History UsefulNotes / TheMafia

Historians are still somewhat unsure as to when and where exactly the Mafia began on Sicily, as the Mafia itself has tended to heavily romanticize and exaggerate its own history. But Sicily semi-frequently facing various invasions by bigger powers throughout history — having been in the hands of the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, and the Spanish, and finally the British,[[note]]During UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, during which the Spanish-descended Sicilian Bourbons were forced to flee the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily, during which time the Brits basically forced the Bourbons to establish a constitutional monarchy on British lines. (The Brits did more or less the same thing on Corsica (ironically) and in the parts of Spain they held during the Peninsular War.) The actual Sicilians really liked this, and were dismayed when the Bourbons reestablished absolutism upon moving back to Naples after the Peace of Vienna in 1815.[[/note]] the Neapolitans,[[note]]During the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848, Sicily threw off the Naples-based restored Bourbon monarchy and demanded (essentially) the restoration of their British-era constitution. When the Bourbon monarch in Naples refused, they declared independence (and started looking for a new king, though they found no takers) while fiercely defending themselves against Neapolitan attack for basically the whole year.[[/note]] and the Italians (a citizen of Sicily identifying as a Sicilian rather than an Italian is not uncommon today) — definitely played a role in creating a general distrust towards any outside authorities claiming dominion. What is also established is that the Mafia's structure and hierarchy show clear inspiration from customs and ideals upheld by Roman noble families.

Historians are still somewhat unsure as to when and where exactly the Mafia began on Sicily, as the Mafia itself has tended to heavily romanticize and exaggerate its own history. But Sicily semi-frequently facing various invasions by bigger powers throughout history — having been in the hands of the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, and the Spanish, and finally the British,[[note]]During UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, during which the Spanish-descended Sicilian Bourbons were forced to flee the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily, during which time the Brits basically forced the Bourbons to establish a constitutional monarchy on British lines. The actual Sicilians really liked this, and were dismayed when the Bourbons reestablished absolutism upon moving back to Naples after the Peace of Vienna in 1815.[[/note]] the Neapolitans,[[note]]During the UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848, Sicily threw off the Naples-based restored Bourbon monarchy and demanded (essentially) the restoration of their British-era constitution. When the Bourbon monarch in Naples refused, they declared independence (and started looking for a new king, though they found no takers) while fiercely defending themselves against Neapolitan attack for basically the whole year.[[/note]] and the Italians (a citizen of Sicily identifying as a Sicilian rather than an Italian is not uncommon today) — definitely played a role in creating a general distrust towards any outside authorities claiming dominion. What is also established is that the Mafia's structure and hierarchy show clear inspiration from customs and ideals upheld by Roman noble families.

* '''Ruling Panel''' - Another rank unique to the American Mafia, this also appeared in response to greater LE heat in the 1980s, as most of the "official" bosses faced long prison sentences. While he retains final control even in jail, the boss creates a panel of high-ranking capos to run the daily operations and usually relays his orders via a "messenger", who could then send orders down the chain of command to avoid suspicion. The families can also use these ruling panels to prevent outsiders from knowing who's [[TheManBehindTheMan actually calling the shots]] and to shield the higher-ups from law enforcement scrutiny. Although the Genovese family has an official boss, FBI investigations have confirmed a power-sharing arrangement similar to a committee, with the "dummy" bosses having discretion to make decisions without approval since the 1970s (although they still have to put it on record with the boss), thus clouding the structure.

* '''Soldier''' - a ''soldato'', "wiseguy", "button man", or "made guy." This is the lowest level of mobster who is considered an official member of the "family". Soldiers must take an oath in which they've sworn to follow the rules of the Mafia (such as ''omertà''), and with a few exceptions, must kill a person in order to be considered "made."[[note]]Since talking about killings is considered verboten, there's a bit of leeway with this requirement. When exceptions do occur, it's invariably because the man in question has brought in a ''lot'' of money for the "family".[[/note]] It gives them the full protection of the family in question. Killing or assaulting a soldier, or even infringing on their turf is a big no-no, as the offender will meet a violent end even if they had legitimate reasons. Made men will refer to each other as "a friend of ours" — which means anything can be openly discussed. Out of protocol, two made men must always be formally introduced by a third party known to both sides, even if they're father and son. ''Picciotto'' is used within the Sicilian Mafia and indicates someone of a lower rank than that of ''Soldato''. In the American Mafia, only males of Italian descent can become a made man. Another caveat is that only the Commission approves who can join, as the list of wannabes gets passed on amongst the families to reject undesirables (cops, informants, etc.).

* '''Infiltration of legitimate businesses''': The mob would often infiltrate legitimate businesses through various means, from running protection rackets, shaking them down, providing "no-show" jobs to mobsters, forming shell companies, and as a cover for illicit activities. Restaurants, waste haulers, bars, construction companies, clothing and airport services were rife with mob infiltration. This went hand in hand with:

* '''Numbers game''': Also known as the policy racket, the Italian lottery, or the daily number, this is a gambling racket where a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. For many years, the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack, published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York. Allegations of the racket being rigged led to the use of random numbers such as the middle three digits of the number of shares traded that day on the New York Stock Exchange. Unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit to the bettors and policy winners could duck paying taxes. Different policy banks would offer different rates, although payoffs of 600 to 1 were typical. [[FixingTheGame Since the odds were stacked against the bettors,]] policy runners raked in top dollar.
* '''Coin-operated machines''': This is another traditional racket that came in many flavors, such as "one-armed bandits," jukeboxes, pinball games, and illegal arcade cabinets. Frank Costello made huge profits from these coin-ops in New York, and later on in California and New Orleans when the police raided his slot machine rackets. Eventually, mobsters installed these machines in the back room of bodegas and restaurants in exchange for a monthly "rental fee" and would "chase out" outsiders who tried setting up shop. Since there's no paper trail, the mobster can report the money earned as income. In fact, part of Joe "Film/DonnieBrasco" Pistone's operation involved setting up a phony "coin-op" in Milwaukee. To do this, he had to get permission from the Bonanno bosses, as there was a similar racket owned by the local Mafia family and operating in another family's turf required Commission approval. Mob boss Frank Balistrieri and his sons were later jailed for racketeering.

* '''[[LoanShark Loansharking/shylocking]]''': Illegal gambling also led to the rise of a new activity: loansharking. Another prime moneymaker for the Mafia is to provide loans to [[TrappedByGamblingDebts desperate]] [[DescentIntoAddiction gamblers]], freelance criminals, drug addicts, and those with a bad credit history at usurious interest rates, and oftentimes with threats of violence if they did not pay back. In fact, gambling and loansharking go hand-in-hand like PB&J. By the 1960s, loan sharks grew even more coordinated and could pool information on borrowers to ensure someone did not try to pay off one loan by borrowing from another LoanShark. In other words, they have become aware of the scheme used by borrowers, namely "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Similar tactics are used by the ''sarakin'' in Japan and ''Ah Long'' in Malaysia to heckle and embarrass defaulters.

* '''[[ProtectionRacket Extortion]]''': The Mafia has been involved in extortion of various types from the start, as it started out as Black Hand extortion rings in the early 1900s. Eventually, mobsters began to strong-arm businesses, unions, and freelance criminals, forcing them down to pay a "street tax" via strong-arm tactics in exchange for operating in Mafia-controlled territories. Unlike the "Black Hand" rackets, which generally sought a single large payoff, these rackets sought more livable sums on a continual basis. They could shake down businesses and individuals in many ways, including loansharking, confidence tricks, {{Protection Racket}}s, and shakedowns. Often, the ominous threat of violence was often employed in many of these rackets to ensure that they are falling in line.

* '''[[TheDon Boss]]''' - The official head of a particular family. "Don" is an honorific, not a title: in today's Italy, it's reserved to ''priests''. Since families in Sicily are more numerous and smaller than those in America, the title isn't as distinguished, although the boss still has paramount authority within his turf. He is the only one who can authorize hits on people under his family's protection and decide who can be inducted. Being the top decision-maker of a family, other duties include holding sit-downs, relaying orders down the ladder, receiving a tribute from the family's capos (and rarely, soldiers and associates serving directly under him), and promoting or demoting family members at will. While only the Commission can authorize a hit on bosses, they've turned a blind eye occasionally, particularly if the boss wasn't popular. A boss will typically use the pecking order to stymie efforts to arrest him, making it quite difficult to directly implicate him in a crime as he relays it down the chain of command. If there is no boss, the underboss typically takes charge in an acting capacity, but the Commission has to approve it after the family capos are polled on who should take over.

* '''[[TheConsigliere Consigliere]]''' - [[RuleOfThree The third-in-command]] of a Mafia family, they're an advisor or counselor to the boss with the additional responsibility of representing the family in Commission meetings. In theory, he is [[HonestAdvisor one of the few allowed to argue with the boss]] when he thinks what the boss is doing could destroy the family. Most "consigliere" types in media (such as [[TropeMaker Tom Hagen]]) are actually based on Mob ''lawyers''. Though the Commission specified a counselor in each family to act as their eyes and ears, most IRL mob bosses saw it as a lower-level position for a veteran who knows the ins and outs of the family's power, but [[TheCreon does not wish to rise]] for whatever reason. Chicago would be a subversion, with the "consigliere" being a sort of "boss emeritus" aka capo consigliere; mobsters Tony Accardo and Paul Ricca held this title and [[TheManBehindTheMan dominated]] the Outfit for nearly 50 years while letting lower-level capos front as the boss. Nicky Scarfo was another subversion, as he became the boss of Philadelphia when the previous boss was assassinated while the underboss was banished to Florida. A consigliere generally has one soldier underneath him as an aide-de-camp and source of additional income; the lack of attachment to a crew supposedly makes him more "impartial" and obviously makes him less powerful. Like the underboss, some consiglieri are mere mouthpieces for the boss, while others can be quite influential.

