isn't there a difference between made guys in Chicago versus the traditional New York sense? Like Frank Calabrese claimed he wasn't made, yet ran his own crew like a Capo. Also Roemer (who I take with huge grains of salt) said that non-italians were frequently 'made' into the Outfit
There has been a lot of misunderstanding about that. There was a time, decades ago, when non-Italians had more upward mobility in the Chicago family than others. But even then they could never become formally initiated members. Guys like Jake Guzik, Murray Humphries, Gus Alex, and others had a lot of clout. But they weren't Italian and so could never become made. It was also said that even Italian guys who were made into the Outfit didn't go through the blood and fire ceremony like those in other families. This idea has continued on in the minds of many even though it's now outdated.
Over time, the Chicago Outfit became more and more like the other LCN families. They eventually started using the same making ceremony. And no longer will you find any non-Italians in its hierarchy. There are still associates, both Italian and non-Italian, who may oversee certain operations but there are no non-members in the Outfit administration level or the crew boss level. So made guys in Chicago is essentially the same as New York or anywhere else.
One more confusing thing for people can be found in the recent Family Secrets indictment. In there you had some of the defendants who were identified as "made members of the Outfit." Others, however, did not have this distinction but were listed as a "member of the 26th street crew," "member of the Melrose Park crew," etc. It should be noted that just because they were members of a certain Outfit crew, that doesn't necessarily equate to them being formally inducted members of the Chicago mob.
Good post as usual Ivy.
I would just emphasize that as you write in the early days of the Outfit there were a number of members of non-Italian heritage. The Outfit in its origin was not a Mafia Family and so didn't really have the extreme and somewhat nitpicky distinctions as to who was "made" and who was an "associate".
As a whole the Italian element was always dominant and appeared to have the final say but with the exception of Accardo and Ricca you couldn't rise higher than Humphreys. Humphreys occasionally complained about being outvoted by the Italians but also wielded quiet authority over quite a lot of Italian hoodlums ,including people like Rosselli and to a lesser extent Mooney.
The books "The Outfit" and "SuperMob" by Gus Russo are really great histories/exposes of the classic Chicago Outfit and its upperworld enablers.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
