Family Secrets

The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob

Jeff Coen

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN:
  9781569762462
• Edition: 1

Painting a vivid picture of the scenes both inside and outside the courtroom and re-creating events from court transcripts, police records, interviews, and notes taken day after day as the story unfolded in court in 2007, this narrative accurately portrays cold-blooded—and sometimes incompetent—killers and their crimes. In 1998 Frank Calabrese Jr. offered to wear a wire to help the FBI build a case against his father, Frank Sr., and his uncle Nick. A top Mob boss, a reputed consigliore, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were eventually accused in a total of 18 gangland killings, revealing organized crime's ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. After a series of other defendants pled guilty, those left to face off in court alongside Frank Sr. were James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, the acting head of the Chicago mob; Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, one of Chicago's most colorful mobsters; and Paul "the Indian" Schiro. A former Chicago police officer who worked in evidence, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, rounded out the list. The riveting testimony and wide-angle view provide one of the best accounts on record of the inner workings of the Chicago syndicate and its control over the city's streets.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author’s Note
• 1 A Killing Between Friends
• 2 The Surprise Letter
• 3 Witness of a Lifetime
• 4 United States vs. the Chicago Outfit
• 5 This Is Not The Sopranos
• 6 Testimony and Tapes
• 7 Alva and Emma
• 8 A Son Against His Father
• 9 Nick
• 10 A Killer Tells His Tale
• 11 Explosion on the Tollway
• 12 From Cicero to Las Vegas
• 13 One and Two
• 14 The Beak, the oven, and the Dentist
• 15 Joey
• 16 Cross-examination
• 17 Frank Sr.
• 18 Twan
• 19 Closing Arguments
• 20 End of a Trial, End of an Era
• Acknowledgments
• Key Figures
• Chronology
• Map
• Index