Once again, ButtonGuys has tackled a major organized crime research project. And this time around, if you don’t mind us saying so, it’s a real doozy. Over the course of many months, we have dug deep and painstakingly researched, gathered up, sifted through, and vetted the true hierarchical structure and awesome power of the infamous Chicago “Outfit.”

And we think what we’ve been able to recreate is gonna ‘knock ya socks off'

ButtonGuys has structured and artistically designed an in-depth membership chart that truly depicts and represents the full hierarchical breakdown of this iconic underworld network. No doubt, it is a rare re-creation indeed.

To my knowledge, this is the first time that anyone has been able to dig deep enough to uncover the full scope and breathe of this massive rank and file. We have researched and catalogued the entire membership of the “Outfit.” Not only naming hundreds of their formally ‘inducted’ Cosa Nostra soldiers, but a virtual laundry list of many hundreds more multi-ethnic ‘associates’ who were affiliated with the Chicago Syndicate.

This one-of-a-kind chart is a holiday “Exclusive” from ButtonGuys of The New York Mafia.

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/the-chicago-syndicate-chicago-outfit-membership-chart-1950-1970/

*Special thanks to Dushan (Toodoped) Dzonov for his contribution to this project.

We hope you enjoy this piece as well as your ‘4th of July’ holiday weekend…”The Other Guy”

This turned out great. Cheers

I have agree my friend. A job well done. Lol

Absolutely awesome job, guys! Fantastic write up.

I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you BT. We're glad you enjoyed this so much. We worked very hard to try and make this the very best intro we could, and the most accurate Outfit hierarchy chart, available anywhere, to date. I like to think we accomplished that goal. So its nice to receive "thumbs up" from people such as yourself. It means a lot to us. So thanks again for your nice comments.

Just purchased a membership. Thank you for providing such great insight into this.

First of all RushStreet, I wanna thank you for subscribing to our website. I also wanna welcome you aboard as our newest "button guy" member. Lisa and I thank you for your patronage.

Secondly, I'm happy that you are enjoying our ButtonGuys content, especially our new Chicago "Outfit" hierarchy chart. We're very happy with how the chart turned out also.

I don't know if you're only interested in reading about the Chicago Family, per se, but just to let you know, we've also researched and designed several other really cool hierarchy charts for the other Illinois Families, The Joseph Zammuto Family of Rockford, and The Frank Zito Family of Springfield.

For that matter, we've also deeply researched and designed hierarchy charts for many other midwestern Families including The Joseph Zerilli Family of Detroit, MI; The Anthony Giordano Family of St. Louis, MO; The Civella Family of Kansas City, MO; The Frank Balistrieri Family of Milwaukee, WI; and even the tiny little Carlo Caputo Family of Madison, WI.

These rare charts list hundreds and hundreds of Mafia soldiers of their respective borgatas (many of whom were previously unknown to the general public), and many hundreds more of their crew associates.

If you haven't done so already, as you navigate through our website you'll notice links that run across the top of all pages. Just click the "Charts" link for full access to all our charts (which currently number almost fifty.)

As a subscriber, you now have full access to ALL our content. So clear your schedule, go grab your favorite snacks and drink, and get prepared to immerse yourself in all things gangland. Lol. Because from this point forward, ButtonGuys of The New York Mafia is gonna be keeping you very busy!. Lol

And once again, thanks for your subscription!

Best regards..."The Other Guy"

RushStreet,

I forgot to mention earlier that I also wrote extensive historical exposes for each of the above named Families that you might also enjoy. Just click the "Friends of Ours" link to scroll down an A-Z list of Cities/Familes until you find the ones you like.

@Big T thanks a lot bro and as NYM already said, we always appreciate your support.



@RushSt thank you also for your support and stay tuned.

Thank you for the kind words as they are much appreciated.

Id Love you guys to do one of your future special exclusive features on Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. Hes a guy that is deserving of one in my opinion.

A testament to two great minds collaborating. Way to go guys!

I completely agree. LaPietra would be a good guy to do. An interesting guy. But a deadly guy.

LOL. JimmyTT, thats some testimonial you just gave us. What can I say, except to thank you very much for that tremendous vote of confidence in our work.

Thank you for following us and reading our content. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that your kind words are greatly appreciated.

You're always welcome RushSt and as NYM already said, thats one interesting idea regarding LaPietra. I covered a lot of the brothers' history in several of my old articles and so I think we already have lots of info on them, meaning we can make one project about it.



Always love your comments Jimmy and thanks a lot. Stay tuned.

Excellent job again, NYM.
Lawrence Bergreen, author of a good Capone biography, says that Frankie Yale, Capone's early Brooklyn mentor, was Colosimo's assassin. He says Yale did it to expand his foothold and influence in Chicago, but he offers no evidence of that--the next mention of Yale in Bergreen's book is when Capone had him whacked in Brooklyn several years later. John Kobler, IMO the author of the best Capone bio, says that the Outfit never had a monopoly on the booze trade and was constantly at war with competitors large and small.

Thank you very much TB. Glad you enjoyed our piece on Chicago.

And I agree with your assessment.

Although we'll never know for sure, young Al Capone was more than capable enough to whack out Colosimo on his own. I seriously doubt they, (Torrio and Capone), needed, or called in, Frankie Yale all the way from Brooklyn for this job (especially that Yale was a top power at that time in his own right.)

I also agree that although they were, in fact, the top power in the Windy City, there were many other active gangs, big and small, who powerful in their own right, who moved liquor and fought the Capone Gang for control of that territory. So I think John Kobler's assessment would be correct.

