Feds Learn of 38 Hits and Chicago Mob Hierarchy from Mobster

Friends of ours: Nick Calabrese, Jimmy Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr., Tony Spilotro
Friends of mine: Michael Spilotro

Made mobster Nick Calabrese has told the FBI more about mob hits than any other witness in Chicago history.

He should know. He took part in 16 of them, the feds say. And filled the feds in on 22 more.

Apart from the murders, Calabrese described to the FBI the secret ceremony mobsters underwent to get "made" into the organization -- promoted to its top echelon. He told them what other mobsters were made with him in 1983. And he outlined the hierarchy of organized crime in Chicago.

So it's little wonder the reputed head of the Chicago mob, Jimmy Marcello, had a great deal of curiosity when he heard in prison that Nick Calabrese was cooperating with the feds.

Calabrese, who has no deal with the feds, is one of the key witnesses in the upcoming Family Secrets mob trial in May -- one of the most important ever in the federal effort to wipe out the Outfit in Chicago.

Calabrese is testifying against his brother Frank Calabrese Sr., a brutal loan shark and alleged mob hit man. Calabrese Sr. and Marcello are charged along with other top mob leaders in a case that pins 18 previously unsolved murders on the Outfit.

Frank Calabrese Sr. will also have to face his own recorded words at trial. His son Frank Jr. put his life on the line by secretly recording his father while both were in prison on another matter. Frank Calabrese Sr. allegedly talked about mob hits and other matters he never should have spoken about.

Nick Calabrese can tell jurors about allegedly taking part in mob hits with both his brother and Marcello.

Nick Calabrese, for instance, can relate to jurors how Marcello allegedly drove mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro to a home in the Bensenville area in June 1986 on the ruse that they were to be promoted in the Outfit.

Instead, they were beaten and strangled to death in the basement, with Tony Spilotro, the mob's man in Las Vegas, denied his last request: to say a novena before he was slain.

Thanks to Steve Warmbir, Natasha Korecki, and Frank Main

Tweet

Department of Justice Details Felony Charge Against US Marshall

Friends of ours: Nick Calabrese, Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello, Michael Marcello

A Deputy U.S. Marshal was taken into custody today on a federal felony theft charge for allegedly illegally disclosing highly sensitive, confidential information about a federally- protected organized crime witness. The defendant, John Thomas Ambrose, was charged in a criminal complaint filed today with theft of government property for allegedly revealing information relating to the status, substance of cooperation, and travel of cooperating witness/defendant Nicholas Calabrese, while Calabrese was in the United States Marshals Service's Witness Security Program (WSP), also known as "WITSEC."

Ambrose, 38, a deputy marshal since January 1998, was a supervisory inspector of the U.S. Marshals Service's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force. He was placed on administrative leave last September when he was questioned by federal agents conducting this investigation. He was scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason in U.S. District Court. He surrendered voluntarily earlier today at the FBI's Chicago office, announced Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gary S. Shapiro, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and U.S. Marshal Kim R. Widup.

"While this defendant's conduct in revealing closely guarded and highly sensitive information regarding a protected witness constitutes an egregious breach of his law enforcement duties, the investigation, so far, has not uncovered any evidence that either this witness or any other was ever in danger, and there is no evidence that any attempt was made to harm any protected witness," Mr. Shapiro said. "I remain confident in the integrity of the United States Marshals Service and the government's Witness Security Program, and am grateful for the Marshals Service full participation in the investigation with the FBI, which allowed the investigation to reach this successful outcome."

Mr. Grant said: "I am also confident that the Witness Security Program remains a vitally important resource for law enforcement and that its effectiveness is not diminished by this isolated problem. The Marshals Service participation was integral to this investigation and we didn't hesitate to ask them to join the investigation once it began to focus on this defendant."

