Originally Posted By: Turnbull
As Chopper implied: The Chicago Outfit was not a Cosa Nostra family, at least not initially. The founder of the Outfit, Johnny (the Fox) Torrio, was a Neapolitan, at a time (ca. 1920) all the Mafiosi in America were Sicilians. There was a Mafia organization in Chicago at the time of Torrio and Capone: the Unione Siciliana, which was a kind of civic association with muscle. Capone respected them, and attempted to put his own, Sicilian-born men into the Unione presidency. But as Chopper pointed out, Torrio and Capone reached out to non-Sicilians and even non-Italians. Jake Guzik ran the Outfit, with Frank (the Enforcer) Nitti, for several years while Capone was in prison.

Tony, a point you might want to consider:

Torrio/Capone's outreach to non-Sicilians and non-Italians was a harbinger of things to come. When Charlie Luciano formed the Commission in 1931, following the Castellemmarese War, he permitted non-Sicilians, like Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, and non-Italians, like Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and Dutch Shultz, to participate in Commission meetings. Lansky remained the Commission's number-one counsel for decades.


Question for you Turnbull, what was Nitti's ranks before Capone was in prison and he ran the Outfit. Was he Underboss or Consigliere?


"When my time comes, tell me, will I stand up?"
Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultiere - The Sopranos