Chicago detectives worked hard last year to clear hundreds of murder cases off their books. The oldest one from 1966 is that of Larry Stubitsch, a Chicago Outfit loan shark and partner of Frank “Frankie Breeze” Calabrese,” one of the most feared mobsters in the city’s history.
Outside a popular lounge and known mob hangout called the Bistro A-Go-Go Bar on the Northwest Side is where Stubitsch, 29, was shot.
Detectives firmly believed that Richard “Dickie” DeAngelo murdered Stubitsch. DeAngelo was an ex-Chicago cop who managed the Bistro A-Go-Go which, at the time was owned by future Chicago Mafia boss Felix “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio, then a capo and feared hitman in Outfit circles.
Newspaper clipping about the killing of Larry Stubitsch outside the Bistro A-Go-Go
DeAngelo claimed he shot Stubitsch in self-defense and because he was trying to rob the bar.
A few months after the hit, DeAngelo was kicked out of the Chicago PD. He died in 2007 after doing years of dirty mob work and being an employee of the Teamsters Union.
Not long after the hit, Milwaukee Phil became boss of the Chicago Outfit for a short while till he was arrested. He died in prison in 1971.
Frankie Breeze testified about what he knew regarding the Stubitsch hit during the Family Secrets trial in the 2000s. He disclosed that he and Stubitsch were loansharking partners and he saw him get shot twice in the chest. He later helped Stubitsch’s children financially.
In 2007, Frankie was convicted and sentenced to life for several Chicago Outfit related murders. He died in prison on Christmas day, 2012. He was 75.
Frank Calabrese Sr. mugshots 1974 and 1990
Records for 2019 show that the murder case was closed early in the year but solely because the prime suspect, DeAngelo was dead. He died in 2007.
It seems that half of the murders cleared from Chicago PD’s books are not the result of an arrest or conviction.
A homicide can be closed because of an arrest, when prosecutors don’t approve the charges or, as in this case, when the suspect is dead.
Police records show that due to information garnered in the FBI’s Family Secrets investigation, detectives closed the case early last year. It’s unclear why they waited for 12 years after the Family Secrets trial ended and DeAngelo died.
The investigation and trial were called Family secrets by the FBI because Frank Calabrese Jr. testified against his father, Frank Calabrese Sr. Nick Calabrese also was a government witness against his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr.
