Meeting Nick Calabrese: Good Instincts or Naive?

Friends of ours: Nick Calabrese

Received an email from a reader who shared his own personal opinion and experiences with running into Nick Calabrese around his neighborhood in Chicago. Nick is currently in the Federal Witness Protection Program and expected to be a key witness U.S. Attorney in their Operation Family Secrets trial later this summer.

I used to go into a cafe on Cumberland just north or Lawrence several years back called Il Cafe'. I was in there one day with one of my friends and their was this large older man about 6'2 or so with salt and pepper hair and beedy eyes. He was "cut up" as in lean and muscular. I said to my buddy Brian "that guys in the mob." My friend Brian laughed at me and said "that's Nicole's father." I guess Nicole was some girl he knew. Brian said "he was in jail with those kind of guys but he's not in the mob."

Another time I was in Il Cafe' and the gentleman came in again. I was standing at the counter drinking an espresso. The gentleman was talking to the girl about a squirmish that had taken place the night before in which he pulled a gun out to scare off some punks, as the girl had stated. She said "Nick you had a gun I saw it." He said "maybe you thought you saw and gun but you didn't and that's what you should tell the police." She said "but Nick you did have a gun." Nick then left the cafe. I told the girl "you know that guys a mobster." "Don't you understand what he's trying to tell you?" She laughed at me and said I was "crazy" "Nick's not in the mob." I couldn't believe her stupidity.

The last time I saw Nick I was standing again at the counter drinking an espresso and he came in and starting teasing the girl behind the counter. He then looked at me and said "is this your girlfriend?" To which I replied "no." He then asked "do you speak Italian?" To which I answered "no." and he ignored me after that.

I can tell you that this man gave me chills. He didn't dress flashy or stick out. He would always wear Levi's a t-shirt and slip ons with no socks. But when you looked at him you knew he was tough and commanded respect without acting like a tough guy. His eyes were very small and dark you couldn't even see the whites of them.

It was until a year or two after this I seen an article in the Sun Times with an old picture of him and about "operation family secrets."

Either I have good instincts or people are really naive, LOL.

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The Chicago Outfit is the Smartest Mob in the Country

In an exclusive interview with Sean Chercover, Cameron Hughes touched on a number of topics including the mob in Chicago. Of particular interest, is Chercover's view of the past and current condition of the Chicago Mob.

Sean Chercover's first novel, Big City, Bad Blood, was a surprising debut. Just when I thought the Private Investigator sub-genre was on life support, along came this gritty, realistic story. Sean Chercover used his real experiences as a PI to make his writing better and I got a kick out of it. He knows and loves the genre well and had some interesting things to say about cliches, character development, and more.

CHUD: Obviously Chicago is famous for the Mafia, but ever since the RICO Act, is it still a noticeable presence there, or is it just amped up in the book to give it more color?

SC: Organized crime is alive and well and still extremely powerful in Chicago. Extremely. The Chicago Outfit was (and is) the smartest mob in the country. First, they're the only mob that stayed true to the "no narcotics" rule. Second, they divested themselves of street-level prostitution over the last 20 years or so. And third, they've made huge investments in legitimate "upperworld" industries.

Staying out of narcotics and getting out of street-level prostitution (they still run the high-end sex trade, mind you) has had two major consequences. First, it takes the heat off, because drug dealers and prostitutes on the streets are the things that the civilians get riled up about. Second, it has made the black and latino street gangs very, very powerful, because they run the narcotics and street prostitution. Consequently, the cops focus mostly on the street gangs, because that's what the civilians are upset about.

Anyway, the mob in Chicago showed a great deal of discipline by not getting into narcotics and by getting out of street prostitution, and it has allowed them to stay clear of a lot of police attention that would otherwise be directed at them. The other thing - investing heavily in legitimate businesses - has given them the stature to buy their way into positions of political power. They own way more than you might suspect, and they use the legitimacy as a front, to funnel money where it can buy influence. Unions, politics, and so on.

Anyone who thinks that the Outfit is ancient history should read the books by investigative reporter Gus Russo. Start with The Outfit. Great overview. And everyone with an interest in current organized crime and how it corrupts the political process should visit the website The Illinois Police and Sheriff's News. An incredible resource. I go there regularly.

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Cosa Nostra is Alive and Well in New York

Friends of ours: Danny "The Lion" Leo, Vito Genovese, Genovese Crime Family, Vincent "the Chin" Gigante, "Fat Charlie" Salzano

New Yorkers have been given a rude awakening to the continued presence of the Mafia in their midst with the arrest of Danny "the Lion" Leo, the reputed boss of the city's most powerful crime family.

Many had assumed the tide of prosperity pouring through New York had washed away the Mafia clans who once terrorised their city. Instead, it appears the mafia is very much alive.

Prosecutors say that Leo, 65, arrested on charges of loan sharking and extortion, is head of the powerful Genovese family, one of the so-called "five families" that ruled the Mafia in New York for half a century. "Two hundred or so members of this violent, ruthless criminal organisation can only commit acts of violence with the approval of the acting boss," said Eric Snyder, the assistant US attorney. "That's the type of power he holds."

