According to different sources from that same time period, there was allegedly some rivalry between Ferriola and LaPietra or maybe Ferriola was in some sort of trouble with the top admin or something like that...you see, previously Torello inherited the old and quite large Buccieri crew which was in charge of Cicero, South Side, parts from the West and North Side areas and also Chinatown, thus giving Torello the status of a major capo. It seems that by 1977 the old South Side Mob was finished and so the less powerful old time boss of Chinatown, Frank Caruso took a step back or retired and so Torello's crew members the LaPietra bros took over the area and absorbed Caruso's remaining members, while Torello's top lieutenant Ferriola remained in Cicero and around the South Side.Frank wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 12:37 pm When It comes to Ferriola, I always consider a newspaper article I read a couple of years ago. It was from about 78-79. It states that Cerone promoted Ferriola to a position of overseeing all Outfit gambling, making him the # 3 man in the Outfit.Aiuppa was out of action dealing with old age problems.
So when Torello died in 1979, story goes that his rightful successor Ferriola was pushed down or demoted by the top admin for some unknown reasons (unsanctioned murder maybe?) and they gave LaPietra the job as the boss of Chinatown and whole South Side. Previously the LaPietra bros also had their headquarters and interests in Cicero and so it is possible that Angelo took the position of the late Torrelo as major capo and Ferriola fell under him as a crew or a district boss in Cicero OR became a separate crew...
When Angelo got indicted in 1983/84, thats when Ferriola became the top guy of the old Buccieri/Torello crew (remember the pic with Carlisi from the mid 80s), and so from that point on Angelo's brother Jimmy either acted as separate capo of the Chinatown area OR he simply fell under or was represented by Ferriola which is again quite questionable situation but who knows...after all Chinatown's Monteleone later inherited all of the areas which were previously controlled by the old Torello crew, including the long time desired Heights area (after the imprisonment of Palermo, Guzzino and Morgano the old Heights crew was finished forever), and so later he became the top guy, just saying... so maybe they still continued to operate as one large group for at least some time, meaning the Cicero and Chinatown crews, but right now we are still collecting evidences to back this up...Petes example on Nick Ferriola and Frank Sr is also a good one...
Also Pete is right again since even though Aiuppa had many health problems and stayed in many hospitals during his reign as boss of the Outfit, still he never relinquished his power and guys like Alex's brother Sam or Ortenzi, Carlisi and Buonomo, all acted as his personal messengers between him, Cerone, Accardo and Alex...
