As far as the northeast goes, what Ivy says is 100% correct, in theory. Dems be da rules. But in practice? Meh, who knows?

Best example I can give is here in the Bronx, early 2000's. Vinny had just become official boss of the Bonannos, but Prisco had just gotten out of Jersey State prison on a bullshit technicality (thanks to Governor McGreevey, a gay guy, Ivy ). Anyway, they were both quite active in the East Bronx at that time. Now Vinny as boss of the Bonannos technically outranked Angelo, a skipper with the Westside. But if you polled a hundred street guys, I guarantee you 90 of them would have told you that Angelo was the heavier guy.

But that example is moot anyway. Because I know for a fact that Angelo likes Vinny a great deal. I'll bet if Vinny had it to do all over again, he'd have gone in with Prisco back in the '80s instead of with Patty D and the Bonannos. He and Patty ended up hating each other like poison, and look at the end result for both of them. But again, that may be a poor example. Because Prisco's dying in jail, too.

Moral of the story: Mob guys die in jail. A lot .

Since 9/11 the feds have largely concentrated their resources on terrorism. Factor in every other problem they have (drug trafficking etc.) and I doubt there is anywhere near the resources being directed toward the mob as there used to be.

Particularly in a place like Chicago where by all visible evidence the crime is nonviolent and basically amounts to a fairly small scale network of illegal gambling.

Look at the drug/streetgang problem here in Chicago. Hundreds of people are killed every single year in their turf battles. How much time can they devote to the mob, that hasn't killed a single person in years?

The danger of the mob of course is its capacity for corruption.

I'm sure law enforcement still have a fair amount of agents dedicated to the Outfit, but I doubt its that high on their priority list these days.

I said they probably have much more influence in the suburbs.

However, I think it is still probably not nearly as widespread as some people like to believe.