The Chicago Outfit

What happened to the Chicago Outfit, the ruthless heirs of Al Capone, who preferred gambling to drug trafficking, who considered themselves gentlemen, compared to New York Families. The fact that they are reduced to about 50 men of honor and have increased the associates is a good thing or not? Give me more information as you can, thanks.


http://www.thelaborers.net/chicago/outfitchart.html

Well they to got hammered by the government, and general lack of decent young recruits to fill the ranks. All in all they still are the strongest family outside New York. And on some levels can even compete with the smaller New York families.

Like Mukremin pointed out, the Chicago mob got hit hard by the feds in the 80's and 90's, much like the New York families and others. But even a city like Chicago doesn't have the recruiting pool that New York does. Not that they necessarily need one at this point, since the Outfit seems to have wanted to downsize itself and streamline its operations so as to have a lower profile and less of a target for law enforcement. Traditionally at least, the Outfit was thought to have had a relatively big ratio of associates. That may or may not still be the case.

Average estimates for the modern day Outfit put it at about 50 members, which is comparable to other small families like New England, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Gambling (specifically sports betting and video poker machines) are their bread and butter. And they are still involved in other rackets like loansharking, extortion, fencing stolen goods, etc. Even to this day not a whole lot of involvement in the drug trade by the Chicago mob. There is still some mob-connected political and police corruption though not at the level many still believe there to be. Still some labor union racketeering but much less so than in the past. Still bid-rigging for city contracts. Many of the guys in the upper levels of the organization have legitimate interests in things like real estate, trucking companies, restaurants, strip clubs, etc.

Here is some good articles that sum things up about the current state of the Chicago Outfit -

http://www.ipsn.org/characters/new_outfit.htm
http://www.laborers.org/ChicagoMag_Moblite_12_00.htm
http://www.americanmafia.com/Cities/chicago.html
http://www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2005/04/prosecutors-boast-of-hit-on-mob.html
http://www.thelaborers.net/newspapers/chicago_tribune/crackdown_just_latest_hit_on_mob.htm

thanks, good articles

With all the current interest in The Outfit these days, I thought I would revive this thread. After all, the anniversary of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is coming up on Tuesday.

I saw an interview maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago on foxnews.com with capone grandaughter i believe. She flat out denied her grandfathers existence within organized crime, and then went on to say that the st. valentines day massacre was carried out by the police and Al had nothing to do with it at all. I laughed.

Do you think she included the bit about him going crazy and getting attacked in alcatraz and dieing of syphilis in her book.

I apologize, it was his grandniece. Now that you mention it, I do recall her saying something about how he did not die from syphilis. I can't recall what she said he actually died from. Although I'm not sure I would believe anything she has to say considering her outlandish claims how the police killed 10 people, or however many, by machine gun to frame al capone, of which, i believe, he was never convicted for.

She should probably stick to talking about her own life instead of gang violence and crime she wasnt a part of.
I dont like these books written by family members. Its always romanticised and the whole "back in the day they had more honour and were gentlemen" crap. It gets old.

The Chart by Burnstein is basically a joke. He is a Detriot guy who does not understand the Outfit. He even has a bunch of dead guys listed. The Outfit at its peak never had more than 75 made guys back during the Giancana days from 1957 to 1966. After that, from about 1970 to 1986, the Outfit was about 60 or so made active guys on the street. The Chicago Outfit has always been structured way different than New York. The Soldiers in the 6 street crews are not made men. They belong to the Outfit, but are not made men. The Soldiers work for the Made men. Always has been that way. The Outfit has always been organized by street crew power. The Top Boss of the Outfit has the Strongest Crew. The other Crews are partners with his Crew. The strength of the Outfit is not measured by made men because being made into the Outfit is a very elite thing and takes a long time to happen. In New York, they make everybody and his brother, that's why it's more rat infested and not as well organized as the Oufit. In Chicago, the Boss of a crew is equal to a boss of a Family in New York. In Chicago, a made man is a big deal and is equal to a captain in New York. The Soldiers work for the made guys and do specific jobs. How do I know this inside information about the structure of the Outfit? Because my Uncle is a made man in the Outfit and has been for 30 years. the one family that the Outfit would communicate with in the past was the Genovese Family. Chicago has it's own commission and had the final say on everything in the Midwest all the way out west, including Las Vegas, where they told New York to get the fuck out years ago..

^ just out of curiosity, who is your dad?

Wasnt there an outfit gangster who was working with japanese gangsters in the white slave trade? selling white girls onto yakuza members and then they would get pimped out in japan where they were in high demand.

also found this on friends of ours blog about chicago outfits involvment with gay bars. http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_o...ago-outfit.html

LOL Your Right. Gentlemen my ass, a Gentlemen Thief Yes.

That chart makes the family look fucking massive

From what I gather it's very generous in its formal definition of an Outfit "associate". I'm told some of those listed have only the most tenuous of connections with the family. Some of them are like associates of associates, apparently.

(This is just what an Outfit buff friend told me about the chart; I don't have a cite for that. Just throwing it out there to keep things in perspective. )

Didnt one of the informants who testified at the family secrets trial even say that the outfit had split up and that he never heard of any money getting kicked up to any one boss?

I read Family Secrets a while ago, and do not recall any discussion on money flow through the Outfit.

As noted above, the Outfit has done things differently than the NY Families in terms of structure. I believe money flows up to those in charge, otherwise what is the point?

I suppose I could see something similar to when the Chin did not take a lot of tribute from his captains, since he was a millionaire anyway and didn't really need it. Not having any money going up to them could be one way the top guys (DiFronzo and Andriacchi) could avoid being caught up in an indictment; since they are also wealthy.

Some reports in recent years have seemed to suggest the north side guys like DiFronzo and Andriacchi, who have more interests in legit businesses, have tried to keep the more "blue collar" west and south side guys at a distance. So it's a possibility, though certainly not conclusive.