General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Newyorkempire]

It's actually "amigo", given that it's Portuguese.

Who speaks Portuguese?? Wtf

[PolackTony]

It's actually "amigo", given that it's Portuguese.

Who speaks Portuguese?? Wtf

It’s a reference to Fish Cafaro who for some reason believed that the phrase “amico nostro” was of Portuguese derivation.

[Newyorkempire]

It's actually "amigo", given that it's Portuguese.

Who speaks Portuguese?? Wtf

It’s a reference to Fish Cafaro who for some reason believed that the phrase “amico nostro” was of Portuguese derivation.

That's embarrassing

[Antiliar]

I highly doubt any of the 'only a made guy can introduce another made guy' stuff ever existed there.

From Nicky Calabrese’s testimony:

It's amico not amigo so this testimony transcript is totally worthless

That's not how it works. A one letter mistake doesn't cancel out an entire document. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is an overreaction and it's not how research is done. Almost every court transcript has mistakes, whether it's a typo from the court reporter by hitting the wrong key or not knowing how to spell a word, or a witness not pronouncing a word correctly. You have to accept that reality and work around it by being familiar with the subject and carefully reading the context.

[Newyorkempire]

I highly doubt any of the 'only a made guy can introduce another made guy' stuff ever existed there.

From Nicky Calabrese’s testimony:

It's amico not amigo so this testimony transcript is totally worthless

That's not how it works. A one letter mistake doesn't cancel out an entire document. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is an overreaction and it's not how research is done. Almost every court transcript has mistakes, whether it's a typo from the court reporter by hitting the wrong key or not knowing how to spell a word, or a witness not pronouncing a word correctly. You have to accept that reality and work around it by being familiar with the subject and carefully reading the context.

So was the transfer by an agent the issue though? I'm not believing that Nick Calabrese thought it was Portuguese

[Coloboy]

Excellent post, Coloboy.

The only major addition/amendment is that Chicago is confirmed to have had a formal consiglio (council), a body found in the Sicilian mafia and most early US Families that included the administration, select captains, and even elder soldiers or former leaders who no longer held official rank in the hierarchy. This body voted on matters of life and death, policy, and other issues relevant to the organization's inner-workings and had an elected chairman or secretary who presided over the consiglio's activities. This wasn't a part of the top-down hierarchy that issued direct orders or involved itself in the standard of chain of command but the hierarchy was nonetheless reflected in the consiglio even though it didn't define it.

People have long been aware of Chicago's "board of directors" or a "panel" but this was confirmed by Frank Bompensiero via Phil Alderisio to be a formal consiglio, the very same body reported by sources in other Families and overseas. Those who sat on the consiglio were thus consiglieri and the chairman/secretary was akin to what we'd call official consigliere in other Families who utilized only one.

A big issue with Chicago exceptionalism and the insistence that Chicago was "different" is that those making these claims very rarely if ever have the comparative framework or broader knowledge of the mafia phenomenon as a whole to make that judgment and are often interpreting/misinterpreting info that is vague to begin with. I say that not as a slight, as it's an overwhelming amount of info to consume, but it takes on a different dimension when someone dismisses actual evidence or tries to force a narrative. Unfortunately those narratives are particularly popular with Chicago.

Thanks, B. Good reminder about the Consiglio or BOD.


I’ve always felt that that is exactly what the famous “last supper” photo shows. The Board of Directors getting together for a meeting.

[Coloboy]

I know most of you have read this 1972 FBI memo, but I find it interesting for one primary reason.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research ... 292973.pdf

Accardo explicitly states that “he will remain top leader of organized crime, and Ricca will not be replaced”

This certainly lends credence to the fact that whatever positions Accardo and Ricca held prior to Aiuppa truly stepping up, were “official” positions. Meaning they were officially recognized as the top authorities in the hierarchy. It certainly seems that prior to his death, Ricca was truly sharing power with Accardo as is often discussed . It seems likely that this was the case for the entire period post Giancana and up until Aiuppa.

I suppose the question remains as to whether Accardos position remained “official “after Aiuppa stepped up.

[PolackTony]

I highly doubt any of the 'only a made guy can introduce another made guy' stuff ever existed there.

From Nicky Calabrese’s testimony:

It's amico not amigo so this testimony transcript is totally worthless

That's not how it works. A one letter mistake doesn't cancel out an entire document. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is an overreaction and it's not how research is done. Almost every court transcript has mistakes, whether it's a typo from the court reporter by hitting the wrong key or not knowing how to spell a word, or a witness not pronouncing a word correctly. You have to accept that reality and work around it by being familiar with the subject and carefully reading the context.

