Bigger than who is giving it credit for? We have the most recent estimates by the feds, which nobody here is on a position to argue with. Even if you want to differentiate when it comes to the importance of made guys in Chicago, whether they're still making members, etc, all you have to do is add the members and associates to get an overall picture of the Outfit's size and manpower. 25-30 members and a little over 100 associates. So perhaps 150 or so. Once again, to put that in perspective, that's similar to the other small families remaining outside NY.
[quote]Numbers can very much equal power. Would anyone argue there's no difference between a 200 member family and a 20 members family. Even more so, numbers provide durability and longevity. Carlos Marcello may have been very powerful in his day but where is the New Orleans mob now? Gone. And it's because they didn't have the numbers.
Also, we should be looking at overall trends and not one Colombo guy to make a point. I'm not bringing up Magnafichi being caught shoplifting four times in recent years.
Bigger than Ralph was thinking is what I was talking about. Go ahead and bring up Mags he got booted out of the Outfit more than a decade ago. We can agree to disagree. That's fine with me. Also the most recent quote from the Feds was from 08' there could be more or less members we don't have a clue. When was the last time the feds put out an estimate of each New York family? I have no doubt you have to have more men in New York to survive or compete, especially because of the size of the Gambino's and Genovese. I also am not saying that the Outfit took the right position by keeping smaller numbers of soldiers/not necessarily made. But they did it on purpose, just like they could one day decide to expand, not that I'm saying they are going to. There were claims that Marcello and Sarno both held making ceremony's. But who knows. You are right it was definitely not a smart move for Marcello to keep New Orleans small, but I believe part of that was the Italian population in N.O. dwindled. Chicago still has plenty of Italians, and younger guys they could bring in to the fold at anytime, and no I'm not saying they would make 200 men. You bring up 200 made men and I can tell you right now there are only two families close to or at that, and the Colombo's only have about 90 give or take 5 or 10 and about 20 are in jail and 11 or so are doing life. That's a far shot from 200. But I like how the numbers talk was about the difference between the Outfit and the weakest family, and you come up with 200 vs 20 for your example. Too funny we could do this forever. (and I know you were not referencing the smallest family in NY at 200.) Comparing LA with 4 guys total left to the Outfit that you claim has 150 left is funny. Your a funny guy. And there is a lot of political corruption but the Outfit isn't involved at all. Not only funny he is an insider to.
