Honestly this still remains a big question for me. Does it make sense to refer to Pranno (or Amabile after him) as "capos"? If we assume that a capo in the Outfit was still the equivalent rank of capodecina/caporegime, then one way to read this is that Battaglia, Daddono, and Buccieri were the capos over different Westside/suburban crews. Pranno then was a lieutenant under Battaglia, who functioned as a crew boss/district boss etc. under Battaglia. In LCN terms, Pranno was "just" a "soldier", though in the functional sense of Chicago's structure he acted as a "crew boss" with his own group of made and non-made guys answering to him. In this, Pranno was like Ferriola running the Wild Bunch, where Ferriola was not yet a "capo" in formal Mafia terms, but rather a lieutenant under Torello. Even much later, you have someone like Panozzo running the "P&K crew", but I don't think obviously that it makes any sense to describe Panozzo as a "capo". In the older days, he likely would've been referred to as a "crew boss" or equivalent, while formally being a "soldier" acting as a lieutenant under Vena or Spina as capo.Antiliar wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:48 pm Alderisio and Pranno were both members of Battaglia's crew. Daddono was another capo equal to Battaglia. When Battaglia moved up to acting day-to-day boss, Alderisio moved up to acting crew boss. The last word on promoting Battaglia to acting day-to-day boss was Ricca's, with the advice of Accardo. Battaglia was a good soldier who did what he was told even though he didn't want the job. When he went to prison Cerone was picked to replace him, but his reign was very short. After being sent to prison he learned his lesson and decided he didn't want to be the boss anymore, and when he came out he agreed to be Aiuppa's underboss.
While some of this is semantics, it also points I think to the idiosyncratic ways that the Chicago LCN family fit within the larger structure of the Outfit as the Chicago "Syndicate". Cullotta in the past made the point of stating that in Chicago, made guys were referred to as "bosses". I take this to mean of course that a made guy in the Outfit, while just a "soldier" in terms of formal Mafia ranks, within the context of the Syndicate acted as the boss of a crew and/or district/town. Within this structure, these local or lower level "bosses" reported to their capo, who thus functioned as a territorial or factional boss in Syndicate terms. But the relationship within the "Life" or Chicago Mafia family was still that of capodecina to soldier. Again, for me this underscores the way that the Chicago LCN family functioned as the leadership strata of a criminal organization where a large portion of the rank and file consisted of non-made "Outfit guys".