more than a dozen Outfit killings dating back more than three decades. At times he sat slouched in a black sweat shirt, but his back stiffened as he insisted he was telling the truth.

Federal authorities code-named the investigation Operation Family Secrets after Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother and son agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and tell all. The son, Frank Calabrese Jr., who testified earlier this month, secretly tape-recorded private conversations with his father while the elder Calabrese was in prison in the 1990s for running a violent loan-sharking operation.

On Monday, defense lawyer Thomas Breen paced in front of Nick Calabrese, asking why he had named mostly dead mobsters when he laid blame for the murders.

Breen suggested that Calabrese had sought to make himself more valuable as a prosecution witness by also implicating a few defendants, including his client, reputed mob figure James Marcello.

"I named the people that were there at those murders," Calabrese replied tersely.

As Breen pressed him for specifics about some of the killings, Calabrese said he wasn't testifying beyond what he saw with his own eyes or heard from his brother.

Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello was present at the 1981 murder of Nicholas D'Andrea. Mob leaders who wanted to question D'Andrea about an attempt on the life of an Outfit capo in the south suburbs had inadvertently beaten him to death, Calabrese had said.

Breen contended Calabrese implicated Marcello in the slaying to lend more credence to his account of Marcello becoming a "made" Outfit member at a ceremony in 1983. In order to become a made member, Calabrese had testified, a candidate had to have been involved in at least one killing and have 100-percent Italian heritage.

That prompted Breen to ask Calabrese if he had ever met Marcello's "lovely mother, Mrs. Flynn."

"Mrs. Flynn is as Irish as Paddy's pig, isn't she?" Breen asked.

"I didn't know he was half Irish," said Calabrese, accusing Marcello of lying to mob bosses about his heritage.

"Yeah, somebody's lying," Breen shot back.

Breen later asked whether the secret "made" ceremony was a celebration—and if there was any corned beef on hand for Marcello, drawing a laugh from the crowded courtroom.

Calabrese also was questioned about the attempted murder of Nicholas Sarillo, who Breen said was a friend of Marcello's. But in the Outfit you can kill a friend, Breen said, noting Calabrese had testified about killing his friend, John Fecarotta.

"You weren't there," said Calabrese, seemingly growing upset. "You're trying to make it sound like I enjoyed this. I killed my friend."

The lawyer and the witness also exchanged jabs over the 1986 murder of businessman Emil Vaci in Arizona. Calabrese testified that he learned Marcello had financed the hit.

Breen mockingly asked when Calabrese had seen a copy of the Outfit newsletter that named Marcello as comptroller.

"Do you have a copy of the newsletter?" retorted Calabrese, the expression on his face unchanged.

Breen also concentrated on the 1986 killings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello drove him and other members of a hit team to a Bensenville residence, where the Spilotro brothers were beaten and strangled in a basement.

Calabrese said he just learned Monday that a brother of the Spilotros, Patrick Spilotro, had once tried to secretly record him discussing the killings. Calabrese said he had been a patient of Patrick Spilotro, a dentist. Breen reminded Calabrese that he had told Patrick Spilotro he didn't know anything about his brothers' deaths, but Calabrese said he was lying at the time.

"You have told a story about the Spilotros being killed, and you, in fact, were not even there, were you?" Breen asked.

"Yes, I was," Calabrese answered.

Breen asked why, according to Calabrese's version of events, Marcello would pick him up at a busy suburban shopping center in a family van to drive to the site of the killings. Calabrese said he was doing what he was told.

Breen also questioned why Sam "Wings" Carlisi, the then-head of the Chicago Outfit, then-mob underboss John DiFronzo and one of its chief moneymakers, Joseph Ferriola, would risk being seen near the murder scene. Calabrese also once told the FBI he thought he had seen mob boss Ernest Rocco Infelice there, Breen noted, but that was impossible because Infelice was under surveillance by agents at the time.

Calabrese's account had ended abruptly last week with few details about the Spilotro brothers' final moments. Calabrese said he had his back to Anthony Spilotro as he grabbed Michael Spilotro by the legs and mob boss Louis "the Mooch" Eboli moved in to strangle Michael Spilotro.

Breen said he found it incredible that Calabrese wouldn't know exactly who killed Anthony Spilotro or how the bodies of the brothers wound up in a distant Indiana cornfield.

Calabrese said in his line of work, nobody asked those kinds of questions.

jcoen@tribune.com

Retired Cop Remembers Run-in with Mobsters

Steve Grzanich Reporting

CHICAGO -- Among the observers paying close attention to the “Family Secrets” mob trial in Chicago is retired police officer John J. Flood who boasts about having one of the first law enforcement run-ins with two of the key defendants in the case.

“Joey Lombardo and Frankie Schweihs: in my lifetime and career as a police officer I have been fighting those guys in different matters of law enforcement over those years,” Flood told WBBM’s Steve Grzanich during a recent interview from his home in Las Vegas.

It is the first meeting with Lombardo and Schweihs that Flood remembers best back in 1964 when Sgt. Flood, with the Cook County Sheriff's Police, interrupted Schweihs and Lombardo and thwarted an attempted hit on mob associate Richard Hauff.

“It was happening up on Mannheim Road and Lawrence Avenue at a hotel up there. I came upon it and almost got killed making the arrest,” Flood said.

That was back in the early days for Schweihs and Lombardo, before they hit police radar, said Flood. “I called into Chicago Intelligence and asked who is Frankie Schweihs and they didn’t know. I had to call a knowledgeable Chicago detective who told that’s Phil Alderisio’s bodyguard. He’s a bad guy. Find out who was in the car and who they were going to kill,” said Flood.

While the Family Secrets trial may close the books on 18 mob murders, Flood expects that other mysteries may go unsolved.

“The significant murders that Lombardo would know about would be the murders of Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli. They were supposed to testify before the Church Commission on the assassination plot against Fidel Castro but they turned up dead. If Lombardo was talking, which I doubt he ever would because he lives by his code, he could tell you who killed (Jimmy) Hoffa and what happened.”

Will guilty verdicts mean the end of the Chicago outfit?

“Someone will replace Lombardo. All you have to do is look at the fabric of the American system – corporate crime, white collar crime, organized crime. There is no way in the world organized crime people are going to be leaving gambling, going to be leaving pornography, the lending of money, prostitution – it is not going to happen,” Flood said.

According to Flood, the “Family Secrets” trial will likely be the final chapter for the likes of Lombardo and Schweihs. The retired police officer said the trial also brings to a close his own 40 year career as an organized crime fighter.

Flood is the founder of the Combined Counties Police Association, one of the most well-known and respected independent law enforcement unions ever formed in the United States. He is also one of the foremost experts on organized crime and an authority on the Chicago Outfit.

On the web: http://ipsn.org/

Contents of this site are Copyright 2007 by WBBM

CHICAGO - The star witness at the trial of five suspected Chicago underworld figures came under attack Monday from an attorney who accused him of making up his eyewitness account of mobster Tony Spilotro's murder.

"You in fact were not even there," attorney Thomas M. Breen, representing suspected mob boss James Marcello, asked prosecution witness Nicholas Calabrese, who was in his fifth and final day on the stand.

"Yes, I was," shot back Calabrese, whose brother Frank is a defendant.

"You, sir, have no personal knowledge of how the Spilotros met their death," Breen insisted. Calabrese answered: "Yes, I do have knowledge."

The defendants are charged with a racketeering conspiracy that included gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved mob hits including the June 1986 deaths of Michael Spilotro and brother Tony, who was the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino."

Nicholas Calabrese became a government witness in 2002 after his DNA was found on a bloody glove left at the scene of another mob murder.

He testified earlier that Marcello drove him and two other men to a home where the Spilotros were lured into a basement with the promise that Tony would become a "capo" there and Michael a "made guy."

Instead, they were killed. Calabrese said he helped Louie "The Mooch" Eboli strangle Michael Spilotro with a rope around his neck.

Breen tore into the story, claiming Calabrese made it up to please prosecutors and make certain they would not rescind the deal under which he will avoid the death penalty in return for spilling mob secrets.

Breen focused on such details as the witness' claim that he was already wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints when the two doomed brothers entered the suburban basement where they were murdered.

"Did Mike Spilotro say, 'Hey, guys, why is everybody wearing gloves? This looks like a hit.'" Breen asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Breen asked Calabrese what he and Marcello said about the Spilotro slayings when they later found themselves together in the federal correctional center at downstate Pekin. He noted that the bodies were discovered buried in an Indiana cornfield 200 miles from the slaying scene.

"Did you say, 'Jim, you know that double murder we did? Isn't it interesting that the bodies showed up so far away in Indiana?'" he asked.

"You don't ask questions like that," Calabrese said quietly.

Under cross examination, Calabrese also testified that he has long been haunted by the murders he committed, including those of friends.

"It's a lot of weight to carry," he said.

He exploded when Breen suggested he might have enjoyed killing Michael Spilotro and John Fecarotta, a member of his own 26th Street mob crew.

"No, I didn't enjoy it," Calabrese said. "I live with it every day, and you're trying to make it out like I enjoyed killing my friend."

Breen noted that by far the majority of the mobsters Calabrese named as carrying out killings, some dating to the 1970s, already were dead when he gave their names to the FBI. A key exception was brother Frank.

"Your brother, Frank, the man you hate, is on there," Breen said, pointing to a list of suspected killers.

Calabrese testified that he used to hate his brother, but no longer.

Calabrese had testified earlier that his brother was a tough, domineering boss who forced him to commit murder and beat his own son, Frank Calabrese Jr. The son also was a witness for the prosecution.

When not painting Nicholas Calabrese as a liar, Breen tried to get him to boast about his exploits as a hit man for the Chicago Outfit.

"Give yourself some credit, sir, you were pretty good," Breen said.

"As I said," Calabrese retorted, "I was stupid and dumb. It doesn't take much to become a coward and do that."

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/23/ap3943417.html

Mobster sticks to his story
Defendant's brother ends stay on the stand

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
6:29 AM CDT, July 24, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: Nicholas Calabrese's final hours on the witness stand in the landmark Family Secrets trial were much like the first -- his face fixed in a frown and turned away from his brother, defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

To the end, the mob hit man maintained he turned on his brother and his Outfit cohorts out of fear of the death penalty, a desire to possibly see his family again, and to bring out the truth.Under cross-examination for almost the entire day, Calabrese denied that hatred for his brother played a role in his testifying."Hate consumes you," said Calabrese, 64. "I don't have much time left, so I don't hate him anymore."

Asked if that meant he thought he would die soon, Calabrese said, "We all die." .

OUTFIT ETIQUETTE
DO:
--Ask for permission when starting a new criminal racket.
--Always obey your capo (street crew boss).
--Put the Outfit above everything, including family and God.
DON'T:
--Take drugs.
--Steal from the Outfit.
--Talk of the Outfit to anyone outside the organization.
Source: Based on undercover tapes

Family Secrets Trial Exhibits
Calabrese spent his fifth and final day on the stand in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse defending his account of more than a dozen Outfit killings dating back more than three decades. At times he sat slouched in a black sweat shirt, but his back stiffened as he insisted he was telling the truth.

Federal authorities code-named the investigation Operation Family Secrets after Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother and son agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and tell all. The son, Frank Calabrese Jr., who testified earlier this month, secretly tape-recorded private conversations with his father while the elder Calabrese was in prison in the 1990s for running a violent loan-sharking operation.

On Monday, defense lawyer Thomas Breen paced in front of Nick Calabrese, asking why he had named mostly dead mobsters when he laid blame for the murders.

Breen suggested that Calabrese had sought to make himself more valuable as a prosecution witness by also implicating a few defendants, including his client, reputed mob figure James Marcello.

"I named the people that were there at those murders," Calabrese replied tersely.

As Breen pressed him for specifics about some of the killings, Calabrese said he wasn't testifying beyond what he saw with his own eyes or heard from his brother.

Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello was present at the 1981 murder of Nicholas D'Andrea. Mob leaders who wanted to question D'Andrea about an attempt on the life of an Outfit capo in the south suburbs had inadvertently beaten him to death, Calabrese had said.

Breen contended Calabrese implicated Marcello in the slaying to lend more credence to his account of Marcello becoming a "made" Outfit member at a ceremony in 1983. In order to become a made member, Calabrese had testified, a candidate had to have been involved in at least one killing and have 100-percent Italian heritage.

That prompted Breen to ask Calabrese if he had ever met Marcello's "lovely mother, Mrs. Flynn."

"Mrs. Flynn is as Irish as Paddy's pig, isn't she?" Breen asked.

"I didn't know he was half Irish," said Calabrese, accusing Marcello of lying to mob bosses about his heritage.

"Yeah, somebody's lying," Breen shot back.

Breen later asked whether the secret "made" ceremony was a celebration -- and if there was any corned beef on hand for Marcello, drawing a laugh from the crowded courtroom.

Calabrese also was questioned about the attempted murder of Nicholas Sarillo, who Breen said was a friend of Marcello's. But in the Outfit you can kill a friend, Breen said, noting Calabrese had testified about killing his friend, John Fecarotta.

"You weren't there," said Calabrese, seemingly growing upset. "You're trying to make it sound like I enjoyed this. I killed my friend."

The lawyer and the witness also exchanged jabs over the 1986 murder of businessman Emil Vaci in Arizona. Calabrese testified that he learned Marcello had financed the hit.

Breen mockingly asked when Calabrese had seen a copy of the Outfit newsletter that named Marcello as comptroller.

"Do you have a copy of the newsletter?" retorted Calabrese, the expression on his face unchanged.

Breen also concentrated on the 1986 killings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello drove him and other members of a hit team to a Bensenville residence, where the Spilotro brothers were beaten and strangled in a basement.

Calabrese said he just learned Monday that a brother of the Spilotros, Patrick Spilotro, had once tried to secretly record him discussing the killings. Calabrese said he had been a patient of Patrick Spilotro, a dentist. Breen reminded Calabrese that he had told Patrick Spilotro he didn't know anything about his brothers' deaths, but Calabrese said he was lying at the time.

"You have told a story about the Spilotros being killed, and you, in fact, were not even there, were you?" Breen asked.

"Yes, I was," Calabrese answered.

Breen asked why, according to Calabrese, Marcello would pick him up at a busy suburban shopping center in a family van to drive to the site of the killings. Calabrese said he was doing what he was told.

Breen also questioned why Sam "Wings" Carlisi, the then-head of the Chicago Outfit, then-mob underboss John DiFronzo and one of its chief moneymakers, Joseph Ferriola, would risk being seen near the murder scene. Calabrese also once told the FBI he thought he had seen mob boss Ernest Rocco Infelice there, Breen noted, but that was impossible because Infelice was under surveillance by agents at the time.

Calabrese's account had ended abruptly last week with few details about the Spilotro brothers' final moments. Calabrese said he had his back to Anthony Spilotro as he grabbed Michael Spilotro by the legs and mob boss Louis "the Mooch" Eboli moved in to strangle Michael Spilotro.

Breen said he found it incredible that Calabrese wouldn't know exactly who killed Anthony Spilotro or how the bodies of the brothers wound up in a distant Indiana cornfield.

Calabrese said in his line of work, nobody asked those kinds of questions

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...ack=2&cset=true

Jesus it's hard to keep track of everything thats happening
but it's so interesting im just trying to take it all in.

Defense tries to shoot holes in mob hit man's testimony
FAMILY SECRETS | Attorney suggests star witness wasn't at Spilotro murders

July 24, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter swarmbir@suntimes.com
Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese was under the gun Monday as an attorney for the reputed head of the Chicago mob tried to shoot holes in Calabrese's account of mob murders and a making ceremony.

Calabrese is testifying against reputed Chicago mob boss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and Calabrese's own brother Frank Calabrese Sr. as part of a deal with the feds to avoid the death penalty and possibly life in prison.

Marcello's attorney, Thomas Breen, drilled down into Calabrese's account to try to crack the foundation.

Breen, at times, focused on seemingly small details -- a mobster's ethnic background or whether a killer was wearing gloves.
Nicholas Calabrese has testified that a man has to be fully Italian to be made into the mob, and that he, Frank Calabrese Sr., and Marcello were made into the Outfit in a ceremony in 1983.

The only problem, Breen noted, was that Marcello is half Irish. His mother's maiden name is Irene Flynn.

"Have you met his lovely mother, Mrs. Flynn?" Breen asked. "And Mrs. Flynn is as Irish as Paddy's pig, isn't she?"

Calabrese suggested Marcello and his sponsor, mob boss Sam Carlisi, must have lied about Marcello's background to get him made.

Nicholas Calabrese has implicated Marcello in the murders of the Outfit's man in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro, and his brother, Michael. Calabrese said Marcello drove him and other Outfit killers in 1986 to the basement of a Bensenville area home where they waited to pounce on the men.

Breen suggested Calabrese was never at the murder. Breen asked Calabrese if he and other killers were wearing gloves. Calabrese said all the men downstairs were wearing gloves and affirmed his testimony that he came up and shook Michael Spilotro's hand and said hello before he was jumped and strangled to death.

"Did Michael Spilotro say, 'Hey guys, why is everybody wearing gloves, this looks like a hit?' " Breen asked.

Calabrese was a friend and dental patient of Pat Spilotro, one of the murder victims' brothers.

Pat Spilotro visited Nicholas Calabrese in prison and secretly recorded him for the FBI, according to court testimony.

"Nicky, what did my brothers do wrong . . . to deserve what happened to them?" Spilotro asked Calabrese during the prison visit.

"If I knew, I would tell you," Calabrese replied.

Breen suggested Calabrese told the truth in prison and lied on the stand, which Calabrese denied.

In other courtroom testimony, Chicago businessman Victor Cacciatore testified he was a victim of Outfit extortion and went to late 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti for help. Roti has been identified as a made Outfit member.

Cacciatore testified he paid $200,000 in the early 1980s to the people extorting him and threatening his family.

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Monday: Thomas Breen, an attorney for reputed Chicago mob boss James Marcello, tried to shoot holes in the testimony of star witness Nicholas Calabrese, a mob hit man.

Expected Tuesday: Ronald Jarrett Jr., the son of the alleged late Outfit killer who was gunned down in 1999, will take the stand for prosecutors.

Small item raises big questions

July 25, 2007
BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist
I could just kick myself for missing Monday's installment of the Family Secrets mob trial playing out at the federal building here in Chicago. There's so much that doesn't make the headlines that is every bit as spellbinding as the stuff that does.
No, I'm not talking about who got whacked in 18 old, cold, brutal unsolved mob hits. Or even referring to the riveting testimony of Nicholas Calabrese, the mob hit man and betraying brother of defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., whose deadpan delivery and downcast eyes mesmerized the jury for five days.

What I'm talking about are those little snippets and small moments when the intersection of the Chicago Outfit and this city's powerbrokers and businessmen comes into startling focus.

The high drama of the day dealt with the cross-examination of Calabrese by defense attorneys who sought to undercut his credibility and shore up the fortunes of the five defendants whose prospects of dying outside prison are looking rather dim. But what happened at the end of the day wasn't even mentioned in the Tribune account and only briefly in the Sun-Times, the last paragraphs of which read:

"CHICAGO BUSINESSMAN VICTOR CACCIATORE TESTIFIED HE WAS A VICTIM OF OUTFIT EXTORTION AND . . . PAID $200,000 IN THE EARLY 1980s TO THE PEOPLE EXTORTING HIM AND THREATENING HIS FAMILY."

Victor Cacciatore? The Chicago attorney and real estate developer? Chairman of Lakeside Bank? Member of convicted ex-Gov. George Ryan's transition team? One of the partners of now-indicted Antoin "Tony" Rezko's defunct 62-acre riverfront parcel in the South Loop? Holder of loads of government contracts and political contributor of at least $385,000 since 1995?

Yes, that Victor Cacciatore.

When he took the stand this week at the request of federal prosecutors, it was to buttress what Nick Calabrese had been saying about the Chicago mob. That they will muscle, extort, threaten or kill anybody if they think they can get away with it.

Thank goodness for Sun-Times reporter Steve Warmbir's blog that delved into this small but fascinating aspect of the trial.

Warmbir reports that Cacciatore testified he was being extorted by the mob in the 1980s, though "his memory was fuzzy."

In the 1980s, Cacciatore told the court, somebody put the head of a dog on his son's car and shot out his back windshield. Cacciatore called the cops. Oddly, he refused to tell police at the time who exactly it was who was extorting him to the tune of $5 million. Instead, Cacciatore went to 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti, someone who had sent a lot of business Cacciatore's way. The extortion demand dropped to a mere $200,000.

Roti, you may recall, went to federal prison in the 1990s on corruption charges. It was revealed that he was a made member of the Chicago mob.

Cacciatore told the court this week that he had some familiarity with mob figures and had lived next door in River Forest to Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, the onetime head of the Outfit. When shown the so-called Last Supper photo of Accardo, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Jackie "The Lacky" Cerone and others, Cacciatore was able identify a number of them.

But on the stand, he still could not identify those extorting him nor did he recall telling investigators years ago that by naming names he'd be signing his own death warrant.

Cacciatore, a civic-minded philanthropist not accused of anything, didn't return my calls Tuesday. But, like the trial itself, he leaves us wanting to know much more.

Small item raises big questions

July 25, 2007
BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist
I could just kick myself for missing Monday's installment of the Family Secrets mob trial playing out at the federal building here in Chicago. There's so much that doesn't make the headlines that is every bit as spellbinding as the stuff that does.
No, I'm not talking about who got whacked in 18 old, cold, brutal unsolved mob hits. Or even referring to the riveting testimony of Nicholas Calabrese, the mob hit man and betraying brother of defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., whose deadpan delivery and downcast eyes mesmerized the jury for five days.

What I'm talking about are those little snippets and small moments when the intersection of the Chicago Outfit and this city's powerbrokers and businessmen comes into startling focus.

The high drama of the day dealt with the cross-examination of Calabrese by defense attorneys who sought to undercut his credibility and shore up the fortunes of the five defendants whose prospects of dying outside prison are looking rather dim. But what happened at the end of the day wasn't even mentioned in the Tribune account and only briefly in the Sun-Times, the last paragraphs of which read:

"CHICAGO BUSINESSMAN VICTOR CACCIATORE TESTIFIED HE WAS A VICTIM OF OUTFIT EXTORTION AND . . . PAID $200,000 IN THE EARLY 1980s TO THE PEOPLE EXTORTING HIM AND THREATENING HIS FAMILY."

Victor Cacciatore? The Chicago attorney and real estate developer? Chairman of Lakeside Bank? Member of convicted ex-Gov. George Ryan's transition team? One of the partners of now-indicted Antoin "Tony" Rezko's defunct 62-acre riverfront parcel in the South Loop? Holder of loads of government contracts and political contributor of at least $385,000 since 1995?

Yes, that Victor Cacciatore.

When he took the stand this week at the request of federal prosecutors, it was to buttress what Nick Calabrese had been saying about the Chicago mob. That they will muscle, extort, threaten or kill anybody if they think they can get away with it.

Thank goodness for Sun-Times reporter Steve Warmbir's blog that delved into this small but fascinating aspect of the trial.

Warmbir reports that Cacciatore testified he was being extorted by the mob in the 1980s, though "his memory was fuzzy."

In the 1980s, Cacciatore told the court, somebody put the head of a dog on his son's car and shot out his back windshield. Cacciatore called the cops. Oddly, he refused to tell police at the time who exactly it was who was extorting him to the tune of $5 million. Instead, Cacciatore went to 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti, someone who had sent a lot of business Cacciatore's way. The extortion demand dropped to a mere $200,000.

Roti, you may recall, went to federal prison in the 1990s on corruption charges. It was revealed that he was a made member of the Chicago mob.

Cacciatore told the court this week that he had some familiarity with mob figures and had lived next door in River Forest to Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, the onetime head of the Outfit. When shown the so-called Last Supper photo of Accardo, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Jackie "The Lacky" Cerone and others, Cacciatore was able identify a number of them.

But on the stand, he still could not identify those extorting him nor did he recall telling investigators years ago that by naming names he'd be signing his own death warrant.

Cacciatore, a civic-minded philanthropist not accused of anything, didn't return my calls Tuesday. But, like the trial itself, he leaves us wanting to know much more.

Angelo LaPietra
Led the Extortion?

It's the small moments in the Family Secrets trial that get overshadowed but are often fascinating.

Take the testimony of real estate investor Victor Cacciatore.

Cacciatore's testimony came at the end of a long day filled with the cross-examination of the prosecution's star witness, Nicholas Calabrese.

While Calabrese's testimony will get the headlines, Cacciatore's statements contain some interesting nuggets.

Cacciatore testified about being extorted by the mob during the early 1980s.

His memory was fuzzy in a few places.

But his testimony confirmed the basic account of two other witnesses, the prosecution's star witness, mob killer Nicholas Calabrese, and bookmaker Michael Talarico.

Calabrese testified last week how he was directed by his boss, Angelo LaPietra, to terrorize Cacciatore to get him to cough up some money.

Calabrese said the other main players in the extortion were his brother, reputed Outfit hitman Frank Calabrese Sr., and the late alleged mob killer Ronald Jarrett.

Talarico testified that he was instructed to do some surveillances of Cacciatore at the instruction of LaPietra.

Cacciatore confirmed he was the victim of mob threats, including having the head of a dog placed on his son's car.

Cacciatore had his back windshield shot out and received threatening phone calls.

Cacciatore said he was initially extorted for $5 million and wound up paying $200,000 to get the Outfit off his back.

Cacciatore reported his problems to the police at the time. Reports show that Cacciatore told authorities he knew who was extorting him but would not say because of the danger to him.

On the witness stand on Monday, though, Cacciatore couldn't recall ever knowing the names of his extortionists.

Cacciatore was not unfamiliar with reputed mobsters.

He happened to live next door for a time to top mob boss Anthony Accardo in River Forest.

Cacciatore knew who Jackie Cerone was because he would see Cerone visit Accardo while Cacciatore was mowing his lawn.

Cacciatore also had met Frank "Skid" Caruso because Caruso used Cacciatore as a lawyer to buy some property. The late Caruso was once the leader of the 26th Street/Chinatown crew.

And Cacciatore was well acquainted with Fred Roti, the late Chicago alderman who has been identified as a made member of the mob.

Roti was one of Cacciatore's first clients when Roti was just a humble Streets and Sanitation worker.

Roti referred him a lot of business, Cacciatore testified.

When he was getting extorted, Cacciatore told law enforcement that he went to a house to a middleman of the extortionists to see what could be done about the payment.

He told authorities then that the person frisked him for a wire and told him the original $5 million demand could be decreased to a $1 million.

Cacciatore also told investigators he would be signing his own death warrant if he said who the extortionists were.

On the witness stand Monday, Cacciatore said he didn't recall any of this.

"I recall talking to Fred Roti as to who could do this," Cacciatore said.

"I may have gone to his house," Cacciatore said.

'Casino' didn't need facts to be great
Mob trial shows movie 'adapted' story into its own

July 25, 2007
BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist
"The coppers blamed me for every little thing [in Las Vegas], and I mean every f - - - - - - little thing. If a guy f - - - - - - slipped on a f - - - - - - banana peel, they blamed me."
-- Joe Pesci as "Nicky Santoro" in "Casino," which contains 422 uses of the f-word.

As we learned from testimony in the Family Secrets mob trial last week, Tony "the Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael were not beaten with aluminum baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield, as was portrayed in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film "Casino."

According to mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, the Spilotros were killed in a basement in suburban Bensenville a little more than 21 years ago -- and then their bodies were dumped in that field in Newton County, Ind.

As Sun-Times ace reporter Steve Warmbir wrote, the movie got the details of the twin killings wrong -- but it's highly unlikely Scorsese would have adhered to a literal re-telling of the tale even if he had known about the Bensenville locale when he made the film.


