Reput [i]canaille[/i] killer Frank...

Reput [i]canaille[/i] killer Frank Calabrese Sr. would chat about "recipes" across the phone with his wife while he was in prison in Milan, Mich.

In common recorded conversation between Calabrese Sr and his next to the first wife, Diane Calabrese, she asks the aging gangster, "You talking about the German chocolate one?"

"Yes" Calabrese Sr replies.

nevertheless it's not food they're talking about, the fed say.

They're talking about illegal riches collections from mob activities.

The flourishing details came to light Friday night as federal prosecutors accorded to a slew of pre-trial motions filed according to the defendants in what about observers call the most important prosecution aye against the Chicago mob.

similar mob heavyweights as James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, Frank "The German" Schweihs and Calabrese Sr are upon trial in a case that inflicts 18 hits at the Outfit's doorstep.

Calabrese Sr and Marcello want any tape-recorded conversations between them and their wives while the men were in prison disallowed at trial because of marital privilege.

'SHE'S . . A LITTLE SLOW'

The fed argue otherwise, saying the pair husbands and wives knew they were being tape-recorded during their prison phone chats and had no expectation of privacy.

In the case of Diane Calabrese, they put in mind of she helped further the illegal activity her loan-sharking husband allegedly was involved in. Diane Calabrese has not been charged with any crime.

Calabrese Sr.'s attorney, Joseph Lopez dismissed the government's filing as "just more nonsense."

The fed assert that Calabrese Sr., known for talking in digest would refer to various collections as "recipes."

In undivided Nov. 11, 1999, phone conversation, Calabrese Sr asks his wife: "Miss Engel was suppos to give you a recipe that you were suppos to hurl me, with all the different size of the, of the ounce of of a flour and stuff"

"Yeah," Diane Calabrese replies.

"What happened?" Calabrese Sr asks.

"She's working forward it. She's, you know, a little slow" his wife replies.

In short, the fed join issue Calabrese Sr. is asking where the circulating medium from a specific collection is.

In another motion, prosecutors argue against a defense ask to have separate trials for the defendants in the case, arguing in part that near witnesses are in danger and that making them testify more than formerly at multiple trials only increases the risk against them.

Without providing specific numbers, prosecutors point gone out that "a number of witnesses" have been placed in witness protection, while the FBI has mov others who feared retaliation from the ragtag-and-bobtail

a certain quantity of grand jury witnesses went to jail rather than testify in the investigation, while others changed their grand jury testimony after they were threatened, the fed dispute

swarmbir@suntimes.com

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