Latest news with #OperationFamilySecrets
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fan falls during Cubs game • Singer killed in house fire • Des Plaines investigation
CHICAGO - A man fell from a 21-foot wall at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during a baseball game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night; Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, best known for the 1995 pop hit "I Kissed a Girl," was killed early Thursday in a house fire; and new details are emerging amid a puzzling investigation in the northwest suburbs. These are the top stories in Fox 32's Week in Review. A man fell from the 21-foot Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park during Wednesday night's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. FULL STORY Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule — best known for the 1995 pop hit "I Kissed a Girl" — was killed early Thursday in a house fire in Woodbury, roughly 20 miles east of Minneapolis, her representative confirmed to multiple outlets, including Variety, Rolling Stone, and TMZ. She was 66. FULL STORY As questions continue to swirl over a puzzling investigation in the northwestern suburb of Des Plaines, new details are emerging about the criminal past of a man who recently lived in the home. FULL STORY A California woman is suing American Airlines, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a fellow passenger on an overnight flight — and that the airline knowingly allowed the passenger, a previously reported offender, to fly again. FULL STORY Sophomore Alex Shieh created database to identify three particular types of school positions: 'DEI jobs, redundant jobs, and bulls--t jobs.' FULL STORY The 2025 NFL Draft is in the books. How did the Bears do? Here's how we grade all eight of the Chicago Bears' selections in the 2025 NFL Draft. FULL STORY Twenty years ago this month, the federal government filed charges against more than a dozen top leaders of the Chicago Outfit, involving nearly two dozen murders that had gone unsolved for decades. They called the case "Operation Family Secrets." FULL STORY A Rolling Meadows police sergeant was arrested after shooting a gun during a road rage incident in Elgin last week. FULL STORY The winners of the $349 million Mega Millions jackpot from the March 25 drawing have officially stepped forward, according to the Illinois Lottery. FULL STORY Two female pedestrians were killed and an infant was critically injured when a car struck them Friday evening in north suburban Winnetka, authorities said. FULL STORY
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
'Operation Family Secrets': Former Chicago mobster reflects on life after testifying against his father
The Brief April marks 20 years since the FBI brought charges against 14 Chicago mob figures in "Operation Family Secrets," cracking open decades of unsolved murders. Key testimony came from Frank Calabrese Jr., who secretly recorded conversations with his father, mob hitman Frank Calabrese Sr. The trial resulted in life sentences for multiple top mobsters and severely weakened the Chicago Outfit's grip on organized crime. CHICAGO - It has been called the most important mob prosecution in U.S. history. Twenty years ago this month, the federal government filed charges against more than a dozen top leaders of the Chicago mob, Outfit. It involved nearly two dozen murders that had gone unsolved for decades. They called the case "Operation Family Secrets." On Tuesday, FOX 32's Dane Placko talked to the ex-mobster who wore a wire against his father and triggered the FBI investigation. Tonight, we look back at the historic trial and its aftermath. "I know I had to finish what I started. Because if he gets on the street, I'm done or he's dead. And one of us is locked up forever," said Frank Calabrese Jr. The backstory In April 2005, following a seven-year investigation and the surprise cooperation of Frank Calabrese Jr. and his uncle, mob hitman Nick Calabrese, federal prosecutors filed a 43-page racketeering indictment against 14 Chicago mobsters and associates responsible for 18 murders going back to the 1960s. Calabrese Jr. says he doesn't regret wearing a wire on his father. "The hardest thing I ever did in my life. I loved my dad. I did not love his ways, but it's my father," he said. In addition to his father, Frank Calabrese Sr., the feds charged top Outfit leaders James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Paul "The Indian" Schiro, and Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, who disappeared as the indictment was filed before being discovered hiding in a basement in Elmwood Park several months later. "It was by far the most committed team I've ever had the opportunity and the privilege working with," said Markus Funk. Funk was part of the "dream team" of federal prosecutors at the 2007 trial, which featured a colorful cast of defendants, witnesses and defense attorneys. "I mean, every day, things expected and unexpected happened," Funk said. "It was drama filled. I mean, every day. And we were always aware that the public was there in large part to see the mobsters, right?" At one point, as Funk grilled Calabrese Sr. on the witness stand, jurors heard the mobster whisper that Funk was a dead man. "I think the legacy of the trial is, in part, that it was the first time in