Rat Pack' Party Girl Will Confront Former Cop/Mafia Hit Man in Court

Janie McCormick, of Vadnais Heights, will finally get the chance to throw the book at the former New York hero cop turned Mafia hit man who allegedly bamboozled her out of $45,000 of her life savings.

The book in this case is "Breaking My Silence,'' the title of McCormick's soon to be self-published memoir of her life as a childhood sex abuse victim and former Las Vegas "Rat Pack'' party girl during the 1960s and early '70s. The tale was supposed to first be a script that convicted rogue cop Louis Eppolito reportedly pledged to write himself and turn into a movie.

McCormick, whose encounter with the corrupt former cop before his federal racketeering trial was the subject of a 2005 column, was informed last week by federal authorities that they want her to testify against Eppolito at his federal tax-evasion trial.

The timing couldn't be better for McCormick. The book should be out shortly after the trial starts Sept. 24. "I want to look at that rat fink face to face,'' says McCormick, now a 66-year-old great-grandmother living the suburban life. "If I have the book in my hands, I just might throw it at him."

Eppolito, 57, and his former New York Police Department detective partner, Stephen Caracappa, were convicted last year of federal racketeering conspiracy charges for setting up or carrying out at least eight mob-directed slayings while they wore the badge.

The charges shocked even a city long accustomed to cyclical and high-profile police corruption scandals. The two men were sentenced to life prison terms. But a judge tossed aside the convictions a month later on the grounds that the five-year statute of limitations on racketeering had expired. The two men remain in custody pending appeal.

Before the New York trial, Eppolito and his wife were indicted in Las Vegas - where the two rogue cops relocated after their retirements - on charges the couple avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in income taxes. The couple has denied wrongdoing.

The undeclared income came mostly from Eppolito's work selling movie scripts to Hollywood as well as his appearances as a character actor. Eppolito played bit roles in notable Hollywood films, including the classic mob flick "Goodfellas'' and Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway.''

Receipts of the $45,000 McCormick allegedly paid Eppolito for the busted movie deal are part of the evidence federal prosecutors are expected to present at trial.

McCormick, who borrowed against a house-cleaning service she operated in the White Bear Lake area, Dust Busters of Minnesota, was forced to declare bankruptcy and set aside her quest to tell her story. The alleged scam nearly derailed the quest and also her desire to raise awareness about prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Surprisingly, Eppolito is barely a footnote in the book, which is told in a gritty and blunt style. It's a name-dropper sure to raise eyebrows, if not some controversy.

McCormick discloses in the book how a stepfather molested her. In dialogue-rich narrative, she also chronicles how that abuse, which stretched from when she was a toddler to adolescent years, paved the road to prostitution.

That journey ultimately led her to become, as she describes it, a member of the elite "Queen Bee'' club of casino call girls working Sin City.

She was dubbed "Baby Jane'' by the hotel casino pit bosses who matched her with high rollers, and most of McCormick's clients "were show business personalities or millionaires good for the hotel business,'' she writes in the book.

She describes liaisons with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Vic Damone and comedians Joe E. Lewis and Jerry Lewis, whom she describes in the book as "one of the nicest men I ever met.''

She also relates how legendary golfer Sam Snead recruited her one time to keep rival Arnold Palmer up all night before the morning of a major Vegas tournament. Snead ended up winning it. McCormick recalls she got an expensive chinchilla jacket for her work.

She also details a traumatic abortion, an abusive "house pimp'' and shoddy silicone breast implants that led to a double mastectomy later in life.

Media communications and libel law attorney Mark Anfinson, hired by McCormick to vet the book, calls it "powerful and compelling stuff.''

"I'm very surprised that a publishing house has not picked this up,'' Anfinson said. "When you review copy for invasion-of-privacy concerns, you want to remain detached. But it was exceedingly hard to do with (the book) because it was so moving. It has a ring of authenticity as you go through it.''

McCormick hopes the book will give her some credibility as she tries to persuade legislators to enact tougher laws and enforcement directed at the demand side of the sex trade - the "johns.'' She believes, as others do, that American law enforcement has mostly given the customer a pass. She cites Sweden and Norway as countries that do a better job of going after the men who drive the trade.

She's dead right. As she writes in her book about the Rat Pack stars and other well-heeled Las Vegas clientele: "I often thought about how these men passed us working girls around like dessert trays ... I also wondered, after spending thousands of dollars on some dames, [how] these guys could go back to their wives and kids, hold up their heads, and look at themselves in the mirror.''

Thanks to Ruben Rosario

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Family Secrets Closing Argument: Required Reading on The Chicago Way

As the Family Secrets trial was put into the hands of the jury, City Hall offered up poetic symmetry in choosing a book for all Chicagoans to read as part of its One-Book-One-Chicago program:

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, a social commentary about witch hunts and innocent people caught up by the mob.

No, not the mob on trial in Family Secrets, the other mob, the mob as in the commoners, the ignorant, uninformed, superstitious peasants easily manipulated into burning the innocent politicians -- um, ah, I meant those innocent witches -- at the stake.

If city fathers truly want something Chicago should read, how about the transcript of Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars' closing argument in the Family Secrets trial on Thursday?

It has been a trial of Outfit history, 18 unsolved murders, fear and betrayal, with hit man Nick Calabrese testifying about the murders he committed with three of the five defendants.

Think of a pitcher tossing a perfect game and you'll see Mars delivering that closing argument, throwing heat, following through with near-perfect mechanics, fitting all the defendants into the conspiracy.

Mars doesn't look like a Major League ballplayer. He's a bit below average in height, a graying guy in a gray suit, like a million other guys you see on the train. He doesn't seek publicity, and doesn't go out of his way to schmooze reporters. But he's clearly big league. And after what he accomplished, if the jury acquits any of the federal primates, we might as well change the name of this city to something more fitting, like Andriachiville or Tootsie-Town.

"Our system works only when those who should be held accountable are held accountable," Mars told the jury.

He named those charged with racketeering and murder conspiracy: Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro.

For weeks, Schiro was the scariest man in the courtroom, hardly moving an eyelid, still as a lizard, the iceman. Schiro is serving another federal prison term, having pleaded guilty for being part of the Outfit-sanctioned jewelry heist crew led by former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt.

Mars had special contempt for the fifth defendant, accused Outfit debt collector and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony "Twan" (Passafiume) Doyle.

Doyle is not accused of murdering gangsters, but of leaking police secrets about key murder evidence to his Chinatown confederate, Frank Calabrese Sr., in taped prison visits in which electric shocks, cattle prods and physical examinations for Calabrese's brother Nick were discussed. That famous tape involved Outfit code, talk of "purses," defined by the feds as evidence, and a "doctor," defined by the feds as reputed Outfit street boss Frank "Toots" Caruso, who is not charged in this case.

"And one corrupt cop who tried to help the organization and be the inside man. He knows exactly what the purse is. He knows exactly who the doctor is. ... Let's give the guy a physical, let's give him a prod," Mars mocked, reminding the jury of what Doyle said on that tape.

The others on trial put on a defense because they had no choice. But Doyle could have taken a plea deal and served five years or so. He didn't take the deal, though I presume his lawyer will still receive a nice fee and Doyle will have time to ponder what it means to be, in his words, a chumbalone.

A few days ago, Marcello's lawyer, Marc Martin, joined the other defense lawyers in ripping into Nicholas Calabrese, calling him a liar and questioning his testimony, particularly about Marcello's involvement in the sensational 1986 murders of Outfit brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Nick testified that the men waiting for the Spilotros in a suburban home wore gloves. Martin argued the Spilotros would have fled after seeing one gloved hand.

