Did the FBI ever release some sort of estimate on the amount of soldiers for each of the five families? I remember reading somewhere the Gambinos had at least 500 soldiers in 1967. I don't how true that is.

in 1959 or 1961 the F.B.I. stated there to be 2700 made members in the 5 NYC families.

What?

Absurd. But I don't doubt that the Feds threw out a number like that. Because before Valachi they weren't entirely sure what a made guy was lol.

its probably not as many as people think joe Colombo had greg scarpa and some other guy make a total list of all the guys in there family active or not and it was only 108 guys mostly in Brooklyn thou. he wanted to bring the list to the commission for them to approve him making a bunch of new guys they said no but allowed the new Orleans family to induct new blood that was in 1964.

That was probably the peak membership of the entire American Mafia.

Five families made half of the total membership.maybe around 2000 at their peak?

well, in valachis book written in 1967, valachi says there was 5000 made guys in the country half of them in new York.

he said the largest family, was the gambinos with 900 made guys.
maybe hes counting associates also, I don't know. but, that's

where the fbi gets their numbers.

I think he knows nothing, maybe he just made up those numbers. But i still want to read his words...

fbi #s to keep getting funding

Nearly 3,000 members with about 1,800 members in New York alone.

Bronx.. I don't doubt that a bit, because that is standard procedure, that's why they have zero credibility, they very well may have given valachi those numbers.

Especially back then. Hoover was still digging his heels in at the time, so getting that funding was even more difficult because the director himself wanted every penny to be used to fight communism (both real and imagined).

on point once again..and he needed new spiked heels and lip stick., nylons ect..

Thanks, Bronx. But I Googled it. A guy from Wisconsin showed me how. You don't know what we've been missing. It's all right there at our fingertips!!

And to think, there was a time when you had to pick this shit up on the street.

my two cents about hoover, toodoped posted a couple of videos,
about this freak, he was a sick, twisted man. who in the fifties commanded tremendous power, only because of his blackmail

capabilities. people lived in abject fear of him, he failed miserably in combating crime. a true shame to a great nation.

At their respective peaks =

Gambino 350 - 400
Genovese 300 - 350
Lucchese 200 - 250 or 260
Colombo 300 (Michael Franzese said that at the time of his initiation there were about three hundred soldiers and 15 captains in the entire borgata) circa 1974
Bonanno 150 - 200

http://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2592

Here I posted 1960s families charts from Mary Ferrell Fondation,are listed all the capodecinas so you can estimate the real number of mad guys in each family.

Way I understand it, the Genovese have always been the largest family?
Gambino's under Don Carlo had similar numbers but more influence over the other families.