Chicago we ever had a made member of the mob convicted of murder. And in fact, we had many murders," Funk said. Dig deeper The trial lasted nearly two months, with prosecutors calling 125 witnesses and presenting over 200 pieces of evidence. And with the smoking gun first-hand testimony of star witnesses Calabrese Jr. and Nick Calabrese, the jury returned guilty counts on all charges, sending Calabrese Sr., Lombardo and Marcello to prison for life. "I think that's the legacy of this case, to not only take down the entire organization, but also to remember that there's victims. And those victims' families, they will live with this forever," said Michael Maseth, a former Chicago FBI agent. Those victims' families also received restitution after the FBI found $1.7 million in stolen loot hidden behind a family portrait in the basement of Calabrese Sr.'s Oak Brook home. Both Calabrese Sr. and Lombardo have since died behind bars. Marcello is now 81 and remains at the federal supermax prison in Colorado. Schiro was released from federal custody in 2022. As for Nick Calabrese, despite 14 murders, he received a short sentence in return for his cooperation and spent his final years a free man. "He did pass on a couple years ago, naturally, with his family. So he had a heavy heart. He had a hard time sleeping at night. He had some ailments that were caused by the stress of it and what you've done," said Calabrese Jr. "The victims were very upset with the sentence that Nick got and the fact he died a free man," Funk added. "He lived up to every part of his deal. He testified to dozens of criminal acts and murders the government had no idea about, frankly, before he began talking. And so, he did what we expected and more and we held up to our side of the deal." Local perspective "As far as I'm concerned, the Chicago Outfit still exists, but it's a very reduced form of what it once was," said John Binder. Binder, a Chicago mobologist, says the Outfit was badly damaged by Family Secrets but also by the fact the government has legalized much of their old business model: bookmaking, gambling, loan-sharking and drugs. "Basically, legalization has been killing them. So much of what they did for years and liked to do because it's profitable has gone away because they've legalized any number of things," Binder said. "Kind of crazy, payday loans. That was one of our biggest things, loan-sharking. The only difference now is there's no violence. But you sign your life over so they just take it from you the easy way," Calabrese Jr. So, is the Chicago Outfit still alive? "There's certainly evidence that the mob is not even close to full strength anymore in the way that they once were. But they also are not dead. In other words, the story of the mob demise is premature and they're still very much active," Funk said. What's next "Operation Family Secrets" was the most successful mob trial in Chicago's history. Now, two decades after the case that brought down the mob's old guard, Calabrese Jr. spends much of his time in Las Vegas, telling his spellbinding life story as a lecturer at the Mob Museum. We asked Calabrese Jr. after 20 years, why does he think people are still fascinated by this story? "I speak to a lot of people, and there's a lot, because this is a family story, Dane. It's not about me getting up and telling you who got killed, who ordered it, who's the boss. This is about what this life does to your family. And at the museum here, I think I found my niche and it's going great," Calabrese Jr. responded. "And you know who I answer to today? My two kids and my grandson. That's my life now." There have been books written about the "Family Secrets" case, but remarkably, given the Shakespearean family drama at the center of the story, there hasn't yet been a movie. Calabrese Jr. said there's still plenty of interest and that he hopes to be able to make an announcement soon. The Source For this story, FOX 32 Chicago interviewed several key players from this historic trial. Those included a witness who is the son of one of the defendants, an FBI special agent who was originally assigned to the case and one of the federal prosecutors who tried the case.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
'Operation Family Secrets': Inside the FBI takedown that shattered the Chicago Outfit
The Brief "Operation Family Secrets," launched 20 years ago, is considered the most significant mob prosecution in U.S. history. It began when Frank Calabrese Jr. secretly cooperated with the FBI against his father, a notorious Chicago mobster. The case led to charges in nearly two dozen murders and helped dismantle the Chicago Outfit's leadership. CHICAGO - It has been called the most important mob prosecution in U.S. history. Twenty years ago this month, the federal government filed charges against more than a dozen top leaders of the Chicago Outfit, involving nearly two dozen murders that had gone unsolved for decades. They called the case "Operation Family Secrets." What we know The Chicago Outfit had a hold on the city for decades, with influence in the courts, the police department, and at City Hall. But that all changed when the son of a powerful mob boss grew frustrated that his father would never change his ways. Frank Calabrese Jr. went to the library in the federal prison where he was doing time with his father and typed out a cry for help to the