This week's
New York Magazine has a really interesting article about the rise and fall of Peter Gotti, and the current state of affairs of the New York families.
The most interesting part, though, was one of those little "side Boxes", written by noted mob historian Jerry Capeci, about the "rules and procedures that govern the induction of new members".
I don't know how much of this is accurate, but almost all of it is new to me......
-- New members can be "made" only as replacements for mobsters who have died, although each family is allowed to add two new members at Christmastime.
-- Names of proposed members, and the deceased members they replace, must be circulated to the other families, who have two weeks to lodge an objection-for example, the candidate is an informer or the candidate is an associate of another family.
-- Families may not replace a defector who cooperates with the government, until he dies.
-- Families may never relace a member the family has killed.
-- Both parents of an inductee must be of Italian heritage, s change in previous poliy requiring that only the father's lineage be Italian.
There are exceptions to every rule, however, especially with a career criminal devoted to beating any system, including the one he vows to live by.
"Sometimes", former Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale told the FBI, "I would make up names of dead guys so we could induct more members than the rules allow,", adding that on at least one occasion, he got names "out of the phone book"
