Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I'm really enjoying all of your insights, and all of the different ideas and interpretations.

I don't think the Bocchiccio's would have been considered one of the "Five Families." They didn't have any operational function. They merely provided a hostage service to the mafiosi. They would provide a hostage while two or more parties had a truce and negotiated. If anything happened to cause their hostage to be harmed, they would extract their revenge on whichever party caused the break in the truce.

I think of the "Five Families" as a group name like the singing group "The Five Satins." If I were a member of "The Five Satins" and I left the group, I would say I left "The Five Satins" not "The Four Satins."