Ivy, As a matter of fact, I did ask him how many made guys are currently in The Outfit in 2013. He said about 40, but not all are active and I think he was counting some in jail. I think the big difference between you and me is that we are using different terminology. The terminology in Chicago is different. For example, Chicago never refers to themselves as "The Family" or "Cosa Nostra". they refer to themselves as "The Outfit". The Feds gave the 2007 trial the name " Family Secrets". If you would like, I can refer to the Soldiers as "Associates" and I can refer to all the other people who do business with the Outfit as "Connected Guys". For example, How would you or the F.B.I. in any of their Reports, refer to Bar owners who are 50% partners with the Outfit on Poker machines? Are they also called "Associates", but of a different nature? How would you refer to collectors who belong to a crew but are not made guys in Chicago? Are they called soldiers or are they called Associates? If we can agree on the same terminology, then we can possibly have more productive discussions on occasion. During the Auippa reign years ago, I was told there were about 60 active made guys on the street at any given time with 240 men working for them and several hundred doing business with them. By doing business with them, I am referring to all the bar owners, street bookies (who are 25% partners) etc.
In 2013, you're probably correct, or the Feds are probably correct in saying that it is 50% less and there are maybe 30 active made men and say 120 associates working for them. That's probably accurate. Then, there are all the other people like the bar owners and street bookies and lots of other people who do business with the Outfit. I don't know what you want to call those people. Maybe we can call them Outfit connected guys or street associates who are different than the other associates who work directly for the Outfit. I was also told that the Street activity is down at least 50% from years before, but the White Collar activity is higher and that's where they are concentrating more of an effort on as opposed to the blue collar activity. The White collar activity involves Unions, Construction, legit businesses getting city contracts through bidding, offshore bookmaking ( which is legit and the customers use credit cards ). I can't offer any proof that would satisfy you accept for the fact that I do have a relative, Lombardi, who was involved in the blue collar part of it with the Elmwood Park Crew from 1957 to 1993. In 1993, he was indicted with Sarno & about 5 others for Loan Sharking. He went to jail in 1998 for 2 years. After he got out, he was no longer active and has nothing to do with those guys anymore. However, he is respected because he never ratted on anyone and did his time like a man. This is what I can offer but I have no way to prove it to you. If you do not accept anything I say, that's okay with me and there are no hard feelings. As you can see, after being admonished, I've decided to be a gentleman and try to understand WHY we clashed. I believe it was over terminology. Sincerely, Elmwoodparker