So was the transfer by an agent the issue though? I'm not believing that Nick Calabrese thought it was Portuguese

It’s a transcript of trial testimony, recorded by a court stenographer. It has all sorts of spelling errors like this. Calabrese probably pronounced it as something like “amigo”, given that in much of Southern Italy, voiceless velar plosives ([k]) in Standard Italian are pronounced as voiced velar plosives ([g]) in “dialect” pronunciations, which is what influences how most Italian-Americans pronounce things. Unless the stenographer was an Italian speaker themselves, they presumably wouldn’t have known that the word is spelled “amico”.

[PolackTony]

I know most of you have read this 1972 FBI memo, but I find it interesting for one primary reason.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research ... 292973.pdf

Accardo explicitly states that “he will remain top leader of organized crime, and Ricca will not be replaced”

This certainly lends credence to the fact that whatever positions Accardo and Ricca held prior to Aiuppa truly stepping up, were “official” positions. Meaning they were officially recognized as the top authorities in the hierarchy. It certainly seems that prior to his death, Ricca was truly sharing power with Accardo as is often discussed . It seems likely that this was the case for the entire period post Giancana and up until Aiuppa.

I suppose the question remains as to whether Accardos position remained “official “after Aiuppa stepped up.

CG 7016 was Ralph Pierce (thanks to Ed Valin). So while he was not a member, still an important associate who had a good idea as to how the organization actually worked.

There’s no doubt that they were holding the joint responsibility of helming the Family until a new boss could be installed. Around 1968, sources told the FBI that Ricca and Accardo had been forced to step out of “retirement” to serve as co-acting bosses due to the leadership crisis that ensued when Giancana fled the country and then Battaglia was imprisoned. One source in this period told the Feds that Ricca and Accardo were primarily concerned with preventing the outfit from descending into factional infighting during a leadership vacuum. After Battaglia, Cerone was jailed, then Alderisio was jailed and subsequently died in custody, following by Buccieri, Prio, and LaPorte dying in the early 70s, while Aiuppa was said to she been undergoing serious health issues at this time. One after another, senior, respected guys in the organization were taken out of the running, preventing a new boss from being officially installed. When Ricca also died in this period, it’s unsurprising that he was not replaced in the role that he had been serving, as it was an interim role that him and Accardo had taken due to a serious crisis; it was meant to be temporary and I doubt that either of them had anticipated that they would have had to serve as acting bosses for as long as they did. Once Aiuppa’s health issue passed, Accardo then stepped back again. Accardo’s role as acting boss obviously was not maintained once Aiuppa became the official boss, which was the case by 1975 at the latest.

This has been posted before, but one of the FBI’s sources in this period was Frank Bompensiero, who reported the following in 1969 following a meeting that he had with Alderisio and Fratianno:

[Coloboy]

Thanks, Tony. Good stuff.

One of the things I question is whether Battaglia and Alderisio were ever actually "official" as boss. The intel seems to vary, but some of it points to the fact that Ricca/Accardo were the top of the hierarchy during the entire 66-72 period, and that the others were acting or never actually in the spot to begin with.

For what it's worth, Frank Cullota told a story about waiting outside a meeting to pick up Tony Spilotro where they were either finding out who was named boss, or somehow voting/weighing in on who was going to be boss. He claims Spilotro was not happy at the time that Alderisio had gotten the position. I suppose that's one strike in favor of Milwaukee Phil being "official". Although if you watch Cullota's interviews, he didn't seem to have the best grasp on hierarchy and who was who.

What is your take on Accardo's role 1974-1992?

[Snakes]

Thanks, Tony. Good stuff.

One of the things I question is whether Battaglia and Alderisio were ever actually "official" as boss. The intel seems to vary, but some of it points to the fact that Ricca/Accardo were the top of the hierarchy during the entire 66-72 period, and that the others were acting or never actually in the spot to begin with.

For what it's worth, Frank Cullota told a story about waiting outside a meeting to pick up Tony Spilotro where they were either finding out who was named boss, or somehow voting/weighing in on who was going to be boss. He claims Spilotro was not happy at the time that Alderisio had gotten the position. I suppose that's one strike in favor of Milwaukee Phil being "official". Although if you watch Cullota's interviews, he didn't seem to have the best grasp on hierarchy and who was who.

What is your take on Accardo's role 1974-1992?

