I would say that the opposite is oftentimes true. In fact, oftentimes there are plenty of unknown guys who don't even make the charts. For example, let's say for instance that the Genovese Family is estimated to have 300 members. Well, what Family chart have you ever seen with 300 people on it? People like to talk like they know every wiseguy out there today, but how much do they really know?
To your point: The charts at the Valachi hearings, which were considered the gold standard at the time, were based almost exclusively by info provided by Joe Valachi. He was a nobody, too low down in the borgata to have a good idea of the total membership--much less the other families--and the FBI had been ignoring Mafia until then.
