It was Saturday night in Chicago. The Tampa Bay Rays were in town at Wrigley field playing the Cubs and notorious Calabrese Crime Syndicate Godfather, Frankie Calabrese Sr., was laying in bed watching the game. Frankie had recently just come back from the funeral of his dear friend and mentor Chapo Guzman and was exhausted from the trip. As usual, there were nearly 20 men guarding the Calabrese compound while the Calabrese Godfather rested inside. Frankie dozed off watching the game and was oblivious to the mayhem that was about to take place.
In the Underworld, occasionally fellow mobsters will share the secrets to their home and personal defense systems with each other and may even allow a fellow mobster to attempt to test these defenses. It has become somewhat of an unspoken ritual in which one Mafioso can proudly show another that his defensive measures are top of the line. It has been understood that this ritual should only take place if both Mafioso agree to it and if one should decline then their decision is respected. Most mobsters will decline the request for a defense test as they do not wish to reveal just how strong or weak their defensive systems may be. Saturday night, Real Corleone decided to test the defensive systems of Frankie Calabrese, without first explicitly getting permission to do so, and this decision would be the first step on the way to all out war.
The previous week in a candid discussion Really and Frankie had said they would be willing to test each others systems, however the tests never came to fruition and was believed to be a dead issue. This was until shots rang out in front of the Calabrese compound on Saturday night. As Frankie Calabrese lay sleeping in his upstairs bedroom, Real Corleone drove past on the street outside and fired several shots at the compound in an attempt to see if his bullets could get past the new protection Frankie had put in place. The sound of gunfire caused all 20 of Frankie’s guards to immediately hop to their feet and several of the guards fired back in the direction of where Really’s shot came from. Really was long gone by that point, however the guards found a note from him on the ground outside the compound when they did a perimeter check to make sure there was no one else around.
The guard who found the note immediately brought it inside and made his way up the stairs to Frankie’s bedroom. He knocked on Frankie’s door and sheepishly said, “Hey Boss, something important, you awake?” Frankie was startled by the knock and grabbed for his side arm instinctively and then yelled out to his guard to come in. The guard approached Frankie with the note and said, “Hey boss, Really apparently took a few shots at the compound and left this note for you.” Frankie grabbed the note and scanned over it. The note read, “Hey Frankie, I know we never got around to testing our systems last week so I was just giving yours a quick test now.” Frankie grew furious as he read the brief note and immediately told his guard to bring him his phone.
Frankie dialed Really and was sent straight to voicemail, “Really what is this crap of you taking shots at my house without permission and thinking it’s not a problem? Get back to me ASAP I want to know what’s going on.” Frankie hung up the phone and immediately began to get dressed. Unsure what to do he asked the other family bosses if they knew anything about the apparent “test” to which all the bosses told him they knew nothing. Frankie decided to get some sleep and would try to contact Really again on Sunday.
When Frankie woke up Sunday he again called Really’s phone and got his voicemail, “Really, we need to talk, call me.” Frankie said and hung up the phone. Frankie began to grow suspicious that Really was not answering him. He knew Really and Angel were the two men responsible for the murder of his mentor Chapo; were they now gunning for him? Frankie decided to give Angel a call and was able to get ahold of him. “Hey Angel, Really took a few shots at my compound last night and just left a note saying it was a test, you know why he’d do that without telling me first?” Frankie asked Angel. “Yea I wouldn’t read too much into it man, he does that sometimes but he’s definitely not trying to kill you or anything.” Angel said with a laugh. “Ok just making sure we’re all on the same page,” Frankie replied with a chuckle and then ended the conversation.
As the day progressed, Frankie had still not heard from Really after multiple attempts to reach him and was beginning to grow angry. Frankie began to contact his Family Capos and prepare them for a possible confrontation. He went to his arsenal in the compound basement and grabbed several automatic rifles and some body armor and began to prepare for a war. Frankie saw Really not answering him as an extreme sign of disrespect. Finally Frankie left one last message for Really, “Listen man, I don’t appreciate you attacking my defense without telling me and then ignoring me when I try to reach you to talk about it. I’ll give you until the end of today to get back to me. Ciao”.
The end of the day came and went and Frankie did not receive a call from Really. Frankie now suspected that Really had not just tested his defensive system but would have attempted to kill him had he find a weakness in the defense. Frankie then officially declared war on the Corleone Empire and him and his men began to methodically take out their members. Frankie flew to California, the sight of the last Corleone massacre, and suspected that he’d find many members of the Corleone empire throughout the state. Frankie’s guess paid off. The first person Frankie found was TNT. TNT was in San Francisco doing a collection round for the Corleone Family when Frankie found him. As TNT made his way out of a local mom and pop Italian restaurant that was paying protection money to the Corleones, Frankie opened fire on him and killed him instantly. It had not been more than a week and the Corleone Family was again under attack.
