Virtually every story about the Family Secrets trial now winding down in Federal Court refers to the local organized crime network as "The Outfit."
At some point recently the name started sounding odd to me -- how did a term normally associated with clothing come to refer to a vicious conglomerate of thugs and killers? Is it a media creation, or something mob guys use in referring to their enterprise?
I put the question to John J. Binder, a professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of "The Chicago Outfit" (Arcadia Publishing, 2003). It was a topic he had researched, he said:
"`Outfit' shows up frequently in the literature of the old west to describe groups of men on a ranch or on a cattle drive," he said.
The idea being that, ideally, such a group works together in a coordinated way, much like a full outfit of clothing works together when one is well dressed, Binder said.
The word was used in a similar way in the military at least as early as World War I, Binder said: "Your squad, your unit, your outfit...same difference," he said. And the same idea: "Not a disorganized gaggle of people, but a coordinated outfit," Binder said.
Early bootleggers ran in what the media commonly referred to as "gangs," Binder said. But in Chicago after the end of prohibition, these gangs consolidated and began referring informally to their enterprise as "`our outfit,' lower case o," Binder said.
This evolved into "`The Outfit,' upper-case o," Binder said, and became as something of a code word. It was and remains a distinctly Chicago term for what elsewhere goes by "the mob," "the syndicate," "the arm" (in Buffalo) and various Italianate names.
Yet Binder said his research leads him to suspect that Outfit guys stopped saying "Outfit" in around the early 1960s when the media started using it so much it lost any value it might have had as a code word.
"I you ever hear someone claim to be `in the Outfit' or `close to the Outfit,' he's a wanna-be," Binder said.
Try that on for size.
Thanks to Eric Zorn
Monday, September 03, 2007
Do you believe "The Clown" or an admitted hit man?
Jurors will have to decide when they begin deliberations Tuesday in Chicago's biggest mob trial in years. They got the case Thursday night after prosecutors made a last pitch to sway them to believe the testimony of their star witness, admitted hit man Nicholas Calabrese.
Defense lawyers have pegged Calabrese as "a walking piece of deception" whose testimony shouldn't be believed, even suggesting that if Calabrese says it's raining, someone ought to go outside to check. But prosecutors say it's the five men on trial who can't be believed, including reputed mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, whose lawyers have claimed he turned his back on the mob long ago and therefore isn't part of the illegal activity prosecutors allege.
"Lombardo's word is no good," prosecutor Mitchell Mars told jurors. Mars tossed off Lombardo's so-called withdrawal defense saying, "he withdrew from nothing."
Lombardo, 78, and the others are accused in a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly includes 18 long-unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion tied to the Outfit, as Chicago's organized crime family is known.
The other defendants are reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62; and convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, who is Nicholas Calabrese's brother.
The trial started in June and prosecutors wrapped up the final two hours of the rebuttal portion of their closing arguments on Thursday.
Prosecutors have used Nicholas Calabrese's testimony to link all but Doyle to the scene of at least one murder. Save up to 60% in the Geek Outlet Today!
Calabrese agreed to blab mob secrets to avoid the death penalty after his DNA was matched to blood on a glove at a 1986 murder scene, defense attorneys say. During the trial, he has admitted to taking part in about a dozen of the killings laid out in the indictment.
Marcello's attorney Marc Martin has accused Calabrese of inventing a tale about the most high-profile homicide in the case "because he felt he had to solve the crime to get his deal to save his life."
That's the killing of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was beaten to death along with his brother, Michael, in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield. Tony Spilotro, known as the mob's man in Las Vegas, was the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the 1995 movie "Casino." In the film, Pesci's character was beaten with bats and buried alive.
Calabrese testified that Michael Spilotro was strangled and died quickly, leaving behind only a spot of blood.
Mars told jurors Calabrese doesn't have to account for any lack of blood at the scene, but he explained that the fatal injuries were internal and didn't break the skin.
Mars also told jurors Calabrese didn't immediately give up Marcello when he began cooperating with federal officials because Marcello was paying him $4,000 a month to keep his mouth shut. "That's what he was paid to do," Mars said.
Thanks to Deanna Bellandi
Defense lawyers have pegged Calabrese as "a walking piece of deception" whose testimony shouldn't be believed, even suggesting that if Calabrese says it's raining, someone ought to go outside to check. But prosecutors say it's the five men on trial who can't be believed, including reputed mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, whose lawyers have claimed he turned his back on the mob long ago and therefore isn't part of the illegal activity prosecutors allege.