According to the FBI's detailed complaint affidavit, Nicholas Calabrese admitted to the government that he was a "made" member of the "Chicago Outfit" (also known as the "Chicago Mob") and has provided federal law enforcement with the most expansive overview ever of Chicago Outfit murders. In 2002, he agreed to cooperate in the investigation of alleged Outfit members, including his brother Frank Calabrese, Sr., and brothers James and Michael Marcello. Nicholas Calabrese was formally admitted to the WSP in August 2002, and he was moved to a secure prison facility within the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, based upon an application prepared by federal agents and prosecutors detailing his ability to testify about 16 murders in which he participated and 22 other murders about which he had some secondary information from others. The application also provided an analysis of the significant danger posed to Nicholas Calabrese by members of the Chicago Outfit.

The ensuing investigation resulted in the April 2005 indictment of 14 defendants in U.S. v. Nicholas Calabrese, et al., 02 CR 1050, which alleges, among other crimes, a 40-year racketeering conspiracy involving 18 previously unsolved Outfit murders, often of suspected government cooperators and witnesses, between 1970 and 1986. The case against 12 remaining defendants (two others are deceased) is scheduled for trial in May 2007.

As part of his cooperation, Nicholas Calabrese was brought to the Chicago area by WSP Inspectors on two occasions: first, on October 31 - November 1, 2002, for his then-sealed court arraignment, and, second, on May 20-22, 2003, when he assisted the FBI in locating some of the murder scenes and other relevant locations. Both of these trips involved highly secret travel details to which only a handful of government personnel were privy. During both of Nicholas Calabrese's stays in Chicago, Ambrose served on the night shift security detail assigned to protect him. The affidavit explains that the role of and chain of command of WSP Inspectors is distinct from that of Deputy U.S. Marshals. WSP Inspectors occasionally request supplemental security services from Deputy U.S. Marshals, such as Ambrose, but the Deputy Marshal's role is restricted to providing a limited support function.

Between January and June 2003, the government intercepted 11 prison conversations between James and Michael Marcello when Michael visited James, ordinarily once or twice a month, at the federal prison in Milan, Mich., where James was incarcerated. The conversations indicated that Michael Marcello had an inside source of information concerning Nicholas Calabrese. The affidavit states that James Marcello was highly interested in learning the nature of the government's continuing investigation into his alleged criminal activities. The content of the intercepted cryptic conversations indicated that Michael Marcello's source of information was someone within federal law enforcement who had access to WSP protectees. The content of the conversations also confirmed that the source of information had access to documents and material that only a small number of individuals within the federal government would be in a position to retrieve.

In approximately five of the recorded conversations, large portions of which were coded and whispered, Michael Marcello reported to James Marcello information relating to Nicholas Calabrese that allegedly was obtained from Ambrose -- including information concerning Nicholas Calabrese's whereabouts, his status as a cooperator, and the level of his cooperation. These conversations -- excerpts of which are contained in the affidavit -- took place on January 30, March 6, March 24, April 24, and June 12, 2003.

The affidavit states that the intercepted conversations captured Michael Marcello providing James Marcello with current details concerning Calabrese's cooperation with the government, including non-public, sensitive matters regarding organized crime homicides that were the subject of Nicholas Calabrese's May 2003 trip to Chicago. This information would have been known to a very limited number of people, including federal law enforcement officers involved in providing security to Nicholas Calabrese on that trip.

In a recorded conversation on March 24, 2003, Michael Marcello identified his inside source of information regarding Calabrese as Ambrose, not by name, but by a description that could fit no other law enforcement officer. Michael Marcello told James Marcello that this source, whom he referred to as "the Babysitter," was the son of a deceased defendant prosecuted in the so-called "Marquette 10" case with then Chicago police officers Frank DeRango and Individual A. Ambrose's father, Thomas Ambrose, was the lead defendant, and Frank DeRango and Individual A were co-defendants, in U.S. v. Ambrose, et al., a police corruption case commonly referred to as "the Marquette 10" case. Thomas Ambrose died in prison while serving his sentence after being convicted of bribery.

