Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob by Jeff Coen

Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob Reviews

• 
  Jeanette

  2.5 stars rounded up for the accuracy of the facts toward this extremely difficult context and case reporting. He's not a highly organized writer or is the prose always smooth and easy to understand. But neither is anything about these groups of criminals either. Nor the teams of lawful side that fingered so many.
  
  Brutal and dominating to all others lives. And outfits intertwined or of high complexity even to each other. With roles, once formed or played out- there was no refusals or going "away" from any compliances within any time limits of afterwards. Including murdering and dumping best friends as a required task.
  
  Knowing all the spots as they were then in the locales in which they most occurred- it was more interesting to me than it would be for the common reader. The sheer numbers of names with association are hard to convey. In comic portrayals or in photo- dozens and dozens.
  
  In this exact era I had read and heard 1st hand from witness about the numbers of bodies being dumped in Chinatown or close to what was then Comiskey Park(or at least the wider area around it beyond the projects and into Bridgeport). And because I had heard I always asked people (numbers of them) not to go to eat in Chinatown at night. And I remember clearly one friend getting very hostile and losing that friend. I knew how dangerous it would be to be witness or just be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was right and at one time it was the most dangerous area in Chicago- without exception. Not now. At all. That area has been gentrified quite far all around and way into Canaryville. Far worse areas exist presently. For murders and crime both. The last time I looked there were 154 gangs listed within the Chicagoland area. With 100's and 100's of murders on their plates. Mostly to each other but more often than in this Chicago Mob epoch, against innocent bystanders or just people who saw too much. The area where I was born and where I lived my early life is one of them- Englewood.
  
  I would not recommend this book unless you are in perceptions of law and highly intersected methods of these criminal practices- as a Criminal Justice or Law student. It's nearly impossible to read for those who have little context. It was a most difficult read for me in just the various two, three or four names each of dozens of players had/have.
  
  Now with phone calls and location tracings- quite apart from all the forensics biologic proofs, I do believe it is easier to prosecute/indict. Not easier to keep any murderer in prison so it doesn't go into multiple repeats of the crimes though. Harder now. It isn't at all unusual. Nor for the 3 or 5 time murderer to be murdered himself or herself in eventual releases.
  
  There are worse cities for this. Hard to believe? But true.
• 
  Kate

  Just like you can't take a bad picture of the Himalayas, you just can't write a bad book about the Family Secrets trial that took place in Chicago back in 2007. The subject was just too fascinating. Let me begin by saying everything I know about the mob comes from the old Matthew Broderick movie, The Freshman--a comedy in which Burt Parks sings the virtues of the Komodo Dragon. In other words, I know nothing about the mob but that they're bad people with no conscience.
  
  Coen spells out, in reality, just how bad they are. I grew up in the Chicago area, and some of the names are familiar--Calabrese, LaPietra, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo. And we all know that certain areas of the city produce some people who tend to be crooked-- Cicero, Lyons, Chinatown, Rosemont, to name a few. Well, here they are, in all their viciousness. Coen outlines murder after murder, taken from transcripts and papers involved in the trial in which Frank Calabrese, Sr's son and brother rat out him and the rest of their mob friends and associates. What results is a rare look inside the Chicago Outfit. A lot of effort, artfulness and creativity go into each hit. So sad that the result is death, cruelty and loss. Some of these men are sociopaths to the core. Others seem to have been caught up in the outfit as youngsters and kill because they fear for their lives if they don't.
  
  The lawyers in the case are also a feature of the book, the lowbrow antics of Lopez, a defense attorney, and the solid, righteous efforts of Attorney Mars are characterized in intricate detail by Coen. Mars and his colleague on the bench, John Scully, ultimately triumph in taking down the core players in the Chicago Outfit in this historic trial. This is the remarkable story of how they did it.
  
  While I gave the book five stars, this kind of stuff is really not my thing. I picked up this book to find out about a mob associate who was once a board member at an organization where I worked. While I learned a lot about him, and thought the book was well-written and absolutely fascinating, this is probably the only book of the mob genre that I will ever read.
• 
  catechism

  it takes a writer and storyteller of considerable skill to write about one of these cases -- very complicated, involving tons of people and conspiracies spanning multiple years -- in a way that's interesting and easy to follow. Coen is not that writer. It's easy to see he's a fine reporter, but that's a different animal. When will my mob kick be over, guys? All these books are bad. >:(
• 
  Erin

  Ugh, I couldn't even get through the third chapter. Jeff Coen does not write in a readable fashion. His tangents have no conclusion, there's no resolution to the main point of the chapter. Horrible.
• 
  Walt

  There are many books on the Chicago Mob. Bill Roemer comes to mind as the authority on the Chicago Outfit. And yet, this book offers a clear and concise picture of the organization that Roemer was never able to present. This remains one of the few books on the Chicago Mob that covers the period after Roemer's retirement, so it serves as an epilogue in that regard.
  
