Calabrese later became the star witness for the prosecution during the trial that ended with the convictions of some of the Outfit’s top echelon, including James Marcello.Īt Mickey Marcello’s sentencing hearing in 2008, prosecutors said he’d been in organized crime for almost a decade and had evaded more than $1 million in taxes.
He also acknowledged relaying payments of $4,000 a month to mob hit man Nicholas Calabrese in a bid to buy his silence. Marcello was one of the first defendants to plead guilty in the Family Secrets investigation, admitting in a plea agreement with prosecutors that as a member of the Melrose Park crew, he passed information to his incarcerated brother James, who at the time was the reputed head of the Chicago Outfit.
The Outfit’s roots reach back to the early 1900s and. It has a seat, along with the Five Families of New York City, on the Commission that governs the Italian mob in America. Its modern organization dates to the beer wars of Prohibition and its most notorious leader, Al Capone.
He also asked Alonso to recognize his past for what it is. The Chicago Outfit is that city’s branch of the American Mafia. Prior to the sentence being handed down, Marcello apologized to the court, acknowledging he “made terrible choices” and asking for mercy as he nears the final phase of his life.