Chicago Outfit Induction Ceremony - Conclusion?!

[Villain]

Me and few other members decided to make this a separate topic from the Chicago crews breakdown thread, and as some of you already know, its regarding the Outfit's induction ceremonies since its one quite debatable topic. So even though the Chicago Outfit always was and still is known for its different structure and membership, while being compared to the rest of the Cosa Nostra crime families, besides that the second most debatable topic regarding America’s Cosa Nostra, especially the Chicago faction, is the ritualistic ceremonies during the induction of new members, which took or are still taking place in various and hidden locations around the country. As most of us known that the traditional Sicilian Mafia ritualistic inductions involves crossed knives and guns on a table, while being lightened with a white candle, and fingers being pricked with a needle and later blood being poured on a picture of some random saint, and in the end everything burns in the new candidate’s hands as he repeats few quite faithful sentences so he can symbolically show his loyalty towards his new “brotherhood” (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... ning_paper). So according to my “not quite long” personal experience on these few forums around the internet, I quickly came to a conclusion that many people think that the Outfit never had any kind of traditional ceremonies but the reality is that these particular information shows that its not completely true.

This is my personal view on the whole situation and everyone is welcome to contribute to the subject.


Now, we dont know for sure if the Chicago Outfit from its formation or beginning was making people in the traditional way or the Sicilian way, with burning photos of saints and pouring blood from their fingers etc., but we can presume that Al Capone was probably made in the old fashioned way by the New York Sicilian Mafia and the ten members which were allegedly made by his own hand, were probably made in the same way, again under the jurisdiction of the Mafia on the east coast. (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... pone_ricca).

Since during that period the Capone Mob was considered as a crew for the Masseria clan in Chicago, it is also possible that the whole tradition lasted for some time and later possibly transformed to some extent, or until the moment Capone became the boss of the Mafia in Chicago and realized his power of making new members. In plane words, Capone possibly simplified the whole process of making new members by eliminating the traditional elements such as pricking fingers and burning paper, but instead he only preserved the oath of silence and hardcore devotion to the crime family, and this information allegedly comes from one long time made member of the Outfit known as Louis Fratto. So we also know about sponsors like Sam Giancana being sponsored by Louis Campagna and Frank Nitto in 1939 (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... s%20prison), or even Dominick Blasi who was allegedly sponsored by one Outfit capo known as James Belcastro in 1945, and story goes that he was also not made in the whole traditional way , which later ill explain it (http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_143.html). So this possibly lasted until the late 1950's, and during the next period, the whole oath taking ceremony was completely nixed by the new Chicago leaders because of one simple reason. Now I'll try to also explain why and what was the main reason.

This document is from 1963, and one secret informant known only as T-4 indicates that he wasn’t aware of any ritual or taking an oath regarding the membership for the Chicago “family”. He also indicates that one member is sponsored by a district boss or someone from higher stature and then, the new member was simply placed under the payroll of the same boss from whom he worked for. Another interesting thing is that this same informant was aware of all the money flow within the syndicate, especially that one half of the proceedings went “out West”, meaning the top administration from the West Side, and the rest went to the made guy and his district boss.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 9&tab=page

Another document and informant from 1963, states the same thing, meaning he wasn’t aware of any oaths or rituals during making ceremonies. Even though this might be the same previous informant, here we can see that he was close to Chuck English and that the informant’s father was a member of the old Capone organization and possible member of Cosa Nostra. The informant was also aware that his father wasn’t telling him everything, still he felt that with his childhood and current association with Chicago’s criminal element, he would’ve heard regarding some rituals or oaths.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 3&tab=page (page 3 and 4)


Now, here comes one detailed information from 1964 and another informant, named T-1, regarding the induction of new members within Chicago’s family and this time, he describes a detailed induction ceremony, where again the future member is usually sponsored by his boss or maybe few couple of friend who were already in “The Life”, also he talks about that same candidate being told a month earlier on where and which time he will be picked up and he also talks about a ceremony where a banquet was held and the new member took an oath of secrecy which included from that same moment, no outsider, nor mother or sister or brother can come before his colleagues in “The Life”. The informant also gave an example which occurred previous of 1963, or should I say in 1956. So, on the next page the informant gives us as an example the induction ceremony of two Outfit members which occurred in 1956, and later he also explains that for one to be member needs to be primary Italian, not Sicilian. In the end he talks about the non-Italians and their stature within the Chicago “family”.


https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 0&tab=page (page 10 and 11)


My point here is that none of the informants ever said something about burning papers or pricking fingers or any kind of Sicilian type of ritual, but instead only one of them mentioned taking an oath of secrecy previous of 1957. I think that this can also be backed by one 1976, New York Times article in which one Peter Diapoulas, an alleged close associate of Joey Gallo, a made member of the NY Mafia during the late 1950's, said that the late mobster has told him that the burning paper custom was no longer used and that a new member just swore to an oath of silence (http://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/21/archi ... ilies.html). The other interesting thing is that in 1957 the books were allegedly closed by the top Mafia commission and no new members were brought in, although they allegedly went along with a few initiations during the 19 or 20 year period of closing the books, but only when it was absolutely necessary, and this was allegedly only for the east coast families.