"Lombardo's word is no good," prosecutor Mitchell Mars told jurors. Mars tossed off Lombardo's so-called withdrawal defense saying, "he withdrew from nothing."
Lombardo, 78, and the others are accused in a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly includes 18 long-unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion tied to the Outfit, as Chicago's organized crime family is known.
The other defendants are reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62; and convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70, who is Nicholas Calabrese's brother.
The trial started in June and prosecutors wrapped up the final two hours of the rebuttal portion of their closing arguments on Thursday.
Prosecutors have used Nicholas Calabrese's testimony to link all but Doyle to the scene of at least one murder. Save up to 60% in the Geek Outlet Today!
Calabrese agreed to blab mob secrets to avoid the death penalty after his DNA was matched to blood on a glove at a 1986 murder scene, defense attorneys say. During the trial, he has admitted to taking part in about a dozen of the killings laid out in the indictment.
Marcello's attorney Marc Martin has accused Calabrese of inventing a tale about the most high-profile homicide in the case "because he felt he had to solve the crime to get his deal to save his life."
That's the killing of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was beaten to death along with his brother, Michael, in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield. Tony Spilotro, known as the mob's man in Las Vegas, was the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in the 1995 movie "Casino." In the film, Pesci's character was beaten with bats and buried alive.
Calabrese testified that Michael Spilotro was strangled and died quickly, leaving behind only a spot of blood.
Mars told jurors Calabrese doesn't have to account for any lack of blood at the scene, but he explained that the fatal injuries were internal and didn't break the skin.
Mars also told jurors Calabrese didn't immediately give up Marcello when he began cooperating with federal officials because Marcello was paying him $4,000 a month to keep his mouth shut. "That's what he was paid to do," Mars said.
Thanks to Deanna Bellandi
"We're Here to Kill the Spilotros" T-Shirts
Alleged top mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo is still part of the Chicago Outfit because he lied from the witness stand to protect the organization, a federal prosecutor said Thursday in the government's final argument in the Family Secrets trial.
Lombardo, at 78, is arguing he has long retired from any mob activities and should not be convicted of taking part in any recent mob conspiracy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars said Lombardo "dummied up" on the witness stand when asked about the Outfit.
Lombardo, at 78, is arguing he has long retired from any mob activities and should not be convicted of taking part in any recent mob conspiracy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars said Lombardo "dummied up" on the witness stand when asked about the Outfit.
"Outfit? Doesn't know anything about that," Mars said.
After Mars finished his rebuttal argument, the jury got the case and will begin deliberations on Tuesday, taking the holiday weekend off.
"I submit to you it's now time to hold accountable four defendants, Lombardo, Marcello, Calabrese and Schiro, who've gotten away with murder for far too long," Mars told the jury, referring to alleged mob bosses Lombardo and James Marcello, alleged mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr. and the Outfit's reputed man in Phoenix, Paul Schiro. In all, the government alleges 18 mob murders in the indictment.
Mars also asked the jury to convict retired Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of trying to help his friend Calabrese Sr. learn the identity of a mob snitch. Doyle is not accused of any of the murders.
In his argument, Mars focused on Lombardo and his alleged participation in the murder of Daniel Seifert in 1974. Seifert was a businessman who was to testify against Lombardo in a Teamster pension fund fraud case. But when Seifert was executed, the case against Lombardo was dropped.
Mars presented 17 reasons why Lombardo should be convicted in Seifert's murder, from Lombardo's fingerprint being found on a title application for a car used in the murder, to trial testimony from Seifert's brother, who said Lombardo warned him to straighten out his brother in the weeks before the murder.
Mars also attacked a defense argument involving the murders of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro in 1986.
The government's star witness, confessed mob hitman Nicholas Calabrese, the brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., said he was one of about a dozen mob killers who pounced on the Spilotro brothers as they descended into the basement of a Bensenville area home.
Nicholas Calabrese said all the killers were wearing gloves. Defense attorneys pounced on that detail to bolster their argument Calabrese was never there. They argued the killers wouldn't have worn gloves because it would have been a dead giveaway to the Spilotros that they were about to be killed. But Mars said the Spilotros had no time to react when they were jumped and beaten to death when they entered the basement.
"Everybody could have worn T-shirts saying, 'We're here to kill the Spilotros.' They weren't getting out of the house alive," Mars said.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Lombardo, at 78, is arguing he has long retired from any mob activities and should not be convicted of taking part in any recent mob conspiracy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars said Lombardo "dummied up" on the witness stand when asked about the Outfit.
