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