Family Secrets cover art

Family Secrets

The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob

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About this listen

Even in Chicago, a city steeped in mob history and legend, the Family Secrets case was a true spectacle when it made it to court in 2007. A top mob boss, a reputed consigliere, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were accused in a total of 18 gangland killings, revealing organized crime's ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Painting a vivid picture of murder, courtroom drama, family loyalties and disloyalties, journalist Jeff Coen accurately portrays the Chicago Outfit's cold-blooded - and sometimes incompetent - killers and their crimes in the case that brought them down. In 1998 Frank Calabrese Jr. volunteered to wear a wire to gather evidence against his father, a vicious loan shark who strangled most of his victims with a rope before slitting their throats to ensure they were dead. Frank Jr. went after his uncle Nick as well, a calculating but sometimes bumbling hit man who would become one of the highest-ranking turncoats in mob history, admitting he helped strangle, stab, shoot, and bomb victims who got in the mob's way, and turning evidence against his brother Frank.

©2009 Jeff Coen (P)2017 Tantor Crime Organized Crime True Crime Chicago Mafia

Critic reviews

"[A] revealing, shocking book . . . superbly crafted." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant
An extremely well written & performed account of the Chicago Mob with no punches pulled.

Very Good

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I really enjoyed this book, but I never got a true sense of The Outfit's operations and how important Nick was, other than the fact he did pieces of work and was involved in extortion, etc. I would have liked to have heard his story better, rather than one told solely through Court transcripts.

Really Enjoyable, but...

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An extraordinary story of wicked, crooked people...and that's an understatement, finally getting their just account.

detailed account

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The true story of the activities of the Chicago Mafia which are primarily nonchalant murder.

Murder most Evil.

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well narrated and a great listen and a true story a good look into American crime mobs

very very good

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