The Outfit 2014

Hi guys, been reading your forum for a couple of weeks and just recently it hit me to actually make an account. Haven't read up too much about the Chicago Outfit, Tought I'd start my first post by telling you what I know, and some facts -- and let you guys tell me what I don't know.

Chicago Outfit isn't just 'one organization', It's aprox four(?) different families who run their men their own way. Although all of them answere to John DiFronzo /whom some say has retired and been replaced by Joe Andriacchi. DiFronzo/Andriacchi holds a sort of 'Capo Di Tutti Capi''-position and runs every family -- has every family to pay tributes and follow orders. If there is a beef between two (I call them families, actually they are just crews lead by an Lieutenant who has Street bosses etc, made members.) The Boss/DiFronzo can settle the dispute, and also decides who gets made. Chicago doesn't have capos or whatever, they just have like a different set of bosses who roules that area. Same as a capo I guess..

I think recently they have shrunk to hold a low profile, The current hierarchy of the Outfit today I believe is like this:

Melrose Park (fmr. Cicero, Lake County crews) Lieutenant/boss - John 'Pudgy' Matassa. I think he took over for Michael Sarno, peronally I think Matassa looks like a fa***t -no offense.
Melrose park is the 2nd most powerful though the most Notorious crew, handles mostly blue collar crimes. And has about 15 made members?

Elmwood Park (North Side/Rush street crews) The most powerful crew, most of the bosses roots from this crew. Deals mostly white collar, former lead by John DiFronzo and is now lead by his brother Greedy Pete. The crew has about 20 made members by my count.

South Side (26th street crew, Chinatown, Chicago Heights crew) boss - Frank Caruso ''Tootsie'' - don't know much about these guys. They have about 11 made members, 3 of whom are Incarcarated.

West Side (Grand Avenue Crew, Centrachio Crew) Boss - Joseph Cullotta ''Joe Kong'' - Weakest, with about 5 made members.

Keep in mind that they have alot of associates. You don't need to be italian nor made to reach hights in the Chicago Mob. Associates (trusted) are given tasks of killing and other things that only inducted guys gets to do in most of the other families.

I count they have less than 50 inducted members. Chicago is also the LCN(if we can call it that?) who has the least amount of rats.

They have been known for killing their own members, if they make too much publicity - DeStefano and Giancana. They have calmed down since the indictments of Family Secrets AND earlier they lost Pasquale Marchone (a.k.a Pat Marcy) whom controlled the first ward. They owned Chicago's judges, lawyers and crooked cops in mass numbers.

Do you guys think Chicago still has someone in different Parties in Chicago, and that they still have such a massive number of Lawyers, judges and crooked cops? I'd like to read everyone's opinion! sorry for bad grammar or spelling mistakes.

I really would like to debate against Ivy League and Pizzaboy, you guys seem to know everything. :-D

You have a lot of correct info, but you're off on somethings too.

I'm guessing you went off that modern outfit chart? There's a couple mistakes.

1. It's the Cicero Crew, not the Melrose crew. And Pudgy isn't in charge, he's an Elmwood Park guy (Rush street actually but was absorbed by Elmwood).

2. Joe "Kong" Cullato is not the grand ave capo (his last name is Calato)

3. Cicero is the dominant crew today

4. Most of the corruption today is in the suburbs instead of the city (keep in mind Bridgeport and Grand ave are the only areas in the city where there is a presence. And to a much smaller extent, rush street and taylor street).

Okay thank you, how do you know? are there any documents or reports? I'd like to know/get a link

You can't find a link for everything

This is my estimation:

Boss: Sal DeLaurentis
Cicero: James Inendino or Sal Cataudella
Elmwood Park: Marco D'Amico
Grand Ave: Albert Vena
South Side: Frank "Toots" Caruso (His pop, Frank "Skids" Caruso ran a gambling crew for years on the South Side)

Around 30 guys is probably a decent estimate. The DiFronzos are pretty much retired, ditto Andriacchi.

Some other info:

Pizzaboy is a NYC guy; he has no interest in debating Chicago.

