• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Stradivarius reportedly stashed in mobster's Williams Bay home

WILLIAMS BAY — A Roman Catholic priest who ministered to convicted mob hit man Frank Calabrese Sr. in federal prison allegedly passed secret messages and agreed to try to recover a hidden violin -- supposedly an expensive Stradivarius -- from Calabrese's Williams Bay home, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

Sixty-two-year-old Catholic Priest Eugene Klein of Springfield, Mo., was indicted late Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and attempting to prevent seizure of Calabrese's property.

Calabrese is serving a life sentence for 13 murders at a federal prison in Springfield, Mo., where Klein was chaplain. He owes $4.4 million in restitution to victims' families.

Prosecutors say Klein and two others planned to pose as interested buyers of the Williams Bay, Wis., home.

One would distract the Realtor while the others searched for the violin, reportedly worth millions.

Walworth County tax records indicate that James, Nicholas and Sophie Calabrese are the owners of a property in the Summer Haven subdivision of Williams Bay.

Nicholas Calabrese, who admitted to committing 14 gangland murders, was sentenced in 2009 to 12 years and four months in federal prison.

The relatively light sentence was a reward for his testimony that resulted in resulted in life sentences for three of the biggest names in the Chicago mob, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo, James Marcello, and his own brother, Frank Calabrese Sr.