Despite a sluggish start, law enforcement slowly began an aggressive effort into cracking down on organized crime. The passage of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in 1970 allowed prosecutors to build cases against individual mobsters and their families. RICO also enabled states and other countries to model their own statutes after it. By the 1980s, the feds were able to crack down on the Mafia's activities, culminating in the Commission Case, which was spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, an ambitious US attorney who contemptuously felt the mob was an eyesore for honest Italian Americans. The successful undercover operation by FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno family, irreparably shattered the myth that the mob was invincible. Also, former boss Joe Bonanno gave a TV interview on his tell-all book ''A Man of Honor'', but it only worsened things as Giuliani later used the TV interview in the Commission Trial while making him more loathsome in the eyes of his fellow mobsters, who felt that he shouldn't have written the book in the first place.\\

Thanks to stronger gambling control laws passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1970s, it allowed corporations to take over casinos, further weakening the Mafia's hold on Las Vegas. RICO cases against mobsters in other cities also weakened the Mafia in those areas. Its success in the Commission Case later enabled prosecutors to go after other criminal groups such as the Hells Angels and Latin Kings. The threat of RICO can force defendants to ConfessToALesserCrime as the asset seizure would make it hard to hire a lawyer. Despite its harsh provisions, RICO can be easily proven as it focuses on psychological behavior and most offenses committed under it are considered inchoate[[note]]seeking to commit another crime such as conspiracy or being an accessory[[/note]].\\

Initially, the Commission Case included the higher-ups of the Five Families at the time, but Rusty Rastelli was removed early on as he was indicted on a separate labor racketeering case. This enabled the Bonannos to suffer less exposure than the other families. Neil Dellacroce died of cancer in December 1985 before he could be sentenced, while Paul Castellano was murdered that same month while out on bail. Anthony Salerno's status as a "front" boss for Chin Gigante didn't jeopardize his trial as he was charged for specific criminal acts, not for being the Genovese family boss. The Supreme Court later upheld his conviction in 1987.\\

[[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee High-profile hearings]] led by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) in 1951 determined that a vast criminal conspiracy operated by Italians did exist, but it did nothing to dent the Mafia. It was the [[CriminalConvention Apalachin Summit in late 1957]] that really confirmed [[NoMereWindmill the Mafia's]] existence. It was set up by Genovese, who aimed to wrest control of the Luciano family from Frank Costello and become the KingOfThieves after killing Anastasia, boss of the Mangano (now Gambino) family in October 25, 1957. Around 100 mobsters attended the meeting at the ranch of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre mafia boss Joe Barbara in upstate New York, but things went awry when a curious state trooper got wind of the expensive cars at the ranch. Many mafiosi tried to scurry away in haste, but more than 60 mobsters were caught including Genovese himself. Others nabbed include Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, Giuseppe Profaci and Santo Trafficante. Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Sam Giancana eluded capture, but Joe Bonanno wasn't so lucky, as [[BlatantLies he was captured in a nearby cornfield despite claiming to visit a friend]]. Genovese ended up taking the blame, being carted off to jail for presumably trumped-up drug trafficking charges in 1959. Despite the attendees' convictions, they were overturned on appeal as there was no proof of wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, it was very damaging for a criminal syndicate that valued secrecy. The stress from Apalachin and a drastic loss in personal wealth caused Joe Barbara to die of a heart attack in 1959.\\

With Rastelli in damage control mode, the other families viewed the Bonannos as pariahs and feared his overreliance on "junk men" to make up for being shunned from jointly-owned rackets could endanger them. This actually worked in their favor as being booted off from the Commission prevented them from being caught up in the Commission Case given that Rastelli was removed early on due to being indicted and sentenced on separate labor racketeering charges in 1986. Being removed from the Commission allowed the Bonannos to quietly rebuild their lost power while the other families were hammered with long prison sentences and mobsters turning rat. In 1991, Rastelli died a few weeks after being given a compassionate release, allowing his acolyte Joe Massino to take over as boss.\\

* '''[[KingOfThieves Capo di tutti capi]]''' - the Boss of all Bosses in a particular area. More a media title than anything of significance, bosses are seen as ''peers'' and don't take orders from each other. The only boss to ever claim this title for himself was Sal Maranzano after [[WonTheWarLostThePeace "winning"]] the Castellammarese War in 1931, getting to enjoy it for less than six months. Before long, the Young Turks thought he was similar to Masseria, deciding to [[DeadlyEuphemism retire]] the title and Maranzano along with it. An older term, ''capo consigliere'', denoted first among equals of the New York bosses, who would arbitrate disputes between families; this went by the wayside during the Castellammarese War and was never reestablished afterwards.
* '''[[ThievesGuild The Commission]]''' - Luciano's answer to the ''capo di tutti capi'' title. Originally consisted of the bosses of the Five Families in New York, Buffalo, and Chicago, with [[TheManBehindTheMan substantial input]] from "associates" such as Meyer Lansky. From time to time, other cities once had seats, but later lost it. Today, it is pared down to just the Five Families and the Chicago Outfit. It worked so well that the Sicilians were encouraged to form a similar body. The Commission is headed by a nominal chairman, who is not the KingOfThieves despite media portrayals — bosses are viewed as peers regardless of stature and having a mob overlord ran contrary to this idea. Luciano became the first Chairman after establishing it in 1931. Contrary to popular belief, the Commission does not "rule" the Mafia (see above re: bosses, orders, and tribute), but acts as the final arbiter for settling disputes — think more of a panel of bosses than a King of the Mob (or even a Parliament of the Mafia). Only the Commission can approve a new boss, vote on who can join, and cooperate on inter-family rackets. Though the bosses used to meet more often, greater scrutiny and an increasing number of informants have forced the Commission underground. The families now send emissaries to discuss in secret, as evidenced by bugged conversations between mafiosi in Buffalo seeking guidance from New York on filling the vacant underboss position in 2017.
** '''Chairman of the Commission''' - There was no "ruler" of the Commission, but there was a nominated Chairman or Head of the National Commission. This was used to substitute the role of ''boss of bosses'', as that had the negative connotations of the old Mustache Pete system of one-man rule. Luciano became the first chairman in 1931, but it remains unknown who took over after he was deported back to Italy in 1946. Joe Massino was the last verified chairman before he flipped in 2005.

* '''[[TheConsigliere Consigliere]]''' - [[RuleOfThree The third-in-command]] of a Mafia family, they're an advisor or counselor to the boss, with the additional responsibility of representing the family in Commission meetings. In theory, he is [[HonestAdvisor one of the few allowed to argue with the boss]], when he thinks what the boss is doing could destroy the family. Most "consigliere" types in media (such as [[TropeMaker Tom Hagen]]) are actually based on Mob ''lawyers''. Though the Commission specified a counselor in each family to act as their eyes and ears, most IRL mob bosses saw it as a lower-level position for a veteran who knows the ins and outs of the family's power, but [[TheCreon does not wish to rise]] for whatever reason. Chicago would be a subversion, with the "consigliere" being a sort of "boss emeritus" aka capo consigliere; mobsters Tony Accardo and Paul Ricca held this title and [[TheManBehindTheMan dominated]] the Chicago Outfit for nearly 50 years while letting lower-level capos front as the boss. Nicky Scarfo was another subversion, as he became the boss of Philadelphia when the previous boss was assassinated while the underboss was banished to Florida. A consigliere generally has one soldier underneath him as an aide-de-camp and source of additional income; the lack of attachment to a crew supposedly makes him more "impartial" and obviously makes him less powerful. Like the underboss, some consiglieri are mere mouthpieces for the boss, while others can be quite influential.

* '''Soldier''' - a ''soldato'', "wiseguy", "button man", or "made guy." This is the lowest level of mobster who is considered an official member of the "family". Soldiers must take an oath in which they've sworn to follow the rules of the Mafia (such as ''omertà''), and with a few exceptions, must kill a person in order to be considered "made."[[note]]Since talking about killings is considered verboten, there's a bit of leeway with this requirement. When exceptions do occur, it's invariably because the man in question has brought in a ''lot'' of money for the "family".[[/note]] It gives them the full protection of the family in question. Killing or assaulting a soldier, or even infringing on their turf is a big no-no, as the offender will meet a violent end even if they had a legitimate grievance. Made men will refer to each other as "a friend of ours" — which means anything can be openly discussed. Out of protocol, two made men must always be formally introduced by a third party known to both sides, even if they're father and son. ''Picciotto'' is used within the Sicilian Mafia and indicates someone of a lower rank than that of ''Soldato''. In the American Mafia, only males of Italian descent can become a made man. Another caveat is that only the Commission approves who can join, as the list of wannabes gets passed on amongst the families to reject undesirables (cops, informants, etc.).
* '''Associates''' - "''Giovane d'onore''" (man of honor), "''cugino''" (cousin), or "connected guy". An associate is a person who is not a soldier in a crime family, but works for them and shares in the execution of and profits from the criminal enterprise. In Italian criminal organizations, "associates" are usually members of the criminal organization who are not of Italian descent, or junior members who may someday rise to become soldiers for the family; this process can take a decade or longer depending upon the family and the individual's qualifications. It can also be tricky sometimes, as associates with a history of making serious money often commanded respect beyond their title. Distinctions are drawn between those associates loosely associated with a family versus those who are "on record" with a specific made guy — the latter are more tightly controlled in their dealings and are usually prime candidates for membership. American mafiosi may refer to an associate as "a friend of mine," a quiet warning to watch what is said in their presence as the person is an outsider. ''Giovane d'onore'' is unique to the Camorra. Non-Italians will never go beyond this rank, but many of them, such as Meyer Lansky, Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, Bugsy Siegel, Bumpy Johnson, and Mickey Cohen were widely respected and even earned the respect of actual mafiosi. Although Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were not inducted as they were NYPD officers, they solicited their services to the New York mob as cold-blooded hitmen.