Adapted from a true story
"Casino" is one of the best films ever made about Las Vegas -- and one of the best films of the 1990s, period. I watched it again on DVD the other night, and I was once again dazzled by Scorsese's amazing camera work, his pitch-perfect use of music -- everything from "Contempt: Theme De Camille" to "Hoochie Coochie Man" to "Nights in White Satin," and his ability to capture great acting from the expected (Robert De Niro, Pesci) and the unexpected (veteran funnyman Alan King is sharp in a supporting role as a Teamsters boss, and Sharon Stone gives the performance of her life in this film).
Though well-reviewed at the time by most critics, "Casino" is probably a bit underrated because of similarities in tone and subject matter to Scorsese's "Goodfellas," perhaps THE best film of the 1990s. Still, "Casino" is a jolting, bloody mob-opera, as well as an expert anthropological examination of Vegas in the transition period between the old-school days and the "Disneyland" era. There's fiercely funny dialogue -- and cringe-inducing violence. It's "Goodfellas" on a bigger, bolder canvas.

It's also a detailed tutorial of how the mob could control the entire operation of a casino, with the "relics" in the Midwest telling the muscle guys and the oddsmakers in Vegas exactly how to run things.

But it's not a documentary, nor is it even a fictional but faithful-to-the-facts procedural. As the opening titles tell us, "Casino" was merely "adapted from a true story." Like hundreds of other movies -- some "adapted," some "based on," some "inspired by" -- it uses elements of the truth as ingredients for creating a fictional, parallel universe.

The details of the Spilotro murders would be just one example of how the movie veers away from the facts. There are literally dozens of others.


When Lefty becomes 'Ace'
Based on the book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi (who also authored Wiseguy, the source material for "Goodfellas"), "Casino" is a sprawling, nearly three-hour, street-level epic that covers the Vegas scene in the 1970s and the 1980s. It begins with a stylized shot of De Niro's Ace Rothstein literally flying through the air after his car explodes upon ignition. Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" accompanies the flames -- and then we transition to Ace overlooking a casino, lighting a cigarette.
"Before I ever ran a casino or got myself blown up, Ace Rothstein was a hell of a handicapper," says Ace.

The story is on. But from the jump, "Casino" strays from the actual history.

You start with the names. Everybody gets a new name.

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal becomes Sam "Ace" Rothstein.

Tony "the Ant" Spilotro becomes Nicky Santoro. His brother Michael is renamed Dominick.

Geraldine McKenna, the beautiful show girl/hustler/addict who became Lefty's wife and reportedly had an affair with Tony Spilotro, is Ginger McGee.

Frank Cullotta is Frankie Marino.

Allen Dorfman, the insurance king and Teamsters lieutenant who was gunned down in the parking lot of the Hyatt Lincolnwood Hotel in 1983, is Andy Stone.

And so on. Even the casino featured in "Casino" is a fictional creation. In real life, Lefty ran a number of casinos. In the movie, Ace runs the Tangiers, loosely based on the Stardust.

More tomorrow.

Top cops took bribes, mobster testifies
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:25 PM CDT, July 25, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: A mob informant testified at the Family Secrets trial today how former high-ranking Chicago police officers were on the take, receiving cash payments and new cars from the Outfit.

Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel—a burglar, jewel thief and mob enforcer—testified in Chicago federal court how he came up through organized crime before beginning to cooperate with the government in the mid-1990s.

Siegel, 71, said the mob at one point was paying off William A. Hanhardt, the corrupt Chicago police chief of detectives who was later convicted of operating a nationwide jewelry theft ring. Hanhardt and his partner were getting $1,000 a month from the mob, and a new car every two years, Siegel testified at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.

"He told them I would be working for him, and not to bother me," Siegel testified.

Siegel, now in witness protection, was among the informants whose cooperation led to charges against Hanhardt.

Other police officers were on the take as well, Siegel testified, including an officer he said was a leader in the Police Department's vice unit in the late 1960s. Siegel said he watched mobster Angelo Volpe meet the officer, who Siegel did not name, at a restaurant and give the cop "a bag of money."

They then discussed a location that police were about to raid.

"[Volpe] told him that was OK, it wasn't one of ours," Siegel testified.

In earlier testimony today, Siegel said he had been impressed with the Outfit as a teenage thief in the 1950s.

"They made the money, and they didn't go to jail," he said, chuckling. "Most of the police were on the payroll at that time."

Siegel said in his past he burglarized "maybe 100" stores, robbed three or four banks and took part in three murders as an enforcer and collector of juice loans.

He said mobster Frank Teutonico became a father figure to him, schooling him on who was who in the mob, and who needed to be respected.

Among the names that came up, Siegel testified, were Family Secrets defendants Frank Calabrese Sr. and Joey "The Clown" Lombardo.

Siegel's testimony was expected to continue this afternoon.

CHICAGO (AP) - A mobster who spent years in the witness protection program emerged today to testify in Chicago at the trial of 5 alleged underworld figures.

Robert Siegel told jurors that -- when he set out on a life of crime in the 1950s -- mob members rarely went to prison. The 71-year-old admitted stickup man and killer says that's because "most of the police were on the payroll."

Siegel -- whose nickname on the streets of Chicago was "Bobby the Beak" -- described how one officer who rose to become Chicago's chief of detectives got about a thousand dollars every month from the mob.
Cops were on the payroll in the old days, mobster says


Siegel is testifying at the trial of 5 men charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included illegal gambling, loan sharking and 18 mob murders. They've pleaded not-guilty.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=6838747&nav=1sW7

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
9:39 PM CDT, July 25, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: His burglar pals had been disappearing one by one, so career thief Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel didn't exactly jump at the opportunity when a mobster offered him a score involving gold coins.

Burglars John Mendell and Buddy Ryan heard the same pitch in early 1978, Siegel said in a deep and scratchy voice, and he had never heard from either one again.

"I didn't have to be too bright to figure out what that was," Siegel testified Wednesday at the Family Secrets trial.



Related Links
In the courtroom Photos
The Chicago Outfit, it turned out, was taking a scorched-earth approach to rooting out the crooks who had burglarized the River Forest home of mob boss Tony Accardo, so Siegel said he went so far as to take a lie-detector test to prove he wasn't involved.

Later, Siegel approached mobster Gerald Scarpelli to ask why his friends had been eliminated and why he had been put on the same list, he told jurors. It had been a warning from the Outfit to burglars, whether they were involved in Accardo's break-in or not, Siegel said he was told.

"They were trying to make it one guy of every nationality," Siegel said he was told by Scarpelli of the hit list. "He said, 'You just happened to be the Jew.' "

Siegel, a tall man with swept-back gray hair and a prominent nose, sat on the witness stand in a light-colored T-shirt with a pair of eyeglasses stuffed in his front pocket. He often gestured with his hands to make a point and offered jurors a bit of a history lesson on Chicago's crime scene from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Now 71 and in the Witness Protection Program, Siegel said he fell into a life of crime on Chicago's West Side after dropping out of school in the 5th or 6th grade. He was 13 or 14, tagging along with friends and stealing "anything we could make a buck with," he said.

By 16, he had graduated to armed robberies, Siegel testified, and he had become aware of the neighborhood's Outfit toughs.

"They made the money, and they didn't go to jail," testified Siegel, chuckling at the memory. "Most of the police were on the [Outfit] payroll at that time."

Over the years, Siegel estimated, he burglarized as many as 100 stores, robbed three or four banks and took part in three murders as an Outfit enforcer and collector of high-interest "juice" loans.

His first link to the mob came from Frank "the Calico Kid" Teutonico, who earned his Wild West nickname by firing a gun into the ceiling before a card game as a warning to would-be cheaters that things would be "on the square," Siegel said. Siegel emphasized the point to jurors by forming his hand into the shape of a gun and raising it above his head.

Siegel told jurors he was a collector for Teutonico, making $400 a week. "If a guy didn't pay the money, I would go out and get a hold of him," he said.

By the late 1960s, Siegel was working for mobster Angelo Volpe, who ran a numbers racket on the South Side, he said. Siegel said he once watched Volpe bribe a Chicago cop who was a boss in the vice unit.

"He gave him a bag of money," Siegel said. The cop then revealed a gambling site that police were about to raid. "[Volpe] told him that was OK, it wasn't one of ours," Siegel testified.

Siegel also alleged that William Hanhardt, a Chicago police officer then in a police intelligence unit, was also on the take. Hanhardt and his partner received $1,000 each month from the mob as well as a new car every two years, Siegel said.

In the mid-1990s, Siegel cooperated against Hanhardt, now serving a 12-year prison term after pleading guilty to running a mob-connected theft ring that stole jewels from traveling salesmen.

Siegel said he met Mendell, the burglar, in 1973 while in federal prison in Minnesota. After both had been released, they teamed up on a few crimes together in Chicago, he said. According to Siegel, Mendell knew "a little bit" about alarms.

Siegel testified he got a call from Mendell in early 1978.

"He called me on the phone and told me he got a call from 'the Little Guy,' " reputed mob hit man Ronnie Jarrett's nickname. Jarrett had told Mendell he had something good for him, Siegel testified, and Mendell had promised to bring Siegel in.

But Siegel never saw him again. Mendell's body turned up in the trunk of his car.

That account would corroborate Nicholas Calabrese, the key government witness in the Family Secrets trial who told jurors last week that Jarrett brought Mendell to a garage where he was killed. Calabrese said his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., one of five defendants on trial, strangled Mendell. Nick Calabrese said he cut his throat.

Siegel told jurors that burglar Buddy Ryan contacted him just after Mendell disappeared and told him Johnny "Bananas" DiFronzo had called him about a job involving gold coins. Ryan called Siegel about joining in, he testified.

"I never heard from him no more neither," Siegel said.

In all, six suspected burglars were killed for burglarizing Accardo's home. But Siegel was spared after he passed a polygraph in which he denied any involvement.

According to a government filing in the case, a witness has told authorities that Mendell admitted to him taking part in the Accardo break-in in order to reclaim gems Mendell had earlier stolen from a jewelry store.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-070725mobtrialjul25,0,7069795.story?coll=chi_features_promo

Daley not the Only One Quiet on City’s Mobsters

By RAY HANANIA


I am always amazed at how the media covers mob trials.

There are so many expert commentators. They all report on the mob like they have been covering them for years.

Actually, some reporters have been covering for them for years.

One reporter was on the payroll of a mobster for years. Every reporter knew but no one said his name, because the mobster was an alderman and committeeman.

No. I’m not talking about Fred Roti, the kindly alderman of the First Ward who was the City Hall representative for the Mob’s political enforcer, John D’Arco Sr.

When I first arrived at City Hall in 1976, as a freelance writer doing my first interview with the first Mayor Daley, “da Boss,” to the time I left in 1992, it was obvious that many reporters knew a lot more about the Chicago mob than they let on.

The only time we write about them is when one of them decides to squeal, or is brought before a court.

And then the reporters, hypocritically, pontificate about the ills of the Chicago Outfit, the Mafia, la Cosa Nostra.

Hypocrites because all of the reporters, including me, knew which ones were the mobsters and which ones weren’t.

We knew which powerful aldermen and committeemen were the lackeys of the Chicago mob, and who were their attorneys, too.

Yet, we never exposed them. These mobsters walked into the Chicago City Hall Press Room all the time. They attended meetings of the Chicago Democratic Organization, all the time.

They buddied up to even the Republicans out in DuPage County and stood next to Cook County State’s Attorneys.

When I left newspapering for a brief sabbatical into the dark and seamy world of Chicago politics as a consultant, some of my clients were, in fact, mobsters. The most notorious were those in the Town of Cicero.

I was always amazed at how reporters called Betty Loren-Maltese asking for favors on one hand, and, maybe not getting them, sat back while their newspapers pummeled her in their coverage on the other.

I’m not defending the incarcerated mob heiress and vicious Town President who relished in destroying lives and careers and lying. She deserves her prison sentence and far more.

But let’s not pretend that the news media in Chicago isn’t cozy with the mob or that just Mayor Richard M. Daley is afraid to talk about the topic.

The mobsters have been crawling around Chicago City Hall, and Democratic and Republican politics in Illinois, for generations and we only address it when it becomes the headline and can’t avoid writing about it.

I won’t spill any beans. Why should I be any different? The Chicago news media doesn’t care and I doubt that most Chicagoans really care either.

We know they are there. We voters elect them to office. And we elect their political pals, cronies, lackeys and funders to government office, too.

So, as we listen to the sordid and grisly tales offered by Nicholas Calabrese in the highly touted “Family Secrets” mob trial now taking place and filling our front page headlines and columns and the TV reports of overly tanned and hyped up TV reporters, remember, the mob is there because we all allow them to be there.

I wonder if Chicago politics depends on them being there

http://www.swnewsherald.com/news_inside/2007/07/072607cs_rh_mob.php

Tootsie Babe, Part II
The son of reputed Outfit killer Ronald Jarrett brought Frank "Tootsie Babe" Caruso back into focus again at the Family Secrets trial this week.

The younger Ronald Jarrett, who shares his father's name, explained to jurors that after his father was gunned down in 1999 in a mob hit, the younger Jarrett worked with Nick Ferriola, the son of top mobster Joseph Ferriola, to run a bookmaking operation.

Nick Ferriola explained to Jarrett that Frank Calabrese Sr. had said there were certain people you could trust in the Bridgeport/Chinatown neighborhood.

One of those people was Frank "Tootsie Babe" Caruso, according to trial testimony.

The elder Caruso also made the trial this week when real estate businessman and lawyer Victor Cacciatore explained Frank "Skid" Caruso, the father of "Tootsie Babe" was his client on some real estate deals

http://blogs.suntimes.com/mob/2007/07/tootsie_babe_part_ii.html

Master thief tells how he survived Outfit vendetta
MOB'S MESSAGE | Burglars slain after break-in at Accardo's

July 26, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
First one burglar, then another, told their friend, master thief Robert "Bobby the Beak" Siegel, the same story: They had just been told about a great score and were going to a meeting to learn more.

Then they were never heard from again.

First, Siegel heard from John Mendell, who was going out to meet reputed Outfit killer and thief Ronald Jarrett.

Siegel passed on the meeting, and Mendell wound up in a car trunk.

'I knew I was on the list'
Next, Siegel heard from Bernard "Buddy" Ryan, who told him mob boss John DiFronzo had told him about a score with gold coins.
Ryan was found shot to death in Stone Park.

Then Siegel got a call from a man he knew, but not well, telling him about a great score -- involving gold coins.

"That's when I knew I was on that list," Siegel told jurors Wednesday in the Family Secrets trial.

It was a list of burglars to be killed to send a message about breaking into the home of mob boss Anthony Accardo in the late 1970s.


Took polygraph test
Siegel, 71, who is in witness protection, told jurors he originally believed the Outfit furor was over burglarizing a jewelry store owned by a friend of Accardo's.
As burglars he knew were getting murdered, Siegel took a polygraph test to show he had nothing to do with that burglary. Siegel passed the test, sent the results to the mob through attorneys, and survived.

Only later, Siegel testified, he learned from his friend, mobster Gerald Scarpelli, that the Outfit was killing burglars, not even ones necessarily involved in the Accardo break-in, to send a message. Scarpelli told Siegel, "There was a message they were trying to get out, but it didn't turn out the way they wanted."

The Outfit wanted to kill one burglar of every nationality, Scarpelli told him.

"You just happened to be the Jew," Scarpelli told Siegel.


Admitted 3 murders
Earlier in the trial, Siegel described how his mob boss in the 1960s, Angelo Volpe, the head of the South Side numbers racket, bribed top Chicago cop William Hanhardt to look the other way. Hanhardt got $1,000 to $1,200 a month and a new car every two years, Siegel said.
Hanhardt's attorney, Jeff Steinback, declined to comment. Hanhardt was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in 2002 for running a nationwide jewelry theft ring.

Siegel began working with investigators in the mid-1990s after he was convicted in a series of jewelry store robberies. In a deal with prosecutors, he admitted killing three people for the mob, including an informant for the federal government, but was never tried for murder.

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Wednesday: Master thief Robert Siegel told jurors how he survived an Outfit effort to kill a slew of burglars to send a message about breaking into a mob boss' home.

Expected today: Ernest Severino, who worked for the late reputed Outfit killer William "Butch" Petrocelli, will testify about circumstances surrounding Petrocelli's murder.

Are you still recording all the news from the trial DN?

CHICAGO: As both a gun dealer and an undertaker, Ernie Severino was positioned to serve the Chicago mob in various ways.

The soft-spoken 60-year-old testified Thursday in the trial of five reputed mobsters that he supplied his friend, William "Butchie" Petrocelli, the leader of a gang called "The Wild Bunch," with up to 100 guns for free. He was hazier about what happened when Petrocelli asked about using his funeral parlor's crematorium.

Then, just after Christmas in 1980, Petrocelli vanished. Some of the toughest men in the Chicago underworld came to Severino, telling him to turn over bank documents and other items he kept for Petrocelli. He was reluctant, afraid Petrocelli would come back for revenge.

"No, he's not coming back," Severino said Gerry Scarpelli told him.

Scarpelli went on to say that mob bosses told him he was taking over Petrocelli's gang, Severino said, and the bosses told Scarpelli: "You can go in the next room and take care of the garbage if you want to."

Calabrese's brother, Nicholas Calabrese, the government's star witness, testified earlier that mob bosses turned against Petrocelli because he was too flamboyant. Nicholas Calabrese became a government witness in 2002 after his DNA was found on a bloody glove left at the scene of another mob murder.

The underworld bosses resented the glittering Christmas party Petrocelli threw at a Gold Coast hotel and his boasting that some day he would be the boss of the Chicago Outfit, as the city's mob family calls itself, Nicholas Calabrese said.

Severino said that when the mobsters asked him where Petrocelli's money and other possessions were stored, he told them everything.

"They don't ask unless they already know the answer," he said.

In testimony about another killing, retired security consultant Fred Pavlich said Thursday that the head of a cooperative association specializing in shipping fruits and vegetables was delivering cash to mob figures before he was killed by a car bomb.

Pavlich said he accompanied Michael Cagnoni when he delivered cash to Cicero-based Flash Trucking, which made most of his local deliveries.

Pavlich said he resigned as head of security for the shipping cooperative the day after he received a threatening phone call that persuaded him it was time for him to step aside. The caller did not mention Cagnoni, but weeks later, Cagnoni died when the bomb erupted under the seat of his Mercedes on June 24, 1981.

Prosecutors say Frank Calabrese was responsible for the Cagnoni murder. On the stand, Nicholas Calabrese described how the bomb was planted in Cagnoni's car and detonated by an automatic radio-controlled device.

Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez asked Pavlich if Cagnoni had been paying the money in hopes that it would head off labor union problems. Pavlich said he understood that was part of the reason.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Mafia-Trial.php

yes

'The Oven' felt Outfit's heat
Crematory owner tells of helping mob

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
July 27, 2007
As the owner of both a crematory and a gun shop, Ernest Severino was doubly valuable to the Chicago Outfit in the late 1970s.

Mob figures called him Ernie "the Oven" and asked his staff for keys to the furnace, Severino testified Thursday at the Family Secrets trial.And Outfit hit man William "Butch" Petrocelli regularly wanted .38-caliber pistols, hunting rifles and MAC-10 submachine guns from his store -- but didn't bother to pay for any of them, Severino said.

In fact, Severino testified, Petrocelli often expected him to be his go-fer, regularly asking him to hold envelopes, drive him around and just do "this or that." Petrocelli wasn't the kind of guy to whom you could say no, Severino said.



"I didn't want to put myself in any harm's way, let's say," said Severino, seemingly still a little nervous even more than a quarter-century after Petrocelli's murder, one of 18 gangland slayings at issue in the trial.

Severino, dressed in a dark sport coat over a black shirt, said he remained at Petrocelli's beck and call until his disappearance in late 1980. He said he didn't find out what happened until Gerald Scarpelli, Petrocelli's one-time partner in the Outfit, asked for Petrocelli's cash and guns in Severino's possession.

At first, Severino said, he balked at the request, fearing Petrocelli would return and angrily wonder what happened to his stuff.

Don't worry, Severino said Scarpelli told him.

"He says he's never coming back," Severino told jurors. "He said he was at a meeting with the older guys, and they told him to take care of the garbage in the next room. And that was supposedly Butch."

Petrocelli's body would be discovered weeks later in a car parked on a Chicago street.

The key witness in the Family Secrets trial, Nicholas Calabrese, had testified earlier this month that he was involved in the killing. He alleged that his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., one of five defendants on trial, had strangled the mobster. Bosses wanted Petrocelli eliminated for flaunting his position and holding lavish parties in downtown hotels.

On cross-examination by defense lawyer Joseph Lopez, Severino said that he never saw Frank Calabrese Sr. during the time he was running mob errands and paying "street taxes."

Also Thursday, the jury heard details about the bombing of Michael Cagnoni, another mob hit that Nicholas Calabrese said he took part in.

At the start of the trial, federal prosecutors told the jury that Cagnoni had decided to stop paying the Outfit -- and "paid the ultimate price." His Mercedes-Benz was obliterated by a bomb under the driver's seat as he drove on a ramp to the Tri-State Tollway in June 1981.

Margaret Wenger turned away from a computer screen on the witness stand as she identified a photo of her husband. Cagnoni had been acting strangely before the bombing, she said, but he hadn't told her what was bothering him.

The morning he died, Wenger testified, she first used the car to drive their son to school, corroborating an account given by Calabrese.

The star witness had become emotional on the stand, telling jurors he became upset on learning from an Outfit spotter that the mother and son had nearly been killed by the remote-controlled explosive. If they had driven toward the tollway, the car would have blown up.

Instead, Wenger said, she returned home, and Cagnoni drove the car to work.

"He hugged me and kissed me goodbye and said, 'Remember, I love you very much,'" said Wenger, her voice dropping with emotion. It was the day after her birthday, she said, and she hadn't yet learned that she was pregnant.

In other testimony, Fred Pavlich, who once led security for Cagnoni's produce-shipping business, said he drove Cagnoni around to meetings with Outfit figures such as Ernest Rocco Infelice.

Cagnoni would bring a suitcase stuffed with cash every week to Flash Trucking, a Cicero business run by reputed organized-crime figures Paul and Michael Spano, Pavlich said. Cagnoni also attended at least one meeting in Rosemont with reputed mob boss Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, he said.

Cagnoni would set up fake names on his payroll to generate cash, Pavlich said, but he grew weary of the practice, feeling that he was spending more time trying to create the cash than running his business. The payments were intended to avoid problems with a union at his shipping yard.

------------

jcoen@tribune.com

BY CHRISTY GUTOWSKI
DAILY HERALD LEGAL AFFAIRS WRITER
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2007



After learning his mobster brothers planned to kill him, the stocky bank robber figured his only way out alive was to turn FBI informant.

So, for 16 months, the self-professed soldier secretly recorded 186 conversations with his Chicago Outfit associates. He also detailed about 40 unsolved mob murders.

It was during one of those chats that FBI agent Jack O'Rourke said his informant nonchalantly mentioned a mob graveyard in southeast DuPage County near the former home of syndicate enforcer Joseph "Jerry" Scalise, imprisoned at the time for a London jewelry heist.

"What are you talking about?" O'Rourke, now a private consultant, recalls asking. "He said it was common knowledge."

For five months, an elite FBI-led task force excavated 8æacres near Route 83 and Bluff Road, near Darien. They found bodies of two low-level wise guys before calling it quits in October 1988.


A tip led an FBI-led task force to excavate a site near Darien for the victims of mob hits, not far from the former home, above, of mob enforcer Joseph “Jerry” Scalise. (BRIAN LOEB/bloeb@dailyherald.com)


Nearly 20 years later, the group's early intelligence work remains significant.

It laid part of the foundation for the Family Secrets trial under way in Chicago in which five defendants are accused of racketeering conspiracy in an indictment that outlines 18 murders, gambling and extortion.

A construction crew also resurrected the field's ominous past in March 2007 after unearthing a third body just north of the site.

It's unknown if more vanquished mobsters remain there undiscovered. A fabled 45-carat gem known as the Marlborough diamond that Scalise stole also was never found. Some theorize he hid it on his property.

And, finally, just who is the turncoat who led FBI agents long ago to the burial site?

'No way out'

For decades, Chicago gambling kingpin Ken "Tokyo Joe" Eto was a loyal soldier.

That changed in February 1983 when he survived three gunshots in a botched hit.

Eto played possum, and later turned informant. His would-be killers were later found dead in a trunk in Naperville - the price for not getting the job done right.

Eto proved to be a valued government witness before his Jan. 23, 2004 death, but he was not the one who led authorities to the graveyard.

His attempted assassination, though, in part sparked the formation of the organized crime task force of FBI, Chicago, state and local officials in the mid-1980s to curb such mob violence.

An early goal was to bring down the crime family or "crew" of mob boss Joseph Ferriola of Oak Brook, who operated lucrative gambling rackets from Cicero to Lake County until his 1989 death.

Members of the task force said they focused on Gerald Scarpelli, who along with Scalise, known as Whiterhand because he was born minus four fingers, were Ferriola's busiest hitmen.

About this time, another mob guy started getting cold feet. O'Rourke identified him as James Peter Basile, a convicted Chicago bank robber best known as "Duke."

Basile already had the FBI zeroing in on him for a 1983 race track robbery in Crete. So, after he also learned Scarpelli, his longtime associate, was planning to kill him, Basile realized he had no other choice but to break the mob's code of silence.

For 16 months, he helped the FBI listen in on his chats with Scarpelli and other associates before serving a few years in prison for the race track robbery and slipping into a witness protection program in the early 1990s.

Basile re-emerged briefly in June 1996 at a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing.

"I finally decided to do something because it seemed there was no way out," he testified. "I began informing on the mob."

It was during one of his recordings of Scarpelli that the FBI first learned of the DuPage County graveyard. Basile later took them to the site, near Scalise's former home. The FBI heard there could be as many as seven bodies buried in the field.

A Dick Tracy jaw

It was painstaking work.

For five months, task force members traded in suits, badges and guns for jeans, chain saws and shovels.

They dug up acres of soil, trees and drained a pond. Members hand sifted truckloads of dirt through mesh screens for trace evidence.

"We were meticulous," said Jerry Buten, a retired 30-year FBI supervisor. "This was way before CSI, but we knew the way you solve most major crimes was through physical evidence."

Authorities speculated the field held victims of the infamous chop shop wars of the 1970s, when the mob seized control of the stolen auto-parts trade and wiped out uncooperative dealers.

State police stood guard 24 hours a day. Large canopies were erected to block circling media helicopters. But they weren't the only pests.

"I gave an order that anyone who came in was given a pair of work gloves because I got tired of all the suits showing up just to look at us," former DuPage Coroner Richard Ballinger said. "We'd spend 12 hours out there, come back to the office to do more work and sleep, then go back out the next morning."

On May 16, 1988, members unearthed the first skeletal remains. On June 9, a second shallow grave was found. Both men were shot to death.

Authorities brought in experts from across the country, from archaeologists to soil scientists, including top forensic anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow of Oklahoma.

Snow had identified the remains of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele in Brazil and some victims of John Wayne Gacy and the 1979 American Airlines crash near O'Hare.

Using dental records and facial reconstruction, Snow relied mostly on computerized skull-face superimposition to identify the corpses.

The second body, buried in a ski mask and with a cache of pornographic materials, was that of Michael S. Oliver, 29, a Chicago machinist who vanished November 1979.

In the FBI recordings, Scarpelli is heard saying that Oliver was a minor hoodlum shot during a syndicate raid on an independent porn shop near Elk Grove Village.

Not sure how to dump the body, in a scene similar to that in Martin Scorsese's "GoodFellas," his underworld pals talked over a bite to eat as the corpse sat in the trunk.

It took more than one year to identify remains in the first grave as Robert "Bobbie" Hatridge, a 56-year-old Cincinnati man with a distinctive Dick Tracy square jaw, flat feet and a flair for fashion.

The FBI said his girlfriend later told agents that Hatridge came to Chicago in April 1979 to meet with Scalise and Scarpelli about a big robbery.

He never made it home.

Making history

Basile's graveyard tip was considered one of the task force's first big scoops. Nearly 20 years later, its intelligence work reverberates still.

