AP News, August 30th, 2007
Men who have nothing to hide don't talk in code. They don't urge jail visitors to conceal their mouths, for fear of surveillance cameras and lip readers. And they don't pay $240,000 in hush money to an admitted hit man.
A federal prosecutor made those arguments Wednesday as he urged jurors to see that Chicago's biggest mob trial in years rests on more than the testimony of that admitted hit-man, Nicholas Calabrese.
"Nicholas Calabrese is not on trial in this case, and he will be held accountable," the trial's lead prosecutor, Mitchell Mars, said.
Defense attorneys argued that the government's star witness has no credibility _ one called Nicholas Calabrese "a walking piece of deception" _ and that prosecutors have no proof that their clients did anything illegal.
The five men on trial are accused in a racketeering conspiracy that includes 18 unsolved murders, illegal gambling, loan sharking and extortion tied to the Outfit, Chicago's organized crime family.
They are reputed mobster Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78; convicted jewel thief Paul Schiro, 70; reputed mob boss James Marcello, 65; convicted loan shark Frank Calabrese Sr., who is the brother of Nicholas Calabrese; and retired Chicago policeman Anthony Doyle, 62. If convicted of all charges, all but Doyle could go to prison for life.
Nicholas Calabrese agreed to spill mob secrets to avoid the death penalty after his DNA was matched to blood on a glove from a 1986 murder scene.
During the trial, he told jurors he took part in about a dozen of the murders in the indictment and provided details of other killings that he said he learned from other people, at least one of whom he later killed.
Among the 18 killings in the racketeering conspiracy charge are the 1986 beating deaths of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother, Michael, who were buried in an Indiana cornfield. Tony Spilotro, known as the mob's man in Las Vegas, became the inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the 1995 movie "Casino."
Prosecutors were expected to finish the rebuttal of their closing arguments Thursday, with jury instructions to follow.
Although defense attorneys delivered their closing arguments separately for each defendant, they had one common message: Nicholas Calabrese has admitted lying to authorities in the past and cannot be trusted.
Joseph Lopez, representing Frank Calabrese Sr., called his client's brother "a walking piece of deception" and a "grim reaper." He told the jurors they were being subjected to a "family feud."
Schiro attorney Paul Wagner called him a "stone-cold killer" who had forfeited his right to live in a decent society. And Marc Martin, representing Marcello, told jurors if Nicholas Calabrese said it was raining, they should check for themselves.
Several defense attorneys suggested Nicholas Calabrese had sprinkled their clients' names into his stories to please federal prosecutors and earn a lighter sentence. Wagner said Nicholas Calabrese is trying to avoid leaving prison in a box.
But Mars told jurors that Nicholas Calabrese's sentence will be up to a judge and that he could still spend the rest of his life in prison.
Mars also tried to refresh in the jurors' memories how Marcello and Frank Calabrese Sr. used coded language while communicating in prison, and how Marcello told his visiting brother to cover his mouth while talking.
Nicholas Calabrese was paid $240,000 in $4,000 installments over five years by Marcello, Mars said, citing a witness who said he was the delivery man. The money was paid because Outfit leaders were worried Nicholas Calabrese was about to start talking to the feds, the prosecutor said.
"You don't give money to someone to keep them from telling a lie," Mars said. "You pay money to someone _ hush money, bribe money _ to keep them from telling the truth."