Lombardo, at 78, is arguing he has long retired from any mob activities and should not be convicted of taking part in any recent mob conspiracy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars said Lombardo "dummied up" on the witness stand when asked about the Outfit.
"Outfit? Doesn't know anything about that," Mars said.
After Mars finished his rebuttal argument, the jury got the case and will begin deliberations on Tuesday, taking the holiday weekend off.
"I submit to you it's now time to hold accountable four defendants, Lombardo, Marcello, Calabrese and Schiro, who've gotten away with murder for far too long," Mars told the jury, referring to alleged mob bosses Lombardo and James Marcello, alleged mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr. and the Outfit's reputed man in Phoenix, Paul Schiro. In all, the government alleges 18 mob murders in the indictment.
Mars also asked the jury to convict retired Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of trying to help his friend Calabrese Sr. learn the identity of a mob snitch. Doyle is not accused of any of the murders.
In his argument, Mars focused on Lombardo and his alleged participation in the murder of Daniel Seifert in 1974. Seifert was a businessman who was to testify against Lombardo in a Teamster pension fund fraud case. But when Seifert was executed, the case against Lombardo was dropped.
Mars presented 17 reasons why Lombardo should be convicted in Seifert's murder, from Lombardo's fingerprint being found on a title application for a car used in the murder, to trial testimony from Seifert's brother, who said Lombardo warned him to straighten out his brother in the weeks before the murder.
Mars also attacked a defense argument involving the murders of mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro in 1986.
The government's star witness, confessed mob hitman Nicholas Calabrese, the brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., said he was one of about a dozen mob killers who pounced on the Spilotro brothers as they descended into the basement of a Bensenville area home.
Nicholas Calabrese said all the killers were wearing gloves. Defense attorneys pounced on that detail to bolster their argument Calabrese was never there. They argued the killers wouldn't have worn gloves because it would have been a dead giveaway to the Spilotros that they were about to be killed. But Mars said the Spilotros had no time to react when they were jumped and beaten to death when they entered the basement.
"Everybody could have worn T-shirts saying, 'We're here to kill the Spilotros.' They weren't getting out of the house alive," Mars said.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Juror Communication Subject of Secret Hearing
There was a secret court hearing in the Family Secrets case that was closed to the public. The contents are under seal. But the Chicago Sun-Times learned it involved a juror in the case. The hearing caused the trial to start late Thursday, just before 3 p.m. Court is supposed to start at 9:30 a.m.
So what was the issue?
It did not involve someone trying to tamper with the juror, according to people familiar with the situation. It apparently involved some communication the juror made.
U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel, who by all accounts did an excellent job presiding over the trial, said he would unseal the matter after the trial is over.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
So what was the issue?
It did not involve someone trying to tamper with the juror, according to people familiar with the situation. It apparently involved some communication the juror made.
U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel, who by all accounts did an excellent job presiding over the trial, said he would unseal the matter after the trial is over.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
'He would shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli'
For jurors who have sat through a summer in Courtroom 2525 listening to testimony from more than 100 witnesses, the contrast couldn't have been starker on Wednesday.
The defense attorney, wearing a hypnotic pink-and-black checkered tie, reveled in his role as the mob lawyer, talking loudly about constitutional rights and the American Revolution. He blasted the government's case, contending the FBI could stand for "Forever Bothering Italians" and calling the prosecution's star witness a bald-faced liar who "would shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli."
And then there was the federal prosecutor, standing at the lectern in a dark, conservative suit as he spoke with barely controlled anger. He told the jury that the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the case stretched over 40 years and illustrated the cruelty of a ruthless Outfit that "survived and prospered at the expense of who knows how many victims."
The defense lawyer, Joseph Lopez, ripped star witness Nicholas Calabrese as a crybaby and "a walking piece of deception." Not so, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars, who defended Calabrese as a product of the city's underworld, an Outfit soldier who had been forthright about "a very horrible life."
The dueling closing arguments in the Family Secrets conspiracy trial came as the jury is set to begin deliberations as soon as Thursday.
Mars, the longtime chief of the organized-crime unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, will wrap up his closing argument Thursday, and U.S. District Judge James Zagel, presiding over the landmark trial, will then instruct the jury.
Lopez represents Frank Calabrese Sr., an accused mob hit man alleged to have taken part in 13 of the murders. His brother, the star witness, and his son both cooperated against Calabrese, giving the case its Operation Family Secrets code name.
As he delivered his remarks, Lopez circled in front of the jury, looking up at his slick PowerPoint presentation, replete with cartoon characters, including a bawling infant. He urged the jury to remember that his client was cloaked in innocence "like Casper the Friendly Ghost" and that the jury system was the product of "bloodshed on American soil."