"They weren't going to get out of the house no matter what they thought," said Mars, adding that Marcello and his accomplices "could have worn T-shirts that said, 'We're Here To Kill the Spilotros.' It didn't matter. They weren't getting out of there."

Marcello sat without expression, offering his profile to the jury, looking at himself on the courtroom screen. It was an FBI surveillance photo taken at a Venture parking lot, Marcello with Outfit bosses Joe Ferriola, Sam Carlisi and Rocky Infelice next to some shopping carts.

They weren't in a restaurant with checkered tablecloths. And I thought of those who say there is no Chicago Outfit; and of inside men placed in inside spots, in the police evidence storage section or as lords of the detective squads, while honest cops get passed over for promotions, or are squashed like bugs for the slightest infractions.

I'm still waiting for City Hall to choose an appropriate book for official city reading, perhaps "CAPTIVE CITY: Chicago in Chains." by Ovid DeMaris, "The Outfit" by Gus Russo or "Chicago: City on the Make" by Nelson Algren.

Or, better yet, that closing argument by Mitch Mars in a crucible of a case, in which the Chicago Way was boiled down, reduced to its base elements.

Thanks to John Kass

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Not Letting Family Secrets Slide

There was a break in the courtroom action at the Chicago Outfit trial called Family Secrets, so I took a walk outside the federal building, wondering how to explain my obsession to you.

Recently, a few readers have asked me to switch gears, to give you all a break from endless murders, political corruption and the Outfit's proficiency in putting key people in key spots, including City Hall and the Police Department. But I can't walk away. Not now. Not yet. Not until Friday, with Family Secrets almost at the end.

I'm compelled to cover it, having broken the story about hit man Nicholas Calabrese disappearing into the federal witness protection program in 2003, in a column that explained how the Outfit panicked, with Nick talking, foreshadowing a few of the 18 unsolved Outfit murders that have now been solved.

Yet there's more to this than a reporter following an old story. I stood out there on Dearborn, thinking, with traffic rolling past, when a big truck from the Rosebud Restaurants squealed its brakes, the sound piercing me, and there it was, the reason for being there:

Family Secrets is the whole ballgame in Chicago. It's not merely some interesting trial with colorful gangsters and flamboyant lawyers in wild ties. It is more than mere drama, more than some nice read.

Family Secrets reveals the infrastructure of a great metropolis, illuminating part of the iron triangle that runs things, with the Outfit at the base of the triangle. Certain politicians who pick judges and who influence development and zoning, and certain cops form the protective sides. This iron triangle won't be approved as the 2016 Olympic logo at City Hall, where the mayor keeps losing his hair as the inner workings of the Chinatown crew in his old neighborhood opens like clams at Cafe Bionda or Tavern on Rush.

We've heard witnesses talk about murders and extortion. But we've also seen something amazing -- mob bosses such as Joey "The Clown" Lombardo and Frank Calabrese Sr. explaining their worldview from the witness stand.

There is no Outfit, they insist. But Calabrese did explain how sports bookmaking and loan sharking -- the Outfit's lifeblood -- works, with millions upon millions at play. He lectured on how to build a sports book, using layers and layers of buffers, intermediaries, an organizational web that reaches into the pockets of every person who places a bet on a ballgame, on Rush Street and beyond.

We've learned how critical it is for the Outfit to nurture public servants, alleged sleepers like defendant Anthony "Twan" (Passafiume) Doyle, who worked the evidence section in the Police Department, and who is on federal tape talking in a prison visit with Calabrese Sr. about murder evidence and cattle prods for those who betray Outfit secrets, like Frank's brother Nick.

Are there any more secrets? Sure, a few.

Secrets about Bridgeport money finding its way to Rush Street; building inspectors who help bar owners, providing the right occupancy permits; and links between nightclubs that stretch from Bellevue and Rush to Springfield.

Other secrets have bubbled up from the witness stand, names of other men not charged, like Joe "The Builder" Andriacci and Frank "Toots" Caruso, referred to by the feds, but not by Chinatown, as "The Doctor."

Still, there are other stories I could work on, such as the lame excuse by Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs' on how he trashed his Lamborghini after spending hours recreating at the Rush Street club Level, which is a mere sneeze away from Carmine's.

Or that one about the Republican Senator from Idaho, waving a sensuous, anonymous hello to a stranger at an airport washroom in the next stall; or Senate Democrats cringing now that the boss of Iran has all but thanked them for giving him the chance to fill the power vacuum in Iraq.

Family Secrets was overshadowed weeks ago by the story about a Channel 5 reporter in a pink bikini top at a pool party. And Chicago's Outfit trial will be washed from broadcast memory soon, with that tape in a county courtroom, the one of R&B singer R. Kelly allegedly having sex with an underage girl.

Local TV will gorge on that sex tape, promoting it at 5, 6 and 10 and the next morning, and the national networks that have ignored Family Secrets will feast on the sex tape, the face of the girl obscured, but not her body and not his, in the name of journalism, and of providing us an embrace that we can't live without. But Family Secrets is important, too, an embrace Chicago's lived with for decades.

"As you know, this case involves the history of organized crime in Chicago, for over 40 years," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars, the lead prosecutor, told the jury.

"The Outfit has survived and prospered with greed, depravity, corruption. People are hurt. People die," said Mars, delivering the beginning of a closing argument he's waited almost his entire career to give.

Mars will finish on Thursday, and I'll be there.

I just have to see this one through.

Thanks to John Kass

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Marcello Pulls Out Shamrock for Good Luck

The last thing you'd expect at the Outfit trial would be a big green shamrock next to Jimmy Marcello's name.

It reminded me of that nightmare suffered by Christopher Moltisanti, the young mobster in "The Sopranos," who wakes up from a coma to tell his crew that he has seen hell for Italian wiseguys: Eternity spent in an Irish bar where every day is St. Patrick's Day. But the jury in the Family Secrets trial of five alleged Outfit members wasn't dreaming Tuesday, and there it was, the green Irish good-luck charm, the clover that decorates the hat of the mayor on St. Patrick's Day, up on the big screen as Marcello's lawyer tried to debunk the prosecution case.

"You've heard he was a made member of the Outfit, and that only those who are 100 percent Italian can be made," said Marc Martin in his closing argument Tuesday. "Well, look at his birth certificate. His mother is Irene Flynn. Her father was James Flynn. Her mother was Katherine Lavin, and we know she's Irish because she's one of 14 children."

Marcello rocked in his chair, bald head gleaming under bright federal fluorescent lights, black eyebrows, scowling, as Irish as a pierogi in a frying pan. He'll need a new nickname soon, so pick one: O'Marcello, or McCello?

The shamrock demonstrates how desperate the Outfit is these days, but it allowed Martin to attack the testimony of key prosecution witness and confessed hit man Nicholas Calabrese, who testified that Marcello was a made man and part of several murders, including the 1986 killings of gangsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro.

"The only thing that was made about Nicholas Calabrese's testimony about Jimmy Marcello is that he made it up," Martin told the jury.

They just stared at him, perhaps because those taped conversations from prison weigh more than a shamrock.

Earlier, Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk elaborated on taped conversations between defendant, Chinatown loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr. and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony Doyle, who in a pre-Marcello moment years ago, changed his name from Passafiume to Doyle when his sponsors put him on the Police Department, where he would work in the sensitive evidence room.

