According to some official documents from a relatively recent trial (I don't remember which one), the Feds do apparently have a high-level informant. I can't remember the context, but when it came out, for whatever reason, everyone was under the impression it was someone on the street, and not one of the usual suspects.
If memory serves, Fosco was not near the first one to assert that Jonny Bananas was a rat. I am pretty sure people were talking about that a long while before he ever wrote a story about that.
That site was, in its heyday, the coolest thing for Outfit watchers besides the Sun Times comment section during Family Secrets (where relatives of the involved characters frequently posted).
Now there is so little mob activity and so little to cover it's just the same cast of characters around here. One by one we will likely fall away, like the mob itself! It's like watching the national anthem on TV.
Two "upper echelon" informants, apparently. According to the article below, which came out in 2010, one had been giving information for over 25 years. The other since 1994.
http://abc7chicago.com/archive/7446674/That's right.
To the other guys, what I mean is, an occassional bust for breaking knee caps or B&Es isn't enough, probably, to hold "mob watchers" interest long term.
I personally don't think we'll have another Family Secrets-style trial; it doesn't even look like we're going to have any more high-profile gangland hits. As morbid as that is, I guess that's part of the interest. When's the last mob movie you watched where no one got whacked?
I don't see another Gaylord or Gambat, or even an interesting large scale rackateering case.
IMO, the glory days of Outfit watching are over.
