Chicago Outfit hit man turned star government witness Nicholas Calabrese, who killed at least 14 men and wet his pants on his first murder assignment near Sox Park decades ago, stood in court to talk about fear.
"I chose my path in life," he told U.S. District Judge James Zagel before he was sentenced as the last man in the historic mob prosecution known as Family Secrets. "I was always with fear, and underneath that fear, there was a coward."
Not the Hollywood image of the Outfit hit man, but then Hollywood has always glamorized the mob. American audiences, so numbed by living in an increasingly bureaucratic culture, demand recognizable archetypes to fulfill escapist fantasies. It's Tony Soprano they want, the politically incorrect and unrepentant white guy who takes what he wants. But that's Hollywood, and Nick Calabrese is from Chicago, and he testified to wetting himself as a grown man, when he strangled Bones Albergo years ago with his brother Frank.
He's been afraid since he was a kid, afraid of Frank, afraid of failing at his work. That fear forced him to become meticulous in his planning of murders, so fussy about details that he sounded more like a grandmother at a quilting convention than some archetypal gangster.
That fear led him to become the first "made man" ever to testify against the Outfit, in the most significant prosecution of the mob in modern Chicago's history.
Outfit bosses Frank Calabrese, Joseph Lombardo and James Marcello have been sentenced, as have enforcer Paul Schiro and Chicago cop Anthony "Twan" Doyle. On Thursday it was Nick Calabrese's turn.
The families of his victims came up first, testifying tearfully about fathers who were shotgunned or strangled or tortured, never to see their kids grow up, graduate, marry and start their own families. Some wept, others spat out their hatred at Calabrese, and all asked Zagel to let him rot in prison.
It would have been the easy thing to do. Yet Zagel's job isn't about emotion, but rather about logic and the law, and he began to speak slowly, eloquently about leniency.
Not leniency to Calabrese, but leniency to all the other families of other victims unknown, future victims of other killers who might receive some small measure of justice if the law showed some mercy on Calabrese, to persuade men like him to testify in court.
"There is a phrase used in state courts, when individuals are charged with murder: 'Against the peace and dignity of the people of the state of Illinois,' " Zagel said. "And murder is a kind of war, and the organization you are involved in engages in that war, with faction against faction, and against the people."
Zagel noted that in another federal courtroom in April, Deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose will go on trial for allegedly being an Outfit messenger, guarding Calabrese and sending the bosses information about murder sites visited by Calabrese and FBI agents when the investigation began.
I wrote about the beginning of Family Secrets before it was called Family Secrets, back on Feb. 21, 2003, when Calabrese was quietly swept into the federal witness protection program, when the Outfit began to tremble, and I listed some of the murders that would be solved. I knew the Outfit bosses were worried. What I didn't know was how easily they could penetrate the federal shield.
The Outfit "will not forgive or relent in their pursuit of you," Zagel said to Calabrese, adding that even when he's a free man, Calabrese will never draw a secure breath.
He was sentenced to 148 months in prison, but given the time he's already served, Calabrese will be out in about four years. He should be available to testify in other trials.
Without Calabrese's testimony, there would have been no prosecution, and the big bosses would be out on the street, ordering hits, spreading corruption, sending their political errand boys to carry messages to local governments.
Watching him sitting at the defense table, an old man in jeans, glasses and a gray sweat shirt, trying to keep his lips from quivering and losing, it became clear that while the Chicago Outfit relies upon corrupt politicians to protect it, the Outfit was built on what was obvious in Nick Calabrese's eyes:
Fear.
Thanks to John Kass
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Mob Hit Man Nick Calabrese, Admitted Killer of 14, Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison
It was a judgment day like none Chicago has ever seen.
Mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese, the admitted killer of 14 people, stood before a judge Thursday as the only made member of the Chicago Outfit ever to testify against his superiors. His cooperation solved some of the Chicago area's most notorious gangland killings and sent three mob leaders away for life.
Weighing Calabrese's terrible crimes against his unprecedented testimony in the Family Secrets trial, a federal judge sentenced him to just 12 years and 4 months behind bars, leaving relatives of Calabrese's many victims outraged and distraught.
One widow, Charlene Moravecek, collapsed moments after leaving the courtroom and was taken from the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on a stretcher. She had earlier glared at Calabrese in court and called him "the devil."
