# The forty-seven suffix > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The forty-seven suffix," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-forty-seven-suffix/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The last two digits of a federal prisoner number that, according to John Kiriakou, mark the holder as a member of an organised gang — and which the Italians at FCI Loretto carried along with MS-13, the Bloods, the Crips and the Mexican Mafia.* - **What:** A prisoner number ending in -47 - **Meaning, per Kiriakou:** Organised gang membership - **Groups he lists:** MS-13, Bloods, Crips, Mexican Mafia, Borrachos, Norteños - **The point of the story:** The Italians were also 47s - **Their standing:** By far the smallest of the gangs and by far the most highly respected **The forty-seven suffix** is a detail of federal prisoner numbering that John Kiriakou describes as a formal marker of gang affiliation, offered on the DeProgram programme in July 2025 while answering a viewer's question about which prisoners stood at the top of the hierarchy.[1] ## The marker Kiriakou states the rule flatly. *"If you're in an organised gang — MS-13, Bloods, Crips, Mexican Mafia, Borrachos, Norteños, all these guys — your prisoner number ends with the number -47. 47 means organised gang."*[1] He does not explain who assigns the designation or on what evidence, and does not claim it is secret. It functions in his account as a piece of open administrative record-keeping that happens to encode something the Bureau of Prisons does not otherwise announce. ## Why he brings it up The suffix was not the point in itself. Kiriakou introduced it to make an argument about the [Italians](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/italians-at-loretto), and specifically to head off the objection that they were somehow a different category of prisoner: *"Well, the Italians were also 47s."*[1][2] On the official record, in other words, the Italian prisoners were classified exactly as the Bloods and MS-13 were. The distinction Kiriakou draws is one of size and standing rather than status: *"of all the gangs, the Italians were by far the smallest and by far the most highly respected."*[2] ## The hierarchy it sits inside The remark belongs to a longer account of prison rank that Kiriakou gave in the same passage. Asked whether the ordering worked as viewers imagined — with child sex offenders at the bottom — he confirmed it and completed the scale: *"The chomos are at the very, very bottom. The rats are barely above the chomos. The Italians were at the very top. Very, very top."*[3] Pressed on what separated an Italian prisoner from anyone Italian, he answered that membership was not ethnic but organisational — *"you have to be connected in some way"* — and that the network's reach preceded arrival: *"the Italian network is very strong, and so they'll know weeks in advance that you're coming to the prison."*[3] ## See also - [The Italians at Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/italians-at-loretto) - [Shot callers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/shot-callers) - [Chomo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chomo) - [The Hierarchy Of Charges](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-hierarchy-of-charges) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 1:01:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3714s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 1:02:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3746s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 1:00:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3622s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-forty-seven-suffix/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt