Which crew is Cicero a part off today? Melrose park or Elmwood? I am writing a short story. Thanks in advance.

Cicero is it's own crew. Cicero and Melrose are the same crew, not separate. I've heard people call Cicero crew the Melrose Crew (one of the charts online) for some reason. Elwmood is obviously run by the Elmwood Park crew.

There is no Melrose Park Crew. Cicero & Melrose Park are right next to one another. The Aiuppa/Carlisi/Marcello faction of the Cicero Crime Family were all Melrose Park guys. Tony Zizzo, Tony Chiaramonti, etc. Then you had the Ferriola/Infelise faction (Solly DeLaurentis, Louie Marino, etc) who's power base was more rooted in the old Cicero/Berwyn neighborhoods.

There was never a Melrose Park Family proper, it was just part of Cicero. Joey Aiuppa wanted to make his power base Melrose Park & control those rackets back in the late 50s/early 60s, but he was vetoed & the Melrose Park rackets were kept within the Taylor Street Family.

Ok, thanks.

Nick referred to the Carlisi crew as the Melrose Park crew. That makes me assume that Melrose Park was a separate crew from Cicero, at least in the seventies and eighties. I could be wrong. It just seems strange that Aiuppa would leapfrog Carlisi over Ferriola for boss if the former didn't have his own street crew.

That was that factions base but there wasn't formal crime Family known as the Melrose Park Family. Chuckie English & then Louie Eboli controlled the rackets out there.

Melrose Park has a major Italian population (more so years ago obviously) hence the Outfit's presence there. One of Capone's lieutenants - Carlo Torraco aka "Charles Carr" was a mentor to Joey Aiuppa, who grew up next door to one of Torraco's stills on 14th Street in Melrose Park. Sam Battaglia used the Casa Madrid (25th & Lake) as his headquarters. In the 70s, Jackie Cerone used Rocky's Restaurant on North Avenue as his headquarters.

Melrose Park was likely territory that was split between crews - Grand Avenue guys like Louis Eboli operated there, as did northside or Cicero guys like Nick Ciotti and Joe Calato.

A lot of current Outfit heavies like Jonny Matassa, Albert Vena and the Dote brothers grew up and have strong roots in Melrose Park.

The "old" Melrose Park crew evolved into the present-day "Grand Ave." crew, right? Did Melrose Park split off from Cicero in the seventies or eighties and form a second crew with Carlisi at the head?

This is what I had as the leadership structure of the Outfit for that time period:

Boss: Aiuppa
Underboss: Cerone
Advisor: Accardo
Melrose Park Capo: Carlisi
Cicero Capo: Ferriola
Elmwood Park Capo: DiFronzo
26th St. Capo: Angelo LaPietra
Grand Ave. Capo: Lombardo
North Side Capo: Solano
Chicago Hts. Capo: Pilotto