At one point, there were 26 Mafia families in the United States, though many have since become defunct or are in decline because of increased law enforcement scrutiny, internal warfare, a decline in racketeering activities, not enough pool of wannabes to draw from, or old age.

Many of the family's earliest members came from Castellammare del Golfo, a seaside town in western Sicily, and settled down in Williamsburg, including family namesake Joe Bonanno. It was also very tight-knit and considered to be the most Sicilian of the Five Families as most of them were Castellammarese or had personal ties to that town (and the family still has links to its place of origin). Eventually, the family came under Sal Maranzano's sway, who came to America after escaping from Mussolini in the 1920s, fancied himself as the mob's UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, and used a phony real estate development company as a cover for his illegal rackets. But Joe "the Boss" Masseria, head of the Morello gang, saw Maranzano and the Castellammarese Clan as a growing threat to his power base and tried to violently shake them down. Maranzano resisted, and this led to a bloody MobWar that only ended with Masseria's death in 1931.\\

With Maranzano dead, his apprentice Joe Bonanno took over in late 1931. While he claimed ignorance on his mentor's death, it is implied that he secretly (albeit reluctantly) went along with the hit given that in the tell-all he wrote years later, he mentioned that Maranzano feared that the Young Turks' willingness to work with other ethnic gangs went against the Sicilian values he wanted to retain. Nicknamed "Joe Bananas" because it implied he was crazy, Bonanno forged close ties with bosses of his generation like Luciano and Costello, knowing the money he would rake in by openly working with other gangs. He even became a major drug lord despite blatantly denying any involvement, working with other criminal gangs to smuggle heroin into America via the family's stranglehold on Canada. Because of his foray in drugs, the Bonannos were pejoratively nicknamed the "Heroin" family. He also aggressively expanded in areas such as Wisconsin and Arizona, making his peers feel that he's trying to steal their rackets by "planting flags all over the world." And like his deceased mentor, Bonanno harbored a desire to become the boss of bosses by attempting to take over the Commission and killing rivals he despised in the 1960s.\\

But Bonanno's plan came to a sputtering halt when Joe Colombo, a capo in the Profaci family and the designated gunman, instead spilled the beans to the Commission. Bonanno was ordered to come forward several times, but he was a no-show and simply went AWOL in late 1964. At the same time, he was facing a federal subpoena investigating his racketeering activities. While Bonanno later claimed in a TV interview that he was picked up by the Buffalo mob, it certainly was a {{Blatant Lie|s}} as everyone in the mob thought it was a FakedKidnapping. It is very likely that during this 19-month period, Bonanno hid in various safehouses both in the States and Canada with armed bodyguards as he was a marked man. After months of no word from Bonanno, the Commission named Gaspar [=DiGregorio=] (who was already dismayed at Bonanno for making his son Bill the family consigliere) as the new boss in 1965, but it wasn't acknowledged by Bonanno's son, triggering an internal MobWar. However, virtually no action took place until an attempted sit-down in early 1966 resulted in a shootout. Nobody was killed, but the Commission shelved [=DiGregorio=]. The bungled hit on Bill also forced Joe to come out of hiding, and the shootings then intensified. The war only ended when Joe and his sons Bill and Joe Jr. were forcibly exiled to Arizona in late 1968, while Paul Sciacca, a [=DiGregorio=] loyalist, was named the new boss.\\

With Rastelli in damage control mode, the other families viewed the Bonannos as pariahs and feared his overreliance on "junk men" to make up for the losses could endanger them. By then, the Bonannos became the ButtMonkey of the mob, but it actually benefited them as they were the only family to avoid an indictment on the Commission Case, allowing them to quietly rebuild their power base while the other families were hammered with long prison sentences and mobsters turning rat. Although Rastelli was initially indicted in the Commission Case, he was removed due to being sentenced on separate labor racketeering charges in 1986. In 1991, Rastelli died a few weeks after being given a compassionate release, allowing his acolyte Joe Massino to take over as boss.\\

But as time passed, it slowly became a [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood generational conflict]] between the old guard Sicilian mafiosi, derisively nicknamed Mustache Petes, and [[YoungGun a new faction of younger, Americanized mobsters called the Young Turks]]. Led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the Young Turks believed that the Mustache Petes refused to accept American customs. To do this however, Luciano had to kill his own boss in order to make peace with Maranzano. So Masseria was taken out to a Coney Island restaurant in April of 1931, where he was killed while playing cards with Luciano. Reportedly, Luciano excused himself to the restroom, when Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis abruptly burst in and clipped Masseria.\\

After Masseria's death, Maranzano hosted a CriminalConvention in upstate New York. Despite introducing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia and the totem pole hierarchy to insulate bosses from the law, he [[ItsAllAboutMe declared himself]] the mob's KingOfThieves, rankling other mafiosi and reneging on the peace deal he made with Luciano, who wanted a power-sharing arrangement. Maranzano also hated Luciano's association with Jewish mobsters and wanted to gobble up the Garment District rackets that Luciano owned. Realizing [[FullCircleRevolution they just replaced one despot with another]] and that Maranzano was just another Mustache Pete at heart, the Young Turks decide to kill him. Leveraging the fact that he was facing an IRS audit like Capone to their advantage, they sent hitmen disguised as tax agents to his office in September of 1931. Despite putting up a fight, Maranzano was garroted, stabbed and shot multiple times.\\

With the old guard out of the way, it paved the path for Luciano's rise to power. Disliking the old practice of having a mob overlord, he restructured the Mafia by introducing a Commission to resolve disputes among the various families. He also branched out to work with other ethnic mobs, including the [[KosherNostra Jewish mafia]] (particularly fellow Young Turk [[TheConsigliere Meyer Lansky]]) and [[TheIrishMob the Irish Mob]], to form a [[TheSyndicate National Crime Syndicate]]. To ensure the other mobsters fell in line, Luciano even formed a Brooklyn-based gang of Italian and Jewish gunmen, later dubbed "MurderInc" by the press, to function as the Syndicate's enforcement arm. Led by Albert Anastasia and Louis Buchalter, Murder Inc. may have committed as many as 900 murders between 1931 and 1951. Plus, the money Luciano and his allies earned from traditional crimes enabled them to expand into areas such as labor unions, construction, and political corruption.\\

Knowing what happened to Masseria and Maranzano when they declared themselves boss of bosses — the power went to their heads and they immediately ill-treated their henchmen — Luciano decided it'd be better to rule by consensus rather than have a supreme leader. The Commission serves as a board of trustees, where the various bosses would resolve issues, pass ukases that affect the Mafia, and vote on things that required inter-family cooperation. This way, the mob could operate more efficiently rather than waging turf wars that not only attracted attention, but also slowed everything down. Also, the bosses were to hold meetings every five years to talk about issues plaguing the underworld unless an emergency that needed everyone's attention. The original Commission in 1931 composed of the Five Families, the Buffalo Arm and the Chicago Outfit, though other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have had Commission seats at times. Being first among equals, Luciano became the Commission's first chairman.\\

Being an [[EqualOpportunityEvil equal-opportunity gangster]], Luciano encouraged his peers to work with each other and with other ethnic groups, noting how older mafiosi opposed their younger members' desire to work with other ethnic gangs, let alone fellow Italians. The Young Turks wanted to branch out, knowing the many ways they could rake in money, but were frequently stymied by the Mustache Petes, who felt these outsiders weren't a part of their world and distrusted them. The Young Turks soon concluded that these dinosaurs were too dead-set and archaic in their mindset to see the boons of working with each other and with non-Italians. Luciano also believed that the initiation ceremony was a Sicilian anachronism that didn't relate to the business-oriented American lifestyle. However, Lansky and Genovese persuaded Luciano to keep the ritual, arguing that they needed it to promote obedience and to placate Sicilians. Luciano remained committed to omertà to protect the families from legal prosecution and retained the structure that Maranzano established.\\

By the late 1950s, Batista, who was becoming increasingly unpopular with the lower and middle classes, was in the midst of trying to suppress a nascent communist rebellion led by UsefulNotes/FidelCastro. Despite generous support from the CIA to have the rebellion crushed, Batista hightailed to Portugal in 1959, allowing Castro to seize power and align Cuba with the Soviet Union instead of the West. Viewing them as symbols of capitalist decadence and immorality, Castro then nationalized all American-owned industries and shuttered the Mafia's rackets, causing the mob to lose millions and set their eyes on Las Vegas, as well as work with the CIA in having Castro overthrown, but those attempts later became PR disasters, especially when the Americans severed all diplomatic ties (until 2015) and imposed an economic embargo that still stands to this day. Despite the setback they had in Cuba, they soon set their sights on Las Vegas, especially when Nevada legalized gambling. Because of the tremendous money-making opportunities in Vegas, the Commission declared it to be open turf not under the control of any family, meaning that any family crew can set up shop there.\\

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but it immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and felt that their competitors would crush them if they didn't join, while those opposed thought it would bring heat. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began dealing with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep with drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped up charges of drug dealing. Despite a ''de jure'' "ban" on drug-running being imposed in the 1950s, mafiosi often dealt on the sly and bosses looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut of the loot.\\