The secret tapes Basile made led to Scarpelli's arrest in July 1988. He killed himself a year later, but not before making a 500-page confession that exposed many mob secrets. He also admitted to 10 murders, including some in the Family Secrets trial.

The task force also made history with another big bust. It brought down Ferriola's nephew, Harry Aleman, for killing a union steward in 1977. He was acquitted, then retried and convicted.

Aleman, 68, and still in prison, is the only person tried twice for the same crime. Double jeopardy was discarded after it was learned his first judge took a bribe.

"The entire (Ferriola) crew was prosecuted as a result of the task force," Buten said. "It marked the beginning of the Chicago Outfit's end."

The mob graveyard made news again in March when crews building townhouses unearthed a third body several blocks north of the field near 91st Street.

The remains were identified as Robert Charles Cruz of Kildeer, who vanished Dec. 4, 1997. Cruz, who was Aleman's cousin, had been on Arizona's death row just two years earlier until his conviction for a 1980 double murder was overturned.

The discovery of his body begs the question - Could more graves be found there?

Members searched far and wide, with one exception. At the time, a large drug rehab facility was being built there. Many wonder if beneath its foundation lie the bodies of more hoodlums.

It's possible, task force members say, but unlikely. The bodies were unearthed in shallow graves less than 5 feet deep. They argue crews dug deeper when laying the foundation and probably would have found more graves if they existed.

Also still missing is the fabled $960,000 Marlborough diamond that Scalise stole during a 1980 London jewelry store heist. It was once owned by Sir Winston Churchill's cousin, the duchess of Marlborough.

Years ago, O'Rourke visited Scalise in his cell on England's Isle of Wight - the British version of Alcatraz - where he was imprisoned for the jewelry heist.

"Scalise would do a lot of talking but never say anything," O'Rourke said. "Informants told us he shipped it to Chicago, where it was broken up and sold."

Scalise, 69, has kept a low profile since returning to the Chicago area after finishing an Arizona prison stint on drug charges. But, long ago, he was rumored to be working on his memoirs.

So far, though, he has upheld the mob's code of silence.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=335452

Brothers on opposite sides of defendant
FAMILY SECRETS | 1 testifies against him, 2nd advises him

July 30, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter swarmbir@suntimes.com
In the Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago, a brother has testified against a brother, and a son has testified against a father.

But in recent days, the trial has revealed another family twist.

Bookmaker Michael Talarico took the stand against Frank Calabrese Sr., who ran the street crew that made Talarico pay a "street tax."

Days later, another Talarico family member -- civil attorney Al Talarico, Michael's brother -- entered the courtroom and promptly sat a few feet away from Calabrese Sr. He sat on a courtroom bench and started taking notes, whispering comments to Calabrese Sr.

Al Talarico even wanted to enter the case officially on Calabrese Sr.'s behalf, but Judge James Zagel denied his request.

Calabrese Sr. already has one lawyer, defense attorney Joseph "The Shark" Lopez.

Lopez, normally a font of quotes for inquiring reporters, declined to comment on Al Talarico's appearance. Lopez cited a gag order the judge has imposed.

Lopez, though, appears to have grown increasingly irritated by Talarico's presence. Lopez now has his client and Talarico whispering advice to him at trial.

Calabrese Sr. may need all the help he can get. He is accused of murdering 13 people for the mob. His brother, alleged Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, and his eldest son have testified against him.

Michael and Al Talarico are nephews of the late mob boss Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra, a brutal killer who ran the 26th Street/Chinatown crew to which Calabrese Sr. belonged.

Al Talarico could not be reached for comment Friday. He has done civil work for the Calabrese family involving real estate, records show.

One deal involved a home that the feds contended Calabrese Sr. stole from a man who owed him thousands of dollars in juice loans.

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL

U.S. tries to fill in 'Secrets' trial gaps
Prosecutors focus outside Chicago

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
July 31, 2007

Visiting his friend Paul Schiro in prison in 2003, longtime burglar Richard Cleary mentioned he had heard that the federal government was talking to an invaluable informant in Chicago.

A man named Nicholas Calabrese was telling them "where all the bodies are buried," Cleary said he told Schiro, asking if that was a problem.

"[Schiro] said, 'Yes, he could put me away forever,'" Cleary testified Monday at the Family Secrets trial at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.



The testimony came as federal prosecutors shifted the focus of the sweeping conspiracy case from Outfit business in Chicago to its influence in Las Vegas and Phoenix in an attempt to fill in gaps for the jury, which has been hearing evidence for more than a month.

Some of Monday's testimony covered the background behind the slaying of Emil Vaci in Arizona. In his testimony two weeks ago, Calabrese said he shot Vaci for the mob with the help of Schiro, known as "the Indian," who is among the five defendants on trial.

Testimony also touched on a skimming case at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas at the time Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro was running Outfit interests there. Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, another Family Secrets defendant, would later be convicted in that case.

The gray-haired Cleary testified in a quiet voice, donning eyeglasses during his time on the stand. He was indicted in the 1980s along with Spilotro and his brother, Michael, as part of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, an infamous Las Vegas burglary ring, he said.

He saw Anthony Spilotro and sometimes met with Schiro at the Arizona Manor, Cleary said, a hotel and restaurant where Vaci was the general manager. Vaci also ran a tour company that shuttled gamblers from Phoenix to the Stardust, where he worked for a time as a pit boss.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Rick Halprin asked Cleary about his testimony that Schiro once told him his Outfit boss was Joey Lombardo. Cleary acknowledged he had no firsthand information.

The day's testimony began with witness Dennis Gomes, a former investigator for the Nevada Gaming Control Board whose work unveiled the Stardust skimming case.

In 1975, Gomes told the jury, he began to focus on properties run by Argent Corp. and its casinos, which were known to have been funded by loans from the mob-dominated Central States Pension Fund of the Teamsters.

A man named Jay Vandermark had been hired to manage slot machines.

"It was sort of like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop," Gomes said.

Casinos convert coins to cash based on their weight, not by counting them, Gomes said. If the scales could be rigged to undercount the coins, he said there would be leftover cash that could be taken undetected.

Gomes and his agents found that $7 million had been taken in just that way, he said, and Vandermark would never be seen again.

L.J. O'Neale, a deputy district attorney in Nevada, testified that he investigated the Vandermark disappearance in 1986. O'Neale said he had reason to believe that the people who thought they were controlling the skimming operation understood the take was $4 million. He said the $3 million discrepancy may have contributed to Vandermark's disappearance.

Vandermark was last known to have been at Vaci's Arizona Manor, witnesses testified, and O'Neale said he called Vaci into the grand jury in early 1986. Calabrese would shoot him in the head months later, according to testimony.

----------

jcoen@tribune.com

'He could put me away forever'
MOB TRIAL | Man testifies that defendant feared star witness flipping for feds

July 31, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
When prolific burglar Richard Cleary visited his longtime friend Paul "The Indian" Schiro in prison in December 2003, Cleary told him the hot news: Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese had flipped for the feds.

"I asked, 'Do you know him?'" Cleary recalled Monday in his testimony in the Family Secrets trial.

"Yes," Schiro replied, according to Cleary.

"I asked him, 'Could he hurt you?'" Cleary testified.
Schiro said, "Yes, he could put me away forever," Cleary told jurors.

Cleary's testimony came Monday as prosecutors presented evidence to focus on Schiro, one of the defendants in the Family Secrets mob case, and his alleged role in Arizona for the Chicago Outfit.


Murders tied to casino skim
Mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese has already testified against Schiro, saying they both took part in the murder of Emil Vaci in Arizona in June 1986 after Vaci had testified before a grand jury in Las Vegas.
That grand jury was investigating the disappearance and presumed murder of slot-skimmer George Jay Vandermark. Trial testimony suggested on Monday that the Chicago Outfit would have had a great interest in Vandermark, who oversaw the mob-run skim at the slots at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas.

The mob got $4 million in one year from the skim. But authorities estimated the real skim was $7 million, with the mob getting shorted $3 million.

The grand jury was interested in Vaci, in part, because he ran an Arizona hotel where Vandermark hid out.

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Monday: Burglar Richard Cleary told jurors more details on Paul "The Indian" Schiro, an alleged Chicago mob killer living in Arizona.

Expected Wednesday: (No trial Tuesday) Jurors will hear more testimony on the murders of the Spilotro brothers in 1986.

The Spilotro story ...

July 31, 2007
BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist
It is the stuff of novels: a dentist on the trail of his brothers' killers who learns to extract more than teeth.

When Patrick Spilotro, 70, takes the stand this week in the federal "Family Secrets" mob trial, the gruesome odyssey of a brother thirsty for justice will unfold with a few shocking surprises.

In an interview last week, Spilotro detailed his obsession with bringing his brothers' killers to justice.

Spilotro told Sneed: "I promised my mother 21 years ago I would find the men who did it; who butchered my brothers and tortured her sons. We talked about it before she died in 1995. You never get over something like that. But I told her I would never give up."
Sneed is told mobster Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, who was hiding in Chicago in hopes of not becoming part of the "Family Secrets" trial, was captured as a result of a visit to Spilotro's office for dental problems. A tooth abscess led the feds to the flamboyant mobster.

The story of how Spilotro, a suburban dentist, helped break the backbone of the old Chicago mob syndicate is the detritus of two decades spent searching for 12 men who beat and strangled his brothers, reputed mobsters Tony and Michael Spilotro. The menburied them in an unmarked grave in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

It was the flipping of mobster Nick Calabrese and his nephew, Frank Calabrese Jr., that cracked the "Family Secrets" case. And it was Spilotro, who began working with the feds 21 years ago, who helped them do it.

Secretly taping Nick Calabrese while in prison for extortion, Spilotro primed the pump of redemption with the help of his dental patient, Nick's wife, Nora.

And it was Spilotro who tracked down Frank "The German" Schweihs, a reputed mob killer, in his Kentucky lair by tracing multiple cell phones used by Schweihs' son, Sneed hears.

Many of these men and their wives and kids and grandparents were patients of Spilotro over a 35-year span.

Spilotro did not know Calabrese was one of his brothers' murderers, and told Sneed that it would have been impossible for him to talk to Calabrese had he known.

Spilotro's intention was to get Calabrese to tell him what happened that night when a mobster named James Marcello, described in 2005 as the boss of the Chicago outfit, allegedly called Michael Spilotro's home and summoned him to the meeting that led to his death. Michael's daughter, Michelle, will reportedly testify that it was Marcello's voice she heard on the phone that night.

It was the flipping of Nick Calabrese that broke the case. But during Spilotro's meeting with the underworld kingpin, Spilotro discovered Calabrese hated his brother, Frank, whom he considered a dangerous psychopath. Spilotro also told the feds Frank Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., hated his father; important information for the feds to build a scenario to subsequently flip them, sources said.

Armed with Spilotro's information, and subsequent DNA evidence linking Calabrese to a mob hit, the feds were able to flip Calabrese -- whose wife, Nora, had urged him to cooperate.

Spilotro never knew of Nick Calabrese's involvement in his brothers' demise.

"They never told him that they did it," a source said.

"But there's no honor amongst these men," said Spilotro. "No respect. They are all a different breed. Money and power are their gods, nothing else."

Wow would tony want his brother to testify though?

Witness: Mobsters not buried alive
Forensic pathologist testifies in Family Secrets trial

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:17 PM CDT, August 1, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: Unlike the Hollywood version of the mob murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, the brothers were not beaten with bats and buried alive, according to a forensic pathologist who took part in their autopsies.

Both suffered massive blunt-force injuries, consistent with being beaten with fists and kicked, Dr. John Pless testified today at the Family Secrets trial at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. Both also showed signs that a rope had been placed around their necks, he said.

Pless said the bodies had been in the ground at least a week and were "moderately decomposed" when he and a colleague studied them at the Indiana University Medical Center on June 23, 1986.

"The bodies were still covered with sand from their removal from the cornfield," Pless said, adding that the bodies were clad only in undershorts.

Michael Spilotro had neck fractures and his nose was broken, Pless said. He bled so much into his chest that asphyxia was a factor in his death, Pless said.

The skin was not broken, he testified, leading him to believe that no object with mass—such as a baseball bat—was used in the beating.

Anthony Spilotro also suffered blunt-force injuries, and it was noted that he had severe heart disease. "All of these things compounding to produce death," he said.

Pless said he could not determine how many assailants took part in the attack.

Long the stuff of mob and Hollywood legend, the brothers' murders were depicted in the movie "Casino," which was based on Anthony Spilotro's role as the Chicago Outfit overseer in Las Vegas. But the movie got the murders wrong, according to Family Secrets testimony.

The movie showed the Spilotros beaten with bats in the same cornfield in which the bodies were discovered. But star witness Nicholas Calabrese testified last month that after the original plot to kill the Spilotros with explosives in Vegas fell through, mob bosses lured the brothers to a meeting near suburban Bensenville on June 14, 1986, with promises of promotions, and then beat and strangled them.

Calabrese testified that he saw a rope put around Michael Spilotro's neck as he tackled him in a Bensenville basement along with a hit team.

Today, Pless said he did not note that any sand or debris was in the upper airway of either man, as has sometimes been included in versions of the deaths.

"No, there was no evidence of that," Pless said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars made the point again by asking if there was any indication that the men were buried alive. "That's correct," Pless said.

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Thomas Breen asked about the cause of the death of Michael Spilotro.

"Is it fair to say he was just beaten to death?" Breen asked.

"Yes," Pless said.

"By fists and perhaps feet?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," was the answer.

Asphyxia was a factor in Anthony Spilotro's death, but it was caused by blood in his airway and not strangulation, Pless said.

Under cross-examination, Pless acknowledged it was "possible" that the Spilotros could still have been alive at the time of their burial, but when Mars asked him about it again, Pless reiterated that it was not his opinion that that had taken place.

The brothers' bodies, one on top of the other, were discovered June 22, 1986, in a 5-foot deep grave in a cornfield in Newton County, Ind., about 2 miles from the Illinois border and some 50 miles from Chicago.

The freshly turned earth was noticed by a farmer who thought the remains of a deer killed out of season had been buried there by a poacher.

The Spilotros had disappeared days before Anthony was to stand trial a second time in Nevada on charges he ran the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, a Las Vegas burglary ring.

Three months after the Spilotros' murders, John Fecarotta, a veteran mob muscleman, was slain because he botched the burial of the brothers.

jcoen@tribune.com

Widow: Slain mobster knew he was in danger
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:03 PM CDT, August 2, 2007


Michael Spilotro apparently knew he was in danger in the weeks leading up to his slaying in June 1986, and he was acting strangely the day he disappeared, his wife and daughter testified today at the Family Secrets mob-conspiracy trial in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Ann Spilotro, at times sniffling and wiping her eyes, testified that her husband was nervous before he and his brother Anthony disappeared.

He was concerned, she said, despite having told her that he and his brother "were going to be No. 1." She said she took that to mean they would be leaders of the Chicago Outfit.

According to previous testimony from Nicholas Calabrese, a made member of the mob and the government's star witness, the Spilotros were killed after they were lured to a Bensenville basement under the ruse that they were to be promoted within the Outfit. He has said the brothers were killed because they were bringing too much heat to the mob's Las Vegas arm.

Today's testimony from Ann Spilotro is part of the continuing trial of five men accused in a conspiracy that allegedly included 18 previously unsolved murders, including the killings of the Spilotro brothers.

Early in the morning on the day Michael Spilotro vanished, he told his wife he had a meeting, she said in court today. "He said if he wasn't back by 9 o'clock, it was no good," she said.

"I didn't think as if he would lose his life, I just thought it would be a problem," she said.

Ann Spilotro said she went to a baseball game with her son, and came home to find that before her husband left for the meeting, he had given his daughter some of his personal items.

"Her dad had given her his jewelry, his driver's license and a medal he wore around his neck," she said. He also had given her money to take to a graduation party that night.

Spilotro's daughter, Michelle, now 38, also took the stand today.

She said she noticed her father was acting oddly the morning he left.

She said her father always told her he loved her when he left their Oak Park home. "That day he said it at least 10 times," she said, fighting back tears.

She said her father left his jewelry in a Ziploc bag on the kitchen counter, and told her to tell her mother to bring it to the graduation party.

Ann Spilotro said she went to the party, and watched the clock knowing her husband had mentioned 9 p.m.

Right at 9, she said, a woman whose husband happened to have been killed previously sat next to her, Spilotro testified.

"I started shaking," she said. "I couldn't stop shaking."

The next day, Father's Day, she called around to see if anyone had seen her husband. No one had, and she reported him missing the following day.

A week later, she learned the brothers had been killed, she said.

Michelle Spilotro spent some of her time on the stand today testifying about taking a number of calls over the years from a man she knew as "Jim."

Prosecutors allege that was Family Secrets defendant James Marcello.

The man would often call and ask for her father, Michelle Spilotro said, and she grew to recognize his voice.

Her father would tell her, "If that guy calls, I need to get the call," she said. Or, "If that guy calls, I'm not here."

After her father was killed, FBI agents had her listen to a voice lineup, she testified, in an attempt to identify "Jim."

She said she had no problem picking out the voice.

"I just remember immediately identifying the voice," she said. "I didn't even have to listen to the rest of the tape."

Spilotro said she did listen to the other voices, but just told agents, "That's it," when she heard "Jim's" voice.

She will be cross-examined by lawyers for Marcello this afternoon.

jcoen@tribune.com

Mistress tells of life with reputed mobster
Spilotro's daughter also takes stand

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 3, 2007

The reputed mob boss did his best to keep a poker face Thursday.

First, the daughter of one of the Spilotro brothers tried not to cry as she indirectly blamed James Marcello for luring her father to his violent death.

Then a second witness, a slim, woman with shoulder-length brown hair testified against him in a quiet voice he knows well.

Connie Marcello, 53, who changed her name after becoming Marcello's mistress, said she met him while she was tending bar in Cook County strip clubs such as Michael's Magic Touch and The Hollywood. James Marcello, who was married to another woman, gave her thousands a month in cash for more than 20 years, she told jurors at the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

The gifts are important because prosecutors allege Marcello ran an illegal, cash-based gambling empire that saw video poker machines placed in bars around the Chicago area. If she was ever asked where her money came from, Connie Marcello testified, she was supposed to say her mother gave it to her.

Her testimony came during the continuing trial of five men -- including Marcello -- for a conspiracy that allegedly included 18 previously unsolved murders, including the killings of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro.

Connie Marcello calmly said she lied to Marcello in 2005 after she appeared before a grand jury, telling him the subject of the money never came up.

"I just said it was things about the '80s," she said she told him.

She was still getting money from him as late as June, she said. His brother or a friend would hand her an envelope or a coffee cup stuffed with $100 bills, she said.

Marcello paid for her lawyers, she said, and when she ran up $15,000 in gambling debt, Marcello's cash made it go away. If she was forced to testify at the Family Secrets trial under a grant of immunity, as she did Thursday, she was expected to say nothing and go to jail, she said.

On cross-examination, she was asked if Marcello was being kind to her and her two children, one of whom was adopted and has special needs. That, she said before leaving the courtroom, was true too.

Connie Marcello's testimony followed an earlier session where Michelle Spilotro, the daughter of mob figure Michael Spilotro, talked about working as a hostess at her father's restaurant in the 1980s. She watched him whisper with mobsters in the back room, she said, and told jurors she watched in her house as her dad and alleged mob leader Joey "the Clown" Lombardo wrote each other notes on a child's toy instead of talking out loud.

It was a board that could be written on and then erased by pulling a plastic sheet away from its backing.

"You'd see scribbling and they'd lift it up," she said.

And she received directions from her father about taking phone calls, especially when a man she knew as "Jim" rang the house.

"Jim," who authorities allege is James Marcello, had a distinct voice with a thick Chicago accent.

Spilotro, 38, now a homemaker, fought tears on the witness stand as she thought about the day in June 1986 when her father disappeared. Her father and uncle were waiting for "Jim" to call, and she answered the phone. After that, she said, the Spilotro brothers got dressed to leave the house.

She said her father left his jewelry in a Ziploc bag on the kitchen counter, and told her to tell her mother to bring it to a graduation party they were attending that night. But she never saw him again.

Years later, an FBI agent sat her in a car and played her a "voice lineup" of five investigators and Marcello reading a couple of paragraphs from an item in a Chicago newspaper.

When Marcello's voice came on, Spilotro told agents she didn't need to hear anymore, she was sure it was the caller.

On cross-examination, Spilotro acknowledged she hadn't heard "Jim's" voice for three years before listening to the tape. Spilotro's testimony followed that of her mother, Ann Spilotro, who told jurors her husband had once told her that he and his brother "were going to be No. 1" in the hierarchy of the Outfit. The men eventually were targeted for death because Anthony Spilotro, the mob's Las Vegas boss, was attempting unauthorized hits and attracting the attention of authorities too often.

Star Family Secrets witness Nicholas Calabrese has testified that the brothers were lured to their deaths with an offer of a promotion within the Outfit.

Early on the day he vanished, her husband told her that he had a meeting that day, Ann Spilotro told jurors.

"He said if he wasn't back by 9 o'clock, it was no good," she said.

Spilotro said she went to the graduation party, and watched the clock knowing her husband had mentioned 9 p.m. The bag of his jewelry was in her purse.

The brothers would be found a little more than a week later buried in an Indiana cornfield.

Spilotro said she eventually sold her husband's restaurant, Hoagie's, in a building owned by Lombardo's wife.

The buyers were James DeLeo, now a state senator, and James Banks, a Chicago lawyer, she said.

When contacted by phone, DeLeo said he and Banks were among a group of investors in a now-defunct pizza franchise chain and denied buying the building. He said the group -- which lost money -- only rented the building from Ann Spilotro and bought tables and other restaurant equipment from her.

Spilotro said she wasn't happy with the money she received, and went to Marcello.

"I thought he was in a position to help me," she said.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Mistress humiliates Marcello
DOUBLE-CROSS | She made him think she'd kept mum, but she talked to grand jury

August 3, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
For more than 20 years, reputed Chicago mob boss James Marcello gave his mistress thousands of dollars a month, making sure she got the cash even when he was in prison.

He put her and her two children up in a lovely suburban home.

He took care of the $15,000 gambling debt she ran up in one month.

The mistress, Connie Marcello, a former bartender at a Cicero strip club, publicly humiliated Marcello by revealing she conned him into believing she had told a grand jury nothing in March 2005. For more than two years after that, she got up to $5,000 a month from Marcello, even though she had secretly spilled the beans.

The reputed mob boss told her to say she got the monthly cash from her mother, if she was ever asked.

But the mistress told the truth to the grand jury when she faced jail if she didn't talk.

Connie Marcello was tending bar at the Cicero club when she met Marcello in the mid-1980s. They never married, but she legally changed her last name to his. She said that she, her son and daughter would act like "a normal family" when James Marcello visited them.

Connie Marcello originally refused to testify when she was called before a grand jury in February 2005.

"It was always understood not to say anything," Connie Marcello said.

But a month later, prosecutors granted her immunity and she faced testifying or going to jail.

James Marcello paid for her attorney but did not balk at her going to jail, the mistress said.

"He just always believed that I could go to jail for the length of the trial, and it would be over," Connie Marcello said.

In earlier testimony Thursday, James Marcello was linked to the brutal beating murders of the Spilotro brothers in 1986.

Jurors already have heard from Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, who told them James Marcello drove him and two other mob killers to a home in the Bensenville area to wait for Anthony and Michael Spilotro to arrive.

The brothers believed they were attending a ceremony to mark their promotions in the mob.

In fact, they were attending their executions. A dozen or so mob killers jumped the brothers as they came down into the basement and beat them to death, according to previous trial testimony.

Michael Spilotro's daughter, Michelle, identified Marcello's voice as the man who called her home asking to speak to her father the day he went to that fateful meeting from which he never returned, according to testimony from her and a former FBI agent.

Michael Spilotro's widow, Ann, testified how she reached out to James Marcello for help after she believed she got ripped off after selling her restaurant to state Sen. James DeLeo (D-Chicago) and attorney James Banks, the nephew of 36th Ward Ald. William Banks.

Ann Spilotro never said if she got the help. DeLeo on Thursday expressed amazement at her complaint. DeLeo said he and James Banks converted the place into a pizza parlor that failed.

"This is the first time I've ever heard of it," DeLeo said. "All of a sudden, 23 years later, I'm hearing she was treated unfairly? It's amazing."


Contributing: Chris Fusco

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Thursday: A former mistress of reputed top Chicago mob boss James Marcello hung him out to dry, while the daughter of Michael Spilotro, who was killed with his brother in a brutal 1986 hit, tied Marcello to the murders. Marcello's defense questioned why the daughter didn't initially mention apparently key facts to the FBI after the murders.

Expected next week (no trial today): On Monday, Patrick Spilotro, a brother of the two mobsters slain in 1986, could take the stand and reveal what he knows of the Chicago Outfit.
And on Thursday, at the Family Secrets trial, he watched as she hung him out to dry.

Alleged mob boss pays a call
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 7, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: Dominic Calarco said he went to his social club seven days a week to cook for its members, but that routine was broken by a knock on his door in January 2006.

He thought he knew the bearded man standing in front of him. But he wasn't sure until he heard the man speak, he told jurors Monday at the Family Secrets mob-conspiracy trial. The man asking for shelter at Calarco's Elmwood Park home was Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, an alleged leader of the Chicago Outfit who was on the run from federal authorities.

"He said, 'I got no place to go, can I stay with you for a couple of weeks?'" Calarco said.

Lombardo sat in the back of a row of defense tables at the trial Monday, and he didn't have any noticeable reaction to hearing about his last days of freedom. He tilted his head as he listened to Calarco, looking ahead through his tinted eyeglasses.

The two were once neighbors said Calarco, 85, and they had known each other for more than 70 years. He said he invited Lombardo in, and he said that although the case against Lombardo was "none of my business," he soon began to urge his fugitive friend to turn himself in.

There were nights Lombardo cried because he missed his family, and he appeared to be in poor health, Calarco said. They wouldn't have had far to go to find an officer, he added.

"I said all we've got to do is walk across the street," Calarco said, referring to his home being within a block of the Elmwood Park police headquarters.

"He said he had a few more things to do," Calarco said.

Among them was a visit to dentist Patrick Spilotro, the brother of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, for some dental work. The deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro are among the 18 mob-related slayings in the case.

Star government witness Nicholas Calabrese has also testified about seeing Spilotro for dental care. Spilotro is expected to testify Tuesday.

Lombardo was arrested in Elmwood Park soon after the visit with Patrick Spilotro, nine months after he was indicted along with the other defendants in the Family Secrets case.

Prosecution wrapping up

Calarco's testimony came as prosecutors are wrapping up their presentation of evidence, telling U.S. District Judge James Zagel that they expect to rest their case by Wednesday at the latest. Defense attorneys could begin putting on witnesses next week.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors added Sal Romano to the long list of underworld characters they have called to the stand since the landmark trial began in late June.

Romano was a burglar and government informant who turned on the "Hole-in-the-Wall" burglary ring of mobster Anthony Spilotro in the 1980s.

Now an elderly man with a tuft of gray hair, Romano was brought into court in a wheelchair, facing jurors in a blue sports coat and yellow tie. He spoke in a low, mumbling voice, talking about his life of crime in Chicago and Las Vegas, which Spilotro controlled for the Chicago Outfit.

He said he had a "rather good" childhood, and simply ran into the right people to become involved in burglaries.

"Locks and alarms fascinated me," he testified, telling jurors he would buy locks and take them apart to see how they worked. "I developed skills in those things."

At 26 or 27 years old, he began burglarizing different types of coin-operated machines around Chicago, he said. If he got caught, he would just pay off the police, Romano testified.

"You indirectly paid the lawyer they requested you get," he said.

Asked outside the presence of the jury which lawyers he was talking about, he named Dean Wolfson and Sam Banks.

Banks, who has not been charged with wrongdoing in relation to Romano's claims, could not be reached for comment Monday. Wolfson pleaded guilty in 1985 to bribing judges in an unrelated case.