Battaglia = acting

Accardo was consigliere or chair of the consiglio (if it still existed by the time of his death). Chicago seemed to have treated the consigliere spot very seriously and not as "number 3" spot like a lot of people consider it. It's a spot on level with the boss that settles disputes and advises. I imagine that Accardo was accorded even more respect as a former boss of the family.

[PolackTony]

Thanks, Tony. Good stuff.

One of the things I question is whether Battaglia and Alderisio were ever actually "official" as boss. The intel seems to vary, but some of it points to the fact that Ricca/Accardo were the top of the hierarchy during the entire 66-72 period, and that the others were acting or never actually in the spot to begin with.

For what it's worth, Frank Cullota told a story about waiting outside a meeting to pick up Tony Spilotro where they were either finding out who was named boss, or somehow voting/weighing in on who was going to be boss. He claims Spilotro was not happy at the time that Alderisio had gotten the position. I suppose that's one strike in favor of Milwaukee Phil being "official". Although if you watch Cullota's interviews, he didn't seem to have the best grasp on hierarchy and who was who.

What is your take on Accardo's role 1974-1992?

Battaglia was sottocapo for Giancana. He wasn’t really on the street for that long after Giancana abandoned ship, so I think it’s likely that he was only acting as of his 1967 pinch. I see no reason to doubt that he would have become official if he hadn’t would up going to prison.

I would not put much weight in what Cullotta said here about Alderisio. In the same report from Bompensiero in 1969 that I copied above, Bomp reported that he understood Alderisio to still have been a soldier at that time. If Alderisio held an admin position by this time, Bomp was unaware of it, which seems pretty unlikely. Given his close personal ties to guys like Frank LaPorte, I’d think that Bomp would have been aware if he was in a meeting with the boss of Chicago, acting or otherwise. Alderisio got sent away later that year, so there isn’t much room for him to have gotten bumped up later. Similarly, in Fratianno’s book, Alderisio is described as a Chicago soldier. At no point is Alderisio claimed to have been a boss. These were member sources who knew Alderisio and had close ties to multiple Chicago members,, so I weight their intel much more highly than an associate.

That Accardo was consigliere seems like it should be uncontroversial by now.

[Coloboy]

I tend to agree with that assessment, Snakes. The role was considered roughly equal with that of boss, and taken seriously. I also believe that this is the role John Difronzo had for a long time, and is the reason we have FBI info concerning Mike Sarno "sharing profits" with him.

@PolackTony- I agree that Accardo being consigliere during that later period isn't controversial, I was more driving at what your opinion was in terms of what that role actually meant in a practical sense. I believe it functioned differently than the consigliere role we know from east coast families. My opinion is that he had the ability to over-rule the boss in certain situations, and that there were certain things (Making someone), that likely had to be stamped by him to go through. There are quite a few 3rd parties, (Ken Eto for one), who explicitly called him the ultimate shot caller at the top of the pyramid, even well into the 1980s. I don't mean to re-hash well trodden territory, so I'll drop it from here!

[Snakes]

I tend to agree with that assessment, Snakes. The role was considered roughly equal with that of boss, and taken seriously. I also believe that this is the role John Difronzo had for a long time, and is the reason we have FBI info concerning Mike Sarno "sharing profits" with him.

@PolackTony- I agree that Accardo being consigliere during that later period isn't controversial, I was more driving at what your opinion was in terms of what that role actually meant in a practical sense. I believe it functioned differently than the consigliere role we know from east coast families. My opinion is that he had the ability to over-rule the boss in certain situations, and that there were certain things (Making someone), that likely had to be stamped by him to go through. There are quite a few 3rd parties, (Ken Eto for one), who explicitly called him the ultimate shot caller at the top of the pyramid, even well into the 1980s. I don't mean to re-hash well trodden territory, so I'll drop it from here!

I think you've already seen it, but I touch on the DiFronzo situation here:
viewtopic.php?t=12325

[B.]

Coloboy -- actually Sicilian pentiti specifically said a function of the consigliere was to provide checks and balances to the boss and veto him if needed. The idea as it was explained was that the boss should be the representative of the Family but not hold absolute authority.

There are definitely US examples as well. Magaddino was recorded saying he didn't want a consigliere as it meant someone aside from the boss spoke on behalf of the Family and could essentially challenge the boss's authority. With the consiglio system like Chicago used, we also have a recording of San Jose consiglio chairman Stefano Zoccoli saying he had the authority to go to the Commission and have the boss Cerrito taken down. Interestingly Zoccoli and Morici of the San Jose consiglio also served as dual acting bosses in Cerrito's absence which brings to mind Accardo and Ricca in the later 1960s.