Thats an interesting question, huh fellas?

Regardless of where you fall "morally" in regards to organized crime activity in general, and the Mafia in particular. Hypothetically speaking of course.

If you could. Or if you had to, which person, which mafioso, would you have chosen to be?.

Considering all you know about the various members of OC.... Who was mean? who was rich, or poor? who did a ton of time? Who was feared? etc etc.

With all taken into consideration, which mob guy strikes you as having a career that you could have handled, or performed, and come out on the other side of it the way you'd like?

At the risk of picking the low hanging fruit,I gotta go with either Carlo Gambino or Tony Accardo. Each achieved absolute power in their respective Families,had all the money they could ever want,were both feared and respected by pretty much everyone in their world,avoided any significant jail time (Gambino-22 months,Accardo-0),and died in a manner that was not ruled a homicide.All in all,Mob life doesn't get much better.

I'm just an ordinary small town guy that spend weeks, months, years with the upper echelon of the Pittsburgh LCN. I spent the most time with Henry Zottola (Zebo) but Charlie Murgie was my favorite. Jo Jo Pecora was great and I knew "Uncle Joe" the longest but my choice would have been Michael Genovese, who I got to know very well. He was Boss for over a decade, Acting Boss for 4 years while being on John LaRocca's ruling panel for over a decade. He traveled to Appalachian with John LaRocca and Kelly Mannarino. Actually going to Appalachian with John carried a lot of weight. He reigned as Boss for most of the glory days He was both respected and feared. He looked and acted like a movie star, eat and drank at the finest joins in town and had plenty of women and oh what women he had. As far a money goes, how 'bout a 4' x 4' wooden pallet with neatly packed bundles new $100's, 10k. each, stacked 4' high and shrink wrapped or whatever it was called back then as was recalled by his Son Michael.He was the biggest fish in a very clear water pond. BTW: Never did a day and died a natural death :-)

Jimmy Blue Eyes or Jerry Catena. They served a few years, but that's not a bad thing. They had it all.

If my goal is money-Catena
Respect-Manna
Notoriety-Gotti

All things equal, Catena. The man had more money than you could fathom. I’m not talking stocks, property, or other assets that could lose value. I’m talking liquid. My uncles told me a story about a guy who ran vending machines for him in Nj and Pa(Him and Bufalino were tight and were partners in a few things in pa) and they IRS raised the guys property in the woods. They were filling up a tractor trailer full of 55 gal drums FILLED with quarters. 50-60 55 gal drums filled to the brim with quarters. Fucking insane.

We've all heard that Crime doesn't pay. I say Crime doesn't pay taxes.

Have to go with one of the guys who spanned a few gens met guys from all or most eras and spent minimal time in jail like Neil Dellacroce or Tony Accardo.

LOL. agreed

My namesake Jimmy brown or Thomas Gagliano.

This is a crazy story so for the hell of it, I googled "How many quarters fit in a 55 gallon drum". Lo and behold, someone out there online already did the math:

"Your 55 gallon drum comes to 208 liters, or 208,000 cubic centimeters, or 208,000,000 cubic millimeters. 208,000,000/808.5 gives you 257,612 quarters, but with 75% packing efficiency, only 193,208 quarters will fit in your drum. That comes to $48,302 dollars worth of quarters."

So 48.3K x 50 = 2.415M buried
Or if it was 60, 2.898M buried.

So they had somewhere between 2.4-2.9M in quarters buried out in the woods. Crazy shit... Nevermind adjusting for inflation

I would say Russell Bufalino. To me he seemed very intelligent, calm and in the know about what was really going on and who really ran things. Read the book the quiet don. That’s why I say that.

I guess Frank Costello. He seems like a cool guy because he was interested in things and people other than the mob. But I think he was a real gangster. He wouldn't have become a made guy, much less a boss back then if he wasn't. He may have lost the battle to Genovese, but he won the war as he died a free man with money while Vito died in prison.

Excellent assessment. I have to agree.

Benny Squint Lombardo? He have a power-sharing arrangement where one of his guys would represent him in meetings, but even then, Benny Squint had the final say. The rep would serve as the public face of the family, while Benny Squint remained low and died a free man in 1987.

i guess frank costello, brains, and was as cool as they come ,worth millions, never did years of time, was very much respected. how much better can you get.

None, since I'm not 12 years old.

I would rather be someone like John Favara or Nicky Guido who worked honest jobs with clean consciences and provided for families who loved them unconditionally, rather than someone like John Gotti who was a deadbeat gambler who didn't provide for a wife who despised him; or Sammy Gravano who murdered his own family members; or John Franzese who raised a junkie; or Vincent Basciano who was a brokester who raised children who turned into street thugs, and again, with a wife who despised him; or Dominick Cirillo who OKed the murder of his own son; or Al D'Arco who raised a heroin addict; or Frank Lastorino whose son grew up with a litany of mental health issues and attempted to kill someone; or Tommy Del Giorno whose wife despised him and whose son murdered someone before he was out of his teens; or Nicky Scarfo whose one son killed himself and other son changed his name out of shame; or Joseph "Chickie" Ciancagini whose sons tried to kill each other; or Carmine Persico who encouraged his son (currently doing life in prison) to drop out of college to follow in his footsteps; or Vincent Gigante whose daughter is still traumatised by her upbringing; ditto Greg Scarpa; and so on, so forth.

I mean, come on.

At least Barney Bellomo and Joseph Corozzo used their drug and extortion money to good use by putting their kids through college to become lawyers.

If there's any made guy who earned good money through just bookmaking and legitimate business and never killed anyone, I would like to be him. The only mark on your soul being that you were part of an organization that did much worse things. But the worst thing you did was was take money from gamblers and maybe rough a few people up, not killing them.

