by PolackTony » Wed Jun 04, 2025 9:55 pm
Camo wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 8:40 pm
That makes sense. Crazy how much of our understanding (thanks to you guys) has changed over the years. I remember when it was always Felix Alderisio on Charts from 67-71 i believe.
The “rate limiting factor” here, as always, is the availability of informant sources and the quality of the same (not all sources are created equal with respect to a secret society, and Chicago put a deadly serious premium on the “secret” part of the equation; LCN member sources are obviously the gold standard here, while some associates were positioned such that they had varying degrees of access and insight into the organization itself).
For many years, I believed the Alderisio thing, because it’s what people had written before. I read it as a kid, and never saw any reason to question it years later. Claims like this are published, and they become sedimented as “fact”, repeated again and again by anyone writing after the original proponent of the claim. Once one starts taking on the received wisdom of this subject through a critical lens, many such assumed “facts” wind up being either false, or based on rather flimsy evidence and reasoning.
In 1969, LA outfit member CI Frank Bompensiero reported to the FBI following a meeting that he had with Alderisio and Jimmy Fratianno. The meeting could be held so that Alderisio could query Fratianno about his affiliation and resolve the matter for the Chicago admin. Per Fratianno, when Giancana was still Chicago boss, he had told Fratianno that he was transferring his membership to Chicago, but this transfer wasn’t properly ratified with the LA admin and was not subsequently recognized as valid by LA boss Nick Licata (Fratianno had claimed at the 1969 meeting that he was to have reported directly to Giancana, rather than to a capodecina, a claim that Alderisio challenged, stating that he himself had been a soldier reporting directly to Giancana and had heard of no such arrangement for Fratianno). Bompensiero reported that as of this meeting, so far as he was aware, Alderisio still retained the rank of soldier (presumably, the FBI had specifically queried Bompensiero on this point, as they had believed Alderisio to have had some administrative rank), but was participating on Chicago’s “Consiglio” (we know that in other Families that used a Consiglio, a soldier could indeed sit on one). Bompensiero further related that after Giancana fled the US in 1966, he was demoted to soldier and succeeded by Battaglia. Following the latter’s subsequent imprisonment, Accardo and Ricca were serving as heads of the Family with the assistance of the Consiglio. No mention was made of Cerone here and if Cerone had in fact been boss, whether acting or official, during this time, I would strongly presume that guys like Bompensiero and Fratianno would have been aware of this.
This isn’t to say that Bompensiero was infallible, of course, but this account is our “gold standard” for this question as Bompensiero was a veteran LCN member with deep and extensive contacts with members in Families across the US and as such was an invaluable informant for the FBI (even member sources are not all created equal in terms of the information they are privy to). Apart from reporting, in this case, directly from a meeting with Alderisio, where Alderisio was acting at the behest of Chicago’s Consiglio, Bompensiero was also a longtime close friend of Chicago captain Frank LaPorte and Johnny Roselli, then a soldier reporting to LaPorte. Bompensiero was so close to Chicago that the Feds even mistakenly listed him as a Chicago member on one list. He continued to report Chicago-related intel to the FBI over the subsequent years, also serving as the member sources who confirmed for us that Aiuppa was made official boss around 1975.
Alderisio was then himself indicted and arrested in 1969 in a raid by Federal LE and imprisoned two months later, dying of a heart attack almost exactly two years into his term, in September of 1971. It is evident that he was never boss and probably never held any administrative rank. From the outside looking in, this may not have been clear, however, as Alderisio — by his own account — had been a soldier direct with the boss and then subsequently seems to have been a soldier taking part in the Consiglio; the sort of guy who, if one didn’t have access to the formal mafia organization, would certainly have seemed to have been “a boss”. Not all guys with the rank of soldier are created equal either.
[quote=Camo post_id=295087 time=1749094840 user_id=398]
That makes sense. Crazy how much of our understanding (thanks to you guys) has changed over the years. I remember when it was always Felix Alderisio on Charts from 67-71 i believe.
[/quote]
The “rate limiting factor” here, as always, is the availability of informant sources and the quality of the same (not all sources are created equal with respect to a secret society, and Chicago put a deadly serious premium on the “secret” part of the equation; LCN member sources are obviously the gold standard here, while some associates were positioned such that they had varying degrees of access and insight into the organization itself).
For many years, I believed the Alderisio thing, because it’s what people had written before. I read it as a kid, and never saw any reason to question it years later. Claims like this are published, and they become sedimented as “fact”, repeated again and again by anyone writing after the original proponent of the claim. Once one starts taking on the received wisdom of this subject through a critical lens, many such assumed “facts” wind up being either false, or based on rather flimsy evidence and reasoning.
In 1969, LA outfit member CI Frank Bompensiero reported to the FBI following a meeting that he had with Alderisio and Jimmy Fratianno. The meeting could be held so that Alderisio could query Fratianno about his affiliation and resolve the matter for the Chicago admin. Per Fratianno, when Giancana was still Chicago boss, he had told Fratianno that he was transferring his membership to Chicago, but this transfer wasn’t properly ratified with the LA admin and was not subsequently recognized as valid by LA boss Nick Licata (Fratianno had claimed at the 1969 meeting that he was to have reported directly to Giancana, rather than to a capodecina, a claim that Alderisio challenged, stating that he himself had been a soldier reporting directly to Giancana and had heard of no such arrangement for Fratianno). Bompensiero reported that as of this meeting, so far as he was aware, Alderisio still retained the rank of soldier (presumably, the FBI had specifically queried Bompensiero on this point, as they had believed Alderisio to have had some administrative rank), but was participating on Chicago’s “Consiglio” (we know that in other Families that used a Consiglio, a soldier could indeed sit on one). Bompensiero further related that after Giancana fled the US in 1966, he was demoted to soldier and succeeded by Battaglia. Following the latter’s subsequent imprisonment, Accardo and Ricca were serving as heads of the Family with the assistance of the Consiglio. No mention was made of Cerone here and if Cerone had in fact been boss, whether acting or official, during this time, I would strongly presume that guys like Bompensiero and Fratianno would have been aware of this.
This isn’t to say that Bompensiero was infallible, of course, but this account is our “gold standard” for this question as Bompensiero was a veteran LCN member with deep and extensive contacts with members in Families across the US and as such was an invaluable informant for the FBI (even member sources are not all created equal in terms of the information they are privy to). Apart from reporting, in this case, directly from a meeting with Alderisio, where Alderisio was acting at the behest of Chicago’s Consiglio, Bompensiero was also a longtime close friend of Chicago captain Frank LaPorte and Johnny Roselli, then a soldier reporting to LaPorte. Bompensiero was so close to Chicago that the Feds even mistakenly listed him as a Chicago member on one list. He continued to report Chicago-related intel to the FBI over the subsequent years, also serving as the member sources who confirmed for us that Aiuppa was made official boss around 1975.
Alderisio was then himself indicted and arrested in 1969 in a raid by Federal LE and imprisoned two months later, dying of a heart attack almost exactly two years into his term, in September of 1971. It is evident that he was never boss and probably never held any administrative rank. From the outside looking in, this may not have been clear, however, as Alderisio — by his own account — had been a soldier direct with the boss and then subsequently seems to have been a soldier taking part in the Consiglio; the sort of guy who, if one didn’t have access to the formal mafia organization, would certainly have seemed to have been “a boss”. Not all guys with the rank of soldier are created equal either.