Late in the 1970s, Romano said he was brought to Las Vegas by Peter Basile, who was later charged with the Hole-in-the-Wall gang. The group had been having trouble stealing artwork and other valuables because of alarm systems.

Romano said he knew Family Secrets defendant Paul Schiro during this time.

Spilotro once told him that if he was going to do anything with Schiro, he should do what Schiro said.

And Romano later said he was told by someone else that Schiro could be a dangerous man, though he acknowledged on cross-examination that he was never threatened.

Aborted burglary recounted

Romano said he once attempted a burglary at Schiro's request. The plan was to go into a home belonging to a friend of Schiro's during a family wedding in Phoenix, which Schiro would attend as an alibi.

Supposedly, the friend had $50,000 stashed in a home safe, Romano said.

The men entered after he had taken care of the alarm, Romano said, but a small dog then ran up "screaming, hollering and barking." Romano said he told his partners they should end the attempt, and they did.

Once safely outside and away from the home, Romano said he was asked why he hadn't just "taken care of the dog," meaning silence it for good.

"I said, 'I don't do dogs,'" he said.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Dentist: Toothache led to mobster's arrest
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:06 PM CDT, August 7, 2007
Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: A toothache led to the arrest of reputed mob boss Joey "The Clown" Lombardo in January 2006, a dentist testified today.

Patrick Spilotro, a Park Ridge dentist and a brother of two men allegedly murdered by the Chicago Outfit, testified that his tip to the FBI led to the arrest of Lombardo, one of five alleged Chicago mob figures in the landmark Family Secrets trial.

In federal court today, Spilotro testified that he provided information to the FBI for more than two decades in a bid to catch his brothers' killers.

While a fugitive in 2006, Lombardo visited Spilotro's Park Ridge office to have a painful abscess treated, the dentist said.

When Lombardo returned for a follow-up visit, Spilotro told the FBI.

"They knew the exact time," he said. Lombardo was arrested in Elmwood Park the same day.

Spilotro said he had known Lombardo for decades, and had often questioned him about why his brothers were killed.

The bodies of Anthony and Michael Spilotro were found in a cornfield in Indiana in June of 1986.

Lombardo always told him that if he had not been in prison at the time the men were slain, it would not have happened, Spilotro said. But at Lombardo's first secret dental visit, the answer changed.

"I recall his words very vividly," Spilotro testified. "He said: 'Doc, you get an order, you follow that order. If you don't follow the order, you go too.' "

The star witness in the case, mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, has testified that he followed an order to kill the Spilotros along with a team of Outfit members.

Calabrese has said that the men were killed because Anthony Spilotro, who ran the mob's Las Vegas interests, was acting too independently and bringing too much heat.

Lombardo and four other defendants are accused of taking part in a mob racketeering conspiracy that allegedly included the murders of the Spilotros and 16 others.

jcoen@tribune.com

Dentist's drill: Rinse. Spit. Talk to feds.
John Kass
August 8, 2007

Patrick Spilotro, dentist with a pinky ring and brother of two slain Outfit hoodlums, testified in federal court that he's been informing to the FBI for the last two decades.

"About that," he said, discussing the murders of brothers Michael and Anthony, "and other things."

He paused for a bit on Tuesday, an old man now, blue suit, white hair, his face a map to his brothers. He'd been fixing teeth for Outfit families for decades and kept his ears open. He considered a bit, and spoke again.

"And about other things," said the dentist. "About other things."

What could those other things be? Spilotro didn't say.

The 1986 murders of his brothers, like all the other murders being dissected in the government's Family Secrets trial, have received most of the publicity, as have any references to animals, barking dogs, and tiny mice hung from a windshield as a warning.

But it's the "other things" that send a wave through Chicago.

Not like a pebble dropped in the federal pool, but more like a washing machine falling off a truck into a puddle, splashing on political shoes.

Mayor Richard Daley is furious, since his trucking boss friend and fashionista Freddie Barbara was mentioned from the witness stand by a hit man as a bomber driving Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra to arson parties.

So Barbara is hot and the mayor wants Freddie cooled down, so look for a settlement to be announced in the big feud over Tavern on Rush, the profitable nightspot in the Viagra Triangle.

The owners of the Tavern real estate -- Barbara and Bridgeport developer Tommy DiPiazza -- allegedly used Tavern partner Marty Gutilla to try and push restaurateur Phil Stefani out of his own place.

Barbara and DiPiazza are close to mayoral brain Tim Degnan. And Daley does not need Degnan heated up any more. If Degnan gets hot, the mayor could get crisp. So a splash in federal court in Family Secrets will most likely lead to a happy ending for Stefani.

Not everything about this town is in a press release. You have to study the waters, the tributaries, the pools, and that boiling caldron that is now the 36th Ward Democratic Organization.

The 36th keeps getting mentioned in Family Secrets, not by its official title, but through the individuals who run it, the guys who pick judges in Cook County and put people in the right places, cleaning the streets, expanding the airports, and other stuff.

But the names of their 36th Ward political superiors have been mentioned in the trial, including that of ward boss Sam "Pastries" Banks.

Banks in the old country means Panebianco (white bread), although now it's quite toasty.

Banks was brought up by a federal witness, a burglar friend of Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, as a guy criminals go to, and pay to take care of the cops. Banks and his brother Ald. William Banks (D-Zoning) have also installed their own candidates for judge. "Pastries" did not return our calls Tuesday.

Another 36th Warder mentioned the other day is State Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin'). And another, zoning lawyer James Banks, the son of Sam.

DeLeo and James Banks bought the Spilotros' restaurant, Hoagies, from Michael Spilotro's widow, Ann, after the brothers were murdered in 1986.

From the witness stand this week, Ann Spilotro, who also runs The Back Room, a jazz club on Rush Street, said Jim Banks and DeLeo ripped her off in the purchase.

Jim Banks and DeLeo are also involved in the Tavern on Rush feud, with Banks on the DiPiazza/Barbara side. DeLeo is an investor in the restaurant. But a funny thing happened when I asked DeLeo who the landlords were at Tavern.

He told me he didn't know.

DeLeo probably meant he didn't know that the son of Sam was one of the landlords, even though they hail from the same political organization, and bought Ann Spilotro's place together, which actually belonged to the wife of the Clown.

I suppose I should tell you that another name came up in the trial Tuesday:

Mine.

One of the Outfit bosses on trial, James Marcello, was videotaped in prison discussing my column with his good friend, Nick Vangel, nicknamed "The Caterer" by his Outfit pals and known to many in DuPage County as the former owner of The Carlisle banquet hall in Lombard.

"I just saw the last thing in the Trib," Vangel tells Marcello, also an avid reader of mine.

FBI Agent Edward "Ted" McNamara was questioned about this reference to the newspaper, and he said they were talking about my column published Feb. 21, 2003.

It was about mobster Nicholas Calabrese entering the federal witness protection program, and some of the murders he'd testify about in the case that became Family Secrets.

That made a little splash. But now, in the hands of prosecutors and the FBI, it's a tsunami.

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jskass@tribune.com

Steve Warmbir's blog on the Sun Times web site is as compelling as his newspaper articles. Read 'em here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/mob/

tony b.

Lombardo taking stand
Reputed mob boss to testify, judge told

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 9, 2007

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo quietly watched Wednesday as the government all but wrapped up its case against him and four other defendants in the Family Secrets trial, but he won't be silent for much longer.

His attorney, Rick Halprin, ended speculation about whether jurors will hear from the reputed mobster who is known for his sense of humor.

"It's no secret that Mr. Lombardo is going to testify," Halprin told U.S. District Judge James Zagel as attorneys were handling motions at the end of the day and the jury had been allowed to leave.

The testimony would be Lombardo's first under oath in a criminal case and would come as he tries to portray himself as a mob-connected businessman -- not an Outfit leader as alleged by prosecutors.

Halprin's announcement came after the judge told jurors to return to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Monday. Prosecutors have told the judge they've finished calling witness and only expect to submit a few more documents before the defense case starts.

None of the other defense lawyers formally notified the judge Wednesday that their client would take the stand, though some have signaled they are considering it.

"Important decisions have to be made over the weekend," Marc Martin, an attorney for defendant and reputed mob boss James Marcello, said to the judge.

After the government rests, Zagel told defense lawyers that the first thing jurors will hear Monday from the defense is the opening statement from Halprin on behalf of Lombardo. The lawyer had made the rare decision to withhold his opening statement at the start of the case in late June until the defense began.

Zagel warned Halprin that his statement should cover only what he believes the evidence in his case will show, and that he is not to begin arguing evidence already presented by the government. Halprin said he is well aware of the limits.

"I'm just reminding you," Zagel said.

Halprin's statement will mark the first efforts by the defense to counteract the gripping testimony last month of Nicholas Calabrese, who testified against his brother and others in the conspiracy case against the Outfit. Before he left the stand last month, Calabrese was asked whether a weight had been lifted off his chest.

"No, it's still there, because I gotta live with it," Calabrese said of his own admitted involvement in some 14 gangland killings in the 1970s and 1980s.

His testimony remains the spine of the milestone trial that has played out all summer at the downtown courthouse. Calabrese said he watched men kill and be killed, and in some cases, he cut a throat or pulled the trigger himself.

Prosecutors started presenting evidence with overview testimony from a mob expert and continued through a long list of former mob-associated thugs, safecrackers, bookies and porn merchants. They even called Marcello's mistress to talk about getting cash from him.

Family members of many of those slain also have testified, sometimes crying as they remembered learning about deaths that still haunt them.

The government has described the Outfit as "the charged business" in a broad conspiracy that controlled Chicago's underworld and alleged that the men on trial were key parts of it.

The decades-old criminal enterprise -- subject to anti-racketeering laws -- made money through illegal gambling, loan-sharking and the collection of street tax, prosecutors have said. They allege the organization protected itself through violence and murder when necessary, and jurors have heard details about 18 killings and one attempted murder.

When it came time for the mob to collect what it thought it was owed, the threat of violence was always present, witnesses have said. Messages could be sent with a word, a slap, a puppy's head or a bomb tucked under a car seat.

Four of the men on trial, Marcello, Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro, have been described as longtime organization members. The fifth defendant, former Chicago cop Anthony Doyle, is charged in the conspiracy for allegedly passing information to Outfit higher-ups about the investigation that centered on Nicholas Calabrese.

In order to find each defendant guilty of the racketeering conspiracy, lawyers in the case have said, jurors would have to believe each was guilty of two or more of the underlying offenses in the case. Those include any of the 18 homicides, as well as extortion and fraud, running an illegal gambling business or obstruction of justice.

In his testimony, Nicholas Calabrese named Marcello as taking part in three murders, including the infamous slayings of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro. The jury has also heard evidence that Marcello met with top mob bosses and had control over a business that distributed video-poker machines to bars.

Calabrese blamed his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., for more than a dozen murders, telling jurors that Frank Calabrese had a penchant for ending the lives of enemies with a rope around their neck. Other witnesses, including Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Calabrese Jr., have said Frank Sr. made money through loan-sharking and collecting street tax.

Lombardo allegedly is tied to the murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert through a fingerprint left on the title application for a car that fled the shooting scene. Other witnesses have described Lombardo as a ranking Outfit member. And he was once convicted of skimming millions from a Las Vegas casino. .

Schiro has been described as a mobster based in Phoenix who Nicholas Calabrese said was part of a hit team that killed witness Emil Vaci in 1986.

Defense lawyers don't argue that the Outfit exists, just that those on trial ran it. They have promised to attack Nicholas Calabrese as the real mob killer in the case.

--------

jcoen@tribune.com

Will 'Clown' stick to previous story?

August 13, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
When mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo was in prison in 1989, he was asked during a court deposition what he wanted to do when he got out.
"In my opinion, what I want to do when I get out, I want to go into the woods . . . into the wilderness and get away from everybody, wherever they let me go," Lombardo told a federal prosecutor.

"I want to disappear into the woods and be with the animals if I can," Lombardo continued. "I don't think my wife will come with me."

This week, Lombardo, far from any forest, will take the stand in his own defense in the Family Secrets trial.

He's been accused of being a capo in the Chicago Outfit -- overseeing shakedowns, extortions -- and of killing a man who was to be a federal witness against him.


1989 deposition may give hint
Lombardo has faced criminal charges before but never taken the stand. So it's anyone's guess as to what the wise-cracking gangster will say.
But the best preview of his much-anticipated testimony may lie in a little-known 1989 court deposition that runs 196 pages, in which he was asked to answer many of the same questions likely to face him at trial.

The deposition is part of the public record of a New York civil case in which the feds ejected Lombardo and other mobsters from the Teamsters Union.

One of the most serious allegations against Lombardo is that he was part of a hit team that killed Bensenville businessman Daniel Seifert in 1974, just yards from Seifert's wife and 4-year-old son.

In the deposition, Lombardo denies having anything to do with Seifert's murder or knowing Seifert had been contacted by federal agents.

"I don't recall if I ever knew about it," Lombardo said. "I don't remember. I doubt if I ever recall."

When asked if he was at the scene of the Seifert murder, Lombardo responded: "Absolutely not."

Lombardo also downplays his relationship with Allen Dorfman, the man who helped arrange Teamster pension fund loans to build Las Vegas casinos.

Federal authorities have contended Lombardo controlled Dorfman, while Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, suggests Lombardo was nothing more than an errand boy for Dorfman.


Says he was never 'made'
Lombardo said he would give his opinion to Dorfman, "who I thought was a rat, who was lying to him, who's a bullsh-----."
Dorfman "just looked at me sometimes like I was nuts."

Dorfman was gunned down in a mob hit in 1983. Lombardo had this back-and-forth with the prosecutor about his death:

"Do you know who shot him?" Lombardo was asked.

"They say I did," Lombardo shot back.

"I take it you did," the prosecutor said.

"I sure did," Lombardo said. "I drove the car, and the warden shot him. Now, that's a lie. I'm just lying here. That's not the truth. I was locked up at the MCC [Metropolitan Correctional Center] at the time. When I heard it, I was the sickest man in the world. I had tears in my eyes. I couldn't believe it."

What's more, Lombardo denies ever being "made" as a mob member.

"Now, the only way I can answer that question: I never pricked my fingers and never took an oath over guns or over swords and never put burning paper in my hand," he said.

Holy carp!!!

Calabrese to take stand in mob case
Defense testimony set for this afternoon

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
12:36 PM CDT, August 13, 2007

His brother and son have testified against him. Now Frank Calabrese Sr. will take his turn on the witness stand at the Family Secrets trial.

Calabrese's lawyer, Joseph Lopez, informed U.S. District Judge James Zagel that his client will testify in his own defense. That testimony is expected this afternoon.

Calabrese is one of five men on trial in a sweeping Outfit conspiracy that allegedly goes back decades.



The government on Monday rested its case, and the defense was expected to begin shortly with an opening statement by defendant Joey "The Clown" Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin.

Lawyers on Monday morning hashed out a schedule for the defense.

Lombardo himself is expected to testify Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, witnesses for defendant James Marcello will be called. Marcello will not testify, his lawyers said Monday.

Defendant Paul Schiro expects to call no witnesses, his attorney said.

Ralph Meczyk, the lawyer for Anthony Doyle, said he will call witnesses Thursday. His client also could take the stand, Meczyk said.

CHICAGO: Chicago's biggest mafia trial in years saw federal prosecutors rest their case and the defense begin arguing Monday, with lawyers for alleged mafia boss Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo calling him a common street hustler who did not murder a federal witness.

Lombardo and four other reputed members of the Chicago underworld are charged with operating the city's organized crime family — known as the Chicago Outfit — as a racketeering enterprise that included gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved murders.

Lombardo plans to take the witness stand in his own defense sometime this week, attorneys said.

"If you're going to sum up Joey Lombardo's early life, the word that comes to mind is not gangster, is not mobster — it's hustler," defense attorney Rick Halprin told jurors.

Lombardo's defense is based on the claim that, after serving years in prison for attempting to bribe a U.S. senator and involvement in Las Vegas casino skimming, he swore he would never take part in any further crimes.

Today in Americas
Karl Rove, key aide to Bush, to step downUrban paradise in Venezuela can't escape country's woesWhen vacationers decide to stay year-round at U.S. resorts"The light came on," Halprin said.

Among those murdered was Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, for years the mob's man in Las Vegas and the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino." He and his brother Michael were beaten and strangled in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

Besides the 78-year-old Lombardo, those on trial are James Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese, 69, Paul Schiro, 70, and Anthony Doyle, 62.

Defense attorneys for Calabrese and Doyle did not rule out the possibility that their clients also could testify.

Zagel said he would allow Lombardo to talk about his withdrawal from a life of crime despite grumbling from prosecutors that it amounted to letting him vouch for his own good behavior.

On cross examination, prosecutors are guaranteed to ask him why he went on the run for months after the indictment was unsealed. He was arrested after FBI agents cornered him in an alley in a Chicago suburb.

Lombardo's defense: He's a hustler, not a gangster
Lawyer says 'The Clown' ran a craps game but wasn't in the mob

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:28 PM CDT, August 13, 2007

Describing his client as "a hustler and not a gangster," lawyer Rick Halprin told jurors Monday that Joey "The Clown" Lombardo's ambition simply got him tangled up years ago with the wrong people.

Halprin made a 30-minute opening statement in the Family Secrets trial, a statement he had chosen to delay until the start of the defense case. The other lawyers gave their openings in late June at the start of the landmark trial in Chicago's Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Lombardo was an associate of men with connections to the Chicago underworld and organized crime, Halprin said. He met ranking mobsters through those relationships and ended up in prison in the 1980s, Halprin said.

Lombardo was convicted in an attempt to bribe U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon of Nevada, Halprin said, and was later convicted of skimming millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino.

But Lombardo played a minor role, Halprin said, and didn't see a dime of any casino cash. He was caught up in the case because he spent time at labor racketeer Allen Dorfman's office, which the FBI wiretapped.

"Joey Lombardo is not, was not and never has been a capo or a made member of the Chicago Outfit," Halprin said.

Prosecutors have alleged Lombardo was a boss of the Outfit's Grand Avenue street crew, an allegation denied by Halprin. Lombardo had only one connection to that area's seedy underbelly, the lawyer said.

"He did, in fact, run the oldest, most reliable craps game on Grand Avenue," Halprin said.

Lombardo will take the stand this week and explain himself to the jury, Halprin promised jurors.

It was in prison where Lombardo had an awakening of sorts, Halprin said, and sought to remove himself from his troubled history. "He knew for the rest of his life, in the public perception, [it would be]: reputed mobster, reputed gang boss," Halprin said. "He decides to withdraw from his past life."

Lombardo took out a newspaper ad in the early 1990s claiming that he was not a made member of the mob and asking anyone who saw him committing a crime to call his probation officer or the FBI.

He has held to a lawful lifestyle ever since, Halprin said. Jurors would not see a witness come into the courtroom during the government's rebuttal case and identify Lombardo as anything "other than older, smarter, wiser and a decent citizen," Halprin promised.

Lombardo has lived a normal life and worked in an upholstery factory, he said.

As for the killing of federal witness Daniel Seifert, which Lombardo is accused of taking part in December 1974, Halprin said his client was 20 miles away in a restaurant at the time of the killing.

Halprin, speaking in his usual loud, deep voice, waved his hands as he explained his case and promised Lombardo has a lot in common with anyone else. He has a son and a daughter and grandchildren, Halprin said.

"He also bleeds when he gets cut," the lawyer said.

Earlier Monday, attorney Joseph Lopez, who represents defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., informed U.S. District Judge James Zagel that his client also will testify in his own defense. That testimony is expected this afternoon.

Calabrese's brother and son have testified against him in the trial's highlight.

Calabrese and Lombardo are among five men on trial in a sweeping Outfit conspiracy case that centers on 18 long-unsolved mob murders.

The government rested its case today, and lawyers this morning hashed out a schedule for the defense.

Lombardo himself is expected to testify Wednesday.

However, reputed mob boss James Marcello won't testify, his lawyers said Monday.

Defendant Paul Schiro expects to call no witnesses, his attorney said.

Ralph Meczyk, the lawyer for former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle, said his client also could take the stand.

jcoen@tribune.com

Mob version of "I'm a lover, not a fighter"??

Joey 'the Clown' takes center stage
Reputed mob leader Lombardo is the center of attention as he begins testifying in his own defense in a packed courtroom

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 15, 2007

After stopping momentarily to flirt with the blond court reporter and swearing to tell the truth with a raspy "I do," Joey "the Clown" Lombardo lowered himself onto the witness stand with the help of a cane.

The 78-year-old with a Caesar haircut leaned toward the microphone Tuesday afternoon and took off his rounded eyeglasses, settling in to answer his lawyer's questions at the landmark Family Secrets trial.

With the revelation last week that one of the city's quirkiest reputed mob figures would take the stand in his own defense, his testimony became one of the most anticipated moments in a trial that already has earned a place in Chicago mob lore.

A long line of spectators waited for a seat in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse's largest courtroom, filled to capacity with federal judges, FBI supervisors, veteran federal prosecutors, a flock of reporters and dozens of the simply curious.

Defense attorney Rick Halprin wasted no time in getting to the heart of the charges, asking Lombardo whether he took part in killing federal witness Daniel Seifert in 1974 and whether he was a "capo" in the Chicago Outfit.

"Positively no," Lombardo responded to both questions.

Lombardo is a reputed organized-crime figure with a flair for humor and theatrics, known for once leaving a court date with a mask made of newspaper to hide his face from cameramen. Another time he took out advertisements disavowing any mob ties.

When the Family Secrets indictment came down two years ago, he vanished, writing the judge letters asking for his own trial before he was apprehended in the suburbs sporting a beard that resembled the one Saddam Hussein grew while hiding in his spider hole.

Brought to court for the first time in the case, Lombardo announced he simply had been "unavailable."

On Tuesday, he was at center stage again, telling jurors how he worked the streets as a youngster, shining shoes of police officers in his Grand Avenue neighborhood. They paid him only a nickel a shoe, he said.

"Very cheap people," said Lombardo, sending a wave of laughter through the courtroom.

"Let's not press our luck," shot back Halprin, trying to keep his client focused.

"You told me to tell the truth," countered Lombardo, drawing more laughter.

The guffaws, some from other defense lawyers in the case, brought a stern warning from U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who said he didn't see anything funny about a sweeping conspiracy case that includes the murders of 18 individuals.

Lombardo, one of five men on trial, took the stand as the best way to flesh out his defense that he was essentially an errand boy for powerful mob-connected businessmen such as Irwin Weiner and labor racketeer Allen Dorfman, who ran an insurance agency that did business with the Teamsters. He contended he has always held legitimate jobs and got caught up in criminal conduct through friends.

The jury knows about Lombardo's celebrated convictions from the 1980s for attempting to bribe U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon (D-Nev.) and for skimming millions of dollars from the Stardust casino in Las Vegas.

Lombardo set about to describe his work history, starting with shoe shining and detouring briefly to his dice game. Lombardo acknowledged he ran one, blessed by city aldermen, from 1976 until the bribery indictment.

"I didn't have time to play dice because I was on trial," he said matter of factly.

Lombardo, dressed in a conservative gray jacket and silver tie, sometimes rubbed his hands in front of him as he testified and sometimes played with his glasses. He often gave brief answers in a sing-song tone and looked toward the jury as he talked.

Lombardo said he worked a dumbwaiter at a hotel, drove trucks, built two six-flats in a small construction business and worked at a salvage warehouse.

Through his relationships with Weiner and Dorfman, Lombardo said, he met Outfit figures such as Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio and Anthony Spilotro.

Lombardo testified that Weiner also led him to International Fiberglass, where he worked with Seifert. Prosecutors contend Lombardo had Seifert killed before he could testify against Lombardo in a pension fraud case.

The business was failing when he got there, Lombardo said, telling jurors he agreed to round up out-of-work "kids" in the Grand Avenue area to help make sinks and other company products. He helped Seifert pay bills and manage the business, Lombardo said.

A host of nicknames used for Lombardo have surfaced during the trial, including "Lumpy," "Lumbo" and "Pagliacci," the Italian word for clowns. On Tuesday, Lombardo acknowledged he used another name for himself in some of his business dealings in the 1970s: Joseph Cuneo.

"Because my name, Lombardo, was always in the paper for different things," he said.

Halprin tried to take on evidence that prosecutors say points to Lombardo's involvement in Seifert's killing. But Lombardo appeared confused on one critical issue and Halprin moved to another topic.

Lombardo's fingerprint was found on the title application for a car used by the gunmen to flee from the scene of Seifert's shooting at his Bensenville business. In addition, Lombardo was identified as having often bought police scanners like the one found in the getaway vehicle.

Lombardo acknowledged buying police scanners from a local store but said he was running errands for Weiner and his bail-bonding business.

But Lombardo said he was puzzled about the fingerprint. Halprin asked how it could have been left on the title document.

"What are my prints on? On what?" he asked. "Is that document in Irv Weiner's office?"

Halprin promised to come back to the subject.

Lombardo also denied that he had attempted to bribe Sen. Cannon. He said he was recorded in Dorfman's office discussing his idea to have the senator buy a Las Vegas property that was being purchased by someone else with a large loan from a Teamsters pension fund. He got nothing out of the deal, Lombardo said, except "15 years and 5 years probation."

Earlier Tuesday, Lombardo's lawyers called a series of witnesses who testified that they saw Lombardo at work at legitimate jobs, including International Fiberglass.

Among those testifying was Johnny Lira, 56, a Golden Gloves boxing champion and a one-time lightweight title contender.

Lira said he renewed a relationship with the reputed mobster when Lombardo left prison in the early 1990s. Lombardo worked every day at a business that dealt with concrete-cutting machines, he said.

He described Lombardo as "a grease monkey" who worked on equipment in the business' warehouse on Racine Avenue until his arrest in early 2006. Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk asked whether Lira knew Lombardo was a fugitive in his final months on the job. "He didn't act like a fugitive," Lira said. "He came there every day."

In his testimony, Lombardo tried to portray himself as a normal working guy who liked sports. He can "ice skate, roller skate, Rollerblade and bowl," Lombardo testified.

Prosecutors are likely to go hard after that image during their expected cross-examination on Wednesday, and there will be no chance for "the Clown" to disappear.

----------



jcoen@tribune.com

Joey 'the Clown' denies killing federal witness
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
12:52 PM CDT, August 15, 2007

Reputed mob figure Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, continuing to testify in his own defense at the landmark Family Secrets trial today, said he was having breakfast and waiting for a shop that sold garage-door remotes to open when federal witness Daniel Seifert was killed in 1974.

"I figured I'd kill some time," said Lombardo in response to questions from his attorney, Rick Halprin, at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

Prosecutors contend Lombardo, an alleged "capo" in the Chicago Outfit, had Seifert killed before he could testify against Lombardo in a pension-fraud case.

Lombardo said when he returned to his car after breakfast that morning, he found that his wallet had been taken from the glove compartment, so he went back to the restaurant where two uniformed police officers were having breakfast.

He said he then followed them to a police station and made a report.

Lombardo's testimony, which began Tuesday, is one of the most anticipated moments in a trial that already has earned a place in Chicago mob lore.

Known for his flair for humor and theatrics, Lombardo once left a court date with a mask made of newspaper to hide his face from cameramen. Another time he took out advertisements disavowing mob ties.

This morning, Lombardo also answered questions about his conviction in the 1980s for skimming millions of dollars from the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. He said he was just involved in setting up meetings between some of the players in the case.

Halprin asked if Lombardo made any money himself.

"Well, I have to tell the truth, I'm under oath," he said. "Not a red penny."

Halprin also asked Lombardo how he came to be included in a photograph known as "The Last Supper," with mobsters Joseph Aiuppa and Tony Accardo.

Lombardo peered through his glasses at a screen on the witness stand and identified himself standing in the back of the picture in a suit.

He said he was dressed for a wake, was invited to the restaurant afterward, and happened upon the group eating.

Halprin asked him to identify men in the photo one by one.

"The fat guy there?" Lombardo said at one point. "That's Turk Torello."

Lombardo said he had met some of the men through Jackie Cerone, an old friend he caddied for. He said he wished the group well and left.