FBI. "I feel like it was a different life," said Calabrese Jr. during a recent interview for the 20th anniversary of the Family Secrets indictment. "Sometimes I feel it was like a nightmare that it really didn't happen, that I'm just talking about some story." Calabrese Jr. was raised to be a mobster. His father, Frank Calabrese Sr., ran the Chicago Outfit's notorious Chinatown crew. Frank Sr.'s brother, Nick Calabrese, was a trusted mob soldier responsible for at least fourteen hits. "The difference between me and my uncle is as soon as he got in this life, he was ordered to kill," said Calabrese Jr. "And once he was in, he could not get out." The backstory In 1998, Calabrese Jr. was serving time with his father at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan, for illegal juice loans and racketeering. "I'll never sit up there and tell you I'm a victim. I did a lot of bad things in my life at one time that I'm embarrassed of today." The younger Calabrese said he wanted to turn his life around. But he said it became clear his father had other ideas. "It came to the point where I realized he is never going to let me out of this and he's never going to lose control of me, and I have to do something. And the choices that I had were to wait till he gets on the street, finish this with him. He's good at killing. I'd probably be dead or he's dead and I might be in jail. The other one was getting the government to help." After considering his options, Calabrese Jr. went to the prison library and typed out a letter for help to the FBI, writing, "I feel I have to help you keep this sick man locked up forever." Calabrese Jr. said it was a gut-wrenching decision. "I knew the day that I did that letter that my life was going to change forever. It wasn't about prison. It was about me and my dad. And the hardest thing I ever did to this day is go against my own father." When the letter arrived at the Organized Crime Division of the FBI, agents weren't sure it was real. "That letter was extremely important to the organized crime squad," said Michael Maseth, a former Chicago FBI agent who was assigned to the Organized Crime Unit in the late '90s. "There was a lot of excitement, but there was a lot of secrecy associated with it." Maseth was among the agents who set up top secret meetings with Calabrese Jr. at the Michigan prison, eventually giving him a recording device hidden inside a pair of headphones and setting up an undercover surveillance system in the prison's visiting area. "There were gang members there, all in the area of the yard. And so had they seen that he was wearing a wire, it would not have gone very well for him." Calabrese Jr. knew his life was on the line. "If (my father) catches me, I'm dead. And if anybody else catches me there, I am dead." In long conversations recorded in the prison yard, Calabrese Sr. opened up to his son about unsolved mob murders going back decades, including the assassination of mob hit man William Dauber and his wife in 1980, and the car bombing of businessman Michael Cagnoni in 1981. "The amount of information on those recordings was phenomenal," said Maseth. "We were astounded at how Frank Calabrese would talk about the homicides that he was involved in. Just the amount of information he was providing, the detail." Dig deeper Around the same time, FBI agents approached Nick Calabrese, who was serving time inside another federal prison. The agents told Nick they had newly obtained DNA evidence from a bloody glove left at the scene of a mob hit on the Northwest Side years earlier. Nick Calabrese had killed Outfit enforcer John Fecarotta but hurt himself during a struggle for the gun. After initially clamming up, "Nick had had enough and realized that I'm not going to stand up for my brother," said Maseth. "He's a horrible person and I'm going to, I'm doing it." Calabrese Jr. said he had no idea his uncle was also turning on Calabrese Sr. "That's when my uncle started cooperating. And he was the one who really took down the whole mob." Maseth said Nick Calabrese broke the case wide open. "Telling us about one murder after the next, and the members of organized crime who were involved in it. And that's when we realized that we had to expand our investigation ten to twenty-fold." That also includes the infamous execution of mob brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro, whose bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield in 1986. The murders were portrayed in the 1995 mob movie Casino. Nick Calabrese revealed for the first time that the Spilotros had been killed in a home in the northwest suburbs, then buried in a shallow grave in Indiana. "Nick Calabrese had quite a bit of insight about that because he said he was there," said Chicago mobologist John Binder. After a seven-year investigation, the Family Secrets case exploded into the public with sweeping charges against not just Calabrese Sr. but the longtime leaders of several other Outfit street crews. What's next In part two of our look back at the historic case, we'll revisit that dramatic trial, examine what happened to the key players, and ask whether the Chicago Outfit still has a pulse. The Source For this story, FOX 32 Chicago interviewed several key players from this historic trial. Those included a witness who is the son of one of the defendants, an FBI special agent who was originally assigned to the case and one of the federal prosecutors who tried the case. FOX 32 Chicago also interviewed a local professor and author regarding the historical impact this trial had on the mob and Chicago.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: Outfit leaders indicted by FBI in ‘Operation Family Secrets' investigation
