Snakes wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 5:23 am
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.
This imo bears repeating. I've seen guys over the years say things like The Outfit was as strong as one of the 3 weaker NY families. This never made any sense to me whatsoever...
Snakes wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 5:23 am
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.
This imo bears repeating. I've seen guys over the years say things like The Outfit was as strong as one of the 3 weaker NY families. This never made any sense to me whatsoever...
The Outfit was focused on a little numbers of made men and a large numbers of italian or non-italian associates while the 5 families are focused in the numbers.
The Outfit was powerful due the political connections and the control on Vegas.
Is useless to compare Chicago with NY. They are like apples and oranges.
Don’t forget the Outfit had a crew in East St Louis that was led by Buster Wortman and later Art Berne. They answered directly to the Outfit. That’s as southern Illinois as you can get. On a wiretap Art Berne is heard telling Jesse Stoneking that Trupiano in St Louis answered to Chicago just like them.
Also, as mentioned earlier, they had Fratto in Iowa. It later came out that Fratto was a CI for the feds. In the 1940s the Outfit sent people out to Dallas Tx. From my understanding it didn’t work out. So there was expansion efforts. Some successful and some not. Springfield has always been a mystery. I heard conflicting things about them. That they answered to Chicago and that they didn’t. I also heard that Zito was a last minute pick to go to Appalachia bc someone else canceled. Can’t remember. Might have been Rockford or a Chicago guy.
Rockford has been named in the past as a crew of the Outfit and the FBI has lumped them together multiple times. I think they are separate but who knows if they paid a tax at one time.
Outfit always had their hands in Wisconsin as late as the late 90s and early 2000s when the Cicero crew got busted.
Patrickgold wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 6:14 pm
Don’t forget the Outfit had a crew in East St Louis that was led by Buster Wortman and later Art Berne. They answered directly to the Outfit. That’s as southern Illinois as you can get. On a wiretap Art Berne is heard telling Jesse Stoneking that Trupiano in St Louis answered to Chicago just like them.
Also, as mentioned earlier, they had Fratto in Iowa. It later came out that Fratto was a CI for the feds. In the 1940s the Outfit sent people out to Dallas Tx. From my understanding it didn’t work out. So there was expansion efforts. Some successful and some not. Springfield has always been a mystery. I heard conflicting things about them. That they answered to Chicago and that they didn’t. I also heard that Zito was a last minute pick to go to Appalachia bc someone else canceled. Can’t remember. Might have been Rockford or a Chicago guy.
Rockford has been named in the past as a crew of the Outfit and the FBI has lumped them together multiple times. I think they are separate but who knows if they paid a tax at one time.
Outfit always had their hands in Wisconsin as late as the late 90s and early 2000s when the Cicero crew got busted.
I have an FBI report that stated Augie Maniaci told his FBI handlers, regarding Rockford LCN member Phil Cannella, that "he could not specifically recall what CANNELLA did to warrant membership. He said that it is his recollection that there was some trouble in Southern Illinois regarding some sort of counterfeiting operation which CANNELLA went down and “settled.”" I'm curious as to if this was in relation to any of Wortman's or Berne's dealings. This would have been approximately 1953 or so.
The Apalachin situation was that Rockford boss Tony Musso was dying of cancer and asked Springfield boss Frank Zito to attend on behalf of Rockford.
Patrickgold wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 6:14 pm
Don’t forget the Outfit had a crew in East St Louis that was led by Buster Wortman and later Art Berne. They answered directly to the Outfit. That’s as southern Illinois as you can get. On a wiretap Art Berne is heard telling Jesse Stoneking that Trupiano in St Louis answered to Chicago just like them.
Also, as mentioned earlier, they had Fratto in Iowa. It later came out that Fratto was a CI for the feds. In the 1940s the Outfit sent people out to Dallas Tx. From my understanding it didn’t work out. So there was expansion efforts. Some successful and some not. Springfield has always been a mystery. I heard conflicting things about them. That they answered to Chicago and that they didn’t. I also heard that Zito was a last minute pick to go to Appalachia bc someone else canceled. Can’t remember. Might have been Rockford or a Chicago guy.
Rockford has been named in the past as a crew of the Outfit and the FBI has lumped them together multiple times. I think they are separate but who knows if they paid a tax at one time.
Outfit always had their hands in Wisconsin as late as the late 90s and early 2000s when the Cicero crew got busted.
I have an FBI report that stated Augie Maniaci told his FBI handlers, regarding Rockford LCN member Phil Cannella, that "he could not specifically recall what CANNELLA did to warrant membership. He said that it is his recollection that there was some trouble in Southern Illinois regarding some sort of counterfeiting operation which CANNELLA went down and “settled.”" I'm curious as to if this was in relation to any of Wortman's or Berne's dealings. This would have been approximately 1953 or so.
The Apalachin situation was that Rockford boss Tony Musso was dying of cancer and asked Springfield boss Frank Zito to attend on behalf of Rockford.
If it was in 1953 then it would have been Wortman. He was boss down there until late 60s. The sit down very well could have involved Wortman. Also could have been St Louis or Springfield. If I remember correctly, St Louis and Springfield had a disagreement in the 1940s that turned into some people getting murdered.
