History: The Five Families of the New York Mafia

Since the1920’s the five Italian/Sicilian-American crime families which include the Colombo’s, the Genovese’s, the Bonanno’s, the Gambino’s, and the Lucchese’s have been dominating New York’s organized crime. Each family has their own unique story about how each family made its way to becoming one of the top Five Families in the mafia. We will be taking a journey and learning the history behind each crime family, from what part of New York they controlled to who controlled each family during that time period, and who currently runs the mafia present day.
Before going into the histories of each of these families, below is a hierarchy chart of the organized crime. You will need this to understand how the families were structured, and names that were associated with their titles.

Boss: Also known as the “Don”. Has total control over the entire family.
Underboss: They are second in command of the family; they give orders usually that comes from the Boss.

Consigliere: The family advisor, sometimes they’re professional attorneys.
Capo: They are captains or lieutenants; they are in charge of the soldiers and associates.
Soldiers: They are the ones that do all the dirty work; they take orders from the Capo’s, and sometimes the Underboss.

Associates: Are soldiers who haven’t been a “made man” yet.
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The Colombo Crime Family

The Colombo crime family was formerly known as the Profaci crime family, originally formed by Joe “The Olive Oil King” Profaci in 1928. Joe controlled the family with a rigid tight fist, and he was loathed by his men in the family. This crime family experienced three family wars. The first war was initiated in the 1950’s when a family member Crazy Joe Gallo began rebelling against Profaci for demanding too much tribute. In the early 1960’s the war began to die down when Crazy Joe was arrested and Profaci died of cancer. Then control was passed to Joseph “Joe C.” Colombo’s command; the family then changed to name to the Colombo crime family, to rid the memory of their former boss Joe Profaci. A few years later the second war began to brew when Crazy Joe Gallo was released from prison, and had a hit put on Colombo. Carmine “Junior” Persico helped win the war against Crazy Joe when he had him murdered in a Little Italy restaurant in in 1972. Decades later the third war was born, and this war had more bloodshed than the two previous wars. In 1991 Carmine “Junior” Persico was now boss of the Colombo family, but he was imprisoned. Family member Victor Orena undermined Persico, and the family divided into two factions. The two factions then started going to war with each other. In 1993, there were twelve casualties within the family, Orena ended up being imprisoned, and then the war was finally over (Five Families of New York City ). The Colombo crime family has operations set up mainly in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. They also have a strong influence in Staten Island, Manhattan, The Bronx, New Jersey, and certain parts of Florida.
The current boss of the Colombo crime family is Carmine “Junior” Persico; he is currently serving a life sentence in North Carolina at a federal prison. Carmine’s successor was his son Alphonse “Little Allie Boy” Persico. In December 2007 Alphonse and his underboss John “Jackie” DeRoss were both sentenced to life in prison for ordering a hit against William Cutolo in 1999.
Serving as an acting is Andrew “Mush” Russo, a former street boss and longtime capo in the Colombo family. He assumed the role of the acting boss in 2008; he currently resides in Florida and is semi-retired from the family. Russo assumed the position of acting boss when Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli was arrested in 2008.
John “Sonny” Franzese the current underboss of the Colombo crime family, and a rival to Carmine Persico, has spent most of his life in and out of prison. May 2007, Franzese was arrested for parole violations for meeting with Capo’s within the family, and for meeting with other high-ranking members of other crime families. He was released from jail a year later, and in January 2011 he was convicted of extortion and sentenced to eight years in prison.
January 2010, Dino Calabro a Capo was facing a trial for the murder of a New York police officer; he provided a devastating testimony about the Colombo family when he became a government witness. January 20, 2011 members of the Colombo crime family and other crime family of New York were arrested on various charges that included murder, drug trafficking, and labor racketeering (The 5 Families Of New York).