Halprin asked if he ever made any money illegally with Accardo, a legendary reputed Chicago mob boss.

"Positively no," Lombardo said, seemingly stifling a laugh. "Not a red penny."

jcoen@tribune.com

'Clown' says mob talk all in jest
Lombardo claims he was only acting 'like James Cagney'



A photo titled "The Last Supper" was entered into evidence during the Family Secrets trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. Defendant Joey "the Clown" Lombardo is standing in back on the right. Lombardo testified Wednesday about how he came to be included in the photo with mobsters Joseph Aiuppa and Tony Accardo.


By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
11:12 PM CDT, August 15, 2007

The prosecutor leaned over the lectern and stared at Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who in turn leaned on the witness stand and stared back.

For most of three hours, the two sparred, talking over one another Wednesday at the Family Secrets trial. Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars repeatedly demanded to know if Lombardo was a leader of the Chicago Outfit who had threatened and extorted his enemies and had at least one killed.

"I never took an oath to any secret society in the world," Lombardo, 78, proclaimed in a gravelly voice.

The reputed mob boss weathered a relentless cross-examination, pleading ignorance, blaming coincidence and accusing witnesses of lying against him.

Many jurors who had taken notes throughout the landmark trial put their pens down to watch the confrontation.

In the most heated moments, Mars tried to pin Lombardo down with his own words, playing a 1979 undercover recording in which Lombardo threatened an attorney whom he believed owed money to corrupt insurance executive Allen Dorfman and the mob. "I assure you that you will never reach 73," Lombardo had warned the 72-year-old attorney on the tape.

But Lombardo insisted Wednesday that he was just acting the part of a mob enforcer to help out Dorfman. Mars asked if the role of a gangster was a good one for Lombardo.

"Like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson," answered Lombardo, naming two actors famous for playing tough guys in films.

"And Joey Lombardo," Mars responded in a mocking tone. "Boss of the Grand Avenue crew."

"That's not true," Lombardo shot back.

Mars said he wanted to know whether Lombardo meant the threat he delivered.

Lombardo said he often threatened to strangle his wife, too, but never did. Telling the attorney he wouldn't live to 73 was just part of the script, he said.

"He didn't pay, and he still lived to see 73, 74, 75," said Lombardo, one of five men on trial for a conspiracy that at its heart involves 18 long-unsolved gangland slayings.

In another undercover recording, Lombardo could be heard talking to reputed organized-crime figure Louis Eboli about a massage parlor that had opened too close to one being protected by a mob boss.

Lombardo could be heard on the tape asking Eboli whether "we" have anything to do with the business and then saying the business should move or "we'll flatten the joint."

Lombardo insisted that "we" referred to Eboli, that he never meant to include himself in the issue and that Mars wasn't reading the transcript of the conversation correctly.

"You say words that have no meaning at the time," said Lombardo, telling the jury he mixed up his words "just like the president did."

But the president doesn't have a mob crew that collects street tax, countered Mars.

"He's got a bigger crew," Lombardo answered. "You know where I'm at?"

Dressed in the same gray jacket and silver tie he wore Tuesday, Lombardo sometimes shifted in his seat or fiddled with his cane during his testimony, looking every bit like a tired old man. At other times he leaned his head back or answered questions with a grin on his face. Lombardo, a colorful reputed organized-crime figure with a penchant for wisecracks, is defending himself against the conspiracy by saying he was actually a working man who held legitimate jobs. His only connection to mobsters came from friendships with powerful men like Dorfman, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, near the end of questioning by his own lawyer, Lombardo tried to explain how he was pictured in what is known as "The Last Supper" photo, the government's Exhibit No. 1. Lombardo can be seen standing behind a table at a restaurant with mob heavyweights Joseph "Doves" Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone and Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo.

Lombardo said he showed up at the restaurant by happenstance. He had dressed up to attend a wake, was invited afterward to the restaurant and bumped into the group, he testified. Lombardo said he had caddied for Cerone in his youth and met some of the others through him. He said he wished the group well and left.

Mars asked Lombardo whether he knew if any of the men in the photo were mob bosses.

"They never told me that," answered Lombardo, saying he knew them to be businessmen or "union guys."

"I was there by chance," he said. "I went there to get a sandwich."

But Mars, reminding Lombardo that in earlier testimony he had called Aiuppa the "boss" of Cicero, asked whether the jury had heard him right.

"Ask them," Lombardo said of the jury sitting a few feet to his right.

Mars also pressed Lombardo on the lone mob murder in which he has been implicated. Daniel Seifert was gunned down outside his Bensenville business in 1974 weeks before he was to testify against Lombardo for laundering money from a bad union loan. The charges were dropped against Lombardo after Seifert's murder.

"I had no idea Mr. Seifert was gonna testify against us until he got killed," Lombardo said.

"You knew Daniel Seifert had to go," said Mars, accusing Lombardo of taking a hit crew to carry out the murder. .

"I didn't have a crew," Lombardo said flatly.

Under questioning by his own attorney, Lombardo said he was reporting a stolen wallet at a police station when the killing took place. Mars questioned why Lombardo hadn't told the FBI that when he was questioned on the day of the murder.

"I don't speak to the FBI when I have a problem," he answered.

Among the witnesses Lombardo accused of lying against him was Alva Johnson Rogers, who testified early in the trial that he worked for Lombardo in the Outfit and overheard him boasting after the murder that Seifert wouldn't be testifying against anyone.

"Positively a liar," Lombardo said. "I can tell a liar when I hear it."

Before he completed his testimony, Lombardo was questioned about his decision to go on the lam after he was indicted in the Family Secrets case in 2005. Lombardo was a fugitive for nearly nine months before the FBI captured him in a Chicago suburb.

Lombardo said he had been hitting balls at a golf range near Oak Brook when he learned he had been indicted. He said he hid out in the basement of an Oak Park residence."There was a kitchen down there, a shower, a bed and a TV," he said.

Lombardo acknowledged that during that time he wrote letters to the court, asking for a new trial. He took that action, he said, because he didn't know any of the men with whom he had been charged.

Lombardo told the prosecutor he felt alone and wanted to be tried alone.

"Mr. Mars, I had 300 million people against me," he said. "I was all by myself."

Lombardo was eventually turned in by his dentist, Patrick Spilotro, after Lombardo had an abscessed tooth fixed. Spilotro is the brother of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, two mob figures whose murders are the most notorious of the case.

Patrick Spilotro wasn't truthful when he testified that Lombardo told him that his brothers were killed because people followed orders, Lombardo testified. He also said he wasn't surprised that the dentist had told authorities of his whereabouts.

"I knew he was a beefer," Lombardo said. "I knew he was gonna beef on me."

As Mars peppered Lombardo with questions about his decision to flee, he showed the reputed mob capo a photo of himself just after his arrest. In the image flashed on a courtroom screen, Lombardo has wild eyes, long waves of hair and a full beard. Lombardo acknowledged that there was "a little difference" between his appearance in the photo and now.

Mars asked Lombardo if he thought that was pretty funny.

"A little joke every once in a while isn't gonna hurt," he replied.

jcoen@tribune.com

Great read,thanks for posting it.

That "Last Supper" photo is something else.

This is like reciting the songs in order from a favorite record album...

It's Sicily Restaurant at Harlem and Diversey from the mid-1970's (yes...my neighborhood...and I took a girl friend to that restaurant on a date around the same time). Standing in the back are Jack Cerone(l) and Joey "Just Stopped to Say Hello" Lombardo(r). Seated in the back row are (l to r) Joey Aiuppa, Dominick DiBella, Vince Solano, and Al Pilotto. Seated in the front are Tony Accardo, Joe Amato, Joe DiVarco, and Jimmy Torello.

This photo was found in the home of one of the group...can't remember who. Mr. DiBella had cancer and this was his "retirement" party. He died a few months later, hence the "Last Supper" caption often attached to this photograph. It's unknown exactly who took the photograph -- restaurant staff or another un-named "guest" at the party.

Lombardo asserts that he knew them as union guys...which was true...Solano and Pilotto were at the top of the chart in two of the Chicago Locals of the Laborers Union.

...don't make me link to a web site regarding organized crime and the Laborers Union in Chicago...

tony b.

Reputed mobster shows his soft side
Calabrese denies roles in mob deaths


Courtroom sketch for the Tribune by Cheryl A. Cook, August 16, 2007
Family Secrets defendant Frank Calabrese Sr. testifies at his federal trial in Chicago.


By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
11:17 PM CDT, August 16, 2007

Frank Calabrese Sr., a reputed mob enforcer alleged to have fatally strangled, slashed, shot, beaten or bombed 13 victims, seemed more like a polite, chubby grandpa than a hit man in court Thursday.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the jury," Calabrese volunteered as he gave a slight nod in the jurors' direction before taking a seat on the witness stand and aiming his good ear toward his lawyer.

During a couple of hours of testimony, the balding 70-year-old with a short white beard described a gentler Outfit than others have at the Family Secrets trial, though Calabrese emphatically denied being a made member himself. He said he detested bullies like the ones who picked on him in school and he repeatedly gave the same simple reply to questions about whether he took part in specific murders: "No way," he said.

Calabrese acknowledged he put out street loans and that he paid a mob boss some of the proceeds, but he denied dishing out beatings to customers who didn't pay up in a timely fashion.

"I would sit and talk to them and ask, 'What's the least you can pay or what's the most you can pay?' " Calabrese said in a voice higher than expected for a supposed tough guy. "Sit-downs" with bosses would resolve any disputes over territory, he said, but profanity was frowned on at these meetings. "Oh no," Calabrese said. "It was all done diplomatically."

Calabrese's appearance on the witness stand marked that rare event: a reputed mob boss testifying in court in his own defense. Incredibly, he was the second one this week at the landmark trial, following Joey "the Clown" Lombardo by a day.

Five men, all but one reputed to be Outfit figures, are on trial in connection with 18 long-unsolved gangland slayings. Federal authorities code-named the investigation Operation Family Secrets after obtaining cooperation from Calabrese's brother and son.

During the prosecution case, Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, detailed how Frank Calabrese allegedly strangled many of his alleged 13 victims with a rope and then slashed their throats. Many of the bodies were stuffed into car trunks. In addition, Frank Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., testified about prison conversations he secretly recorded with his father.

Prosecutors have called Frank Calabrese Sr. a leader of the mob's 26th Street, or Chinatown, crew. During his testimony, Calabrese often looked toward the jury, the people who ultimately must decide if the Calabrese on the witness stand was believable or simply trying to put on a convincing show in a last-ditch attempt to save himself from dying in prison.

Calabrese told jurors his personal story, how he grew up on the West Side and sold newspapers on Grand Avenue and ate oatmeal for dinner when times were hard. But prosecutors seemed determined to block as many of those sympathetic tales as possible, repeatedly objecting as Calabrese testified.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel warned Calabrese's lawyer, Joseph Lopez, to keep his client from going into too much detail.

"How are these people supposed to know what I'm doing?" protested Calabrese, looking toward the jury again.

Lopez, who has taken to wearing pink on trial days that are important to Calabrese's case, chose a pink shirt and a highlighter-yellow tie Thursday. He tried to calm Calabrese and walk him through his testimony.

But Calabrese quickly veered off target when he started discussing a favorite nightclub and its fashion shows. Lopez said Calabrese loves to talk and blamed his Italian ethnicity, but Zagel told the lawyer he was running low on the number of open questions he would be allowed to ask.

"Can I have some extra ones, maybe?" Lopez asked.

"We'll see how it goes," the judge responded.

When he finally got into the meat of his testimony, Calabrese, who pleaded guilty in the 1990s in a mob loan-sharking case, acknowledged he put loans on the street beginning in the 1960s.

Eventually he learned from mobster Angelo "the Bull" LaPietra that he had missed one detail—paying LaPietra his cut of the action.

Calabrese described LaPietra as his partner, but he insisted he never joined him in the Outfit.

He went on to describe his meetings and dealings with organized-crime figures such as Johnny "Apes" Monteleone, Jimmy LaPietra, James "Turk" Torello, William "Butch" Petrocelli and John Fecarotta.

Calabrese said his interests shifted to the Chinatown area after the death of Frank "Skids" Caruso resulted in Angelo LaPietra assuming control over that turf. Still, he denied being in the mob himself.

"Joe, Mr. Lopez, I'm sorry," he began. "When they said Outfit, they're talking about guys like Angelo and Jimmy and Johnny 'Apes' and John Fecarotta. Them are Outfit guys," said Calabrese, calling the Outfit a group that hung out and did business together.

Calabrese, who was implicated by his brother in the 1970 murder of Michael "Hambone" Albergo, called Albergo a freelance agent who brought him loan business.

Calabrese testified he knew Albergo had been subpoenaed to testify before a crime commission, but he denied killing him.

"What did I do that he could testify [about]?" Calabrese said. "There was no way that them loans meant that much."

Calabrese denied ever getting involved in sports bookmaking, telling jurors that he didn't even know how to run a betting ring. Calabrese then launched into denials of murdering Paul Haggerty or burglar John Mendell. He said he hadn't even heard of another murder victim, Henry Cosentino.

He denied killing Donald Renno, Vincent Moretti or Petrocelli, a mob figure whom Nick Calabrese said was ordered eliminated for being too flamboyant.

He said he didn't kill federal informant William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, either. Neither did he plan the murder of Fecarotta, his friend, the murder that broke the case when Nick Calabrese's DNA was found on a glove that had been recovered at the murder scene.

Calabrese said he also did not kill businessman Michael Cagnoni with bomb, as his brother testified. He also denied his brother's account of how a blasting cap exploded in his hand during a trial run for the bombing. And with that, he held his hands over his head and wiggled his fingers for the jury to see he had no missing digits.

Calabrese also denied extorting James Stolfe, the founder of the Connie's Pizza chain, who told jurors he paid street tax to Calabrese for years. Calabrese said Stolfe was a friend that he "loved."

Lopez asked what he felt like when he learned that the Outfit was demanding a payment from Stolfe. "A piece of [expletive]," Calabrese answered.

When the trial resumes Monday, Calabrese will continue testifying and will eventually undergo grilling by prosecutors who will likely try to use his own words against him, as they did with Lombardo. On the secret tapes recorded by son Frank Jr. during prison visits, Calabrese Sr. talked about mob business, murders and a secret "making" ceremony. Calabrese may also have harsher words for his turncoat brother who broke the Family Secrets case.

He told jurors Thursday that it was Nick Calabrese who took the darker path into Outfit life.

"I even told him he wasn't a man to do that," Calabrese Sr. said.

jcoen@tribune.com

The real-life mobsters who need Dr Melfi’s help

The only thing missing from the full-dress Mob trial now under way in Chicago is the shrink. Real-life boss Frank Calabrese Senior, 70, may wish he had taken a leaf from Tony Soprano's television story and hired his own version of Dr Jennifer Melfi (right) - because it is child abuse and personal betrayals that are behind his downfall.

Calabrese, boss of the Chicago Outfit bequeathed by Al Capone, is on trial with four of his capos on multiple charges of racketeering and murder. They are white-haired, stony-faced old men. One comes to court in a wheelchair.

Now facing them from the witness box is the prosecution's star informer - Frank Calabrese Junior, the boss's son and the latest mobster to abandon the sacred oath of omerta.

Junior, 47, has been dishing details of life in the Outfit, confirming once and for all that the only difference
between Mob fiction and reality is the presence of cameras in the first, and actual blood in the second.

'Under-bosses', Junior has explained to the court, are equivalent to 'vice presidents of companies'; 'work cars' are untraceable cars used for crimes; 'juice loans' are high-interest street loans known to fans of The Sopranos as 'Shys' after Shylock.

Junior has also described how Uzi machineguns, shotguns and rifles were hidden behind walls in his grandmother's house. He has confided Mob rules: "Your Outfit family came before your blood family; it also came before God."

And: "You weren't supposed to steal without permission." Of course, those of us who've learnt our mob lore from The Sopranos already knew that: Brendan, speed-crazed friend of 'Christuffa' Moltisanti, got whacked for exactly that, when he
hijacked a load of Italian suits.

The novelty in the Calabrese trial comes in the relationship between father and son.

In the real-life Gambino family of New York, John Gotti Junior took over from jailed 'Dapper Don' Gotti, and was later heard on a surveillance tape complaining: "If it wasn't for my father, I would have walked away many, many years ago." He never found the courage.

In the New Jersey mob family the Boiardos, on whose story The Sopranos was modeled, the grandson did manage to go legit: The First Post told recently how Dr Richard A Boiardo went to college and became an orthopaedic surgeon.

Tony Soprano gave up on his feckless son AJ as inadequate for the job, but fretted over his family legacy of 'putrid genes'.

Calabrese father and son were in jail together in 2000 for Shylocking
when, according to Junior, they agreed that they would 'step back' from the business when they got out - 'step back' because the rule is that you cannot actually retire once that oath is taken.

Senior (pictured left in 1983) reneged, however, and Junior ratted to the Feds. But why? Junior had already served his time and so didn't need a deal to avoid a draconian sentence, the usual incentive.

The answer is hatred and revenge. The FBI believes Junior is a victim of child abuse who couldn't take it anymore, and that Senior handled his family the same way as his business: brutally. He repeatedly hit Junior for the slightest offence, and would later pull a gun on him and threaten to kill him.

A few good therapy sessions on supportive parenting and empathy might have made all the difference. But it is too late now.


http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=7716

Judge threatens defendant with contempt at mob trial
August 20, 2007 - A federal judge warned Monday that he would hold alleged Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese in contempt of court if he continued to try to testify about evidence already ruled inadmissible at his racketeering conspiracy trial.

The warning followed a flare-up of emotion on the part of Calabrese, a convicted loan shark who is one of five alleged members of the Chicago mob on trial in the Operation Family Secrets case.
"I will not allow you to introduce evidence that is inadmissible," U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told Calabrese in his second day on the witness stand. Zagel told Calabrese to stop trying to introduce evidence that "you personally think should be introduced" even though it already had been ruled out.

"You will not question my rulings in the presence of the jury," Zagel said. He said he would hold Calabrese in contempt it if happened again.

Earlier, Calabrese had blurted out a claim concerning an alleged robbery in which he had been the victim. When prosecutors objected -- evidence concerning the robbery had been ruled inadmissible -- Calabrese became upset.

"Your Honor, how am I going to defend myself?" Calabrese asked Zagel.

At that, Zagel sent the jury out of the courtroom, admonished Calabrese and warned Calabrese's defense attorney, Joseph Lopez, against "your client's intention to get into evidence material that I'm quite sure you told him he could not get into evidence."

Calabrese, 70, is accused by federal prosecutors and witnesses of doubling as a mob hit man when not operating a loan sharking business. His brother, Nicholas, testified earlier that Frank Calabrese on a number of occasions strangled victims with ropes then cut their throats to make sure they were dead.

Also on trial are Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78, James Marcello, 65, Paul Schiro, 70, and Anthony Doyle, 62. They are accused of taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that involved extortion, gambling, loan sharking and 18 long unsolved murders.

On Thursday, Frank Calabrese testified that he knew many people involved in organized crime, hung out with them and did business with them but did not belong to the mob.

He denied ever committing any of the murders alleged in the indictment produced by an FBI investigation known as Operation Family Secrets.

I missed this last week...

Juror dismissed from Family Secrets trial
By Chuck Goudie

August 15, 2007 (CHICAGO) - In a surprising development in Chicago's Family Secrets mob trial, late Wednesday afternoon, one of the jurors was dismissed by the judge. This comes on the second day of testimony from reputed mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo.

Lombardo is one of five defendants being tried for racketeering charges that are linked to 18 murders.
The juror was there Wednesday morning hearing Joey Lombardo's testimony, but her chair was empty after lunch. There was no explanation, or even acknowledgement, from the judge and many people in court didn't even notice that there was one less juror. But late Wednesday afternoon, the I-Team confirmed that the woman was allowed to remove herself from the jury because of some personal situation that came up.

Lawyers representing the five accused outfit members were told very little about the jurors mysterious departure, and they declined to speak after court ended for the day.

After sitting in the jury box for about eight weeks, the middle-aged woman apparently notified Judge James Zagel Wednesday that she could no longer hear evidence in the case.

Although the juror was dismissed from the Operation Family Secrets trial, the first thing said on the record was this statement provided to the I-Team by Judge Zagel:

"The juror asked to be excused for personal reasons which, on a prior occasion, she had mentioned might impose too great a burden on her," the judge said. "Today she indicated that this eventuality had occurred and, in response to her request i excused her. In order to preserve the privacy of the juror I give no further details of her personal reasons."

Even that development could not overshadow Wednesday's performance by Joey Lombardo. During a spirited three hours of cross-examination, the 78-year old mobster known as "the Clown," proved that he could be a serious actor as well. In answer to rapid-fire questioning by assistant US Attorney Mitchell Mars, Lombardo reduced the government's case to a concoction of lies by informants, one-time friends and federal agents and to a series of coincidences, mistakes and misspeaking. Lombardo claims that he merely ran a dice game and made a few good investments financed by his friend, Alan Dorfman, who was later gunned down in a suburban parking lot.

As for Lombardo's appearance in a famous photo, known as "the mob's last supper," Lombardo told the jury that he happened to have dropped by the restaurant for a sandwich and ran into nine men who happened to be Chicago's leading outfit bosses.

Lombardo did admit to trying to shake down a St. Louis attorney in 1979, and that he threatened to murder him, a conversation captured on an FBI undercover tape:

"If they make a decision and they tell me to come back and bring you a message to pay, you can fight the system if you wanna, but I'll tell you one thing. You say you're 72, and you defy it...I assure you that you will never reach 73."

Lombardo told the jury that he didn't really mean the lawyer would died before his next birthday, that he was just play acting, following a script like Jimmy Cagney, who was known for playing mobsters in the movies.

Lombardo also said he had an alibi. In Wednesday night's I-Team report at 10 p.m., we'll take you inside the Lombardo file, unmasking the clown.

A mobster's 'Judas kiss'
FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL | Calabrese rips brother, son who testified against him

August 21, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
It was Christmas Eve 1996, and reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. was seeing his brother Nicholas out the door after breaking out the Napoleon brandy, when his brother made an unusual request.

"He walks to the door and says, 'Can I kiss you on the lips?' " Calabrese Sr. recounted to jurors in the Family Secrets trial Monday.

"He kissed me on the lips," Calabrese Sr. said.


In testimony like something out of “The Godfather,” (left) Frank Calabrese Sr. (right) on Monday compared his brother to Fredo, the bungling brother from the Mafia classic.

Only later, Calabrese Sr. testified, would he realize "the kiss he gave for Christmas was a Judas kiss."
That night would be the last one when Calabrese Sr. would hear his brother talk at length -- until Nicholas Calabrese, now a confessed Outfit killer, took the stand in the Family Secrets trial to bury his brother and tell jurors how they murdered people together for the mob.

Calabrese Sr., on trial for allegedly killing 13 people for the Chicago mob, struck back against his family on Monday after first hearing his brother, Nicholas, and then his son, Frank Jr., testify against him.

Frank Calabrese Jr. told jurors how he secretly recorded his father while they were both in prison. Then jurors heard those recordings of Frank Calabrese Sr. apparently describing in detail various mob murders.

On Monday, in his first full day of testimony, Frank Calabrese Sr. tried to counter his family's testimony and explain his own recorded words.

Calabrese Sr., accused of being a mob crew leader, said his brother Nicholas was really in charge and compared him to the weak brother, Fredo, in the 1972 mob movie "The Godfather."

Except Calabrese Sr., in one example of many verbal slips throughout the trial, used the name "Alfredo."

"My brother was like Alfredo in 'The Godfather,' " Calabrese Sr. testified. "If he wasn't running things and screwing things up, he wasn't happy."

Weak though Nicholas Calabrese may be, he still turned Calabrese Sr.'s two eldest sons, Frank Jr. and Kurt, against him, Calabrese Sr. testified.

Calabrese Sr. accused his oldest son, Frank Jr., of repeatedly leading him into conversations while they were both in prison to make him sound like a murderous gangster.

"He can make Jesus look like the devil on the cross," Calabrese Sr. said.

On one secret recording, Calabrese Sr. describes how top mobsters inducted him into the Chicago Outfit as a full member, how his finger was cut, how a holy card was burned in his hand.

On the stand, Calabrese Sr. scoffed at the notion that he was a made member.

So how did he know the ritual?

"The Valachi Papers," Calabrese said, referring to the 1968 memoir by gangster Joseph Valachi. "I seen that in the book."

In another recording, Calabrese Sr. tells his son that he stripped the clothes off a man he had just killed.


Trouble controlling temper
"I told him that to humor him," Calabrese Sr. explained.
Other times, Calabrese Sr. said, he just lied to scare his son out of mob life.

Calabrese Sr. blames his family for conspiring to keep him in prison, so they could steal his money.

"Joe, I love my kids and my brother . . . it's just that they gotta grow up," Calabrese Sr. told his lawyer, Joseph R. Lopez.

Calabrese Sr. has strived to appear even-tempered, but his anger flared earlier in the day when the judge refused to let him detail how his family stole from him.

Calabrese Sr. snapped after the judge upheld another prosecution objection to his testimony.

The judge declined to let Calabrese Sr. testify about matters he couldn't prove and threatened him with contempt.

"Your honor, how am I supposed to defend myself?" Calabrese Sr. said, his jaw clenched, his lower lip quivering with rage, the face of the kindly grandfather long gone.


"My brother was like Alfredo in 'The Godfather.' If he wasn't running things and screwing things up, he wasn't happy."

FAMILY SECRETS TRIAL
On Monday: Reputed Outfit killer and mob crew leader Frank Calabrese Sr. took the stand to blast his brother and son for testifying against him, and denied he ever hurt anybody.

Expected today: Prosecutors will grill Calabrese Sr., who has already shown a temper during his testimony.

More denials by Calabrese
Talk of gang hits, ceremony blamed on brother's boasts

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 21, 2007


During a frustrating day on the witness stand that left him shaking his head at times, Frank Calabrese Sr. testified Monday about one of the last times he saw his brother, the same brother who took the witness stand against him in the Family Secrets trial last month.

"I remember it like it was yesterday," Calabrese told jurors of the occasion on Christmas Day in 1996. "I opened up a bottle of Napoleon brandy for him."

And his brother kissed him on the lips when he left that night, Calabrese said.

A month after his brother, Nicholas, implicated him from the same witness chair in 13 gangland slayings, Calabrese spent the day trying to explain his way out of responsibility for the murders. Calabrese contended he was a mob money-maker, putting out loans on the street, and not a hit man. His brother was largely a screw-up who was boasting about things he never did, he said.

During a week on the witness stand in July, Nicholas Calabrese told jurors that fear of his brother and others in the mob led him to join in numerous murders. He said he had witnessed his brother on a number of occasions strangle a victim with a rope and slash his throat.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph Lopez, walked his client through a series of recordings Monday that were secretly taped by Calabrese's son, Frank Calabrese Jr., in 1999 when he and his father were both imprisoned in another case. The son also testified against the father earlier in the trial.

Prosecutors are expected to use the recordings against Calabrese when he is cross-examined as soon as Tuesday.

On the tapes, the son asked Calabrese about the mob, Outfit killings and a secret making ceremony.

On the witness stand, Calabrese said he sometimes played along with his son, and at other times told him things to scare him from further Outfit involvement.

On Monday Calabrese was animated on the stand, holding onto the wooden rail or scrunching up his face.

He continued to contend that his brother was the one who took Outfit money to work for higher-ups. Calabrese likened his brother to the character Fredo Corleone, from "The Godfather" movies.

"If he wasn't running things and screwing things up, he wasn't happy," Calabrese said of his brother, the government's star witness.

Calabrese denied his brother's claim that the two had become made mob members in the same ceremony, saying he had too much respect for himself to do that.

But on his son's tapes, Calabrese described the ceremony, saying he regretted burning a holy card in his hand during the induction.

"I was trying to let him know that I couldn't do that," Calabrese testified Monday, telling jurors he was trying to convince his son to avoid Outfit life. He said his knowledge of the ceremony's details came from "The Godfather" movies and the mob book "The Valachi Papers."

