Just curious ,how many families still exist in the USA ?

there are about 9 active. the 5 in ny decavlacantes, new england philly and chicago. most of the other ones are dead or just about there. people will argue about the kansas city and detroit families but if they are doing anything its almost nothing at all.

Don't forget about ..good ol' CHUCKY PORTER AND THE PITTSBURGH LCN!

Chucky Porter became an informant ! Not that it means anything today ,cause Ray Fairito became Rat in the 70's and when he got out ran a successfull bookmaking operation in Erie PA !

Yeah Google told me that too...j/k

there are sure 9 viable families, some family is not sure if it's still viable but you can't leave it out...
the indictments are not the only factor to estabilish how much a family is viable, especially if it is not as large as the ny ones
i bet detroit, kansas city, new orleans and a couple of others are still active

Just a sidenote, really. But during the golden age of the Mafia in the 1950´s, all these places had established Mafia Families:

Buffalo, NY
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Kansas City, MO
Los Angeles, CA
Madison, WI
Milwaukee, WI
New England (Boston, MA, Providence, RI)
New Orleans, LA
New Jersey
New York (x 5)
Northeast PA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Rockford, IL
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
St. Louis, MO
Tampa, FL

Like fellas above me said:

Top tier:
5 New York families (Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese).
Chichago Outfit, Philadelphia mob, New England, New Jersey DeCavalcante.

Others:
Kansas City and Detroit.

All the others are defunct, or have little to no activity or formal structure.

What about Buffalo? Are they pretty much done now?

Yeah, pretty much. Almost all of the families outside top tier have no formal structure left, this does not mean that there is no activity. There are lots of made men and associates operating in the area. But only Chicago and New York families are still intact and have power, some even put Philly and New England as a disfunctional family.

How much u give to NY 5 Families ? I mean what u think for how many years they will be around etc

a while...look how much they have done to the colombos and they are still not done yet.

It took many years to build it, with bloodshed etc. And it will take years, decades before there will be a real danger to them. They will be around, its to much organized, thats why they wont dissolve in one night.

There has been alot of activity in the Patriarca Family (New England) as of late. I have resided in New England for the last 5 years and a power shift has happened where the family base has shifted to Boston once again since the indictments of Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, the imprisonment of Anthony "The Saint" St. Laurent and just recently Robert "Bobby" DeLuca disappeared and was announced that he will testify against Whitey Bulger "if" that case ever goes to trial. Mark Rossetti also has become an informant. Peter Limone, who was in prison for 33 years on an old murder charge was released in the early 2000's after it was found that the FBI framed him and a few others for murder. He received a $33.7 million dollar judgement from the federal government for his wrongful imprisonment. He has been the acting boss since Manocchio allegedly retired. Fox News channel 5 has just announced that the new boss for the Patriarca Family is Anthony DiNunzio, brother to the imprisoned "cheese man" Carmen DiNunzio. There are about 10 made guys left on the street and many more in jail at the moment in Providence but all are getting up there in age. Boston has allegedly over 20 made guys with many crews of associates. They still have alot of control over bookmaking, strip clubs, labor unions and extortion rackets.