According to telephone records cited in the affidavit, on May 23, 2003, (the last day of the second Calabrese detail) Ambrose placed a 14-minute phone call to Individual A's work telephone number. The call was made within hours of Ambrose completing his last night shift of the Calabrese protection detail, and phone records show no other calls over three minutes between Ambrose and Individual A for months prior to and after this 14-minute call, according to the complaint.

During other recorded conversations, Michael Marcello indicated that his source had access to information provided to the government by Nicholas Calabrese. According to the complaint, Ambrose's fingerprints were recovered just last summer from the originals of the confidential documents maintained by WSP personnel in a secure location. These highly-confidential documents were within Nicholas Calabrese's WSP file, which included details provided by Nicholas Calabrese regarding organized crime. The January 30, 2003, recorded conversation between James and Michael Marcello was the first time that they were heard discussing Nicholas Calabrese's cooperation. During Nicholas Calabrese's October 31 - November 1, 2002, visit to Chicago, records concerning him, including his background, criminal history/involvement, names of individuals about whom he had provided information, murders about which he had provided first and second-hand information, and names of individuals who could potentially pose a threat to him, were maintained in a locked cabinet within the control room located inside the secure WSP facility in Chicago.

According to the affidavit, on June 22, 2006, WSP personnel provided the FBI with the secured WSP Production File concerning Nicholas Calabrese. The FBI performed a latent fingerprint examination of the paperwork contained in this file, and two latent fingerprints identified as Ambrose's were found on two of the original WSP documents. One of the documents was included in the WSP application for Nicholas Calabrese's admission into the WSP, and Ambrose's fingerprint was found on the last page which included the signature of the U.S. Attorney.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys T. Markus Funk, John Scully and Mitchell Mars.

If convicted, each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Tweet

Lawyer Says US Marshall is no Hoodlum

A deputy US marshal is charged with revealing information about a mob informant in the witness protection program. The ABC7 I-Team has learned there are serious questions about the deputy's background. He has family ties to the Marquette 10 Chicago police scandal back in the 1980s.

The deputy charged is John Thomas Ambrose. His father Tom Ambrose served prison time in the Marquette 10 police scandal.

There is a hit movie out right now called "The Departed" starring Jack Nicholson as a mob boss. It centers on a cop who is actually working for the mob. It is fictional story. But in Chicago that same scenario is playing out in real life, with a 9-year veteran lawman accused of helping the outfit by secretly leaking information that might have compromised the biggest outfit case in Chicago in 20 years. "No system is perfect. Much of what we do depends on trust and confidence and honor," said Gary Shapiro, US. state's attorney.

According to federal prosecutors, 38-year-old John Thomas Ambrose broke the trust, compromised that confidence and dishonored his oath to uphold the law. Ambrose appeared Thursday afternoon before US Magistrate Michael Mason on federal theft charges.

According to the FBI, Ambrose fed Chicago organized crime bosses, including Jimmy "the Man" Marcello, a steady diet of "highly sensitive, confidential information" about a key witness in the federal investigation of more than a dozen unsolved Chicago mob killings. "The breach could have put at risk the life of one of the most important witnesses ever developed in Chicago against the Chicago Outfit. It could have put at risk US Marshal's, and family members of that witness," said Robert Grant, FBI special agent in charge.

Conversations between Marcello and his brother at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan, had been secretly recorded by the FBI. The conversations included coded references to "the status, substance of cooperation and travel" of Nicholas Calabrese, a defendant and key witness in the FBI's Operation Family Secrets.

Federal agents say they had to break the mob code, deciphering that Ambrose was "the babysitter." The FBI was "polizia." Mob leader Joey "the Clown" Lombardo was Pai-Achi, the name of a clown in a famous Italian opera. The Spilotro brothers who had been tortured and buried alive in a cornfield were "shivago," and the code for wife, "moolieri."

Ambrose's lawyer contends, he's no hoodlum. "He is not connected to the mob at all. It rests on impressions and opinions of an FBI agent who wrote that affidavit. She said so herself and she is interpreting what they are saying," said Frank Lipuma, Ambrose's attorney.