[[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee High-profile hearings]] led by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) in 1951 determined that a vast criminal conspiracy operated by Italians did exist, but it did nothing to dent the Mafia. It was the [[CriminalConvention Apalachin Summit in late 1957]] that really confirmed [[NoMereWindmill the Mafia's]] existence. It was set up by Genovese, who aimed to wrest control of the Luciano family from Frank Costello and become the KingOfThieves after killing Anastasia, boss of the Mangano (now Gambino) family in October 25, 1957. Around 100 mobsters attended the meeting at the ranch of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre mafia boss Joe Barbara in upstate New York, but things went awry when a curious state trooper got wind of the expensive cars at the ranch. Many mafiosi tried to scurry away in haste, but more than 60 mobsters were caught including Genovese himself. Others nabbed include Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, Giuseppe Profaci and Santo Trafficante. Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Sam Giancana eluded capture, but Joe Bonanno wasn't so lucky, as [[BlatantLies he was captured in a nearby cornfield despite claiming to visit a friend]]. Genovese ended up taking the blame, being carted off to jail for presumably trumped-up drug trafficking charges in 1959. Despite the attendees' convictions, they were overturned on appeal as there was no proof of wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, it was very damaging for a criminal syndicate that valued secrecy. The stress from Apalachin and a drastic loss in personal wealth caused Joe Barbara to die in 1959.\\

Initially, the Commission Case included the higher-ups of the Five Families at the time, but Rusty Rastelli was removed early on as he was indicted on a separate labor racketeering case. This enabled the Bonannos to suffer less exposure than the other families. Neil Dellacroce died of cancer in December 1985 before he could be sentenced, while Paul Castellano was gunned down that same month while out on bail. Anthony Salerno's status as a "front" boss for Chin Gigante didn't jeopardize his trial as he was charged for specific criminal acts, not for being the Genovese family boss. The Supreme Court later upheld his conviction in 1987.\\

With many mobsters facing life imprisonment, they simply began to spill the beans left and right in 1990s. Aside from Joe Valachi, among the more notable [[TheStoolPigeon stool pigeons]] was Sammy Gravano, whose testimony helped take down John Gotti, Vincent Gigante and others in the 1990s. Joe Massino was another example, when he became the first official boss to become an informant in 2005. Other tactics used in obtaining information included constant surveillance of mob haunts, using lip-reading experts, eavesdropping on Mafia social clubs and haunts via "bugs" and tapped phones, and having someone wear a HiddenWire or TrackingDevice, though that ran the risk of them getting killed if a "pat-down" was done and the person was forced to strip down.\\

Originally a small and fairly-well organized gang of Sicilian mafiosi hailing from the town of Villabate (not far from Palermo), the crime family was originally known as the Profaci crime family after the first boss, Giuseppe Profaci, who established good ties with Joe Bonanno, the boss of the Bonanno crime family at the time; he also became close with the Detroit mob after two of his daughters married the sons of mobsters Bill Tocco and Joe Zerilli. Profaci also gained more territory for his small gang in Brooklyn after Joe Masseria had rival mob boss Salvatore D'Aquila whacked in 1928. Despite Masseria's attempts to strongarm his rackets, Profaci resisted and stayed neutral ostensibly. In actuality, he secretly aligned himself with the Castellammarese Clan due to his ties with Bonanno while also becoming a wealthy man thanks to his olive oil and tomato paste businesses, which served as covers for his rackets (and still exist to this day as his relatives still own the Italian olive oil brand Colavita).\\

On the flip side, [[BadBoss Profaci]] was quite the [[TheScrooge arrogant skinflint]] in mob circles, even going so far to demand a $25 monthly "tax" from his men but paying chump change to them. The "tribute" was supposedly a war chest to bribe crooked officials and foot the legal bills of imprisoned soldiers, but Profaci hoarded most of it to himself, which became a source of contention in the late 1950s. The rising dissent against Profaci finally burst open at the seams when he abruptly balked at giving Joe Gallo a lucrative numbers racket formerly owned by Brooklyn-based capo Frank "Shots" Abbatemarco, who was killed for not paying the "tribute" Profaci always demanded from his men. Gallo was widely considered to be a hot-headed capo and the alleged gunman behind the Albert Anastasia hit[[note]]though it's also speculated that Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino recruited disgruntled mafiosi from within the Mangano family to do the job as Gambino felt Anastasia was too reckless and reportedly had a civilian murdered in 1952. Another theory speculates the New England Mafia had a hand in Anastasia's murder.[[/note]].\\

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership at random — one cannot just voluntarily join. In order to be inducted, the inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though it has loosened over time, some families are more strict on whom they want to bring in than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, thought it has oftentimes been flouted for corrupt cops. To get in to the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

To become made, a candidate would have to be sponsored or "put on record" by a made man, generally a capo or soldier. Prior to the Donnie Brasco scandal, only one sponsor was needed, but this forced the Mafia to now require an associate to get at least two sponsors who know his abilities for several years. Although a capo or other senior member will determine the prospect's credibility, it's the boss who makes the final decision.\\

When the crime family "opens the books," the associate will get a call telling him to get ready and be dressed. He is then taken to a pre-selected and covert place for the ceremony. The family higher-ups, and some of the capos and soldiers sit in a circle, as well as other inductees if they're joining in as well. The boss then asks the other members if they have reservations about the candidate, to which they say no. The associate is then told that this is a [[CovertGroup closed and secret society]], they must follow the Mafia's rules, [[ResignationsNotAccepted the only way out is in a box]], and [[LoyalToThePosition this 'thing of ours' comes before your blood family]].\\

The details of a Mafia induction ceremony were a closely guarded secret for years. But in 1963, Valachi's testimony shed a light on the mob (the FBI had obtained similar information from mob informer Greg Scarpa Sr. several years before, but it wasn't known until much later). Furthermore, the FBI managed to successfully bug an initiation ceremony of New England's Patriarca crime family in 1989, but the Patriarcas were humiliated when this was exposed. Although the FBI pulled out Joe Pistone before he could become made, it wasn't until 2005 when the FBI finally managed to have another undercover agent get inducted into the Gambino family. The inductions described above is the rite conducted by the Sicilian Mafia as well as most American Mafia families. Circumstances can alter some of the details of the ceremony, such as an induction in prison or a quick induction during a gang war.\\

As described above in the bugged induction ceremony in 1989, the tapes revealed that mafiosi felt a sense of kinship when they joined, as it most likely came about because they placed a vow to stay loyal. The oaths themselves talk about family bonds and the rules of secrecy represent the family loyalty as well as a sense of self-preservation. Despite all the differences between the mafiosi in both Italy and America, there is a sense of brotherhood.

* '''[[KingOfThieves Capo di tutti capi]]''' - the Boss of all Bosses in a particular area. More a media title than anything of significance, bosses are seen as ''peers'' and don't pay tribute to or take orders from each other. The only boss to ever claim this title for himself was Sal Maranzano after [[WonTheWarLostThePeace "winning"]] the Castellammarese War in 1931, getting to enjoy it for less than six months. Before long, the Young Turks thought he was similar to Masseria, deciding to [[DeadlyEuphemism retire]] the title and Maranzano along with it. An older term, ''capo consigliere'', denoted first among equals of the New York bosses, who would arbitrate disputes between families; this went by the wayside during the Castellammarese War and was never reestablished afterwards.

* '''[[TheDon Boss]]''' - The official head of a particular family. "Don" is an honorific, not a title: in today's Italy, it's reserved to ''priests''. Since families in Sicily are more numerous and smaller than those in America, the title isn't as distinguished, although the boss still has paramount authority within his turf. He is the only one who can authorize hits on people under his family's protection and decide who can be inducted. Being the top decision-maker of a family, other duties include holding sit-downs, relaying orders down the chain of command, receiving a tribute from the family's capos (and rarely, soldiers and associates serving directly under him), and promoting or demoting family members at will. While only the Commission can authorize a hit on bosses, they've turned a blind eye occasionally, particularly if the boss wasn't popular. A boss will typically use the pecking order to stymie efforts to arrest him, making it quite difficult to directly implicate him in a crime as he relays it down the chain of command. If there is no boss, the underboss typically takes charge in an acting capacity, but the Commission has to approve it after the family capos are polled on who should take over.

Gotti took over after Castellano's assassination, but his tenure was marred by frequent indictments as he was under intense FBI scrutiny since the 1970s, assassination attempts by rival mob bosses who were outraged at the unsanctioned hit on Castellano (particularly Chin Gigante, who was quite close with Big Paul), and his media-hungry profile. Many of his own henchmen and contemporaries hated him for his flamboyant personality, and by the early 1990s, his underboss Sammy Gravano, [[DefectorFromDecadence fed up]] with his boss's antics, [[TheStoolPigeon decided to]] spill the beans about Gotti's crimes. Though Joe Massino was a staunch supporter of Gotti as both began their mob careers as truck hijackers and Gotti at one point tried to have the Bonannos regain their Commission seat, their relations slowly became strained in the 1990s as Massino feared that Gotti had planned to kill him and elevate his brother-in-law Sal Vitale as boss of the Bonannos. Gotti was imprisoned for life in 1992 after ducking several attempts by federal prosecutors to have him indicted and died of cancer 10 years later.\\

Knowing what happened to Masseria and Maranzano when they declared themselves boss of bosses — the power went to their heads and they immediately ill-treated their henchmen — Luciano decided it's better off to rule by consensus rather than having a supreme leader. The Commission serves as a board of trustees, where the various bosses would resolve issues, pass ukases that affect the Mafia, and vote on things that required inter-family cooperation. This way, the mob could operate more efficiently rather than waging turf wars that not only attracted attention, but also slowed everything down. Also, the bosses were to hold meetings every five years to talk about issues plaguing the underworld unless an emergency that needed everyone's attention. The original Commission in 1931 composed of the Five Families, the Buffalo Arm and the Chicago Outfit, though other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have had Commission seats at times. Being first among equals, Luciano became the Commission's first chairman.\\

* Through a court order, RICO forces violators to forfeit illegal gains and post a performance bond in lieu of an asset freeze. It ensures there's something to seize so they can't be hidden before judgment.
* State-level crimes such as gambling can now be used as part of federal charges against a defendant. It was applied under the theory that the old crime is now being punished under the "enterprise" and "pattern of racketeering" elements of federal law and was exempt from double jeopardy, being tried twice for the same crime.
* Normally, a suspect must be charged within a certain time after the commission of most federal crimes. RICO expanded the StatuteOfLimitations to indefinite on a criminal basis, depending on when the last — not the first — crimes were committed for the entity.

