The Commison (Please Explain)

I have watched lots of films and read books which mention the commison i have a slight idea but can anybody explain further

Thanks

Are you talking about the Commission in relationship to the Mafia? If so, you will probably want to move this to the OC Forum.

There must be somebody who knows about the mafia's comission

Turnbell will know?

The commission is the mafia's ruling body. It enforces the rules. Like a corporation's Board of Directors. The commission was started by Lucky Luciano. The first members of the commission were: Lucky Luciano, Frank Nitti, Joe Bonnano, Joe Profaci, Stefano Magaddino, and Vincent Mangano. Hope this helped.

Irish has it pretty wel down, but I cant comment on the first members. :rolleyes: I can add a few things though. It was started by Luciano with the intent of running the mob like a business, in order to make more profit for everyone, also serving as somewhat of a Mob police force. I might be wrong here, but I believe only Italians could hold "seats" but they didnt mind doing business with the Jews and the Irish.The commission's role is usually blown way out of preportion i.e. you gotta have the commission's permission to whack somebody etc etc. Im not sure, but I think its pretty much non-existant in todays (under)world.

I belive the Commission still exists today, but it no longer controls LCN across the country like it used to, but now only in NYC. Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City... and I think one other non-New-York town used to have seats on the Commision, but not any more.

I'd look it up, but I left the book at my parent's house.

Irish Mafia and Don Sonny got it right. I'll add this:
Charlie Luciano formed the Commission in 1931, after the Castellemmarese War. Its members were the heads of the five NY families and a rotating group of four out-of-town Dons. Luciano formed it because Salvatore Maranzano, the winner of the Castellemmarese War, had declared himself capo di tutti capi over all the NY Mafiosi, and demanded a tribute from each of them. They didn't like this, and so Luciano arranged to eliminate Maranzano. He cleverly didn't try to declare himself capo di tutti capi. Instead, by forming the Commission, he gave nine Dons an "equal" voice--but his voice was more equal than the others' because he headed the Commission.
The Commission never had a charter to run organized crime in America, to adjudicate murders, to approve men about to be "made," or most of the other policy-making roles or operational powers people would like to think that it had. The Commission never had, and still doesn't have, a "war chest" or a squad of hit men, to assassinate Mob turncoats or undercover cops like Joe Pistone. It was originally intended to provide a forum for Mob bosses to talk to each other before fighting, so that they might cooperate instead of shooting each other. For example, some people think that the famously aborted Apalachin, NY, meeting of 1957 was called to anoint Carlo Gambino as Albert Anastasia's successor. Nonsense! That was a fait accompli by that time. The meeting was called by Vito Genovese to set up an international cartel to oversee importation, distribution and sales of drugs. Thereafter, the Commission never met more frequently than once every 18 months.
Keep in mind, too, that Mafia families are inherently greedy, self-centered and individualistic, disinclined to do things that others want them to do. They cooperate only when there's a (very rare) consensus. When the Commission tried to replace Joe Bonanno as head of his family, he refused to cooperate, setting off the long, destructive, "Bananna Wars." Bonanno eventually retired, but the Commission was weakened by its failure and never recovered.

Thanks for all your input it is much clearer now,

So they are like"Board of directors"

Not so much a "board of directors," because in corporate life, a board of directors is associated with only one company. If you want to make a business analogy, I'd say the Commission is more like a "trade association": representatives of multiple companies within an industry who get together only to discuss broad, strategic issues of interest to all--while still competing with each other on a day to day basis.

If the commision was started in 1931 by Luciano in America, then do they have a commision in Sicily?

It's called the "Cupola," but it probably has even less "authority" than the US Commission did. Note past tense on US Commission. With so many families in retreat and Dons turning rat, you wonder who'd show up if they actually had a Commission meeting.

Not like the old days ha