Cover of The Insane Chicago Way
The Insane Chicago Way The Daring Plan by Chicago Gangs to Create a Spanish Mafia
by John M. Hagedorn
University of Chicago Press, 2015
Cloth: 978-0-226-23293-5 | Electronic: 978-0-226-23309-3
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Insane Chicago Way is the untold story of a daring plan by Chicago gangs in the 1990s to create a Spanish Mafia—and why it failed. John M. Hagedorn traces how Chicago Latino gang leaders, following in Al Capone’s footsteps, built a sophisticated organization dedicated to organizing crime and reducing violence. His lively stories of extensive cross-neighborhood gang organization, tales of police/gang corruption, and discovery of covert gang connections to Chicago’s Mafia challenge conventional wisdom and offer lessons for the control of violence today.

The book centers on the secret history of Spanish Growth & Development (SGD)—an organization of Latino gangs founded in 1989 and modeled on the Mafia’s nationwide Commission. It also tells a story within a story of the criminal exploits of the C-Note$, the “minor league” team of the Chicago’s Mafia (called the “Outfit”), which influenced the direction of SGD. Hagedorn’s tale is based on three years of interviews with an Outfit soldier as well as access to SGD’s constitution and other secret documents, which he supplements with interviews of key SGD leaders, court records, and newspaper accounts. The result is a stunning, heretofore unknown history of the grand ambitions of Chicago gang leaders that ultimately led to SGD’s shocking collapse in a pool of blood on the steps of a gang-organized peace conference.

The Insane Chicago Way is a compelling history of the lives and deaths of Chicago gang leaders. At the same time it is a sociological tour de force that warns of the dangers of organized crime while arguing that today’s relative disorganization of gangs presents opportunities for intervention and reductions in violence.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

John M. Hagedorn is professor of criminology, law, and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of People and Folks and A World of Gangs, coeditor of Female Gangs in America, and editor of Gangs in the Global City.

REVIEWS

“Hagedorn has done it again: charted new ground. He presents clean, clear observations in a field dominated by camera obscura posited images of ‘gangs.’ This book opens new questions about gangs, politics, and ‘disorganization.’ Read it.”
— Peter K. Manning, author of Democratic Policing in a Changing World

“This is an important book, reminiscent of Sutherland’s Professional Thief, Ianni’s Black Mafia, and other personal, insider studies of professional and organized crime and criminals. Hagedorn skillfully combines information and insights from multiple sources with scholarly analysis to reveal the nature of organized crime as it evolved during the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. His account of relationships between street gangs of this period and Chicago’s Outfit, the legacy of Al Capone and others, is especially important.”
— James F. Short, Jr., coauthor of Juvenile Delinquency and Delinquents

“The Insane Chicago Way is quite original and advances our knowledge on gangs in a number of ways. Most criminologists draw a clear separation between organized crime and street gangs, but Hagedorn shows—in a highly compelling account—how Chicago gangs in the 1990s attempted to emulate the mafia. In doing so he paints a new picture of street gangs as they exist in our neighborhoods—not simply as reflections of other forces but as quasi-institutions, major historical agents in the development of violence and violent traditions.”
— David Brotherton, author of Banished to the Homeland

“An intricate tale of violence, mafia influence, and police corruption.”
— Chicago Reader

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface: This is Not a Movie


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0000
[Sal Martino, Hagedorn, Chicago School, Institutions, Neighbourhood, Power, Inductive, SGD, stereotypes]
This chapter explains how the book came about and its challenge to traditional gang perspectives. It describes Sal Martino’s Outfit background and reasons for collaborating with Hagedorn on a book revealing SGD’s existence. Martino describes how in 1989 Spanish Growth & Development (SGD) was founded modeled on the mafia commission. It describes the anguish Hagedorn went through by writing about gangs and organized crime in ways that might reinforce stereotypes. Hagedorn concludes the exposure of the role of corruption adds balance and researchers have the obligation to report on facts even if they undermine past beliefs. The book adopts an inductive method that uses the natural history of SGD to challenge many tenets of the Chicago School of sociology. Chicago gangs are usually explained as products of neighborhoods, but Hagedorn tells of persistent efforts by gang leaders since the 1960s to build complex, cross-neighborhood institutions. The factional battles within these institutions and extreme levels of violence of the 1990s were not spontaneous, but conscious struggles for power that caused SGD to implode. The book is not a “power theory of gangs” but a story that encourages others to ask new questions and look at familiar forms in different ways. (pages 1 - 12)

