Questions

I just checked this page: http://www.ganglandnews.com/gambino.htm

And now, finished reading it, i have a few questions.

According to the page Mangano was the chairman after the killing of Maranzano by Lucky Luciano.
"According to Joe Bonanno, Mangano served as chair of the group, most likely in recognition of the status of his powerful family, which was the largest of all."
I always thought Lucky was the chairman, am I correct or was it Mangano?


"Scalise stepped down and Vince Mangano was elected in his place." "Mangano's selection of Albert Anastasia as his underboss was probably not only an acknowledgement of Anastasia's power but more importantly his friendship with Lucky Luciano."
So who was Mangano's underboss? Scalise/Anastasia? Or both?


"However, we now know that this reputation was greatly exaggerated due to the myth of Murder Incorporated. Serious historical research has established that there was no such thing as Murder Incorporated with hired killers sitting around waiting for killing assignments. Unfortunately, the legend lives on, distorting a real understanding of Cosa Nostra history."
Is that true? And what about Abe Reles, were all his stories lies?


"Vito Genovese had been conspiring with Anastasia underboss, Carlo Gambino..." ". In June, Anastasia underboss, Frank Scalise, the same person who briefly had been boss of this family in 1931, was gunned down in a scene that was recreated in The Godfather."
So who was his underboss at that time? Gambino/Scalise? Or both?


"Gotti brought other family powers into his scheme and in addition obtained unofficial approval from three of the other four families."
I thought not one family support Gotti.

Aand BTW: was the infamous Roy DeMeo a capo or a soldier?


Thanks for all who reply.

all i can tell ya those families didnt necessarily like gotti but they didnt rly care for castellano either. and roy demeo was a soldier and then got bumped up to captain but i don't think castellano or nino gaggi really wanted him to be one

Luciano was the "Unofficial" commission chairman. He would never admit to it himself and refused to "officially" recognize himself as the chairman. Mangano became the chiarman of the commission when Luciano was convicted of criminal charges.


As for Gotti, well he never recieved official approval from any of the other familes. He was successful in recruiting some of Castellanos own people into supporting his move to take out Castellano.

And while Gotti never got the official support or ok from the other families, many of them did not care that Castellano was taken out becasue Castellano was too "modernized" in their eyes, and secondly he was having all kinds of charges brought against him and that would bring a lot of heat on the other families and the possibility of his bringing down the other families always existed if he was convicted.

So while they did not give approval to Gotti, they also did not object. Only one objected and was furious that Gotti did not get commission approval, and that was Vincent "The Chin" Gigante. He even tried having Gotti killed for it but failed, as Gotti's underboss, Frank DeCicco was blown up in the car that Gotti was supposed to be in.

Don Cardi

I always wondered about Murder Incorporated (MI). Why would people who, among them, employ thousands of soldiers and who commission murders all the time, feel it necessary to have a designated goup of killers such as MI was supposed to be. It never made much sense to me.

You know, there is so much apparent crap Mafia history out there much of which ends up in books and movies. Who really knows where the truth lies?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by juventus:
I just checked this page: http://www.ganglandnews.com/gambino.htm

And now, finished reading it, i have a few questions.

According to the page Mangano was the chairman after the killing of Maranzano by Lucky Luciano.
"According to Joe Bonanno, Mangano served as chair of the group, most likely in recognition of the status of his powerful family, which was the largest of all."
I always thought Lucky was the chairman, am I correct or was it Mangano?
That story appeared in Joe Bonanno's autobiography, "A Man of Honor." Perhaps it was true. But Charlie Luciano was definitely--repeat, definitely--the most important person on the Commission in the Thirties.
Luciano was asked to whack Maranzano because Maranzano had declared himself "Capo di Tutti Capi." It would have been consistent with Luciano's character to try to avoid looking like the new "Capo." That's why he gave the so-called "chairmanship" to Mangano. But everyone on the Commission knew he was the most important one. And when Dutch Shultz stepped out of line, Luciano ordered him killed. That reinforced his leadership position.


"Scalise stepped down and Vince Mangano was elected in his place." "Mangano's selection of Albert Anastasia as his underboss was probably not only an acknowledgement of Anastasia's power but more importantly his friendship with Lucky Luciano."
So who was Mangano's underboss? Scalise/Anastasia? Or both?
It was Anastasia. Scalise was finished after he was deposed.


"However, we now know that this reputation was greatly exaggerated due to the myth of Murder Incorporated. Serious historical research has established that there was no such thing as Murder Incorporated with hired killers sitting around waiting for killing assignments. Unfortunately, the legend lives on, distorting a real understanding of Cosa Nostra history."
Is that true? And what about Abe Reles, were all his stories lies?
The name, "Murder, Inc." was a creation of the news media. Buy there really was a gang of killers, headed by Reles and his cohorts including Allie Tick Tock Tannenbaum, Pittsburg Phil Strauss, Happy Maione and Mendy Weiss, who really were on salary, waiting for orders to kill.


"Vito Genovese had been conspiring with Anastasia underboss, Carlo Gambino..." ". In June, Anastasia underboss, Frank Scalise, the same person who briefly had been boss of this family in 1931, was gunned down in a scene that was recreated in The Godfather."
So who was his underboss at that time? Gambino/Scalise? Or both?
Scalise was just a figurehead underboss at that time. Gambino was the real "heir apparent," waiting to be crowned.

"Gotti brought other family powers into his scheme and in addition obtained unofficial approval from three of the other four families."
I thought not one family support Gotti.
It's unknown how many families Gotti consulted after he arranged the murder of Castellano. But all of the families hated Castellano, and feared that he would rat them out rather than spend the rest of his life in prison after his RICO indictment.

Aand BTW: was the infamous Roy DeMeo a capo or a soldier?
Probably a soldier. DeMeo spent his entire life sucking up to Nino Gaggi, trying to get "made." I doubt he got much farther than that.

Thanks to all of you. Now everything is clear.