Initially, the Commission Case included the higher-ups of the Five Families at the time, but Rusty Rastelli was removed from the trial as he was indicted in a separate labor racketeering case. This enabled the Bonanno family to suffer less exposure than the other families. Neil Dellacroce died of cancer in December 1985 before he could be sentenced, while Paul Castellano was gunned down that same month. Anthony Salerno's status as a "front" boss for Chin Gigante didn't jeopardize his sentence as Salerno stood trial for specific criminal acts, not for being the Genovese family boss. Salerno later appealed his case to the Supreme Court in 1987, but they upheld his conviction.\\

Knowing what happened to Masseria and Maranzano when they declared themselves boss of bosses — the power went to their heads and they immediately ill-treated their henchmen — Luciano decided it's better off to rule by consensus rather than having a supreme leader. The Commission serves as a board of trustees, where the various bosses would resolve issues, pass ukases that affect the Mafia, and vote on things that required inter-family cooperation. This way, the mob could operate more efficiently rather than waging turf wars that not only attracted attention, but also slowed everything down. Also, the bosses were to hold meetings every five years to talk about issues plaguing the underworld unless an emergency that needed everyone's attention. The original Commission in 1931 composed of the Five Families, the Buffalo Arm and the Chicago Outfit, though other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have had Commission seats at times.\\

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but it immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and not being involved meant that their competitors would crush them, while those opposed thought it would bring heat. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began dealing with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep with drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped up charges of drug dealing. Despite a ''de jure'' "ban" on drug-running being imposed in the 1950s, mafiosi often dealt on the sly and bosses looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut of the loot.\\

With Maranzano dead, his apprentice Joe Bonanno took over in late 1931. While he claimed ignorance on his mentor's death, it is implied that he secretly (albeit reluctantly) went along with the hit given that in the tell-all he wrote years later, he mentioned that Maranzano hated how younger mafiosi were willing to work with outside ethnic gangs, fearing it was against the traditional Sicilian values he wanted to retain. Nicknamed "Joe Bananas" because it implied he was crazy, Bonanno forged close ties with bosses of his generation like Luciano and Costello, knowing the money he would rake in by openly working with other gangs. He even became a major drug lord despite blatantly denying any involvement, working with other criminal gangs to smuggle heroin into America via the family's stranglehold on Canada. Because of his deep involvement in drugs, the Bonannos were pejoratively nicknamed the "Heroin" family. He also aggressively expanded in areas such as Wisconsin and Arizona, making his peers feel that he's trying to steal their rackets by "planting flags all over the world." And like his deceased mentor, Bonanno harbored a desire to become the boss of bosses by attempting to take over the Commission and killing rivals he despised in the 1960s.\\

After Bonanno's exile, the family had a revolving door of ineffectual bosses in the 1970s and it didn't end there. Although Sciacca was named boss in 1968, some of his capos attempted to kill him but they were eliminated. Sciacca himself was removed from power in 1971 after being imprisoned on narcotics trafficking charges. Natale Evola was named boss, but had a brief reign as he died of cancer in 1973. The Commission then appointed Philip "Rusty" Rastelli to head-up the troubled family, but Carmine Galante, Bonanno's former underboss, seized power despite no Commission backing. He even tried to anoint himself boss, but the Commission immediately had him killed in 1979 for many reasons, mainly that he didn't share any drug profits with the other families and murdered 8 members of the Gambinos. Despite this, renegade capos such as Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato still didn't accept Rastelli as boss and wanted to avenge Galante's death, almost thrusting the family into another internal MobWar, but the threat died out when Indelicato and two other capos were rubbed out by Rastelli's protege Joe Massino in 1981, forcing the remaining renegades to acknowledge Rastelli as don. However, the Film/DonnieBrasco incident, in which a FBI agent infiltrated one of the crews and almost got made, forced the Commission to remove the family from the panel, aside from the rampant heroin smuggling and the infighting that's been going on since 1964. Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, whose crew was unwittingly infiltrated by FBI agent Joe Pistone, ended up dead and his hands chopped off as a warning to never shake hands with cops, while several wiseguys tied to Sonny Black were either killed, demoted in rank or imprisoned.\\

With Rastelli in damage control mode, the other families viewed the Bonannos as pariahs and feared his overreliance on "junk men" to make up for the losses could endanger them. By then, the Bonannos became the ButtMonkey of the mob, but it actually benefited them as they were the only family to avoid an indictment on the Commission Case, allowing them to quietly rebuild their power base while the other families were hammered with long prison sentences and mobsters turning rat.\\

After Rastelli's death in 1991, Joe Massino took over as boss. Massino quickly worked to rebuild the family to its former glory by adding new made men and expanding into white-collar rackets such as union racketeering and securities fraud. Wary of the surveillance that took down his contemporaries (notably John Gotti and Vincent Gigante), Massino shunned the usual haunts, avoided using phones as he knew they could be bugged, arranged meetings in remote and/or unusual locations by passing them off as "family vacations," and used a clandestine cell system for his crews to reduce contact with other wiseguys however possible. By doing so, it enabled Massino to fly below the radar while his peers faced long prison sentences. Upset at family namesake Joe Bonanno's tell-all book and how it was used in the Commission Case, Massino tried to rename the family after himself, but it didn't catch on outside the mob. Pulling a page from Chin Gigante, Massino ordered his men to touch their ears when referencing him, causing the FBI to mockingly nickname him "the Ear" when they heard about it.\\

Originally a small and fairly-well organized gang of Sicilian mafiosi hailing from the town of Villabate (not far from Palermo), the crime family was originally known as the Profaci crime family after the first boss, Giuseppe Profaci, who established good ties with Joe Bonanno, the boss of the Bonanno crime family at the time; he also became close with the Detroit mob after two of his daughters married the sons of mobsters Bill Tocco and Joe Zerilli. Profaci also gained more territory for his small gang in Brooklyn after Joe Masseria had rival mob boss Salvatore D'Aquila whacked in 1928. Despite Masseria's attempts to strongarm his rackets, Profaci resisted, silently aligning himself with the Castellammarese Clan due to his ties with Bonanno while also becoming a wealthy man thanks to his olive oil and tomato paste businesses, which served as covers for his rackets (and still exist to this day as his relatives still own the Italian olive oil brand Colavita).\\

On the flip side, [[BadBoss Profaci]] was quite the [[TheScrooge arrogant skinflint]] in mob circles, even going so far to demand a $25 monthly "tax" from his men but paying chump change to them. The "tribute" was supposedly a war chest to bribe crooked officials and foot the legal bills of imprisoned soldiers, but Profaci hoarded most of it to himself, which became a source of contention in the late 1950s. The rising dissent against Profaci finally burst open at the seams when he abruptly balked at giving Joe Gallo a lucrative numbers racket formerly owned by Brooklyn-based capo Frank "Shots" Abbatemarco, who was killed for not paying the "tribute" Profaci always demanded from his men. Gallo was widely considered to be a hot-headed capo and the alleged gunman behind the Albert Anastasia hit[[note]]though it's also speculated that Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino recruited disgruntled mafiosi from within the Mangano family to do the job as Gambino felt Anastasia was too reckless and reportedly had a civilian murdered in 1952. Another theory speculates that the New England Mafia had a hand in Anastasia's murder.[[/note]].\\

Carmine Persico took over the family in 1973, but used a series of "acting" bosses and ruling panels to rule the Colombos as he spent much of the time being jailed or on the lam. Persico and his acting boss, Gennaro "Jerry Lang" Langella, were later indicted on the Mafia Commission Case in 1986, facing 100+ year life sentences. Many have pointed out that the Colombos suffered more long-term damage than any other family as a result of the trial as Persico was younger than his peers. To retain his grip on the family, Persico even groomed his son Alphonse as his heir, but Allie Boy skipped bail and was convicted in a separate racketeering trial. Persico then nominated his cousin Victor Orena as a [[MookLieutenant fill-in]] and granted him two powers rarely given to acting bosses — inducting new members and ordering hits. It was a Catch-22 as Persico made it clear that Orena's role was temporary until his son's release.\\

Gambino, the family's namesake and Anastasia's successor, led it to prosperous times thanks [[VillainousFriendship to his strong ties with Tommy Lucchese]]. Both of them would further solidify this alliance into a relationship when Gambino's son Thomas married one of Lucchese's daughters in 1962. Not only that, he also started inducting Sicilian mobsters ("Zips") in an aggressive effort to expand into international rackets and smuggle in heroin despite the so-called "ban." To further strengthen his grip on the family, he even promoted his cousin Paul Castellano as street boss, and commanded an army of roughly 450 made men and 2,000 wannabes. Remembering how past attempts to dominate the mob through violence failed spectacularly, Gambino became the Mafia's ''de facto'' [[TheChessmaster grandmaster]] through silent manipulation, while the other families in New York and elsewhere were facing various problems such as turf wars, legal issues or leadership crises. But before he died in 1976, Gambino made his biggest mistake by naming Castellano as successor over his underboss (and the preferred choice) Neil Dellacroce, who was imprisoned at the time for tax evasion.\\

