General Mob Questions

[Proletarian187]

The photo is sometimes used on some sites (with no sources) to illustrate articles about the so call "Famiglia Vagabonda", a Black Hand group active in Fairmont West Virginia. There is a awful article about it on wikipedia (but withouth the pic) where they actually mixed-up several groups active there.

Anyway, I already try to look if it was reallly them on this pic but never manage to find out

Interesting. Thank you.

The mystery deepens, I did always think they look very cowboy-ish, (a lot of people did back then tho) but still assumed it was from Sicily. West Virginia was NOT on my shortlist.

[Manf]

Have any members in Chicago or other parts of the country ever actually referred to called the family as Outfit or the Chicago Outfit or has it always been a media/law enforcement thing?

[PolackTony]

Have any members in Chicago or other parts of the country ever actually referred to called the family as Outfit or the Chicago Outfit or has it always been a media/law enforcement thing?

It’s not made up by the press or LE. We have member and associate sources that referred to the Chicago Family as “the outfit” since the 1960s, and the use clearly predated that time. But Chicago guys also used this term interchangeably with other terms like “the Family”, “the life”, “our people”, and “mafia”. LE and the press I believe were responsible for solidifying “outfit” as *the term* used for the Chicago mob, picking it up and amplifying it.

Also worth noting that that “the outfit” was in no way specific to Chicago either. It was used around the US by affiliates of many LCN Families in the same way: to denote a specific Family (“he was with the Bonanno outfit”), as well as a synonym for “Cosa Nostra” or “mafia” to denote the entire LCN phenomenon as a collective (“outfit guys from New York and Chicago ran things in Vegas”). I have documented many instances of its use among affiliates of Families all across the Midwest (e.g., Detroit guys actually mainly called their organization “the outfit”, not “The Partnership”, a term almost totally propagated by the press, etc.), to Los Angeles, Tampa, New England (e.g., informants like Whitey Bulger and Vinnie Teresa referred to the Parriarca Family as “the outfit”), and the NYC area (e.g., Genovese member George Barone repeatedly referred to his Family as “the outfit”, while Sam DeCavalcante was recorded using it frequently to refer to his own and NYC Families).

So, yes, it was in fact an insider term used by Chicago affiliates to refer to both LCN as a whole as well as their own specific Family. But the idea that this term solely and specifically denoted the Chicago mafia organization is a consequence of the ways that it got picked up and amplified by LE and the press.

[B.]

"Outfit" was also commonly used to refer to crews or groups of associates as well. It's an obvious and common euphemism for any organized group of individuals with no formal significance unto itself. You'll even see a legitimate business referred to as an "outfit".

The idea that a Family is different because someone referred to it as an "outfit" is like saying a Family is different because people sometimes called it a "borgata".

[JeremyTheJew]

How active was Robert Pellegrino???

He was in kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey.

https://youtu.be/umEgLp88eaQ?si=42zQkY41R9qwwaej

[johnny_scootch]

How active was Robert Pellegrino???

He was in kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey.

https://youtu.be/umEgLp88eaQ?si=42zQkY41R9qwwaej

He was a bookmaker around the Genovese family, he made a nice living from it.

[JeremyTheJew]

How active was Robert Pellegrino???

He was in kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey.

https://youtu.be/umEgLp88eaQ?si=42zQkY41R9qwwaej

He was a bookmaker around the Genovese family, he made a nice living from it.

Not the bonanno??

[johnny_scootch]

Not the bonanno??

No, that’s the son Peter Pasta he was around Jerry Asaro.

[DonPeppino386]

Two Questions for the Outfit experts here:

1. Did the crews have there own leaders who reported to the capos? For example the Calabrese crew. Frank Sr. was def the leader but was Angelo LaPietra the overall leader and frank just the one who dispersed the information to the rest of the crew?

2. Did Each area only have one crew or did they have more than one?

[B.]

