Late last night Godfather Jeffrey_Lebowski was slain. He was gunned down together with his top lieutenant, Sam_Hail, and South Side supremos Yurei_Iskra and Robinson alongside most of their respective button men.

This wasn't a spur of the moment decision in response to any single event, as can often be the case, it was more the outcome of a review of the "big picture". Having lost two Godfathers, those of us remaining in Las Vegas needed to evaluate our position and how we fit in with the rest of the country. I looked around at the other people who would have a seat at the table and found friends, long term allies and then...Chicago. I knew next to nothing about the majority of the people operating from there and besides Jeffrey himself, I couldn't recall a single conversation of note with any of them. 

I approached the other families across the country with my concerns and found my own reservations echoed back to me. In this day and age where would-be assassins can rapidly become a threat and people toss away their bonds of family as readily as they would an old shoe to pursue a vendetta, it is important that you have faith in those at the top and confidence that they will do all they can to try to mitigate that risk. Without any sort of relationship, it was decided that it would pose less of a problem to the rest of us if the stewardship of Chicago fell into more trusted hands.

Once that decision was made, each family turned to their muscle and the most reputable marksmen from within each family were given their orders. The outcome has been printed in the obituaries and now we must begin the process of regaining our stranglehold over the economy in the city and reestablishing our business there.

My condolences to the families of the fallen and I hope they are able to move forward from this. Thank you to our friends in New York and Philly for their assistance, and lesser nods of the head to foul-smelling Detroit, and to the armpit of the West, Los Angeles, for not entirely tripping over their own tied-together shoelaces. 

Announcements on the future of Chicago will likely find their way to your mailboxes in the coming days. Until then, climb aboard those OC trains with your chip butties and jellied eels in hand and try to make your bosses some money. 

Sound that, mate... absolute poetry that, if poetry was written after a head kick and a few too many pints.

‘We didn’t know Chicago, didn’t trust Chicago, so we wiped Chicago' that’s not strategy, that’s panic in a suit, lad.

That’s like me saying I don’t recognise a fella in the crowd so I just chin him before the bell I'd be banned for life, wouldn’t I?

You’re talking about ‘big picture’, but it sounds more like yous squinted at a blurry one and filled in the gaps with bullets and all this ‘trusted hands’ talk, go ed, lad.

You don’t build trust by emptying clips into people you never even had a proper word with. That’s not leadership, that’s insecurity with a trigger finger.

Respectfully; well, not that respectfully, you didn’t steady the ship, you flipped it and then patted yourselves on the back for swimming.

Next time, instead of a ‘review of the big picture’, maybe try having a conversation first, yeah? Might save a few funerals… and a bit of embarrassment.

Well I don't feel embarrassed at all or panicked in any way whatsoever, so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, Pad. Or, at least I'll disagree with your prompts anyway, because that's not a real response, that's a load of manufactured garbage. 

Purging is the killing of your own otherwise loyal crew members without any tangible reason to do so beyond their age, so your eyes are deceiving you as that is not applicable to this situation. 

There is no "story" here really. I actually went to the effort of not doing that and instead just plainly laid out why we have acted as we did based upon the feelings held by those involved. It wasn't personal, for me anyway. 

I could have approached the people of Chicago and I could have made more effort to get to know them if I had wanted to, but I chose not to do that and conversely neither did they. I suspect it would have felt a little bit forced to be honest. I think the reasoning makes sense and if they were standing here explaining why I was dead, saying it was because they didn't know or trust me, I would have to take that on the chin because it would be true. The difference being, I hope, is that when they approached everyone else they would have heard, "DetroitSimon? He's great!" rather than "we don't know them either". 

I love the stock responses these things always get. Let's spin the wheel and see which 'annoyed dead guy' response we'll hit them with this time. Poorly constructed stories? Hasn't he literally just said 'The rest of us didn't trust them, so we killed them'? I don't know how that could've been any more of a cut-and-dried explanation. 

What happened in Chicago, is not something to be proud of.

This could of been handled so much better.

If you're saying Simon is a tyrant, you'll get no argument from me. I've been saying it for months. I was on that team from day one. And, frankly, I can't wait to read an artificially-intelligent newspaper about it. I'm not in leadership, I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but maybe the other side of the story will be exciting enough for me to choose to believe that instead, as everyone seems too confused by how plain this one is. 

Purging is the killing of your own otherwise loyal crew members without any tangible reason to do so beyond their age, so your eyes are deceiving you as that is not applicable to this . 

Why has no other leader corrected this statement?  

What do you think is incorrect about it, Bomby?

Wrong choice of words in my behalf. What you have said is not incorrect however Its not the only definition of purging we stand by around here. Id like to use an example but sadly I feel ill just be shot after doing so. Im surprised no one has said anything about this. 

Lay it on me. As long as you don't call anyone a dirty shithouse or anything, I'm sure nobody will hurt you. 

No I wont do anything like that. Many years ago, we had a fella named Tetley. You may know of him, he was the Godfather of either DT or CH. That part escapes me . Godfather Tetley at that time killed dozens of people under him for other reasons  than you listed as well as them not being in his direct crew.  This lead to the stigma that if you went to that district tetley would purge you. The days did not matter nor the reason.   Now that is one of many examples here . No shade on tetley  its part of our lifestyle at this point.  

TyrantSimon is a more accurate name than DetroitSimon. However, like the repressed, submissive bitch that I am I welcome my new master.

It always amazes me that people want explanations for any kind of removals that occur and many times this usually forces complete crap to be said for the reasoning as a result, however, this time you get a blunt and honest assessment of Hey I didn't know them therefore I did not trust them and yet people still call bullshit and make claims that make no sense.

This entire world is built on connections and Simon's closest connection to Chicago is not all that far away having settled in Detroit and he made it clear that he consulted everyone to get a clearer picture of who and what Chicago was and the picture portrayed was clearly not the picture that people wanted to see. Then you make excuses of well Simon didn't reach out to us to get to know us, okay cool but did you ever reach out to him? How about Detroit? New York? Philadelphia? Los Angeles? Given the consensus vote I am going to guess the answers to that is no and there is nobody to blame for that except yourselves. It is your responsibility as a city especially a city that the people who gave you the opportunities are found in the obituaries and not in the phone books.

I hope that there is a lesson learned here about the importance of doing more than sitting behind closed doors throwing glitter bombs at each other although given the comments thus far and the pitiful excuses people have made I am going to guess there won't be and possibly the most honest reason yet for a removal will continue to be called bullshit and tyranny.