Leo's indictment reads like pages from Mario Puzo's bestseller The Godfather. There are "soldiers", the hit men, "capos" or captains, and defendants with colourful nicknames. Prosecutors claim that Leo's right-hand man is "Fat Charlie" Salzano, a 26½ stone enforcer caught on wiretaps threatening to shoot his victims.

Leo has been charged with conspiring to demand $250,000 protection from a Harlem taxi company owner, with Salzano promising in the wiretap evidence that he will "turn you out" if the money is not paid.

Leo, who lives in a mansion in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York, insists he is innocent, pleading not guilty to all charges.

His supporters point to his almost unblemished criminal record: he has a single conviction, 25 years ago, for contempt of court when he refused to testify in a murder trial. But prosecutors say he is proof of the continuing existence, and prosperity, of arguably the biggest and most successful criminal organisation in history - the infamous five families.

They were first revealed to the world in evidence in a 1959 investigation. The five families had been set up before the Second World War as an arrangement whereby the city's crime gangs attempted to rationalise their organisations. Killings of justice officials were banned, a "commission" set up to regulate disputes, and the omerta, the Sicilian vow of silence, was cemented in place with a promise of execution against any member breaking it.

The Genovese family, named after its founder, Vito Genovese, was arguably the most powerful, smashing its way to the top by bringing mass heroin smuggling to the United States.

Leo is accused of taking the mantle of leader from the former Genovese boss Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. When Gigante died in prison two years ago many assumed that his "family" - actually a grouping of several families - would plough their money into legal enterprises and leave the gangster life to the newer, hungrier, gangs from Russia and Central America.

Leo's arrest comes a fortnight after the justice department announced a separate trial of two men accused of being from the same crime family, charged with conspiracy to murder. And New Yorkers are waiting to see if it will mark the start of a new campaign by the authorities against organised crime.

Mr Synder insists that the Mafia remains potent and that the trial will expose the hold that criminal gangs have in the US.

Thanks to Chris Stephen

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America's Most Wanted on The Chicago Syndicate

America's Most Wanted and The Chicago Syndicate have partnered to highlight AMW's upcoming Episode.

Omar Mora is our lead story right now. Mora is an Indiana man who police say opened fire on his wife and another man in a deadly love triangle. According to cops, Mora should be considered armed and very dangerous.

Additional features include:

Jose Garcia: Kentucky police say that Jose “Joey” Garcia brutally attacked and raped a co-worker in 2004. A matching DNA test came back linking Garcia to the crime, but he went into hiding before police could get to him.

Alexis Flores: Flores had been convicted of felonies before, but now police suspect that he is responsible for the horrifying murder of 5-year-old Ariana DeJesus in 2000. The identity of Ariana’s killer was a mystery to investigators until 2007 when the FBI in Philadelphia got a break when DNA from the crime scene matched that of DeJesus.

Midtown Jane Doe: When construction workers started working to renovate a Manhattan apartment building once known for attracting prostitutes and pimps, they dug up something horrifying—the skeleton of a young woman. Investigators are now piecing together clues in hopes to figure out who she was, and who might’ve killed her.

Shane Magan: Magan is a young man from California with a troubled past. As a child, he was placed in a foster home after his mother abandoned him. Now, what was bad has only gotten worse. Cops say Magan’s on the run after shooting a cop.

Unknown Chris Mader Update: Chris Mader was a 24-year-old Maryland man with big dreams of becoming a sports broadcaster. But then, on Thanksgiving morning in 2004, Mader was tragically shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Police are hoping a new sketch will give them what they need to get closure for Chris’ family.

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US Marshall Tells US Attorney and FBI He F@#%ed Up

Friends of ours: Nick Calabrese
Friends of mine: John Ambrose

As soon as the high-ranking deputy U.S. marshal sat down with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and FBI Chicago chief Robert Grant, he knew he was in trouble, federal documents allege.

"I fucked up," John Ambrose reportedly told both officials as they questioned him about whether he leaked sensitive information.

Ambrose, a member of the regional fugitive task force who also did a brief stint in witness protection, is charged with passing government material about protected mob witness Nick Calabrese to a third party. That information made its way to the mob, federal authorities contend.

Calabrese is a major government witness in the upcoming Operation Family Secrets mob trial. Ambrose was stripped of his duties last year and charged in January.

The allegations were taken so seriously that Grant and Fitzgerald took the rare move of sitting down with Ambrose last September. Prosecutors say they told him he faced criminal charges and risked losing his job -- but they contend they also told him he wasn't under arrest. If he were in custody, a Miranda warning would have been required. Federal prosecutors say Ambrose never asked for a lawyer and was free to leave whenever he pleased. "Mr Ambrose at times appeared anxious while reviewing some of the evidence against him," Grant said in a court affidavit filed Tuesday. "Mr. Ambrose on a number of occasions shook his head and repeated that he had fucked up."

Their contentions come in response to a filing last month in which Ambrose claimed that he was pressured into giving incriminating statements. "The pressure was so extreme that my body was shaking and my mind was racing," Ambrose said in court papers.

Ambrose's filing says he believed he was in custody. He is trying to get his statements tossed.

Thanks to Natasha Korecki

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