The Genovese Crime Family

The Genovese crime family saga began with the Morello crime family that originated from East Harlem, New York; they were considered one of the first crime families of New York City. Giuseppe Morello, who ran the family hailed from a village in Corleone, Sicily. Giuseppe and his comrade Ignazio “Lupo the Wolf” Saietta were known around Sicily as being merciless and ruthless. Morello’s lieutenants were his brothers Nicholas and Antonio Morello, and their half-brothers Vincenzo "Vincent" Terranova and Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova, they controlled rackets in East Harlem, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Other illegal activities the Morello crime families were in involved in were gambling extortion, theft, and counterfeiting. In 1910, Giuseppe and Ignazio were arrested for counterfeiting that stemmed all the way from Italy to New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. With the two being in prison Giuseppe’s brother Nicholas Morello took control over the crime family. In 1914, Nicholas quickly became involved in a war with the Camorra Gang of Brooklyn regarding territorial dispute over Brooklyn and Manhattan rackets. The war last until 1918, when Nicholas Morello and the Camorra Boss Don Pellegrino Morano agreed to a meeting to talk about the war, law enforcement involvement, the profit losses, and each side losing soldiers in shoot outs. Morello and Pellegrino Morano along with lieutenants and bodyguards met at the Brooklyn Navy Street Café to establish a peace treaty, and a possible chance co-operation. Morello was led to believe that the Camorra Gang really wanted to establish a peace treaty, but Nicholas Morello and his Carles Ubriaco were ambushed and killed by the Camorra Gang inside the café. Soon thereafter Pellegrino Morano and his lieutenant Allessandro Vollero were betrayed by one of the shooters who was arrested, and made a confession to his role in the murder of Morello and Ubriaco, which eventually led to the arrest and imprisonment of Morano and Vollero. Once Morano was released he was immediately deported back to Italy. After the demise of Nicholas Morello, control of the crime family was relinquished to half-brothers Vincent and Ciro Terranova. Soon after Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria was rising high in the ranks of the Morello crime family. Masseria started off being an enforcer and hit-man for the Morello crime family, he was known for getting what he wanted by using violent tactics. In 1920, Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Saietta were paroled and returned to New York. Giuseppe Morello resumed power over the family, but Saietta left for Sicily. He then returned to New York two years later, semi-retired from the crime family, but included himself in gambling and bootlegging while running a bakery in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. The Morello crime families were able to build a lucrative bootlegging operation in Manhattan, but a fellow Sicilian rival, Salvatore D’Aquila wanted Morello and Saietta dead, in which they had to flee to Italy for their safety. When they returned Morello turned to Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria to exterminated D’Aquila, in return Masseria wanted total control of the Morello crime family (Five Families of New York City ). In the mid-1920’s Masseria continued to expand his rackets throughout New York, Masseria enlisted in the help of upcoming, young, and aspiring mobsters to help protect his rackets by the names of Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, Joseph “Joey A” Adonis, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, and Carlo Gambino. Masseria’s had a serious rival with Salvatore Maranzano, leader of the Castellammare Del Golfo Sicilian organization in Brooklyn. In 1928, the war between Masseria and Maranzano had begun known as the Castellammare war; more 60 mobsters on both sides had been murdered. In 1931, Masseria was murdered at a Brooklyn restaurant by members of Charlie “Lucky” Luciano’s crew over broken promises Masseria made. Luciano conspired with Maranzano in plotting the death of Masseria, with Masseria being dead the war was officially over. Maranzano then took control of New York, and made several power moves within in the mafia. He reorganized the Italian-American gangs into five new families, and then he appointed himself as the boss of all the families. Maranzano put Luciano in charge of the Morello crime family. Luciano and several other mob leaders were not too keen on Maranzano’s new dictatorship role; Maranzano then learned about Luciano’s discontent and order a hit to be put out on him. Luciano learned of the hit and plotted with Gaetano “Tommy” Lucchese to take out Maranzano. In 1931, Meyer Lansky a Luciano ally provided Luciano with Jewish gangsters who shot and stabbed Maranzano to death in his Manhattan office. Charlie “Lucky” Luciano was now the one who had the power over the crime families (History of the Genovese Crime Family).
Luciano created a governing body for the La Cosa Nostra (translated: this thing of ours) known as the Commission. The Commission had a representative from each of the five families, as well as from the Chicago Outfit, and the Magaddino crime family. Luciano had his own crime family, which he appointed Vito Genovese as his underboss, and Frank Costello as his consigliere. In 1935, Luciano was indicted on pandering charges and was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. Genovese was then ran the daily operations of the Luciano crime family, until 1937 when he was indicted on murder charges and he fled to Italy. Frank Costello then ruled the Luciano family for 20 years. His reign came to an end when Genovese was extradited from Italy to New York. Costello demoted Genovese from Underboss to Capo during his absence, this move fueled Genovese to take control of the family. In 1936, Genovese was acquitted of murder and he then started his plot against Costello with his assistance from the Mangano crime family underboss Carlo Gambino. Luciano family member Vincente “Chin” Gigante shot Costello in the side of the head, but Costello survived. Costello feeling isolated and nervous then quietly retired and relinquished power of the Luciano crime family to Vito Genovese. In 1959, Genovese was sentence to 15 years in prison for drug charges, after being set up by Carlo Gambino in a drug distribution scheme, Genovese would later on die in prison (History of the Genovese Crime Family).
The Genovese crime family controlled areas of Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey. They also have racketeering rings in Massachusetts Las Vegas, and Pennsylvania. In 2005, leadership of the Genovese crime family went to Capo Daniel “Danny the Lion” Leo after Vincent Gigante passed. Venero “Benny Eggs” Mangano who the underboss at that time was released from prison the same year; Capo Dominick Cirillo was promoted to the consigliere while he was serving time in prison. By 2008 the Genovese crime family had their administration in place again. In 2008, Leo was arrested for loan sharking and extortion, and was sentenced to five years. Leo was still considered the boss while serving time in prison. The Genovese crime family is recognized as one of the most powerful crime families, due to their vow to secrecy. According to the FBI some family associates aren’t even aware of the name of the family leaders, which it makes it difficult for the FBI to gain information from government informants. There have been only five Genovese members who cooperated with law enforcement (History of the Genovese Crime Family).