Funk played the tape of Doyle sharing information about a key piece of evidence: the glove lost by Nicholas Calabrese after he murdered his friend, John "Big Stoop" Fecarotta after the botched Spilotro burial.

In that tape, Doyle and Calabrese speak of giving electric shocks to Frank's brother Nick, who they feared was talking to the feds. There was talk of many volts and a cattle prod inserted just so.

Doyle testified last week that he'd read about electroshock therapy in a magazine and meant no harm. Funk argued this was pure nonsense. "Do you honestly believe this man is talking about something he read in a psychiatry magazine? That's Anthony Doyle, the Freud of the Chicago Police Department," Funk said in a quote of the year, as several jurors shifted uncomfortably in their seats. But if Doyle was indeed the Outfit's Sigmund Freud, he could have counseled Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, who has been suffering an extreme case of juryphobia since he testified earlier in the trial, according to Lombardo's own lawyer, Rick Halprin.

"He doesn't trust you," Halprin told the jury. "He's frightened to death of you. He does not believe that any of you will give him a fair shake, and that you'll judge him on his past."

That past includes two federal Outfit convictions, one for bribing a United States senator from Nevada, and the other involving skimming millions of dollars from Las Vegas casinos. And there is still that Lombardo fingerprint on the title application for a car used in the 1974 murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert, who would have testified against Lombardo, Tony Spilotro and others.

Halprin commanded the courtroom, using his voice and posture, an absolutely impressive performance that was worth the wait, a pro's pro. But the problem isn't Halprin's fine work, but the evidence, like that fingerprint.

Another problem is the testimony from dentist Pat Spilotro, who insisted recently that Lombardo was an Outfit boss who told him the murders of his brothers were unavoidable. Halprin accused Pat Spilotro, sitting in the third row on Tuesday, of exaggerating to push his own anti-Lombardo agenda.

"It's all smokescreen, lies and deception," Pat Spilotro told me in the hallway outside the courtroom. "I only tell the truth. My family tells the truth. Lombardo was absolutely part of this."

There were several other tough Irishmen watching in court and they don't need shamrocks. One was Ted McNamara, the FBI agent on the Outfit squad. Another was Assistant U.S. Atty. John Scully, prosecuting his last case in a career of putting wiseguys in prison. And that other guy, a Patrick named after the Irish saint who drove out the snakes out of Ireland eons ago.

His name is U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald. He doesn't need shamrocks. All he needs is time.

Thanks to John Kass

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Chicago Outfit Miniseries Heads to Jury Deliberations

When Chicago's biggest mob trial in years got under way, prosecutors urged jurors to throw out any Hollywood notions they'd picked up from "The Sopranos" or "The Godfather."

Ten weeks later, as jurors prepare to begin deliberations, they could write a miniseries based on what they heard in the courtroom about the Chicago Outfit, as the city's organized crime family is known.

There was an admitted hit man, who would "shoot you in the head over a cold ravioli," according to a defense attorney. A son who pretended to reconcile with his father, then recorded their prison conversations for the feds - including one about how men burned holy pictures in their cupped hands at the ceremony to become a "made" guy.

So-called friends allegedly luring friends to their deaths. Bodies buried at construction sites. Secret meetings in parking lots. Code words used in jailhouse conversations. And a dentist, determined to solve the crime of his murdered brothers, who had an on-the-lam alleged mobster show up at his office with a toothache.

The jury is scheduled to begin deliberations Tuesday in the federal racketeering conspiracy case against five defendants: reputed mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, 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. Survival Kit In Sardine Can: $12.97

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitchell Mars said the 10-week trial was about "the history of organized crime in Chicago," and asked jurors during his closing arguments to hold the defendants accountable for murder, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion.

Defense attorneys, meanwhile, attacked the case as one built largely on the testimony of a hit man who admitted lying to authorities in the past and was only cooperating with the government now to escape the death penalty. Attorney Joseph Lopez told jurors the FBI stands for "forever bothering Italians."

Much of the testimony centered on 18 long-unsolved murders, including the killing of one man whose story has already been picked up by Hollywood. Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, known as the mob's man in Las Vegas, was the inspiration for the psychopathic burglar played by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's 1995 film "Casino."

In the move, Pesci's character and his brother are beaten with bats in a cornfield and buried alive. In court, jurors heard what admitted hit man Nicholas Calabrese alleges happened.

Calabrese, the brother of defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., testified for the government that mobsters were mad at Tony Spilotro because he was "bringing too much heat" on them and romancing the wife of a Las Vegas casino executive.

He said the brothers were lured in June 1986 to the basement of a suburban Chicago home where they were told Tony would be dubbed a "capo," or mob captain, and Michael a "made guy."

Instead, Calabrese said, the men were jumped by about 14 men who beat and strangled them to death. The bodies were soon discovered in a shallow grave in an Indiana cornfield, but a forensic pathologist who helped conduct autopsies told jurors there was no evidence they were still breathing when buried.

Jurors also heard from the Spilotros' brother, Patrick, a dentist who choked back tears on the witness stand. He said Lombardo appeared at his suburban Chicago dental office in January 2006 to have a tooth abscess treated while wanted by authorities in the "Operation Family Secrets" case.

The dentist told the court he had spent years speaking to people who might know something about his brothers' deaths and feeding that information to the FBI. Lombardo was no exception, Spilotro said, telling the jury he asked Lombardo why his brothers ended up dead. "I recall his words vividly," Spilotro said "He said, 'When you get an order, you follow it. If you don't, you go, too.'"

Lombardo was arrested after he made another visit to the dentist's office.

Three of the defendants testified.

Lombardo, who lived up to his "clown" nickname by wisecracking on the stand, told jurors he's not a member of the Outfit and learned everything he knows about the mob from James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson movies.

Doyle testified that during a secretly recorded conversation with Frank Calabrese Sr. in prison, he had agreed with much of what the prisoner wanted without knowing what it was, and that the code words Calabrese used were "mind-boggling gibberish."

Calabrese Sr. told jurors that he associated and did business with Outfit members, but insists that he never took the oath of a so-called made guy. But first, he had to endure the testimony of his brother Nicholas, who admitted participating in more than a dozen murders and placed his brother at seven killings. He linked all the defendants but Doyle to a murder scene.

Nicholas Calabrese was labeled a "grim reaper," a "walking piece of deception" and a man who would kill you for serving him cold pasta by Lopez, representing Calabrese Sr.

Calabrese Sr. also listened as prosecutors asked his namesake - son Frank Calabrese Jr. - to translate conversations with his father at a federal prison in Michigan where both were serving time for a loan-sharking conviction.

In one example, Calabrese Jr. told jurors that when his father described a mob associate as "not a nice girl," that meant the man was cooperating with authorities.

Lopez said the elder Calabrese pleaded guilty to loan sharking thinking it would help his son. Calabrese Sr. was only boasting on the tape, making up tales to impress his "low life" son, Lopez said.

Prosecutors mocked many of the explanations offered by defense attorneys as unbelievable or ridiculous, and they asked jurors to disregard the claim by Lombardo's defense that any criminal activity he was once engaged in, he withdrew from long ago.

Mars said one thing jurors should have learned from the trial is, "Once you belong to the Outfit, you belong for life."

"These are people that cheat, steal and kill each other," he said. "They can make who they want, they can break who they want."