Part One: Ambitions


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0001
[Maniac Latin Disciple, Miedzianowski, Padilla, SGD, Stateville, White House, gang war]
This chapter previews the book’s main storyline. It explains how a single gangland “hit” revealed deeper meaning to what seemed to outsiders like senseless violence. The 1995 murder of a Maniac Latin Disciple by Latin Lover “Baby Face” Padilla, began a war between two allied “Latin Folks” gangs. Padilla was not only a ranking gang member but also a confidential informant for Joseph Miedzianowski, a corrupt Chicago cop who was engaged in large-scale drug dealing with both gangs. The hit also threatened to break apart Spanish Growth & Development, a coalition of Latino gangs based in Stateville prison called the “White House” because that is where all the decisions were made. SGD was dividing into “families” or factions that were competing for control. The Padilla hit threatened the balance of power and spurred on a violent civil war. Documents of SGD are reproduced that support its central role in the gang wars of the 1990s. Despite SGD efforts at peacekeeping, violence got out of control not because of how organized the gangs were but because the “legitimate” authority of SGD itself was fatally undermined by its warring families. (pages 15 - 25)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0002
[Sal Martino, Joey the Clown Lombardo, Outfit, C-Note$, Mo Mo, SGD]
This chapter introduces the C-Note$, a west side gang, and describes their close ties to Chicago’s mafia, known as the Outfit. Sal Martino, the book’s key source, gives his opinion of Joey Bags, a C-Note leader who tells him of the 1989 formation of SGD. In 1992 the Outfit was transitioning after the death of boss Tony Accardo to Joey the Clown Lombardo, who lived in the Patch and was idolized by C-Note$. Sal has ideas that SGD could be a big money maker for the Outfit and a way to extend Outfit influence into the rising world of Latino gangs. He questions Joey Bags’ suitability to be the Outfit liaison to SGD as not being properly rational, a womanizer, and a heavy drinker. He discusses the pros and cons of other C-Note$ leaders, introducing major players in the book. Sal settles on a young Puerto Rican member of the C–Note$, Mo Mo, as the best representative for the Outfit to SGD and introduces him to Joey the Clown, who puts him on the payroll. (pages 26 - 31)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0003
[Don, ethnic succession, power, prison, profits, Spanish Cobras, Mania Latin Disciples, UFO]
This chapter provides historical context. It integrates the history of Chicago’s street gangs with the history of the Outfit. It describes how Black and Latino gangs were simultaneously involved in the politics of liberation and also in the drive to control illegal enterprises. “The Don,” an important elder within the Outfit, is interviewed about how the Outfit surrendered drug markets to black gangs in the 1960s. Several Black gang leaders give their version of the ethnic succession of crime. From their origins, Chicago’s Black, white, and Latino gangs were more than neighborhood peer groups and built multi-gang, cross neighborhood coalitions focused on power and control of illegal markets. In the 1970s white gangs, including the C-Note$, formed racist coalitions, like the United Fighting Organization (UFO), to resist Latino incursion into their neighborhoods. In response, Latino gangs formed their own coalitions and organized across neighborhoods. The origins of the Maniac Latin Disciples, Latin Kings and Spanish Cobras are described. Violence between gangs led to major leaders being incarcerated together in Illinois prisons. The chapter sets up the origins of SGD by arguing that prison, violence, profits, and power led to the formation of the People & Folks coalition that midwifed SGD. (pages 32 - 54)