Calabrese also attempted to explain himself talking on the tapes about some specific murders, including an apparent reference to the slaying of Michael "Hambone" Albergo. His brother told jurors Albergo was killed and put in a hole at a construction site near old Comiskey Park that is now a parking lot.

"He did one of those things with me, which was an OKd one," Calabrese said in one taped conversation. He also said the body was placed in an area that was replaced by a parking lot.

"Oh, that's not true," Calabrese said Monday. On the tape he can be heard to say "they dug deep" when they put in the parking lot.

"I don't remember if I said that, Joe," Calabrese told Lopez. "I could've said it. I'm not denying it.

"They dug deep, what does that mean?" Calabrese asked.

Lopez reminded him that on the tape he told his son that he went back to remove the victim's clothes.

"I told him that to humor him," Calabrese said.

Earlier Monday, Calabrese's frustration about a prosecutor's objections during his testimony boiled over.

Calabrese was attempting to tell jurors that his brother and son stole from him and that their testimony has been a conspiracy to keep him behind bars while they spend his money.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully objected loudly.

"They stole $2 million from me," Calabrese said as Scully continued to object and stepped toward the witness stand.

"How am I supposed to defend myself?" answered Calabrese, raising his voice.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel removed the jury from the courtroom and chastised Calabrese for his outburst.

"If you complain to the jury about my rulings, then I will find you in contempt of court," the judge warned.

Zagel told Calabrese that some of what he wanted to present was irrelevant and some could not be proven.

When testimony resumed before the jury, Calabrese was allowed to talk about how his son took at least $1 million from him, investing the money in restaurants. In testifying last month, the son admitted to the thievery.

Calabrese acknowledged that his brother had tremendous influence over both his sons, Frank Jr. and Kurt.

Calabrese said he knew when he was in prison that his brother was talking to his sons, though he never imagined that one of his children would wear a wire for the government against him.

He said he believes his brother was just trying to cover his own tracks and save his own skin by shifting responsibility to others. He noted how his brother avoided looking his way during his testimony last month.

"Joe, I love my kids and my brother yet. It's just that they've gotta grow up," Calabrese, with a slight quiver in his voice, told his lawyer.

Calabrese said his brother's cooperation has left him with the unmistakable belief that his brother hates him.

"It made me realize that kiss he gave me for Christmas was a Judas kiss," Calabrese testified.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Calabrese: Plea for sons
Defendant says loan-shark deal made to help family

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 22, 2007



Frank Calabrese Sr. was never a part of the Chicago Outfit, he told a prosecutor Tuesday, and he only pleaded guilty to mob-related loan-sharking in the 1990s to get two of his sons better deals in the same case.

Anyone who didn't believe him should ask one of the sons, who was sitting in court, Calabrese testified, suddenly pointing over the shoulder of Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully at his son Kurt, who was sitting in the third row of the gallery at the Family Secrets trial.

"There's my son," Calabrese said loudly, rising out of his chair slightly. "Ask him, he'd be glad to tell you."

With that remark, Kurt Calabrese stood up and left the courtroom, waving his hand over his head back toward his father as he went through the doors.

With lawyers in the case preparing to make closing arguments as soon as next week, the landmark trial has increasingly become a showcase for how the Calabrese family splintered and what those divisions allegedly meant for Chicago organized crime. Frank Calabrese Sr. has seen his brother, Nicholas Calabrese, a made member of the mob, testify against him, and another of his sons, Frank Calabrese Jr., has done the same.

On Tuesday, Scully cross-examined Frank Calabrese Sr. using tapes Frank Calabrese Jr. secretly made of their conversations when the two were imprisoned together beginning in 1999.

For hours, Scully and the elder Calabrese argued and talked past each other, with Scully asserting that Calabrese was talking with his son about specific murders that are part of the case, and Calabrese insisting either that he was not, or that he was just trying to impress his son.

Prosecutors contend Calabrese mentions three of his four co-defendants in the case, including James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle. They, along with Paul "the Indian" Schiro, are alleged to have been a part of the broad conspiracy to further Outfit interests.

An intense Calabrese seemed to be trying his best to explain what he contends he was talking about Tuesday, answering questions in an earnest tone as if begging those in the courtroom to believe him. He leaned on the witness stand, shifted in his seat and at times sneered at Scully.

He wore a gray jacket and a dark shirt buttoned all the way up to his neck, looking like he might pop one of those buttons as he grew animated on the stand. Calabrese his said brother lied "like a pig" when he accused him of taking part in 13 murders for the mob.

"I never killed anybody," Calabrese said. He added that if he had killed someone, he would have killed the man who he believes shot his former partner, Larry Stubich.

If he were a made member, "How come I don't get paid?" Calabrese said, arguing that no one has helped him financially since he has been incarcerated. "How come I don't get things like that? You know that."

Calabrese said he was jealous that his brother had better relationships with his sons than he did, so he tried to impress Frank Calabrese Jr. by talking about murders and a mob making ceremony with candles and burning of religious cards. But he said he got his knowledge from books, magazines and movies.

In the tape-recorded conversations, heavy with code, Calabrese allegedly can be heard talking about some of the high-profile murders in the case. Scully asked about the killings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, William and Charlotte Dauber, William "Butch" Petrocelli, Hinsdale businessman Michael Cagnoni, Richard Ortiz and Arthur Morawski.

In a recording made in February 1999, Calabrese can be heard telling his son that the Spilotros were killed because Joseph "Doves" Aiuppa, the reputed head of the mob at the time, was angered that Anthony Spilotro was growing boastful.

"It was on the street," Calabrese said Tuesday. "Everybody knew about that."

Calabrese denied helping to plan the bombing of Cagnoni, whose Mercedes was blown up on a ramp to the Tri-State Tollway. He said he was moved when Cagnoni's widow testified earlier in the trial.

In a March 1999 recording, Calabrese could be heard telling his son about placing a person under a spot near Comiskey Park that is now a parking lot, which prosecutors contend was the murder of Michael "Hambone" Albergo.

Calabrese first told Scully he was actually talking about burning a garage, but then said he was just impressing his son with a story when confronted with the portion of the transcript where he said he threw lime on the person's body.

"Did you find a person there?" Calabrese asked Scully. A search of the spot in 2002 did not turn up human remains.

Calabrese also said he was not being truthful when he bragged in a recording to his son that Ortiz and Morawski had been torn up by "double-ought buckshot."

"I wanted to win my son over," he said.

Calabrese's other son, Kurt, is not expected to be called as a witness in the case, even after Calabrese's outburst.

But the government may call Calabrese's former attorney, Jeffrey Steinback, after Calabrese testified earlier Tuesday that his 1997 guilty plea in the loan-sharking case was not fully explained to him. Calabrese said he didn't read the document and understand that he was pleading guilty to leading an Outfit crew that collected on juice loans by making threats.

Scully asked if he had admitted to making "multiple extortionate extensions of credit."

Calabrese said he didn't understand and had never looked at the allegation word for word.

"I probably would've looked cross-eyed at myself," he said.

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jcoen@tribune.com

Ex-cop calls mob suspect's code 'mumbo jumbo'
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
1:48 PM CDT, August 23, 2007

In a second day on the witness stand at the Family Secrets trial, former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle continued to deny that he had any clue what reputed mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. was talking about when the two were secretly recorded conferring at a federal prison in 1999.

Doyle said he and Michael Ricci, another former police officer charged in the case, visited Calabrese just to be nice to an old friend. When Calabrese talked in code, Doyle said he became "totally lost."

He said he didn't want to be rude and interrupt Calabrese.

"Basically, out of respect, I didn't want to come out and say, 'Speak to me. What are you talking about — English,' " Doyle testified, calling what Calabrese said "mumbo jumbo."

Prosecutors contend Doyle was passing information about evidence that turned out to be a bloody glove left at the scene of the 1986 murder of mobster John Fecarotta. Chicago Outfit leaders were allegedly worried that the evidence, along with the testimony of an informant, could be harmful.

Prosecutors contend Doyle, who worked in a police evidence area in 1999, looked up the information on the item and passed it to Calabrese. DNA on the glove eventually was found to match Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, who testified against his brother in the trial's highlight last month. The government contends that Doyle and Frank Calabrese Sr. talked in code about whether Nicholas Calabrese might be helping the FBI. Instead of referring to his "brother," prosecutors argue, Calabrese used "sister."

"Ah, but somebody, somebody has to watch, because if not that one sister can hurt the whole family," Frank Calabrese Sr. can be heard to say in the February 1999 tape. "The sister should be watched real strong."

Doyle denied agreeing to help Calabrese, telling jurors he was a police officer and not a "messenger boy."

In his questioning of his client, attorney Ralph Meczyk led Doyle to a section of the transcript when Calabrese had left Ricci and Doyle in a visiting room.

"I have to ask you a few things when we get out of this place as to who is who that he's talking about," Doyle told Ricci.

Ricci died before the trial began.

As the morning session drew to a close, Meczyk told Doyle that he would be cross-examined Thursday afternoon by Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk, calling Funk a fine interrogator.

"Good luck," Meczyk said.

jcoen@tribune.com

Bosses of the Chicago Outfit
1910–1920 — James "Big Jim" Colosimo (1877–1920)
1920–1925 — John "Johnny The Fox" Torrio (1882–1957)
1925–1932 — Alphonse "Scarface" Capone (1899–1947)
1932–1943 — Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (1886?–1943)
1943–1945 — Paul "The Waiter" Ricca (1897–1972)
1945–1956 — Antonino "The Big Tuna" Accardo (1906–1992)
1957–1966 — Salvatore "Momo" Giancana (1908–1975)
1966–1967 — Samuel "Teets" Battaglia (1908–1973)
1967–1969 — John "Jackie the Lackey" Cerone (1914–1996)
1969–1971 — Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio (1912–1971)
1971–1986 — Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa (1907–1997)
1986–1989 — Joseph "Joe Nagall" Ferriola (1948–1989)
1989–1993 — Samuel "Wings" Carlisi (1914–1997)
1994–2003 — John "No Nose" DiFronzo (1928–)
2003–2007 — James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, (recongnized as front boss in 2007)
2007–present — Triumvirate of Bosses, John "No Nose" DiFronzo (Boss), Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo (Boss), Joseph "The Builder" Andriacchi (Boss), and James "Little Jimmy" Marcello (Front Boss) (Present Regime of The Chicago Outfit

Joey "The Clown" Lombardo (born as Joseph Lombardi[1] on January 1, 1929), also known as Joe Padula, Lumbo, and Lumpy, is an American mafioso and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit during the 1970s and 1980s. He is currently alleged to either be the Boss of the Outfit, or its consigliere.

Lombardo joined the Chicago Outfit in the 1950s. In 1963, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping; however, he was later acquitted. Lombardo was again on trial in 1974 with Allen Dorfman, an insurance agent, and charged with embezzling $1.4 million from pension funds of the Teamsters Union. The charges were later dropped after the main witness, Daniel Siefert, was killed two days before his scheduled appearance.

In 1982, Lombardo and Dorfman were again charged, this time with extortion of $800,000 from construction owner Robert Kendler as well as, with Teamsters President Roy L. Williams, attempted bribery of Nevada Senator Howard W. Cannon.

Lombardo was later implicated, by government informant Alva Johnson Rodgers, in the deaths of Daniel Siefert and Robert Harder in 1974, Sam Annerino and Raymond Ryan in 1977, and Allen Dorfman in 1983. Lombardo was also accused of personally murdering ex-police officer Richard Cain. Interestingly, Cain was believed to be a CIA agent as well. Cain was also a CI to Bill Roemer an FBI agent.

Lombardo and Williams were finally convicted of attempted bribery in August 1985 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Williams, who received 10 years imprisonment, later agreed to testify against Lombardo and several top members of the Chicago Outfit later charged with concealing Mafiosi ownership of the Las Vegas Stardust Resort & Casino of which over $2 million unreported income was skimmed from 1974-1978. By January 1986, five mobsters had been convicted, including Lombardo, who was sentenced to an additional 10 years, as well as Chicago syndicate leaders Joey Aiuppa and John Phillip Cerone, sentenced to 28 years imprisonment, Angelo Lapeer, and Milton Rockman.

On April 27, 2005, indictments were handed up in which 14 people, including Lombardo and Frank "The German" Schweihs, were named in the murders of 18 people. Despite being in his late 70s, Lombardo avoided capture. During his time as a fugitive, he wrote two letters to his lawyer, one claiming innocence in the charges brought against him, the other not yet made public. He was finally captured by FBI agents in Elmwood Park, Illinois on January 13, 2006, after being harbored on the 2300 block of N 74th Ave. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and also revealed to have medical problems with his arteries hardening. He told the court he had not been to a doctor during the time he was "unavailable."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lombardo

Case is about power, jury told
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
11:57 PM CDT, August 27, 2007


There are five defendants, 18 murders, a 43-page indictment, dozens of witnesses and decades of events involved in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial, but jurors should have no problem sorting it all out, a prosecutor told them Monday.

"It's actually a fairly easy job," Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk said as closing arguments got under way. "The evidence makes it very clear that these defendants are guilty many times over," he said.

Funk said prosecutors have proven the role of each defendant in the sweeping conspiracy laid out in the trial now in its 10th week. Witnesses led by Outfit turncoat Nicholas Calabrese have given the jury a firsthand look inside the mob, he said, and the testimony of three defendants who took the stand in their own defense was so ludicrous it backfired against them.

"These men are about making money," Funk said. "They are about accruing power for themselves and about accruing power for the Chicago Outfit."

Closing arguments began after testimony ended in the landmark trial earlier Monday. Once Funk concludes his remarks on Tuesday, lawyers for the five defendants go next before a government rebuttal. Deliberations by the jury could begin late this week.

On Monday Funk spoke for about three hours, outlining the evidence against each defendant and in 14 of the murders. At one point Funk abruptly stopped talking as he apparently spotted a smirk on the face of defendant Frank Calabrese Sr. "There's nothing to smile about in this case," he announced.

Funk identified Calabrese as a "made" Outfit member who was involved in juice loans, street taxes, gambling and violence.

"This man right there was involved in the murders of 13 human beings," said Funk, pointing at Calabrese, who sat back in his chair and chuckled.

James Marcello is another made member of the mob who profited from illegal gambling, paid hush money when he feared Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, might cooperate and personally took part in murders, including those of mob figures Anthony and Michael Spilotro, Funk said.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo is a made member who extorted victims and businesses for the Outfit and participated in the killing of federal witness Daniel Seifert, he said.

Paul "the Indian" Schiro was the mob's man in Phoenix who helped kill his friend, witness Emil Vaci, the prosecutor said.

And the final defendant, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, was a corrupt Chicago police officer who passed investigative data from the Family Secrets case to imprisoned mob leaders, Funk told the jury.

Nicholas Calabrese told the truth when he testified about being a part of Outfit hit squads that carried out many of the murders, Funk said, and four of the five defendants were captured on audio and video tapes that pointed to their guilt.

Funk dismissed the testimony of Lombardo and his portrayal as being a "sort of an affable, funny guy who liked to play act." In his testimony earlier this month, Lombardo had said he was just acting like a mobster in a recorded conversation in which he can be heard threatening the life of a lawyer who owed money to the Outfit.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s testimony was also unbelievable, the prosecutor said. Calabrese had testified that he was just trying to impress his son when he was heard on tape bragging about being involved in some of the killings.

"He's another play actor, just like Lombardo, who unfortunately got caught on tape," Funk said.

Doyle testified as well, claiming he passed no messages to Calabrese while he was imprisoned and couldn't even understand the code captured on tape in conversations between the men.

"He was indicted for buying a ham sandwich for Frank Calabrese Sr.," Funk said dismissively.

What the jury should take from the evidence was the underlying thread that connected all the alleged activities in the case, Funk said. He urged jurors to ask themselves who the defendants are and what gave them the right to do things like walk into legitimate businesses and demand street tax payments.

The answer, he said, was fear.

The Outfit is an organization that thrived on its ability to instill fear, and the men on trial were a big part of it, Funk contended.

As the day ended Monday, Funk began to walk witnesses through most of the 18 murders at the center of the case.

As he did, Funk apologized for some of the witnesses the government called to the stand. Many were career criminals, bookies, thugs and porn-peddlers, and one, Nicholas Calabrese, admitted he killed 14 people for the mob.

"It's pretty hard to come up with someone who's more cold-hearted than that," Funk said of Calabrese. "We didn't hold a casting call for witnesses."

jcoen@tribune.com

Chopper -- what is the source for that list?

Also, I don't know anyone (other than the media) that ever referred to Accardo as "Big Tuna." It was always "JB" or "Joe," short for "Joe Batters."

tony b.

Targeting the words of a killer
Defense focuses on key witness as it begins closing arguments

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 29, 2007


At times almost whispering to jurors and at other moments bellowing near the top of their lungs, defense lawyers at the Family Secrets trial on Tuesday began what promises to be a relentless assault on the character of the government's star witness.

The attorneys described Nicholas Calabrese as a mob serial killer desperate to save his own life by taking down the five defendants in the case. His testimony on many of the 18 murders at the heart of the prosecution's case simply can't be trusted, the defense said.

Attorney Marc Martin, representing reputed mob boss James Marcello, said Calabrese has spent his adult life "lying, cheating, conniving, committing crimes and getting away with it."

Martin attacked Calabrese's weeklong testimony last month by concentrating on the most infamous of the murders, the 1986 slayings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Calabrese had testified that Marcello drove him and an associate to the murder scene at a residence in suburban Bensenville.

But none of Calabrese's testimony about how the murders unfolded made sense, Martin argued. It would be reasonable for jurors to infer that Calabrese simply made up his account in order to sweeten his own deal by solving for prosecutors one of Chicago's greatest mob murder mysteries, he said. Otherwise, Calabrese was only giving up his brother, defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., "and a bunch of dead guys," Martin said.

Each of the five defendants, who have often seemed distracted during the trial while talking to lawyers or sorting through papers, watched intently as Martin delivered the first of the defense's closing arguments.

Nicholas Calabrese had testified that the Spilotros were lured to the house by a promise of mob promotions and were attacked in a basement. But, Martin pointed out, he also testified that those who greeted the brothers wore gloves the entire time.

The gloves would have given the plot away, Martin argued. He contended that Calabrese had been tripped up on small details.

"[The brothers] would've been running for the back door. Michael would have been going for his gun," Martin said.

Calabrese also was contradicted by physical evidence in the case, Martin said. Calabrese had said at least one of the brothers was strangled and that after the murders, he wiped up a spot of blood from the floor with a tissue.

But a forensic pathologist testified that the most likely cause of death was massive blunt-force trauma and that both victims essentially drowned in their own blood, Martin said.

And Marcello's defense pointed to Calabrese's past contention that Ernest Rocco Infelice participated in the murders. Government wiretaps showed Infelice was on the phone at home in the afternoon and evening on the day the brothers were killed.

Rick Halprin, the lawyer for defendant Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, also took a swipe at Calabrese for his testimony that mobster John Fecarotta confided to him that Lombardo was involved in the killing of federal witness Daniel Seifert. Calabrese, who has admitted his own guilt in 14 of the murders, later fatally shot Fecarotta in a mob dispute.

"Nobody can be indicted or prosecuted for repeating a rumor, especially if you're the person who killed him," Halprin said.

But Halprin conceded that his own client wasn't completely honest from the witness stand earlier this month in testimony that packed the courtroom at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

"He doesn't trust you," Halprin said, calling his client a worried 78-year-old man. "He's frightened to death of you. He doesn't believe any 12 of you will give him a fair shake."

Some of the testimony that was off the mark included Lombardo's refusal to identify men such as Joseph "Doves" Aiuppa as mob bosses, the attorney said.

Halprin said that's because of Lombardo's past, which includes two major convictions, one in a celebrated case of mob-related casino skimming. The attorney has argued that Lombardo merely is a businessman whose mob associations have gotten him in trouble.

Halprin said the case against his client actually is nearly all "rumors, half-assed suspicion and innuendo," except for transcripts of recorded conversations from 1979 that Lombardo had with corrupt insurance executive Allen Dorfman and a St. Louis lawyer who owed Dorfman money.

In a recording played repeatedly by the government, Lombardo can he heard promising the 72-year-old lawyer that he won't reach 73 unless he pays Dorfman.

In his testimony, Lombardo said he was just acting "like James Cagney" to scare the attorney and help Dorfman. That part of Lombardo's testimony was truthful, Halprin said, calling Lombardo a "rent-a-mobster."

Halprin yelled that it was, "Dead wrong!" to even suggest that the conversation dealt with mob business. The money involved pension fund loans, he said.

It's proven that Lombardo was not a well-known mob figure, Halprin contended, because he can be heard on the tape telling the lawyer, "You don't know me." And while other victims in the Family Secrets case faced violence for hundreds of dollars, the lawyer was allowed to walk out of Dorfman's office owing millions, "and he doesn't even get a touch on the cheek," Halprin said.

Family members of some of the victims were unhappy with attacks on them by the defense. The Spilotros' brother, Patrick, who testified that Lombardo once told him he had the power to stop the killings, was painted as a man with an obsessive agenda who went overboard trying to help authorities solve the murders.

----------

jcoen@tribune.com

'He would shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli'
Defense lawyer rips star witness in 'Family Secrets' summation

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
11:17 PM CDT, August 29, 2007

For jurors who have sat through a summer in Courtroom 2525 listening to testimony from more than 100 witnesses, the contrast couldn't have been starker on Wednesday.

The defense attorney, wearing a hypnotic pink-and-black checkered tie, reveled in his role as the mob lawyer, talking loudly about constitutional rights and the American Revolution. He blasted the government's case, contending the FBI could stand for "Forever Bothering Italians" and calling the prosecution's star witness a bald-faced liar who "would shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli."

And then there was the federal prosecutor, standing at the lectern in a dark, conservative suit as he spoke with barely controlled anger. He told the jury that the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the case stretched over 40 years and illustrated the cruelty of a ruthless Outfit that "survived and prospered at the expense of who knows how many victims."



The defense lawyer, Joseph Lopez, ripped star witness Nicholas Calabrese as a crybaby and "a walking piece of deception." Not so, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars, who defended Calabrese as a product of the city's underworld, an Outfit soldier who had been forthright about "a very horrible life."

The dueling closing arguments in the Family Secrets conspiracy trial came as the jury is set to begin deliberations as soon as Thursday.

Mars, the longtime chief of the organized-crime unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, will wrap up his closing argument Thursday, and U.S. District Judge James Zagel, presiding over the landmark trial, will then instruct the jury.

Lopez represents Frank Calabrese Sr., an accused mob hit man alleged to have taken part in 13 of the murders. His brother, the star witness, and his son both cooperated against Calabrese, giving the case its Operation Family Secrets code name.

As he delivered his remarks, Lopez circled in front of the jury, looking up at his slick PowerPoint presentation, replete with cartoon characters, including a bawling infant. He urged the jury to remember that his client was cloaked in innocence "like Casper the Friendly Ghost" and that the jury system was the product of "bloodshed on American soil."

"Don't forget Valley Forge, where George Washington marched his troops on bleeding feet," he said.

The case amounts to a family feud, Lopez said, featuring Nicholas "the grim reaper" Calabrese and "I cannot do time" Frank Calabrese Jr., his client's wayward son. Jurors can keep or throw out whatever evidence they want, he said, piecing information together "just like putting something together from IKEA."

Lopez reminded jurors that from the witness stand, Nicholas Calabrese never looked them or his brother in the face, instead he stared straight ahead. Lopez assailed Nicholas Calabrese, saying he hated his brother and refused to take real responsibility for the 14 murders to which he admitted by trying to claim he was under his brother's thumb.

When times got tough, Lopez said, Calabrese cried to "Mommy FBI."

On his turn, Mars credited Nicholas Calabrese for lifting the veil on many of the 18 murders, giving closure to victims' families and defended his credibility. "The issue is not whether you like Nicholas Calabrese," the prosecutor said. "That's not why we're here. The issue is whether you believe him."

Mars told jurors to remember Calabrese's demeanor on the witness stand, saying he wasn't reading off a prepared script.

Calabrese provided his best memory, Mars said, unlike Frank Calabrese Sr. or Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who took the stand in their own defense and told jurors that they only acted like mobsters.

Frank Calabrese Sr. "told nothing but lies," Mars said, citing testimony in which he claimed he admitted to some murders to impress his son, who, unbeknownst to him, wore a wire for the government as the two talked in prison.

When he testified in July, Nicholas Calabrese was subjected to rigorous questioning by "some of the best cross-examiners in town," Mars said. "They did not catch him in a lie, much to their chagrin."

Frank Calabrese Sr. was captured on hours of recordings discussing seven of the murders in the case and describing events that were unknown to the public, Mars said. That should be a truth-detector when it comes to Nicholas Calabrese's account and whether he was just building a story around things he had heard, he said.

In fact, Mars said, Nicholas Calabrese has never heard the undercover tapes to this day. It would have to be "by the purest of coincidences that [each brother] lied in exactly the same way," he said.

Lopez attacked the government case for presenting no physical evidence, no DNA evidence linking his client to any murder and no fibers, hairs or fingerprints.

Both brothers are simply boasting for their own reasons, Lopez said.

Frank Calabrese Sr. told the truth when he testified that he was just in the business of street loans and had a mobbed-up partner, Lopez said. Calabrese had a job that put money into the hands of those involved in organized crime, he said, and they would not risk involving him in violence.

"You don't put the earner out on the street to catch the arrow," he said.



The jury should blame Frank Calabrese Jr. for dragging his father into damaging conversations, Lopez maintained. The son asked the father questions about life in the Outfit, Lopez said, and Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't want to look like a chump by denying it. The tapes are simply two men trying to "out B.S." each other, he said.

Two other defense closing arguments also took place Wednesday.

Attorney Paul Wagner, who represents reputed mob figure Paul "the Indian" Schiro, said a lying Nicholas Calabrese provided the main evidence against his client, too, fingering him for killing witness Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986. Ralph Meczyk the lawyer for former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, said his client was only helping a friend when he gave police information to Frank Calabrese Sr.

But Lopez and Mars couldn't even agree on whether the criminal enterprise known as the Outfit, the basis for the key racketeering charge, existed in many of the years outlined in the case.

Mars said Nicholas Calabrese acted—and killed—on behalf of that enterprise. Lopez called it a myth and said the only enterprise he is aware of was "the Starship Enterprise."

Even the infamous "Last Supper photo" of reputed mob leaders sitting around a table in an Italian restaurant depicted just a bunch of "grumpy old men drinking Corvo," Lopez said.

"The enterprise died with them on the last clam," he said.

jcoen@tribune.com

Outfit case in jurors' hands
Arguments end; deliberations set to begin Tuesday

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
10:42 PM CDT, August 30, 2007


A decision on whether five men charged in the sweeping Family Secrets case were involved in a long-standing mob conspiracy responsible for 18 murders now rests in the hands of a jury.

Late Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Zagel instructed jurors on the law and sent them from the ceremonial courtroom at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse to choose a foreman. Minutes later, the judge announced that the jury had decided to begin its deliberations on a verdict Tuesday morning.

Earlier in the afternoon, the prosecution completed closing arguments after the proceedings had been delayed for several hours after a juror passed a note to the judge.

The note indicated that at least one juror had already made up his or her mind about the defendants' guilt or innocence and essentially asked about the possible speed of deliberations, sources said.

A notice from Zagel's staff late Thursday said a hearing on the matter had been conducted with lawyers in the case behind closed doors.

Sources with knowledge of the development said jurors were questioned by the judge, and it is expected that two of them will be dismissed. That would still leave 15 jurors, three of them alternates.

The judge made no public statement on the matter.

In wrapping up the last of the closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars spoke for about two hours, his voice sometimes shaking with emotion.

He said the case was about "the history of organized crime in Chicago" and urged the jury to hold the defendants accountable for murder, racketeering and extortion.

