Book Review: Operation Family Secrets
Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster’s Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago’s Murderous Crime Family by Frank Calabrese Jr.
Publisher: Broadway
Paperback Publication Date: March 6, 2012
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
In Operation Family Secrets, Frank Calabrese, Jr., tells the story of how he was driven at age thirty-nine to the painful and life-threatening decision to work with the FBI to put his father away for good. It is the dramatic tale of how, for six months – unmonitored and unprotected – he wore a wire in the prison where both he and his father were serving time, as his father revealed the details of decades’ worth of crimes. While the FBI had solved only eight mob murders in a hundred years, Frank’s work solved forty murders and sent two Outfit bosses and twelve of its highest-ranking members to prison. It was the largest organized-crime case in the history of Chicago and one of the largest in US history.
Mafia stories like The Godfather and The Sopranos have always intrigued me. It was interesting to read a real-life Mafia story and see how the “movie Mafia” differs from it. I have to say that there is not much difference at all. Frank Calabrese, Jr. is a brave man to not only refuse to enter the witness protection program but then to also co-author a tell-all book about growing up with a father in the Chicago Mafia, which is known as the Outfit.
I realize that the names of the people were out of the authors’ control since this was a true story, but so many of the people in this book have the same or similar names that at times it was hard for me to keep straight who was who, even with the “Cast of Characters” list that is provided at the front of the book. I did think that the authors did a good job of explaining Outfit slang terms and traditions and customs. It really is a whole other culture. And after hearing the term RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) a million times while watching The Sopranos, I think I finally have a fairly good grasp on what it means thanks to this book.
This was a fascinating first-hand look into the Outfit and particularly the author’s father, Frank Calabrese, Sr. who was so terrifying even by the Outfit’s standards that he caused his own brother and son to cooperate fully with the FBI to put him away. Fans of Mafia movies like The Godfather and Casino will especially enjoy this book.
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(I received this book courtesy of the publisher.)
