THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[quote=Wiseguy post_id=283949 time=1726847060 user_id=51]
That quote regarding DeLaurentis is suspect too being as the New York families never had 300 members [i]each[/i].
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I guarantee you like 97% of mobsters do not nerd out over this stuff in accurate detail the way we do and believe all kinds of debunked myths etc.

There are probably[i] bosses[/i] who don't know how precisely how many made guys are in their families and all their names.

[quote=Wiseguy post_id=283949 time=1726847060 user_id=51]
That quote regarding DeLaurentis is suspect too being as the New York families never had 300 members [i]each[/i].

If you look at the figures from the FBI from 1984 to 1999, they only ranged from 41-51 members. Though to be fair, I tried to make a list a while back of members who were alive since 1999 and there were 58 names.
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I estimated 50-60 was their "peak" max up to the 1990s indictments. It was a pretty significant decline after that.

That quote regarding DeLaurentis is suspect too being as the New York families never had 300 members [i]each[/i].

If you look at the figures from the FBI from 1984 to 1999, they only ranged from 41-51 members. Though to be fair, I tried to make a list a while back of members who were alive since 1999 and there were 58 names.

It's tough for me to imagine 30+ made members flying under the radar between the 46 listed by the FBI in 1985 and the 48 listed in 1993 (which also included Rockford members -- who were not part of Chicago). Even if we add the members we know were made at the time, we'd still only be in the 50s. The 1982 FBI chart which had members and "significant" associates only had 70. I think his expression is open to interpretation, though.

So when you say members this is just Italians yes? Cause over the years they’ve had people like gus Alex, humphries etc who are not Italian obviously but you’d say they were members of the outfit

He literally says members. I will post it

Given what we know of Chicago and Nick Calabrese's account, it's also unlikely a newly-made member like DeLaurentis knew the exact number of members and was simply communicating the point that Chicago was smaller than the NYC Families. DeLaurentis may have understood there were more than a few dozen but fewer than 100 and threw an estimate out there to make his basic point.

Unless someone actually has the trial transcripts for this case, which are not on PACER, I don’t know that this can be read as indicating 75 *members* (context and verbatim language used means a lot when parsing evidence like this). The Tribune in 1990 reported that DeLaurentis claimed that there were “75-80 full-time thugs”, but what DeLaurentis actually said is not verbatim reproduced. Assuming that DeLaurentis was referring to members and important associates (Schweihs, Swiatek, Bamboulas, etc), then this would not be out of alignment with the estimated range of 50-60 members based on the 1985 list:

[img]https://theblackhand.club/forum/ext/dmzx/imageupload/files/a780547b9751f943addbdf18c12bfc54.jpeg[/img]

Never heard of that. Where can someone read it?

He was telling that to BJ Johoda and saying how even though the NY Families had hundreds of members Chicago was better ran

According to a wiretaps of Solly Delaurentis in 1989 they had roughly 75

[quote=pat_marcy post_id=283880 time=1726780877 user_id=8498]
If I want to ask any further questions what forum is the best to do it in? Or best forum to go through for its history and making ceremonies etc
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For Chicago? Here and a couple other threads. Good luck with all the pages lol

If I want to ask any further questions what forum is the best to do it in? Or best forum to go through for its history and making ceremonies etc

Thanks for the information Tony. Really appreciate that mate.

[quote=NorthBuffalo post_id=283838 time=1726756396 user_id=8087]
Anyways, back to real information that matters to people who follow these threads - would be interested for anyone's perspective on The Park Boys or what loanshark ring the Giuliano's were connected to within the late 1990s.
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Im aware of the Giuliano brothers’ bust in the late 90s but don’t have any further info apart from what you’ve seen already. I can say that I was told by someone within the last couple of years, not a guy from Chicago, that one of the Giuliano brothers is reputed to be affiliated with the “Cicero crew”, but as this individual is not affiliated with Chicago, he was not in the position to verify that info.

Mike Sarno was reputed to have been a Park Boy as well. Park Boys was an Italian club that started around 15th and Austin in Cicero; they also had a chapter in Berwyn. Heavily active in the 70s, closely allied with the Players and the Noble Knights; they began to decline as a street presence in the 90s. The Giulianos and Billy LaPiana, who you posted about, were a later generation of members than guys like Sarno. Billy LaPiana died in 2007. I believe that his father, John LaPiana, is a first cousin of Detroit outfit member Anthony LaPiana (the LaPianas were a Calabrian family from Taylor St that moved out to the burbs in the 60s).