The Bonanno Crime Family
The Bonanno crime family originated in a town named Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno learned of mafia traditions in Sicily, he became a anti-fascist student in Palermo after Mussolini gain power in 1922. In 1925, Bonanno fled to Brooklyn, New York where he made a name for himself as an enforcer. Bonanno made sure that he captured every opportunity that came his way. In 1927, Salvatore Maranzano came to New York and took control of Castellammare Mafia, and soon thereafter started a war with another boss Joe Masseria. Bonanno proved himself being to be a dedicated solider in the Castellammare War. The war ended when Masseria was killed by Charlie “Lucky” Luciano.
After Masseria’s death, Maranzano made Luciano his underboss, and appointed himself the boss of all the families. Shortly after Luciano and Meyer Lansky had Maranzano killed. Luciano appointed Joe Bonanno to head the Castellammare crime family. The family started raking in tons of revenue under Bonanno’s leadership, and Bonanno became a millionaire that quick. He branched out into a number of business ventures, and made sure the income was cunningly covered up to divert the Internal Revenue Service. Bonanno had his hands in every from clothing factories to funeral parlors. According to some law enforcement in New York Bonanno was given credit for creating a double-decker coffin, where an extra body could be laid under a false bottom of the coffin. This is way how extinguished rivals bodies were rid of. Bonanno was the youngest crime family boss, and most traditional. His preference was to call himself “father” of the family. Whatever business venture Bonanno was involved in, he always saw the big picture. His rivals were not pleased with Bonanno because he was making business moves that were way beyond traditional (History of Mafia in USA, 2006).