Thanks to Tara Burghart

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Origin of the term "The Outfit"

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

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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

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"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

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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

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'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

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Onlookers Flock to Family Secrets Trial

"There he is, there's Calabrese and there's the Indian and there's Joey the Clown," said Lee Anne Roggensack, excitedly pointing out three of the elderly defendants in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial, where closing arguments conclude Thursday. Roggensack, 48, skipped a planned vacation so she could attend, sitting in the courtroom for at least 18 days.

The 10-week trial has spawned a subculture of its own: Chicagoans who feel as if the mob was a shadowy but ever-present force as they grew up in this city, and who wanted to see some of its most flamboyant characters in the flesh -- and put behind bars.

In Roggensack's case, a mobster's godchild was her stepdaughter's godfather, she said, "but he wasn't in the mob." And her son-in-law worked at a hot dog stand owned by a jailed mobster.

"Everybody of a certain age and beyond in Chicago has an organized crime story," said John J. Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit," a history of the city's mobsters. "They either lived near someone or their grandfather drove a beer truck during Prohibition or there was this bar they used to go into."

Decades after its heyday, the Chicago mob is still famous around the world. Untouchable Tours buses weave through the city daily, showing the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and other notorious locales. When the Biograph Theater reopened last year, much was made of its fame as the spot where federal agents gunned down John Dillinger.

Mobsters are often romanticized and glorified, but most people at the trial had a decidedly negative view of the five defendants -- Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, Paul "the Indian" Schiro, James Marcello, former cop Anthony Doyle and Frank Calabrese Sr. -- who among them are charged with 18 murders, racketeering, extortion, loan-sharking, gambling and other crimes. The alleged victims include Outfit members Michael and Anthony Spilotro, brothers who were beaten and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.

"It's been undermining the integrity of our city forever," said Pat Reynolds, 73, who spent 24 days in the courtroom and fears that a planned vacation to Telluride, Colo., will make her miss the verdict. "I've always had to explain my city, that it's wonderful and beautiful in spite of this."

Paul Bird, 83, and Robert Madden, 80, said they went to Oak Park High School just west of Chicago with reputed mobsters and their children. Al Capone lived not far from them at one point, they said, and Bird said he went to summer school with a daughter of William "Sweet Willie" Bioff, known for extorting Hollywood studios through the movie projectionists union.

The trial featured Calabrese Sr.'s own son, Frank Jr., as well as Frank Sr.'s brother Nicholas, himself a member of the Outfit, both testifying against him. In conversations secretly taped by Frank Jr. in a federal prison in Milan, Mich., Calabrese Sr. described burning prayer cards on the hands of "made" members and covering a body with "the lime that eats."

He testified he was merely trying to impress his son, since he was jealous of Frank Jr.'s close relationship with Nicholas.

Thanks to Kari Lydersen

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Arrivederci to a Chicago Hero from Little Italy

In federal court Tuesday morning, lawyers for five accused mobsters were poised to try and sell a jury on the sad, sad story about how their clients were misunderstood. Not murdering gangsters. And not guilty.

But somehow, sitting there, all I could think about was Florence Scala, who died that very morning, just hours before defense attorneys embarked on the last lap of a historic trial.

Florence certainly didn't need to stick around for that. Nor would she have bought a word of it.

She knew everything she needed to know about the Lombardos, Marcellos, Calabreses and their kind in 88 years spent on Taylor Street in the heart of Chicago's Little Italy. On the Near West Side where she lived and worked and died, she had no patience for these "other" Italians and said so many times.

"They were men from the old country who lorded it over people in the area," she once told author Studs Terkel. And those men had sons and their sons had sons. Some of them were politicians like John D'Arco Sr., the committeeman of the mobbed up First Ward. And Pat Marcy, the political rainmaker of the First Ward, who made sure the right kind of people became judges so they could guarantee "the right" kind of verdicts were handed down in Cook County. Harry "The Hitman" Aleman got one of those lucky decisions once. So did Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro. But Harry, in federal prison, isn't lucky anymore, and Tony is dead.

Florence fought the Chicago Outfit in the early 1960s. And the politicians on their payroll. Not to mention big business and real estate interests that saw a huge payday in gentrifying her neighborhood. And the genteel boards of upstanding civic organizations who sympathized with powerbrokers more than ordinary citizens. In her view, they all sold out the melting pot of immigrants whose modest houses and hard lives filled the enclave that was her community by never once consulting them. And when this small Italian woman with olive skin and big, dark eyes didn't blink, they didn't like it. And when she began to organize young and old, Italian and non-Italian, students and laborers to demand a voice in civic decisions, they couldn't believe the nerve of a Taylor Street housewife.

That's why, in 1962, the thugs who did the bidding of the bosses bombed her back porch as she tried to run for alderman herself. She lost a lot of wars but held the hearts of grateful people who marvelled at her courage.

"She tried to save the soul of Chicago," Studs Terkel told me by phone Tuesday. "It was a glorious sight."

Some of us who loved and admired Florence wanted to honor her before she died. In 2005, I wrote a column suggesting the city rename the library in Little Italy for her because she was instrumental in getting it put there.

A note from Florence arrived two days later. "Libraries should be named for authors, poets and writers who enrich our lives. I do not agree with proposing my name to rename the Roosevelt Library. Happy New Year Carol & thanks. Florence S."

When Florence said no, she meant no. That went for the Outfit, City Hall or an upstart columnist. Not a sentimentalist or a silly dreamer, she was a revolutionary in sensible shoes. She will always be my hero.

Arrivederci, Florence.

Thanks to Carol Marin

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Dueling Closing Arguments in Federal Court Over Family Secrets Case

Prosecutors and defense attorneys dueled in closing arguments at the "Family Secrets" mob trial Tuesday, each putting their own views on the evidence presented over the last 10 weeks.

Prosecutors asked jurors not to buy the spin of defense attorneys while the defense, in turn maintained it was the government's witness who is not believable.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk, continuing his presentation from Monday, focused on the murder of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, two mobsters who were themselves brutally beaten to death in 1986.

Prosecutors, relying on the testimony of turncoat mobster Nick Calabrese, maintain the two were lured to a home near Bensenville or Wood Dale and killed there by a dozen other mobsters, including defendants James Marcello of Lombard and Frank Calabrese Sr.

The Spilotros were killed in 1986 after Anthony Spilotro began attracting too much "heat," or attention to mob activities, in Las Vegas. "And why was Michael killed? Because he was Tony's brother," contended Funk, noting that the mob couldn't take the chance that Michael Spilotro might seek revenge on them. And he ridiculed Frank Calabrese Sr.'s testimony that had him claiming he only found out after the fact about Nick Calabrese killing fellow mobster John Fecarotta when he went to see Nick Calabrese, his brother, recovering from a bullet wound sustained during the killing.

"Now, of course, in Frank Calabrese Sr.'s world, he's totally uninvolved," scoffed Funk.

Why then, is Frank Calabrese Sr. on tape, discussing with his son how he was just a few blocks away at the time of the killing, driving around in vain trying to find Nick?

"Once again, what is Frank Calabrese Sr. doing? 'Play-acting' (on tape?) Trying to impress his son?" said Funk. "It's laughable."

But after Funk's presentation, Marcello attorney Mark Martin keyed in on a statement made by Nick Calabrese that high-ranking mobster Rocky Infelise was at the Spilotro slayings. He pointed to transcripts of phone recordings made of Infelise's home that show him making and receiving phone calls during the alleged time of the killings.