Ivy League isn't much into guessing, but he is an encyclopedia of LCN cases both past and present, so if you have questions concerning a particular case, he is your man.

Isn't Solly D jailed for 18 years? I don't recognize him as boss altough yeah he's got some influence.

You got that right, Snakes. Even if I knew anything about that town, I doubt I'd post about it. Too volatile a topic .

Solly D got out of prison a few years back. He & Jimmy Inendino are more or less interchangeable, they're both of similar age, they both have done similar amounts of prison time, and they were both eligible for huge promotions due to said prison time. Either could be boss. Probably Jimmy I, but Solly D could be as well. It only makes sense that either would be boss at this point in time. The Outfit tends to reward guys who have done substantial time standing on their heads.

In my opinion, here is the Administration:

Boss- Joseph Andriacchi
Underboss- Salvatore DeLaurentis (Solly D)
Consiglieri- Johnny DiFronzo

Elmwood Park Boss: Marco D'Amico
Elmwood Park Underboss: Tony Dote

Grand Avenue Boss: Al Vena
Grand Avenue Underboss: Bobby Dominic or Chris Spina

26th Street Boss: Frank Caruso Jr.
26th Street Underboss: Bruno Caruso

Cicero Boss (Cicero/Berwyn Origin): James Inendino
Cicero Underboss (Cicero/Berwyn Origin): Salvatore Cautadella
Cicero Boss (Melrose Park Origin): John Matassa
Cicero Underboss (Melrose Park Origin): No idea

Of course this is just my opinion.

What I want to know is here does Lou Marino end up fitting in there

I think Michael Sarno is Cicero-underboss at this point. But Elmwood park is definately Greedy Pete DiFronzo's. Marco D'Amico are most likely to be the underboss, though officially the FBI recognize him as Consigliere of the whole Mob.

Lou Marino was a Lieutenant to Joe Ferriola, after his imprisonment his ''gambling operations'' has been lost through the ages. Upon his release in 2014, you can only expect he'll be a buttonman or a Street boss for a crew.

I think Lou is done with the rackets, alongside the Spano's. Most of that old Ferriola/Infelise guard have stepped down, but they still have money on the street. His son Dino is probably still active.

He's 83 years old, I'd imagine so..but a lot of old timers are still active, so who knows? Maybe he wants to spend the rest of his life in a social club?

Let's argue about their membership. A lot of guys think it's 28 official members still. I think the fanboy in me doesn't want to believe that. But I counted 40-something members, nearly 50. Let's debate.

I would agree with most of these guys you have identified. I would say the DiFronzo's are mostly out of the rackets - Pete is sick too. I would go so far as to say Marco D'Amico is more of the "underboss" or "street boss" while Tony Dote is running the Elmwood Park crew.

There are probably some other guys up there that are "sleepers" - especially the guys they use to communicate between crews.

Mike Sarno is in jail. Chicago is unlike New York in that they usually boot you out of whatever position you are in when you go to jail then "reassign" you when you get out. The DiFronzos and Andriacchi are done. They are all in their eighties and rich. John is going on 86 years old! He put his time in on the streets, I highly doubt he is going to risk implicating himself in anything at this time.

Andriacchi is sick as well, he's over 80years old. That's no excuse to retire but I pretty much believe the structure within a year will be more like this;

Boss - James Inendino
Street boss - Peter DiFronzo (the ranks between these two may be oppisite, there is no report of Petey being sick, at least not that I know off.)
Consigliere - Salvatore Cautadella (long time friend with Inendino) or Mark D'Amico (longtime friend of Pete DiFronzo)

With Matassa and Tony Dote as the upcoming stars in the syndicate.


Solly D will take over someones crew, but he won't be boss. He's been inside since the 90's.

Not sure where you are getting this theme of Solly D "just getting out" - he has been out of prison almost ten years, longer even than Inendino has been out.