In the 1960’s Bonanno moved in on Arizona’s open terrain and had his eyes set on California to make to set up shop. Bonanno had rackets set up also in Canada which was considered boss Stefano Magaddino territory. Bonanno was starting to face opposition from his soldiers due to the fact that he was always gone checking out developments and failing to tend to family business, and revenue began declining. Some of the other New York bosses began getting tougher on Bonanno as well, especially when Joe Profaci a firm Bonanno ally passed away. Without Profaci’s presence, Bonanno decided to make a serious power move. Bonanno approached Profaci’s successor Joe Magliocco with a plan to assassinate several other bosses, which included Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Stefano Magaddino, and Frank DeSimone. Magliocco agreed and set the plan in motion, and sent down the order to one of his top hit man, Joe Colombo. Unfortunately the plan foiled when Colombo contacted the intended victims and revealed the contents of the hit.
Bonanno and Magliocco were ordered to make an appearance before the Commission to explain their intent. Bonanno refused, but Magliocco showed up, and confessed about the plan. Punishment for Magliocco was to retire from his crime family, and was to be replaced by Joe Colombo. The reason why the Commission when easy on him was due to his poor health, and it was predicted that he would die soon. Also, by the Commission being so lenient on Magliocco they hoped that this would soon lure in Bonanno. Joe Bonanno still refused to appear in front of the Commission, they then stripped him of his boss position and replaced him with Gaspar DiGregorio. This moved caused a huge rift in the Bonanno crime family, some members pledging their allegiance to Bonanno and others went with DiGregorio.
In 1964, Bonanno was kidnapped on Park Avenue at gunpoint; he disappeared for 19 months, during the same time of his disappearance a war broke between Bonanno’s son Bill and DiGregorio. The war was titled the “Banana War” or “Banana Split” and it produced huge numbers of dead bodies, but unfortunately no resolution (History of Mafia in USA, 2006).
Bonanno was being held captive by Magaddino, who ironically was Bonanno’s cousin. Magaddino was acting on behalf of the Commission to get Bonanno go into retirement. Bonanno was under constant death threats, and he said he was genuinely worried about how much bloodshed could be produced. Bonanno also stated that he did not want to set the precedence of the Commission taking his boss position since some members may find themselves in the same position. Bonanno then presented a compromise, he agreed to retire to Arizona and that his son Bill would be his successor. The Commission declined that offer, because it would mean that Bonanno would still have some control over the crime family, so Bonanno at last agreed on the Commissions previous offer. Bonanno was then released, but did not live up to the agreement the Commission offered, he then got right in the midst of the Banana War. The Commission replaces DiGregorio with Paul Sciacca who was proven to be tougher and effective than DiGregorio. Sciacca was no match against Joe Bonanno; the Bonanno force produced more killings than their adversaries. It was disbelieving that the Commission could win the Banana War, until Bonanno was forced into retirement due to a heart attack he suffered. Bonanno and the Commission worked out a compromise, Bonanno was to go to Arizona and maintain his western business ventures, but relinquishing any holdings in New York. Bonanno was still most popular, in the 1980’s he was convicted and prosecuted on criminal charges by the federal government. The government made use of his autobiography “A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno” to prove that there was a Commission, and present members were engaged in criminal activities. Due to Bonanno’s refusal to answer any questions to grand jury about the book’s contents he was sent to prison. In 2002, Joe Bonanno died at the age of 97 in Tuscan, Arizona (History of Mafia in USA, 2006).

The Bonanno crime family controlled sections of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island. They also had rackets in Arizona, California, and certain sections of Canada. Under the leadership of former boss Joseph Massino, the Bonanno crime family slowly rose back to the top of organized crime. In 2005, Vincent Asaro was an acting boss and capo from Queens was next in line to be the official boss of the Bonanno crime family. Nicholas “Nicky Mouth” Santora took over as the underboss when Joseph Massino became a government witness. The Consigliere was Anthony “T.G.” Graziano was a former capo in Staten Island in the 1980’s. Graziano was imprisoned in 2002 for racketeering and murder charges. He led and operated pension fund scam that bilked elderly investors, the scam reaped in over $11.7 million. Graziano is scheduled for release on January 2012.
In March 2009, Salvatore “Sal the Iron Worker” Montagna was the acting boss until he was deported to Canada the following month leaving the boss position open to a new boss was selected. The past few years have been very tough on the Bonanno crime family. The have been plagued with police infiltration, high-level defections coming for arrest of the family members, and the big hit they took regarding the Donnie Brasco situation, but the Bonanno’s are trying their hardest to stay active and effective in New York’s organized crime scene (The 5 Families Of New York).

