Or in Dom Cirillo's case, his own kid.

No, I can´t say that I have ever had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting down with a young made guy over a cup of coffee discussing the philosophical aspects of "what´s the meaning of life?"
To avoid arguments going round and round and round, let´s leave it at that.

That idiot danny provenzano was suppose to start a line of mobbleheads ..i guess that never got off the ground...I want a custom made bobble head nicky scarfo..that goes thank god for the american jury system...Angelo Lutz should gain 400 lbs again so they can make a bobble head of him that would look like one big f;n meatball...

Hairy whose the picture or avator in your postings. It looks like the guy who plays al capone on boardwalk.

Hairy is Michael Myers don't get him ralled up before you know it he'll be standing outside your door just staring at you and with those hairyknuckles..o did I stu-der those hair knuckles he'll b staring at you'se guys

DickNose,

Actually that´s a picture of a pretty unkown Gambino mobster by the name of Alfonso Attardi. He was active during the 30s, 40s, 50s and early 60s. He turned out to be an informant for the FBN.

We haven´t heard from you in a while. What have you been up to lately?

Yes they are certainly selective, their process takes quite a while. There Captains watch over them, advise and critique their decisions. It's a good method if it's your career path. The older group have also done very well finically which is why there was little use for extra "boots on the ground". Losing Chin hurt leadership wise, he ran a tight ship. But yet again the people he mentored have adopted most if not all his tactics(minus the robe). For whatever it's worth Tony Salerno was a big loss. Fish Cafaro was purely spitting in his face with all this "figurehead" BS. Tony was the "boss" while Chin was a co-equal. Fish Cafaro had a major grudge against Tony for what he dumped on Tony to whoever would listen. After his stroke he should have spent more time at the Spruce Bar(his ranch) than in a leadership role. The stroke REALLY diminished his capacity. It was sad to watch.

Is it true Benny Squint was still the top guy into the early eighties? Or had he stepped down years earlier?

That's an interesting theory. A well-known poster over on the Real Deal has theorized himself that Cafaro was actually trying to protect Salerno by claiming he was just a figurehead.

In any event, even if you throw out Cafaro's testimony completely, independent wiretaps confirmed that Chin was the official boss and Salerno ultimately deferred to him. They were not co-bosses. Salerno was basically the acting boss. He went to the Commission meetings, he conducted the making ceremonies, etc. But Chin had the final word.

The top leadership in the Genovese family from the 1970's to the mid-1980's has been debated over and over. It seems after Lombardo had stepped down and Tieri was convicted, Salerno was the guy who was going to become boss. But he had his stroke not long afterward so it never happened. But that's not to say he was later just an unwitting flunky out there taking the heat like the term "front boss" suggests.

How did Fat Tony be subservient to Chin? Out of respect for him or did Chin have the amount, or quality of men fiercely loyal enough to him to kill most anyone on Chin's orders?

I wouldn't use the word "subservient" because of it's implication. If you go back to the 1970's, Savino talked about a meeting he was called to with Chin, Funzi, and Fat Tony. He said Chin did most of the talking. During this time I believe Lombardo was the official boss, though others disagree. But that's what Cafaro said. Funzi was the acting boss (for Lombardo) before he was the first LCN leader to be convicted under the RICO law in 1980. Fat Tony had been the consigliere up to this time, I think, and was set to take over. But, as I said, he had his stroke. While he was recovering up at his farm, Chin officially took over. It seems Fat Tony was fine with that, maybe for health reasons. He still did a lot of the things a boss does anyway. Cafaro said Fat Tony still oversaw the family's construction rackets. I still think Fat Tony's crew was the strongest. But Chin was the top guy. Fat Tony was overheard on the Palma Boys club tapes talking about making some new guys. He was reading a list of proposed members. After going over the names he said, "I'll leave it up to the boss," referring to Chin.

One thing that has been pointed out before about the Genovese leaders from the time Vito Genovese died up till the present is that none of them have really needed the big chair. No hostile takeovers or guys killing their way to the top. Guys like Lombardo, Catena, Tieri, Salerno, Gigante....and later Bellomo, Cirillo, Ianniello, and Leo were already well off and took the job more out of duty than anything else.