Beating by Reputed Mob Killer Caught on Tape

Reputed mob killer Anthony Calabrese was upset with his alleged partner in crime, Edmond Frank. The hulking Calabrese wondered if Frank was ratting him out to the cops.

So Calabrese and another man allegedly began beating Frank. And all of it was captured on a secret audio recording made by the FBI.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Frank pleaded as he was beaten at Calabrese's car detailing shop in the south suburbs, according to a 17-page government transcript of the conversation obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

"C-------er," Calabrese swore at Frank.

"F---ing did everything for you, you're gonna act like that to me," Calabrese said.

"I'm sorry, Tony," Frank replied.

The beating began after Frank enraged Calabrese by refusing to say what hotel he was staying at, according to the transcript of the January 2002 conversation. Frank said he didn't feel safe giving Calabrese that information.

Calabrese had Frank strip-searched but didn't find any hidden recording devices.

"The recording device worn by Frank was in fact secreted elsewhere," a government filing notes, without specifying where the device was.

Calabrese allegedly threatened to kill Frank's wife and child and suggested his wife could be gang-raped, according to the transcript.

Frank walked out of the confrontation alive, but FBI agents took him to a hospital, where he was treated for his injuries from the beating.

Even after Frank left Calabrese's shop, the secret recorder was still running, and Frank could be heard complaining about his injuries.

"My head's killing me," Frank said.

"Are you dizzy?" an FBI agent asked him.

"My head hurts; it's numb over here," Frank complained.

Federal prosecutors T. Markus Funk and Joel Hammerman want to introduce the secretly recorded conversation at Calabrese's trial next month on charges he took part in the armed robberies of three suburban businesses.

The prosecutors argue the beating and intimidation shows Calabrese's guilty state of mind.

Calabrese's attorney, Steven Hunter, is fighting introduction of the tape, saying it has nothing to do with the armed robberies and will prejudice the jury against his client.

Calabrese, 47, is no relation to Frank Calabrese Sr., who was found responsible for seven Outfit murders in the recent Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago.

Still, Anthony Calabrese is a suspected gunman in the Outfit murder of Anthony "The Hatch" Chiaramonti, a top mobster slain in 2001 at a Brown's Chicken & Pasta in south suburban Lyons, according to a federal court filing.

He is also a suspect in the 1997 attempted murder of the ex-wife of his friend, Randall Re, in west suburban Naperville, authorities said. Re is also a suspect in the case, which Naperville police continue to investigate.

Calabrese has not been charged with either crime. But he effectively faces life in prison if convicted on the armed robbery charges under federal sentencing guidelines. Federal authorities hope to use that leverage to find out from Calabrese who allegedly hired him for the Chiaramonti murder and the Re shooting, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Calabrese has ties to the Chicago Outfit and a motorcycle gang, sources said.

"I know him as a businessman," said attorney Joseph Lopez, who represented Calabrese in a case in which Calabrese was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in a baseball-bat attack on a man in Florida.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir