Al Capone overrated as a gangster? Top 5 bosses?

It seems that he got overrated as a gangster since he's been portrayed in movies and shows. Also who are your top 5 mafia bosses of all time? Mine would be:
1. Carlo Gambino
2. Lucky Luciano
3. Tommy lucchese

Everything after that I really don't know who I would put.

It all depends on what criteria you're using. In terms of pure name recognition, Capone is certainly the most famous gangster ever.

1. Luciano
2. Accardo
3. Gambino
4. Luchesse
5. Salerno

I feel like a idiot for doin this but.....

1.Gambino
2.Vito Genovese
3.Frank Costello
4.Benny Squint
5.a&b- Chin and Salerno

1.Gambino
2.Gigante
3.Bruno
4.Luchesse
5.Costello

Sure most people throw their hat to original commission members and/ or their successor but lest we forget...

The job was easier back then IMO. Things are a lot harder now a days. The way I look at it anyone who can stick around today balancing indictments, rats, FBI, AND profits all the while keeping things in check for longer than a fleeting moment has my vote.

Good points! Such a lightning rod now

It's why I've always given Chin a lot of credit. He became boss at exactly the time the feds really started going after the mob. And he lasted on the street, as a NY boss, for 16 years in the 1980's and 1990's. Of course, he certainly had to go to extraordinary lengths to do it.

If Al Capone were around today and acted like he did back then, he would last about thirty seconds against today's careerist prosecutors and feds. He was way more public, open, and flamboyant than John Gotti, and we all know where those traits got him. Capone wouldn't stand a chance today.

I do think that in the context of his own era Capone was a great boss.

True,Capone was a great boss in his own era,no doubt about it.I see a lot of ppl compare todays era with the old bosses and every1 is sayin that they wont last a min with todays prosecutors and feds...yea but if you put todays mobsters in the Capone era maybe they wont be prosecuted but they gonna get whacked in a sec for sure....so its same shit but in different package

Me too lol.

1.Gambino
2.Accardo
3.Lucchesse
4.Gigante
5.Luciano

Gambino was everything a mafia don is supposed to be and then some. Chin Gigante, a firm believer in the "tradition", lived by the rules and disciplined the ones who broke them. Ray Patriarca Sr., a gangster's gangster, a true boss. Tony Accardo/Paul Ricca,both extremely powerful and influential even at the times they weren't official sitting bosses, higher-ups ran to them for advice including Accardo to Ricca. And Lucky Luciano, just because.

1.Carlo Gambino
2.Vincent Gigante
3.Ray Patriarca Sr.
4.Tony Accardo/Paul Ricca
5.Charlie Luciano

Think everyone is forgetting the detroit bosses old-joe zerilli and current jack tocco. zerilli created such a family that has only had 1 turncoat. amazing.

Carlo Gambino
Accardo
Gigante
joe zerilli/jack tocco
Luciano (for innovation only! but he does have to be in the list)

When Capone was boss they really only needed one racket, bootlegging. He grew it into an organization making up to $100 million a year from 1925-30, or more than a billion dollars annually in today's dollars.

He basically founded the Chicago mob and successfully ran, at that time, an organization that involved thousands if not tens of thousands of people. And he ran it so successfully that the only way the government could finally get him was by blindsiding him on tax evasion, which was something that had only been used sparsely at that time, and from what I've read the trial was pretty much a sham and he should not have been found guilty.

Overall I think he was pretty successful, although his management style was much more blunt and simple than the extremely cunning bosses who would follow him like Accardo and Humprhies.

In terms of body counts he must have one of the highest in terms of the number of hits he ordered.

And in terms of pure numbers of the organization it probably also reached its peak at that time.

On a personal level he wasn't very successful as he contracted syphilis and his life was essentially over by the time he was 40. But I imagine Al Capone never expected to live very long anyway. I remember some quote where someone asked him about the dangers, or overall negatives, of his job and he said, "That's true, but if I wasn't doing this what would I be doing? Shining shoes in Brooklyn."