Anthony Ortiz, whose father, Richard, was shot to death by Calabrese outside a Cicero bar, called the sentence pathetic. "To me, that's a serial killer," Ortiz said of Calabrese. "That's less than a year for every person that he killed."
Making the sentence even harder for the families to swallow is the likelihood that Calabrese, 66, will be released from prison in as little as four years. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he must serve 85 percent of his sentence, but Calabrese has been incarcerated in connection with the Family Secrets case since November 2002.
Bob D'Andrea, the son of mobster Nicholas D'Andrea, whom Calabrese admitted beating with a baseball bat, said he expected the judge to be somewhat lenient. But Calabrese won't receive his ultimate penalty in this life, he said. "If he believes in God, he knows what he has coming," D'Andrea said.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who had to balance rewarding Calabrese for his extraordinary cooperation with punishing him for the 14 murders, knew his decision wouldn't be acceptable to many relatives of the victims. He spoke directly to them in a slow, deliberate tone.
"None of this happened without Nicholas Calabrese," Zagel said of the landmark Family Secrets prosecution. The judge reminded the crowded courtroom that Calabrese had given families some sense of closure. Zagel said he also had to consider that other would-be mob turncoats must be given some incentive to provide information too.
Federal prosecutors left the sentence to Zagel's discretion but later expressed support for his decision. However, "pure justice" would have required that Calabrese be imprisoned for the rest of his life, said First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro.
Shapiro, a veteran mob-fighter, noted that Chicago has been "the toughest nut to crack" in the U.S. when it comes to turning mob insiders. "Here Judge Zagel has sent the word out that if you do what Nick Calabrese has done, you have the chance of not spending the rest of your life in prison," he said.
With images of many of his 14 victims flashing on a screen just a few feet away, Calabrese had refused to even look that way. He instead stared down at the empty defense table looking like he was trying not to cry.
Wearing a plain gray shirt and jeans, he finally walked to the lectern with a slight limp. He apologized for his wrongdoing and said he thinks about his crimes all of the time. "I can't go back and undo what I done," he told Zagel as his wife and children looked on. "I stand before you a different man, a changed man."
Calabrese's testimony had riveted Chicago in summer 2007 as he pulled back the curtain on murder after murder. He testified about wetting his pants during his first killing, fatally shooting friend and hit man John Fecarotta and taking part in the notorious slayings of Las Vegas mob chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael. At trial, five men were convicted, including mob bosses James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr. Four of them were linked to 18 murders in all.
All of the victims' family members who addressed Zagel in court Thursday said they understood the significance of what Calabrese had done, but they still said they wanted him to pay fully. They recounted years of heartbreak, with the men violently taken from them missing holidays, weddings and births.
"I have waited half a life for the chance to come face to face with the person responsible for my father's death," said Janet Ortiz, the daughter of Richard Ortiz.
Peggy Cagnoni, whose husband, businessman Michael Cagnoni, was killed in a car-bombing on the Tri-State Tollway that Calabrese had said took a hit team months to pull off, called Calabrese "the ultimate killer."
"I feel you are truly heartless and deserve no mercy," she said. "You got caught in a trap and had nowhere to go."
Calabrese had decided to cooperate after investigators confronted him in 2002 with DNA evidence taken from a pair of bloody gloves he dropped while leaving the scene of the Fecarotta homicide in 1986.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk called Calabrese a "walking, breathing paradox." Funk acknowledged that the unassuming Calabrese could sometimes be a cold, robotic killer but said he had shown remorse and had done as much or more than anyone before him to damage the Outfit.
Calabrese's lawyer, John Theis, sought a sentence of less than 8 years in prison, which effectively would have meant his immediate release. Calabrese will forever live in fear, Theis said, but should be given the chance to once again be with his family.
Zagel said he doubts Calabrese will ever truly be free. No matter how long he lives or in what protected place it will be, Calabrese will always have to look over his shoulder. "The organization whose existence you testified to will not forgive or relent in their pursuit of you," he said.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese, the admitted killer of 14 people, stood before a judge Thursday as the only made member of the Chicago Outfit ever to testify against his superiors. His cooperation solved some of the Chicago area's most notorious gangland killings and sent three mob leaders away for life.