Matassa and Dote are as high as they will ever get. Matassa has pretty much just been a union guy and a driver (Solano/D'Amico/Solly D) his whole career. Dote is basically a bookie who earned some respect (and maybe a button) by doing time but he's nowhere near the level of an Inendino or a Vena. He's gonna be attached to Marco at the hip for the rest of his life anyway.

lol where do you come from Pal? How would you really know anything in the first place? Do you get your info from this "Mark" D'Amico ?

Marco D'Amico, I think he's got a better shot than Solly D. but then again I'm not familiar with the Outfit which is why I started this thread. All I know is street smarts, rumors and 90% wikipedia

90% Wikipedia isn't gonna help you any here. My advice is to ditch that site and pay attention to people who know, then start to make predictions. Three years ago, I was only familiar with the NYC families and knew next to nothing about Chicago but now I feel that I can at least intelligently discuss it with posters who are familiar with it.

It's nice that you want to engage in conversation but throwing out random statements based on Wikipedia and Scott's chart from four years ago isn't going to ingratiate you with anyone here. I'm just trying to help you out.

First off, Matassa is an earner with major connections in politics/LE. Don't forget that he was the guy talking to the US Marshall (Stephen Ambrose) in Family Secrets - how do you think just a union guy and driver got hooks like that? He is one of the "senior" statesman right now - he operates very under the radar and has been liasoning with the different crews for years.

Matassa also just opened Taverna on Division in Melrose Park - that's his spot. He owns a ton of property and different night spots - some of which are on Rush Street. Pudgy is a very wealthy guy - his father was too.

Tony Dote is a major power in Elmwood Park right now.

Matassa and Dote are two polarizing figures. Some are convinced that they are jokes and others take them seriously. I didn't mean to disparage Matassa by saying that - he's been around a long time and was poised to take over the North Side before they got gobbled up by EP. I just never considered him a guy that had high leadership ambitions; more of a follower than a leader.

I also found it puzzling that Chin referred to them as "rising stars".

Yeah that's a good point Snakes. I think Matassa is a very wealthy and smart guy who has really played the game as well as anyone (including the Caruso brothers whom he is very tight with) by staying out of prison (and alive/active) for so long.

Wikipedia and other sites that shows me facts, I feel I can trust more than people on a forum - no offense, I want peoples opinions otherwise I wouldn't have started this thread. But how do you know and how do people suddenly know everything about the Outfit without information to back it up?

Wikipedia is mostly bullshit, even I know that and I'm a new comer to all this current going ons with the mob today.

If Wiki shows you facts then prove what you say? I don't doubt any of y'all in this thread but for you to say Wiki shows you facts tells me you seem to be new to this game. Following Wiki will make you look like a fool here with some of the posters we have.

Yeah, but Wikipedia is far from official itself. Just be careful with that you use from it.

I'm not in this. I never post about Chicago. But Wikipedia is a terrible place for this type of subject matter. Anyone can change those entries to suit their agenda. Quick case in point: They gave Patsy Parrello two sons that he never had on Wikipedia, which was especially hurtful because Patsy Junior was murdered. These entries are made by cocksuckers with no fucking lives. They should seriously suffer for making a family relive that kind of pain .

And not every little thing can be backed up with links. I don't know where you're from, how old you are, any of that. But when you actually grow up among these guys, not everything can be backed up with a link. That's all I'm saying.

^^^sounds similar to the work of one 'elmwoodparker'

You said it how I wanted to. Props (or would you rather me say Salute?)

What about Henry's account?

Oh, don't tell me.

I don't know who Henry is, but I KNEW he'd been here before .

Quote: Shelby from Ax Men..."Here We Go!"

You always seem to have that sixth sense pizza.

The only Henry on here I can think of is friend_of_henry but I doubt it's him.

I think he's talking about Henry Hauglad?

Thanks, Dix. But we all know I ain't that smart .

In his second post he stated that he "can't wait to argue with Pizzaboy and Ivy league," or something like that. Dead fucking giveaway that he'd been here before. But what's WRONG with people that they feel the need to create different identities?

This Internet has given birth to a totally new kind of crazy .

*DING DING DING* We have a winner. Give that man a ceegar.

Can we assume that they're BOTH gone now?

