The Outfit on trial

Reputed high-level Chicago mobster Michael "Large Guy" Sarno was released on $1 million bond Tuesday and ordered placed under house arrest.

The rotund Sarno, 51, also dubbed "Fat Ass" by some colleagues, is charged in a wide-ranging racketeering case that includes the bombing of a Berwyn business that was competing with the Outfit with video gambling machines.

Family members put up several pieces of property as collateral.

Aging reputed mob associate Sam Volpendesto had some gripes and some advice for alleged high-ranking Outfit member Michael Sarno, according to court records.

Volpendesto was secretly recorded by a government informant complaining about having to do Sarno's dirty work but not getting adequate compensation, according to court records.

Volpendesto is charged along with Sarno with taking part in a plot to bomb a Berwyn video poker machine company that was competing with the Outfit.

Excerpts after the jump.

Former Gov. Dan Walker, sent to prison for crimes after he left office, gives his opinion on the roots of Illinois corruption in The State Journal-Register.

Walker points to the Democratic Machine and The Outfit.

You can read it here.

A former head of the Chicago mob, Alfonso "Pizza Al" Tornabene, died Sunday after a career in organized crime that spanned decades but often remained in the shadows.

Tornabene, 86, headed the Chicago mob while another leader, James Marcello, was in prison several years ago, according to testimony at the historic Family Secrets mob trial in Chicago.

Marcello was apparently unhappy with Tornabene's stewardship of the mob while he was in prison and promised to shape things up when he got out, according to a secret FBI recording of Marcello.

Tornabene was once clearly a target of the Family Secrets case but was never charged.

A long-time owner of a pizza shop in Stickney, Tornabene had disavowed any Outfit connection.

Tornabene died of natural causes.

Deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose was found guilty Tuesday of leaking critical information about a star witness in the Family Secrets case.

This marks the first time there was a breach in the federal Witness Protection Program.

More to come.

Here are the 16 reputed mobsters that the FBI considered the top threats against mob killer turned government informant Nick Calabrese:

1. Michael Marcello
2. Frank "Toots" Caruso
3. Aldo Piscitelli
4. James Inendino
5. Michael Sarno
6. Michael Spano Sr.
7. Paul Spano
8. Joseph Andriacchi
9. Joseph Lombardo
10. Alphonse Tornabene
11. Rudolph "Rudy" Fratto
12. Peter DiFronzo
13. Michael Magnafichi, born 2/16/52
14. John Matassa
15. Dino Marino
16. Anthony Zizzo

The list was part of the government's 2002 application for Calabrese to be allowed into the federal witness protection program.

Reputed mobsters Frank Caruso, James Inendino and Peter DiFronzo were among the people the FBI considered threats to the safety of mob hitman turned federal witness Nick Calabrese.

The revelation came today during the testimony of FBI Agent Michael Maseth in the trial of deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose, who is on trial for allegedly leaking key details about Calabrese to the mob.

Ambrose, who guarded Calabrese as part of a security detail, has said he made a mistake by discussing information about Calabrese with a family friend but had no intention of the information making it to mobsters.

Calabrese began cooperating with the government on Jan. 15, 2002, after agents confronted him with DNA evidence linking him to a mob murder. Calabrese eventually admitted to committing 14 mob murders and provided the feds information about another 22 Outfit hits.

On Aug. 27, 2002, Calabrese was admitted into the federal Witness Protection Program while still in prison.

Government officials had to submit an application for Calabrese to be accepted into the program, and part of that application was a list of people who posed a threat to him

There are cooperating witnesses, and then there are cooperating witnesses.

More light was shed Tuesday on the nature of Marcello's cooperation with federal authorities in the case of John Ambrose, the deputy U.S. marshal accused of leaking critical information about a star witness in the Family Secrets case to the Outfit.

While it's clear from a defense filing that Marcello, the half-brother of one-time Chicago Outfit boss James Marcello, has been talking to prosecutors about what he knows about Ambrose, he's not going to willingly take the stand.

The federal court of appeals in Chicago on Friday denied an appeal for bond by reputed Outlaws motorcycle gang treasurer and trusted Outfit associate Mark Polchan.

Polchan is accused of taking part in the bombing of a Berwyn business that had a run-in with the Outfit.

Polchan says he's innocent and argued he did not represent a danger to the community, as prosecutors contended.

The prosecution asked that Nick Calabrese be given a break at sentencing but did not specify a punishment.

Federal prosecutor Markus Funk notes that Calabrese is a paradox.

"On the one hand, he's a cold-blooded killer who operates in an almost robotic fashion," Funk says.

While without question he committed terrible deeds, Calabrese never selected a person to be killed, never got a big payday afterward and never was the guy celebrating later at a bar or a casino, Funk says.

Calabrese did what he was told to do.

He's an introverted man, mild mannered, unassuming, a family man.

Since he started cooperating in January 2002, he has had hundreds of meetings with the government and thousands of hours of interviews.

In addition to the 14 murders, Calabrese confessed to, he told prosecutors about:

--22 other additional mob murders he knew about
--4 attempted murders
--5 bombings
--2 extortions
--60 names of made men in the Outfit

Calabrese "showed us the underbelly of Chicago," Funk said.

Without his testimony, the five defendants in the Family Secrets case would not have been convicted, much less indicted.

Judge Zagel's courtroom is packed.

Roughly two dozen family members of Nick Calabrese's victims.

Nearly a whole row filled by Nick Calabrese's family.

Nick Calabrese wears a baggy gray sweatshirt and blue jeans with the cuffs rolled up.

Security is tight.

Prolific Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese got a break in federal court Thursday afternoon after U.S. District Judge James Zagel gave him a prison sentence of a little more than 12 years.

Since he's already served 6 years, with his credit for good time, Calabrese will serve a little more than 4 years more before he can be released.

Zagel noted that leniency was required to get other people to come forward in the future and give the kind of extraordinary cooperation that Nick Calabrese did.

Family members of Calabrese victims, though, were outraged, for the most part.