Witness Protection Failed

The story of John T. Ambrose

Merry Christmas Wiretappers. I am here in the studio alone today, and while noodling around, I found an interesting Chicago Outfit story that I had never heard. A U.S. Marshall named John Ambrose was assigned to help protect a government witness named Nick Calabrese. He revealed the location of this important witness in the Family Secrets trial.

Venmo me @ganglandwire

Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee”

U.S. Marshall’s Office

The well-respected U.S. Marshal’s office is responsible for the security of government witnesses. The Mob and the Chicago Outfit, in particular, are well known for witness intimidation and even murder. So, WitSec (Witness Security) is a dangerous job on one hand while being boring on the other.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service website, that agency is the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement entity, serving our country since 1789. President George Washington appointed the first 13 U.S. Marshals. At that time, Congress tasked them with arresting fugitives, the housing and transport of prisoners after arrest, before conviction and sentencing, plus witness security. The Marshals must protect all federal judges and their courtrooms. To the present day, they are a little-known but very active law enforcement agency. In the fiscal year 2010 alone, the Marshals Service arrested more than 36,100 federal fugitives. They are often assigned to Federal Task Forces in large cities for drug investigations when they are not out chasing criminals.

The most sensitive function of the Marshals Service is the WITSEC or Witness Security Protection Program. The Marshals Service provides for the security, health, and safety of government witnesses and their immediate family members when there is evidence they are in danger because of their testimony. Most of their protectees were witnesses in organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other significant criminal enterprises prosecutions. The program started in 1971, and Marshals have relocated and protected more than 8,300 witnesses and 9,800 of their family members since that time. So far to date, no WITSEC participant who followed security guidelines was harmed while under the active protection of the U.S. Marshals. But there have been leaks, and today I am going to tell you about one.

Nick Calabrese

One of the most crucial witnesses against the Chicago Outfit was Nick Calabrese. We have interviewed his nephew Frank Calabrese Jr, and I suggest you go back and listen to that for more on the Calabrese crew. But Nick worked under the direction of his brother Frank Calabrese Sr. as part of a murder team and juice loan collection service. They were part of the 26th Street crew or Chinatown crew under a capo named Angelo The Hook LaPrietra. The headquarters was a social club called the Old Neighborhood Italian American Club at 26th and Princeton.

On July 28, 1995, the federal government indicted Nicholas Calabrese and nine other organized crime figures using threats, violence, and intimidation to enforce the loan-sharking racket from 1978 until 1992. The other defendants were Frank Calabrese, Sr., Frank Calabrese, Jr., Kurt Calabrese, Robert Dinella, Philip J. Fiore, Terry Scalise, Kevin Kudulis, Louis Bombacino and Philip Tolomeo.

Nick Calabrese eventually was found guilty of racketeering. On August 27, 1997, a Federal judge sentenced Calabrese to 70 months in federal prison. Now that is only five years and ten months. At his sentencing, Nicholas Calabrese apologized to the court, saying, “I caused a lot of problems for a lot of people.” I assume he had made his deal by then.  As part of the plea arrangement, Calabrese admitted taking part in 14 murders ordered by The Hook LaPietra.

The Chicago Tribune reveals the Secret

After Nick Calabrese agreed to testify, the F.B.I. interviewed him in a federal correctional facility in Milan, Michigan. In 2003, an enterprising Chicago Tribune reporter named John Kass l...