Originally Posted By: IvyLeague
Originally Posted By: azguy
Obviously, I have no proof, but I think you guys are dead wrong. up until Castellano was whacked the Gambino's had hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, over 2 dozen capo's and literally 1,000's of associates across many states like Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The had a huge presence in trucking, the garment district, unions, construction, cement, produce, meat producers and I'm sure drugs, extortion, gambling and loan sharking.


Gotti took over an organization that had about 250 made members, so not really "hundreds and hundreds." But it was the largest family at the time. Associate figures are going to vary. A more conservative FBI figure put the family's associates at the time at 600. But there have been others that were much more. If I remember right, the number of captains at the time were in the 20's but not over two dozen.

Originally Posted By: azguy
I think overall this forum has a slight bias and infatuation with the Westside and that's OK, I've learned a lot about them being on here.


If you were to go back 5 years ago on these forums, there was still a widespread opinion that the Gambinos had always been the top family. It's what many read in various books. However, once people get past a lot of the media flash around that family, the see the Genovese family has been the top family down through the years.

This isn't to minimize the Gambinos. As I've repeatedly said, through Gambino's, Castellano's, and Gotti's reign and into the early 1990's, the Gambinos rivaled the Genovese in many ways. Even today, while most of it's operations are in New York, the Gambinos still maintain a presence in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida and remain a strong #2.

Originally Posted By: DB
Both controlled waste management in NYC and I'm talking total domination over every business in the entire city. It's still hard to fathom how these guys found a way to extort every single business in NYC ( JP Morgan, Chase , Goldman , the freaking NYSE all the way down to every little borgata ). The amount of $ Initially garbage must have brought into the Genovesse and Gambino familiar must have been staggering . My guess is $50-$70M a year. Not to mention the mob ran all the vending machine business in these buildings, god only knows what that brought it .


In New York City--a $1.5 billion rubbish market in which 300 trash haulers serve 250,000 businesses--a customer-allocation scheme has resulted in overcharging by more than 40%, or $600 million annually. The Mafia's rake-off: at least 10%, or $60 million a year; prosecutors say it could be twice that.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1996/01/15/207168/


In 1985 when Gotti took over, The Gambinos reportedly had 24 active street crews headed by Capos. By 1992, it was 20 active street crews. I think now estimates are pegged at 10-15. What was the cap on Made members? 200 or 250? Back until the 1990s, these numbers were set.

Assuming each crew had 9 or 10 guys, the 200 number for 1985 would be accurate as very few guys were in prison for extended periods of time back then. Now, it makes sense that they have 200 made guys, but with so many in prison, the 9 or 10 guys per street crew on the street is probably accurate.