Why judge went easy on murderous mobster
Nicholas Calabrese was Mr. Automatic for the mob, a dependable killer who put 14 people in the ground for the Outfit.
Beatings, shootings, stranglings, bombings -- whatever it took, Nicholas Calabrese did it.
Not a flashy guy, not a big talker, just a guy who got the job done.
That's pretty much what jurors saw when Calabrese changed jobs and took the witness stand in 2007 to become the first made member of the Chicago mob to testify for prosecutors.
Not a charmer, not a tough guy -- to tell the truth, even a bit boring at times on the stand, if he wasn't talking about how he murdered people.
But on the stand, once again, he got the job done. His testimony put away some of the worst mobsters in Chicago history: James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo and his own brother, Frank Calabrese Sr.
Without Nicholas Calabrese, there would have been no Family Secrets trial.
Nicholas Calabrese did both his jobs -- killing and informing -- quite well, and therein lay the quandary for U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel.
How could Zagel strike a balance, giving Calabrese a significant break on his prison sentence while delivering justice to the families of his victims?
He could not.
For the murders alone, Calabrese deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison.
For his unparalleled cooperation, he deserved a chance not to die behind bars, if only to motivate other high-ranking criminals to come forward and cooperate.
There was, for Zagel, no way to reconcile the two. Justice is not always perfect, not even close.
In fact it can be sickening, as it was in the Calabrese sentencing.
Zagel sentenced Calabrese to 12 years and 4 months for 14 murders. Less than a year per murder.
And because of the time Calabrese has already served, he'll be out of prison in about four years.
We understand the anger of the victims' families. An animal walked into their lives and stole a father, a brother, a grandfather, a son.
They will never be the same.
The break Zagel gave Calabrese, of course, has its precedents.
• • In 1993, Outfit gambling whiz William "B.J." Jahoda was sentenced to time served -- a little more than 4 years -- for wearing a wire and giving testimony that dismantled a Chicago mob street crew, despite leading two bookmakers to their deaths.
• • New York mobster Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, involved in 19 murders, was sentenced to just 5 years behind bars in exchange for testimony that helped convict the Teflon Don, John Gotti.
• • Philadelphia mobster Philip Leonetti, involved in 10 killings, wound up serving a little more than 5 years out of a possible 45-year sentence for his extensive cooperation.
Judge Zagel explained the matter well to the families of Calabrese's victims. They had received some small comfort in knowing what happened to their loved ones and why, the judge said, but hundreds of other families still knew nothing of their loved ones' fates.
It was for those tormented families that Zagel went easy on Calabrese.
If undeserved leniency is never given, the judge said, few with blood on their hands will ever come forward.
That is the terrible truth.