Frank James Calabrese Sr. (March 17, 1937 – December 25, 2012), also known as "Frankie Breeze", was a made man who ran major
loanshark
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law.
Description
Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
Operation Family Secrets
Operation Family Secrets was an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into mob-related crimes in Chicago. The FBI called it one of the most successful investigations of organized crime that it had ever conducted.Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina.
Early life
Frank Calabrese Sr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1937, to James and Sophie Calabrese. Calabrese grew up on the
West Side
West Side or Westside may refer to:
Places Canada
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Westside, Birmingham E ...
of Chicago, dropped out of school in the fourth grade and sold newspapers on Grand Avenue, he told jurors during a trial in 2007. He also told jurors that his family was so poor that they would eat
oatmeal
Oatmeal is a preparation of oats that have been de-husked, steamed, and flattened, or a coarse flour of hulled oat grains (groats) that have either been milled (ground) or steel-cut. Ground oats are also called white oats. Steel-cut oats are ...
for dinner. Calabrese enlisted in the U.S. Army, however he went AWOL five days after boot camp.
Career in the mob
Calabrese's arrest record dates from 1954, when he served two years in prison for a violation of the Dyer Act (auto theft). He was The Outfit's
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
, or 26th Street, crew boss who provided loans to hundreds of customers at exorbitant interest rates that varied from one percent to 10 percent per week. The federal government estimates that Calabrese's crew grossed more than $2,600,000. Calabrese instructed his crew members to, "do anything you have to do", to collect the loans. If a debtor did not have the money, the Calabrese crew would seize the debtor's car, home and business. Calabrese reported to
Angelo J. LaPietra
Angelo J. "The Hook" LaPietra (October 30, 1920– March 28, 1999) was a Chicago mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit, involved in extensive loansharking operations in the city's First Ward during the 1970s and 1980s. He earned his nickname " ...
"The Hook", who was the ultimate boss of the 26th Street Crew and founder of the Italian American Club from where operations were handled.
At one point, Calabrese gained control of an auto repair shop in
River Grove, Illinois
River Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,612 at the 2020 census.
Geography
River Grove is located at (41.925830, -87.840135).
According to the 2010 census, River Grove has a total area of , all lan ...
, when the owner, Matthew Russo, fell behind on a loan. In 1990, Calabrese entered an agreement with a car dealership in Elmhurst, Illinois, to direct car repair work to this mob-controlled repair shop in exchange for kickbacks. However, Russo had become an undercover government informant and recorded the mobsters at one meeting at the dealership. Calabrese and eight of his crew members—sons Frank Calabrese Jr., and Kurt Calabrese, brother
Nick Calabrese
Nicholas W. Calabrese (born November 30, 1942) is an American former mob hitman, best known for being the second made man ever to testify against the Chicago Outfit. His testimony and cooperation with federal prosecutors helped result in the 2007 ...
, Louis Bombacino, Philip Tolomeo, Kevin Kudulis, Terry Scalise and Philip Fiore— were eventually arrested.
1995 arrest and subsequent conviction
On July 28, 1995, Calabrese, his brother, Nick, and two sons, Frank and Kurt, were all indicted by federal authorities and charged with using threats, violence, and intimidation to enforce their loansharking racket from 1978 until 1992.
On March 21, 1997, Calabrese and his sons pleaded guilty to the charges, just weeks before they were set to go to trial. "I'm very sad that this brings my kids into something that should never have happened", Calabrese told U.S. district judge James F. Holderman.
On October 15, 1997, Calabrese was sentenced by Holderman to 118 months in federal prison. He apologized to the court and his family for, "all the trouble I have caused."
Operation Family Secrets trial
The investigation which led to the Family Secrets trial began when Calabrese's imprisoned son, Frank Jr., wrote to the FBI and volunteered to wear a wire on his father and uncle. He did not ask for sentence reduction or financial gain in exchange for doing it. Viewing this as a great opportunity, the FBI agreed to Frank Jr.'s proposal.
During their imprisonment, Frank Jr. recorded his father admitting to multiple murders. Faced with the evidence gathered by his nephew, Frank Sr.'s brother
Nicholas Calabrese
Nicholas W. Calabrese (born November 30, 1942) is an American former mob hitman, best known for being the second made man ever to testify against the Chicago Outfit. His testimony and cooperation with federal prosecutors helped result in the 2007 ...
also agreed to testify against the Chicago Outfit.
On April 25, 2005, Frank Calabrese Sr. and a large number of high-profile Chicago Outfit gangsters were charged with murder,
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
,
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
, and running an illegal gambling business as part of the federal-government initiated "Operation Family Secrets" investigation.
The Family Secrets trial began on June 19, 2007. Among the prosecution witnesses were Calabrese's brother, Nick Calabrese, and Frank Calabrese Sr's. son, Frank Calabrese Jr. An unusual aspect of the Family Secrets trial was that several members of the Chicago Outfit took the stand in their own defense. Calabrese testified on August 16, 2007, that he was not a "made" member of the Chicago Outfit, but he acknowledged that he put out street loans and that he paid a mob boss some of the proceeds.
On September 10, 2007, Calabrese and other Outfit defendants were convicted of a racketeering
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...
that included murder, extortion, and loansharking. On September 11, 2007, during a court hearing to determine whether Calabrese and Vrchota were also guilty of various murders related to the case, Vrchota exclaimed, "Them are lies!" in response to a prosecutor's statement that Vrchota had left "a trail of bodies, literally." On September 27, 2007, jurors found that Vrchota had committed seven of the 18 murders in the indictment (of the 18 murders, Vrchota had been accused of taking part in 13 of them).
After the verdict, news came out that a juror had alleged that on August 27, 2007, Calabrese had said or mouthed, "You are a fucking dead man", to Prosecutor
T. Markus Funk
T. Markus Funk is an American attorney, law professor, and author known for the prosecution of several high-profile mob figures during his career at the United States Department of Justice, his role in co-leading the internal investigation into ...
. On April 10, 2008, Judge
James Zagel
James Block Zagel (born March 4, 1941) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and a novelist.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Illinois, to Jewish ...
denied a request to order a new trial in the case, saying that he did not believe that the threat had tainted jurors. However, the threat resulted in Calabrese being placed in highly restrictive lockdown during his stay in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago while awaiting sentencing.
On January 28, 2009, Judge Zagel sentenced Calabrese, then 71, to life in prison for his crimes and called the acts he had committed, "unspeakable". On finding prosecutors had proven the murder allegations, the judge sentenced Calabrese for all 13 slayings.
U.S. Attorney's Office
United States attorneys are officials of the United States Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 United States federal judicial district, U.S. federal judici ...
in Chicago. Calabrese was accused of plotting with a former prison chaplain to recover a violin hidden in a
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
house.
Personal life and death
Calabrese and his first wife, Dolores, divorced in 1984. He had four children: Frank Jr., Kurt, Nick, and Emmilio, by a long time Cuban mistress from New York by the name of Flor Sosa. During an interview, Kurt stated that the youngest Calabrese son, Nick, did not get involved with their father's criminal enterprise, presumably due to the age difference between Nick and his two elder brothers.
Calabrese resided in
Oak Brook, Illinois
Oak Brook is a village mostly in DuPage County with a small portion in Cook County in Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 8,163. This suburb of Chicago has the headquarters of several companies and organizations including Ace H ...
, until his imprisonment in the mid-1990s.
Calabrese died at the age of 75, on December 25, 2012, at the Federal Medical Center, Butner,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not release details for the cause of death.
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...