The Gambino Crime Family

The history of the Gambino crime family can be traced to an Italian Mafioso named Salvatore “Toto” D’Aquila. D’Aquila emerged on the New York scene around the early 1900’s. He used his mafia ties from Italy to gain inside influence with organized crime in New York. In 1910, D’Aquila became the leader of his own crime family. D’Aquila’s crime family was based in East Harlem, which was also the base for Morello crime family (Genovese crime family). D’Aquila’s biggest rival was Joe Masseria. Two other Brooklyn-based crime families had developed, one family was known as the Castellammare Clan controlled by Nicola “Cola” Schiro, and the other family was led by Alfred Mineo. Later more crime families arose in New York while the Prohibition was in full swing; one was a spinoff of the Morello crime family led by Gaetano Reina who was an ally of Ciro Terranova of the Morello crime family.
By 1910, D’Aquila became one of the most significant bosses in New York, partly because former bosses Giuseppe Morello, and Ignazio Saietta (Morello crime family) were serving 30 year in prison. With them being gone D’Aquila was able to accumulate power and influence within New York’s organized and crime and across the country as well. The D’Aquila crime family continuous growth was assisted by Don Pellegrino Morano and Alessandro Vollero of the Camorra Gang of Brooklyn when they were both sentenced to life in 1917.
In the beginning of the Prohibition area, members of the Morello crime family and the Mineo group were absorbed into the D’Aquila crime family; making them the largest and most prominent crime family in New York. Joe Masseria had taken over what was left of the Morello crime family, and was quickly on rise to power, concerning D’Aquila (The Gambino Family).
In the late 1920’s, D’Aquila and Masseria were headed for an intense battle. Masseria struck first and D’Aquila was killed by the Masseria gunmen. The D’Aquila crime family passed leadership to Alfred Mineo, who was the underboss, and to top lieutenant Steve Ferrigno.
During the Castellammare War in the 1930’s between Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano claimed many soldiers, including Mineo and Ferrigno when they were killed outside of Ferrigno’s home. Eventually Masseria and Maranzano would be killed as well. This led into an era where the Commission was birthed. The first recognized leader of the Gambino crime family was Vincent Mangano, who was well into his Old World traditions. Mangano was interested in looking ahead and moving forward. He delved into areas of union racketeering, illegal gambling operations, and extortion.
The City Democratic Club was created by Mangano to create rock-solid American values, but really was a cover for the notorious Murder, Inc.; a, group that consisted primarily of Jewish hitmen who for a price would do the bidding for the crime families. Mangano appointed Albert “Lord High Executioner” Anastasia as his underboss. Later on Carlo Gambino was promoted within the family as well as his cousin Paul Castellano.
Mangano and Anastasia weren’t entirely on the same level throughout their 20 year partnership. Mangano was unhappy that Anastasia kept the company of other gangsters, rather than the members of the family. They both almost came to blows on various occasions. In April of 1951, Phil Mangano, Vincent’s brother and prominent family member was murdered, while Vincent vanished without a clue to his whereabouts. Never proven, but it was always speculated that Anastasia had them both murdered. Even though Anastasia was the top suspect in Vincent and Phil Mangano’s murders by the New York bosses, Anastasia never admitted guilt, but he did say the Vincent plan to have him killed. Anastasia was already in the leadership position of the crime family. Anastasia had support of Frank Costello of the Luciano crime family (Genovese crime family) and he changed the name of the family to the Anastasia family. Carlo Gambino achieved his position as the underboss.
During the 1950’s, the Anastasia and Luciano family’s finances were closed linked together, which helped provide solidarity in the National Crime Syndicate. This union benefited Costello, as Vito Genovese was aiming to replace him as boss, but knew as long as Anastasia was alive he could not make that hit. Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese combined forces to set the wheels in motions to exterminate Anastasia.
In October of 1957, Anastasia was in the barbershop at the Park Sheraton Hotel, he was murdered while sitting in the barber’s chair. Through the years it was also speculated that Joseph "“Crazy Joe” Gallo murdered Anastasia, but rival Carmine “Junior” Persico took credit for the hit. Gambino now had control of the crime family, and Joseph “Joe the Blonde” Biondo was awarded the underboss position. Biondo was also a suspect of the slaying of Anastasia. Vito Genovese was gunning to become boss of the Luciano crime family; he believed that Gambino was an ally who supported him. Gambino had his own agenda in mind; he secretly united forces with Luciano and Costello to move Genovese out of the way. Gambino lured Genovese into a lucrative drug deal, and then paid a Puerto Rican dealer to testify against Genovese, who was sent to prison in 1957. In 1969, Genovese died in prison.
Gambino quickly transformed the family to one of the most powerful crime families across the country. It is suspected the Gambino played the hand of killing Joe Colombo in June of 1971, but Colombo survived but remained in a comatose state until he passed in 1978. On October 15, 1976 Carlo Gambino suffered a heart attack and died (The Gambino Family).
Areas the Gambino crime family controlled were Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey. Between, 2005 – 2008, federal authorities effectively prosecuted several members of the Gambino crime family, which included administration, capos, and tons of soldiers and associates. In 2008, it was speculated the acting boss Daniel” Danny” Marino a Paul Castellano loyalist. In 2009, while administration members of the family were in prison, the three street bosses Danny Marino, John Gambino, and Bartolomeo “Bobby” Vernace were running the family.
In 2009, referee Tim Donaghy of the National Basketball Association (NBA) claimed that a Gambino associate James Battista used Donaghy’s knowledge to choose winners in illegal sports gambling operation. The Gambino crime family still controls piers in Staten Island and Brooklyn through corrupted labor unions.
In 2009 and 2010, indictments prove that the Gambino crime family is still fairly active in New York. In 2009, many imperative members of the family were released from prison. In November of 2009, New York Police Department arrested 22 members of the Gambino and Lucchese families in a sting named “Operation Pure Luck”. The sting was originated from cases of loan sharking, sports gambling on Staten Island, bribery charges of New York City officers and Sanitation Department officials.
In April 2010, Daniel Marino and 13 members and associates of the family were arrested and indicted for various criminals’ activities, such as racketeering, murder, sex trafficking, sex trafficking of minors, jury tampering, extortion, wire fraud, and assault. All the defendants pleaded guilty to the lessor charges (The Gambino Family).

