Ivy, very well stated. The term Associate was used to mean many things. It was used to describe mainly 4 different kinds of Outfit connected men: 1) It was used to describe a full time man who worked under a made man in his sub crew. 2) It was used to describe high level Non Italian members. 3) it was used to describe Politicians or Judges who were controlled by the Outfit. 4) It was used to describe bookmakers or tavern owners who partnered with the Outfit either by choice or by force. I would describe it in these 4 ways: Note* I'm talking about the OLD POWERFUL OUFIT, not the current Outfit .


1) Guys who belonged to a crew and worked full time under a made man were called MEMBER/ASSOCIATES. (sometimes they were refered to as soldiers, but not always).

2) Men who were high level non Italian members were generally called HIGH LEVEL/ ASSOCIATES.

3) Politicians under the control of the Outfit were generally called CONNECTED/ASSOCIATES.

4) Men who were partnered with the Outfit on the street level as bookmakers or tavern owners were referred to as STREET/ASSOCIATES.

I agree with Ivy, that for reasons of semantics and simplicity, it is better to refer to all non made men in the Outfit as Associates. Then, you have to add a word in front of Associates to describe WHAT KIND OF ASSOCIATE YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
Chicago, in the old days, always had a very large number of Associates. The actual number of made men was purposely kept on the lower side for 2 reasons. 1) Maximize the profit structure so each made man earned a lot of money. 2) Maximize the Security

The MEMBER/ASSOCIATES who belonged to the crew were the ones in line to move up and get made at some point. Their power began and ended under the man they worked for. They naturally interacted with the Boss of the Crew sometimes and it would be the Crew Boss who would ask the Top Bosses if his man could be promoted because he was loyal and would be a good earner/supervisor. The Top Boss of the Outfit always made the final call because this new man would not only be a partner with his Capo, but also with him. Occasionally if a guy started to undermine the made guy he worked for in hopes of moving up a little sooner, that was either the beginning of a death sentence or he would be blackballed and never move up like Elmwood's big mouth Uncle.