"Don't forget Valley Forge, where George Washington marched his troops on bleeding feet," he said.
The case amounts to a family feud, Lopez said, featuring Nicholas "the grim reaper" Calabrese and "I cannot do time" Frank Calabrese Jr., his client's wayward son. Jurors can keep or throw out whatever evidence they want, he said, piecing information together "just like putting something together from IKEA."
Lopez reminded jurors that from the witness stand, Nicholas Calabrese never looked them or his brother in the face, instead he stared straight ahead. Lopez assailed Nicholas Calabrese, saying he hated his brother and refused to take real responsibility for the 14 murders to which he admitted by trying to claim he was under his brother's thumb. When times got tough, Lopez said, Calabrese cried to "Mommy FBI."
On his turn, Mars credited Nicholas Calabrese for lifting the veil on many of the 18 murders, giving closure to victims' families and defended his credibility. "The issue is not whether you like Nicholas Calabrese," the prosecutor said. "That's not why we're here. The issue is whether you believe him."
Mars told jurors to remember Calabrese's demeanor on the witness stand, saying he wasn't reading off a prepared script.
Calabrese provided his best memory, Mars said, unlike Frank Calabrese Sr. or Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who took the stand in their own defense and told jurors that they only acted like mobsters.
Frank Calabrese Sr. "told nothing but lies," Mars said, citing testimony in which he claimed he admitted to some murders to impress his son, who, unbeknownst to him, wore a wire for the government as the two talked in prison.
When he testified in July, Nicholas Calabrese was subjected to rigorous questioning by "some of the best cross-examiners in town," Mars said. "They did not catch him in a lie, much to their chagrin."
Frank Calabrese Sr. was captured on hours of recordings discussing seven of the murders in the case and describing events that were unknown to the public, Mars said. That should be a truth-detector when it comes to Nicholas Calabrese's account and whether he was just building a story around things he had heard, he said.
In fact, Mars said, Nicholas Calabrese has never heard the undercover tapes to this day. It would have to be "by the purest of coincidences that [each brother] lied in exactly the same way," he said.
Lopez attacked the government case for presenting no physical evidence, no DNA evidence linking his client to any murder and no fibers, hairs or fingerprints.
Both brothers are simply boasting for their own reasons, Lopez said.
Frank Calabrese Sr. told the truth when he testified that he was just in the business of street loans and had a mobbed-up partner, Lopez said. Calabrese had a job that put money into the hands of those involved in organized crime, he said, and they would not risk involving him in violence. "You don't put the earner out on the street to catch the arrow," he said.
The jury should blame Frank Calabrese Jr. for dragging his father into damaging conversations, Lopez maintained. The son asked the father questions about life in the Outfit, Lopez said, and Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't want to look like a chump by denying it. The tapes are simply two men trying to "out B.S." each other, he said.
Two other defense closing arguments also took place Wednesday.
Attorney Paul Wagner, who represents reputed mob figure Paul "the Indian" Schiro, said a lying Nicholas Calabrese provided the main evidence against his client, too, fingering him for killing witness Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986. Ralph Meczyk the lawyer for former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, said his client was only helping a friend when he gave police information to Frank Calabrese Sr. But Lopez and Mars couldn't even agree on whether the criminal enterprise known as the Outfit, the basis for the key racketeering charge, existed in many of the years outlined in the case.
Mars said Nicholas Calabrese acted—and killed—on behalf of that enterprise. Lopez called it a myth and said the only enterprise he is aware of was "the Starship Enterprise."
Even the infamous "Last Supper photo" of reputed mob leaders sitting around a table in an Italian restaurant depicted just a bunch of "grumpy old men drinking Corvo," Lopez said. "The enterprise died with them on the last clam," he said.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
The defense attorney, wearing a hypnotic pink-and-black checkered tie, reveled in his role as the mob lawyer, talking loudly about constitutional rights and the American Revolution. He blasted the government's case, contending the FBI could stand for "Forever Bothering Italians" and calling the prosecution's star witness a bald-faced liar who "would shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli."
And then there was the federal prosecutor, standing at the lectern in a dark, conservative suit as he spoke with barely controlled anger. He told the jury that the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the case stretched over 40 years and illustrated the cruelty of a ruthless Outfit that "survived and prospered at the expense of who knows how many victims."
The defense lawyer, Joseph Lopez, ripped star witness Nicholas Calabrese as a crybaby and "a walking piece of deception." Not so, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars, who defended Calabrese as a product of the city's underworld, an Outfit soldier who had been forthright about "a very horrible life."