  William F. Roemer Jr. was an FBI agent who thuggishly pursued to the Chicago Mob. His book is full of boasting of how he and his fellow agents hounded the gangsters; but scored limited success. His mode of thinking was to target individual racketeers instead of a group of them. His way of thinking changed in the 1970s with the RICO law. RICO is a complex legal instrument used to attack organizations - effectively guilt by association. A gambler who threatens to harm someone (extortion) can be charged with racketeering. If another member of the organization is charged with murder, then both of them can go to prison for life. It can be tricky proving they are part of the same organization therefore RICO trials are long and highly publicized.
  
  The Family Secrets prosecution of the Chicago Mob was a RICO trial lasting months. The evidence was overwhelming. Jeff Coen covered the trial for the Chicago Tribune. This book is mostly a synopsis of the trial with Coen including even trivial witnesses in his book. The trial covers 15+ gangland murders between 1970 and 1986. The bulk of them were committed by Nick Calabrese, a member of the Chicago Mafia, who was linked to a 1986 murder by DNA evidence and the testimony of his nephew. The 13 murders Calabrese confessed participation formed the basis of the trial. He was a hitman serving the entire organization, not just his small corner of Chicago. Extortion and loansharking figured in the case; but murder - a lot of murder - was the basis for the prosecution.
  
  More interesting is that Calabrese was never identified as a significant member of the organization. The FBI seemingly paid little attention to him or his more established brother, Frank Calabrese Sr. And yet, these guys were among the most prolific hitmen in the Chicago underworld. Even more interesting is how the case fell into the FBI's lap. Frank Calabrese Jr., an associate of the mob, convicted in a loan sharking case with his uncle and father contacted the FBI asking to cooperate. And the FBI considered not hearing him out. However, his testimony (second hand) that his uncle killed a man in 1986 and left his blood at the scene blew he case wide open.
  
  Family Secrets is the story of the secrets of the Calabrese Family and the Chicago Crime Family. Brother against brother, father against son. The other defendants were all tethered to the disputes of the small family. Coen does not spend much time on legal analysis. He barely mentions RICO. However, he did observe that loan sharking once again figured strangely into the case. Strangely because the Calabreses were already in jail for loan sharking, so this was seemingly double jeopardy. However, RICO would not have kicked in without a pattern of racketeering, so through some complex legal maneuvering, prosecutors were allowed to charge them with loan sharking again; and the defense could not argue that it was double jeopardy. After all, why convict some guys of murder when you can jazz it up to be a Mafia wipe out?
  
  The book weaves through space and time; but nearly everything is grounded in the trial proceedings. I would have preferred a straight chronological progression, or an individual chapter for each murder structure than the strange hybrid that Coen wrote. However, the story is clear. Nick Calabrese killed a lot of people with a lot of other people. Incidental subplots like Jimmy Marcello illegally paying off gamblers with his video poker machines only went to reinforce the organization aspect of the story (in addition to embarrassing Marcello for paying off his girlfriend up until the day she testified against him), Nick Calabrese collecting quarters from peep shows, and other mobsters shaking down porn shops and pizzerias.
  
  Overall, this is a very informative story of the mob. The writing style is a bit awkward. The organization is a bit awkward; but then so is the story. It is definitely recommended for readers of organized crime. Coen removes any semblance of romanticism on the mob. He reveals them to be the brutish, violent, irrational people at the lowest order of society. And he does this with the aide of most of the attorneys involved in the trial, the tape recordings of the mobsters, interviews with FBI agents and cooperating witnesses, and other sources. His presentation is a well-rounded portrayal of the Chicago Mob ca. 1970 - 2000.
• 
  Chaz

  1.5
  
  Just not a very interesting book. It's mostly courtroom stuff. Being a mob case, there are of course a LOT of names... But then throw in judges, prosecutors, attorneys, witnesses, FBI agents, and what you end up with is just a bunch of names on a page. So hard to keep track of who did what to whom and why.
• 
  Philip A.

  Being a major Mafia fan and growing up in the neighborhood where most of this action was going on, I absolutely loved the book but I will have a natural nostalgic biased which others may not. I was taken down a trip down memory lane and even remember running into many of the characters in the old neighborhood.
  
  LIKES:
  One thing I can say that is contrary to most people who have read this, I love the amount of detail that was put into describing each and every corner of the crime scenes in this book because it painted a very clear picture of what was going on, what time of day it was, and why. I also feel that up until the middle part of the book (where the trials begin) it had a very sort of Resevoir Dogs type feel where there was a bunch of different events that happened that somehow all connect in the end and only make complete sense AT the end. Each person named and persecuted in trial was given a very thorough explanation of their background, purpose, and how it coincided with Operation: Family Secrets. One of the biggest and last things that I enjoyed were the photos included in the book because they really gave you a better idea of who was involved in certain situations (it can be easily confusing with a numerous amount of Franks, Joeys, Anthonys, etc.)
  
