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Jul 12, 2007 3:37 pm US/Central
Mobster Son Calls Father 'Sick'
Frank Calabrese Jr. Said He Wanted To See His Father Locked Up
CHICAGO (AP) ―
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A hidden prison video camera caught Calabrese Sr. telling co-defendant Anthony "Twan" Doyle that he feared his brother Nick was a government snitch.
Courtesy FBI
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Convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese's son told a federal court jury Thursday how he volunteered to gather evidence against his father, urging an FBI agent to "keep this sick man locked up forever."
"I wanted to see my father locked up," Frank Calabrese Jr. testified at the racketeering trial of his father and four other reputed mobsters.
Calabrese Jr., 47, one of two star prosecution witnesses, came under cross examination in his seventh day on the stand.
Earlier, he testified that he had come to hate being part of the mob with its killings and firebombings as a member of the 26th Street crew.
Calabrese Jr., who now runs a pizza business near Phoenix, told on direct examination how he tried to get his father to swear off a life of crime when they both went to prison for loan sharking in the 1990s.
He decided to become a federal witness after concluding in prison that his father would always be a mobster and never retire.
Besides the 69-year-old Calabrese Sr., those on trial are reputed mob bosses James Marcello, 65, Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, 78, convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro and retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle.
They are charged in a racketeering conspiracy indictment that includes 18 murders, illegal gambling, extortion of "street tax" from businesses and loan sharking.
On cross examination by Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph Lopez, the son on Thursday provided more details of their tortured relationship.
He testified that his father beat him in front of his home after he stole what could have been as much as $1 million in cash in a duffel bag.
Calabrese Jr. said his father offered to wipe out the debt if he would plead guilty in his place and take the rap in the loan sharking probe.
"My father asked me to plead guilty," he said. "He would call it even for all of the money I stole from him."
Calabrese Jr. said the offer was made in his father's lawyer's office, but the plan came to nothing because both men ended up pleading guilty in the case, along with another of the elder Calabrese's sons.
After the two men were both sent to the federal prison at Milan, Mich., Calabrese Jr. said he tried to get along with his father. But he finally wrote a letter to the FBI case agent in the loan sharking probe, offering to make secret tape recordings of his dad.
"I want you to keep this sick man locked up forever," he said.
Lopez asked why he had said such a thing about his own father.
"Because of his Outfit ways," Calabrese Jr. said. The name that the city's organized crime family gave itself long ago is The Chicago Outfit.
Calabrese Jr. ended up making numerous tape recordings and videos of his father in the Milan prison, talking about everything from why mob boss Tony "The Ant" Spilotro was murdered to how fingers are cut at the ceremony where members of the Outfit are sworn in as "made guys."
While Calabrese Jr. has portrayed his offer to the FBI as motivated by his dislike of the mob that he once belonged to himself, Lopez suggested that he did it to get his sentence reduced -- something the witness denies.
Lopez reminded Calabrese Jr. that in his letter to the FBI agent he had said: "I will also do my uncle if you can put it together."
His uncle, Nicholas Calabrese, has already pleaded guilty in the case and is expected to be the government's other star witness.
"He never did anything to you, did he?" Lopez asked.
"No, he didn't," Calabrese Jr. said.
"He just loved you, didn't he?" asked Lopez.
"Yes, he did," Calabrese said.
The younger Calabrese testified in Chicago at the racketeering trial of his father and four other reputed mobsters. They've all pleaded not-guilty.
Calabrese Jr is a star prosecution witness in a major recent initiative by the government against the Chicago mob, and has been on the stand for seven days.
Earlier, he testified that he tried to get his father to swear off his life of crime when they both went to prison for loan sharking in the 1990s. He says he decided to become a federal witness after he concluded in prison that his father would always be a mobster.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