So if the east coast families closed books in 1957, than that’s the same year when Sam Giancana was elevated to a boss position of the Chicago family, which means that it is quite possible that Giancana no longer cared about the secrecy of taking an oath or any kind of formal initiation, but instead he simply brought new members into the organization by giving them assignments or tasks. According to this next document from 1967 I believe states that there were no formal ceremonies during that period and that one candidate was tested in different ways by giving him various tasks, occasionally contract killings. Later that same candidate appeared before the Outfit’s top leadership which were aware of his background and further questioned him and even possibly gave him few more additional tasks if it was needed. If the candidate was accepted, in the end he was told that he was “in” or “made”. In addition it is also possible that Dominick Blasi was made in the similar way back in the mid 1940's which again shows the continuance of the simplified method. In the end, the informants also advised that even if someone was shelved or retired, still that same member can be called upon by the top leadership at any given time.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 1&tab=page


So my next point is that the whole nixing of the traditional initiation ceremonies within the Chicago family was mostly connected to the closure of the books by the Cosa Nostra “central station” on the east coast, previously backed with the possible transformation of the whole induction because of the government heat. In fact Giancana did the same thing, out of the same reason which occurred back during the 1940's. This means that during the closure period, the rest of the crime families, especially the ones from around the Midwest, had to choose on their own if they wanted to keep the traditional way or not. Obviously the Chicago faction chose not to continue with the traditional way of making people, not until the late 1970’s. Here’s one document which shows how one Chicago Outfit big shot known as Joey DiVarco advised one alleged new candidate that he was about to be proposed for membership in near future since the books were closed for long time but were about to be re-opened and that an initiation ceremony was going to take place. Proof for that is during that period, or should I say 1976 or 77 (the New York experts can correct me on this), the books were allegedly re-opened again and possibly the traditional way of making new members was brought back in effect within the Chicago crime family to some extent or maybe even the whole thing.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... o_ceremony


So it is possible that when the books were re-opened, the Chicago family brought back the whole traditional Sicilian way with burning cards and pricking fingers. Proof for that might be the wiretapped conversation between Frank Calabrese Sr. and his son Frank jr., which occurred during the famous Family Secrets Operation and during their chatting Frank sr. said something like “Their fingers got cut and everybody puts the fingers together and all the blood running down. Then they take pictures, put them in your hand, burn them. Holy pictures" (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ ... hopped-dad). So if Frank Calabrese was made in 1983 by the boss Joey Aiuppa and the acting adviser Al Tornabene, than this confirms my previous statement. This was also confirmed by another informant who came out six years later and was known as William Jahoda. According to him, one Outfit guy known as Rocco Infelice once told him that they (The Outfit) were making people in the "old way", meaning the Sicilian way. So this possibly means that all of the ceremonies which took place during the 1980's were made in the old style.


Now I dont know if the Outfit continued to make people in the old Sicilian way during the next decades, since some sources point out that the top boss from that period John DiFronzo possibly again nixed the old way of making new members, since the Outfit was no longer considered as part of the national Cosa Nostra commission. What are your thoughts on this?

[FriendofFamily]

I think you have part of the Elephant in the room. My dual analogy saying..

You are describing part of the Elephant that you are holding on to..
From the six East Indians each holding a different part of the Elephant -- Trunk, tail, leg, ear, etc. trying to the describe the Elephant based on what they feel...

The other is the Elephant in the room....

[Villain]

You are describing part of the Elephant that you are holding on to..

Thats right and I'll be happy for someone to debunk my theory with facts (not empty statements), same as my previous example, and possibly create a final conclusion. There are a lot of knowledgeable posters around here so lets hear their thoughts...this is about the forum, not personal profits

[FriendofFamily]

You are describing part of the Elephant that you are holding on to..

