Calabrese's Credibility Attacked In Mob Trial

Thomas Breen, who represents defendant Jimmy Marcello,(Innocent)Calabrese's Credibility Attacked In Mob Trial suggested that the admitted mob hitman Nick Calabrese may have made it all up.

"You have told a story about the Spilatros being killed, and you weren't even there," Breen told Calabrese.


"Yes, I was," Calabrese answered.

But Breen grilled him on his exact memory of the June 1986 killings, and about how Calabrese had said everybody in a DuPage county house was wearing gloves when the Spilotros arrived, but that they still weren't spooked by the obvious sign of an Outfit hit.

Breen also recalled a prison conversation between Calabrese and Pat Spilotro, brother of the murder victims, who came to see him in prison.

"You told Pat Spilatro that you didn't know anything about his brothers being killed," Breen said. "And for one short moment you were telling the truth."

"No," Calabrese replied.

Breen then used the government's own PowerPoint presentation to make a point of his own, Wojciechowski reported, starting with the killing of Michael Albergo and the list of participants Calabrese testified to. Breen started scratching off the mobsters who were dead or in prison when Calabrese first came to authorities.

When some of the lists were left with only Nick Calabrese and Breen's client, Jimmy Marcello, the attorney asked, "You knew you wouldn't get any kind of a deal from the government if you only named dead people, right?"

Calabrese answered "no," Wojciechowski reported.

Calabrese also said he was haunted by the memory of murdering several friends but added that his own brother would have killed him if he had hesitated.

Nicholas Calabrese, the star witness at the trial of his brother, Frank, and four other alleged members of the Chicago mob, said the memory of murdering friends Johnny Fecarotta and Michael Spilotro is a heavy burden.

"It's a lot of weight to carry," Calabrese told Breen.

He exploded when Breen suggested he might have enjoyed killing mob associates Fecarotta and Michael Spilotro, brother of Tony Spilotro, the model for the Joe Pesci character in the movie "Casino."

"No, I didn't enjoy it," Calabrese said. "I live with it every day, and you're trying to make it out like I enjoyed killing my friend."

Frank Calabrese, 69, Marcello, 65, and the three other defendants are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, gambling, loan sharking and 18 long-unsolved mob murders.

Nicholas Calabrese agreed to become a government witness five years ago after his DNA was found on a bloody glove found at a murder scene. He said he feared that unless he cooperated, he would get the death penalty.

Breen suggested that Calabrese was lying to curry favor with federal prosecutors and make certain that he stays out of the execution chamber for the crimes he has committed.

Breen noted that by far the majority of the mobsters Calabrese named as carrying out murders, some going back to the 1970s, were already dead when he gave their names to the FBI. A key exception was brother Frank.

"Your brother, Frank, the man you hate, is on there," Breen said, pointing to a list of alleged killers, most of them long since deceased.

Calabrese testified that he used to hate his brother but no longer.

"You've forgiven him," Breen said at another point.

"I haven't forgiven him, I just don't hate him," Calabrese testified.

Calabrese had testified earlier that his brother was a tough, domineering boss who forced him to commit murder and beat his own son, Frank Calabrese Jr. The son was also a witness for the prosecution. When not painting Calabrese as a liar, Breen tried to get him to boast about his exploits as a hit man for the Chicago Outfit -- the name that the city's organized crime family calls itself.

"Give yourself some credit, Sir, you were pretty good," Breen said.

"As I said," Calabrese retorted, "I was stupid and dumb. It doesn't take much to become a coward and do that."

Calabrese offered a portrait of the mob world as one of constant dread, with death at the hands of angry organized crime bosses always just around the corner. He said specifically that if he had declined to carry out a hit, his brother would have immediately murdered him.

Breen recalled testimony earlier in the trial in which Calabrese described the ceremony at which he became "a made guy" in the Chicago Outfit. Breen asked Calabrese if he received a gift on the occasion.

"You get a little insurance on your life," Calabrese said.

"Is that the gift?" Breen asked.

"You are allowed to walk out alive," Calabrese said.