I can attest there are defo more than 28 members and more than the 6o that calabrese testified to. Are they on the corners anymore muscling shopkeepers for protection? No. They are deeply tied into city politics however. Interstate trucking hijacking, still some union racketeering, loan sharking & semi-legitimate business. They have evolved. They are stil heavily tied into chgo police dept. their structure is more alligned to the camorra. Family clans are the m. o.
No more outsiders. Remember when calabrese sr told jr about christmas tree. Stonger but smaller? They will never be what they once where but are still viable, still respected. If not, why was there no retribution when panozzo was jacking those cartel stash houses?
For the sake of debate, here are some problems with this theory.
They almost never get caught doing what you say.
It doesn’t make sense that throughout their history they needed Harry Alemans killing people left and right to keep them in line and now they just dont.
Without doing an analysis, I do not believe any of the activities you mention would be lucrative enough to power a quasi criminal empire. Illicit booze, yes; gambling, yes; even drugs would be feasible.
But a hodgepodge of casually nefarious activity is not going to be lucrative enough to keep dozens of grown men engaged. It’s not worth it.
One of the things people lose sight of on these boards is that all these people care about is money. Period. So if we don’t understand the Outfit from a business perspective, which no one really seems to these days, we flat-out don’t understand it.
