Cosa Nostra News

John A. Matassa Jr.—a reputed Chicago mob figure and longtime union boss who earlier this year copped to a federal felony charge of embezzlement in an alleged scheme to fraudulently qualify for early retirement benefits— is going to federal prison. Matassa, aka Pudgy, faced sentencing on July 22, more than two years after a 10-count federal indictment slapped him in the nads. His defense had been that the U.S. Department of Labor had targeted him, a viewpoint that didn't hold much water in the view of the judge. In court recently, the two butted heads when Matassa stood before the judge and said,“ The only reason I’m standing here today is because my name is John Matassa .” The judge retorted with: “ You pled guilty to a felony to avoid going to trial. That’s why you’re here right now. Not because your name is John Matassa .”) The case stemmed from Matassa’s job as the secretary-treasurer of the Independent Union of Amalgamated Workers Local 711. While his plea a...

"I have to help you keep this sick man locked up forever."  --Frank Calabrese Junior Family Secrets trial (source: NPR ) The investigation that decimated the Chicago Outfit began when a letter dated July 27, 1998, reached the FBI's Chicago headquarters. “I am sending you this letter in total confidentiality," it began. "It is very important that you show or talk to nobody about this letter except who you have to. The less people that know I am contacting you the more I can and will help and be able to help you.” The message had been sent from the federal correctional facility in Milan, Michigan. The writer was Frank Calabrese Junior, a son of Frank (Frankie Breeze) Calabrese Senior, an especially vicious member of the Chicago organized crime family known as the Outfit. The letter spawned a seven-year investigation that went back to the 1970s. The original indictment named 14 defendants and included 18 previously unsolved murders; it  culm...

I n comments to the previous story , it was noted that there was a general belief that the Chicago Mafia family held no formal initiation ceremony. This photo of Family Secrets Tour Chicago is courtesy of TripAdvisor Unfortunately, I can't find my copy of Jerry Capeci's Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia or I'd quote what he writes.  With direct evidence absent, a school of thought emerged that since Al Capone wasn't Sicilian, perhaps he left the Sicilian stuff behind with the Five Family Cosa Nostra in New York. That theoretical framework made some sense --but only prior to the landmark Family Secrets trial. Once federal prosecutors gave their opening statement in June 2007 -- and especially when Frank Calabrese Jr 's tape recordings of his father were played, and when Nicholas Calabrese took the witness stand, supposedly the first made “uniform” to flip for the feds -- it was revealed that in Chicago, they not only made members, but the ceremony was a...

For some, this is old news; for others, it's very old news. For us, it's timeless .... To be “made” in Chicago meant one was 100 percent Italian and had committed at least one murder. The making ceremony was one of the closest-held events in the “ secret organization hidden in the shadows, ” according to the federal government. Getting made entitled one to a greater share of the proceeds from illicit gambling, loans, and street taxes. A Mafia initiation ceremony described in Mario Puzo’s novel the Godfather is “very close” to the truth, according to Frank Calabrese Sr. while speaking to his son in 1999. Both were in prison at the time, only Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't know what his son was truly seeking from him. Frank Calabrese Junior  was wearing a wire as part of a personal quest to keep his homicidal father in prison for the rest of his life. As per that mission, he was cooperating with the FBI against his own father — hence, the significance of t...

"I’m like an old-time general. They’d better give me some stars.” -- Giuseppe (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, caught on wiretap The Clown He was The Clown, but he was an intelligent clown who read the Wall Street Journal. (FBI agents who knew Joey the Clown Lombardo were amazed by his business and financial acumen.) He also embodied such an extreme paradoxical nature, he almost shouldn't have existed. “[H]e was no clown; he was a deadly killer,” Bill Roemer, the late FBI Outfit investigator, once wrote. “I believe he filled up a cemetery or two," Michael Corbitt, the former corrupt police chief, now deceased, who spilled secrets in a best-selling book once said of Lombardo. Some in law enforcement even found positive feedback to offer. "It’s kind of refreshing to have people like Joey Lombardo out there,” Peter Wacks, a former FBI agent who once helped put Lombardo away said when the mobster lammed it for the family Secrets case. "There are...

In February of this year the Feds  revealed  that a former prison chaplain passed "sensitive information" about a Chicago Outfit turncoat to an imprisoned mobster who had a lot to gain by killing the turncoat. Frank Calabrese Senior The allegations were filed in court after the priest, Eugene Klein, in a surprise move, pleaded guilty just as his trial was to commence. The Catholic priest initially was indicted for planning a theft with feared former Chicago Outfit member Frank Calabrese Sr. The priest's lawyer pointedly remarked: “Once again the government has chosen to go completely over the top because of Frank Calabrese. They recommend no more than six months for Dennis Hastert and 10 times that amount for Father Klein. That is absurd.” The attorney reportedly had previously aimed his vitriol at then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for filing the case against Klein in the first place. In 2011, he commented to journalists that “now that we don’t have a...

Visiting room surveillance. Calabrese on right. Frank Calabrese Sr was such a good manipulator that he was able to convince a Roman Catholic priest to help him continue his criminal activity. If you know Frank’s background then this will come as no surprise. Frank spent his whole life manipulating others for his own gain. Frank brought his brother Nicholas into his juice loan business. Nicholas had served in the Navy for two years during the Vietnam conflict , and he worked as an Ironworker after he returned home. Nicholas had then worked as a court security officer for 11 years in Maywood, Illinois. Nicholas was not afraid to hold a real job and work hard. In the mid 1970s he also joined his brother Frank in his loan business and worked a double life. He had no idea it was a lifetime commitment. Frank was not above using money and threats to keep his brother in the business. Nicholas would end up taking part in over 14 murders for the Chicago Outfit during his time working w...