No bullshit. The guy is dead now so I can talk about it. He used the amusement money to buy corvettes by the truckload. He owned a huge vending machine business, party rentals, event rental business, a classic car lot that had the best of the best on the lot at all times. He owned a house in Harvey’s Lake Pa that was a million bucks in the 80s. The guys kid married the girl I took to prom and never got to bang. He’s fucking loaded but a complete douchebag. Paid for the girl to go to dental school in cash. Lucky fuck. She was a fucking 10. Prom queen, homecoming queen, queen of the fucking valley. It’s probably number 1 or number 2 of regrets in my life never getting to bang her. Cocksucker!! Lol

Love McGee. His name still means a lot to the old timers in NEPA. I mean the guy brought UPS to the valley, got thousands of people jobs. Every little league within 50 miles of Pittston got bats, gloves, spikes or whatever the fuck they needed. Every little league was sponsored by Cafe Rinaldi in some way shape or form. He made sure the Medico’s used their millions for good too.

agreed

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I have to agree. For me, I'd prefer to be a guy who engaged in gambling rackets; bookmaking, numbers, dice and card games, slot machines, etc. Maybe a little affiliated shylocking along the way. Basically, the same type stuff that most states have legalized in recent years. Victimless activities for the most part.

But NO violence, murders, beatings, or that heavy strong arm stuff that many get involved with. As you stated above, I think if you're a fella who made big money from that (as so many have done in their lives), bought legitimate businesses and real estate along the way, raised a good family with kids who you had focus on higher education so they can become professionals, college, etc., then you've done very well. The object should be IMO, to elevate your blood family for the future. Give them an education, have them mix with legit society, leave them a bundle to help their lives and that of your future grandchildren, etc.

On review at the end of your life, if you were able to avoid prison, or in the alternative only served a short bid. Made a ton of cash from mostly "vice" type activities like gambling, staying away from drugs and violence, and helped your children and family. Then I think you've succeeded in that world. And you are able to look at yourself in the mirror, as well as, go to your maker with a clean conscience. I do think that is also key component. At least for men who have any sort of heart and conscience.

The more genteel Frank Costello's and Jimmy Nap's of the world usually die in bed with their shoes off. The Carmine Galante's and Vito Genovese's of the world usually die in the street, or behind prison bars.

There's just no way to get around: "If it doesn't concern a Big City LCN guy, it's of no concern " :-(
Better that you read and fantasize about a guy you never knew or even met rather than consider some small city guy. That little known small city guy probably lived a better, less stressful life than the life that the guy your dreaming about let alone what it would be like to live his life. It is what it is :-(

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Truth be told, many of the guys who operated out of state in these smaller territories and crews did extremely well for themselves. Most of these towns and cities had little to no gangland killings over the years, and most of the guys operated unimpeded by arrests and prison.

With the exception of New England where there was always a bloodbath for one reason or another, and Philly that was much the same, smaller crews did well. (these two are still considered major cities in the scheme of things).

Not only the bosses and capos, but the soldiers and associates as well. Most lived long lives, good lives. Life-styles that were the envy of many regular folks too.

They made money, bought nice homes, had businesses and other assets. Raised their children successfully, and died in bed with their shoes off. Ya gotta remember that there was a lot less competition to rule the roost from competing gangs and families. There was usually only 1 borgata or a single "regime" in the area. Think "Tripodi" regime of Steubenville, Ohio. Or the "Bufalino" Family of Pittston-Scranton, PA., "Iaconi" regime of Worcester, MA., "Curari-Scibelli" crew of Springfield, MA., La Rocca Family of Pittsburgh, of "Lanza Family" in San Jose and San Francisco, CA., etc., etc.

Often times these fellas went decades without a single murder. All the while they earned; bookmaking, numbers, dice and cards, slots, shylock, a few shakedowns, tribute, etc, etc.

Most stayed away from hard narcotics, truck hijacking, or other serious heavy crimes that they knew the FNBI, FBN, or other agencies would make a priority of. So like the little engine that could, they just chugged along year after year, just doing whatever their thing was, and built up their financial reserves.

The end result was that most didn't go to prison, when they did it was for several years not several decades. And with only one family in their area there was much less conflict and violence, owing to 1 central command. etc.

All you need to do is look at a review of the lives of the average mafioso from these small, out of the way areas to prove my point out. They generally lived better, less stressful lives.

NOTE: To be fair about it, there were many, many NY/NJ based mafiosi who lived similar lives. But those are typically the goodfellas that you don't read or even know about, because they mostly flew under the radar. No big arrests, or shootings, or vendetta's, etc. They lived as quietly as they could. In between all the fireworks going off all around them within the five-boros. The only time guys like this got fucked up was when they had to follow orders and get involved in activities (shootings, killings, rackets) that they would not normally engage in, if not for a higher-up ordering them to do so.

I have actually written bios on many of these lesser known goodfellas and associates. They are sprinkled in between the pages of our TNYM website. They were not only some of the lesser known sleepers, but important rank and file the actually moved the mob machine the way it had to go. Truthfully, I find these type of guys often much more interesting to explore.

Thank You for acknowledging what only a few of those interested in these Mob oriented forums realize. Big or Small City you didn't have to be the most recognized Mob Boss to be the most successful in many different ways. In fact it might have been much easier for small city guys to fly under the radar and live fabulous lives with big money and no jail time. Greed and drugs ruined the program for almost all across the board.

Always appreciate hearing about these smaller city guys as there isn’t much information out there. And I agree with what u guys said about them living a better lifestyle. Always found these smaller city families very interesting. Keep the info coming!

Right on the money as always my friend.

Easy Carlo Gambino, he never really did any time, died in his own bed and ruled an empire