Mobster sticks to his story
Defendant's brother ends stay on the stand

By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
10:38 PM CDT, July 23, 2007

Nicholas Calabrese's final hours on the witness stand in the landmark Family Secrets trial were much like the first—his face fixed in a frown and turned away from his brother, defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

To the end, the mob hit man maintained he turned on his brother and his Outfit cohorts out of fear of the death penalty, a desire to possibly see his family again, and to bring out the truth.Under cross-examination for almost the entire day, Calabrese denied that hatred for his brother played a role in his testifying."Hate consumes you," said Calabrese, 64. "I don't have much time left, so I don't hate him anymore."

Asked if that meant he thought he would die soon, Calabrese said, "We all die." .

Calabrese spent his fifth and final day on the stand in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse defending his account of more than a dozen Outfit killings dating back more than three decades. At times he sat slouched in a black sweat shirt, but his back stiffened as he insisted he was telling the truth.

Federal authorities code-named the investigation Operation Family Secrets after Frank Calabrese Sr.'s brother and son agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and tell all. The son, Frank Calabrese Jr., who testified earlier this month, secretly tape-recorded private conversations with his father while the elder Calabrese was in prison in the 1990s for running a violent loan-sharking operation.

On Monday, defense lawyer Thomas Breen paced in front of Nick Calabrese, asking why he had named mostly dead mobsters when he laid blame for the murders.

Breen suggested that Calabrese had sought to make himself more valuable as a prosecution witness by also implicating a few defendants, including his client, reputed mob figure James Marcello.

"I named the people that were there at those murders," Calabrese replied tersely.

As Breen pressed him for specifics about some of the killings, Calabrese said he wasn't testifying beyond what he saw with his own eyes or heard from his brother.

Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello was present at the 1981 murder of Nicholas D'Andrea. Mob leaders who wanted to question D'Andrea about an attempt on the life of an Outfit capo in the south suburbs had inadvertently beaten him to death, Calabrese had said.

Breen contended Calabrese implicated Marcello in the slaying to lend more credence to his account of Marcello becoming a "made" Outfit member at a ceremony in 1983. In order to become a made member, Calabrese had testified, a candidate had to have been involved in at least one killing and have 100-percent Italian heritage.

That prompted Breen to ask Calabrese if he had ever met Marcello's "lovely mother, Mrs. Flynn."

"Mrs. Flynn is as Irish as Paddy's pig, isn't she?" Breen asked.

"I didn't know he was half Irish," said Calabrese, accusing Marcello of lying to mob bosses about his heritage.

"Yeah, somebody's lying," Breen shot back.

Breen later asked whether the secret "made" ceremony was a celebration—and if there was any corned beef on hand for Marcello, drawing a laugh from the crowded courtroom.

Calabrese also was questioned about the attempted murder of Nicholas Sarillo, who Breen said was a friend of Marcello's. But in the Outfit you can kill a friend, Breen said, noting Calabrese had testified about killing his friend, John Fecarotta.

"You weren't there," said Calabrese, seemingly growing upset. "You're trying to make it sound like I enjoyed this. I killed my friend."

The lawyer and the witness also exchanged jabs over the 1986 murder of businessman Emil Vaci in Arizona. Calabrese testified that he learned Marcello had financed the hit.

Breen mockingly asked when Calabrese had seen a copy of the Outfit newsletter that named Marcello as comptroller.

"Do you have a copy of the newsletter?" retorted Calabrese, the expression on his face unchanged.

Breen also concentrated on the 1986 killings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Last week Calabrese testified that Marcello drove him and other members of a hit team to a Bensenville residence, where the Spilotro brothers were beaten and strangled in a basement.

Calabrese said he just learned Monday that a brother of the Spilotros, Patrick Spilotro, had once tried to secretly record him discussing the killings. Calabrese said he had been a patient of Patrick Spilotro, a dentist. Breen reminded Calabrese that he had told Patrick Spilotro he didn't know anything about his brothers' deaths, but Calabrese said he was lying at the time.

"You have told a story about the Spilotros being killed, and you, in fact, were not even there, were you?" Breen asked.

"Yes, I was," Calabrese answered.

Breen asked why, according to Calabrese's version of events, Marcello would pick him up at a busy suburban shopping center in a family van to drive to the site of the killings. Calabrese said he was doing what he was told.

Breen also questioned why Sam "Wings" Carlisi, the then-head of the Chicago Outfit, then-mob underboss John DiFronzo and one of its chief moneymakers, Joseph Ferriola, would risk being seen near the murder scene. Calabrese also once told the FBI he thought he had seen mob boss Ernest Rocco Infelice there, Breen noted, but that was impossible because Infelice was under surveillance by agents at the time.

Calabrese's account had ended abruptly last week with few details about the Spilotro brothers' final moments. Calabrese said he had his back to Anthony Spilotro as he grabbed Michael Spilotro by the legs and mob boss Louis "the Mooch" Eboli moved in to strangle Michael Spilotro.

Breen said he found it incredible that Calabrese wouldn't know exactly who killed Anthony Spilotro or how the bodies of the brothers wound up in a distant Indiana cornfield.

Calabrese said in his line of work, nobody asked those kinds of questions.

jcoen@tribune.com