Weighing Calabrese's terrible crimes against his unprecedented testimony in the Family Secrets trial, a federal judge sentenced him to just 12 years and 4 months behind bars, leaving relatives of Calabrese's many victims outraged and distraught.
One widow, Charlene Moravecek, collapsed moments after leaving the courtroom and was taken from the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on a stretcher. She had earlier glared at Calabrese in court and called him "the devil."
Anthony Ortiz, whose father, Richard, was shot to death by Calabrese outside a Cicero bar, called the sentence pathetic. "To me, that's a serial killer," Ortiz said of Calabrese. "That's less than a year for every person that he killed."
Making the sentence even harder for the families to swallow is the likelihood that Calabrese, 66, will be released from prison in as little as four years. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he must serve 85 percent of his sentence, but Calabrese has been incarcerated in connection with the Family Secrets case since November 2002.
Bob D'Andrea, the son of mobster Nicholas D'Andrea, whom Calabrese admitted beating with a baseball bat, said he expected the judge to be somewhat lenient. But Calabrese won't receive his ultimate penalty in this life, he said. "If he believes in God, he knows what he has coming," D'Andrea said.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel, who had to balance rewarding Calabrese for his extraordinary cooperation with punishing him for the 14 murders, knew his decision wouldn't be acceptable to many relatives of the victims. He spoke directly to them in a slow, deliberate tone.
"None of this happened without Nicholas Calabrese," Zagel said of the landmark Family Secrets prosecution. The judge reminded the crowded courtroom that Calabrese had given families some sense of closure. Zagel said he also had to consider that other would-be mob turncoats must be given some incentive to provide information too.
Federal prosecutors left the sentence to Zagel's discretion but later expressed support for his decision. However, "pure justice" would have required that Calabrese be imprisoned for the rest of his life, said First Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Shapiro.
Shapiro, a veteran mob-fighter, noted that Chicago has been "the toughest nut to crack" in the U.S. when it comes to turning mob insiders. "Here Judge Zagel has sent the word out that if you do what Nick Calabrese has done, you have the chance of not spending the rest of your life in prison," he said.
With images of many of his 14 victims flashing on a screen just a few feet away, Calabrese had refused to even look that way. He instead stared down at the empty defense table looking like he was trying not to cry.
Wearing a plain gray shirt and jeans, he finally walked to the lectern with a slight limp. He apologized for his wrongdoing and said he thinks about his crimes all of the time. "I can't go back and undo what I done," he told Zagel as his wife and children looked on. "I stand before you a different man, a changed man."
Calabrese's testimony had riveted Chicago in summer 2007 as he pulled back the curtain on murder after murder. He testified about wetting his pants during his first killing, fatally shooting friend and hit man John Fecarotta and taking part in the notorious slayings of Las Vegas mob chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael. At trial, five men were convicted, including mob bosses James Marcello, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo and his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr. Four of them were linked to 18 murders in all.
All of the victims' family members who addressed Zagel in court Thursday said they understood the significance of what Calabrese had done, but they still said they wanted him to pay fully. They recounted years of heartbreak, with the men violently taken from them missing holidays, weddings and births.
"I have waited half a life for the chance to come face to face with the person responsible for my father's death," said Janet Ortiz, the daughter of Richard Ortiz.
Peggy Cagnoni, whose husband, businessman Michael Cagnoni, was killed in a car-bombing on the Tri-State Tollway that Calabrese had said took a hit team months to pull off, called Calabrese "the ultimate killer."
"I feel you are truly heartless and deserve no mercy," she said. "You got caught in a trap and had nowhere to go."
Calabrese had decided to cooperate after investigators confronted him in 2002 with DNA evidence taken from a pair of bloody gloves he dropped while leaving the scene of the Fecarotta homicide in 1986.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk called Calabrese a "walking, breathing paradox." Funk acknowledged that the unassuming Calabrese could sometimes be a cold, robotic killer but said he had shown remorse and had done as much or more than anyone before him to damage the Outfit.
Calabrese's lawyer, John Theis, sought a sentence of less than 8 years in prison, which effectively would have meant his immediate release. Calabrese will forever live in fear, Theis said, but should be given the chance to once again be with his family.
Zagel said he doubts Calabrese will ever truly be free. No matter how long he lives or in what protected place it will be, Calabrese will always have to look over his shoulder. "The organization whose existence you testified to will not forgive or relent in their pursuit of you," he said.
