Deactivation of Elmwood Park

True or false?

A lot of people claim that DiFronzo and Co. deactivated around 2000. Unlikely given that the he and several other high ranking members of the Outfit met to figure out how to get a foothold into the Rosemont Casino (later the Des Plaines River Casino). This was in 2002.

It is likely that he has backed off the street rackets with his crew. But, they are still heavily involved in McPier (Rudy Fratto). Marco does also run high stakes gambling operations.

So what is their status?

Who knows. One of the problems with all the conjecture is that people take premise A, which sounds logical or is generally known to be true, and then from there extrapolate conclusions 1-15. On one hand it makes sense and is pretty much what we are limited to as so little comes out about the Outfit, but on the other, running with a premise like "Elmwood Park is retired" and then drawing a bunch of conclusions based on that premise is probably not all that accurate.

I wouldn't be suprised if DiFronzo pulled himself out of the street rackets and just collect income from his legitimate businesses. He's in his 80's and doesn't want to spend the rest of his days in the grey-bar hotel.
I bet some of the younger guys are still bookmaking and running high stake poker games around the elmwood park area. They are probably doing it without permission from DiFronzo.

Yeah, here I go contradicting myself with conjecture, but I would be somewhat surprised given the level o DiFronzo's wealth if he does *anything* anymore. You never know. But I would imagine the risk-reward ratio would tilt extremely toward the "low risk" at this point.

If you are worth 10 million and 80 some years old it would seem utterly foolish to risk ANYTHING that would put you in jail for, you know, another million a year or whatever it is.

What happened to his car dealership/s? In Cooley's book he goes in and sees him at the car dealership.

Those things alone are perceived by many businessmen as basically licenses to print money.

DiFronzo has cash running in from all directions. He still has ownerships in major delearships in Chicago--Piemonte, Perrillo, Mancini, etc.--he is a millionaire many times over.

My theory is that DiFronzo has become more akin to a Tony Salerno...still acting as the figurehead of the Outfit, but doing nothing illegal. This means he keeps the Feds focused on him and him alone, while they struggle to charge him with anything. Meanwhile, major players in Cicero are still running wild.

I don't think Elmwood deactivated, I just think they were told to stay off the radar and in the Outfit, people obey orders. Guys like Gary Gags, Francis Mazza, Bobby A, Joe Belli, etc. are heavy guys...they are still gangsters, they just stay quiet. Very quiet. Rudy is perhaps the only one to be pinched publicly.

Fosco claims the meeting over Rosemont never took place. I don't know how accurate that is...Stephens was always rumored to have Outfit ties. As I recall one of his business partners was found murdered gangland style.

I've heard other people say that the meeting in Rosemont never happened. I doubt it happened too because why would the mayor of Rosemont meet the top known outfit leaders at a popular restaraunt.
Plus the mayor of Rosemont was able to prove he was out of town when the so-called meeting was supposed to have occured.
Mayor Stephens was close friends with Anthony Daddano.

Certainly possible. However, I don't buy that the elder Stephens had no connections to the Outfit.

rosemont is crooked and the people named at the meeting surely could have been there

it was basically alleged that it was the northsiders and a corrupt mayor

that's very plausible

Either way, Emerald had ties there's no doubt about that.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-...-casino-license

During the Family Secrets investigation James Marcello was caught on tape talking to his brother about "Getting there foot in the door" at the Rosemont Casino.