The four reputed Outfit figures—James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro—have "gotten away with murder for far too long," Mars said. The fifth defendant, former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, betrayed his badge by leaking details of the federal probe to mobster pals, he said.

The prosecutor reviewed evidence against each defendant and responded to some of the arguments posed by defense attorneys.

Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, had argued that the government's key witness, Nicholas Calabrese, should not be trusted, in part because details in his accounts of murders sometimes made no sense.

Calabrese had testified that when mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro were beaten and strangled to death, all the killers wore gloves. That would have tipped off the brothers, Martin said.

Mars said it was too late for the Spilotros to escape their fate after the brothers were lured to a Bensenville basement and found themselves confronted by a hit squad.

"They could've worn T-shirts that said, 'We're here to kill the Spilotros,' " Mars said.

Marcello tilted his head back as he watched Mars, gazing at the ceiling.

Mars listed a series of reasons for why the jury should find that Lombardo was responsible for the murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert, including a fingerprint left on a title application for one of the cars used in the getaway from the fatal shooting.

Lombardo lied on the stand, Mars said, denying he knew anything about the Outfit. That should be a signal that he didn't withdraw from the conspiracy, as his defense suggested, Mars said.

Lombardo is committed to the Outfit to this very day, Mars said.

Frank Calabrese Sr. is heard on tape admitting to his son his role in seven murders, Mars said, and his brother, Nicholas Calabrese, testified in detail about them.

Frank Calabrese Sr. is a killer, Mars said, and a "master manipulator" who should be convicted. As Mars spoke, Calabrese sometimes leaned over and spoke to his lawyer while covering his mouth with his hand.

jcoen@tribune.com

Jurors set to sift testimony
Case may hinge on panel's view of key witness

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
September 4, 2007



Deliberations are set to get under way Tuesday morning in the Family Secrets trial, as jurors begin to sift through more than two months of testimony on whether the five defendants played roles in a conspiracy to further the goals of the Chicago Outfit.

Before leaving the courtroom in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse last week for the Labor Day weekend, jurors determined they would work from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily as they try to reach a verdict.

Federal prosecutors contend that reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle should be convicted in a racketeering conspiracy spanning four decades.

All are charged in Count 1, the racketeering conspiracy charge, which takes up 18 pages of the indictment and alleges that an enterprise known as the Outfit collected street tax, operated illegal gambling businesses, made juice loans, obstructed justice and protected itself with violence and murder.

During the trial, Marcello and Lombardo were accused of being mob bosses, while Calabrese, accused in 13 of the 18 slayings in the case, was alleged to have been a leader of the mob's 26th Street, or Chinatown, crew.

Much of the case could depend on how jurors view the testimony of the government's key witness, Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, whose accusations implicated each defendant. Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the account of a man they described as an Outfit soldier who admitted to taking part in 14 murders.

Defense lawyers urged the panel to reject Nicholas Calabrese's testimony, calling him a liar and a killer who invented information against their clients in a bid to one day win his freedom. Much of his testimony detailed murders he allegedly committed with his brother.

Jurors also heard hours of secretly made recordings of four of the five defendants allegedly discussing Outfit business.

A pool of 17 jurors—nine women and eight men—heard the closing arguments last week.. But two of them are expected to be dismissed after having given the court a note indicating they had made up their minds already about the case, a no-no for jurors.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel ordered that the identities of the jurors be kept secret even from the lawyers and prosecutors, who know them only by number. Court officials have not yet disclosed which 12 jurors will be involved in the deliberations and which are alternates.

If jurors convict the men of racketeering conspiracy, their deliberations would not be over.

At that point, lawyers would make another round of arguments, and the jury would then decide which defendant can be held accountable for which murder in the case.



jcoen@tribune.com

Family Secrets jury begins work
Tribune staff report
September 5, 2007


CHICAGO - In their first day of deliberations, jurors in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial conferred privately for more than four hours Tuesday before wrapping up their work early because one member of the panel was ill, court officials said.

Deliberations are scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.

The jury began its work at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, officials said, but quit at about 2 p.m. Jurors in the case last week notified the court that their normal work day will end at 4 p.m. as they weigh 10 weeks of evidence and argument in the landmark case against the Chicago Outfit.

The panel was instructed on the law by U.S. District Judge James Zagel on Thursday and chose a foreman before taking off for the long holiday weekend.

Reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle are accused in a conspiracy of furthering the often-violent goals of the Chicago mob.

Jury wonders about 'usurious' in Chicago mob trial
The Associated Press
1:50 PM CDT, September 5, 2007


A federal court jury considering the biggest Chicago mob trial in years wanted a dictionary today to look up the definition of usurious.

The word is usually used in connection with lending money at exorbitant interest rates.

When the jury asked for a dictionary, federal Judge James Zagel asked them instead what words they wanted defined.

The jury responded with a note saying they found an explanation of usurious in the criminal indictment.

In the indictment, the Chicago Outfit is accused of making loans to individuals at "usurious rates of interest" constituting "extortionate extensions of credit."

The five defendants are accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy included 18 murders dating back to 1970, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion.

Required reading: Closing argument
John Kass
August 31, 2007


As the Family Secrets trial was put into the hands of the jury, City Hall offered up poetic symmetry in choosing a book for all Chicagoans to read as part of its One-Book-One-Chicago program:

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, a social commentary about witch hunts and innocent people caught up by the mob.

No, not the mob on trial in Family Secrets, the other mob, the mob as in the commoners, the ignorant, uninformed, superstitious peasants easily manipulated into burning the innocent politicians -- um, ah, I meant those innocent witches -- at the stake.



If city fathers truly want something Chicago should read, how about the transcript of Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars' closing argument in the Family Secrets trial on Thursday?

It has been a trial of Outfit history, 18 unsolved murders, fear and betrayal, with hit man Nick Calabrese testifying about the murders he committed with three of the five defendants.

Think of a pitcher tossing a perfect game and you'll see Mars delivering that closing argument, throwing heat, following through with near-perfect mechanics, fitting all the defendants into the conspiracy.

Mars doesn't look like a Major League ballplayer. He's a bit below average in height, a graying guy in a gray suit, like a million other guys you see on the train. He doesn't seek publicity, and doesn't go out of his way to schmooze reporters. But he's clearly big league.

And after what he accomplished, if the jury acquits any of the federal primates, we might as well change the name of this city to something more fitting, like Andriachiville or Tootsie-Town.

"Our system works only when those who should be held accountable are held accountable," Mars told the jury.

He named those charged with racketeering and murder conspiracy: Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro.

For weeks, Schiro was the scariest man in the courtroom, hardly moving an eyelid, still as a lizard, the iceman. Schiro is serving another federal prison term, having pleaded guilty for being part of the Outfit-sanctioned jewelry heist crew led by former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt.

Mars had special contempt for the fifth defendant, accused Outfit debt collector and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" (Passafiume) Doyle.

Doyle is not accused of murdering gangsters, but of leaking police secrets about key murder evidence to his Chinatown confederate, Frank Calabrese Sr., in taped prison visits in which electric shocks, cattle prods and physical examinations for Calabrese's brother Nick were discussed.

That famous tape involved Outfit code, talk of "purses," defined by the feds as evidence, and a "doctor," defined by the feds as reputed Outfit street boss Frank "Toots" Caruso, who is not charged in this case.

"And one corrupt cop who tried to help the organization and be the inside man. He knows exactly what the purse is. He knows exactly who the doctor is. ... Let's give the guy a physical, let's give him a prod," Mars mocked, reminding the jury of what Doyle said on that tape.

The others on trial put on a defense because they had no choice. But Doyle could have taken a plea deal and served five years or so. He didn't take the deal, though I presume his lawyer will still receive a nice fee and Doyle will have time to ponder what it means to be, in his words, a chumbalone.

A few days ago, Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, joined the other defense lawyers in ripping into Nicholas Calabrese, calling him a liar and questioning his testimony, particularly about Marcello's involvement in the sensational 1986 murders of Outfit brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Nick testified that the men waiting for the Spilotros in a suburban home wore gloves. Martin argued the Spilotros would have fled after seeing one gloved hand.

"They weren't going to get out of the house no matter what they thought," said Mars, adding that Marcello and his accomplices "could have worn T-shirts that said, 'We're Here To Kill the Spilotros.' It didn't matter. They weren't getting out of there."

Marcello sat without expression, offering his profile to the jury, looking at himself on the courtroom screen. It was an FBI surveillance photo taken at a Venture parking lot, Marcello with Outfit bosses Joe Ferriola, Sam Carlisi and Rocky Infelice next to some shopping carts.

They weren't in a restaurant with checkered tablecloths. And I thought of those who say there is no Chicago Outfit; and of inside men placed in inside spots, in the police evidence storage section or as lords of the detective squads, while honest cops get passed over for promotions, or are squashed like bugs for the slightest infractions.

I'm still waiting for City Hall to choose an appropriate book for official city reading, perhaps "Captive City" by Ovid DeMaris, "The Outfit" by Gus Russo or "City on the Make" by Nelson Algren.

Or, better yet, that closing argument by Mitch Mars in a crucible of a case, in which the Chicago Way was boiled down, reduced to its base elements.

-----------

jskass@tribune.com

Family Secrets jury wants definition of 'intimidation'
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
1:00 PM CDT, September 6, 2007


For the second time in two days, jurors deliberating in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial have asked for the definition of a word that appears early in the sweeping indictment against the five defendants.

U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel called lawyers in the case to his courtroom after 10:30 a.m. Thursday to read the note from the anonymous panel. The jury asked for a legal definition of "intimidation."

Zagel asked the lawyers to submit written definitions to him -- if they so choose -- by 1:30 p.m. The judge said he would then decide how to define the word for the jury.

On Wednesday the jury asked for a dictionary before telling the judge they were looking for a definition of "usurious."

The word is defined in most dictionaries as "of or constituting usury," which is defined as the practice of lending money at excessively or illegally high interest rates. Before the court had supplied an answer, jurors told the judge that they were able to glean the definition from the indictment itself.

Both words appear on the second page of the Family Secrets indictment in the context of using intimidation to collect on high-interest "juice" loans.

Jurors also asked the judge Thursday for help in operating some of the electronic equipment they have been given to review evidence in the case.

Reputed Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle are charged in a racketeering conspiracy that stretches back 40 years.

The jury has been deliberating since Tuesday morning. Their identities have been kept confidential because of safety concerns raised by prosecutors.

jcoen@tribune.com

The Sun Times ran a story about Kurt Calabrese the other day...

Chicago's family 'Secrets' map

September 7, 2007
BY MARK KONKOL
Al "Scarface" Capone and Sam "Mo Mo" Giancana, fuhgetaboutem.

Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, Frank "The German" Schweihs and Frank Calabrese Sr. - are Chicago's new mob stars.

The feds' case - which spells out how these Outfit guys supposedly collected street taxes and, like the famous mobsters who came before them, murdered associates - has captivated regular folks who liked to think that by the '70s and '80s organized crime was the stuff of urban legend.

The feds' case - which spells out how these Outfit guys supposedly collected street taxes and, like the famous mobsters who came before them, murdered associates - has captivated regular folks who liked to think that by the '70s and '80s organized crime was the stuff of urban legend.

The Family Secrets trial makes you wonder where these guys spent time in when they weren't making hits or strong-arming bookies. Sadly, many of their haunts - Hoagie's, Aunt Sally's, Horwath's and the Sicilian Restaurant - where the "Last Supper" photograph was taken - have closed.

But a few Outfit-friendly joints are still around providing some perspective on where wise guys said prayers, shared a cocktail or gobbled a pepper-and-egg. With Sun-Times' mob know-it-alls Steve Warmbir and Tim Novak, I put together a handy little "Family Secrets" map. Go ahead, take a tour.



Old Neighborhood Italian American Club, 3031 S. Shields, Chinatown
This corner social club was a hangout and meeting place for the Outfit's 26th Street Crew. The current president is reputed mobster and bookie Dominic "Captain D" DiFazio.


Jos. Cacciatore & Co., 527 S. Wells, South Loop
Just take a drive past this South Loop monument to one of Chicago's oldest and most successful real estate companies. The firm's president, Victor Cacciatore, testified that the Outfit was extorting him for $5 million in the '80s. He wound up paying $200,000 to the people -- who exactly? He couldn't remember -- threatening his family. (They put the head of a dog on Cacciatore's son's car and shot out the elder Cacciatore's back windshield.)

Connie's Pizza, 2373 S. Archer, Chinatown
Captain D is a long-time Connie's employee, currently the pizza chain's director of special events. He had to skip a day at the Taste of Chicago to testify at the trial. The co-founder of the place, James Stolfe testified a couple of Outfit guys told him that if he didn't pay out $300,000 he would get hurt. Ultimately, Stolfe said he paid the Outfit $270,000 in street taxes. Frank Calabrese Sr. was a ghost on Connie's payroll, collecting $1,000 a month to do nothing.

St. Theresa Chinese Catholic Mission, 218 W. Alexander, Chinatown
This church is home to the St. Rocco Society, who's president, Bruno Caruso, is reputed mobster and former laborers union president. Society membership is restricted to men with ancestors from Simbario, Italy or who marry into a family from Simbario. Past members include Caruso's late uncle, Ald Fred B. Roti, a made member of the mob who went to prison for taking bribes. Every August, society members and their family carry a giant statue of St. Rocco, patron saint of Simbario, through the streets of Chinatown

Gene's Deli & Catering, 2202 N. Harlem, Elmwood Park
This corner deli in Elmwood Park was a lunch and lounge spot for Outfit guys, Joey the Clown among them. You can get meat by the pound, tasty sandwiches and even a 6-foot sub. I recommend the Minestrone. Very tasty.

Rosebud on Taylor, 1500 W. Taylor, Little Italy
People who know these things say this white-tablecloth place in Little Italy is a mob hangout. On some nights you might catch a glimpse of reputed mobster Joe "The Builder" Andriachi spooling pasta there. But don't go asking for a table near the The Builder. That's just rude.

Armand's, 7400 W. Grand, Elmwood Park
Mobster Frank Calabrese Jr. testified that he learned to make pizza here. And in 1999, an FBI agent said The Clown, John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Rudy Fratto and The Builder had a meal with the former Mayor of Rosemont, the late Donald Stephens at this little Italian joint. The Clown, however, denied it saying he'd take "truth serum or lie detector test."

LaScarola, 712 W. Grand, River West
Mob sources say this is where The Clown really liked to chow down. Before getting picked up by the feds, he was a regular at this River West gem. Try the Risotto Primavera, and be sure to stay for the tiramisu and a cappuccino.

The alley behind 2329 N. 74th Ave., Elmwood Park.
This is where the feds finally caught up with the Clown, who was on the lam for 9 months in 2005. They found the Clown in a car behind his friend Dominic Calarco's house, a block from the Elmwood Park police station.

Mt. Carmel and Queen of Heaven cemeteries, Wolf and Roosevelt Road, Hillside
This is where a lot of the Outfit eventually end up. There's massive mausoleums with the mob family names like Capone, Giancana, Roti, Nitti and Accardo engraved in them. Try taking a stroll there with "The Godfather" theme song playing on your iPod.

Armand's, 7400 W. Grand, Elmwood Park
Mobster Frank Calabrese Jr. testified that he learned to make pizza here. And in 1999, an FBI agent said The Clown, John "No Nose" DiFronzo, Rudy Fratto and Joe "The Builder" Andriachi had a meal with the former mayor of Rosemont, the late Donald Stephens, at this little Italian joint. The Clown, however, denied it, saying he'd take "truth serum or lie detector test."

Hit list

Aug. 1970
1. Michael "Hambone" Albergo is killed at what was then a warehouse at 3300 S. Shields. Now, it's part of the parking lot at U.S. Cellular Field.

Sept. 27, 1974
2. Daniel Seifert is killed outside his factory in northwest suburban Bensenville.

June 24, 1976
3. Paul Haggerty is murdered in a garage in the 2800 block of South Lowe.

March 15, 1977
Henry Cosentino. No testimony as to where he was murdered.

January 16, 1978
4. John Mendell is killed in the same garage in the 2800 block of South Lowe.

January 31, 1978
5. Donald Renno and Vincent Moretti are murdered in a Cicero restaurant.

July 2, 1980
6. Mob enforcer William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte, are gunned down in rural Will County on a road that's roughly halfway between Manhattan and Crete and east of 45.

December 30, 1980
7. Mobster William "Butch" Petrocelli is murdered at an empty building near 14th Street and Laramie.

June 24, 1981
8. Trucking executive Michael Cagnoni dies in a car bomb blast as his car enters the Hinsdale onramp onto I-294.

September 13, 1981
9. Nicholas D'Andrea is murdered in Chicago Heights.

April 24, 1982
Mobsters blow up the van of Nicholas Sarillo Sr. as he is driving along on a road in Wauconda. He survives.

July 23, 1983
10. Richard Ortiz and Arthur Morawski are killed in Cicero.

June 6, 1986
Emil Vaci is murdered in Phoenix, Ariz.

June 14, 1986
11. The mob's man in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro, and his brother Michael are lured to a Bensenville area where they are strangled to death.Staff ReporterSept. 14, 198612. John Fecarotta is killed outside a bingo hall at 6050 W. Belmont.

Donatello, I just saw that on the Sun Times web site and you beat me to the post! Very amusing.

Try the thin crust with cheese and sausage at Armand's...


Sandwiches at Gene's Deli are fantastic. About ten years ago, I sent a co-worker there to pick-up lunch. He said he walked in the door, and a group of older men seated at a back table immediately ceased all conversation and proceeded to stare at him while he stood at the counter. A gentleman got up from the table, walked behind the counter, smiled and asked my friend, "What can I get for you?" My friend runs through the order (for 10 people!) and the guy behind the counter starts putting together the sandwiches. It takes about 15 minutes, and the entire time my friend was there, he said he could feel everyone's eyes burning a hole through him. Guy behind the counter goes about his business like he's been waiting for my buddy all day, finishes the order, takes his money, smiles and tells him, "Thanks! Come back again!" My friend leaves to the stares of the people still seated at the table, and he says he was maybe two feet away from the door when they started talking again. He said he has no idea who was seated at the table, but he would like to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation!

John Kass, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, has written a few entertaining pieces about tracking down people while dining at La Scarola.

tony b.

Great posts guys! Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing!

PLEASE keep us posted as to the verdict once it is reached!

Verdict will be read in about two minutes... I'll be back to report.

All 5 in mob trial found guilty of all counts
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
2:38 PM CDT, September 10, 2007

In a verdict announced this afternoon, a federal jury in Chicago convicted four reputed Outfit figures and a former Chicago police officer on all counts in the landmark Family Secrets mob conspiracy case.

Convicted on the most serious charge--racketeering conspiracy--were:



James Marcello, 65, identified by authorities as Chicago's top mob boss two years ago when the indictment was handed down.



Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, 78, a legendary reputed mob figure for decades who was convicted in the 1980s of bribing a U.S. senator.



Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, whose brother and son provided crucial testimony for the prosecution.


Paul "the Indian" Schiro, 69, the reputed Outfit member from Phoenix who is already serving a prison sentence for his role in a mob-connected jewelry theft ring.


Anthony "Twan" Doyle, 62, the former Chicago cop accused of passing on confidential information about the federal probe to a mob friend.

Marcello also was convicted of conducting an illegal video gambling business, bribing Calabrese's brother in hopes of discouraging him from cooperating with authorities and obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

Calabrese also was convicted of running a sports bookmaking operation and extorting "street taxes" from the Connie's Pizza restaurant chain.

Lombardo also was convicted of obstructing justice by fleeing from authorities after his indictment in the case. The jury deliberated four days last week and an hour this morning before reaching its verdict.

The riveting trial, which played out over 10 weeks this summer before overflow crowds in the largest courtroom in Chicago's federal courthouse, marks the most significant prosecution of the Chicago mob in decades.

According to the racketeering conspiracy charge, the defendants extorted protection payoffs from businesses, made high-interest "juice" loans and protected its interests through violence and murder.

The heart of the charges involved 18 gangland slayings dating back decades. Among them was the infamous 1986 murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, whose bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.

The prosecution case hinged on the testimony of Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, one of the highest-ranking mob turncoats in Chicago history who linked his brother to many of the murders. Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., also secretly tape-recorded conversations with his imprisoned father. The unprecedented cooperation by relatives of a target prompted federal authorities to code-name the probe Operation Family Secrets.

Even with the guilty verdicts, the jury's duties are not yet concluded. After hearing another round of argument by lawyers and prosecutors that could take part of a day, jurors will have to decide if any of the reputed Outfit figures are guilty of any of the 18 murders. If found guilty in this second round, the defendants could face sentences of life in prison.

Frank Calabrese Sr. has been accused of taking part in 13 murders, Marcello three and Lombardo and Schiro one each. Doyle was not charged with a murder.

jcoen@tribune.com

This isn't the end. With the racketeering charges including murder there's a special thing with proving the murder cases or something.

what about johnnys red hots or river road hot dogs or biancalana's boy o boy johnnys used to have the best beef sandwiches i sure miss them . i would kill for a few river road hot dogs with those huge orders of fries

Mobster 'Didn't get away with it again'
'A REALLY GOOD FEELING' FOR VICTIMS' FAMILIES | Jury convicts aging crew of mobsters on all counts, will now decide if men are responsible for 18 unsolved murders

September 11, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR, CHRIS FUSCO, FRANK MAIN, ABDON PALLASCH AND LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporters
The Chicago Outfit got whacked.

The bloody past of the mob came roaring back Monday to engulf an aging crew of gangsters: top mobsters Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, along with reputed Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. and the mob's man in Phoenix, Paul Schiro.

All four men were convicted in federal court of racketeering conspiracy and could face life in prison after a 10-week trial in which prosecutors drew back the veil on the secret history of the Chicago mob with hundreds of pieces of evidence, including surveillance photographs and audio and videotapes of several defendants.

A fifth man, crooked retired Chicago cop Anthony "Twan" Doyle, 62, was ordered held without bond after he too was convicted of racketeering for helping the Outfit track down an informant. Doyle is not accused of any of the murders.

The men on trial showed little reaction as the verdicts were read in a packed courtroom in Chicago after the jury of seven women and five men deliberated less than 20 hours to reach a decision.

Marcello, 65, scoffed as one of his guilty verdicts was read.

Calabrese Sr., 70, accused of 13 Outfit hits, hid behind a manila folder that his attorney Joseph R. Lopez put up to shield his face.

Lombardo, at 78 the oldest defendant, found no humor in the jury's decision, cocking his head to the left as the first verdict against him was read, then to the right.

Family members of the murder victims packed a row and a half in the courtroom and praised the jury's decision on the racketeering charges.

"It's a really good feeling to know that [Lombardo] was convicted this time around, that he didn't get away with it again," said Nicholas Seifert, a son of Daniel Seifert, who was gunned down in 1974 after Seifert decided to testify against Lombardo in a federal criminal trial.

Lombardo walked because Seifert was the main witness against him. When Seifert died, so did the case against Lombardo.

Friends and family members of the mobsters shook their heads or teared up at the outcome.

James Marcello's son, James Jr., wiped his eyes after the verdict and declined to comment.

One longtime friend of Doyle, Lombardo and Marcello, Rocco LaMantia, the son of the late mobster Joseph "Shorty" LaMantia, blasted the jury's decision.

"I personally don't think the jury was intelligent enough to decipher all the evidence the government put on," LaMantia said. "It's another slap in the face to Italians who are 'alleged' gangsters, and I emphasize 'alleged.' "

While Lombardo may have been the headline defendant, the case resulted from the turmoil within the family of Frank Calabrese Sr., who had not one but two family members testify against him -- unheard of in a mob case.

Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, a star government witness, told jurors how he and his brother Frank Sr. did mob hits together.

Frank Calabrese Sr.'s son, Frank Jr., secretly recorded his father when they were both in prison in 1999, and jurors heard Frank Calabrese Sr. speak in often horrifying detail of seven Outfit murders.

"Frank Calabrese was convicted on his own big mouth," LaMantia said.

Murder cases laid out for mob jury
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
4:44 PM CDT, September 11, 2007


Jurors in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial began a second round of deliberations late this afternoon to decide if four Outfit figures are guilty of 18 murders at the heart of the prosecution, but they recessed until tomorrow after conferring privately for less than half an hour.

The deliberations are scheduled to resume tomorrow.

For much of Tuesday, jurors heard arguments from the prosecution and defense about the murders.



The arguments come a day after the jury convicted the four Outfit figures—Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro—as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of racketeering conspiracy. Doyle was not charged with murder.

In delivering the prosecution argument, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars asked jurors to hold the defendants accountable for the mob hits.

"Murder is a staple of the Outfit," he said. "It is a tool."

Lawyers for two of the defendants asked jurors to find their clients not guilty. In delivering the prosecution argument, Mars walked jurors through each homicide, reminding them of the evidence that implicated the four Outfit figures.

Lombardo killed federal witness Daniel Seifert, he said."He murdered Daniel Seifert in front of his wife and son so he could walk away from a federal prosecution," he said.

Calabrese is to blame for 13 murders, he said, asking jurors to remember how Calabrese detailed what he knew about the killings in prison recordings made by his son. Among them was the killing of Hinsdale trucking executive Michael Cagnoni, which Mars called "shockingly evil."

Cagnoni was killed in a car bombing on the Tri-State Tollway.

As Mars described what happened, his voice cracked. He recalled how Cagnoni's wife and son used the bomb-rigged car the morning of the bombing but did not drive within range of a transmitter that would have set off the device."But for pure happenstance, it may well have been Mrs. Cagnoni and her son who were blown to pieces," he said. Marcello killed three people, Las Vegas mob chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael, Mars said..

The brothers, lured to their deaths by Marcello, were shown no mercy, the prosecutor said.

"It was 12 men or more, jumping two brothers who were going to be killed, whatever happened," he said.

Schiro was responsible for the killing of Emil Vaci in Arizona, Mars said. At first, he was to lure the victims but ended up acting as a lookout.

Jurors then heard from lawyers for Marcello and Lombardo, who argued that the government had not proven its case. Marcello's lawyer, Thomas Breen, said the government's key witness, Nicholas Calabrese, cannot be trusted.

"You don't do any favors for these families by convicting somebody that doesn't close the case," Breen said of the relatives of the murder victims.

Nicholas Calabrese had testified that the Spilotro brothers were strangled but physical evidence shows they were beaten to death, Breen said.

He said it also made no sense that the men would be killed in Bensenville, as Calabrese said, and then driven to Indiana and dumped in a cornfield.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Breen said in a mocking tone. "I thought your whole point was they're organized–they did this and they did that."

"And now they're just stupid criminals?"

Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, urged the jury to re-read its notes from the trial and see that Seifert could have been killed because he could have put mob-connected businessman Irwin Weiner behind bars.

Lombardo had an alibi that went unchallenged, Halprin said, adding that Lombardo was not at the murder scene.

Lombardo had testified that he was reporting a stolen wallet to police when Seifert was gunned down.

"If he wasn't there, it doesn't matter if he was eating green cheese on the moon," Halprin told jurors.

jcoen@tribune.com

It's a "Kill 'em all let God sort 'em out" type of thing. They're all guilty of the crimes in which they have been charged. (the "Kill 'em all" part) Now the jury (playing the part of "God") has to sort out who's guilty of which murders. Anthony "Twan" Doyle is the only one who is not up for murder charges in this case.

So at this point, they remain in the MCC on Clark and Van Buren waiting to see where they go from here and for how long.

Former police officer lied at Chicago mob trial, judge says

September 12, 2007 (CHICAGO) - The judge who presided over Chicago's biggest mob trial in years expressed doubts Wednesday about setting bond for a retired policeman convicted in the case, saying his testimony was unbelievable.

Defendant Anthony Doyle's testimony on the witness stand was so hard to believe that it brought his sound judgment into question, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said.
"What he was saying was profoundly unimpressive," Zagel said.

He said Doyle might flee to avoid prison if he were released, mistakenly assuming that his daughter and several former police officers would not forfeit the homes they have offered as security for any bond.

But Zagel agreed to take the bail request under consideration.

