Family secrets trial testimony

The investigation and trial was accurately dubbed "Family Secrets" because of the betrayal from within the Calabrese family. The son, Frank Calabrese Jr. The investigation led to indictments of 14 defendants who were affiliated with the Chicago Outfit, which has been one of the most prolific organized crime enterprises in the United States.

The most heinous of their crimes investigated were 18 murders and one attempted murder between and All of the murders and the other crimes charged to the defendants were allegedly committed to further the Outfit's illegal activities, such as loansharking and bookmaking , and protecting the enterprise from law enforcement. It is said to have had a significant effect on the operations of the Chicago Outfit. However, it did not end the Outfit's reign in Chicago. The following list is of the murders committed as objectives of the Chicago Outfit that were investigated in Operation Family Secrets: [4].

The investigation began on July 27, when Frank Calabrese Jr. The letter was sent without warning from the federal correctional facility in Milan, Michigan , where both Frank Jr. In the letter, Frank Jr. I feel I have to help keep this sick man locked up forever.

He and his father had had rough patches in their relationship over the years. He had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his father, which he blew on a cocaine addiction and bad business decisions. He volunteered to record conversations that he had with his father while they were imprisoned.

He wore a pair of headphones around his neck fit by the FBI with a hidden microphone to record conversations between the father and son. It was not difficult for Frank Jr. Frank Sr. They began to put together pieces of information on the Fecarotta murder. Newspapers reported that Calabrese had been confronted with DNA evidence implicating him in the mob hit of mob enforcer Fecarotta, prompting Nick Calabrese to cooperate with law enforcement in the probe.

Markus Funk would represent the United States in the case. After more than two years, the trial began in June The killings have been fodder for countless news articles, at least three books, and a popular mob movie, Casino.

But the exact circumstances of the demise of the two Oak Park residents remained obscured until recent testimony in the federal trial. According to William F. Roemer, Jr. In his newly released book, former Spilotro lieutenant Frank Cullotta says pretty much the same. If you whack one, you gotta whack them both. Agents Bourgeois and Hartnett went to visit Nick Calabrese, whom they had put in jail a few years earlier, to pursue him as the suspect in the Fecarotta murder case.

When the investigation team had a sample of DNA taken from Nick, his culpability became apparent. With his DNA matching that of the gloves used in the Fecarotta murder, Nick Calabrese knew he was going down and was willing to betray the criminal organization he belonged to along with his brother.

Nick cooperated with the FBI for months by giving depositions about the murders that he witnessed, took part in and was told about. He also gave the government key information about how the Chicago Outfit operated. Markus Funk would represent the United States in the case. After more than two years, in June the Family Secrets trial began.

Judge James Zagel heard the case. The evidence was presented between June 28, , and August 8, The trial included testimony from more than witnesses and over pieces of evidence. The five men were found guilty on all counts for conspiracy and criminal acts of racketeering. For the first time, Calabrese told why he had turned his back on his father and wore a hidden recorder for the feds as the two talked in a federal prison.

When the younger Calabrese was about to go to prison in the loan-sharking case, he said, he had a meeting at his attorney's office that his father unexpectedly attended.

Calabrese had violated his bond by taking drugs, and his father made him promise to go clean, he said. At the same time, Calabrese asked his father to "semiretire" from the Outfit, and "he said he would," the son testified.

After he went to prison, the younger Calabrese said he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, leading him to decide to indeed change his criminal ways. But Calabrese said he realized his father never intended to reform. The younger Calabrese said he contacted federal authorities from prison and offered to cooperate.

Now he is one of the government's star witnesses at the trial of the senior Calabrese, 70, reputed mob figures Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro as well as Anthony Doyle, a former Chicago police officer.

At the heart of the prosecution are 18 long-unsolved murders. In an undercover tape played in court Monday, the elder Calabrese expressed some regrets at being made a full-fledged member of the Outfit in the secret ceremony years earlier.

On the tape, the elder Calabrese said he told his sponsor, Angelo LaPietra, boss of the 26th Street crew in the early to mids, that "I didn't want it. The elder Calabrese told his son that to qualify, a made member had to have committed at least one murder, though the initiation could take place years later, the son said.