Not yet. I'm old, not fast.

Is someone getting clipped SC ??

Yeah, it's against Board rules to open more than one account.

Much of this, like many things about the Outfit, have been debated a lot on these forums.

In my opinion, there is no significant difference between the way the Outfit is structured today and the structure of other LCN families. I really don't know where people get this "every crew is it's own family" idea. If one wants to go that route, you could say that about any crew in any family, which is simply a sub-group within the larger organization. The crew bosses (or captains - same thing) in Chicago are answerable to an administration just as they are in New York or elsewhere. At best, it's a matter of semantics, not significant, practical differences.

I also don't buy into this picture some paint of this multi-layered, overly hierarchical Outfit with top bosses, area bosses, crew bosses, street bosses, and so on. The Outfit streamlined it's organization in the 1990's and has only continued to shrink in size and scope since then. Not only is there no need for all these ranks, the most recent articles on the Outfit going back nearly a decade don't bear any of that out; some charts floating around the forums not withstanding.

And, as I've said more times than I can remember, the max made membership figure put forth by the FBI in recent years is 30. During the "Family Secrets" case, 28 was the number cited with a little over 100 associates. That would make the Outfit comparable in overall size to families in New England or Philadelphia, just with member-to-associate ratio being a little different.

While there is still Outfit-connected corruption in Chicago, the days of them having scores of judges and cops on the payroll are long gone. As are the days of non-Italians reaching high levels in the Outfit hierarchy. You may have some non-Italian associates in key money-making positions but there are no more Jake Guziks, Murray Humphreys, or Guz Alexs to speak of.

u swore up and down that grand avenue was defunct.....u were wrong

casey szflarski was in a money making position

now u say chicago doesn't have a certain hierarchy

i wish i had the view from your window

Now I understood you were talking about me... I have been reading as a guest for only a week or so before I made the account.

Whatever.

Take it up with the mods. They're convinced you're Henry Hauglad because of your ip address or whatever you call it. You probably have ten whole minutes before both accounts are blocked.

And this is what I mean .

Haha, guess I should take it up with them, because I'm not Henry Hauglad

Dude you should just give it up now. You want to know what the chances are that my IP would match pizza's or even say La Lou's? Zero chance. You know why? Because we don't have multiple accounts. If you are going to try and act like different people at least know how to trick a message boards IP tracking system (I know how but don't care to tell you trolls how).

I love it when idiots come on and say "oh this is my only account, been reading for a few weeks and decided to join" blah blah blah but when outed they claim ignorance until the end even after admins/mods say different. This is the kind of shit that is ruining this board...

Yeah I don't need to explain anything more. Just talk to SC, I've explained it to him. Take a hike dude.

It makes sense, businesses change their structure and streamline all the time. De-centralization has probably help keep them off the radar and make conspiracy charges harder to stick.

^^^^^

the last time "the heights" crew got pinched they were actually in calumet city

Excuse me, Mr. Lying Sack of Shit, but we went through this the last time you made this accusation. I asked you to show me where I ever said the Grand Avenue crew was defunct. You couldn't. Probably can't even figure out how to use the search function.

And yes, Casey Szflarski is a good example of what I was talking about. He was in a position to run lucrative video poker operations for the Outfit (due largely to his family connections to the Carusos) but he is not in the Outfit's hierarchy, i.e. he is not in the administration or a crew boss.

By the way, cook, shouldn't you be looting stores in St. Louis right now?

ouch dude, low blow.

Anyway, I had him pegged for The Arm. Whose this Hugh guy?

What the fuck??? It's one thing to disagree and argue over facts. I even understand that these arguments can get heated, but personal attacks (like above) will not be tolerated. No exceptions.

Most of you guys have been around here long enough to know better yet I still see this kind of shit being posted. It's gotta stop, and it WILL stop!

Consider this a warning.

I'll never understand the stupidity of making racist comments online in 2014 - especially when you aren't even "anonymous" to so many on here. That's not being "PC" either that's just common sense.

