There have been other stories regarding his alleged knowledge of what happened. But the first story in the Sun Times provides some evidence as to the leverage the feds have. Here's the first story from the
previous day\'s Sun Times with more details.
Glove may help finger top mobsters November 22, 2004
BY STEVE WARMBIR AND ROBERT HERGUTH Staff Reporters
When mobster Nick Calabrese was allegedly gunning down a fellow hoodlum in 1986, he wore gloves to cover his tracks.
But ultimately, one of those very gloves proved his undoing, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The glove -- stained with Calabrese's blood in the messy, nearly botched hit -- provided a crucial link more than 15 years later to Calabrese and helped investigators turn him into perhaps the most valuable witness against the mob in Chicago history, according to law enforcement sources.
An informant tipped the FBI to Calabrese's alleged role in the Northwest Side slaying of "Big John" Fecarotta. So investigators retrieved evidence from the bloody glove, kept in storage for years, and using DNA testing tied Calabrese to Fecarotta's killing, sources said.
With the murder hanging over his head -- among other factors -- Calabrese decided to air the Outfit's blackest secrets for federal investigators.
"He was looking at the needle, so he cut a deal," said a source familiar with the investigation.
Bosses could be in trouble At the center of many of those dark secrets are top mob leaders, including Calabrese's brother Frank, who is in prison for running a major Chicago loan-sharking operation but is due to be released in a little more than a year.
Frank Calabrese was believed to be involved in the Fecarotta murder -- one of up to 18 hits that could be solved thanks to Nick Calabrese's cooperation, sources said. Nick Calabrese has been tied to several hits.
At last word, indictments were expected by the end of the year. But now, law enforcement sources are saying they could come early next year.
Fecarotta hit Mob bosses weren't pleased with Fecarotta, and he had to go.
They wanted their Las Vegas connection, Anthony Spilotro, dead, and Fecarotta messed up while trying to get the job done, sources said. Spilotro and a brother ultimately met their demise at the hands of others, but Fecarotta was considered a liability, sources said.
So on a September night, three months after the Spilotros' pummeled bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield, Fecarotta and Nick Calabrese went for a ride.
Fecarotta was told they were going to be dropping off a bomb for an unlucky individual, the sources said. Fecarotta apparently didn't know the device they were carrying in the stolen Buick really was bogus, made up of flares taped together to look like dynamite.
When they pulled up near a bingo hall on West Belmont, Calabrese pulled out a gun to kill his companion, sources said. But Fecarotta was too quick. He fought off Calabrese, who was shot in the forearm, apparently with his own weapon, during the struggle, sources said.
Fecarotta bolted from the car and ran for his life.
Calabrese sprinted after him, realizing the consequences for himself if he didn't complete the job. He caught up with Fecarotta outside the bingo parlor and finished him off, sources said.
Calabrese was whisked away in a trailing car believed to be carrying his brother Frank, sources said. His arm was patched up by a friendly doctor or dentist.
DNA hit Before Nick Calabrese fled, he washed himself off with a nearby garden hose and threw away a glove soaked with his own blood in a trash container, sources said.
The glove was recovered by authorities -- blood also may have been found in the Buick -- but initially it had little use.
What seemed more promising were reports from witnesses who may have gotten a look at Calabrese, and a phone number of a reputed mobster found on the dead man's beeper.
But the case went unsolved, and it might never have been solved if an informant hadn't fingered Calabrese in the last few years.
While he was in prison, the feds got a warrant to X-Ray Calabrese's arm, to look for the old gunshot wound, and to obtain a DNA sample from him, sources said.
Bingo. There was a match.
'Slim' gives it up Nick Calabrese, nicknamed Slim, was confronted by FBI agents with their evidence against him. That and other reasons -- including anger at his brother -- persuaded Nick Calabrese to break his oath of silence, sources said.
Fecarotta, who was 58 and living in Riverside at the time of his death, had been a union officer. He also has been described as a hit man with ties to late mob leader Angelo "the Hook" LaPietra.
Retired Chicago Detective Jimmy Jack recalled picking up Fecarotta after he allegedly threatened to blow away an O'Hare Airport parking attendant in 1965.
"He was a real SOB," Jack said.
Previous theories about Fecarotta had him being murdered for botching the Spilotros' burial.
One of Fecarotta's sons, interviewed Sunday, said he knew his father as "a great man" who owned restaurants and "did a lot of great things." Told about an apparent break in the case, he said, "That would be wonderful if it brings an end to this, but to me, my father's dead; nothing is going to bring him back."
Still, he has two wishes. One, that the government doesn't let a killer just skirt for cooperating.
As for those who participated in the murder, "I hope they rot, they suffer from a terminal illness, from cancer."
