Reputed mob hit man guilty of 3 robberies
TRIAL | Boasted 'I came into this world a man, I'll go out a man'
As he awaited a verdict Friday in his trial on three armed robberies, reputed mob hit man Anthony Calabrese declared, "I came into this world a man, and I'll go out a man."
For now, Calabrese is going to prison.
A seven-woman, five-man jury took about two hours to convict Calabrese, 47, of robbing businesses in Morton Grove, Lockport and Maywood. He could face more than 50 years behind bars when U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve sentences him May 2.
"I'm disappointed," Calabrese's attorney, Steven R. Hunter, said of the verdict. "I felt that the government's witnesses said enough things that were contradictory or unbelievable that it should have given the jury a lot to talk about."
Instead, the jury quickly convicted Calabrese on all six robbery and gun counts. The evidence presented by prosecutors Joel Hammerman and T. Markus Funk included a secretly recorded conversation in 2002 that Calabrese had with Edmund Frank, a partner in two of the robberies who became a government informant.
After becoming suspicious about Frank during the conversation and beating him, Calabrese and an associate forced Frank to strip to see if he was wearing a wire. They didn't find the recording device, "which was secreted elsewhere," according to a government court filing.
Hunter tried to stop the recording from being heard at trial, but St. Eve allowed it on the basis that it could show Calabrese was worried about Frank ratting him out.
Calabrese, who plans an appeal, is the suspected gunman in the Outfit murder of Anthony "The Hatch" Chiaramonti, who was slain in 2001 in south suburban Lyons, according to court records. He also is a suspect in a 1997 attempted murder of a Naperville woman, authorities have said. He has not been charged in those cases.
Contributing: Steve Warmbir
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