Marcello has zero influence as long as he's locked up Supermax. They aren't even giving these guys a chance to communicate with the outside. Lombardo is eighty-five years old and stuck in the medical ward and they still won't even let him out of solitary.

True and pretty F'd up but someone must be looking after his affairs . The outfit guys bread and butter was usually huge loan books and I'm sure Marcello had a big one , whether locked up or not . Without Michael he probably had some real exposure on his book not being handled properly .

re thought michael Marcello on lists and took him off.thanks for heads up on don scalise and phil cozzo changed status.also added new 2014 chart of outfit.

when doing 2014 chart thought back to frank calabrese sr talking about a smaller outfit structure where a north and south side took place of old street crews. meaning Elmwood park and grand avenue into north cicero 26 street into south. could never find any confirmation so stuck with 4 main street crews.

Yeah, I think Lombardo being the consigliere was just internet speculation.

Also, at some point, it was really Jimmy Marcello running the Outfit as it's acting boss. Just like Mike Sarno after him. And going back to the 1990's there were more than 4 crews.

Marcello was basically running things even though DiFronzo was the "boss." DiFronzo has pretty much been in an advisory role for the past decade. Marcello probably would have been boss if he wouldn't have been locked up Mike Sarno took over Cicero after Marcello went away but he was imprisoned almost immediately after Marcello was. Now, either Solly D. or Inendino run that crew.

the street crews are incorporated into the "areas"

u can look at the old fbi chart from i think it was 1976 or 1977

they had a westside group, southside group, and a northside group

just like the chicago crime commission chart in 1997 that had three area bosses

The Outfit had six street crews from the early seventies until about the early nineties: Cicero, Elmwood Park, Grand Ave, North Side, South Side (26th Street) and the Heights . When Vince Solano died, the North Side crew was absorbed by Elmwood Park. When Tocco, Palermo, and practically the entire Heights crew was jailed that crew got absorbed by the South Side. Depending on who you ask, Grand Ave. is either still active or was folded into Elmwood Park. Nobody really knows for sure.

as Chicago heights and rush street crew members died or were imprisoned I understand that the remnants were absorbed into other crews. the same type trends have been happening with grand avenue and cicero/26th street. my question was more along the lines of are there now 2 active crews in Chicago covering territory north and south. meaning no more Elmwood,grand,cicero 26th street.

I think there are still three; North, South, and West, maybe just South and West if you believe that Elmwood Park is no longer active. I believe the North is still referred to as Elmwood Park, the West as Cicero, and the South as just the South Side, although they may be interchangeable.

That's what it seems to me. One article cited an informant saying Sarno was still turning over money to DiFronzo.





Going back to 2007, the Outfit was said to have the 4 remaining crews and run in northern and southern sections. More recently, in 2011, one FBI official said the Outfit was down to "2 or 3 crews."

That same year had the article that talked about Caruso being lower in the hierarchy than Sarno and kicking up to him. So at least at that point, there were likely 3 crews - Elmwood Park (North Side), Melrose (West Side), and 26th Street (South Side).

It wouldn't surprise me if, at some point, things were consolidated further to where you had just 2 groups - the Elmwood Park/North Side guys and everyone else.

That's actually pretty close to what I believe the structure may be now, since for what it's worth I have heard of Caruso kicking up to Inendino - who took over Cicero with Solly D when Sarno went away.

I kinda wonder if Elmwood Park and Grand Ave. are defunct, tho., leaving only 26th St. and Cicero.

At least that is what some people speculate.

Elmwood is not even close to being defunct. It's definitely more on the white collar side but still active. Grand ave is not even close to how they used to be but still have enough activity to be a crew.

i don't think people realize how far "grand avenue" runs

grand avenue stretches through alot of communities and up the interstate

Hmmm....based on what?

I have my own reason to think Grand Ave. is basically closed up. Based on something somebody once PM'd me through this board, among other things.

Even HSAC insisted Elmwood was gone.

^^^^^^^


then u have a deranged lunatic meeting with grand ave people and mentioning elmwood park

that mandell lunatic cop or whatever the fuck he is implied that both crews are active

i'll take his recently recorded conversations as evidence both crews are active

The fact that mandell had to get permission from the grand ave capo albie vena to murder someone in Chicago mob territory tells u, all you need to know about whether they're active and frankly the sort of fear they still generate, which it seems to be now that if you don't pay ur gambling debts you're going to get a beating

Please cut and paste the relevant portions of the articles/transcripts that would imply what you're saying.