This rankled the blue-collar, pro-Dellacroce faction, as they contemptuously thought of Castellano as a pampered YesMan who got the job due to nepotism despite being a big earner for the family. Castellano took control of the "white collar crimes" that included construction, labor unions, garbage hauling, and other big money rackets, while Dellacroce retained the "bread-and-butter" activities such as bookmaking, loansharking, auto theft, and gambling. To keep a check on Dellacroce's acolyte, the brash John Gotti, Castellano relied on the Roy [=DeMeo=] crew, while also allying with an Irish gang called the Westies in construction rackets. Though he disapproved of Gambino's choice of picking Castellano as boss, Dellacroce still managed to keep the peace between the two factions for the next 9 years until his death from cancer in 1985. Even then, there were simmering tensions between Gotti and Castellano, as the latter became increasingly greedy and reclusive. Castellano even demanded higher tributes instead of the usual 10% in some cases and though there was an unofficial "ban" placed by Gambino, who ordered his men not to get caught dealing drugs, this was often ignored as even Castellano hypocritically accepted drug payments from several of his capos, including the Zip faction, and from the Gotti and Roy [=DeMeo=] crews.\\

* '''[[KingOfThieves Capo di tutti i capi]]''' - the Boss of all Bosses in a particular area. More a media title than anything of significance, bosses are seen as ''peers'' and don't pay tribute to or take orders from each other. The only boss to ever claim this title for himself was Sal Maranzano after [[WonTheWarLostThePeace "winning"]] the Castellammarese War in 1931, and he got to enjoy it for less than six months. Before long, the Young Turks thought Maranzano was similar to Masseria, and they decided to [[DeadlyEuphemism retire]] the title and Maranzano along with it. An older term, ''capo consigliere'', denoted first among equals of the New York bosses, who would arbitrate disputes between families; this went by the wayside during the Castellammarese War and was never reestablished afterwards.

After Masseria's death, Maranzano hosted a CriminalConvention in upstate New York. Despite introducing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia and the totem pole hierarchy to insulate bosses from the law, he [[ItsAllAboutMe declared himself]] the mob's KingOfThieves, rankling other mafiosi and reneging on the peace deal he made with Luciano, who wanted a power-sharing arrangement. Maranzano also hated Luciano's association with Jewish mobsters and wanted to gobble up the Garment District rackets that Luciano owned. Realizing [[FullCircleRevolution they just replaced one despot with another]] and that Maranzano was just another Mustache Pete at heart, the Young Turks decide to kill him. leveraging the fact that he was facing an IRS audit like Capone to their advantage before he gets them, they sent hitmen disguised as tax agents to his office in September of 1931. Despite putting up a fight, Maranzano was garroted, stabbed and shot multiple times.\\

Though Gotti's brother Peter took over in 2002 and ran the family even behind bars until his death in 2021, the Zips are now the dominant faction and have adopted a low profile. In March 2019, Frank "Frankie Boy" Cali, the street boss for the family, was murdered outside his home, which became the first murder of a boss since the Castellano hit. Initially thought to have been ordered internally by rival mobsters, the threat seemed to have subsided when it turned out a lone gunman obsessed with the debunked far-right [=QAnon=] conspiracy theory was responsible for the Cali hit, though fears still remain that he could be killed as outsiders usually meet a violent end if a made man is killed without authorization. Dominick "Italian Dom" Cefalù, the capo of the Zip crew, has taken over as the new don after Peter Gotti's death.

* '''Genovese crime family''' - Large presence in Manhattan (Little Italy, 116th Street/East Harlem, Lower East Side, Greenwich Village and the Manhattan/New Jersey waterfronts), the Bronx (Morris Park, Pelham Bay and Arthur Avenue), Westchester, northern New Jersey and Connecticut, with smaller crews and factions in Queens, Brooklyn and Florida (the family also has a small crew in Springfield, Massachusetts). Regarded as the Ivy League of organized crime, the family is still the strongest and biggest of the Five Families, as the roster has historically varied from 250 to 450 made men; current membership is around 250-275 made men.\\

Although Genovese was the prime candidate to succeed Luciano, he himself faced a murder indictment and fled to Italy in 1937, so the family was taken over by Costello, a key political fixer. Costello had huge gambling and white-collar rackets in New York City, and was always craving to go legitimate. It was once said that no municipal official or politician could accept their position without securing Costello's personal backing. He even had behind-the-scenes influence over Tammany Hall (the local Democratic political machine) through proxies such as Carmine [=DeSapio=] and Robert Wagner. But the Kefauver hearings in 1951 were aimed at proving that a secretive Italian organized crime conspiracy existed in the United States, and Costello's reputation took a big hit because of this. By the late 1950s, he faced a growing threat from Vito Genovese, who felt he should be boss while silently eliminating allies of Costello after returning to the United States in 1945, most notably William "Willie Moore" Moretti, Costello's underboss. By 1957, Genovese, with the sufficient backing of Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, then ordered a hit on Costello in May, though Costello manages to survive the hit by getting away with only a scalp wound thanks to the gunman's unintentional warning, and steps down to avoid further bloodshed.\\

Taking over after Costello's forced retirement, Genovese then ordered a hit on rival mob boss Albert Anastasia and called for a national mob meeting to explain the [[EvilPowerVacuum growing power vacuum]] in New York that's been ongoing since the botched hit on Costello and consolidate his power base in late 1957. But the Apalachin Meeting turned into a debacle as it exposed the Mafia to outside scrutiny for the first time and the other bosses (notably Gambino and Lucchese, who switched sides and supported Costello, Luciano and Lansky) had him falsely implicated on drug charges. To make matters worse, a low-level mob soldier named [[TheStoolPigeon Joe Valachi]] became the first made man to [[TheInformant testify about the American Mafia's inner workings in front of a Congressional panel]]. Valachi feared Genovese ordered a hit on him, but the threat of the death penalty became his rationale to cooperate with federal authorities in 1963. While there were other mafiosi who were secretly passing intel to the FBI, Valachi became the first to openly admit being one. Although his disclosures never led to any major prosecutions, Valachi gave a good glimpse of the Mafia's inner workings. Genovese continued to rule the family from prison via ruling panels and acting bosses until his death in 1969.\\

After Genovese died, the family was nominally led by a ruling panel of "dummy" bosses, but the real man in charge was Philip "Cockeyed Phil" Lombardo, the family's street boss since 1962. A reclusive man who who hated attention, Lombardo took a relaxed approach in doing things and used a committee of high-ranking capos as fronts to shield himself so the FBI would go after the wrong man while he remained hidden. Even then, Lombardo made it clear to them that they were required to get his approval before making any major decision. This elaborate ruse appeared to have worked for him, as Lombardo was never caught and retired a free man in 1981 by appointing Vincent Gigante, the alleged gunman behind the Costello hit, as his successor. To disguise this transition, Lombardo also designated Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno as the new "front" boss. While it was originally thought that Salerno and the "dummy" bosses before him were running the show, Salerno's protege Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro, who had turned informer in 1986, revealed that this ruse was going on since 1969.\\

Chin Gigante proved to be even more cautious and shadowy than Lombardo. He also ruled through "Fat Tony" Salerno, but that was just the start. Not only did he limit his contact with his underlings to some of his cronies, he rarely spoke louder than a whisper, insisted that nobody in the mob ever mention his name, and ordered his men to beat up anyone who defied his warning. Others got around this by pointing to their chins, making "C" shapes with their hands, or using the SpeakOfTheDevil trope as indirect references.[[note]]"Chin" was a childhood nickname for Gigante, whose mother had shouted his name in the old-fashioned Italian way as "vin-CHEN-zo!"[[/note]] He also shielded himself from law enforcement scrutiny via ObfuscatingInsanity and PlayingSick, and rarely ventured outside for fear the feds could covertly plant bugs. It worked until 1997, when he was imprisoned for multiple racketeering and murder charges, and finally admitted to pulling the "crazy stunt" as a way to throw off investigators for years in 2003.[[note]]Ironically, some have suggested this admission was proof that he actually ''was'' nuts, since he seemed to be on the verge of getting acquitted on the basis of insanity...though it could be that he figured he could keep running family from prison, but would have a harder time doing so from a mental hospital[[/note]] Besides that, Gigante tried to murder John Gotti for killing his own boss in 1986, though he came off as a hypocrite since he actually partook in the unsanctioned attempted hit on Frank Costello in 1957, who barely escaped with a scalp wound.\\

Gigante ran the family from prison until his death in 2005. Since his death, the family now uses a committee of capos to manage its daily affairs with Liborio "Barney" Bellomo (a protege of Gigante and capo of the 116th Street crew) at the helm in a manner reminiscent of Lombardo in the 1970s. Even after Chin's death, the family remains strong and successful because of its continued devotion to secrecy on top of the very few informants who have defected. The information lockdown makes it difficult to gain intel from informants or from wiretaps.

