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.