When Capone was boss they really only needed one racket, bootlegging. He grew it into an organization making up to $100 million a year from 1925-30, or more than a billion dollars annually in today's dollars.

He basically founded the Chicago mob and successfully ran, at that time, an organization that involved thousands if not tens of thousands of people. And he ran it so successfully that the only way the government could finally get him was by blindsiding him on tax evasion, which was something that had only been used sparsely at that time, and from what I've read the trial was pretty much a sham and he should not have been found guilty.

Overall I think he was pretty successful, although his management style was much more blunt and simple than the extremely cunning bosses who would follow him like Accardo and Humprhies.

In terms of body counts he must have one of the highest in terms of the number of hits he ordered.

And in terms of pure numbers of the organization it probably also reached its peak at that time.

On a personal level he wasn't very successful as he contracted syphilis and his life was essentially over by the time he was 40. But I imagine Al Capone never expected to live very long anyway. I remember some quote where someone asked him about the dangers, or overall negatives, of his job and he said, "That's true, but if I wasn't doing this what would I be doing? Shining shoes in Brooklyn."

I wouldn't say Capone was overrated. He led a fairly large group of about 400 core members ( associates not included ) and was respected and even liked by all of his men. As a leader he was succesful.

New to forum.

Gambino
Luciano
Accardo
Lucchese

Toss up for 5 and beyond

1. Carmine Galante
2. Carmine Galante
3. Carmine Galante
4. Carmine Galante
5. Carmine Galante

Yes, it's a joke. It's hard making a top 5. Guys like Gambino, Costello and Luciano would def be there, though.

I would certainly put Bonanno among my top 5 bosses. Became boss at the extremely young age of 26, stayed on as boss for almost 40 years, organized the Sicilian connection, wrote a book and lived to be 97 while surviving three heart attacks.

Honorable Mention: Charles Binaggio. Didn't have the power but had more vision than Luciano.

This is kind of a nitpick, but in his era that wasn't extremely young for a crime boss; it was more "young-ish".

It's hard to imagine someone today being that young as a boss though. Remember everyone flipping out over Montagna being a 35 year old acting boss? And I think someone just being made today at 26 would be fairly uncommon.

Well back then, you were considered a man when u were 13. Today, look at The Situation, he must be 30 and i still consider him a child.

I agree about accardo. I would put him in my top 10. Top 5 idk because there were some bosses that were more powerful, influential, and made more money than him. But his ability to dodge the Feds was uncanny. Him and Carlo gambino were the 2 best at staying out of the limelight. Both never spent one day in prison.

I saw carlo supposedly spent 22 months in prison but wikipedia said that and it doesn't say that anywhere else but wiki. So I don't trust Wikipedia on this particular case. If he did then thats really little to no time. But the fact that he could be that strong and powerful without the Feds being able to put him away is just unbelievable. He was in NYC where everyone is going to be watching him. The biggest city in the US. Not Philly or Connecticut. The boss of NYC. He's probably the only person who could ever pull that off in NYC.

I know it's a little bit of a childish post on my part but I just wanted to see what everyone had to say.

Vito Genovese wasn't really a great boss. He was a lunatic, and didn't last that long. He had made so many enemies Costello and Luciano set him up and off he went to prison. To be a great boss you have to be liked. That's why guys like Galante got whacked.

He did spend 22 months in Lewisburg State Prison back in the early 1940s for conspiracy to violate internal revenue of liqor laws (I think it´s called). In another seperate charge (in relation to the first charge), Gambino was sentenced to one year and one day to be run concurrently with the first conviction.
At the time, Gambino was a skipper.

Yeah. "He never spent a day in jail" is just yellow journalism by the media, much like Gotti was "the boss of all bosses". Untrue, but it sells.

I gave him credit due to what he left behind.

Some one has a boner for little carmine

I don't think he was overrated per se. I think he was the product of his times and succeeded within the confines of those times. He expanded what Torrio left him and he did it well. The fact that they had to get to him via income tax pretty much says he had set up a solid enclave around him personnel wise, and made the right moves with politicians, judges, cops... Again, ego brings him down gunning Moran's men in a massacre, increased scrutiny, etc...