The Lucchese Crime Family The history of the Lucchese crime family starts with a man named Gaetano “Tommy” Reina. Reina started off in the Morello crime family (Genovese), he then created his own family based in East Harlem and in the Bronx as well. He did not involve his family in the wars that were occurring around that time; he focused his attention on his home ice distribution venture. In the early 1920’s Reina became a powerful figure in the Prohibition era, and Joe Masseria became his very powerful ally. When the Castellammare War broke out, Masseria started demanding money from Reina’s criminal ventures, which caused Reina to side with Maranzano. Masseria learned of his former ally betrayal and plotted against Reina with one his own lieutenants Tommy Gagliano to kill him. February 26, 1930 Vito Genovese gunned down Reina outside of his relative’s apartment building. With Reina out of the way Masseria appointed Joseph “Fat Joe” Pinzolo as the boss, bypassing Gagliano. This infuriated Gagliano; Gagliano then secretly joined forces with Tommy Lucchese and defected to Maranzano side. In September 1930, Lucchese lured Pinzolo into a Manhattan office building and murdered him. In the 1930’s, Tommy Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese led the family into business avenues such as the clothing and trucking industry which claimed to be very lucrative. Gagliano was a reserved man who tried to stay out of the lime light, he handed his orders down to Lucchese and other top officials in the family. Just the opposite, Lucchese was the public face of the family. It even went as far as Lucchese attending the Cosa Nostra Havana Conference in Cuba on behalf of Gagliano. Gagliano remained out sight until he died in 1951 (Lucchese Crime Family). After the death of Gagliano Lucchese became the head of the family, he appointed Stefano LaSalle as his underboss, and Vincenzo “Vincent” Rao as his consigliere. Lucchese sustained Gagliano policies which made the Lucchese crime family most profitable. Lucchese had control over the Teamster union locals, trade associations and co-operatives. Lucchese made powerful political connections such as the Mayor William O’Dwyer and Vincent Impelltteri. Lucchese kept an low profile, and treated the members of his family like commodities, he made sure that all them we well taken care of. After Lucchese was made the boss helped Genovese and Gambino in their mission to establish control of their families. In 1962, Lucchese and Gambino took control over the Commission. After finding out about Joe Bonanno was trying to assassinate Lucchese and Gambino, they used the Commission to try and strip Bonanno’s boss position which resulted in the Banana War. Lucchese had a quiet and established life until he passed away on July 13, 1967 of a brain tumor. Lucchese left the family in a very dominant position within New York; the family had control in East Harlem, the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. Victor Amuso is the current boss of the Lucchese crime family, although serving a life sentence in prison. Aniello “Neil” Migliore, Joseph “Joey Dee” DiNapoli, and Matthew Madonna consist of the current three-man ruling panel that has been running the family in Amuso’s absence. In March 2009, the New York Post wrote an article stating that even though Lucchese crime family approximately had 100 “made” member making them the smallest crime family of the five families it was by no means the weakest. The Lucchese crime family was the most third powerful crime family following behind Genovese and Gambino crime families. In 2009, the Lucchese crime family was served with three federal indictments that proves the family was active in organize crime, in areas of illegal gambling, extortion, and labor racketeering. Joseph DiNapoli and Matthew Madonna were charged with controlling an extortion ring, the underboss (Lucchese Crime Family).