Thanks to Jeff Coen
Voters Have to Be Active to End Corruption and Clout in Illinois
Illinois is the punch line of lots of jokes. What's the difference between a prostitute and an Illinois governor? A prostitute has a 10 percent chance of being indicted, 40 percent less than the governor. People are not laughing at our governors. They are laughing at us. When are we going to start doing our jobs instead of waiting for the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI to clean up our mess?
Good job, again U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald on the trial of former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez. Assistant U.S. attorneys and FBI agents proved once again that governmental bodies in Illinois too often work for those in power and not for the people.
The case of the prison-bound former City Hall patronage chief, Robert Sorich, was the same story. Honest and qualified applicants for City Hall jobs did not have a chance if they weren't connected. The hiring system was wired. Elaborate schemes were created to cover up the charade. Job interviews for the cloutless turned into interrogations. Outstanding reviews were ginned up for those who were connected. Bad government.
But is jailing those who implement bad governmental practices the answer? Are federal prosecutions the road to good government?
Certainly, there are crimes from which we need federal law enforcement to protect us. Assistant U.S. Attys. Gary Shapiro and the late itchell Mars and many others have pounded the Chicago mob and literally shifted the balance of power from the tyranny of the Tommy Gun to the rule of law. The people could not do that alone. The feds have also taken on the gangs in Chicago. To be sure, the public has a key role to play in keeping our kids out of gangs and not buying their life's blood: drugs. But Chicago gangs are too well-armed and organized for ordinary citizens alone to topple. We need the U.S. attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law enforcement and others to help us.
There is a fundamental difference between public corruption on the one hand and gangs and the mob on the other: We choose corrupt public officials. We hand them the combination to the bank vault. Impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not change his stripes immediately upon being re-elected. We knew who and what he was. Way before the second election, headlines of this paper detailed allegations of corruption.
Even the Safe Roads investigation broke before George Ryan was elected governor. (Yes, the U.S. attorney's office appropriately announced Ryan was not then a subject of the investigation, because he wasn't, but that is hardly an endorsement.) That Ryan was an old-time, pay-to-play pol was the worst-kept secret, even in Illinois. We once again looked the other way and chose him as our governor.
Public corruption is insidious because it crushes our faith in the system we hold dear. When those we choose use the power we lend them for their own selfish purposes, we throw up our hands and say the system is broken.
That is the easy but wrong conclusion. The system isn't broken. The system is the best in the world. Democracy is not just a concept; it is the right to choose. We fought and fight wars for democracy to triumph. Courageous African-Americans in the too recent past withstood fire hoses, beatings and worse for the cherished right to vote. Too often, we in Illinois have squandered our votes. As long as we elect the most effective fundraisers, we are destined to give power to those who provide the funds. As long as we equate "he's honest" with "he's ineffective" we will continue to get what we deserve.
Our U.S. attorney's office is the best in the nation at fighting public corruption. From Greylord, to the 1st Ward, to Silver Shovel, to Safe Roads, to the hiring scandals, the U.S. attorney's office has done its job time and time again. But good government cannot and should not be won in the criminal courts. It is time to stop looking to them to do our jobs. It is time to wake up and make honesty and integrity voting issues.
Thanks to Ronald S.Safer. Mr. Safer is a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Chicago. During the 1990s, he headed the Justice Department's prosecution of Chicago's Gangster Disciples.
Good job, again U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald on the trial of former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez. Assistant U.S. attorneys and FBI agents proved once again that governmental bodies in Illinois too often work for those in power and not for the people.
The case of the prison-bound former City Hall patronage chief, Robert Sorich, was the same story. Honest and qualified applicants for City Hall jobs did not have a chance if they weren't connected. The hiring system was wired. Elaborate schemes were created to cover up the charade. Job interviews for the cloutless turned into interrogations. Outstanding reviews were ginned up for those who were connected. Bad government.
But is jailing those who implement bad governmental practices the answer? Are federal prosecutions the road to good government?
Certainly, there are crimes from which we need federal law enforcement to protect us. Assistant U.S. Attys. Gary Shapiro and the late itchell Mars and many others have pounded the Chicago mob and literally shifted the balance of power from the tyranny of the Tommy Gun to the rule of law. The people could not do that alone. The feds have also taken on the gangs in Chicago. To be sure, the public has a key role to play in keeping our kids out of gangs and not buying their life's blood: drugs. But Chicago gangs are too well-armed and organized for ordinary citizens alone to topple. We need the U.S. attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law enforcement and others to help us.