My Top Five:

Luciano
Gambino
Accardo
Lucchese
Patriarca

I have admittedly a bias on the people who "create" organizations rather than just build up from them.

Carlo to me exemplifies what a boss is. He stayed out of the limelight and out of prison. Never bought a big house or nice car like others. He was a genius. Even john gotti never complained about Carlo. Not even after he passed on Neil dellacroce for castellano. He was pissed at Paul not Carlo. That's the kind of respect a great boss(like Carlo)has to have and very few have ever had that respect.

I'm pretty sure Gotti was caught on a wiretap saying Carlo was a rat after he died of course

Says the guy who jacked my avatar. Grow up, kid. Like SC said let it rest. DO IT!

That being said, I'd rate Carlo Gambino as my number one for the simple fact that he made the Gambinos on par with the Genovese during his tenure as boss. You won't find a more low-key guy than Carlo. The only flashy part of him, if you can even call it that, was a plate number with the initials "CG1". All the guys respected him, except for guys like Galante who really weren't boss material just psychos.

So your Saying just Carmine Galante what about Vito Genevose or Joey Gallo..or casso even thought he flipped have the mafia cops on their side that he ratted out? Just asking your opinion its a discusssion board

Carmine Galante wasn't boss material at all. He was a psycho. Feared by God himself. Carmine wasn't too smart either, so definitely not boss material. I won't include Vito in my top 5 for the simple fact that I don't think he was that great a boss. Costello with all his political influence is definitely up there, but like I said in another post, I'd put Carlo at number 1. Only thing I find intriguing about Galante is how fearless he was, that's all.

Well you would have to be fearless to be a member of the LCN or have the Bloodlines.

Read your answer again. Yes, that's true.

Hell I'm 33, but I still consider myself to be pretty much a kid.

if your under forty your a kid in my book.lol.

Yeah exactly. 40 seems to be the cut off for real adulthood these days (and I'll be the first to admit that I'm still basically a kid in my 30s).

Honorable Mention: Vito Rizzuto

(Im from Montreal)

Teflon Don of Montreal
Father took control from the Cotronis.
Rizzutos were the clearing house for corsican heroin heading to the US
Took part in the 3 Capos murder made famous in the film DONNIE BRASCO (albeit rather fictitiously)

I'd say Nick Rizzuto too

Would someone please let me know if this link opens. I'm using an iPad and I may be doing something wrong when trying to share links, etc. thanks

Notorious mafia dons.

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-most-notorious-mafia-dons-twentieth-century-8279005.html

I wouldnt put to much faith into anything jimmy buffet writes about the mob.

Thanks. At least it opened

Source??? And who's gonna believe john gotti?? He was a terrible boss. Sammy was right to rat on him. He deserved it and he was asking for it.

Tbh i can't remember where i read it maybe someone else will though. My point was that Gotti did complain about Carlo which you said he didn't not that he was right.

Oh ok. I was talking about when Carlo was boss. He said whatever he wanted about anybody when he became a big headed boss lol even god.

You have a major issues, and I'm not the only one here who would agree. You replied to that same posts weeks ago, even quoted it, and now you do it again probably to show everybody how big of a Galante fanboy I am, when in truth the guy was a fucking douchebag. So, what's your next move. Butthurt by our PM-exchanges?

YOUR NOT OVERRATED BRINGING IN 100 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. 20's to 30's POINT BLANK SIMPLE

I UNDERSTAND YOUR PROBABLY A NEW YORK-ER WHO WANTS TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE BUT COME ON LETS BE REAL WHO MORE MONEY EQUALS BETTER MOB WHICH OUTFIT HAD.

Which one of them ran the LA, Memphis, Las,Vegas, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, San Diego. Ill tell you the chicago outfit. Grossing more money than all the five family's combined.

1. Owney Madden

2. Billy Hill

3. Carlo Gambino

4. Frank Costello

5. Tony Accardo

1. lucky luciano
2. paul ricca
3. carlo gambino/ tony accardo/ vicent gigante