LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Frank Calabrese Jr. experienced a life that most people have only witnessed in movies such as “Casino.” Frank Jr. was an enforcer in his father’s Chicago Chinatown mob crew that would go on to play a major role in Las Vegas history.
His father, Frank Calabrese Sr., and uncle, Nick Calabrese, were enforcers for the Chicago Outfit and were called to take out the infamous Tony “the Ant” Spilotro. Spilotro controlled Las Vegas with a brazen brutality that ultimately led Frank’s family to the area as part of the hit team sent to kill him.
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While the plot to kill Spilotro when he left the law offices of former Mayor Oscar Goodman did not come to fruition, Spilotro’s infidelity would be his eventual downfall, as he was murdered in Chicago in 1986 following an affair with Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s wife.
The Calabrese family was instrumental in both killing Spilotro and attempting to bury his body, though his body was recovered a week later in an Indiana cornfield…