  COMPLAINTS:
  BUT you can definitely tell that this was written by a Chicago Tribune journalist. The entire end half of the book takes an almost completely cheesy twist describing every breath taken and every dust particle flowing through the air of the courtroom. Who was wearing what, how they grinned, how they walked....very cartoonish and honestly based on interpretation. The way Coen writes about every little inch of the courtroom makes it seems like hes a paranoid schizophrenic hiding behind a bench with only his eyes visible but I guess he was just doing his job as a journalist....
  
  Overall, if you love the Mafia, the movies, the TV shows and most of all, the first-hand stories you hear about these people, this is a great read. Born and raised in Chicago I always thought New York blew us out of the water, this book helped me realize otherwise.
• 
  Natalie

  I just couldn't finish this one. Coen clearly did his research, he just needed to do a little more work in crafting it. Instead of taking us through the story in a linear fashion, Coen jumps all around with his time frames. This causes a tremendous amount of confusion when guys who were dead in one chapter came back to life in another. In addition, a lot of the players in this story have very Italian names and very similar ones. There are a fair amount of Franks, Johns, Joes, etc. It gets even more complicated when you add their mob nicknames. I have nothing against the nicknames, in fact, I love them. However, in addition to often including nicknames, he mentioned jail house recordings in which the mobsters used code names to talk about people. It would have been sufficient to just mention that they used codes and then use their real name. But when Coen insists on telling you code names for guys who already have names like John "No Nose" DiFronzo (who might I add was called something different than No Nose before adopting that nickname), it all feels like a big bowl of Italian alphabet soup and it leaves the reader confused.
  
  This would have been a lot better if it hadn't gone into such detail about specifics of crimes, juice loans, and court testimony. Because the court testimony required attention to detail, the Coen's jumping around of the time line didn't do me any favors. In the end, I just wound up Googling what happened. You can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by doing so. I wish I'd thought of it before getting 200 pages in.
  
• 
  Sara

  Kudos to Chicago Tribune reporter Jeff Coen for his excellent coverage of the Family Secrets trial. I found myself horrified by the crimes committed and fascinated by the unraveling of the Chicago Mob by hitman turned FBI informant Nick Calabrese. The extortion, murder and general mayhem Nick and his brother, along with the other capos and crews of the Chicago Outfit astonished me. Really, you can't make this stuff up. Even Hollywood took a bit from the Chicago Mob when making the movie "Casino." It would be wrong for me to say I found Nick a "sympathetic" character, because in truth he was a stone cold killer, but I did feel somewhat of a sense of gratitude knowing that beneath the jaded mobster persona, there were indications of a bit of remorse or actual human feeling (such as Nick's attempts to fight emotion over two killings in particular- the first one he participated in, and the one of Michael Cagnoni.) And of course, as a Chicagoan, I'm glad these people are now LOCKED UP. It does make me wonder - if they are gone, who has come to fill their shoes? Highly interesting read for those who like true crime, law/order cases and local history.
• 
  Darlene

  I find the Outfit fascinating, but this book is really slowed down by the minutia of the trial.
• 
  Sarah

  I enjoyed this book, to an extent. It was interesting, but again, just couldn't hold my attention.
• 
  Jay French

  “Family Secrets” was a truly detailed, thorough look at the state of the Mafia in Chicago from roughly the 60s to the 80s. The source was solid reporting from the author, a Chicago Tribune reporter, and the testimony from the “Family Secrets” trial. No matter what kind of book you like, there’s a bit of it in here. Like courtroom drama? The last half of the book details the trial itself, with scenes described in cinematic detail that you would expect from a seasoned court reporter in a no-cameras-allowed courtroom. Like vicious murders? There are quite a few described here, including gore, and even the occasional humor that you might have seen in a killing in “The Sopranos”. Like science? There’s enough of the grisly CSI stuff here, but surprisingly there is a long description of the series of experiments around the development of car bombs triggered by unattended remote controls. These killers didn’t just walk up to someone and blast away, at least not all of the time. They put a lot of thought and attention and run-through into their killings. Like business stories? Here you read details of how the mob ran their business over the years. Are you from Chicago and want to read about local people and sites? Here you get some local celebrities, like the founder of Connie’s Pizza. And you hear of many locations you might already know. The location closest to me was a few miles from home – a Connie’s Pizza in the “Wonder Bread” suburb of Naperville that was initially funded by the mob. And there’s family drama. And there’s even a kind of time passage story, where most of the FBI and the mobsters we followed throughout the book are retiring, jailed, dead, or heading to the witness protection program at the end of the book. There’s a bit of a romanticized view of a time gone by, but only a bit.
  
