Why the Chicago Outfit didn't tried to take all the Illinois?

[furiofromnaples]

At the peak of his power the Outfit can easly expand into the other big cities of Illinois like Rockford or Springfield and put satellite crews like the Genoveses in Worchester and Springfield.
Didn't they have enough men? Wasn't it worth ?Or did they prefer to bet on Las Vegas?

[Cheech]

Thats a really good question. Ive always wondered that

[Snakes]

Rockford and Springfield had their own families.

Honestly, there isn't much else in Illinois as the state is pretty rural outside of Chicago and a few larger cities. I figure there was more than enough money to go around in the Chicago metro area and the neighboring counties and suburbs (remember, they also controlled Lake, McHenry, and DuPage Counties as well as Northwest Indiana, which is a pretty big swath of territory for one family).

[PolackTony]

Rockford and Springfield had their own families.

Honestly, there isn't much else in Illinois as the state is pretty rural outside of Chicago and a few larger cities. I figure there was more than enough money to go around in the Chicago metro area and the neighboring counties and suburbs (remember, they also controlled Lake, McHenry, and DuPage Counties as well as Northwest Indiana, which is a pretty big swath of territory for one family).

To put things in perspective, Chicago had the entire metro area of the second largest city in the country, and a major global center of finance and business (as well as the largest concentration of Italian-Americans outside of the NYC-Philly megalopolis), to itself, wherein they exacted street taxes from a wide range of illicit and semi-legitimate businesses as well as ran their own numerous and highly lucrative rackets directly and controlled a vast network of connected businesses, Union locals, etc. If anything, Chicago probably, arguably, had the biggest ratio of territory/operations to organization of any family. As Snakes notes, apart from Rockford, which already had its own family, most of IL apart from Chicagoland is corn and soy fields, and the state’s population and economic activity is very heavily skewed to Chicagoland (the old joke when I was a kid: What’s Illinois without Chicago? Indiana). While there was a smattering of Italians who settled Downstate, there was no regional equivalent to Hartford, Springfield, Trenton, Albany, Utica, Rochester, etc., that had a truly sizeable Italian population and didn’t have an established mafia family. That the farmlands of Downstate Illinois didn’t offer much in the way of incentive for mafia expansion is evidenced by the tiny size and proportionally small scale of operations of the Springfield Outfit.

While, so far as we know, they never had formal decine outside of Chicagoland proper, it’s worth keeping in mind that Chicago had members and operations in WI, IA, SoCal, NV, AZ, FL, and Berrien County, MI (a vacation-community area for Chicago, where the Chicago family probably had an outpost by at least the 1920s). It’s possible that Chicago also had activity in Peoria and, in the early 20th century, at least, in the coal-mining regions of Southern IL that once attracted significant Sicilian worker migration, though neither of these are proven. Further, as I’m sure everyone’s aware, Chicago exercised significant mafia-political influence over the smaller families in its broader regional orbit. When Chicago sought to expand its own operations, they looked West; to Hollywood, Vegas, Tony Pinelli’s array of business and real estate holdings.

[Coloboy]

What PolackTony said 100%

Outside of Chicago, Illinois is mostly farming communities. However, they had extensive operations in other states such as California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, Florida, and also internationally

There is evidence to suggest that as some of their rackets started to dry up in the 70s and 80s in Chicago they actually made a more focused effort to expand outside of Chicago into the places mentioned above.

[furiofromnaples]

Thanks for the answers guys. I doubt the Outfit apart Schiro in Arizona,have the men to expand out Chicago.

[PolackTony]

Should go without saying, but the mafia isn’t an army that sends out battalions of soldiers to conquer territory. They’re not street gangs that fight to defend turf. Chicago had tons of connections, nationally and internationally, which afforded them specific opportunities to exploit advantages in areas outside of Chicago. They weren’t interested in “expanding” in the sense of setting up crews with territorial power to control street rackets in the West. This wasn’t a question of “manpower”. Besides, when they deemed it was necessary, they were plenty capable of using violence outside of Chicago (just ask Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark) to support their interests.

[furiofromnaples]

Should go without saying, but the mafia isn’t an army that sends out battalions of soldiers to conquer territory. They’re not street gangs that fight to defend turf. Chicago had tons of connections, nationally and internationally, which afforded them specific opportunities to exploit advantages in areas outside of Chicago. They weren’t interested in “expanding” in the sense of setting up crews with territorial power to control street rackets in the West. This wasn’t a question of “manpower”. Besides, when they deemed it was necessary, they were plenty capable of using violence outside of Chicago (just ask Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark) to support their interests.