Yeah and I've been seeing a discouraging amount of racism on these boards lately. We're all guilty of losing our temper once in a while, but there are still lines you shouldn't cross if for no other reason than simple courtesy. You don't have to like everyone, or even respect them personally, but you should always respect the fact that this is a forum for everyone, regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, etc. These are aspects of life that shouldn't even enter into the conversations here.

It's still better than the Black Hand forums.

Reality is that those who hurl the most slurs are the biggest pussies when you hurl a few back - like a racist who cries when you bash his religion or inbred hick town. But I digress...we should get back to talking Outfit, nothing else here and simply ignore the trouble makers (attention whores).

Why is it when someone tries to explain a racist they always have to come from "inbred hick towns". I'm a country hick but that doesn't mean I'm a racist. Most of these towns where all this racist crap happens isn't even in the South yet we are pegged with being racist inbred rednecks constantly.

Fair enough. But, with cookcounty, it stopped being about simply arguing the facts along time ago. The guy is a troll. All one has to do is look at his posts over the last several months to see it. I'm not the only one who is sick of the guy.



Oh please. You are such a phony. The only reason you're even weighing in here is because you see an opportunity to take a few shots. And it's not because you're some enlightened thinker and fighter of prejudice. People who have known you on these forums for years are well aware you're anything but that. You've been proven wrong time and time again about your hometown crime family, you know you have no credibility outside your fellow Outfit fanboys, and so you've always looked for other avenues to attack myself or others who don't agree with you about Chicago. And you're doing it again here. This thread was fine until cookcounty, one of your fellow Outfit fanboys, started his lies again. But you're OK with that because he has the same agenda you do.

what would your take be on people who have held silly online grudges against other posters for years across many different forums based on nothing but disagreements on a particular mob organization? what about people who then take these disagreements and use them as some sort of sick juvenile justification to post pictures and personal info to try and "out" somebody like a bunch of hormone raging middle school girls would do?

Haha that is spot on Dixie. I need to practice what I preach - I love a lot of aspects of the south - and the broads are second to none down there - you bring me some gumbo, i'll bring you some beef

Good point. If people want to talk about "pussies," ChiTown and several others from a particular forum have done just that. You know what I'm talking about, of course. This is what I mean about the guy being the biggest phony on these boards.

lol sounds like you focus more on the history of two posters than the history of LCN. I would urge you to look at those who admitted they were wrong and never came back (and stuck to that promise). You can PM me pal if you have anything more to say.

Typical Fratto89/ChiTown/GrandAve. You know exactly what he's talking about but you do your best to dodge and weave by playing dumb and changing the subject. Our history, and the fact you still carry a grudge, is precisely why you weighed in here.



Like I said above, ChiTown is hardly the enlightened fighter of prejudice he pretends to be.

And by the way, don't expect cookcounty to back up what he said. The guy, like any troll, crawls out of under his rock, takes a shot, and then goes back into hiding.

Back to the Outfit 2014....

@ivyleague I've really tried to give you the benefit of the doubt over the past few months, but man, you make it tough.

Cookcounty may engage in some half-assed trolling, but you're no better from the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Pick your poison, a troll is a troll. You utilize manipulative wordplay & "poor me" angles in order to let the mods here continue to let you post.

I mean, cmon, this guy just called cookcounty a "sack of shit", dircted a hurtful racial slur at him, called ChiTown a liar (as well as several other serious insults, none of which are true, of course), but all that is okay, because he followed it up with "fair enough" when one of the mods e-spanked him.

Let's be frank here: any one of us who isn't in on their little clique would've been promptly banned for any one of those comments.

For someone who contributes absolutely nothing to Outfit-related discussion, you sure do run a whole lot of motherfucking diarrhea out of that slack-jaw in Outfit-related threads.

^^Again, a troll's a troll.^^

And stop christening others as fanboys. You're the world wide web's #1 Undisputed Thumb-Sucking King Of The Cosa Nostra Fanboys. Every waking minute of your existence is devoted to these diabetic goombas.

You bring me some stromboli and I'll be more than happy to bring the gumbo