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CONNECTED BY BLOOD
Who’s Next Mob Boss?
By TONY ESPOSITO
IPSN August 28, 1997
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tony Esposito is the grand-nephew of the late
“Frankie the X” Esposito and comes from a family with a long history of ties to
the Chicago Mob. His book, Union Boss, is expected to be published later this year.
WHO’S IN CHARGE of the Chicago Mob? Is it Joey “The Clown” Lombardo
whose son, Joe, Jr., is currently in the midst of a major Mob purge at the Laborers’
Union? Is it John “No Nose” DiFronzo?
With the loss of Sam “Wings” Carlisi (whose name keeps popping up at the ongoing
Laborers’ Union hearings), there has been a lingering question as to just who is the
reigning Boss of the Chicago Outfit.
THE TRUTH IS not too many of today’s younger mobsters want the top spot, even though
the job has the best of all possible worlds going for it. With the “Boss of
Bosses” position in the Chicago Mob comes all the money you would ever need to live a
very, very nice lifestyle. Remember the gold faucets in the Accardo bathrooms?
THE BOSS HAS all the power in the world to give the command of who lives and who
doesn’t. The Boss has all the power to do what he wants, when he wants to whoever he
wants.
SO WHY isn’t there a long line of Mob guys forming to take over as Boss? You hear the
reason why over and over these days in articles and books. It’s just not a good
career move anymore because it means you have only a few years until you’re locked
away in a federal prison or you’re whacked by your own business partners.
THE GREAT DOWNFALL of the desireablilty of the “Boss” position is, of course,
the fact that the Feds never seem to sleep. They’re always after you. If you’re
Boss, it’s your face that represents the Mob. The media haunts you. If you go to a
restaurant more than once or twice, it’s a sure bet somebody has planted a bug where
you were last seen sitting.
THE FACT IS, nobody wants to be called “Boss” these days because it’s a
sure ticket to a life of maybe 200 years behind bars, like the sentence Al Tocco pulled.
THE MOB can’t function if there’s no Boss, so what kind of guy would step up and
carry a billion dollar business on his back? First, he has to be a very, very mean man.
They don’t let pushovers sit in the big chair. (Why do you think they called the late
Tony Accardo “Joe Batters”?). He has to believe he can take on the world and, at
the same time, control maybe five hundred guys who would kill in the flick of a switch.
And, he has to be willing to give it all up someday when the feds roll out that red carpet
in front of the jailhouse doors.
MAYBE SOME of the younger mobsters are looking for immortality—to one day be
mentioned in the same sentence as Capone, Accardo, Giancana. It’s a lure, to be
ranked up there with the likes of Aiuppa, Spilotro, Cerone. And history still remembers
Nitti and Ricca and Humphreys.
OR, MAYBE today’s young mobsters are simply trying to relive the good old days as
portrayed in the endless Mob movies that are always coming out. But, maybe they’ve
been seeing too many movies.
IN REALITY, to take on the role of Boss of the Chicago Mob, with all its power and
prestige, is to take on a job that nobody wants.
THE FACT IS SOMEBODY’S calling the shots these days. Somebody’s the Boss. Who?
The Feds say Lombardo, or maybe DiFronzo. Mob guys say something else.
RIGHT NOW, nobody knows for sure, which makes it, for now anyway, one up for the Mob.
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