Did the Chicago mob ever do business with New York, and has there been any business done in the last 10-15 years between the two? For example has a boss from New York ever came into Chicago for a meeting or has a Chicago boss ever taken a trip out East to meet with the Commission or a boss out there? Do Chicago and New York mobsters even like eachother?

Anyone here who can provide input on this it would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I asked this a few months ago and this was the best response courtesy of NYMAFIA. See below!


Each of the families in those two cities operated independently of each other and were autonomous entities (as were all families throughout America). But there was a lot of interaction between individual members and crews. A good example of what I'm saying was an incident in the early 1960s where I believe it was a Chicago soldier who dealt with several NY/NJ soldiers (or vice versa) after he acquired a shipment of hijacked fur coats.

Because of the law enforcement "heat" involved, and difficulty in selling the coats some of which were less than top quality furs, a large part of the shipment made its way to NJ where Gaetano (Corky) Vastola and Frank (Big Frankie) Cocchiaro of the DeCavalcante family, and Michael (Mikey Dee) D'Alessio of the notorious D'Alessio brothers of the Gambino family's wing on Staten Island, interacted together to try and dispose and "fence" the coats.

Chicago and New York also often interacted and worked in tandem in those days for the "interstate transportation and criminally receiving" and thefts of stolen securities and stock certificates taken from various stock brokerages on Wall Street. By shipping them out of state hoodlums hoped to more easily sell them on the open market.

Another incident was in the early 1950s when Genovese soldier Michael (Mike Rosie) Maione was tapped by the Chicago Outfit to be their East Coast distributor and point-man for the wholesale distribution and sale of counterfeit money. He ran a huge operation that sold spurious $20. notes putting them in circulation through key members of all the families.

And let's not forget that Louis (Louie the Mooch) Eboli, a key member of the Chicago Outfit, was in fact the son of NYC Genovese boss Thomas (Tommy Ryan) Eboli. This tie also helped to provide a lot of interaction between those two crews.

Note: And although its been documented that Outfit members were dissuaded from handling narcotics, and that certain guys were even compensated monetarily on a regular basis to avoid that racket, there were many "associates" who dealt with NY guys on a regular basis to obtain their narcotics.
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During the 1970s, the FBI also documented Frank (Funzi) Tieri and the Genovese hierarchy sending out $250 "Christmas baskets" to Tony Accardo, Paul Ricca, and several other top Outfit bosses for the holidays. So there was plenty of interaction between the two crews.

Lastly, Although we know that Chicago had a "Commission Seat" for many decades, by mutual agreement after the dissolution over their control of Las Vegas it was decided that Chicago would no longer sit on NY's Commission (there was no more need).

So a second "smaller" Commission was formed to handle everything west of the Windy City. All small families in the Midwest and West Coast now answered to Chicago. (I'm sure that if there was need, Chicago would still then get in touch with NY on a "case by case" basis).

Remember too that the Laborers & Hod Carriers International Union; and the Restaurant, Hotel, and Bartenders International Union are both located and based in Chicago requiring constant communication between the NY and Chicago families.

So there were numerous ties throughout the later decades between the borgatas of Chicago and New York City as well.

If you want to know anything about Chicago search for Toodoped's posts. Extensive articles.

What of the other three brugads of New York (Bonanno, Lucchese, Colombo)? What was their relationship like?

Michael Drummond for the Chicago news would probably drop on the spot if he ever heard the Fat Tony tapes....You guys answer to Chicago, and they answer to us.....

In the old days there were so many ties between the two cities. Torrio and Capone were New Yorkers, the Five Points Gang.

Could somebody argue then that The Chicago Outfit originally was actually another family created by the New York Mob to control the Midwest and areas west of the Mississippi?

One example of interaction between Chicago and a NY Family can be found in Joe Pistone's book. When the Bonanno approved Brasco's proposition to run a vending machine operation in Milwaukee, they had to get the OK from the Balistrieri family.

In order to reach out to Milwaukee, the Bonanno went throught Tony Riela, a well respected Bonnano soldier in NJ who used to be active in Illinois and had kept ties with the Mob over there.

Riela reached out to his contacts in Chicago and ask them to make the connection between the Bonannos and Milwaukee.

Interestingly, The Chicago Family decided to use this opportunity to reconcile the Rockford family with the Balistrieri Family. Apparently there was some tensions between Rockford and Milwaukee and Chicago thought it would be good for the Rockford guys to be the ones to introduce the Bonannos to Milwaukee.

That's why, if you have read Pistone's book, at the first meeting between Lefty/Donnie and Franck Balistrieri, there are 2 or 3 guys from Rockford. They are the ones who made the introduction and settled the meeting.

It's not a business dealings between NY and Chicago per se but I think it's an interesting example of the interaction between Chicago and one of the 5 families.

I've always found that story kind of interesting bc I believe that it's been documented by a few mob historians that a lot of the Chicago top brass did not think very highly of Joe Bonnano, though I do wonder how much truth there is to that.

Busted in Chicago 1932.

Paul Ricca, Sylvester Agoglia, Salvatore "Charlie Luciano" Lucania,
Meyer Lansky, John Senna, Harry Brown.

I'll give Chicago a boost by Joe Valichi's book where he referred to Chicago as the smart guys