Frankie’s next target would be a serious blow to the Corleone Empire. GrimReaper, the legendary Mafioso and lifelong Corleone, had recently returned to the streets and was back involved in the American Mafia. It is still unclear if he was in the leadership role or was merely acting as an advisor to Really and Angel, but he was undoubtedly an integral part of the Corleone Empire. Grim was still adjusting to being back and was relaxing at his Los Angeles mansion with his guards and a few female acquaintances. They were all sitting by the pool having some drinks and just enjoying the luxuries that come with being Mafia royalty. Grim was in his hot tub with three women and completely oblivious to his surroundings. Even Grim’s guards were partaking in the partying and not fully paying attention to their jobs.
Frankie pulled up to the front of Grim’s mansion and put his car in park. He reached in the back seat of his car and grabbed for his silenced Kalashnikov. He placed a 30 round banana clip into the weapon, put a few extra magazines in his waistband and got out of the car. Frankie brazenly walked right up to the front window of Grim’s mansion. When Frankie looked through the window he saw nobody inside but could see movement in the back of the house. Frankie crept around the side of the house and slowly made his way towards the back yard. As he got closer to the pool area he could hear laughter and the clinging of glasses and bottles and could tell their was somewhat of a party going on. Frankie quickly peered around the side of the house and saw there were five guards at a table by the pool and saw Grim sitting in the hot tub at the end of the pool with the three ladies. Frankie knew that since Grim was in the hot tub he would obviously not be armed nor have a gun near him and that he needed to take out Grim’s guards first.
Frankie burst around the corner so fast that Grim’s drunken guards only saw a blur before Frankie shot each of them twice. Ten shots, all five guards had been hit once in the chest and once in the head. The women screamed at the sight of the dead and bloodied guards. “Please don’t hurt us,” the women began to shout at Frankie. Frankie, an old school Mafioso, did not believe in hurting innocents and let the women go. He kept his gun on Grim the entire time the ladies gathered their things and quickly got out of their. Once the ladies left, it was just Frankie and Grim. Frankie, still aiming his Kalashnikov at Grim told Grim, “This is nothing personal. You die tonight because of what your successor has done.” Frankie then fired three shots into Grim’s head before giving Grim a chance to speak. It was a rather ruthless move and Frankie showed no emotion. After he fired the three shots he slowly turned around and made his way back to his car out front.
At Really’s house in the Hollywood Hills another small party had been going on when Really’s phone rang. He grabbed his phone, “Oh my God! Really! He killed Grim! I can’t believe this! Oh My God!” a female voice said crying into the phone. It turns out one of the women Frankie had let go knew Really as well and immediately called him to tell him of the events that had just unfolded. Really responded, “Wait, what?? Who killed Grim?!” The people at Really’s house hearing him yell out those words suddenly became very quiet. “Frankie Calabrese,” the girl on the phone answered Really. “You ok?” Really asked her. “Yes I think so,” she replied. “I’m sorry you had to be there for that. Just get home and get some rest, I’ll take care of this.” Really told the girl and then hung up the phone. “That piece of ****,” Really said angrily to himself. By now all the men at his house were looking at him waiting for some kind of order. Really had one of his guys call Angel of Death and get him to come over immediately. Really also summoned the rest of the Corleone Family for an emergency meeting.
When Angel and the majority of the Corleones showed up, Really let them all know what happened to Grim. Really then told them, “I know Frankie wasn’t the one behind this! The other families helped him, I know it! Well now everyone will die.” Some of his men were galvanized by this call to arms but a few questioned why he would attack all the families. They knew it was Frankie and the Calabrese Syndicate that had declared war on them and was attacking them so why would they attack the other families? Really didn’t care. He was livid that his mentor was killed. He didn’t care that the other families had not been involved in the plot, he just wanted everyone dead. “It’s time I get that Kingpin spot, even if there’s no Kingdom left when I’m done!” Really told his men.
A few of his men looked at each other in disbelief not understanding the reasoning behind killing allies but by then it was too late. Really had already made the call to his men across the country that any person that isn’t Corleone was to be killed on sight. The men being obedient to their boss understood their orders and began to carry them out.
As news began to spread throughout the Underworld that Corleone was now targeting every family a few attempts were made at talking to Really and Angel but it was too late. By now Angel and Really had killed members belonging to Barzini, Noodles and Fratesi, including Fratesi underboss Gunnz. They had made their intentions known and the other four families began readying themselves for war. Killing of members of families not involved in the war was not unheard of in the American Mafia, it was a near weekly occurrence when Pazzo Sangue and Royce Gambino walked the streets, however it was not expected from the Corleone bosses. Angel and Really, two men who helped bring the Pazzo and Royce era to an end, were now committing the same atrocities they had condemned those two for.
As the war progresses it is unclear what the outcome will be but it is known that until either side is declared a victor, there will be no peace. There was a relative calm for several weeks but war has returned to the streets of the American Mafia. We have also learned that the Fratesi, Noodles, Barzini and Calabrese Crime Families have voted to kick the Corleone family out of the High Council. All four families have apparently agreed to team together to kill the Corleones, check back soon to find out the outcome of the war. Until then, stay safe.