Older photo of Chris Guiliano (right) who was mentioned in this 2002 Chicago Sun-Times story as being juice loan collector alongside his brother Thomas in Schaumburg and were indicted in 1999 by the Feds. They are originally from Berwyn and members of the Park Boys street gang that was loosely affiliated with 12th street players - the two others in the photo are well-known Park Boys who are deceased (Billy Lapiana and Matt Pantone).
I've not managed to find any of the court cases their indictments were linked to. My source says at least one is a biker gang type these days. Tom Giuliano was a business agent for a year with a mobbed-up local.
Just listening to Nadu on YouTube and he was saying Chicago has 30 odd made guys and no one under 50. Is this true?
Chicago at its peak was always a top family. Bigger and better than New York (in my humble opinion) so seems mind blowing to me they could go from that to a remnant of what they once were given how strong they were and how much power they once held
pat_marcy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:40 am
Just listening to Nadu on YouTube and he was saying Chicago has 30 odd made guys and no one under 50. Is this true?
Chicago at its peak was always a top family. Bigger and better than New York (in my humble opinion) so seems mind blowing to me they could go from that to a remnant of what they once were given how strong they were and how much power they once held
The Outfit probably doesn't even have half that many made guys at this point. The youngest identified member is Michael Magnafichi who is in his early 60's.
Real success story for the FBI then to weaken them so much ain’t it. With the power they had you’d expect them to be at least functional in this day and age. Then again I suppose somewhere where being Italian doesn’t necessarily mean as much as it does elsewhere then it was always inevitable it would fade away like it has
Anyways, back to real information that matters to people who follow these threads - would be interested for anyone's perspective on The Park Boys or what loanshark ring the Giuliano's were connected to within the late 1990s.
pat_marcy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 5:25 am
Real success story for the FBI then to weaken them so much ain’t it. With the power they had you’d expect them to be at least functional in this day and age. Then again I suppose somewhere where being Italian doesn’t necessarily mean as much as it does elsewhere then it was always inevitable it would fade away like it has
They just made too few guys and had too many busts and deaths in the 1990s. No doubt that they are drastically reduced in manpower and influence. What remains seems to be centered in the western suburbs but there is probably some enclaves of activity in other traditional Outfit areas (Chinatown, Grand Avenue in the "Cozzo compound" area, etc.)
pat_marcy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 1:40 am
Just listening to Nadu on YouTube and he was saying Chicago has 30 odd made guys and no one under 50. Is this true?
Chicago at its peak was always a top family. Bigger and better than New York (in my humble opinion) so seems mind blowing to me they could go from that to a remnant of what they once were given how strong they were and how much power they once held
I don't think there's any way of verifying his claim unless his source is a high ranking member, which is pretty unlikely. Mike Sarno reportedly made some guys and it's possible that others have been made since. The current total membership would be a guess with a range between 10 and 35. I lean between 10 and 20 in my estimate, so 30+ would be on the high side. Whatever the case, I admit this is a very rough estimate and that I could be way off.
Strange one. I’m trying to think how big they were at their peak. In one of roemers books he has a chart with loads of names don’t it and there must be a few hundreds names in it. To go from that to 10-20 guys is some going.
Would it be harder to find any other guys who are in the loop that aren’t made? As Chicago has a lot of top guy over the years that weren’t Italian ain’t they
pat_marcy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 19, 2024 11:04 am
Strange one. I’m trying to think how big they were at their peak. In one of roemers books he has a chart with loads of names don’t it and there must be a few hundreds names in it. To go from that to 10-20 guys is some going.
Would it be harder to find any other guys who are in the loop that aren’t made? As Chicago has a lot of top guy over the years that weren’t Italian ain’t they
That included associates and even guys who I'd stretch to call associates. I think a hard peak estimate is difficult to determine since they vastly overstated the membership numbers in the 50s and 60s. I'd say 75 to 100 is a reasonable estimate. They were down to 50 to 60 (official count in 1984 was 46, but the list left off several guys we knew were made at the time) by the 80s at the very end of their peak.
