Defense tries to shoot holes in mob hit man's testimony
FAMILY SECRETS | Attorney suggests star witness wasn't at Spilotro murders

July 24, 2007
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter swarmbir@suntimes.com
Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese was under the gun Monday as an attorney for the reputed head of the Chicago mob tried to shoot holes in Calabrese's account of mob murders and a making ceremony.

Calabrese is testifying against reputed Chicago mob boss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and Calabrese's own brother Frank Calabrese Sr. as part of a deal with the feds to avoid the death penalty and possibly life in prison.

Marcello's attorney, Thomas Breen, drilled down into Calabrese's account to try to crack the foundation.

Breen, at times, focused on seemingly small details -- a mobster's ethnic background or whether a killer was wearing gloves.
Nicholas Calabrese has testified that a man has to be fully Italian to be made into the mob, and that he, Frank Calabrese Sr., and Marcello were made into the Outfit in a ceremony in 1983.

The only problem, Breen noted, was that Marcello is half Irish. His mother's maiden name is Irene Flynn.

"Have you met his lovely mother, Mrs. Flynn?" Breen asked. "And Mrs. Flynn is as Irish as Paddy's pig, isn't she?"

Calabrese suggested Marcello and his sponsor, mob boss Sam Carlisi, must have lied about Marcello's background to get him made.

Nicholas Calabrese has implicated Marcello in the murders of the Outfit's man in Las Vegas, Anthony Spilotro, and his brother, Michael. Calabrese said Marcello drove him and other Outfit killers in 1986 to the basement of a Bensenville area home where they waited to pounce on the men.

Breen suggested Calabrese was never at the murder. Breen asked Calabrese if he and other killers were wearing gloves. Calabrese said all the men downstairs were wearing gloves and affirmed his testimony that he came up and shook Michael Spilotro's hand and said hello before he was jumped and strangled to death.

"Did Michael Spilotro say, 'Hey guys, why is everybody wearing gloves, this looks like a hit?' " Breen asked.

Calabrese was a friend and dental patient of Pat Spilotro, one of the murder victims' brothers.

Pat Spilotro visited Nicholas Calabrese in prison and secretly recorded him for the FBI, according to court testimony.

"Nicky, what did my brothers do wrong . . . to deserve what happened to them?" Spilotro asked Calabrese during the prison visit.

"If I knew, I would tell you," Calabrese replied.

Breen suggested Calabrese told the truth in prison and lied on the stand, which Calabrese denied.

In other courtroom testimony, Chicago businessman Victor Cacciatore testified he was a victim of Outfit extortion and went to late 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti for help. Roti has been identified as a made Outfit member.

Cacciatore testified he paid $200,000 in the early 1980s to the people extorting him and threatening his family.