Ambrose's father Thomas was a disgraced Chicago cop, a key figure convicted in the Marquette 10 police corruption case 20 years ago.

Authorities believe that while the father was serving time at the downstate Marion penitentiary, he renewed a boyhood friendship with Chicago mob king John "No Nose" DiFronzo , and that after Thomas Ambrose died, his son john, the deputy US marshal, struck up a relationship with DiFronzo , all leading to questions about why Ambrose was hired in the first place.

When interviewed by the FBI, Ambrose said he understood he made a mistake but that his intention was to ingratiate himself to DiFronzo and others to help his career. He thought they might help him locate fugitives including the recently captured Joey "the Clown" Lombardo.

Ambrose has been on leave from the US Marshal's Office since September and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. He is out on $50,000 bond.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

Tweet

Guns and Roses

Friends of ours: Dean O'Banion, Al Capone, Johnny Torrio, "Bloody" Angelo Genna, "Big Jim" Colosimo, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "the Schemer" Drucci, George "Bugs" Moran

Before Al Capone became its underworld kingpin, Chicago's reigning gangster was the colorful and lethal Dean O'Banion, the stoutly built Irish florist the press nicknamed "Chicago's Arch Killer" and the "Boss of the 42nd and 43rd Wards." Based on information compiled from police and court documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with O'Banion's friends and associates, Guns and Roses traces O'Banion's rise from Illinois farm boy to the most powerful gang boss in early 1920s Chicago. It examines his role in the Irish-Sicilian clashes that rocked the North Side circa 1890-1910, his years as a slugger for William Randolph Hearst during the city's newspaper wars, and his turbulent relationship with "Scarface Al" Capone as the two gang bosses battled for supremacy.

Guns and Roses also shines a spotlight on many of Chicago's elite, among them Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson and playwright Charles MacArthur (The Front Page), as well as such underworld luminaries as dapper Johnny Torrio, "Bloody" Angelo Genna, "Big Jim" Colosimo, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "the Schemer" Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran, the latter of whom barely escaped the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Of particular interest are O'Banion's notorious "handshake murder" ordered by the Capone, Torrio, and Genna factions and the bloody war for gangland supremacy that was sparked by his death and gave the city its reputation for violence. An enigmatic character, O'Banion was a powerful gang boss who could crack skulls as brutally as his henchmen, but he also supported entire North Side slums with his charity. While he had few gangster allies, the charismatic criminal inspired fanatical loyalty among his own men, who mourned his murder and sought violent revenge against those who ordered it. The product of fifteen years of research, Guns and Roses is as much a stroll through the history of Chicago as it is a chronicle of one of its premier underworld icons.

Tweet

Marcello's Loose Lips Result in Arrest of US Marshall

Friends of ours: Michael Marcello, James Marcello, Nicholas Calabrese

Reputed U.S. Mob boss Michael Marcello apparently didn’t watch crime shows on television - otherwise he might have known the FBI often listens in to conversations in prison visitors rooms.

In 2003, the unsuspecting Marcello dropped broad hints about his source inside the U.S. Marshals Service during visits to his brother in the prison in Milan, Michigan.
FBI agents heard every word about the man Marcello called "The Babysitter." As a result, Deputy marshal John Thomas Ambrose surrendered on Thursday to FBI agents who say he was the source who told Marcello secrets about a federally protected witness.

"This defendant’s conduct in revealing closely guarded and highly sensitive information ... constitutes an egregious breach of his law enforcement duties," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary S. Shapiro.

Ambrose is accused of leaking information about the whereabouts of reputed mobster Nicholas Calabrese, a key witness in a murder conspiracy case. Fourteen reputed mobsters and their associates are charged with at least 18 murders. Ambrose appeared briefly before a judge who scheduled a hearing for Jan. 30. Defense attorney Francis C. Lipuma told reporters that his client denied the accusations. "John Ambrose is not connected to the mob at all," Lipuma said.

Prosecutors said that between January and June 2003 they intercepted 11 conversations that took place when Michael Marcello visited his brother, James, at the Michigan prison.

Tweet