I read a lot about it but didn't draw the same conclusions.

I'm not saying they're some large powerful crew but they still have some activity.

Anything's possible.

In that sense I agree with Ivy that you just don't REALLY know what's going on until the feds make a bust or say something.

You hear a lot of different things but you just don't know.

I would *guess* DiFronzo is essentially a retired old man who has likely tried to cut his ties with any illegal activity for a long time.

But, you never know.

the feds just arrested somebody who obviously thinks grand ave, and elmwood park exist

elmwood park probably is involved with bookies and that ain't a white collar scam

Not bad...couple things:

Aldo Piscitelli passed away in November. Rayjo Tominello shouldn't be with Elmwood Park as he is a Southiside guy and while he spends most his time in Florida, he is still involved with the Caruso's.

Pudge Matassa is not above Solly D and Inendino in Cicero. Jimmy I runs that crew with Solly D and Sammy C as his #2's. Add Nick C as a soldier there along with Paul Carparelli. Matassa is really a soldier, but since he travels in so many circles and is the main conduit between crews, people think he has more power than he does.

Albie Vena runs Grand Avenue...his brother-in-law Chris Spina and the Spina brothers are under him. The active "soldiers" in Grand Avenue are Anthony and John Spina, along with Bobby Dominic and Robert Pannozo and a few other guys I am not familiar with.

You should remove Mike Caracci and Spano from the list. Mike was never a major player and Spano is out of the rackets.

Tony Dote is probably the active Capo in Elmwood Park below Pete DiFronzo. I would add to that crew Gary Gagliano, Carl Dote, Francis Mazza and Frank Adamo.

I know it was like that even in the heyday, but its incredible how inter-related all these guys are today. Relatives by blood and through marriage...what's Gagliano's relation to Joe? Son?


ChiTown, is Toots' kid involved at all? He would be in his thirties these days..no?

Gary is Joe Gags' nephew. He actually owns Luke's Italian Beef on Jackson in the Loop and does a lot of Real Estate in the Taylor Street/UIC area with Jimmy Inendino. They own properties up and down Flournoy Street.

Frank Caruso Jr. or "Chooch" as I believe they call him probably is involved...he married Brittany Szaflarski who is Shorty LaMantia's granddaughter and Casey's daughter.

Toots' kid got in trouble a while back about beating a black kid almost to death, right? Seems like he got hit with a light sentence too, if memory serves me correctly.

Lenard Clark was the kid..it made national news bc it was racially motivated and even President Clinton talked about it.

It also showed the strength of the Caruso family--Toots hired PR Consultant Dominic DiFrisco to speak to the press on behalf of the family and did charity work with black churches where all his guys were there giving away stolen shit. They recruited NCAAP leaders to talk on their behalf. One of the witnesses to the beating (Michael Cutler) was killed in a "robbery gone bad" before he was to testify. The other--Richie DiSantis--was the son of one of Toot's bookies (Mikey DiSantis) and served time refusing to testify. Frankie Jr's friends got off with community service and he was sentenced to 8 years, but got out after 3 I believe.

The Italian Judge (who was Italian and grew up in Chicago) and sentenced Frankie Jr. was also was unseated the following election.

Can't make this shit up...

Was going to say the Cutler "robbery" death should make even make the biggest skeptic to the Outfit's use of violence pause. I mean seriously..what are the chances?

Ok, fair enough. I am not certain, just curious.

According to newspaper reports and the Chicago Crime Coimmission, Aleman was a suspect in 13 murders.

I thought I read somewhere, that some of Aleman's murders were disclosed / confirmed by Nick Calabrese after he cooperated. Prosecutors decided not to take any to trial because Aleman was already locked up for life. It may have been a newspaper article that the FBI informed families of Aleman's murder victims based upon Nick Calabrese's disclosures.

Joe Ferriola was his uncle and with Aleman's murder count, I was under the impression he had his button.

they didn't recruit people

they paid people off, probably paid clark's family off

we already know what happened to the cutler kid