That proves Nick Calabrese is a liar, Martin said. "If you find he's lying about the Spilotro murders -- and he is -- then you can't believe a word he says," said Martin. "Heaven help us if his word is proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Lombardo's lawyers next took the podium, with Susan Shatz pointing out that the man Lombardo worked with, Irv Weiner, had more reason to murder plastics plant owner Daniel Seifert than Lombardo did. In fact, both men stood to go to prison from Seifert's testimony in an upcoming criminal trial regarding theft of union funds.

Prosecutors say Irv Weiner was under Lombardo's control while defense attorneys say it was the other way around.

The fact that Lombardo's fingerprint is on the application to the title of a car used in Seifert's killing is explainable, they maintain, by the fact that it was notarized in Weiner's office where Lombardo spent a lot of time, Shatz said. "I think it is reasonable" to believe that, Shatz said.

Rick Halprin, another Lombardo lawyer, conceded that Lombardo's testimony at times was not credible, particularly when he maintained that when he was recorded using the word "we" to discuss shaking down massage parlor owners, he didn't really mean "we."

"He (Lombardo) was made to look like a fool by a very skilled prosecutor," said Halprin.

Lombardo's shaky testimony was due to the fact that he doesn't believe jurors, aware of his past convictions for mob activities, would give him a fair shake, Halprin said.

What Lombardo doesn't understand, Halprin maintained, was that those tapes don't matter much because they don't clearly show the activity was done for the Chicago mob, something required to convict of conspiracy. And Halprin also attacked other prosecution witnesses like Patrick Spilotro, brother to the slain mobsters and dentist to Lombardo. He called Patrick Spilotro's testimony that Joseph Lombardo discussed the murders with him "not credible."

Patrick Spilotro, who was present for closing arguments, said it was Lombardo's team that wasn't credible. "Smokescreen, lies and deception," Patrick Spilotro said of Halprin's arguments. "They're doing what they have to do, but truth and justice will prevail."

Thanks to Rob Olmstead

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Rent-a-Mobster

Reputed top Chicago mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo was "not truthful" at times in his testimony in the Family Secrets trial and was made to look like "a ridiculous old fool" under cross-examination -- but he was nothing more than a "rent-a-mobster," Lombardo's own attorney told jurors in his closing argument Tuesday.

Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, said Lombardo was never a made member of the mob but hung out and hustled with businessmen with deep mob ties. At times, Lombardo hustled himself into prison, Halprin said.

Lombardo has long retired from any Outfit connections, Halprin said, invoking the so-called withdrawal defense that's unique to Lombardo's case. "We are not talking about redemption here," Halprin intoned toward the end of his argument. "We are talking about a decided change in lifestyle."

"Redemption, I dare say, for Mr. Lombardo is in the not-too-distant future," Halprin said. Lombardo, at 78, is the oldest of five defendants on trial.

Prosecutors have tried to tie Lombardo to more recent Outfit activity by the testimony of Pat Spilotro, who was Lombardo's dentist and the brother of slain mobsters Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Pat Spilotro turned Lombardo in to the FBI when he was on the lam last year.

In court, Spilotro testified that his longtime patient mentioned his troubles, including that the New York mob was trying to muscle into Chicago. Halprin called Spilotro's testimony "not credible."

Outside the courtroom, Spilotro said he was telling the truth. "They're doing what they have to do up there," Spilotro said of the defense attorneys. "But the truth and justice will prevail."

Lombardo didn't always tell the truth on the witness stand, Halprin acknowledged. "He's frightened to death of you," Halprin told the jury. Lombardo didn't tell the truth when he pretended not to know what certain mobsters were the area bosses of. He is afraid jurors will judge him for his past. "He truly believes, no matter what his lawyers tell him, that you're going to punish him for that," Halprin said.

Another defense attorney, Marc Martin, gave the first closing statement, for reputed Outfit boss James Marcello, and focused on savaging the credibility of the government's star witness, Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese.

Calabrese testified that Marcello took part in three murders and one attempted murder, but Martin argued Calabrese lied to save himself from the death penalty. "Do you think he would lie?" Martin asked of Calabrese. "Do you think he would lie to save his life?"

Thanks to Steve Warmbir

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Prosecution Reminder - Cross the Outfit: End Up Dead

Defense attorneys were to get their last shot Tuesday after a federal prosecutor reminded jurors at a big Chicago mob trial what happens to people who cross the Outfit: "You end up dead."

That's according to assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk in a 280-minute closing argument that stretched over two days.

Defense attorneys were to start their arguments Tuesday afternoon.

Five defendants are accused of taking part in a conspiracy that included 18 long-unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion. They are reputed mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78; convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., 70; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; and retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62.

Funk sought to recap for jurors highlights of the trial that started June 21. He detailed gruesome killings, including events leading up to the trial's most high-profile death -- that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was beaten to death along with his brother, Michael, 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.

Thanks to NBC5

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Prosectors Begin Closing Argument in Family Secrets Mob Trial

To acquit the men on trial in the "Family Secrets" mob case, prosecutor Markus Funk told the jury Monday, jurors have to believe that three of the defendants caught on tape talking about their crimes were simply unlucky enough to be recorded while they were "play acting."

"The evidence tells you that these men are guilty," said Funk, referring to defendants Frank Calabrese Sr. of Oak Brook, Joseph Lombardo of Chicago, Michael Marcello of Lombard, Paul Schiro of Phoenix and Anthony Doyle of Wickenburg, Ariz.

It would be enough, Funk said, to convict the men on racketeering charges if they simply knew of mob activities and helped plan them. But each defendant, Funk alleged, personally committed the crimes as well.

For four of them, that means murder. And with that, Funk began to recite the circumstances of each of the 18 murders alleged in the case.

One of those was the 1974 killing of Daniel Seifert in Bensenville. He was gunned down at his factory after signing up to testify against Lombardo for stealing from Teamster funds.

Lombardo testified he didn't know Seifert was going to testify against him, but Funk noted that as part of the case, Lombardo would have had papers delivered to him notifying him of Seifert's testimony. Seifert was killed and the government dropped the case because their key witness was dead.

"So it (the murder) paid off, in a perverse way, for Mr. Lombardo," Funk said.

In that case, the evidence against Lombardo includes two store clerks testifying it was Lombardo who bought the police scanner recovered from a car used in Seifert's murder. Seifert's brother also testified that Lombardo, a few weeks before the killing, called him and warned him to "straighten out" Danny.

"What additional proof could one want?" asked Funk. "How 'bout a fingerprint?"

Lombardo's fingerprint was found on the title application for the car used in the murder, he said.

He also took time to debunk Lombardo's alibi, that he was filling out a police report on a stolen wallet that day. He noted that when Lombardo was asked immediately after the killing where he had been, he never mentioned the stolen wallet or police report. And the report, noted Funk, was taken at a police station where another mobster reported cops were being paid off by the mob.

Funk also hammered home the case against Frank Calabrese Sr. in the 1970 murder of Michael Albergo, a juice loan collector and partner to Calabrese. Authorities were issuing subpoenas in the juice loan business at that time, and Albergo had received one, Funk said. "Albergo said, 'I'm not going to jail by myself.' That's a mistake to say something like that to these men," Funk said.

Nick Calabrese, the brother of Frank Calabrese Sr., testified that he, Calabrese Sr., and Ronald Jarrett picked up Albergo near Sox Park and Frank Calabrese Sr. strangled him. "He (Calabrese Sr.) cut Mr. Albergo's throat as well, just to make sure," Funk said.

