There were ALWAYS rats. It's part of life itself. Both in the upper world and underworld. But obviously rats in the underworld are more devastating and is what we talk about here.

But years back, the ratio of "made" guys who ratted, compared to today is not even a conversation worth discussing. Before even after Valachi, the number of goodfellas who flipped was negligible. You could count em on one hand.

But once the early 1980s hit, the flood gates opened and from that moment on, it became a major, major, problem for LCN. and by the mid-80s when guys like Franzese and Lonardo, etc. flipped, it was the beginning of the end of LCN as we knew it.
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Don't get me wrong, we now know that there were plenty of made guys and top associates who provided varying degrees of info to the feds dating back decades. Lombardozzi, Scarpa, LaTorre, Bompensiero, Lima, Gagliano, etc. But they were dry snitches, and they would NEVER testify in open court which greatly limited their value to the FBI. The fear factor was there. They provided intel, nothing more. Although that too was devastating. But even those sources were nothing compared to today.

Today? It's a fucking joke. A bad fucking joke. LCN is a "Shell" of themselves. To me, almost recognizable to what I grew up with all my life.

If you access my "Rats Nest" list on ButtonGuuys (when we're back up that is, lol), you can count the number of "documented" made men around the country that turned rats publicly. It's well over 100 (well over). And hundreds and hundreds more associates of various stature.

I don't know if many of you truly realize how large a number that is compared to years back.

Can you even start to imagine how many more goodfellas are in the woodwork as I write who are spilling their guts at this very moment? Its a scary thought.

I guarantee you, I fucking guarantee you, that within the year you'll see another half-dozen flip. Maybe more....LCN is "OVA" as we knew it.