by Coloboy » Wed Oct 16, 2024 12:34 pm
As with most federal indictments, the feds love to say "we wiped out the outfit" with this case. Or "they are on their last legs". There is certainly some truth to that, but it's also overstating the reality.
Family Secrets was a blow no doubt. Objectively they took out....
Jimmy Marcello- Day to day boss. A very motivated and dangerous guy. However, several senior leaders were still on the street. (Difronzo, Andriacchi, Tornabene, and the soon to be released Solly D and Jimmy Inendino). Guys like that can keep the thing in one piece when a boss goes down.
Joey Lombardo- By all accounts, this probably wasn't that critical. Some sources have him as actually being shelved by this time for various reasons. He was a very well known name, and this always felt more like a trophy for the FBI then actually damaging any real rackets that were going on.
Calabrese brothers and a few of their underlings- A small crew within a larger outfit crew (26th st). Frank Sr. was a big earner, and this probably hurt some pocketbooks. But again, they were just soldiers, guys who earned and kicked up.
That's really it. Everyone else was still out there doing their thing. There have been enough smaller indictments since family secrets to tell you that there were plenty of guys that were not publicly known at the time, including most of the cicero crew, the grand ave crew, and some of the Elmwood Park crew.
It was a big case, but did not "end' the outfit. As Snakes said above, the damage to the outfit was much greater with the cases in the 80's and early 90's. Those were the ones that really broke the back of the 800 pound gorilla that controlled vast elements of the cities resources, politics, and judicial system. Those decades were the ones that took the Outfit from that level, to what it is now. A small, niche, criminal group that makes money where they can, but doesn't "control" anything on a large scale.
As with most federal indictments, the feds love to say "we wiped out the outfit" with this case. Or "they are on their last legs". There is certainly some truth to that, but it's also overstating the reality.
Family Secrets was a blow no doubt. Objectively they took out....
Jimmy Marcello- Day to day boss. A very motivated and dangerous guy. However, several senior leaders were still on the street. (Difronzo, Andriacchi, Tornabene, and the soon to be released Solly D and Jimmy Inendino). Guys like that can keep the thing in one piece when a boss goes down.
Joey Lombardo- By all accounts, this probably wasn't that critical. Some sources have him as actually being shelved by this time for various reasons. He was a very well known name, and this always felt more like a trophy for the FBI then actually damaging any real rackets that were going on.
Calabrese brothers and a few of their underlings- A small crew within a larger outfit crew (26th st). Frank Sr. was a big earner, and this probably hurt some pocketbooks. But again, they were just soldiers, guys who earned and kicked up.
That's really it. Everyone else was still out there doing their thing. There have been enough smaller indictments since family secrets to tell you that there were plenty of guys that were not publicly known at the time, including most of the cicero crew, the grand ave crew, and some of the Elmwood Park crew.
It was a big case, but did not "end' the outfit. As Snakes said above, the damage to the outfit was much greater with the cases in the 80's and early 90's. Those were the ones that really broke the back of the 800 pound gorilla that controlled vast elements of the cities resources, politics, and judicial system. Those decades were the ones that took the Outfit from that level, to what it is now. A small, niche, criminal group that makes money where they can, but doesn't "control" anything on a large scale.