Jailed bookie testifies at mob trial

A convicted bookie who went to jail rather than testify against reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. relented Monday and told jurors he paid thousands in "street tax" to the mob and once got a "juice loan" from Calabrese.

Calabrese and four other defendants are facing Chicago's biggest mob trial in years. They are charged with taking part in a racketeering conspiracy that included 18 murders, gambling, loan sharking and extortion.

Joel Glickman, looking haggard after spending a week behind bars for contempt because of his earlier refusal to testify, said he paid as much as $400,000 in "street tax" over 25 years of working as a bookmaker.

If he hadn't paid the mob for permission to do business he would have lived in a state of fear, he said.

"Fear of what?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk.

"Fear of getting hurt," Glickman said.

Glickman said he stopped working as a bookie for six years in the 1970s and went into the insurance business, but he said that while he was there he got a $20,000 loan for his boss from Calabrese.

"A juice loan?" Funk asked, using a mob term for usury.

"I'd say so," said Glickman, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution for anything he says on the witness stand.

Calabrese went to prison for loan sharking in the early 1990s.

Funk reminded Glickman that he had told FBI agents last week he was refusing to testify because he feared retaliation.

"When you said you were afraid to testify, is it fair to say that you were afraid to testify against Frank Calabrese?" Funk asked.

"Yes," Glickman said.

Calabrese attorney Joseph Lopez tried to soften the impact of that testimony, asking Glickman if "Calabrese ever threatened you."

"No, Glickman said.

Glickman agreed with Lopez that Calabrese had always been polite and diplomatic with him.

The racketeering conspiracy case covers at least 18 killings, among them the death and cornfield dumping of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, once the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, whose case was an inspiration for Joe Pesci's character in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film "Casino."

Along with Calabrese, co-defendants Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, 78, James Marcello, 65, and Paul Schiro, 69, are alleged to be members of the Chicago Outfit's hierarchy. The fifth defendant, Anthony Doyle, 62, is a former Chicago police officer accused of protecting them.