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on April 25, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 87 degrees (1990) Low temperature: 27 degrees (1887) Precipitation: 1.95 inches (1902) Snowfall: 2.5 inches (1910) 1859: Four horse-drawn streetcars — the city's first — traveled the rails from Lake to 12th Street on State Street. 1946: Forty-seven people died and more than 100 were injured when a speeding Burlington passenger train headed for California slammed into a train bound for Omaha, which had stopped at the Naperville station. 1976: Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday snatched an American flag from two men who intended to set it afire during the fourth inning in the outfield at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Later, the stadium's message board said, 'Rick Monday … You made a great play.' The next time Monday came up to bat, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Monday, however, said the applause wasn't for him. 'They were cheering for the flag, ' Monday said. 'The greatest thing that happened was when they played 'God Bless America' after that.' The Dodgers went on to beat the Cubs 5-4 in 10 innings. 1989: Shortly after taking office, Mayor Richard M. Daley adopted Harold Washington's sanctuary city stance. Daley signed 13 executive orders, including one that reaffirmed 'fair and equal access' to employment, benefits and licenses to all — regardless of nationality or citizenship. 2005: Fourteen men were indicted for alleged organized crime activities, including illegal gambling, loan-sharking and some of Chicago's most notorious mob hits — including the 1986 beating deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, which inspired a scene in the 1995 film 'Casino.' Frank Calabrese Jr., imprisoned in Michigan with his father Frank Calabrese Sr., wore a hidden recorder that captured alleged conversations between the two. In them, Calabrese Sr. broke his silence on several old murders and named others in doing so. The FBI dubbed their investigation 'Operation Family Secrets.' Five men — Calabrese Sr.; Paul 'the Indian' Schiro; James Marcello, the reputed boss of the mob; Joey 'the Clown' Lombardo, a reputed legendary gangland figure; and Anthony 'Twan' Doyle, a former Chicago police officer — were found guilty on Sept. 11, 2007. Frank Saladino and Michael Ricci died prior to trial, six others pleaded guilty and Frank 'The German' Schweihs was deemed too sick to stand trial. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Chicago Tribune
25-04-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Outfit leaders indicted by FBI in ‘Operation Family Secrets' investigation
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on April 25, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1859: Four horse-drawn streetcars — the city's first — traveled the rails from Lake to 12th Street on State Street. 1946: Forty-seven people died and more than 100 were injured when a speeding Burlington passenger train headed for California slammed into a train bound for Omaha, which had stopped at the Naperville station. 1976: Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday snatched an American flag from two men who intended to set it afire during the fourth inning in the outfield at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Later, the stadium's message board said, 'Rick Monday … You made a great play.' The next time Monday came up to bat, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Monday, however, said the applause wasn't for him. 'They were cheering for the flag, ' Monday said. 'The greatest thing that happened was when they played 'God Bless America' after that.' The Dodgers went on to beat the Cubs 5-4 in 10 innings. 1989: Shortly after taking office, Mayor Richard M. Daley adopted Harold Washington's sanctuary city stance. Daley signed 13 executive orders, including one that reaffirmed 'fair and equal access' to employment, benefits and licenses to all — regardless of nationality or citizenship. 2005: Fourteen men were indicted for alleged organized crime activities, including illegal gambling, loan-sharking and some of Chicago's most notorious mob hits — including the 1986 beating deaths of Anthony and Michael Spilotro, which inspired a scene in the 1995 film 'Casino.' Frank Calabrese Jr., imprisoned in Michigan with his father Frank Calabrese Sr., wore a hidden recorder that captured alleged conversations between the two. In them, Calabrese Sr. broke his silence on several old murders and named others in doing so. The FBI dubbed their investigation 'Operation Family Secrets.' Five men — Calabrese Sr.; Paul 'the Indian' Schiro; James Marcello, the reputed boss of the mob; Joey 'the Clown' Lombardo, a reputed legendary gangland figure; and Anthony 'Twan' Doyle, a former Chicago police officer — were found guilty on Sept. 11, 2007. Frank Saladino and Michael Ricci died prior to trial, six others pleaded guilty and Frank 'The German' Schweihs was deemed too sick to stand trial. Want more vintage Chicago?
