The Outfit on trial

Joseph "The Shark" Lopez

Joseph "The Shark" Lopez, the attorney for mob killer Frank Calabrese Sr., recently got some national press from the American Bar Association magazine for his blogging during the trial.

Near the start of the trial, Lopez took a few shots at witnesses and the prosecution in his entries on the blog Chicago Syndicate, until the judge told him to knock it off.

The on-line version of the ABA story shows a photo of Lopez resplendent in one of his usual courtroom color combinations, black and hot pink.

Click here for the story on trial blogging, which also mentions the excellent blog that K.C. Johnson, a Brooklyn College history professor, wrote on the Duke lacrosse rape case: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/full_court_coverage

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Anthony Calabrese

Reputed mob hitman Anthony Calabrese was suspicious of where his alleged partner in crime, Edmond Frank, had been keeping himself.

Frank told Calabrese he had been in jail.

In fact, Frank had been with the FBI and was wearing a secret recording device for the feds.

You can check out the entire conversation here:

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedia/010708mob2.pdf_20080106_16_32_33_17.imageContent

But of particular note is pages four and five.

Calabrese starts peppering Frank with a series of questions about his arrest to see if Frank is telling the truth.

Calabrese asks what Frank was charged with, where he was held, what his bond was and the details of the crime.

Later, Calabrese has Frank strip searched and allegedly starts beating him when Frank won't cough up what motel he's staying at.

It makes for chilling reading.

The feds want the conversation admitted at Calabrese's upcoming trial. They argue it shows Calabrese's guilty state of mind since he is trying to silence a witness.

Calabrese's attorney, Steven Hunter, argues the conversation has nothing to do with the charges against his client - three armed robberies - and will only prejudice the jury against him.

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Anthony "The Hatch" Chiaramonti

After mobster Anthony "The Hatch" Chiaramonti was gunned down in 2001, law enforcement sources privately pointed to Anthony Calabrese as the triggerman.

But the feds went public with the allegation in a little noticed document filed last year in Calabrese's trial on three separate armed robbery charges.

In that document, the feds talk about the background of several of the witnesses who will testify that they committed the robberies with Calabrese.

The feds said they aren't going to bring up the murder allegation Calabrese. He has never been charged in the case.

But one of the witnesses at the upcoming armed robbery trial "committed a murder in 2001 with defendant Calabrese for which the witness pleaded guilty in Cook County Circuit Court," the court filing reads.

"The actual shooter was defendant Calabrese and the person shot was Anthony Chiaramonti," the filing reads.

The witness the document refers to is Robert Cooper, who pleaded guilty in Chiaramonti's murder and was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

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