Thats right and I'll be happy for someone to debunk my theory with facts (not empty statements), same as my previous example, and possibly create a final conclusion. There are a lot of knowledgeable posters around here so lets hear their thoughts...this is about the forum, not personal profits

Oh I definitely AGREE with you. I am saying that you are putting in your part that you have researched so far and others that have research will be joining in with their research and be able to come up with a Conclusion based on the different time frames and who was making the decisions at the time.

[Villain]

You are describing part of the Elephant that you are holding on to..

Thats right and I'll be happy for someone to debunk my theory with facts (not empty statements), same as my previous example, and possibly create a final conclusion. There are a lot of knowledgeable posters around here so lets hear their thoughts...this is about the forum, not personal profits

Oh I definitely AGREE with you. I am saying that you are putting in your part that you have researched so far and others that have research will be joining in with their research and be able to come up with a Conclusion based on the different time frames and who was making the decisions at the time.

Completely agree buddy

[Confederate]

i doubt anybody can refute Villain's research on the "Making Ceremony" subject of Chicago. it is excellent, very logical, and makes complete sense backed with facts. I thought it was funny the way Giancana made fun of the making Ceremony and referred to it as some kind of Boy Scouts thing. LOL

[Villain]

I thought it was funny the way Giancana made fun of the making Ceremony and referred to it as some kind of Boy Scouts thing. LOL

Besides that I think that he was quite aware and had knowledge regarding the whole CN tradition and possibly went through a same or similar induction himself, but the thing was that he was made in 1939 and got out of prison somewhere around 1943 i think. So this means that Giancana became involved in the Outfits top affairs during the time period when the whole top administration was in prison, while half of the police force and whole media were after them. So it is quite reasonable that these guys faced a bigger risk of attending a whole ceremony with soldiers and capos and bosses etc. while burning pictures of saints and singing in Italian, rather than just giving a guy a few complicated and bloody tasks and then simply inform him that he's in or out.

[Snakes]

I thought it was funny the way Giancana made fun of the making Ceremony and referred to it as some kind of Boy Scouts thing. LOL

Did he really say that? I always thought it was some Don/American News Post garbage.

[Confederate]

I thought it was funny the way Giancana made fun of the making Ceremony and referred to it as some kind of Boy Scouts thing. LOL

Did he really say that? I always thought it was some Don/American News Post garbage.

Yeh, I think i remember reading it where he made fun of it and related it to some kind of boy scouts thing.

[Confederate]

@Villain or Snakes,
Are the Mary Ferrell Documents HERE the same as the Mary Ferrell Documents in the Outfit Crew 1920's thread because ONLY the first document is showing up when I click on it?? Something's wrong?

[Snakes]

Depends on where you link to it, I think. Files should be the same.

[Confederate]

Depends on where you link to it, I think. Files should be the same.

No, in this thread when you click on Mary Ferrell Documents (except for the first one) it says page 404 not found. When you click on the Mary Ferrell docs in the 1920's crew thread, they all come up immediately as usual.

[Snakes]

Huh, not sure then.

[B.]

Nice job giving examples and breaking them down. The small variations between families and even within the same family always interest me.

The DeCavalcantes and Bonannos both abandoned the traditional ceremony, at least during certain periods, so the idea isn't too out there for Chicago who had an even more unique and autonomous organization.

Not sure I follow the part about the books being closed, though. You're saying Chicago may have inducted members when the books were closed, but did so without the traditional ceremony, then resumed with the ceremony after the books were re-opened nationally? Definitely possible but I'm out of my element commenting on Chicago. The books in Philly were supposed to be closed by the early 1960s and they were chastised for making some members but were forgiven because Bruno hadn't been boss when the books were ordered closed. The books seem to have been fully closed for the DeCavs 1957-1976 but they were basically a NY family. I believe Fratianno said that Cleveland hadn't made any new members for some long period of time which is why he had to help with their ceremony in the 1970s, and that situation showed that the ceremony was hardly that important to them.

[Snakes]

I don't think Chicago had to have their books closed during the same time period as NY. They were basically left to their own devices and to govern the families west of the Mississippi. It also seems they made a lot of guys in the sixties.

I think Villain is intimating that they simplified the process during this time period as opposed to completely closing the books. I know DiVarco mentioned something to Arrigo about them not making new guys (this would be mid-seventies) but it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for them to place temporary moratoriums on making new members for months or even years at a time.

I think once they started regularly interacting with the New York guys again in the seventies and eighties regarding the Teamsters, they may have implemented the more traditional style of making guys, just in case the NY families would be hesitant about dealing with them. I don't think it would have made a big difference, but Aiuppa probably thought it wouldn't hurt. I believe Villain touches on this in the OP, but I thought it was worth repeating here.