The Chicago Tribune says that in one of the first undercover tapes played Monday at a major federal organized crime trial in Chicago, a speaker identified as reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. recounted for his son the ceremony at which Outfit members were initiated into the mob. The underboss (second-in- command), and street level leaders called capos, “made” new members one by one, cutting their fingers and then burning a holy picture in their hands, the elder Calabrese said in the 1999 conversation. Candidates had to have committed a murder in order to qualify for membership, according to the tape.
Also during yesterday’s session, Calabrese’s son, Frank Jr., testified about murder and intimidation as his father looked on from the defense table, the Tribune says. The younger Calabrese, dressed in an unbuttoned blue, red and white polo shirt, largely avoided his father’s gaze, looking straight ahead as he responded to the questions of a federal prosecutor.
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