Mob figure seeks lighter sentence
Admitted killer Nick Calabrese cites his cooperation with prosecutors
The attorney for prolific mob killer Nicholas Calabrese is asking a federal judge for a substantial reduction in his prison sentence given Calabrese’s “extraordinary” cooperation in the historic Operation Family Secrets mob case.
Attorney John Theis didn’t ask U.S. District Judge James Zagel for a specific prison sentence for Calabrese, who killed more than a dozen people for the Chicago Outfit, including taking part in the 1986 murders of Anthony and Michael Spilotro in the basement of a Bensenville area home.
Calabrese was the star witness in the Family Secrets trial, helping to convict his own brother, mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr., along with others including Outfit chief James Marcello and top Outfit leader Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo.
Theis argues that Nick Calabrese was the first “made” man of the Chicago mob to cooperate and testify at a federal trial and that a lengthy sentence for his client, who is 67, would effectively be a death sentence.
Theis also maintains that Calabrese’s cooperation helped undermine the operation of the Outfit and “almost certainly saved the lives of others.”
Calabrese began cooperating with the government in 2002 after they tied him to a mob murder through blood evidence left at a crime scene.
But his attorney argues that Calabrese’s decision to cooperate “was the result of a much more complex and difficult process, beginning with the many years of anguish with which he lived, fearful of his own safety as well as that of his family, and unable to find the courage to extricate himself from the criminal activity in which he had so long participated.”
Nick Calabrese testified that he feared his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., would kill him if he didn’t complete the mob hits they often did together.
Theis writes that by asking for a break in sentencing, Nick Calabrese’s request “is meant in no way to diminish his complete remorse and contrition for the pain and sorrow which he has caused many individuals and their families.”
Calabrese is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Chicago.