by B. » Mon Oct 19, 2020 7:33 pm
The fact that NYC is so non-territorial is strange when you consider that they were originally colonies centered in certain neighborhoods. There was always crossover between families and there were relationships to different boroughs / neighborhoods, but early on they easily could have decided to put territorial boundaries around those colonies like we see with the metro Palermo families who are defined strictly by neighborhood. They didn't, though, and that immediately makes them an entirely different beast from almost every other mafia family in the US and Sicily. The Colombo family is the only exception but even though they were almost completely based in southern Brooklyn they didn't own the territory and "had to" share it with every other family... their word meant nothing more in Brooklyn than the other family crews there, as long as someone didn't directly step on their toes.
This is why it took law enforcement so long to understand the NYC mafia organizations before they had high-placed informants and witnesses. If you look at early LE reports from the secret service, police, or FBN, they look at mafia figures who operated in the same area and associated together and naturally believed those men were part of the same organization. You see them use terms like "Mulberry Street Mob", as if everyone in Little Italy was part of the same group. You can't blame LE for that because that's how we typically understand, well... everything. It's like seeing a bunch of people who work in the same office building together and many of them collaborate on the same tasks. You're going to assume they all work for the same employer, but you come to find out they're all contracted by different firms and their individual supervisors might not even work in the same building. It's not intuitive, but that's how New York families evolved.
Chicago makes total sense in the way it divided territory and crews up. First, they look to have had multiple Sicilian families early on in the greater Chicago area who were geographically defined, then many of the non-Sicilians and Americanized Sicilians were also the organic product of certain neighborhoods, so when they were all combined into one you ended up with natural fault lines for defining crews/factions. I know there was some crossover between areas/crews in Chicago, but it's mostly distinct. And intuitive.
The report where Chicago inducted new members and actually divided an existing territory up further to give those new members authority over parts of the territory gives us massive insight into how Chicago viewed membership. Villain has done a great job mapping this aspect of Chicago out for us. They wanted made guys, and certain key associates, to have jurisdictional control.
I know non-members in Chicago, including non-Italians, also had jurisdictional authority but the fact that they would specifically divide a territory up to give new made members authority over an area tells us a lot about their approach to membership. You would not see that in NYC. You do see it a little bit in small US families, especially their outposts, like CC posted about how Detroit inducted Whitey Besase to serve as the "boss" of Toledo -- he was a soldier, but Detroit wanted a made member to oversee that jurisdiction. What makes Chicago unique is they did that within a concentrated metropolitan area and were willing to divide territory further to give specific members authority there.
Other non-NYC metro cities had families that were defined by territory, being the only family in the area, but you don't really see them get jurisdictional about members within the metro area itself. The Philadelphia and Buffalo members who lived in the heart of the city operated on top of each other and nobody controlled a certain area. It's only when you branch outside the city to their remote crews / areas that you see members become the jurisdictional authority, i.e. Buffalo's Utica, Rochester, Erie, and Canada crews, or Philly's Newark, South Jersey, Chester crews.
I think this is one of the reasons rank can be confusing in Chicago. You have people who would be considered "soldiers" when introduced to a made member from Milwaukee or LA, which is exactly what guys like Maniaci and Bompensiero said, but in Chicago it's understood that this member (or even associate) has total authority over an area so long as he doesn't defy the top leadership. The caporegime would then supervise all of these smaller jurisdictions, making his jurisdiction the entire territory. Naturally not all caporegimes, members, or key non-members would have equal influence, which is true for every mafia family, but what makes Chicago unique is that this influence plays out along territorial lines.
The fact that NYC is so non-territorial is strange when you consider that they were originally colonies centered in certain neighborhoods. There was always crossover between families and there were relationships to different boroughs / neighborhoods, but early on they easily could have decided to put territorial boundaries around those colonies like we see with the metro Palermo families who are defined strictly by neighborhood. They didn't, though, and that immediately makes them an entirely different beast from almost every other mafia family in the US and Sicily. The Colombo family is the only exception but even though they were almost completely based in southern Brooklyn they didn't own the territory and "had to" share it with every other family... their word meant nothing more in Brooklyn than the other family crews there, as long as someone didn't directly step on their toes.
This is why it took law enforcement so long to understand the NYC mafia organizations before they had high-placed informants and witnesses. If you look at early LE reports from the secret service, police, or FBN, they look at mafia figures who operated in the same area and associated together and naturally believed those men were part of the same organization. You see them use terms like "Mulberry Street Mob", as if everyone in Little Italy was part of the same group. You can't blame LE for that because that's how we typically understand, well... everything. It's like seeing a bunch of people who work in the same office building together and many of them collaborate on the same tasks. You're going to assume they all work for the same employer, but you come to find out they're all contracted by different firms and their individual supervisors might not even work in the same building. It's not intuitive, but that's how New York families evolved.
Chicago makes total sense in the way it divided territory and crews up. First, they look to have had multiple Sicilian families early on in the greater Chicago area who were geographically defined, then many of the non-Sicilians and Americanized Sicilians were also the organic product of certain neighborhoods, so when they were all combined into one you ended up with natural fault lines for defining crews/factions. I know there was some crossover between areas/crews in Chicago, but it's mostly distinct. And intuitive.
The report where Chicago inducted new members and actually divided an existing territory up further to give those new members authority over parts of the territory gives us massive insight into how Chicago viewed membership. Villain has done a great job mapping this aspect of Chicago out for us. They wanted made guys, and certain key associates, to have jurisdictional control.
I know non-members in Chicago, including non-Italians, also had jurisdictional authority but the fact that they would specifically divide a territory up to give new made members authority over an area tells us a lot about their approach to membership. You would not see that in NYC. You do see it a little bit in small US families, especially their outposts, like CC posted about how Detroit inducted Whitey Besase to serve as the "boss" of Toledo -- he was a soldier, but Detroit wanted a made member to oversee that jurisdiction. What makes Chicago unique is they did that within a concentrated metropolitan area and were willing to divide territory further to give specific members authority there.
Other non-NYC metro cities had families that were defined by territory, being the only family in the area, but you don't really see them get jurisdictional about members within the metro area itself. The Philadelphia and Buffalo members who lived in the heart of the city operated on top of each other and nobody controlled a certain area. It's only when you branch outside the city to their remote crews / areas that you see members become the jurisdictional authority, i.e. Buffalo's Utica, Rochester, Erie, and Canada crews, or Philly's Newark, South Jersey, Chester crews.
I think this is one of the reasons rank can be confusing in Chicago. You have people who would be considered "soldiers" when introduced to a made member from Milwaukee or LA, which is exactly what guys like Maniaci and Bompensiero said, but in Chicago it's understood that this member (or even associate) has total authority over an area so long as he doesn't defy the top leadership. The caporegime would then supervise all of these smaller jurisdictions, making his jurisdiction the entire territory. Naturally not all caporegimes, members, or key non-members would have equal influence, which is true for every mafia family, but what makes Chicago unique is that this influence plays out along territorial lines.