There is a fundamental difference between public corruption on the one hand and gangs and the mob on the other: We choose corrupt public officials. We hand them the combination to the bank vault. Impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not change his stripes immediately upon being re-elected. We knew who and what he was. Way before the second election, headlines of this paper detailed allegations of corruption.
Even the Safe Roads investigation broke before George Ryan was elected governor. (Yes, the U.S. attorney's office appropriately announced Ryan was not then a subject of the investigation, because he wasn't, but that is hardly an endorsement.) That Ryan was an old-time, pay-to-play pol was the worst-kept secret, even in Illinois. We once again looked the other way and chose him as our governor.
Public corruption is insidious because it crushes our faith in the system we hold dear. When those we choose use the power we lend them for their own selfish purposes, we throw up our hands and say the system is broken.
That is the easy but wrong conclusion. The system isn't broken. The system is the best in the world. Democracy is not just a concept; it is the right to choose. We fought and fight wars for democracy to triumph. Courageous African-Americans in the too recent past withstood fire hoses, beatings and worse for the cherished right to vote. Too often, we in Illinois have squandered our votes. As long as we elect the most effective fundraisers, we are destined to give power to those who provide the funds. As long as we equate "he's honest" with "he's ineffective" we will continue to get what we deserve.
Our U.S. attorney's office is the best in the nation at fighting public corruption. From Greylord, to the 1st Ward, to Silver Shovel, to Safe Roads, to the hiring scandals, the U.S. attorney's office has done its job time and time again. But good government cannot and should not be won in the criminal courts. It is time to stop looking to them to do our jobs. It is time to wake up and make honesty and integrity voting issues.
Thanks to Ronald S.Safer. Mr. Safer is a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Chicago. During the 1990s, he headed the Justice Department's prosecution of Chicago's Gangster Disciples.
US Government Helping Out Organized Crime
New Jersey state Senator Raymond Lesniak thinks the US government is helping no one but criminals by imposing prohibition against sports gambling. The state lawmaker has filed suit to strike the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prevents states from legalizing sports wagering.
Lesniak says the ban has not prevented sports betting in the least. He insists that no one could seriously claim that sports gambling is not occurring everywhere in the US.
"Rather than supporting thousands of jobs, economic activity and tourism, the federal ban supports offshore operators and organized crime," said the Jersey legislator.
The National Gaming Impact Study Commission says illegal sports gambling in the US may range as high as $380 billion annually. One of the plaintiffs in Lesniak's lawsuit, iMEGA, showed estimates that sports gambling could bring $10 billion to New Jersey business a year, with over $100 million in state tax revenue.
Proponents of legalized and regulated sports gambling repeat the arguments offered by those for online casinos: the goals of those who establish the bans would be far better served by regulation. By seeking to limit consumer exposure to criminals, the law actually chases out legitimate gambling operators, leaving the field to those outside the law.
And by seeking to protect games from corruption, they let corruption bloom undiscovered, away from the light and transparency of regulation. European sports leagues have cooperated for some time with Internet casinos to prevent match fixing.
Thanks to Carla Weitz
Lesniak says the ban has not prevented sports betting in the least. He insists that no one could seriously claim that sports gambling is not occurring everywhere in the US.
"Rather than supporting thousands of jobs, economic activity and tourism, the federal ban supports offshore operators and organized crime," said the Jersey legislator.
The National Gaming Impact Study Commission says illegal sports gambling in the US may range as high as $380 billion annually. One of the plaintiffs in Lesniak's lawsuit, iMEGA, showed estimates that sports gambling could bring $10 billion to New Jersey business a year, with over $100 million in state tax revenue.
Proponents of legalized and regulated sports gambling repeat the arguments offered by those for online casinos: the goals of those who establish the bans would be far better served by regulation. By seeking to limit consumer exposure to criminals, the law actually chases out legitimate gambling operators, leaving the field to those outside the law.
And by seeking to protect games from corruption, they let corruption bloom undiscovered, away from the light and transparency of regulation. European sports leagues have cooperated for some time with Internet casinos to prevent match fixing.
Thanks to Carla Weitz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)