Two Questions for the Outfit experts here:

1. Did the crews have there own leaders who reported to the capos? For example the Calabrese crew. Frank Sr. was def the leader but was Angelo LaPietra the overall leader and frank just the one who dispersed the information to the rest of the crew?

2. Did Each area only have one crew or did they have more than one?

Chicago is like every Family in that they had a capodecina, an acting capodecina, and made members sometimes carried more weight than other members and were used as liaisons/points of contact, plus made members directed their own crews of associates like members everywhere.

Though there was a geographic identity to decine in Chicago there was also geographic crossover much as we see in other cities.

[Camo]

I'm reading a book about the Corleonesi right now and came across this passage:

There was more mourning for Buscetta. In quick succession, his son-in-law was killed and then, at the Palermo pizzeria where they worked, his brother and his nephew. The killers spared Buscetta’s daughter, who was sitting at the till. Finally, on the Fort Lauderdale beach in Florida, killers believed to have come from New York shot dead, as he lay sunbathing, an old friend who had served as the best man at Buscetta’s second wedding.

Who was his friend killed in Florida and is there a theory on who the supposed NY killers were?

[motorfab]

I'm reading a book about the Corleonesi right now and came across this passage:

There was more mourning for Buscetta. In quick succession, his son-in-law was killed and then, at the Palermo pizzeria where they worked, his brother and his nephew. The killers spared Buscetta’s daughter, who was sitting at the till. Finally, on the Fort Lauderdale beach in Florida, killers believed to have come from New York shot dead, as he lay sunbathing, an old friend who had served as the best man at Buscetta’s second wedding.

Who was his friend killed in Florida and is there a theory on who the supposed NY killers were?

Buscetta's two friends killed in Florida in 1983 were Giuseppe Tramontana and Giuseppe Romano. They were associated with Buscetta in heroin trafficking and alien smuggling, notably with Frank Cotroni and Guido Orsini of Montreal.

Fortunato Inzone of the Cherry Hill Crew was arrested but not charged

[Camo]

Thanks a lot motorfab.

[motorfab]

Thanks a lot motorfab.

You're welcome! For the record I edited my post with an article on Inzone (I tell you because we posted it at the same time )

[Camo]

Thanks a lot motorfab.

You're welcome! For the record I edited my post with an article on Inzone (I tell you because we posted it at the same time )

Thanks again dude. I find all this stuff fascinating but i'm also struggling to wrap my head around some of it. What was a Cherry Hill Gambino doing killing on the orders of the Corleonesi considering John Gambino's relatives had just been chased out of Sicily by them? Or was this unrelated?

The book clearly portrays it as connected to the killings of Buscetta's friends and relatives, that he was the reason for it. It also portrays Buscetta as one of Inzerillo's closest allies up to his death so i don't understand Buscetta and the Cherry Hill Gambino's being in a "power struggle" with each other.

But that could be wrong. Buscetta may even have incorrectly portrayed it that way. Dude was a great witness but he also seems like one of the most comically arrogant people i've ever read about. He portrayed himself as by far the most charismatic Mafioso who everyone looked up to, said if he decided to stay in Sicily instead of going back to Brazil (which Bontade, Inzerillo or Badalamenti can't remember which begged him to do apparently) he would have defeated them with ease. Only the great Buscetta would've been able to take down the Peasants all the other Mafioso who were mowed down were just not comparable to the Almighty Buscetta. Yeah bullshit, Pino Greco would've killed him like everyone else lol.

The Italian prosecutor that Calogero DiMaria was involved in the killing of must have been Dalla Chiese right? There's an anecdote in the book that Pino Greco was so pissed that an unnamed person did the actual killing that he pointed his pistol at him multiple times. That may be untrue as i'm not sure the source (guessing some Pentito later) but if so i wonder if it could have been DiMaria, i know i'd want to flee if i thought Greco was pissed at me.

Lastly, that Salvatore Rina is not related to Salvatore Riina is he? I know B. mentioned that Tom Reina and Salvatore Riina are distantly related and that Riina is a different spelling of Reina, so could see Rina being another. But i'm guessing it's just a coincidence?