Part Two: Organization


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0004
[SGD, Institutions, Latin Folks, Spanish Cross, People & Folks, Philip Selznick]
The origin of SGD is described as a natural, adaptive response to increasing violence of 1970s gangs, persisting poverty, police repression, and mass incarceration. This chapter applies to SGD the classic literature on organizations from Philip Selznick. The processes of building an institution were quite different than “aleatory” or spontaneous processes that have traditionally defined gangs. The People & Folks coalitions were set up in Stateville prison in 1978 to control violence and SGD was founded a decade later. Excerpts from the secret SGD Constitution and other documents are provided. SGD was more than a criminal conspiracy, but ambitiously intended to bring order on the streets, a sense of purpose to its soldiers, and a path to respectability, following Daniel Bell’s “queer ladder of social mobility.” A document explaining the Latin Folk’s symbol, the Spanish Cross, is produced to explain the potential power of SGD’s cross-gang identity. SGD is contrasted to the less organized People coalition. The chapter anticipates the reasons for the fall of SGD by giving examples of its urgent actions to mediate disputes among its members. The chapter concludes that SGD was born in the need to minimize violence, but ultimately was helpless to prevent it. (pages 57 - 78)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0005
[SGD, Patch, Insane Family, C-Notes, Aftermath, Joey Bags, Mo Mo, made men.]
This chapter profiles the five main C-Note$ leaders: Sammy, Dominic, Joey Bags, Mo Mo, and Lucky, as well as Tina, a female drug kingpin related to a long line of Outfit figures. Sal called the C-Note$ leaders in the 1990s “Two Dagos, Two Spics, and a Hillbilly” emphasizing the gang’s new-found diversity. The C-Note$ were largely working class Italians and Hispanics and were directly linked to the Outfit. Unlike most Latino and Black street gangs, many C-Note$ had full time city jobs they used as covers for burglary and other illicit enterprises. The C-Note$ home turf was in the Patch, Chicago’s historic mafia neighborhood around Grand Avenue, where many Outfit leaders grew up. Italian C-Note$ looked forward to becoming “made men” in the Outfit. Those who were not Italian, like Mo Mo, Joey Bags, and Lucky, could not be “made” and their ambitions were limited to becoming an Outfit “Associate” or crew leader. C-Note$ leaders in the 1990s petition to join the Folks coalition and join a faction of SGD, the Insane Family. A major incident at the Aftermath nightclub almost upends their plans and ominous signs of impending factional violence threaten the future. (pages 79 - 107)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0006
[Almighty, Insane, Maniac, Families, Tabla, SGD, Triple 8s, Disputes, Chicago Police]
This chapter describes the origins of the Insane, Maniac, and Almighty Families or coalitions of gangs within SGD. It places the dynamics of SGD within the literature on organizational rivalry. Since SGD was a legitimate authority, it mediated boundary disputes and thus gangs sought to secure a majority on the board or “Tabla,” to get favorable rulings. The family rivalries would ultimately lead to the disintegration of SGD. The origins of the families in their disputes with one another are recounted. Among the documents, a Confidential Informant agreement is reproduced by the Chicago Police with the leader of the Harrison Gents, Stanley Slaven. Despite many snitches within Latin Folks gangs, the Chicago Police never realized the extent of gang organization. The Maniac Family’s drug dealing and political ties are described and their arrogance to other gangs apparently sparked the formation of other families within SGD. The Insane Family, or “Triple 8s,” was formed both for a desire for peace but also as a way for the Spanish Cobras to get a majority of the SGD Tabla. This contest for power leads the families to descend into internecine war. (pages 108 - 124)

Part Three: Corruption


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0007
[Chicago, Machine, Politics, Ianni, Thrasher, Daley, Mell, Hispanic Democratic Organization, SGD]
This chapter explains how gangs and corruption are central to Chicago’s machine politics. Like in Ianni’s New Jersey study of the ethnic succession of crime, in Chicago racism is also a barrier to the emergence of a Black Mafia. Latino gangs are more likely to take advantage of corruption and are the main ethnic successors to Italian organized crime. Corruption has not been a subject for traditional gang studies, and this chapter urges it be put on researchers’ agenda. Mayor Richard M. Daley saw the growing importance of the Latino vote and in the 1980s built a Latino machine, the Hispanic Democratic Organization (HDO) to consolidate political power. A machine alderman, Richard Mell, built strong ties with Latin Folks gangs and hired Maniac Latin Disciple leader, Raymond Rolon, as an aide. Sal points out that Latino gangs need to learn from the Outfit and utilize more professional – looking members to interact and influence politicians. The chapter concludes with Sal admitting the Italian day is receding and the future lies with Latinos, one reason he championed SGD to Outfit bosses. He says that the “machine ain’t dead” and that the practice of corruption is sure to continue but with new players. (pages 127 - 140)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0008
[Corruption, Chambliss, Miedzianowski, SOS, Lewellen, Latin Folks, typology of police corruption, scandals]
This chapter explains the centrality of police corruption to the persistence of gangs in Chicago. It argues corruption has changed from top down envelopes of the Outfit to bottom up officer by officer, unit by unit corruption of street gangs. Gang research has almost universally defined police as forces of social control and have not treated corruption as an important variable. William Chambliss explains how corruption is functional for the workings of cities and this chapter extends Chambliss’ work to street gangs. The chapter reviews examples of how the Outfit bribed and corrupted police officials all the way to the top of the Chicago Police hierarchy. But with street gangs taking over retail drug sales in the 1970s, they did not enjoy the Outfit’s top brass police protection. The result was both lots of arrests as well as gang efforts to corrupt street level officers. A typology of the new police corruption is presented and the chapter explains in detail how Latin Folks gangs were involved with major CPD corruption scandals such as Joseph Miedzianowski, the SOS unit, and Glenn Lewellen. The chapter concludes gangs cannot be understood without including how they find ways to work with police. (pages 141 - 166)

