Frank Jr soon became fully involved with his father in the crew. The Outfit bosses had two crews that they called on when they need to have someone killed ASAP and right. They would call on Frank’s fathers Chinatown Crew or Butchie Petrocelli's Wild Bunch Crew. Frank Sr was very good at killing and his preferred method was to strangle them and then cut their throats from ear to ear.
Frank
Jr was half Irish and in Chicago that would preclude him from becoming a
made man in the Outfit. The Outfit has a long history of having non
Italians in powerful roles so Frank Jr had a lot of upward movement
available to him. In 1988 Frank Sr decided it was time for him to make
his bones or in layman's terms kill for the Outfit. Once you kill for
the Outfit, that is it, they own you. The plan was for Frank Jr to shoot
his target in a car with his Uncle Nicky. Nicky Calabrese was Frank
Senior’s right hand man and he would later admit to 14 murders on behalf
of the Outfit. It was strange that Nicky would speak to Frank Sr and
get him to change his mind about Frank Jr doing a hit, but he did! They
never went through with the plan, and that was a huge milestone in
Frank Jr's life.
Frank
Sr was one of the Outfit’s go to killers because he was good at it. He
would take the order and get it done even when it was a friend like
Tony Borsellino. Tony was a friend of Frank’s and a guy who many Outfit
guys considered a man’s man. But when the Bosses gave the order, Frank
Sr did what he was told to do. Frank Sr used a rope to choke the life
out of his victims, and then used a knife to cut their throat ear to ear
just to make sure they were dead.
The
Outfit was at the top of its game. Then came the burglary of Levinsons
Jewelers on North Clark St just before Christmas in 1977. The owner
was a personal friend of Tony Accardo and he asked if Tony could help
him get his jewelry back. Tony sent word to all his crews and since the
Outfit has a long history of bringing burglars into the organization
they quickly recovered the loot. Tony stashed it in his home in River
Forest while he went to Palm Springs for the holiday. The buglers then
did the stupidest move they could have made, they broke into Tony's home
and stole back the loot. Tony was made aware of what happened and he
sent word out to kill every one of the buglers involved in the
burglaries. 9 men would be murdered over the one Jewelry Store burglary
before it was over. When the robbers were turning up dead the FBI began
investigating what happened. No one ever reported the burglary at
Tony’s house and Tony would not admit that he ever had the stash or was
robbed. The caretaker of Tony’s home, and a friend of 40 years, was
questioned in front of a grand jury regarding the murders, and he made
the mistake of admitting that the house had been robbed. On his way to
Tony’s house to work, he and his Honda both disappeared never to be seen
again. Frank Sr and his crew did a lot of the work required to
dispose of the burglars. As a result, they began killing every top
burglar in Chicago because they were never sure exactly who all was
involved and who had knowledge of what had happened. The FBI devoted
many men to bringing down Tony and the Outfit for this killing spree.
This is what started the downfall of Frank Sr and many others but it
would be years before they felt the full impact.
Frank
Jr tried many ways to break away from the life. It was all to no
avail because his father would just drag him back into the crew.
Finally Frank Jr decided he needed to take money from his father’s
stash spot and escape. He took a duffel bad with 800 thousand dollars
in it to start a few businesses. Frank Sr tracked him down, stuck a
pistol in his face, and threatened to kill him unless he became a slave
to him.
On
July 28, 1995 Frank Sr, Frank Jr, Nicky Calabrese, And Kurt Calabrese
were arrested after an investigation started at an Auto Repair shop.
They were all sentenced to relatively short stints in prison. Frank jr
had a plan to get his life back on track and make a better life for his
family. He was going to use the time in prison to change his life,
kick his cocaine habit and move on to better things.
The
prison sentence was his chance to get away, have a few years off and
make a clean break. That was all true until Frank Jr got a transfer to
the same prison as his father. Once together, they talked it out and
Frank Sr promised to make a fresh start and leave the Outfit behind.
Frank Jr wanted to believe this and he did until he started hearing
about things his father was still doing out on the street. Frank Jr
then took the boldest and most deadly step he would ever take, he typed
out a letter to the FBI. The letter said that he wanted to help them
keep his father off the streets and that he wanted no reduction in time.
The FBI followed up on this and soon Frank Jr was wired up in the
yard. They had a belt buckle wire and a headphone wire because everyone
on the yard used to wear headphones around their necks. The one time
he came close to getting caught was when the FBI's other wires did not
work so he was forced to wear an old school wire that was hidden in an
underwear rig. (I know this device well because one time I was forced
to wear this kind of wire and after about an hour it got burning hot and
I thought my balls were fried. I ran to the bathroom and that was it
for that rig.) Frank Sr asked to see Frank Jrs new Tattoo on his back,
this would mean opening his shirt on the yard, which would mean his
microphone would be exposed. The FBI does not use broadcast wires, they
record only. So there was no back up and on a prison yard he would die
quickly if found out. Luckily, the wire was not discovered and Frank
Jr lived.
Frank
Jr got all he needed that day about the murders he did and other
things. The tapes would be the basis for the Family Secrets case
against the Outfit's top guys. It would also mark a first with Nicky
Calabrese becoming the first made guy in the Outfit to testify in court.
Nicky was caught up after Frank Jr told the FBI about a hit he did
where he lost a glove during a struggle for a pistol. The FBI came to
to his cell took his DNA and it was a match. Nicky knew he was finished
once he found out about the DNA, so he too went with Team USA.
People
can judge and say what they will about Frank Jr, but they never walked
in his shoes. They have no idea the hell he had lived with as his
father became more and more violent towards the family. He suffered
years of abuse and had his life ruined in the process. He did the only
thing he could do to escape the cycle of violence he was caught inside,
he flipped on his father and on the Outfit.
Read all about Frank Calabrese in his book Family Secrets.
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