photo #9204704

At fourteen My grandfather escaped the same fate as the young Vito Andolini and was forced to flee Sicily. He came to Chicago in 1910, met my grandmother and settled in a small Italian enclave where I grew up on the South side of Chicago. He found that the same type of organized criminal element had as much power as the city government. He knew that he could not hide this reality from us, so he taught us the truth about life, how to avoid criminal influence and to make wise, moral and ethical decisions. The difference was that in Sicily the Black Hand culture victimized everyone down to the lowest peasant, whereas the American counterpart learned that in order to grow bigger, faster and more profitable they had to have public support, or at least non-interference from the citizens. This actually made some neighborhoods much safer than others since “The Outfit” did not want outside criminals upsetting the peace on what they considered their personal turf. They had strict rules about no public violence in areas over which they exerted their substantial influence. Also, the city administrations were heavily influenced via bribery, blackmail, extorsion, intimidation or as a last resort, violence. Between Mayor Richard J. Daley and “The Outfit” the results were that Chicago was one of the safest, cleanest, well run big city in America back in the 50’s and 60’s. They didn’t necessarily cooperate with each other, but they respected and tolerated each other. Yes, there was crossover collusion, infiltration in both directions and corruption on both sides. However, over the last 60 years the influence of “The Outfit” has diminished considerably and the city government has grown into a massive corrupt and incompetent entity that has degenerated into a radical Woke socialist/communist boondoggle and turned Chicago into just another Democratic controlled dangerous, drug infested and homeless, filthy, racist, over taxed, run down, crumbling infrastructure, ‘gangsta’ culture blue city. This just goes to show you that the Mafia could run these big northern Democratic cities better, safer and more profitable than Democrats. (Of course, to run a city and get the best results would be by electing honest, moral and ethical MAGA patriots as the best option for obvious reasons.)