Also NO ONE ON THIS BOARD WOULD DISAGREE WITH THE BLATANT TRUTH THE OUTFIT IS NO LONGER THE POWER IT ONCE WAS.
But if you really think it's all 80 year old guys running around, go talk to people like Tony Calabrese, Jonny Spina, Paulie Carparelli and Casey Szaflarski. I would not want to be the guy who had his legs broken on Lake Street by Carparelli's thugs, nor the tattooist who had his hands smashed by Calabrese for tattooing someone's daughter. We just read about the Outfit's control over various strip clubs and plots to literally mutilate guys in a basement.
All powerful Tony Accardo Chicago Outfit that ran Vegas, Hollywood and had the city in a vice? Definitely not and no one disputes that. A bunch of "80 year old guys" running around? Sorry but too many facts and examples contradict that.
There are still young gangsters in Chicago running around and beating people up and at times even murdering. They still have rules, they still have a heirarchy, they still run the same old crimes. It's far smaller, far less money, far less notoriety and far less glamorous than it once was. But it's still there no matter how hard you want to believe it's not.
On the wire Sr. was quoted as telling his kid that all it would take was getting rid of 7 guys and you could take over the entire Outfit. This was in the late 90s/early 2000s. He followed up his statement with "...that's what it's come to."
I've seen this used before, and it makes little sense to me. If you took out the top 7 guys in the Outfit in the 70s, wouldn't it make sense you'd probably have been able to take control of the entire organization? If Tony Spilotro had taken out Aiuppa, Accardo, Cerone, Carlisi, Ferriola, and LaPietra in 1980....wouldn't he have a good chance at being top shit? Just sayin...
Perhaps he meant that there is a huge drop off from the top 7 guys and not much backing them up. If you took those guys out in the 80's, wouldn't there have been Marcello, Calabrese, Infelice, Andriacci, DiFronzo, Lombardo, Solano, Monteleone, etc, and their crews to fill the vacuum and would be willing to be violent to keep what is there's and take what isn't?
Now there probably isn't. If you took out DiFronzo, Caruso, Vena, Solly D, etc, would there be people willing to step up and be violent to fill the void and take what was left?
I don't know. Seems like there are a lot less players and people will to go to war over the rackets.
Just food for thought.
So many times a major sweep of indictments happens, and the media and the FBI rule the family "finished" Most of the time, they are wrong Chicago is not what it once was, but the 28 members claimed by the feds is not only wrong, but it contradicts a staement from THIER OWN sworn witness, who put the number above 60, which is much closer to reality
Been there and done it I am very much for real, so if you ask, make sure you really want to know.
