I think we have a reasonable divergence of opinion.
To answer TT:
The only thing I've ever heard about any new members is Jimmy Marcello was caught on tape before Family Secrets (this is probably early-mid 2000s you can Google it if you are interested) saying he knew some "young guys capable of work" ie murder.
Beyond that I read on a blog that there's a new young boss of the 26 St. Crew since F Calabrese went to prison. I go to that bar he's supposed to be at sometimes and I asked the bartender if he knew him and he said he did.
But I don't think they're going to be getting many good new recruits. The world these guys came from is gone. Please take the following with a grain of salt as it is just my opinion.
In the working class neighborhoods in Chicago even up until the 80s the mob was a relatively common thing. If you were a young man growing up here you knew people, probably, and definitely knew people who knew people. That exists today, to the tiny degree it does, almost exclusively in Bridgeport.
Many of the Chicago guys came from Grand Avenue which is now about as Italian as the Olive Garden.
I can only imagine most Italian young men today would be horrified at the proposition of joining the mob when they can simply go to law school, make more money, and live longer, opportunities that did not exist for the most recent crop of gangsters arrested in Family Secrets.
General attrition and the declining pool of recruits has effected every mob family. Some more so than others, of course. It has led to the extinction of several families altogether. But after New York and the rest of the northeast, Chicago is the next largest center as far as Italians go. The Outfit has been said to have intentionally downsized and streamlined its organization and operations but I don't see why its hard to believe they can't still maintain about 50 made guys. Again, that would make them one of the 4 remaining smaller viable families along with New England, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
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