I would like to add that Yale and Polaccia arrived all the way from Brooklyn regarding the O'Banion hit.

Also besides Torrio, two other guys who played a major role in Capone's "power" were allegedly Tony Ricci (from the Genoveses) and Robert Vanella.

It is not known why was Colosimo killed and who did it, and yeah Yale was allegedly brought up as a suspect by some old researchers but as you already said, theres no evidence about it, although again we must not forget the O'Banion hit. Colosimo was allegedly connected to Chicago Mafia boss at the time Mike Merlo.

Back in the days I heard or read regarding another theory in which Colosimo allegedly angered the Moresco brothers because he dumped their sister or his first wife who in turn was deeply involved in the prostituion racket, and her brothers belonged to Colosimos crew. In fact, Colosimos white slavery racket went on a much higher level once he married "Madam" Victoria.

The word "vampire" from the letter which was found on Colosimos corpse, gives me an idea that either this guy wanted too much and was taking everything for himself or was holding out...just my two cents

Yeah, Bergreen also mentions Yale as one of the O'Banion assassins. But, the question still remains: Why wouldl a pezzanovante from Brooklyn like Yale take a contract from the Gennas to whack O'Banion in Chicago?

Kobler, an honest writer, doesn't say who killed Colosimo--he writes only that "shots rang out" in the lobby of Colosimo's nightclub/gambling salon and he lay dead on the floor. But, he prefaces that description by noting that Big Jim, infatuated with Dale Winter, a singer at his club, was neglecting business. He was also failing to pay attention to Torrio's entrities about cashing in on the looming opportunities from Prohibition--making Torrio the obvious beneficiary of his uncle's murder.

I agree with you (and Bergreen) once again on this issue.

Frankie Yale was a top Brooklyn power, maybe "the" top Brooklyn power at the time, for the non-Sicilian (Calabrian-Napolitani faction of the NY underworld.) But, remember too, that many of his men and top leaders later became affiliated with what became the Luciano Family (modern day Genovese Family.)

So IMO, regardless of who actually pulled the trigger on Colosimo, the reason he 'went' (not withstanding any 'collateral' benefit others might have also gained, like the Genna brothers), was for the direct benefit of that faction, the original NY-based Capone-Torrio-Yale-etc. faction.

After Yale's murder, in the coming years, top crew bosses and racket guys drawn from that same faction, who later gained mob-stardom as top Genovese Family figures were Anthony (Little Augie Pisano) Carfano, Giuseppe (Joe Adonis) Doto, and Generoso (Toddo Dell) Del Duca, among many others. These fellas rose to top capo status for decades to come....But their original power and influence started back with Francesco (Frankie Yale) Ioele.

If anyone is interested in reading more about him, awhile back I researched a relatively extensive biography about the life and times of Yale for TNYM. Here's a link;

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/francesco-frankie-yale-ioele/

Many hitmen were known for constantly travelling around the country while executing contracts, meaning I dont see anything strange regarding Yale travelling to Chicago to execute a hit on one non-Italian boss. On top of that, we already know that Yale, Torrio, Ricci, Vanella etc. all arrived from the Brooklyn area, which means they were just another crew in Chicago. Maybe O'Banion already knew most of Torrios associates and so it was a good idea to bring someone from out of town.

I think that from 1920 until 1925/26, Merlo, Yale, Torrio, Capone, Esposito, the Gennas, Aiello etc. belonged or kicked up to the Salvatore D'Aquila "boss of all bosses" regime since we have evidence regarding Capone sending money back to New York before he became a made member and also a capo decina later in 1928. Story goes that previously D'Aquila separated from his old crew and created his own regime, and so in 1928 the same thing happened to him, meaning that same year D'Aquila, Tony Lombardo, Yale and Joe Esposito were all killed by Capone who was in alliance with the rising Joe The Boss Masseria "boss of all bosses" regime. Capone separated from the D'Aquila group and joined Masseria who in turn brought Capone into the Mafia as made member.

TD, I'm not familiar with a fellow you mentioned by the name of Robert Vanella. Who was this? And how did he figure into the scheme of things?

Robert Vanella aka "Rocky or Rocco Vanilli" aka "Roxy Vanilli" was Torrio's companion when they arrived in Chicago and so he and Torrio allegedly killed more than few guys for Colosimo. Vanella brought a lot of attention on himself and sometime around the early 1920s (dont remember the exact year) he went back to New York. Theres one nice picture of Vanella and Torrio, from Torrios wedding I think, or maybe it was Vanellas, cant remember..

Now that you mention the nickname "Roxy Vanella" that sounds more familiar to me. I've heard that name. But I wasn't familiar with him. Thanks TD

You're welcome bud.

TD,

There was an early member of what later became the Gambino Family by the name of Antonio (Big Tony) Vanella, a notorious gunman and mafioso. I'm wondering if there is any connection between the two of them. I believe Tony came from the Downtown Manhattan area.

Vanella is a somewhat uncommon surname.

I personally don't have a clue about it. If the guys I previously mentioned were under the D'Aquila regime (future Gambino family) during that same time period when Robert Vanella allegedly returned back to NY, then there might be some connection. I don't believe in coincidence especially when we are talking about the Mob. You are way better than me in finding blood connections between these fellas, since I'm mostly about the "street stuff" lol

Well, we all have our strengths. But, regardless TD, we certainly compliment one another, thats for sure.

Thats respect buddy cheers

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No doubt...same here