Nick Calabrese said the body was buried at a warehouse on the 3300 block of South Shields in Chicago. At the time, it was under construction. Now, it's a parking lot for U.S. Cellular Field.

That, Funk said, explains why the body was never recovered. The building was razed and the earth on the spot -- about 5 feet deep -- was hauled away, Funk said. "Mr. Albergo's remains were removed over 20 years ago in the back of a pickup truck somewhere," Funk said.

Then he predicted, "I suspect you're going to hear (from defense attorneys) that Nick Calabrese invented all of this."

But besides Nick Calabrese's testimony, Funk told jurors, are tape recordings of Frank Calabrese Sr. and his son, Frank Calabrese Jr., who cooperated with prosecutors. In the recording, Calabrese Sr. discusses with Calabrese Jr. what Nick Calabrese could testify to, and he apparently talks about multiple murders, describing some in gruesome detail, including the shotgun slaying of Richard Ortiz and Arthur Morawski in Cicero. Ortiz, Calabrese tells his son, was the target and Morawski just happened to be there.

"The Polish guy (Morawski) that was there happened to be a nice guy," said Calabrese Sr. on the recording. "Wrong place at the wrong time."

Calabrese Sr. said that to call off a hit because an innocent person was in the way couldn't be done because other Outfit leaders might think you were weak for "freezing."

Funk encouraged jurors not to simply believe or disbelieve the testimony of Nick Calabrese, who he conceded was a "cold-blooded" killer. But additional forensic evidence, he said, corroborates Nick Calabrese's testimony and makes it believable, which means jurors should convict, Funk said.

"Who gives them the right to take the lives of other human beings?" asked Funk. "How is it that they can just walk into a business and demand money? "Because they know how to instill fear in other human beings," said Funk, answering his own question. "Kill another human being if he gets in your way."

Funk will continue his closing argument Tuesday and defense attorneys will then respond, after which prosecutors will get another chance to speak. Closing arguments are expected to continue through Thursday.

Thanks to Rob Olmstead

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Family Secrets Closing Arguments This Week

With the presentation of evidence expected to wrap up Monday, the Family Secrets trial has been among the most riveting and eye-opening in Chicago history, putting the violent realities of Outfit life and death on display for nine weeks.

Among the trial's highlights, three reputed "made" members of the Chicago Outfit each testified -- one, the star government witness, and two key defendants.

Nicholas Calabrese, confronted with DNA evidence tying him to a 1986 murder, turned on the mob, betraying his brother and providing an insider's view on many of the 18 gangland slayings at the heart of the prosecution's case.

In a rare move for accused mobsters, Calabrese's brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., who is implicated in 13 of the murders, and Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, perhaps Chicago's best-known reputed Outfit figure of the past three decades, took the witness stand in their own defense.

In closing arguments this week, lawyers will guide jurors through the testimony of dozens of witnesses and hours of secretly made recordings.

Calabrese, Lombardo and three co-defendants -- James Marcello, Paul "the Indian" Schiro and former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle -- are charged in a conspiracy that allegedly involved murder, racketeering, extortion and threats.

The first count of the indictment charged that the Chicago mob killed its "members, associates and others to advance the interests of the Chicago Outfit's illegal activities." If any of the defendants are convicted of the first count, U.S. District Judge James Zagel decided last week, jurors will be asked to deliberate separately on whether any defendants committed specific murders. That finding could trigger a stiffer sentence -- up to life in prison.

The most damning evidence against Frank Calabrese Sr. came from his brother, and his son, Frank Calabrese Jr. Nicholas Calabrese spent a week on the stand, calmly testifying in vivid detail about how his brother slowly lured him into Outfit life. By the time he committed his first murder with his brother in 1970, he testified he believed it was a test of his manhood. "We gotta put somebody in a hole," he quoted his brother as announcing. Nick Calabrese testified that his brother's preferred method of murder was to strangle his victims with a rope and then cut their throats.

In hours of conversations secretly taped by the FBI and played for jurors while he was imprisoned, Frank Calabrese Sr. could be heard discussing some of the murders with his son. He also talked about participating in a mob-making ceremony, complaining that holy pictures had been burned in his hand. "That bothers me," Frank Calabrese Sr. said on the tape.

In his closing argument, Calabrese's lawyer, Joseph Lopez, is expected to contend that Calabrese's brother and son testified for the government as part of a plot to steal some $2 million from him.

In testifying, Frank Calabrese Sr. flatly denied killing any of the victims with an emphatic "No way," sometimes as he thumped his fingers down on the witness stand.

He said he ran a loan business with Outfit connections, but he never used threats to collect debts. Telling jurors he was jealous of his brother's relationship with his sons, Frank Calabrese Sr. said he boasted to impress his son when he appeared to be discussing mob activity.

Prosecutors contend Marcello is another longtime Outfit figure, trumpeting him as its then-current leader when he was arrested in 2005.

Nicholas Calabrese implicated Marcello in perhaps the case's most notorious slayings, those of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro. He allegedly lured them to their deaths, driving them to the Bensenville residence where they were beaten to death, Calabrese testified.

Prosecutors have tried to strengthen their case with tapes of Marcello talking in prison with his brother, Michael, who previously pleaded guilty in the Family Secrets case. The Marcellos can be heard talking in code and speculating about whether the government was building a case against them.

Prosecutors also presented the testimony of Spilotro family members, including Michael Spilotro's daughter, who said it was James Marcello who called her family's home the day her dad vanished.

Marcello's defense team likely will argue to the jury that the government's case is too speculative, that Nicholas Calabrese, an admitted serial killer, can't be trusted and that no physical evidence connects Marcello to any of the slayings.

Prosecutors alleged that Lombardo, the reputed boss of the mob's Grand Avenue street crew, was behind the murder of Daniel Seifert, his onetime business partner, though the evidence is largely circumstantial. Seifert was due to testify against Lombardo in a fraud case when he was ambushed by gunmen outside his Bensenville office and killed.

Lombardo's fingerprint was found on the title application of one of two getaway cars found about two miles from the scene of the murder.

Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, has argued that his client was a hustler but not a gangster, a legitimate businessman with mob connections.

Lombardo testified earlier this month, drawing dozens to the courtroom to watch the notorious reputed Outfit leader. He was asked by a prosecutor whether he is a capo in the Chicago Outfit. "That is positively no, sir," Lombardo said.

Prosecutors alleged that Schiro, a reputed Spilotro associate who was part of the Chicago mob's western operations, helped stalk federal witness Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986.

Nicholas Calabrese told how Schiro allegedly helped a mob hit squad locate and target Vaci before Calabrese shot him in the head. Schiro and his lawyer, Paul Wagner, have chosen to put on no witnesses. Wagner has argued that Nicholas Calabrese was the real killer and cannot be trusted.

The case against Doyle centers mostly on the bloody glove that linked Nicholas Calabrese through DNA to a 1986 murder. In 1999, when the Outfit had gotten wind of the federal mob investigation and began to fear that Calabrese would cooperate, Doyle allegedly passed information about the glove to Frank Calabrese Sr.

In testifying last week, Doyle said he visited Calabrese in prison out of loyalty to a lifelong friend and tried to shift blame to a former police officer who also had been charged in the case, but died before trial.

Closing arguments by the attorneys could begin as soon as late Monday. Jury deliberations likely will begin later in the week.

Thanks to Jeff Coen

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Paris Hilton - A Mafia Princess?

