1. Of all the rehashed topics on these forums, ranking families has to be #1. And it inevitably leads to crime family homerism that we see in this thread.

2. The estimates of the current size of the Outfit, from several FBI officials in Chicago, are what they are: 25-30 made members and "a little over 100 associates." The feds have no reason to put out phony or misleading figures. If you don't like those figures, and it helps you to sleep better at night by claiming the Outfit is bigger than the FBI says it is, more power to you. But I'll take the feds over somebody's "gut" any day of the week.

3. The Outfit is not "barely functioning" or "dying." It is still a viable, active mob family. But the Outfit of the 21st century is much closer to the few remaining small families outside New York than it is to any of the NY families. If we compare apples to apples, and go with official estimates, the families in New England or Philadelphia, for example, are said to have 40-50 made members and about 100 associates. So the Outfit has roughly the total manpower each of those families do. The member-to-associate ratio is just a little different.

4. There is little west of Chicago for the Outfit to have any influence over at this point. There is no formally structured, viable family remaining west of Chicago. And the Outfit itself has little presence left in Las Vegas and little-to-no presence elsewhere in the west. The vast majority of it's operations do not extend beyond Chicago and it's suburbs.

5. No government or law enforcement official has ever said the Outfit generates more money than any other single Italian OC entity in the U.S.

6. Indictments are the single clearest sign of a family's activity, especially over the long run. It's why we see so many in New York, less so in places like Philadelphia or Chicago, and none in places like Denver or San Francisco. This is a simple concept that anyone can understand.

7. Considering the Outfit has very little interest in the drug trade, the Mexican cartels and DTO's probably have little impact on it in Chicago.

8. While it's true that the Outfit has been one of the more disciplined and secretive families, including in recent years, it's attrition that is the real factor to consider and what will ultimately lead to the Outfit's end.

9. In terms of the American mob in the 21st century, New York is the center of the universe. Now more than ever. Roughly 75% of it's remaining membership belong to the 5 NY families.

10. Simply being a local, "walking the streets," or being "on the ground" in a given area does not afford one the type of inside knowledge so many on these forums have pretended to have. Sorry but living in the right zip code doesn't mean you know who is running the local crime family, how many members it has, or how much it makes. To pretend so is an insult to the intelligence of others on these boards.