Lucchese died of cancer in 1967 and was replaced by Carmine Tramunti, who had a good relationship with the other bosses; Tramunti later branched out in construction and narcotics trafficking. Tony "Ducks" Corallo took over as boss in 1973 after Tramunti was indicted and convicted for narcotics trafficking in the infamous French Connection case. Corallo expanded the family's rackets in labor unions, construction, and garbage hauling. The latter became one of their prime rackets, what with a cartel of mob-linked haulers and unions forcing customers into using them. One waste hauler, Robert Kubecka and his brother-in-law Donald Barstow, were murdered by capo Sal Avellino when they repeatedly refused to join the mobbed-up cartel. Under Corallo's reign, one of the most notorious robberies took place - the Lufthansa Heist. The heist occurred when several truck hijackers linked to Jimmy "the Gent" Burke and Paul Vario ran off with nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry. Like his predecessors, Corallo took a laid-back approach in running the family, as he even was content with the reduced yearly tribute he got from the New Jersey faction. Though he never discussed business during sit-downs or on phones as he feared the conversations could be taped, Corallo used a car phone in his Jaguar. He was unaware the car itself was bugged by the New York state police's organized crime unit. The recordings were later used against him during the Commission Case[[note]]other bugs placed by the FBI included Paul Castellano's mansion in Staten Island, Fat Tony Salerno's social club in East Harlem, Colombo underboss Jerry "Lang" Langella's restaurant in Brooklyn, and Colombo capo Ralph Scopo's home. Scopo was included in the Commission Case due to his backdoor influence in construction unions. Through Scopo, the Five Families (except for the Bonannos, who were exiled from the Commission at this point) could extort contractors with a 2% kickback in exchange for no labor problems[[/note]].\\

When Paul Castellano was killed by John Gotti in late 1985, Corallo teamed up with Chin Gigante, boss of the Genovese family, to have Gotti and his loyalists killed for murdering a boss without Commission backing but failed several times as Gotti was surrounded by media all the time, though the Lucchese and Genovese hitmen do kill Gotti's underboss Frank [=DeCicco=] in April of 1986. Facing life imprisonment following the Commission Trial in 1987, Corallo named Victor Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso as the new boss and underboss respectively, but his replacements proved to be poor choices, as both of them were known to be violent hitmen and drug traffickers. Even worse, the duo came from the Brooklyn faction, while their predecessors came from the Bronx faction, causing many resentful wiseguys in the other crews to perceive them as interlopers who lacked the proper qualities of being mob leaders.\\

The Mafia solicits specific people for membership at random — one cannot just voluntarily join. In order to become a made man, the inductee must be a male of full Italian descent. Though it has loosened over time, some families are more strict on whom they want to bring in than others. An associate who was a cop or attended a police academy can never become an official member, thought it has oftentimes been flouted for corrupt cops. To get in to the Mafia's inner circles, one must prove they're a good earner, be on call at all times, and most importantly, follow any orders they get without hesitation.\\

To become made, a candidate would have to be sponsored or "put on record" by an officially made man, generally a capo or soldier. Prior to the Donnie Brasco scandal, only one sponsor was needed, but this forced the Mafia to now require an associate to get at least two sponsors who must have known him for several years and affirm his cred. Although a capo or other senior member will determine the prospect's credibility, it's the boss who makes the final decision.\\

Another serious threat to the Commission came from within, when Joe Bonanno planned to kill Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Los Angeles boss Frank [=DeSimone=] in 1963[[note]]Bonanno's beef with the Commission stems from feeling cornered by the rising alliance of Gambino and Lucchese, who backed the turf war within the Profaci family. He was also estranged with his cousin Magaddino by then, who felt Bonanno was encroaching on his Canadian turf by setting up shop in Montreal. Bonanno was quite greedy as he tried poaching Los Angeles for himself as he felt [=DeSimone=] was ineffectual. That Bonanno had a crew in Arizona made his fellow dons feel he would seize the entire West Coast for himself. Bonanno making his son Bill TheConsigliere over senior wiseguys also caused a stir as they thought Bill was too immature. Some of Bonanno's mooks felt that he prioritized Arizona over the New York City rackets. By rubbing out several of his peers, Bonanno hoped he would be the king of the underworld[[/note]]. To do this, he solicited Profaci boss Joe Magliocco's support, who farmed this out to Joe Colombo, but the opportunistic Colombo instead spilled the beans to the intended targets. The Commission demanded an explanation for this, but only Magliocco showed up while Bonanno ran away by staging his own kidnapping and later going into hiding. Magliocco was spared but was forcibly shelved, while Colombo took control of the Profaci family. Bonanno was eventually exiled to Arizona for good in 1968 when he negotiated a truce with the Commission.

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but it immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and not being involved meant that their competitors would crush them, while those opposed thought it would bring heat. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began dealing with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep with drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped up charges of drug dealing. Despite an unofficial "ban" on narcotics trafficking being imposed in the 1950s, many families often dealt on the sly and bosses looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut of the drug sales their men generated.\\

Thanks to stronger gambling control laws passed by the Nevada legislature in the 1970s, it allowed corporations to take over casinos, further weakening the Mafia's hold on Las Vegas. RICO cases against mobsters in other cities also weakened the Mafia in those areas. Its success in the Commission Case later enabled prosecutors to go after other criminal groups such as the Hells Angels and Latin Kings. The threat of RICO can force defendants to ConfessToALesserCrime as the asset seizure would make it hard to pay a defense attorney. Despite its harsh provisions, RICO can be easily proven as it focuses on psychological behavior and most offenses committed under it are considered inchoate[[note]]seeking to commit another crime such as conspiracy or being an accessory[[/note]].\\

* Through a court order, RICO forces violators to forfeit illegal gains and post a performance bond in lieu of an asset freeze. It ensures there's something to seize so they can't be whisked out of the country before judgment.

* Labor racketeering became a key component of RICO. Instead of criminal trials, prosecutors can request to have a union federally monitored. They only have to prove that the union was a front for illicit activities.

While the tactics used by law enforcement significantly crippled many Mafia families on both sides of the pond, the most powerful brugads remain dominant in their turf, even if the new laws put more mobsters in jail and made it harder to operate.

It was at this time that the Mafia started dabbling in drug-running, but it immediately split into two camps: those in favor believed it was a lucrative operation and not being involved meant that their competitors would crush them, while those opposed thought it would bring heat. Those in favor eventually won out, and many mobsters began dealing with other traffickers to import narcotics into America. Joe Bonanno had henchmen neck-deep with drugs to the point of establishing a crew in Canada to import heroin into the United States; this was the reason why the Bonannos were derisively nicknamed the Heroin family. Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino family, used Zips (imported Sicilian mafiosi) to import heroin via his cousins, while Vito Genovese was imprisoned on presumably trumped up charges of drug dealing. Despite an unofficial "ban" on narcotics trafficking being imposed in the 1950s, many families often dealt on the sly, and bosses such as Paul Castellano and Vincent Gigante looked the other way as long as nobody was pinched and they got their cut of the drug sales their men generated.\\

[[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee High-profile hearings]] led by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) in 1951 determined that a vast, behind-the-scenes criminal conspiracy operated by Italians did exist, but it did nothing to dent the Mafia. It was the [[CriminalConvention Apalachin Summit in late 1957]] that really confirmed [[NoMereWindmill the Mafia's]] existence. It was set up by Genovese, who aimed to wrest control of the Luciano family from Frank Costello and become the KingOfThieves after killing Anastasia, the boss of the Mangano (now Gambino) family in October 25, 1957. Around 100 mobsters attended the meeting at this small town in upstate New York, but it turned into a huge debacle when a curious state trooper got wind of it and sent in reinforcements to arrest them. More than 60 mobsters were caught including Genovese himself; others nabbed include Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, Giuseppe Profaci and Santo Trafficante. Tommy Lucchese, Steve Magaddino and Sam Giancana eluded capture, but Joe Bonanno wasn't so lucky, as [[BlatantLies he was captured in a nearby cornfield despite claiming to visit a friend]]. Genovese ended up taking the blame, and he ended up in prison for presumably trumped-up charges on drug trafficking in 1959. Despite the attendees' convictions, they were overturned on appeal as there was no evidence of any wrongdoing before the meeting was broken up. Even then, the fallout from Apalachin was very damaging for a criminal syndicate that valued secrecy.\\

Also at this time, President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was killed on November 22, 1963, halting the Valachi hearings for the time being. Although Lee Harvey Oswald was quickly identified as the gunman, numerous irregularities in the records — along with Oswald's ''own'' murder by a mob-linked nightclub owner named Jack Ruby — soon led to many {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s questioning WhoShotJFK. While the mob hated JFK's younger brother UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy for hounding them down since Apalachin, it remains controversial on whether a supposed clique (which sometimes included the Mafia itself) ordered JFK's death and is best discussed elsewhere.\\

Despite a sluggish start, law enforcement slowly began an aggressive effort into cracking down on organized crime, and the passage of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in 1970 allowed prosecutors to build cases against individual mobsters and their families. RICO also enabled states and other countries to model their own racketeering laws after it. By the 1980s, the feds were able to crack down on the Mafia's activities, culminating in the Commission Case, which was spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, an ambitious US attorney who contemptuously felt the mob was an eyesore for honest Italian Americans. Plus, the successful undercover operation by FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno family, irreparably shattered the myth that the mob was invincible. Also, former boss Joe Bonanno gave a TV interview on his tell-all book ''A Man of Honor'', but it only worsened things as Giuliani later used the TV interview in the Commission Trial while making him more loathsome in the eyes of his fellow mobsters, with some of them even saying that he shouldn't have written the book in the first place.\\

* On the grounds of ''respondeat superior'', an entire gang can be taken down rather than individuals, thus doing an ObviousRulePatch that allowed bosses to evade trials because they ''didn't'' commit the crime personally. Evidence that bosses got their cut or relayed orders was sufficient enough. Anyone ordering a crime involving the enterprise was as guilty as the actual culprit.

* State-level crimes such as arson and gambling can now be used as part of federal charges against a defendant. It was applied under the theory that the old crime is now being punished under the "enterprise" and "pattern of racketeering" elements of federal law, and was exempt from double jeopardy, being tried twice for the same crime.

* Labor racketeering became a key component of RICO. Instead of criminal trials, prosecutors can request to have a union federally monitored. They only have to prove that the unions were being used for illicit activities.