Now this is what we call casting news. You 'll never guess who was hand-picked by mafia princess Antoinette Giancana to play her in an upcoming cable TV movie: Paris Hilton!

Yes, you read right. PARIS HILTON! What's THAT about? A TV movie was made in 1986 based on Antoinette's book Mafia Princess and Antoinette wasn't thrilled with Susan Lucci's performance. (Tony Curtis played her father Sam Giancana.) The mobster's daughter decided the actress made her look like a "weakling." Apparently she's hoping for some spunk from Paris Hilton in this new untitled movie.

Back in the 80's, Antoinette was featured in Playboy but the only photo we could find of her was this one advertising her pasta sauce. She looks more like a reformed nun than a princess.

Thanks to Janet Charlton

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The Sopranos Season 6 to be Released 10-23-07.

Last year, Tony Soprano cheated death when he was shot by his now institutionalized Uncle Junior. While Tony continues to muse about his second chance at life, he faces a myriad of immediate, stress-inducing crises at home, at work and from the law. Tony's wife Carmela plans for a future she's not sure will arrive, and son AJ and daughter Meadow find that adulthood holds its own surprises. Meanwhile, at work, Tony comes to doubt the allegiances of many of those closest to him - no one, not Paulie, Bobby, Silvio or even Christopher is above suspicion. The clock is ticking. Time is running out. But on who?

Features:

* Making "Cleaver": Behind the scenes of Christopher's horror film
* The Music of The Sopranos: Creator David Chase, cast and crew discuss the songs from the show
* Four audio commentaries with cast members Dominic Chainese, Robert Iler, Arthur Nascarella, Steven R. Schirripa and Stevie Van Zandt

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The Chicago Mob Still Influential

Jurors have heard testimony about a Judas kiss like the one Michael Corleone gave his brother Fredo in "The Godfather."

They're heard about mobsters initiated as "made guys" by getting their fingers cut and having holy pictures burned in their bare hands in secret ceremonies. And they've heard about how those who crossed the "Chicago Outfit" sometimes ended up in the trunk of a car.

The city's biggest mob trial in years, involving five men in their 60s and 70s accused of crimes ranging from loan sharking to 18 long-unsolved murders, has lifted the curtain on the secrets of the mob - as it was decades ago. Most of the allegations date to the 1970s and '80s. But what about today? Experts say the mob is alive and well in the town that was once Al Capone's.

"People say, 'Look at how old these guys are on trial, it's a geriatric organization,' " said John Binder, author of "The Chicago Outfit (IL) (Images of America)."

"What you're seeing is just part of the organization," he said. "They're still doing gambling, they've still got some labour racketeering, they've got their hooks into some unions (and) they're still doing juice lending."

A few years ago, plans for a casino in the suburb of Rosemont were derailed amid concerns about mob ties in the village. And in the late 1990s, one of the largest unions in the United States, the Laborers International, publicly launched an effort to drive organized crime out of its Chicago District Council.

Jurors in the latest trial heard a secretly recorded tape of one of the defendants, Frank Calabrese Sr., talking about collecting "recipes," code for payoffs, in the late 1990s - while he was behind bars.

"What the trial has made clear is even when they are in prison they continue to exert influence and control," said James Wagner, the head of the Chicago Crime Commission, who investigated the mob for years when he was an FBI agent. And although the current trial's defendants are aging, others point out that the Outfit still has people ready to step in and take over for the old mobsters, known as "Mustache Petes."

"They're still there, there's still young guys coming up," said Jack O'Rourke, a retired FBI agent who also spent years investigating the Chicago mob. "And they're still powerful enough to kill guys."

Binder compared the mob to a corporation. "It's important in management to groom people," he said. "The Outfit is good at it; they've shown the ability to bring people up."

Still, the Chicago Outfit is showing its age, say some who have studied it.

"The Chicago mob used to be big time, and now it's just local thugs like Tony Soprano," said Gus Russo, author of a best-selling book about the Chicago mob titled simply "The Outfit."

"There's no doubt they still have some cops on the take, some lawyers, a judge here and there and labour unions. But now they are just a local mob," he said.

Chicago's mob probably lost some of its power because many of the illegal activities it once made money from are now legal, like casinos and state-run lotteries.

In addition, Russo said: "They had pornography, and now that's big business."

The Outfit has other opportunities, however.

"They've still got the sports betting," O'Rourke said. "They've controlled that forever and it is illegal."

But even that business has changed, O'Rourke said, because they way they collect the money has got a bit more genteel than in the old days.

"Now with the gamblers, they don't get tough any more and extort them," he said. "Instead, they're saying, 'You can't play any more.' To the gamblers, that's worse than getting beat up."

Even though some of its influence may be waning, the trial suggests the mob can still pull off the kind of tricks that made it infamous.

After rumours that he would testify at the trial, reputed mobster Anthony Zizzo vanished last year.

Then in January, a deputy U.S. marshal was charged with leaking information to reputed mob boss John (No Nose) DiFronzo about the co-operation and travel plans of Nicholas Calabrese, a key government witness and the brother of defendant Frank Calabrese Sr.

"Now they are more surreptitious than ever before, more cunning and intelligent in the way they operate," Wagner said. "They're not less dangerous or influential."

Thanks to Don Babwin

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Playing Dumb is Wrong Prescription on Witness Stand

Anthony (Passafiume) Doyle, the hulking former Chicago cop tied to the Chicago Outfit, doesn't look like a guy who takes many beatings.

Known as "Twan" on the street, Doyle looks more like a guy who gives them for free. But he needed a doctor after the beating he took on the witness stand Thursday in the Family Secrets Outfit trial.

After a severe cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk, Doyle looked flat and gray, like the pork chops in the sandwiches at the Maxwell Street Polish stand on 31st Street byda viaduct.

Twan looked like he needed a doctor.

So I drove over after testimony was done, for a pork-chop sandwich, to the doctors office there, to see if Dr. Frank "Toots" Caruso would make a house call and tend to his lifelong friend.

Federal authorities consider Caruso, a former labor leader ousted from his union for crime connections, to be a major street boss in the Outfit. Funk kept referring to him in open court as "The Doctor," which he said was Outfit code, in the tape recordings from the federal prison in Milan, Mich., where Doyle visited Chinatown loan shark Frank Calabrese.

Prosecutors say Calabrese wanted the doctor to make a visit, to tend to sickly friends who might talk to the feds.

Since I was hungry, and Doyle appeared in need of doctorly advice, there was only one place to go. This doctor's office smelled of onions and grilled meat, which is nicer than antiseptics.

Is Dr. Toots here? Where's Dr. Toots?

"Toots no here," said the grill man through the window.

So I left my office number and ordered two pork-chop sandwiches, or sangwiches as they are called, one for me and one for my trusty colleague, the Polish Spartacus.

Light on the onions, I said. "I'll take mine regular," Spartacus said.

We stood outside, eating our tasty sangwiches at the counter on the sidewalk, reflecting on the testimony and anticipating walking across the street for a fine cigar.

Doyle's testimony had been rather predictable. He didn't know nothing. He didn't know why he used code words so easily that he appeared quite fluent in the obscure Chinatown dialect of the Outfit language.

It's not Chinese. It's not classic Italian. It's Chitalian.

On tape, Doyle and Frank Calabrese spoke of "doctors" (Caruso) and "purses" (bloody gloves sought by the FBI) and "sisters" (gangsters) and "sickly sisters" (guys who might testify against the Outfit) and the "family" (you know) and so on.