The dueling closing arguments in the Family Secrets conspiracy trial came as the jury is set to begin deliberations as soon as Thursday.
Mars, the longtime chief of the organized-crime unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, will wrap up his closing argument Thursday, and U.S. District Judge James Zagel, presiding over the landmark trial, will then instruct the jury.
Lopez represents Frank Calabrese Sr., an accused mob hit man alleged to have taken part in 13 of the murders. His brother, the star witness, and his son both cooperated against Calabrese, giving the case its Operation Family Secrets code name.
As he delivered his remarks, Lopez circled in front of the jury, looking up at his slick PowerPoint presentation, replete with cartoon characters, including a bawling infant. He urged the jury to remember that his client was cloaked in innocence "like Casper the Friendly Ghost" and that the jury system was the product of "bloodshed on American soil."
"Don't forget Valley Forge, where George Washington marched his troops on bleeding feet," he said.
The case amounts to a family feud, Lopez said, featuring Nicholas "the grim reaper" Calabrese and "I cannot do time" Frank Calabrese Jr., his client's wayward son. Jurors can keep or throw out whatever evidence they want, he said, piecing information together "just like putting something together from IKEA."
Lopez reminded jurors that from the witness stand, Nicholas Calabrese never looked them or his brother in the face, instead he stared straight ahead. Lopez assailed Nicholas Calabrese, saying he hated his brother and refused to take real responsibility for the 14 murders to which he admitted by trying to claim he was under his brother's thumb. When times got tough, Lopez said, Calabrese cried to "Mommy FBI."
On his turn, Mars credited Nicholas Calabrese for lifting the veil on many of the 18 murders, giving closure to victims' families and defended his credibility. "The issue is not whether you like Nicholas Calabrese," the prosecutor said. "That's not why we're here. The issue is whether you believe him."
Mars told jurors to remember Calabrese's demeanor on the witness stand, saying he wasn't reading off a prepared script.
Calabrese provided his best memory, Mars said, unlike Frank Calabrese Sr. or Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who took the stand in their own defense and told jurors that they only acted like mobsters.
Frank Calabrese Sr. "told nothing but lies," Mars said, citing testimony in which he claimed he admitted to some murders to impress his son, who, unbeknownst to him, wore a wire for the government as the two talked in prison.
When he testified in July, Nicholas Calabrese was subjected to rigorous questioning by "some of the best cross-examiners in town," Mars said. "They did not catch him in a lie, much to their chagrin."
Frank Calabrese Sr. was captured on hours of recordings discussing seven of the murders in the case and describing events that were unknown to the public, Mars said. That should be a truth-detector when it comes to Nicholas Calabrese's account and whether he was just building a story around things he had heard, he said.
In fact, Mars said, Nicholas Calabrese has never heard the undercover tapes to this day. It would have to be "by the purest of coincidences that [each brother] lied in exactly the same way," he said.
Lopez attacked the government case for presenting no physical evidence, no DNA evidence linking his client to any murder and no fibers, hairs or fingerprints.
Both brothers are simply boasting for their own reasons, Lopez said.
Frank Calabrese Sr. told the truth when he testified that he was just in the business of street loans and had a mobbed-up partner, Lopez said. Calabrese had a job that put money into the hands of those involved in organized crime, he said, and they would not risk involving him in violence. "You don't put the earner out on the street to catch the arrow," he said.
The jury should blame Frank Calabrese Jr. for dragging his father into damaging conversations, Lopez maintained. The son asked the father questions about life in the Outfit, Lopez said, and Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't want to look like a chump by denying it. The tapes are simply two men trying to "out B.S." each other, he said.
Two other defense closing arguments also took place Wednesday.
Attorney Paul Wagner, who represents reputed mob figure Paul "the Indian" Schiro, said a lying Nicholas Calabrese provided the main evidence against his client, too, fingering him for killing witness Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986. Ralph Meczyk the lawyer for former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, said his client was only helping a friend when he gave police information to Frank Calabrese Sr. But Lopez and Mars couldn't even agree on whether the criminal enterprise known as the Outfit, the basis for the key racketeering charge, existed in many of the years outlined in the case.
Mars said Nicholas Calabrese acted—and killed—on behalf of that enterprise. Lopez called it a myth and said the only enterprise he is aware of was "the Starship Enterprise."
Even the infamous "Last Supper photo" of reputed mob leaders sitting around a table in an Italian restaurant depicted just a bunch of "grumpy old men drinking Corvo," Lopez said. "The enterprise died with them on the last clam," he said.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
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