Doyle claims that his sick wife needs him to be with her. The decorated former police officer appeared in court Wednesday in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner for the first time as his attorney, Ralph E. Meczyk, pleaded with the judge to free him on bond.

Doyle, 62, of was among five defendants convicted Monday of a racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved mob murders.

He was the only defendant not accused of involvement in a murder and the only one free on bond; the others have been in federal custody for more than a year. Doyle was taken into custody only after the jury deliberated for less than 20 hours over evidence presented by the government at the 10-week Operation Family Secrets mob trial.

A major part of the prosecution's case were tapes secretly made by the FBI at a federal prison in Milan, Mich., where Doyle visited Frank Calabrese Sr., a convicted loan shark who also was found guilty Monday. On the tapes, Calabrese allegedly discussed mob business.

Prosecutors maintain that the tall, broad-shouldered Doyle was a loan collector for Calabrese while also working as a Chicago police officer.

Doyle testified that he went to the prison not to discuss business but merely to visit a friend. He said he didn't understand much of what Calabrese was telling him and considered it "mind-boggling gibberish."

No date has been set for sentencing. A jury was deliberating Wednesday whether the four other defendants should be held responsible for specific murders outlined in the indictment, which would qualify them for life sentences.

Racketeering conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, although prosecutors estimated that the recommended sentence for Doyle under federal sentencing guidelines would be 12 to 15 years.

Family Secrets jurors ready to get back to work
Tribune staff report
September 20, 2007


CHICAGO - The jury in the Family Secrets trial will resume its deliberations Thursday morning after a break of nearly a week.

While meeting with lawyers in the case Monday evening, U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel, who is presiding over the landmark trial, said he hadn't picked up any clues on how long the jury deliberations might last.

Last week the jury convicted the five defendants of racketeering conspiracy after deliberating for parts of four days. In a second round of deliberations, jurors have so far spent two days discussing whether four of the men can be held responsible for 18 gangland killings at the heart of the case. If convicted in this phase, Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro could face up to life in prison.

What a great trial this has turned out to be,i have enjoyed reading about it everyday.

Jury takes week off, gives defense 'great concern'
FAMILY SECRETS | Vacationing judge may be reason

September 14, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com
In a move generating concern among the defense, the federal jury in the Family Secrets mob case went home Thursday without reaching a verdict in the second phase of its deliberations -- and decided to wait a week to begin again.
The jury of five men and seven women usually does not work on Fridays, but court officials offered no explanation for the jury's decision not to resume work until next Thursday. Speculation centered on a theory that the jury, having bonded with the judge in the case, wants to wait for him to return from vacation to take the verdict.

But any federal judge can accept the verdict. The jury is assigning responsibility for 18 mob murders, and its decision will greatly affect the possible penalties faced by four defendants.

The jury's lengthy time off could spark the defense to request a mistrial.

"I do not consider this appropriate," said Rick Halprin, the attorney for Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo. "This is a matter of great concern to me. I will take whatever measures I deem appropriate to protect the interests of my client."

Family Secrets jurors to get witness transcript
By Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter
12:10 PM CDT, September 21, 2007


U.S. District Judge James Zagel is granting a jury request for the transcript of a witness against Family Secrets trial defendant Paul "the Indian" Schiro.

Jurors are deliberating for a fourth day on whether four Outfit figures can be held responsible for 18 slayings at the center of the case. Schiro, the Outfit's representative in Phoenix, has been accused of taking part in the 1986 slaying of grand jury witness Emil Vaci in Arizona.

Last week the same jury convicted the four—Schiro, James Marcello, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo and Frank Calabrese Sr.—as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of racketeering conspiracy charges. Doyle is not charged in connection with the murders.



Zagel did not say which witness transcript the jury wanted, but he suspected that jurors have contradictions in their own notes that they wish to clarify.

Prosecutors told Zagel they supported giving the transcript to the jury. Schiro's attorney, Paul Wagner, said it was unwise to hand it over at this late point in the proceedings.

Only a few witnesses testified against Schiro during the 10-week trial. The prosecution's key witness, mob turncoat Nicholas Calabrese, testified that Schiro was part of a hit squad that targeted Vaci.

Career burglars Richard Cleary and Sal Romano testified about doing jobs with Schiro and his connections to organized crime.

Cleary told the jury that he once mentioned publicity surrounding Calabrese's cooperation to Schiro and asked if that was a problem.

"[Schiro] said, 'Yes, he could put me away forever,' " Cleary told jurors.

L.J. O'Neale, a deputy district attorney in Nevada, testified that Vaci had been called to testify before a grand jury about a mob-connected Las Vegas slot manager who vanished after he was caught skimming at the Stardust casino.

Vaci was believed to have been among the last people to see the slot manager, who, it turned out, was cheating the mob on its take from his crooked work.

Zagel said jurors will receive the transcript after he reviews it and prepares an instruction telling them that it is only to be used to refresh their memory.

jcoen@tribune.com

Family Secrets jury to resume deliberations Monday
By Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter
7:39 PM CDT, September 21, 2007


The jury in the Family Secrets trial ended a fourth day of deliberations Friday without reaching a decision on whether four Outfit figures can be held responsible for 18 gangland slayingsat the heart of the case.

Last week the same jury convicted James Marcello, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., Paul "the Indian" Schiro and a fifth defendant of racketeering conspiracy. If the four are found by the jury to have participated in the slayings, they could face sentences of up to life in prison.

The jury worked for six hours Friday. Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge James Zagel, responding to a request from jurors, gave them a copy of the transcript of trial testimony regarding Schiro.

Schiro has been accused of taking part in a 1986 slaying in Arizona.

The jury is scheduled to resume its deliberations at 9 a.m. Monday.

jcoen@tribune.com

Partial verdict in Chicago mob trial
Associated PressPublished: 9/27/2007 4:17 PM | Updated: 9/27/2007 4:24 PM


A federal court jury has reached a decision on some but not all of the murder allegations at Chicago's biggest mob trial in years, the judge announced Thursday.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said that he would bring in the jurors to deliver the verdicts they have reached late Thursday and then question them as to whether they might be able to finish their work.

"I intend to take the verdicts that they have," Zagel told attorneys.

"From what I can tell from the demeanor of the jurors they have done their best," Zagel said, suggesting the jury may be hopelessly deadlocked on some of the 18 murder allegations.

Four men already have been convicted by the jury of racketeering conspiracy and other charges involving illegal gambling, extortion, loan sharking and 18 long unsolved murders.

For the last 10 days, the jury has tried to determine which murders if any are the individual responsibility of each defendant. If the jurors find that any defendant is individually responsible for a specific murder, that defendant faces a maximum life sentence.

Those convicted of racketeering conspiracy are James Marcello, 65, Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, Paul Schiro, 70, and retired police officer Anthony Doyle, 62.

All but Doyle are accused in the indictment of having committed specific murders. Doyle is not accused of direct involvement in a murder.

The so-called Operation Family Secrets trial is the biggest organized crime case in Chicago in many years. The defendants were convicted of operating the Chicago Outfit, as the city's organized crime family is called, as a racketeering enterprise.

They allegedly squeezed "street tax," similar to protection money, out of businesses, ran sports bookmaking and video poker businesses as well as engaged in loan sharking. And they allegedly killed many of those who might have spilled their secrets to the government.

The oldest murder listed in the indictment, that of Michael "Hambone" Albergo, himself a loan shark, goes back to 1970.

Mob jury reaches partial verdict on slayings
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
4:56 PM CDT, September 27, 2007


The federal jury in the landmark Family Secrets mob trial has reached a partial verdict this afternoon but told the court that it is deadlocked on some of the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the prosecution, court officials said.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel said he hasn't been told how many or which of the murders the jury has reached a unanimous decision on.

Zagel asked that the four defendants—Outfit figures James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul "the Indian" Schiro—be brought to court this afternoon to confer with their attorneys.

The judge said he intends to accept whatever partial verdict the jury reached and will ask them if they are deadlocked on the other counts.

On Sept. 10, the jury convicted the four as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of racketeering conspiracy.

In this second round of deliberations, the jury was deciding whether to hold Marcello, Lombardo, Calabrese and Schiro responsible for any of the 18 mob murders that date back decades. If found accountable in this phase, the defendants could face life in prison. Doyle is not charged with murder.

The judge told those gathered in the courtroom that he had received a note from the jury that read: "The jury has come to a unanimous decision on a number of counts," the judge said, and while the jury said it had deliberated earnestly and with open minds, "We find ourselves deadlocked on the remainder."

Zagel said the jury's note said the panel was prepared to "provide details" on where it had ended its work.

The judge said he intended to take at least a partial verdict and find out whether there would be value in them returning to talk further.

"I intend to accept whatever partial verdicts, and by number ask if they are fully deadlocked on the counts on which they have not reached a verdict," he said.

This was the eighth day of jury deliberations on the murders in the case. Since Sept. 12, the panel had begun discussing assigning blame for the slayings and had taken a few days off during the deliberation period.

Lawyers in the case were waiting on the 25th floor of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse for the four defendants to be brought to court from the federal lockup in downtown Chicago.

It was unclear whether the jury would be dismissed or if the panel would be held to consider forfeiture proceedings against defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

It also was not clear whether prosecutors would be addressing the media.

"Whether or not government officials will speak after any verdict is received will depend on whether or not this jury is dismissed or continues to serve for further proceedings," Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said in a statement.

jcoen@tribune.com

3 mobsters responsible for 10 murders, jury says
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
6:50 PM CDT, September 27, 2007


A federal jury in Chicago today found three Outfit figures committed 10 gangland slayings at the heart of the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial.

The jury deadlocked on one murder blamed on a fourth defendant as well as seven other homicides.

Earlier this month, the same jury convicted the four defendants as well as a former Chicago police officer of racketeering conspiracy.

In a second round of deliberations decided today, the jury found Frank Calabrese Sr. committed seven murders, James Marcello two murders and Joey "the Clown" Lombardo one murder. As a result, the men face up to life in prison because the slayings were committed in the course of the racketeering conspiracy.

The jury, however, was unable to reach a decision on the one murder attributed to defendant Paul "the Indian" Schiro.

In its decision today, the jury held Marcello–identified by authorities as Chicago's top mob boss when the indictment was announced–-- responsible for the most notorious murders, the 1986 deaths of Las Vegas mob chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother Michael whose bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield.

The Spilotros' brother, Patrick, grabbed his wife, Kathy, as the verdict was read.

"It was a sense of justice being served," he said later of his reaction. "We're just thankful the verdict came down as it did."

The jury also found that Calabrese, portrayed by prosecutors as a ruthless hit man, took part in the 1980 shotgun slayings of William Dauber and wife Charlotte and the 1981 car-bombing of trucking executive Michael Cagnoni.

Lombardo, a legendary mob figure for decades, was held responsible for gunning down Daniel Seifert in front of his wife and young son shortly before Seifert was to testify in court against Lombardo, a former business partner.

The jury deadlocked on whether Schiro, the Outfit's representative in Phoenix who is serving a prison sentence for his role in a mob-connected jewelry theft ring, committed the 1986 murder of grand jury witness Emil Vaci.

The jury was also unable to reach a verdict on six murders attributed to Calabrese and one blamed on Marcello.

The jury convicted the Outfit figures as well as Anthony "Twan" Doyle, a former Chicago police officer, of racketeering conspiracy on Sept. 10 for extorting "street taxes" from businesses, running illegal gambling operations, making high-interest "juice" loans and protecting the mob's interests through violence and murder.

The 18 gangland slayings date back decades.

The prosecution case hinged on the testimony of Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, one of the highest-ranking mob turncoats in Chicago history who linked his brother to many of the murders. Calabrese's son, Frank Jr., also secretly tape-recorded conversations with his imprisoned father. The unprecedented cooperation by relatives of a mob target prompted federal authorities to code-name the probe Operation Family Secrets.

Doyle was convicted of passing on confidential information about the federal probe to a mob friend but wasn't charged in the murders.

The riveting trial, which played out over 10 weeks this summer before overflow crowds in the largest courtroom in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, marks the most significant prosecution of the Chicago mob in decades.

jcoen@tribune.com

They found Calabrese Sr guilty of 7, Lombardo of 1, and Marcello of 2. The other 8 they couldn't agree on, including the one for Schiro.

10 murders laid at feet of 3 in mob
Some families wish verdict went further
By Jeff Coen, Liam Ford and Michael Higgins, Tribune staff reporters | Tribune staff reporter Emma Fitzsimmons also contributed to this report
September 28, 2007


Jurors assigned blame in some of the most infamous gangland killings in the city's history Thursday, agreeing with prosecutors that the Chicago Outfit used fists, ropes, knives, guns and a bomb to conduct its dark business.

In Chicago's biggest mob trial in decades, jurors found that three of the Outfit figures on trial committed 10 of the 18 murders in the case, a verdict that could mean life sentences for them.

But in the remaining eight homicides, they found themselves deadlocked and unable to reach a verdict, a finding that means a fourth defendant was not found accountable for the one murder he faced.

James Marcello, the reputed head of the Chicago Outfit, sat perfectly still as a court deputy read that the anonymous panel found that he took part in the 1986 murders of Anthony Spilotro, the mob's Las Vegas chieftain, and his brother Michael. His lawyer, Thomas Breen, pressed his hand to his forehead on word of the verdict.

In the crowded courtroom gallery, Patrick Spilotro, the brother of the victims, grabbed hold of his wife's hand.

Joey "the Clown" Lombardo leaned over on the defense table and rested his chin on his hand, remaining motionless as the deputy read that the jury found he committed the 1974 murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert, shot and killed exactly 33 years ago on Thursday.

In the gallery, Seifert's son, Joseph, present as a child when his father was gunned down at work, smiled.

After court, Seifert said he was looking directly at Lombardo as the verdict was read.

"But for some reason, he didn't look my way," Seifert said with a wry laugh.

Frank Calabrese Sr., who appeared to be praying before the decision was announced, steadied himself on the defense table and shook his head side-to-side as the verdicts were read. The jury found he committed seven murders: the 1980 shotgun slayings of informant William Dauber and his wife, Charlotte; the 1981 car-bombing of trucking executive Michael Cagnoni; and the killings of hit man John Fecarotta, bookie Michael Albergo, bar owner Richard Ortiz and his friend Arthur Morawski.

"Now he can rest in peace after 24 years," said Ellen Ortiz, widow of Richard Ortiz. "The Lord punishes in many, many ways."

But not every relative of a victim walked away satisfied with the outcome. Among the killings the jury deadlocked on was whether Marcello murdered Nicholas D'Andrea, who was found bludgeoned in the back of a burning car in 1981.

In the hallway outside the courtroom after the verdicts were announced, D'Andrea's son Bob's eyes were slightly reddened as he expressed frustration over the verdict.

"The whole world knows he did it," D'Andrea said. "I didn't wait 26 years to hear this."

Walking hand-in-hand with her victims' services case worker, Charlene Moraveck started to sob as she left the courthouse. The jury had been unable to find Calabrese responsible for the 1976 murder of her husband, Paul Haggerty.

"I waited 31 years," she said. "That bastard ruined my life. They couldn't come to a decision. I could have made a decision in five minutes. Everything was taken from me. It's never in the past. I'm disappointed with the jury."

The jury couldn't decide whether the fourth defendant, Paul "the Indian" Schiro, was to blame for killing grand jury witness Emil Vaci.

The lawyers involved in the landmark trial over the summer said it appeared that the jury deadlocked on killings in which the only evidence came from Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, the government's key witness.

But the jury appeared to find the defendants committed a murder when evidence corroborated Nicholas Calabrese's account, such as undercover recordings of Frank Calabrese Sr.

"It seems that they, as in probably most homicide cases, wanted to have some solid corroboration for our main witness, Nicholas Calabrese," Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars said. "So it seems they're broken down along the lines of Calabrese's testimony along with tape-recorded evidence of his brother Frank or forensic evidence such as the fingerprint associated with Joseph Lombardo's participation in the Seifert homicide."

Prosecutors claimed an overarching victory, calling the case perhaps the government's most significant against the Outfit in Chicago history. The four Outfit figures as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle were convicted of racketeering conspiracy earlier this month. Doyle, who wasn't implicated in any murders, and Schiro each face up to 20 years.

But Joseph Lopez, Frank Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, said that the jury's deadlocking on six of the killings was "absolutely, without question," a victory for his client.

Lopez, who at one point Thursday told reporters he didn't even know if the Outfit existed, said he did not think it was a fair trial.

"I don't think anybody charged with a case like this could get a fair trial anywhere, because of the publicity prior to trial, because of shows that they make in Hollywood, and because of scripts that they write in Hollywood," Lopez said.

"Al Capone is probably the most famous Chicagoan we have," Lopez added. "You go to Paris and ask who John Gotti is, they won't know, but if you ask them about Al Capone, they're certainly going to know who he is."

Rick Halprin, Lombardo's attorney, disagreed, saying he felt it was a fair trial, but he noted that an appeals court will have to make that decision.

Halprin said that if the killings had been tried in state criminal court, the defense would have had a better chance to attack the evidence.

Halprin, a veteran criminal-defense lawyer, praised the prosecution.

"The government did a remarkable job organizing this case," Halprin said.

First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro, who has spent decades supervising organized-crime cases such as Family Secrets, called the outcome a remarkable achievement.

"To take more than 30 years of evidence of murders that were never solved, and put them together and convict the leadership of organized crime is something I never thought I would see," Shapiro said, "and I'm sure the people in Chicago, particularly the people who have been preyed upon by organized crime, never expected to see, and I'm sure the families of many of the victims never expected to see."

Among those was Patrick Spilotro, who explained what he felt as he had grabbed his wife's hand.

"It was a sense of justice being served," he said.

- - -

Family Secrets trial

James Marcello Responsible in 1986 murders of Spilotro brothers.

Joey 'the Clown' Lombardo Committed 1974 murder of a federal witness.

Frank Calabrese Sr. Committed seven murders, including a 1981 car bombing.

Outfit's hit, but not KO'd
Officials say much remains to be done
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
7:53 PM CDT, September 29, 2007


While under investigation in 2001, mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. was captured on tape predicting what the Chicago Outfit's future might look like, describing the crime syndicate in coded language as, of all things, a Christmas tree.

"It's gonna be a smaller Christmas tree that's gonna have the loyalty that once was there," Calabrese, then in prison for loan-sharking, said on the undercover recording.

"And the, the big Christmas tree . . . it'll never hold up. It's gonna fall. Watch it," he said.

Thanks in part to Calabrese's own recorded words, the Christmas tree tumbled last week as the Family Secrets jury found three Outfit figures responsible for 10 of 18 gangland slayings. Earlier this month, the same jury convicted the three as well as two others on racketeering conspiracy charges.

As a result, Calabrese, 70, a feared hit man blamed by the jury for seven of the murders; James Marcello, 65, identified by the FBI in 2005 as the head of the Chicago Outfit; and legendary mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, 78, face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in prison.

But as sweeping as the case was—resolving some of the most notorious mob murders in modern Chicago history—organized-crime experts say the Family Secrets prosecution won't derail an entrenched Outfit that dates to Al Capone.

After the trial Thursday, Robert Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, said the Outfit remains a priority because of its propensity for violence and corruption.

"They're much like a cancer," Grant said. "Organized crime, if not monitored and prosecuted, can grow, can corrupt police departments, can corrupt public officials."

"We have dozens of open investigations," John Mallul, supervisor of the FBI's organized crime unit in Chicago, said in an interview.

Calabrese's prison musings about a slimmer but more focused mob appear to be on the mark, the experts said.

Law enforcement officials and the Chicago Crime Commission say the mob is now run in northern and southern sections, with street crews consolidated from six geographical areas to four: Elmwood Park, 26th Street, Cicero and Grand Avenue.

Mallul estimates the Outfit has about 30 "made" members and a little more than 100 associates.

Although the mob may be smaller and more tightly controlled, it remains a force with an ability to deliver its trademark illicit services as always, the FBI and experts said.

The mob continues to push its way into legitimate businesses and infiltrate labor unions, offer gambling and high-interest "juice loans," as well as extort "street taxes" from businesses, Mallul said.

"In a lot of ways, it's still the same rackets—50 years ago, 25 years ago and today," Mallul said.

The Outfit still controls dozens of bookies who rake in millions of dollars a year in the Chicago area, he said, giving the mob its working capital for juice loans and other ventures.

"Sports bookmaking is still a huge moneymaker for them," Mallul said. "On the low end, that can include parlay cards in a tavern all the way up to players betting $5,000 or $10,000 or more a game across the board on a weekend."

James Wagner, head of Chicago Crime Commission, said his organization's intelligence from law enforcement sources indicates Joseph "the Builder" Andriacchi controls the north while Al "the Pizza Man" Tornabene runs the south.

Wagner, a former longtime FBI organized crime supervisor, said the Caruso family runs the 26th Street crew, Andriacchi leads the Elmwood Park crew, Tony Zizzo controlled the Cicero crew until he disappeared a year ago and Lombardo still held influence over the Grand Avenue crew before his arrest.

Authorities believe John "No Nose" DiFronzo also continues to play a prominent role for the mob. His name came up repeatedly in the Family Secrets trial as an Outfit leader, sometimes under another nickname, "Johnny Bananas."

Neither Andriacchi, Tornabene nor DiFronzo has been charged in connection with the Family Secrets investigation. None returned calls seeking comment. An attorney who has represented DiFronzo in the past declined to comment.

Wagner said all three reputedly rose in the ranks of the Outfit through cartage theft and juice-loan operations and have since moved into legitimate businesses.

Authorities have said Andriacchi earned his nickname through his connections in the construction business. In the undercover prison recordings, Calabrese identified Andriacchi as the boss of the Elmwood Park crew.

DiFronzo has long had a reputation as a car expert who attended auctions and worked at dealerships, Wagner said. He was convicted of racketeering in the early 1990s for trying to infiltrate an Indian casino in California. He also had connections to waste hauling, Wagner said.

Tornabene, believed by some to be the Outfit's current elder boss, earned his nickname from his family's ownership of a suburban pizza restaurant, authorities said.

Law enforcement has recently observed Tornabene, who is well into his 80s, being taken to "business" meetings at his doctor's office, Wagner said.

"Many of these guys are obviously trying to stay out of the limelight as much as they can," he said.

The Family Secrets convictions could further embolden prosecutors in their assault on the Outfit. The verdicts appear to vindicate Calabrese's brother, Nicholas, one of the most significant mob turncoats in Chicago history, who provided crucial testimony on many of the gangland slayings.

His testimony could still spell trouble for DiFronzo and others he named in wrongdoing but who were not indicted, said John Binder, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and mob researcher who wrote the 2003 book, "The Chicago Outfit."

Calabrese testified that DiFronzo was among the dozen men or more who fatally beat Anthony Spilotro, the mob's Las Vegas chieftain, and his brother Michael in 1986.

"This trial showed how many of these guys had jobs where they worked for the city or at McCormick Place," Wagner said. "When you look at the number that have been connected to the Department of Streets and Sanitation, the Water Department, it's hard to explain without the idea of clout being a factor."

In addition, a former Chicago police officer, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, was convicted of leaking inside information to the mob about the then-covert Family Secrets investigation.

"It's a problem Chicago has preferred to ignore," Wagner said.

jcoen@tribune.com

Juror says Calabrese threatened prosecutor
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
October 20, 2007


Federal prosecutors have alerted a lawyer for convicted mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. that Calabrese may have threatened Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk during the Family Secrets trial last summer.

Calabrese's attorney, Joseph Lopez, said he received a letter from the U.S. attorney's office Friday that said a juror had heard Calabrese make a threat and read his lips.

The letter indicates that U.S. attorneys met with the anonymous juror at a neutral location on Oct. 10 and were told the juror had heard and seen Calabrese say, "You are a [expletive] dead man" in Funk's direction during his closing argument in the case Aug. 27.

"The juror noted that three other jurors confirmed the juror's observations and heard Mr. Calabrese say the same thing," the letter states. "The juror said she/he brought this matter to the government's attention because she/he was unsure whether the government was aware of this episode."

Prosecutors declined to comment on the communication Friday. The letter, written by Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars, ends with notice that the threat was being taken seriously, "as we do with all threats against the public."

Lopez said he does not believe Calabrese made any threats during the trial, but added he expects a hearing on the matter in court next week.

Calabrese and his four co-defendants were convicted of racketeering conspiracy, and Calabrese ultimately was blamed for seven murders by the jury.

Just when you thought it was over...

Marshal jeopardized star mob witness, FBI boss says
FAMILY SECRETS CASE | 'This leak was no small leak'

March 4, 2008
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter
In a brief but loud confrontation, the top FBI agent in Chicago, Robert Grant, underscored the deadly potential of a deputy U.S. marshal leaking information to the Chicago mob about a star government witness, as Grant verbally battled with the deputy marshal's attorney during a court hearing on Monday.

"This leak put at risk the most important witness in the Family Secrets case. It put at risk the agents guarding him. It put at risk his wife," Grant said, during questioning by Francis C. Lipuma, the lawyer for U.S. Deputy Marshal John Ambrose. "This leak was no small leak."

Ambrose is accused of leaking information about mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese, the star witness in the Family Secrets trial, which ended in September with the convictions of five defendants, including Calabrese's brother, mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr.

Chicago mobsters "protect their own because it's assumed they won't cooperate. Once that cooperation becomes known, it's fair game," Grant said.

A federal judge is holding a hearing to determine what statements by Ambrose, if any, should be allowed at his trial.

Ambrose contends when he was lured to FBI offices in September 2006 on a ruse, he was in custody but not initially read his Miranda rights.

Both Grant and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who paired up to talk with Ambrose initially, testified at the hearing that they told Ambrose he wasn't under arrest.

Ambrose's name came to light during secret FBI recordings of Chicago mob boss James Marcello while in prison.

Grant said that Ambrose admitted he knew two of his friends had connections to mob bosses Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and John "No Nose" DiFronzo.

Michael Marcello sentenced to 8 1/2 years in Family Secrets probe
By Azam Ahmed | Tribune reporter
March 12, 2008


The half-brother of a reputed top Chicago mobster and admitted member of the Outfit's Melrose Park crew was sentenced Tuesday to 8 1/2 years in prison for crimes related to the sweeping Family Secrets investigation.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel handed down the sentence for Michael "Mickey" Marcello, 58, who has been jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest nearly three years ago.

Marcello was given credit for time already served, leaving 67 months on his prison sentence, after which he will be placed on 3 years of supervised release. The sentence was at the high range of federal guidelines.

Before being sentenced, Marcello expressed remorse for his crimes and said he looked forward to rejoining his family after his release. He said he's already missed many family milestones, including the death of his mother.

Marcello's son and stepson also gave tearful statements, telling the judge of their love for their father and saying he was a decent man.

Zagel said even though he was moved by the statements, a long sentence was prudent.

"The most important lesson to be drawn . . . is that even when you're talking about friends and family, limits have to be drawn," Zagel said.

Defense attorneys Arthur Nasser and Catharine O'Daniel expressed disappointment in the length of the sentence.

As one of the first defendants to plead guilty in the Family Secrets indictment, Marcello admitted he passed information to his incarcerated half-brother, James Marcello, the reputed head of the Chicago Outfit.

He also admitted relaying payments of $4,000 a month to mobster Nicholas Calabrese in a bid to buy his silence. Calabrese became the star witness for the prosecution.

James Marcello—along with two other Outfit members—was convicted in September in the Family Secrets trial of some of the most infamous gangland slayings in Chicago history.

An anonymous federal jury ruled James Marcello took part in the 1986 murders of Anthony Spilotro, the mob's Las Vegas chieftain, and his brother Michael.

Also convicted of doing mob dirty work were Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and Frank Calabrese Sr. A fourth defendant, Paul "the Indian" Schiro, was acquitted but faces prison on another conviction.

After the trial, prosecutors claimed an overarching victory, calling the case perhaps the government's most significant against the Outfit in Chicago history. The four Outfit figures and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle were convicted of racketeering conspiracy.

Tribune reporter Jason Meisner contributed to this report.

aahmed@tribune.com