It sure sounded incriminating, but Doyle had a reason. He testified that he played along with the Calabrese code he called "gibberish" and "mumbo jumbo" because he didn't want to look stupid. So he kept talking, incriminating himself into a federal charge that as a cop in the police evidence section, he warned Outfit bosses that the FBI was looking for a bloody glove that would frighten "sickly sisters." At least, that's his theory.

"I gave him lip service," Doyle said. "I didn't know what he was talking about. I don't wanna look like a chumbolone, an idiot, stupid," Doyle said from the witness stand.

There is a tasty Sicilian Easter cake called ciambellone, but Twan doesn't look like a tasty Easter cake. He looks more like the guy you never want to meet in a parking lot at night.

He was especially upset that prosecutors dropped the portion of the tape on him where he keeps referring to "the doctor." He didn't want to be a chumbolone about "the doctor" either, but that put him in a bind with prosecutor Funk.

"I never heard of a name called 'doctor,'" Doyle said of Caruso. "And I've known him my entire life!"

He denied this, he denied that, and if I hadn't been reading the transcripts and watching the tapes along with the jury, I'd have believed him. Perhaps they do believe him.

Outside the federal building, Hollywood producers were filming another exciting Batman movie -- this one about Batman fighting the Chicago Outfit.

The streets were crowded with extras and trucks, and production crew members told me that the big trucks with the equipment belonged to "Movies in Motion," the company founded by William Galioto, another former Chicago cop and brother-in-law of Jimmy Marcello, one of the other Outfit bosses on trial in Family Secrets.

They must think we're chumbolones. We reflected on this, walking across the street to the cigar shop, hoping to find Dr. Toots enjoying a stogie. We had two fine cigars ourselves, but the Doctor wasn't in.

Three Chicago Police detectives were inside, smoking cigars, resting their paws on their guns on their belts.

How's crime? "It always goes down when it rains," said one detective, and everybody laughed.

The TV was on, with a rerun of a M*A*S*H episode, and Col. Sherman T. Potter was speaking kindly, giving fatherly advice. I wonder if Dr. Toots would give his friend Twan that same medicine.

Thanks to John Kass

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Former Chicago Cop Admits to Disgracing Badge while Moonlighting for the Mob

In the Operation Family Secrets mob trial today, a Chicago Police officer admitted that he had a year's-long relationship with top ranking members of the Chicago outfit.

Former Chicago cop Anthony Doyle is one of the five men charged with outfit crimes in Operation Family Secrets. While many Chicago Police officers moonlight to supplement their city salaries, federal prosecutors say Doyle's side job was with the outfit as a loan shark and an informant, that he gave mob bosses inside police department information about evidence in a gangland murder.

Former Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle arrived for court knowing that today's cross-examination by federal prosecutors would be out to make him look like a "chumbalone." That is an Italian slang word for idiot, or dummy, and on the witness stand this afternoon was the word that Doyle himself used to describe his motivation for the tough-guy conversations he was recorded having with Chicago outfit bosses.

The jury has seen and heard the FBI surveillance tapes of Officer Doyle meeting with mob rackets boss Frank Calabrese Senior while Calabrese was serving time for extortion at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan.

Prosecutors say that Officer Doyle provided Calabrese information about police evidence in the 1986 mob hit on John Fecarota, a killing carried out by Calabrese's brother Nick. At the time, Officer Doyle was working in the police evidence section.

Doyle today said his conversations with Calabrese during prison visits were: "mind-boggling gibberish. I don't know what's being talked about."

Then he claimed that he was just giving Calabrese "lip service...I don't want to look like a chumbalone," said Doyle, who is of Italian heritage but changed his last name to the Irish Doyle when he took the police exam.

Doyle tried to explain why he visited a mob boss in prison when police rules prohibit such contacts with felons.

"You knew Frank Calabrese Senior was an outfit boss. Didn't you?" asked prosecutor T. Marcus Funk.

"No sir," replied Doyle. "I knew him as a loan shark and bookmaker for the Chicago outfit."

Then later in the day, Funk asked him: "You knew that Mr. Calabrese was an outfit man when you visited him in prison, didn't you?"

Doyle, backed into a corner, admitted "Yes, sir" he knew the obvious.

Thanks to Chuck Goudie

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America's Most Wanted on The Chicago Syndicate for 8/25

Paul Eischeid: The ATF and police in Tempe , Ariz. have charged outlaw biker Paul Eischeid with an act of savagery in the desert. They say he killed a woman who visited a Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club in 2003. Now, they need your help to get their hands on him.

East Coast Bandits: First, it was a bank in Chicopee , Mass. Then, Cranston , R.I. Now, the FBI says the same group of thugs has robbed a bank on New York ’s Long Island . Investigators say these guys are dangerous – and they’re wielding some big weapons. Check out AMW.com to learn more about where they could be hiding out now. Then, tune in this week to help us bring these bandits down.

Operation Falcon 2007: AMW has teamed up with the U.S. Marshals Service for the third year in a row running a dragnet operation designed to round up as many wanted fugitives as possible. The nationwide sting -- known as Operation Falcon -- has seen great success in years past, and this year cops expect much of the same. Two of the Marshal’s Top 15 are known to have close ties with the biker community, and this Saturday night, AMW correspondent John Turchin will take you to Sturgis , S.D. for one of the biggest biker rallies in the world. Tune in, and help us put away a few bad news bikers.

Michael Alexander: It took two tries to find Michael Alexander but NYPD has finally got him. An AMW tipster first told police that Michael Alexander was hiding out in a Brooklyn apartment. When police went to get him on May 29, 2007, they could smell the marijuana coming from his room, but Alexander had already jumped out the window. It took authorities another day to catch up to him. Alexander put up his hands and told police,"I'm tired of running."

Carl Dinatale: Police say Carl Dinatale isn't the most creative felon in the world, and that he allegedly robbed dozens of jewelry stores all along the East Coast. But thanks to great police work and some help from AMW, the crooked thief is behind bars.

Vincent Ledoux: For ten years, Vincent Ledoux was able to hide out and make a new life for himself. But thanks to an AMW viewer, the accused sexual predator is in custody, and AMW was there for the takedown. Tune in this Saturday night for the full story on our 945th direct-result capture.

Raymond Gates: With the help of an AMW tipster, Raymond Gates is finally in police custody. New Mexico cops collaborated with the U.S. Marshals in Texas to take down the wanted sex offender on June 26, 2007, making him direct capture #950.

Jose Perez: In December 2004, after a night of partying and drinking - a regular occurrence in the Perez household - Ingrid went to her room to go to bed, cops say. But, a few hours later, Ingrid woke up and her father was in her room. Cops say what happened next is one of the most tragic crimes in America .

Jenna Nielsen Killer: The search continues for Jenna Nielsen's killer. When we first aired her story, tips streamed into our hotline. One in particular stood out. Police in Mississippi had arrested a perp known as the "Baby-Face Rapist". His resemblance to the Raleigh composite sketch is uncanny - close enough to warrant a trip to follow this compelling lead. This week, we need your help to get justice for the Nielsen family.

Chi Du: When a jealous ex spotted his former girlfriend with another man, he decided that if he couldn't have her, then no one would. Police say a brutal attack soon followed, and Chi Du left two stunned victims behind.

Stanley Obas: Pennsylvania detectives haven't given up tracking down a man accused of torturing and murdering a 13-year-old girl, then burying her body in a cemetery 11 years ago. This Saturday, we need your help to put him away for good.

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