Siegel had been sent out to Las Vegas to oversee construction of the new Flamingo Hotel since the early 1940s. However, Luciano and his allies became increasingly wary of Siegel, wondering how the original budget of $1 million somehow ballooned to $6 million, and suspected he and his mistress Virginia Hill were skimming off mob money for their personal interests and planned to escape should the project fail. Despite Lansky's attempts to have Siegel spared, the bosses were tired of Siegel's mess and had him killed in his Los Angeles home by an unknown gunman on June 20, 1947. When the American government (especially the Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, whom Luciano pejoratively called him S.O.B. Asslinger when he was deported) got wind of Luciano staying in Cuba in hopes of sneaking back into the United States illegally, they immediately threatened to halt all medical supplies unless the Cubans expelled Luciano; the Cubans caved in and deported him to Genoa, Italy.\\

By the late 1950s, Batista, who was becoming increasingly unpopular with the lower and middle classes, was in the midst of trying to suppress a nascent communist rebellion led by UsefulNotes/FidelCastro. Despite generous support from the CIA to have the rebellion crushed, Batista hightailed to Portugal in 1959, allowing Castro to seize power and align Cuba with the Soviet Union instead of the West. Viewing them as symbols of capitalist decadence and immorality, Castro then nationalized all American-owned industries and shuttered the Mafia-owned businesses, causing the mob to lose millions and set their eyes on Las Vegas, as well as work with the CIA in having Castro overthrown, but those attempts later became PR disasters, especially when the Americans severed all diplomatic ties (until 2015) and imposed an economic embargo that still stands to this day. Despite the setback they had in Cuba, they soon set their sights on Las Vegas, especially when Nevada legalized gambling. Because of the tremendous money-making opportunities in Vegas, the Commission declared it to be open turf not under the control of any family, meaning that any family crew can set up shop there.\\

Across the pond, the Italian government itself had a sluggish start in the 1970s, but the repeated killings of prosecutors, cops, and civilians (sometimes in broad daylight) by the Corleonesi clan and its boss Salvatore Riina forced them to take a harder stance on the Sicilian mob and pass their version of the RICO Act. In fact, while the American Mafia generally shuns killing cops due to long prison sentences for even assaulting one, their Sicilian cousins have no qualms brazenly gunning down politicians or journalists. The crackdowns intensified with the Maxi Trials of the 1980s, in which 338 mafiosi received long sentences and their convictions upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Much of the evidence came from Tommaso Buscetta, who became an informant in 1984 [[TheDogBitesBack after several of his relatives were murdered]]. In retaliation, the two leading prosecutors in the Maxi Trials (Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino) were assassinated in separate car bombings in 1992. This resulted in more crackdowns, forcing the Sicilians to recede their illegal activities much further while letting other criminal groups take the heat. Later FBI memos revealed that the American and Sicilian mob bosses wanted to kill Giuliani for his role in the anti-Mafia operations, but backed out when warned of possible LE retaliation.\\

To frustrate the feds' efforts, the Mafia sometimes used WalkAndTalk to avoid being heard on bugs and prevent lip-reading experts from picking up their conversations by covering their mouths or whispering, shunned telephones for fear of having their convos taped, did "pat-downs" to see if someone is wearing a wire, used TroubleEntendre that won't hold up in court as a confession, and "swept" their LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub for bugs regularly. More bizarre cases to duck prosecution included invoking the 5th Amendment during government hearings, laying low to become fugitives, [[ObfuscatingInsanity feigned mental illness]] like Gigante, or a faked kidnapping like Bonanno.\\

After Rastelli's death in 1991, Joe Massino took over as boss. Massino quickly worked to rebuild the family to its former glory by adding new made men and expanding into white-collar rackets such as union racketeering and securities fraud. Wary of the surveillance that took down his contemporaries (notably John Gotti and Vincent Gigante), Massino shunned the usual haunts, avoided using phones as he knew they could be bugged, arranged family meetings in remote and/or unusual locations by passing them off as "family vacations," and used a clandestine cell system for his crews to reduce contact with other wiseguys however possible. By doing so, it enabled Massino to fly below the radar while his peers faced long prison sentences. Upset at family namesake Joe Bonanno's tell-all book and how it was used in the Commission Case, Massino tried to rename the family after himself, but it didn't catch on outside the mob. Pulling a page from Chin Gigante, Massino ordered his men to touch their ears when referencing him, causing the FBI to mockingly nickname him "the Ear" when they heard about it.\\

But this all came crashing down in 2002 when several of his button men actually flipped, especially Salvatore Vitale, who saw Massino as a BigBrotherMentor to him and was his NumberTwo. Their relationship became sour once Massino got out of jail in 1992 to the point Massino wanted him dead, and this became the ultimate catalyst for Vitale to flip in 2003. Massino faced life imprisonment, and it was upgraded to the death penalty in 2004 after one of the murders he ordered was linked to him. In hopes of saving his life, he became the first official boss of a crime family to turn rat, testifying against his handpicked successor Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano in 2005. Once again, the Bonannos are in shambles and still struggling to rebuild themselves to this day. The family is now headed by Michael Mancuso, who took over as boss following Basciano's imprisonment in 2013.\\

In 2020, an FBI investigation revealed that through their Zip crew, the Bonannos still maintain links to their place of origin in Sicily, as evidenced by documented meetings between mafioso Francesco Domingo and several members of the Bonanno family.

The Castellammarese War (as it was known because one of the warring factions came from Castellammare del Golfo, a seaside town in western Sicily) began when Joe "the Boss" Masseria, head of the Morello gang, bullied the other Italian gangs into paying a hefty "street tax" to him and hijacked their bootlegging rackets. But Salvatore Maranzano and his Castellammarese Clan openly defied Masseria's high-handedness, and soon enough, both sides went to war in 1929. While Masseria had a slight advantage in manpower, Maranzano's charisma and his gang's cohesiveness (as Castellammaresi domiciled in other cities such as Buffalo and Philly lent their support to Maranzano) evened out things.\\

But as time passed, it slowly became a [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood generational conflict]] between the old guard Sicilian mafiosi, derisively nicknamed Mustache Petes, and [[YoungGun a new faction of younger, Americanized mobsters called the Young Turks]]. Led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the Young Turks believed that the Mustache Petes were slow at adapting to American customs. To do this however, Luciano had to kill his own boss in order to make peace with Maranzano. So Masseria was taken out to a Coney Island restaurant in April of 1931, where he was killed while playing cards with Luciano. Reportedly, Luciano excused himself to the restroom, when Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel and Joe Adonis abruptly burst in and shot at Masseria.\\

After Masseria's death, Maranzano hosted a CriminalConvention in upstate New York. Despite introducing many of the rules that still govern the Mafia and the totem pole hierarchy to insulate bosses from the law, he [[ItsAllAboutMe declared himself]] the mob's KingOfThieves, rankling other mafiosi and reneging on the peace deal he made with Luciano, who wanted a power-sharing arrangement. Reportedly, Maranzano hated Luciano's association with Jewish mobsters and wanted to strongarm the Garment District rackets that Luciano controlled. Realizing [[FullCircleRevolution they just replaced one despot with another]] and that Maranzano was just another Mustache Pete at heart, the Young Turks decide to kill him. They knew he was facing an IRS audit like Capone before him, and leveraging this to their advantage before he gets to them, they sent hitmen disguised as tax agents to his office in September of 1931; despite putting up a fight, Maranzano was garroted, stabbed and shot multiple times.\\

With the old guard out of the way, it paved the path for Luciano's rise to power. As an alternative to the previous despotic practice of having a mob overlord, he restructured the mob by introducing a Commission to resolve disputes among the various families. He also branched out to work with other ethnic mobs, including the [[KosherNostra Jewish mafia]] (particularly fellow Young Turk [[TheConsigliere Meyer Lansky]]) and [[TheIrishMob the Irish Mob]], to form a [[TheSyndicate National Crime Syndicate]]. To ensure the other mobsters fell in line, Luciano even formed a Brooklyn-based gang of Italian and Jewish gunmen, later dubbed "MurderInc" by the press, to function as the Syndicate's enforcement arm. Led by Albert Anastasia and Louis Buchalter, Murder Inc. may have committed as many as 900 murders between 1931 and 1951. Plus, the money Luciano and his allies earned from traditional crimes enabled them to expand into other areas such as labor unions, construction, and political corruption.\\

Knowing what happened to Masseria and Maranzano when they declared themselves boss of bosses — the power went to their heads, and they immediately ill-treated their henchmen — Luciano decided it's better off to rule by consensus rather than having a supreme leader. The Commission serves as the mob's board of trustees, where the various bosses would resolve issues, pass ukases that affect the Mafia, and vote on things that required inter-family cooperation. This way, the mob could operate more efficiently rather than waging turf wars that not only attracted attention, but also slowed everything down. Also, the bosses were to hold meetings every five years to talk about issues plaguing the underworld unless an emergency that needed everyone's attention. The original Commission in 1931 composed of the Five Families, the Buffalo Arm and the Chicago Outfit, though other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have had Commission seats at times.\\

Being an [[EqualOpportunityEvil equal-opportunity gangster]], Luciano encouraged his peers to work with each other and with other ethnic groups, noting how older mafiosi opposed their younger members' desire to work with other ethnic gangs, let alone fellow Italians. The Young Turks wanted to branch out, knowing the many ways they could rake in money, but were frequently stymied by the Mustache Petes, who felt these outsiders weren't a part of their world and distrusted them. The Young Turks soon concluded that these dinosaurs were too dead-set and archaic in their mindset to see the boons of working with each other and with non-Italians. Luciano also believed that the initiation ceremony was a Sicilian anachronism that didn't relate to the business-oriented American lifestyle. However, Lansky and Genovese persuaded Luciano to keep the ritual, arguing that they needed the rituals to promote obedience to the bosses and to placate Sicilians. Luciano remained committed to omertà to protect the families from legal prosecution and retained the structure that Maranzano established.\\

* [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity Assigned unfavorable rackets or territories]]. As a sign that the mobster is beginning to fall out of favor from his superiors, they're given dead-end jobs where they won't be making enough money.