Interview:
CUNY interviewer Doug Muzzio interview with Selwyn Raab author of “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires”. (Raab, City Talk: Five Families: The Rise...America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, 2011)

Investigative Journalist Selwyn Raab discusses his book “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires”. Interviewer Doug Muzzio asks Raab how he was so knowledgeable about the New York mafia. Raab answers that this is a topic that he has been researching over forty plus years. His research includes FBI and courts records, interviews, and secondary sources that helped him form a powerful and detailed account of the five families of organized crime. Raab states the he takes the reader to the mob’s history started in Sicily right through to New York during the 1930’s. Raab states that he covers all of the important mob figures, Sicilian and Italian mafia traditions, the rise of Lucky Luciano and the start of the Commission. Raab also discusses the FBI investigations, wiretaps, and when certain mobsters started cooperating with law enforcement officials.

Gotham Gazette: Mafia: Rise, Fall and Resurgence, interview with Selwyn Raab. (Raab, Mafia: Rise, Fall and Resurgence, 2006)

GOTHAM GAZETTE: Mr. Raab, your book focuses largely on the fall of the New York crime families, but the title includes the phrase "resurgence." What's going on with the Mafia in New York City right now?

SELWYN RAAB: Up until 9/11, there had been a 20-year long, concentrated attack against the Mafia, based on the Racketeer Influence Corruptions Act, popularly known as RICO. What was important about RICO was that for the first time it gave prosecutors an effective tool to go after the big shots in organized crime. At the attack's peak, there were 200 people working full time on just investigating the five Mafia families in New York -- the Gambino, the Bonanno, the Colombo, the Lucchese, and the Genovese. The FBI had a specific squad following each family, and were able to bust John Gotti, Vincente "The Chin" Gigante, and other bosses, even though they didn't pull a trigger or shake anyone down themselves.

[This prosecution was coupled with a] concentrated effort to knock the Mafia out of some industries. Waste collection and construction were two immense moneymakers for them, and they've been hurt in both industries, especially commercial garbage collection. There is now some oversight by city agencies, licensing etc. The Mafia has been severely wounded in some of these big industries – but not mortally.

As soon as 9/11 occurred, terrorism justifiably became a prime concern and objective for the FBI and most police departments, including New York's. This created a reprieve – suddenly you had this tremendous diminution of people investigating the mob.

Today, the Mafia is still making money in gambling and loan sharking. The penalties for these crimes are very small, nobody goes away for a long time, and bosses are never brought up on charges. Still, this is terrific seed money to keep them going.

The Mafia is still very big on Wall Street, counterfeit credit cards, and phone scams. But a lot of the most recent action has been in the suburbs, where the theory is the local police departments don't have the expertise to stop them.

FORMING THE MAFIA

GOTHAM GAZETTE: Is there a fundamental difference between the Mafia and other types of organized crime?

SELWYN RAAB: We've always had organized crime groups – you had Irish and German gangs on the Bowery, Jewish bootleggers, the Italians, and so on. To oversimplify, prohibition changed all these gangs from street thugs to executives. The money was so big that they could expand, and when prohibition ended, they had big organizations to go into different things like labor racketeering.

But the Italians had a business genius named Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano saw the handwriting on the wall – prohibition was going to end and what were gangs going to do for loot? He also saw the lack of a central organization. Luciano had a major convention [of Italian gangs] in Chicago in 1931, and said we can't have fights among ourselves anymore, because it's bad for business. He turned the Italian gangs into a semi-military organization based on what had been going on in Sicily, where each family had a boss, underboss, consigliere, and soldiers.

These five families had so much power and influence over organize crime in New York; their names are still ring throughout the Italian/Sicilian-American neighborhoods in New York, and beyond. The five families put in so much work to have their name still have meaning to this day. Power and greed lead to the downfall of these families, especially when they became involved in the drug trade. The five families are still much in existence, some family members are either dead, imprisoned, some members even have “cooperated” with law enforcement officials to help reduce their jail time, which is a big infraction when it comes to the mafia codes and conducts, no one is to “cooperate” with law enforcement officials; that is a big infraction when it comes to the mafia codes and conducts, no one is to “cooperate” with law enforcement officials.

Works Cited
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