The Chicago Outfit Today

The Chicago Outfit once dominated Chicago crime, but today it has faded into the background.  If you are in the mafia, that is the way you would want it.  When murders in Chicago reach into the 740’s for the year 2016 there is little time to give the Outfit press time.

The Outfit is still operating in Chicago today.  It is a far cry from the days of Al Capone or the long steady reign of Tony Accardo.  

Last week the ATF pulled an undercover sting on one of the few members of the Outfit’s Grand Avenue crew. Charles “Chuckie” Russell who is also the brother in law of  Albert Vena who heads the crew.  Albert is a capo and the street boss of the Outfit as of now.  

The ATF got interested in Russell when he bragged to one of their informants that he was juiced up in the Outfit.  He was looking to buy some guns for a planned home invasion robbery.

Russell bragged to the wired up informant that he was head of the “Bishop Boys” a robbery/ burglary crew that is responsible for hundreds of heists.

This is where the Outfit has gone down, the quality of it’s workers. In Tony Accardo’s time a loud mouth home invader would not be around long.

In all the decades Accardo was around his only mistake was having the burglars who robbed his home tortured, murdered and left as an example.  It brought a tremendous amount of heat on the Outfit when they had gambling and other white collar crimes locked up.

Russell met with the informant and an undercover ATF agent to discuss what he was looking to buy at least eight guns an AK-47 and an UZI for the job.  He was planning a home invasion right before Christmas.  He had been watching an attorney who supposedly had a safe with 750,000 dollars in cash. He had an ex-girlfriend who was close to the attorney feeding him information.

The crew was ready and they had police scanners, masks, cars and changes of clothes. The only real obstacle would be the attorney.  They needed the attorney to open the safe and he hoped he would not drop dead from a heart attack.

People always question me about why these guys talk about past crimes.  They love to brag because crime is their world, their lives and if nobody knows about it what good is it?

Russell described to the agent how he loved to make the score, the rush from pulling it off and the counting of the cash afterwards. He recounted the time he once stole so much cash it took him all night to count it and that his hands were covered in dirt.  This is so true - most people forget about how nasty those rag paper bills get.  The old money counters would get gummed up fast from the dirt, so we would often weigh the cash instead.

He then showed the agent a picture on his phone of a bullet riddled car and a driver's license of a black man.  He told him that it was a nice piece of work and that he had shot the guy through his head. He then told them how they drove the car to a black neighborhood so it would be just another black crime.

Believe it or not this kind of bragging is common, they all want you to know just what tough guys they are in real life.

Chuckie Russell might be in some real big trouble because the Chicago PD confirmed that the man whose license he showed the agent was murdered.