  I listened to this on audio and found it incredibly hard to follow the many, many people in the story – they kept popping up at different times, and the story isn’t told chronologically. I took an earlier reviewer’s suggestion to just focus on the family, and with that I found the story enjoyable. I found reading this similar to watching “The Sopranos”, interesting but ultimately just kind of sad.
  
  I read this for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge 2018 for the prompt “Read a true crime book”. This fit the bill well.
  
• 
  Stefanie Robinson

  I have the book, (Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family), written by Frank Calabrese, which is the son who turned into an informant against his father. Frank detailed the inner workings of his specific crime family- from how the induction ceremony was conducted, how crimes were committed, to who committed murders. This book was about the same case, though it offered a broader view of the events surrounding the case and trial. I usually really enjoy reading books about the same topic from multiple perspectives, and this one was no different. This was a really good Mafia book, and I have read a lot of Mafia books. I would certainly suggest picking this one up if you are interested in organized crime, especially the organized crime in Chicago.
• 
  Derrick Nedzel

  Amazing account of the downfall of several senior members of the Chicago mob. Well told story of the trial, of a key mob member’s decent into the crime world and multiple murders and his subsequent decision to inform on the mob. My family has been victimized by mob extortion and theft, it is difficult to read about the damage the mob’s greet and violence has done to the people of Chicago, a city I love. However it was also inspiring to read about the dedicated FBI team, members who’s determination, focus on justice and their commitment to the greater good brought so many of there criminals to justice. In the end, this is an inspiring book that shows commitment to public service can overcome greed, self-interest and cruelty.
• 
  Dave

  Really enjoyed this book. Having grown up in Chicago during the time period the book covers, I remember many of these events and people. Didn’t realize how active the Outfit still was in the 80s and 90s. This book filled in a lot of info for me and made me want to read more about the modern Outfit.
• 
  Mila Pool

  I read this book after reading frank calabrese jr’s book and actually picked up even greater details on some crimes and covered a lot of the trial. I recommend if.
• 
  Chris

  Read it to get insight into the Chicago mob and it certainly did not disappoint. Writing about trials is difficult: evidence is presented out of narrative order and some of it is redundant. When do you present a straightforward story based on testimony and when do you include the interjections by lawyers or the reactions from the courtroom? I recently had to make these decisions for my book "Star Spangled Scandal." Coen really rises to the occasion. If you're interested in true tales of the mafia, or to learn how the Outfit does business, this is a great book for it.
  
  Bonus if you're from Chicago. You'll recognize the locations of murder scenes and the bars where they hung out. The mobsters in this book went to the mall a mile from my childhood home, ate at my neighborhood restaurant, and extorted familiar businesses, from Connie's Pizza to Celozzi-Ettleson Chevrolet ("Where you always save more money").
• 
  TCPils

  Crippled the Chicago Mob? It may have kicked them in the shins but I'm sure "The Outfit", as the Chicago organization is called, is alive and well. They took down a few of the top guys but, hell, it was just a matter of time before they took each other out. I love reading about the mob/mafia/outfit whatever you want to call it, but it never ceases to amaze me how anybody can so matter-of-factly murder another human being. The book does a good job of exposing the evil they do not only to society but to each other as well. It might not be as easy to follow if you're not familiar with Chicago but give it a shot anyway. Oops! Maybe that's not the best word to use for a recommendation, is it?
• 
  Kate

  This is a nonfiction so that means I could only take it one chapter at a time, usually one per day. There is always a lot of information that is thrown at the reader and this book stays true to that statement. I found it hard to keep track of the witnesses or the, for lack of a better term, "mobsters". There are a lot of people involved and the author does a wonderful job of telling the story and explaining some of the side stories which from what I'm reading couldn't have been an easy feat. I would say from chapter 10 on to the end it gets easier, you know who most of the people are and the story is coming together.
• 
  Michael Anderson

  What begins as a suspenseful mob story fit for a Scorsese feature film turns into a somewhat tedious and detail saturated retelling of a courtroom transcription. Pretty much every main aspect of the trial and the charges, especially the murder charges, are told in a boringly objective manner (although I guess he is a reporter). If that is what you are looking for, then go for it. However, if you are looking for the history of the Outfit and deeper contexts of the events related that uses any effective storytelling techniques, go somewhere else.
• 
  Pat Devane

  Similar to Black Mass in that it's by a reporter and reads like it. Coen alternates between courtroom scenes in 2007 and flashbacks as the Chicago Outfit's "Family Secrets" are spilled by some high profile turncoats. Definitely recommend as a counter to the John Gotti-inspired idea of the mob in the 1970s and 80s. Plus it's about Chicago, so that counts for something too.