This was posted at least a dozen times in the past but it seems that we need to do it again...regarding the traditional inductions....
...now, we dont know for sure if the Chicago Outfit from its formation or beginning was making people in the traditional way or the Sicilian way, with burning photos of saints and pouring blood from their fingers etc., but we can presume that Al Capone was probably made in the old fashioned way by the New York Sicilian Mafia and the ten members which were allegedly made by his own hand, were probably made in the same way, again under the jurisdiction of the Mafia on the east coast.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... pone_ricca
Since during that period the Capone Mob was considered as a crew for the Masseria clan in Chicago, it is also possible that the whole tradition lasted for some time and later possibly transformed to some extent, or until the moment Capone became the boss of the Mafia in Chicago and realized his power of making new members. In plane words, Capone possibly simplified the whole process of making new members by eliminating the traditional elements such as pricking fingers and burning paper, but instead he only preserved the oath of silence and hardcore devotion to the crime family, and this information allegedly comes from one long time made member of the Outfit known as Louis Fratto. So we also know about sponsors like Sam Giancana being sponsored by Louis Campagna and Frank Nitto in 1939
(
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... s%20prison), or even Dominick Blasi who was allegedly sponsored by one Outfit capo known as James Belcastro in 1945, and story goes that he was also not made in the whole traditional way , which later ill explain it (
http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_143.html). So this possibly lasted until the late 1950's, and during the next period, the whole oath taking ceremony was completely nixed by the new Chicago leaders because of one simple reason. Now I'll try to also explain why and what was the main reason.
This document is from 1963, and one secret informant known only as T-4 indicates that he wasn’t aware of any ritual or taking an oath regarding the membership for the Chicago “family”. He also indicates that one member is sponsored by a district boss or someone from higher stature and then, the new member was simply placed under the payroll of the same boss from whom he worked for. Another interesting thing is that this same informant was aware of all the money flow within the syndicate, especially that one half of the proceedings went “out West”, meaning the top administration from the West Side, and the rest went to the made guy and his district boss.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 9&tab=page
Another document and informant from 1963, states the same thing, meaning he wasn’t aware of any oaths or rituals during making ceremonies. Even though this might be the same previous informant, here we can see that he was close to Chuck English and that the informant’s father was a member of the old Capone organization and possible member of Cosa Nostra. The informant was also aware that his father wasn’t telling him everything, still he felt that with his childhood and current association with Chicago’s criminal element, he would’ve heard regarding some rituals or oaths.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 3&tab=page (page 3 and 4)
My point here is that none of the informants ever said something about burning papers or pricking fingers or any kind of Sicilian type of ritual, but instead only one of them mentioned taking an oath of secrecy previous of 1957. I think that this can also be backed by one 1976, New York Times article in which one Peter Diapoulas, an alleged close associate of Joey Gallo, a made member of the NY Mafia during the late 1950's, said that the late mobster has told him that the burning paper custom was no longer used and that a new member just swore to an oath of silence (
http://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/21/archi ... ilies.html). The other interesting thing is that in 1957 the books were allegedly closed by the top Mafia commission and no new members were brought in, although they allegedly went along with a few initiations during the 19 or 20 year period of closing the books, but only when it was absolutely necessary, and this was allegedly only for the east coast families.
So if the east coast families closed books in 1957, than that’s the same year when Sam Giancana was elevated to a boss position of the Chicago family, and many evidences point out that Giancana didnt care about the secrecy of taking an oath or any kind of formal initiation, but instead he simply brought new members into the organization by giving them assignments or tasks. According to this next document from 1967 I believe states that there were no formal ceremonies during that period and that one candidate was tested in different ways by giving him various tasks, occasionally contract killings. Later that same candidate appeared before the Outfit’s top leadership which were aware of his background and further questioned him and even possibly gave him few more additional tasks if it was needed. If the candidate was accepted, in the end he was told that he was “in” or “made”. In addition it is also possible that Dominick Blasi was made in the similar way back in the mid 1940's which again shows the continuance of the simplified method. In the end, the informants also advised that even if someone was shelved or retired, still that same member can be called upon by the top leadership at any given time.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 1&tab=page
So my next point is that the whole nixing of the traditional initiation ceremonies within the Chicago family went on a higher level mostly because the books were closed by the Cosa Nostra “central station” on the east coast at the time, additionally backed with the possible transformation of the whole induction process because of the government heat. In fact Giancana did the same thing, out of the same reason which occurred back during the 1940's. This means that during the closure period, the rest of the crime families, especially the ones from around the Midwest, had to choose on their own if they wanted to keep the traditional way or not. Obviously the Chicago faction chose to continue with the non-traditional way of making people, until the late 1970’s. Here’s one document which shows how one Chicago Outfit big shot known as Joey DiVarco advised one alleged new candidate that he was about to be proposed for membership in near future since the books were closed for long time but were about to be re-opened and that an initiation ceremony was going to take place. Proof for that is during that period, or should I say 1976 or 77 (the New York experts can correct me on this), the books were allegedly re-opened again and possibly the traditional way of making new members was brought back in effect within the Chicago crime family to some extent or maybe even the whole thing.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... o_ceremony
So it is possible that when the books were re-opened, the Chicago family was forced to adopt the whole traditional Sicilian way with burning cards and pricking fingers. Proof for that might be the wiretapped conversation between Frank Calabrese Sr. and his son Frank jr., which occurred during the famous Family Secrets Operation and during their chatting Frank sr. said something like “Their fingers got cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down. Then they take pictures, put them in your hand, burn them. Holy pictures" (
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ ... hopped-dad). So if Frank Calabrese was made in 1983 by the boss Joey Aiuppa and the acting adviser Al Tornabene, than this confirms my previous statement. This was also confirmed by another informant who came out six years later and was known as William Jahoda. According to him, one Outfit guy known as Rocco Infelice once told him that they (The Outfit) were making people in the "old way", meaning the Sicilian way. So this possibly means that all of the ceremonies which took place during the 1980's were made in the old style.
Sorry guys for all of the edits but i later noticed that none of the links were working
