Buffalo's as dead as Dillinger. Detroit's a huge whirlpool of interest for me. I've seen some detailed charts on this forum, only a few dozen members, but recent cases none the less. 2006 and '09, right? The last real mob murder was in '01/'02, right Ivy? That guy hit in his Corvette goin' to the gym. That video with Scott Burnstein and the retired FBI agents made it seem like there's still a LCN presence in the D. Though even at that borgata's peak they were no way near as strong or as capable as Chicago or New York; I mean I don't think the family even really had union influence, did they?
One thing about Buffalo is didn't they have crews across the border, Hamilton and Toronto? I'd assume over time those crews became independent. Now I'd like to add that in no way are those crews viable families, though there still may be an organization of small-time crooks.
Well, the Detroit charts, which tend to come from mcscott, have ranged anywhere from 40 to 60 members over the past 5 or 6 years. In fact, if you take those charts at face value, Detroit is the only family still
growing in size. But mscott's admitted that he isn't 100% sure everybody on that chart is made. And he's listed people in the past who are obviously not, since they're not even Italian. I like mcscott, he does provide a lot of good info on Detroit, and I own both his books. But, like many authors, I do think he tends to embellish his subject matter. According to
Detroit Mob Confidential, they're America's "most successful Mafia family?" C'mon.
I've said many times before that the feds said the family had 30 members
at most back in the mid 1990's. And even if we were to assume that they missed some guys, and that others have been made since then, there's just no way the Detroit family has 40, 50, or 60 made guys today.
Detroit did have union influence way back in the day, Hoffa and the Teamsters to name one example, but nothing in recent years or even semi-recent. 2006 was the last significant case involving the Detroit family. But we're talking by their standards. Before that, the last real significant case was a decade before in 1996. I'd bet we'll never see a case in Detroit like the 1996 one again. The 2009 case was over sports fixing involving some bookies who had some connections to the Detroit mob. And then there were the D'Anna's who assaulted the rival restaurant owner last year.
I'd probably put Buffalo right behind Detroit as far as families on the other side of where I draw the "viable/non-viable" line. But like Detroit, you also have to go back to the mid-1990's for the last really significant case involving that family. That being when Laborers Local 210 was put under federal oversight. Since then, there have been a few cases involving individual guys here and there, but nothing that shows a formally structured, cohesive family. In the past the family did have a crew in Hamilton and a few members in Toronto.