PolackTony,Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark murders was in the 1970s,an another era,now the Outfit wasnt strong,of course had connections but its a small thing respect the 1970s and 1980s.

[PolackTony]

Should go without saying, but the mafia isn’t an army that sends out battalions of soldiers to conquer territory. They’re not street gangs that fight to defend turf. Chicago had tons of connections, nationally and internationally, which afforded them specific opportunities to exploit advantages in areas outside of Chicago. They weren’t interested in “expanding” in the sense of setting up crews with territorial power to control street rackets in the West. This wasn’t a question of “manpower”. Besides, when they deemed it was necessary, they were plenty capable of using violence outside of Chicago (just ask Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark) to support their interests.

PolackTony,Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark murders was in the 1970s,an another era,now the Outfit wasnt strong,of course had connections but its a small thing respect the 1970s and 1980s.

You didn't specify a time period. Are you asking why Chicago hasn't muscled into other cities today? Why they didn't set up entire crews in other cities in the 30s, 40s, 50s? Not sure that I'm clear on where you're going with this.

[furiofromnaples]

Should go without saying, but the mafia isn’t an army that sends out battalions of soldiers to conquer territory. They’re not street gangs that fight to defend turf. Chicago had tons of connections, nationally and internationally, which afforded them specific opportunities to exploit advantages in areas outside of Chicago. They weren’t interested in “expanding” in the sense of setting up crews with territorial power to control street rackets in the West. This wasn’t a question of “manpower”. Besides, when they deemed it was necessary, they were plenty capable of using violence outside of Chicago (just ask Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark) to support their interests.

PolackTony,Tamara Rand or Jay Vandermark murders was in the 1970s,an another era,now the Outfit wasnt strong,of course had connections but its a small thing respect the 1970s and 1980s.

You didn't specify a time period. Are you asking why Chicago hasn't muscled into other cities today? Why they didn't set up entire crews in other cities in the 30s, 40s, 50s? Not sure that I'm clear on where you're going with this.

I wrote "at it peak" So im reffering to the 1930s-1940s when the Outfit had more men than today.

[Antiliar]

I wrote "at it peak" So im reffering to the 1930s-1940s when the Outfit had more men than today.

Like Tony wrote, the Outfit couldn't expand to Rockford and Springfield since there were already Families there, but it did expand elsewhere. In the 1930s it operated in Des Moines, Iowa, under Charles Gioe and then Louie Fratto. It also moved in to Hollywood and worked with the Los Angeles and Genovese Families to extort the big movie studios. The Outfit also controlled an area that included southeast Wisconsin to northeast Indiana. That's a huge area. Later, under Sam Giancana (if not earlier), it expanded internationally to the Bahamas. If I recall correctly, I think at different times the Outfit tried to move some people into the U.K. The family of one of the earliest casinos on the Las Vegas strip said that Al Capone invested in them. The Outfit had a lot of people out in Las Vegas, not just Johnny Rosselli, Marshall Caifano and Tony Spilotro. John Drew is one example. The Outfit also had investments in Reno, Nevada. The Outfit also had people in Southern California like Jasper Matranga, who transferred there, and Anthony Pinelli. Frank Ferraro lived there before he became underboss, and Frank LaPorte of Chicago Heights travelled there a lot. Of course in the 1930s guys like Willie Bioff and Nick Circella moved out there. Later, Tony Accardo moved to the Palm Springs area. So I think a case could be made that the Outfit was the most expansive LCN Family of them all.

[furiofromnaples]

Good answer. Thanks Antiliar. Anyway its nucleare if Frank Zito of Springfield was a boss or an Outfit capo.

[Antiliar]

Frank Zito had been in Springfield since 1920 and never left, so I doubt he led an Outfit crew: https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/columns ... 068008007/

The FBI does name him as the boss during the 1950s/60s: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... AND%20zito

[PolackTony]

As Antiliar notes, the info the we have available names Zito as the boss of his own family in Springfield. To my knowledge, there are no sources who have ever claimed that Chicago had a crew in Springfield or that Zito, or anyone else there, was a Chicago captain.

[Snakes]

Zito was identified as boss of Springfield through his death in the mid 70s