Part Four: Catastrophe


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0009
[instrumental culture, Donald Black, Ecstasy, SGD, Tabla, C-Note$, Latin Folks, violence]
This chapter explains the failed attempts of the C-Note$ to embed an instrumental culture of organized crime within SGD. The C-Note$ creative criminal enterprises are described as examples to the Insane Family and SGD of how to “put business first” and control violence. Taking issue with Donald Black, the control of violence is found to derive from established social institutions, like the Outfit, more than from stateless ghettoes. Joey Bags resigns as C-Note$ representative to the Insane Family as the Latin Folks civil war veers out of control. The C-Note$’ control over Chicago’s ecstasy market is explained as an example to SGD of how to make money while keeping a low profile. The C-Note$ creative use of E-bay to fence stolen goods is described. The C-Note$, however, also engaged in war and became major arms dealers. Ultimately, the C-Note$ were unable to slow the violence. The formal registration letter of the C-Note$ to SGD is reproduced and the Tabla meets with C-Note$ representatives at Galesburg prison. The demise of Joey Bags and Lucky is described as well as the deportation of Dominic to Italy. Sammy is released from prison and Mo Mo leaves Chicago. (pages 169 - 189)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0010
[UN Global Study on Homicide, Entropy, institutional work, Carlito, Bum Brothers, Latin Folks]
SGD’s failure does not mean gangs cannot control violence and many examples are given. According to the UN Global Study on Homicide, violence’s sharpest spikes are the result of gang wars when peacemaking fails. The literature on de-institutionalization helps explains why SGD was unable to stop its civil war. SGD, like most institutions, was characterized more by entropy than stability. Once the identity of the various families became more important than a shared “Latin Folks” identity, SGD collapsed. Events of the war of the families are narrated as Girard’s “raging fire” of rivalry obscured shared identity. SGD proved incapable of doing what Dimaggio and Zucker call the “institutional work” needed to maintain stability. The Maniac Latin Disciples Bum Brothers faction intensified the war by assassinating their leader, Rick Dog, who advocated peace. After more warfare, in 1999 a “junta” or meeting between families at a YMCA is described in depth. It ends with the assassination of Carlito, an advocate for peace, by the MLD’s Bum Brothers faction on the YMCA’s steps. With Carlito’s death, SGD was finished, the gangs fractured even more, and the Outfit backed off. SGD had been torn apart by its family rivalries. (pages 190 - 208)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233093.003.0011
[Lupo, Hobsbwam, social bandits, cartels, iatrogenic, mass incarceration, Associates, police corruption]
This chapter emphasizes the importance of history in the study of gangs. Using Lupo’s notion of polygenesis, it looks at multiple pathways to gang development and stresses the role of the state. The legacy of SGD is likely to be new forms of organized crime, though history suggests the trajectories of Black and Latino gangs, and the Outfit all differ. The demise of the People & Folks coalitions along with the destruction of housing projects and prison reform disorganized black gangs. This means an opportunity for activists to win youth away from destructive behavior. Black gangs could resemble Hobsbawm’s “social bandits” or descend into nihilism. Latino gangs, with ties to Mexican drug cartels, have an opportunity to use corruption to become major players in Chicago. Sal argues the demise of SGD was a failure of leadership and advocates for a Mexican Al Capone. While most think the Outfit is fading away, a network of hundreds of “Associates” is their new, decentralized strategy. The book ends asking readers to take both the culture and reality of organized crime seriously, oppose police corruption and the iatrogenic effects of mass incarceration, and win gang members to movements for jobs, peace, and social change. (pages 209 - 230)

Notes

Appendix 1. Major Events in Chicago Gang History Prior to SGD

Appendix 2. The Ten Years of SGD, Significant Events

Appendix 3. Factual Charges of Ambrose on La Raza to SGD Board

Appendix 4. SGD Grievance Format

Appendix 5. Independence of the SGD Within the Organization

Appendix 6. Grievance of the ISC Against the Latin Eagles

Appendix 7. By-Laws of the Insane Family

Appendix 8. Application of the C-NoteS for SGD Membership

Appendix 9. Leyes of the SGD Union

Index

Book published by University of Chicago Press, 2015. Page maintained by BiblioVault.