Geez Colonel you finally said something that I can agree with! Even broke ass Lefty Ruggiero's life looked more appealing than my working stiff life. He still didn't get up and go to work on a time clock with some shit boss cracking a whip on his back, waiting for quitting time everyday just to give hundreds of dollars of his hard-earned money to Uncle Sam every paycheck.

NOW FOR THE LUCCHESE CRIME FAMILY;

In my opinion, among the more foolish, or downright stupid mobsters to ever be affiliated with the Lucchese crew was;
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1) Giovanni (Big John) Ormento; a hardened, thrice-convicted, interstate heroin smuggler, trafficker and wholesaler. No matter how much public exposure and law enforcement scrutiny he received, from local NYPD, FBI, and FBN (federal narcotics bureau), Ormento simply could not stop handling narcotics.

He had served several prison terms for heroin in the past, and was notorious in NYC. Yet, he just kept on trucking like he didn't have a care in the world.

Or course that was before he was nabbed, tried and convicted, and sent away for 40 years in the federal penitentiary!..... he later died in jail, never hitting the streets again.
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2) John (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi; Another top Lucchese member, and arguably the most notorious and prolific labor racketeer and extortionist in the United States. Despite a criminal record dating to his teens, with over 15 arrests for everything from throwing stink bombs, and felony assault, to labor extortion, union corruption, bribery, and bankruptcy fraud. Johnny Did was a #1 hood.

With matinee-idol good looks, and dressed to the "T," Dio became the poster boy to the public of what mafia racketeers were supposed to look like.

Within a 15-year period. He sustained numerous arrests, convictions, and jailing's. It all culminated with a 30-50 year "bribery and extortion" prison sentence.....but he saw it coming. He HAD to have seen it coming!....Johnny Dio died behind prison walls.
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3) Paul Vario Sr.; with over 35 arrests spanning almost forty years, Paulie was a dyed-in-the-wool hoodlum. He rose from a lowly hood in East New York, to become one of the most powerful mafiosi in Brooklyn and LI, and especially Long Island. But he fell so many times, for so many crimes, and did so much jail time, that it's almost incalculable. Mind-boggling in fact!

He eventually reached a status where he could have laid back, and let others go to the front for him. But he did Not!.....He too ended up dying behind bars.
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Three TOP mafiosi, who had the world by the short hairs I might add. Who had reached a pinnacle in their chosen careers where they could have lived out their lives intelligently. Maybe allowing others around them to earn a few measly dollars, instead of them hoarding it all. But NO, their greed and ego required them to try and grab it all. Which required them to step up to the front.

And there in lies the problem!......Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!.....up and down the line!

Me, I'll take my working stiff life and freedom over any of these guys. Sorry sounds like a lot of you have some really sad lives if you'd rather have ten years looking over your shoulder wondering who was going to whack you or turn on you to spend years in jail rather than freedom, family and the good times that go with it. But to answer the question, I throw in the Tumac Acceturro crew in Newark. They had it all and all to themselves and turned on each other and ate each other up. Never recovered and never the same.

--Carl DeLuna, who kept meticulous ledgers of skimming at the Tropicana and Stardust hotels in Vegas, leading to a huge takedown.
--Junior Gotti, with his list of about-to-be-made-men.
--Neil Dellacroce, who landed in prison for five years because he lost $100k in a casino while claiming only $10k/year in legitimate income.
--Bill Bonanno, who used an associate's credit card, landing him in prison for wire fraud.

The working stiff life isn't much better than prison, and you talk about these "freedoms" but how much freedom do you actually have? You have to go to work, and from the time you're on the clock to the time you clock out you're under a literal dictatorship. Then you have to turn over a high percentage of your hard-earned money to the government. Have a wife and kids? Oh shit then it's even worse. And as far as betrayal, there's treachery and betrayal everywhere, most people are snakes and dirtbags looking to hurt you in some way or another you don't have to be a mobster for that.

I'm a working stiff myself. I can only imagine if I got whiff of that life is be totally sucked in. No job, no time to wake up, out on the town 6 nights a week, different broads Every week, throwing money around. Why wouldn't fall for.tnat life?

He saw himself as the superior gangster, although he definitely respected Luchesse......

Matthew Madonna actually seems pretty dumb....

Tells the Bonnanos we dont recognize your boss because hes in jail, when Amuso himself was doing life, nearly sparking armed conflict between 2 families.....

I agree. I don't think he had any respect for Gambino, at least not after the Bananas War. I will say this, the where similar in alot of ways. I think Gambino was a better version of Bonanno (as far as Criminal style).

I'd like to know what Johnny Dio was doing throughout the 1940s, as far as I know he was free the entire decade.

Back then Dio (and his brothers) flew under their uncle Jimmy Doyle. He was the "dunsky" and they followed his lead. Dio and Doyle concentrated on garment truck extortion as a staple. Augmented by other various labor terror tactics to have dress makers knuckle under their rule

Little by little Johnny Dio came into his own.