(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Nick Calabrese, the infamous Chicago hitman who helped the feds bring down members of his own organized crime family in 2007, has reportedly died.
“This was almost a death blow to the Chicago mob as we know it today,” former CBS 2 reporter John "Bulldog" Drummond said Tuesday.
Drummond says a source reached out Monday with this news: “Nick Calabrese had died at the age of 80, apparently of natural causes.”
Drummond says he doesn’t know the mobster’s cause of death or where he was. Calabrese, or “Nicky Slim,” is believed to have been in government protective custody.
“It was always very secretive. His attorney would never tell me what happened to him,” says Drummond, a legendary crime reporter who specialized in stories about The Outfit.
Nick Calabrese had been a hitman, and his knowledge of murders helped the feds lift the veil on the secretive mob.
“Nick was involved in so many murders,” Drummond said.
“He took the authorities down near Comiskey Park, and they dug up a body of a man named Albergo,” he said. “Nick identified Albergo. He said, ‘I was involved in that,’ and bang, he was able to pinpoint some other murders that happen, including the Spilotro brothers.”
Gangster brothers Tony and Michael Spilotro, who had fallen afoul of mob bosses, were beaten to death, and their bodies were discovered in an Indiana cornfield in 1986.
Also convicted in the “Family Secrets” trial were James Marcello, Paul “The Indian” Schiro, and Anthony “Twan” Doyle. The government called more than 125 witnesses and presented more than 200 pieces of evidence.
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