Most people on these Forums will be real quick to claim the "end" for many of the organizations in certain cities. They will base their conclusions simply on the lack of RICO and State prosecutions filed in recent years. Here are three reasons why they just might be wrong:
1. Some of these families respect and adhere to the fact that it is a sercret society. They shun ALL media attention.
2. Some local Gov't officials are still on the take, this provides insulation.
3. Certain families mainly make family members or through intra-marriage. (Detroit)
This reply will attract the wrath of certain members I am sure. They will ask for data to back up my claim. I will post just one example:
MILWAUKEE
Finally found the Milwaukee chart a former narcotics/police officer in Milwaukee sent me back in 2006. He said (as of 2006) in part;
Milwaukee still has some guys in unions as well as restaurants, bars, etc. and has a good control of gambling and loan sharking. The family is close knit due to intermarriages also.
Boss: Joe Caminiti
Underboss: Joe Balistrieri
Consigliere: Peter “Pitch” Picciurro
Capos: Angelo Alioto, John Balistrieri, Ricco “The Killer” Bono, Dennis Libbrizzi
Soldiers: Joe Alioto, Carlo Balistrieri, Nick Basile, George Busateri, Thomas Cannizzaro, Louis Caputo, Anthony Cimino, Frank DeNigris, Nick Dentice, Paul Dentice, Joe Enea, Mike Enea, Joe “JoJo” Fugarino, Vincent Gallo, James Gennarro, John Germanotta, Dominic “Queenie” LoCicero, Andrew Marconi, Angelo Martellaro, Richard Panella, Anthony Petrolle, Paul Picciolo, Robert Puccio, Giovanni Safina, Nick Sansone, James Scorcese, Jack Turrene, Joe Volpe

He also stated that DeNigris lives in Florida and is Milwaukee’s pointman there. Martellano, Safina and Scorcese live in the Italian section of Milwaukee around VanBuren Street. Picciurro runs Pitch’s Lounge outside Milwaukee and was born in Sicily. Volpe, Cimino, Caputo and Carlo Balistrieri are young guys in their 30s made just prior to 2006.
Yes, Joe Bal is now dead. But in 6 years, most of the men listed are still alive and well.

St. Louis and Detroit ARE alive as well!

The Patriarcas seem to be somewhat more active than Chicago, based on the available evidence.

I don't think they are really in the unions anymore, are they? Were they ever?

I think that there is a certain virtue in your explanation. Remember that for decades, organized crime did not officially exist in America and even once it was recognized, it remained relatively low profile. I think it's currently in a hibernation stage in many US cities because mafiosi have learned their lesson about attracting publicity. Like most things, people tend to only recognize high profile activities. In its hibernation stage, what the Mafia is doing is not high profile, but it is there.

New England was involved in unions such as Bartenders, laborers and concrete.

http://www.laborers.org/BOSTNGlobe_Patria_10-11-81.html

Here are some recent articles that support that the New England branch of LCN are still involved in union extortion/racketeering.

http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/gerald_m_tillinghast/

St. Louis, Milwaukee, LA, etc are all reported to be defunct. Like i said, there could be members left there who are in illegal business. But no way that there is a formal structure and hierarchy like Philly or New York. Detroit has some activity, more than other places. I made a chart on them recently.

well put!

Here is some recent news about the Detroit Partnership (LCN).

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/06/24/organized-crime-in-detroit-forgotten-but-not-gone/

Here are some interesting articles on Frank Balistrieri's daughter and her legal battle with her brothers. She has recently passed away.

http://www.insidemilwaukee.com/Article/242011-DaughteroftheDon

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/46987147.html

today a small crime family (15-30 members) not involved in drugs is not a priority for the feds... that's because several families are listed as dead lthough probably they are not (especially detroit, kansascity, milwaukee, new orleans, los angeles)

I agree with you their. alot of the recent indictments in new york have had people charged with drug trafficking. Even if the families you listed are still around i doubt they have the manpower or the clout in their cities to move any significant amount of drugs.

these are small families today... and they are not involved in drugs, they don't kill anymore they have not political contacts, they don't control unions and they can't corrupt policemen like they did in the past
they run gambling, usury, money laundering... they are not a priority at all for the feds but they are still alive
since the detroit mob has still links with the sicilians they could control drugs but i'm not sure

i'm almost sure that other ex independent families like tampa, cleveland, buffalo are no more than genovese or gambino crews at this point

^^^thats too much credit/too good its not even genovese or gambino more like an offshot of the colombos if there is anything, there is def nada going on in buffalo, if you have been to the area recently you will agree 1000%

I think it's safe to say, but other then NY,and Rhode Island , the families outside are the size of a crew and many people operate independent of the LCN families! Has anyone ever heard of an LCN family setting up shop in Hawaii ?

your a funny guy! well said!