[quote=NYMafia]I believe your viewpoints are largely incorrect Vito.
1) The family always hovered around 30-40 members, plus additional associates. Today, I don't doubt they have an even smaller footprint. But thats no different than all remaining crime families in the U.S., even NYC's Five Families. (But as far as quality goes in NJ, and even elsewhere for that matter, well thats another conversation altogether)
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2) As far as operating in NJ, and having to contend with a myriad of competitors, thats no different than NYC where there are tons of other OC-type gangs, of many ethnicities.
3) As far as not having total control of any one state. Just look at the state you speak of? NJ is a vibrant state that has always had at least 7 separate Mafia families operating on its turf, and all of them made a ton of money through the years. If the DeCav's are not making money in NJ, its due more to a sign of the times we live in, rather than NJ per se.
4) As far as maintaining connections back to Ribera, Sicily. Even in 2023, this group still maintains some ties to their homeland. In fact, the DeCavalcante crew is one of the very few crews that did keep ties. A fact that greatly aided them through the years. (But remember, every Mafia faction in America has fewer ties, if any, nowadays to their ancestral birthplace - thats just a fact of life in the American underworld). The mob all across America has been "Americanized."
I believe your viewpoints are largely incorrect Vito.
NY- I agree with almost everything of what you said however,
At some point in time American LCN, was so powerful and strong they didn’t need to maintain ties to Italy.
For what did they need Italy for during that point in time.
Fast forward today it is essential for the future for many of these LCN families to sustain and survive.
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Hi BH, The main reason why Italy and America kept very close ties all through the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, even 1960s, was because many Italian/Sicilian mafiosi were either first generation or their blood families maintained close ties to blood relatives back in Campania, Calabria, and Sicilia. By the late 1970s forward, we're starting to see second and third generations becoming active. (and just like in the legit world, with Italians, Germans, Irish, Jewish, etc., the more americanized ethnicities lose the connections to their relatives back in their homeland).
So its not so much that they didn't "need" them or want them, I think it's more that the "ties the bound" them became severed.
But remember too, that the "homeland" was the incubator for several generations of mafiosi that staffed all the borgatas throughout America (and elsewhere for that matter).
And to answer the second part of your question about, "For what did they need Italy for during that point in time." My answer is this, for many decades (not years, but decades), Italy/Sicily/and their connections to France, Marseilles, Corsica, and the Middle East, greatly facilitated a multi-zillion dollar transatlantic narcotics pipeline that lined the pockets of many a mafiosi. Thats #!
#2, Then add in multimillion-dollar currency counterfeiting schemes, alien smuggling, and guys looking to avoid prosecution by "going on the lam to Europe (or vice versa) who were given safe harbor and protected by their "brothers" across the ocean, and you start to see just some of the benefits and reasons to maintain close ties and alliances between America and Italy.
Add to that, the fact that many Italian-born hoodlums were later "imported" to America to shore up the ranks of families like the Bonanno's, Gambino's, DeCavalcante's, etc., and there you have it!
