@NYMafia
Chicago was not a offshoot of the Masseria family. I assume you say this because Al Capone was a Masseria captain and became boss of the family. But the Chicago family had existed decades prior to Al Capone even becoming a member in 1928. Al Capone just transferred his membership to the Chicago family just as many others had.
I don’t believe your assessment of their situation is correct, Mafia101.
Yes, there had been a “traditional” Mafia Family operating in the City of Chicago for many years prior to Al Capone becoming an official Mafia member. But that Family was run by the Aiello brothers and other Sicilians.
As a Neapolitan by birth, Al Capone had always been connected to Brooklyn-based Camorrista, and, by extension, the Chicago “organization” or “syndicate” Capone led was, by any other name, tied to a powerful Camorra faction based in New York City.
When he became affiliated with Giuseppe Masseria and his New York City Family, Capone was formally “inducted” into the Mafia by Joe Masseria and was immediately bumped up to a “capo di decina” rank. He was initially allowed to “make” 10 men as mafiosi, bringing them into the Sicilian Mafia as well, under the Masseria Family flag.
He DID NOT “become a member of the Aiello Family” per se. Nor did he, in my opinion, initially “take over” the Aiello borgata. You must remember that the Castellammarese War was raging at that point in time and Aiello’s now rudderless “Family” was still aligned with Salvatore Maranzano and his “Castellammarese” faction.
But Capone did become the reigning “Mafia” power, and most powerful mafioso in Chicago, once Aiello and a few of his key followers had been killed off.
And from that point forward, the remaining “mafiosi” and soldiers of the competing and weakened Aiello Family were later absorbed into the new “Capone Family” of Cosa Nostra after the war was won by Maranzano’s forces in 1931.
Those who didn’t want to “realign” with the new “blended” Chicago Family of “made” Sicilians, Napolitani, Calabrese, and other racketeer “associates” of varied ethnicity, were given the option of “transferring” their membership to another Family of their choice. Examples of this are Rockford, Madison, Milwaukee, etc.
In a sense, this entire discussion is really like trying to split hairs, and a matter of semantics, because as I say, eventually the remaining factionalized “made” Sicilian members who were active in Chicago all eventually fell under the Capone “umbrella” if you will. And as I say, any individual mafiosi who had a problem with Capone, left town and transferred to Mafia borgatas in other cities.
