How where they allowed to induct so many new men? Didn't the families set a limit for membership? Seems unlikely to me as that would have been perceived as a major threat by the other families. And the books were closed at about the same time when Carlo took over.

Never came across anything suggesting that there was a restriction on the number of new guys the Families were allowed to make. Because of their bigger size, the biggest Families also had a greater number of followers (associates, guys "on the record" etc). The Families were allowed to make anyone they wanted, as long as the new recruits were approved by the bosses when the lists were passed around.

But if a family wants to double in size in only a few years time other bosses aren't going to approve. The fact that each of the Five Families never surpassed a certain size does suggest that there was a limit on membership for each family. I don't buy it that the Gambinos went from a small family to the biggest one in only one decade, surpassing the other smaller families. Why didn't the Bonannos, Colombos or Luccheses came up with such a brilliant idea? If Bonanno just made 500 new men he wouldn't have had so much trouble ordering the murder of Gambino and Lucchese..

Anastasia was the don from '51 to '57. From what I have read, he handed out membership for a hefty price of around $40k. That could have been a reason for the large recruitment, as he stood to make millions. But the rumor of charging fees came from Genovese, who was trying to justify the whacking of Anastasia. So, who knows...

Is Carl Sifakis considered a reputable source? According to his Mafia Encyclopedia, under Carlo Gambino's leadership, "the relatively small Mangano operation became the biggest in New York and the nation." In addition, he wrote "Carlo Gambino took a second string crime family and built it into the Mafia's jewel in the crown, far more wealthy than even the family originally ruled by Lucky Luciano..."

This is all bullshit

The gambinos were always the largest family, even going back to the 1930s
They always had the larger number of associates
By the gambino became boss, the books were closed
In 1956 guys like frank locascio were the last guys made until the early to mid 1970s

For the most part over the last 40 years the families in NYC make members to replace old ones
Sal vitale said he made up dead people from the phone book ,to be able to make new members
And vinny gorgeous was recorded on tape complaining to massino that JO JO Corozzo was making up the names of dead people an trying to sneak in guys that had been convicted of dealing drugs in the past 5 years, and massino laughed because he said "he always tried the same thing"

The Luciano and Mangano (and the Gagliano, to a certain extent) gangs were bigger than the Bonannos and the Profacis from the start as their gangs were older and able to draw on a larger "talent pool", so to speak. The majority of the latter two were Sicilian natives brought over to America in adulthood, whose families were smaller, but generally more tight knit and familial, at least until the next generation. I would assume that when it came time for recruitment, aspiring members would generally want to join the larger and wealthier crime families of Luciano and Mangano, as opposed to the smaller, and largely foreign speaking, Bonannos and Profacis.

From what I understand, the Luciano/Genovese and Mangano/Gambino families have always been the two large NY families. I've read some things that said the Genovese were initially bigger, while others have said the Gambinos were initially bigger. Certainly during part of Carlo's reign as boss, the Gambinos were the biggest, but not by a significant margin. Not in the way those two families are significantly larger than the three smaller NY families.

They didn´t. They have always been a very big Family. Some claim the Gambinos was a merger between two Families in the 1920s (D´Aqila and Mineo).

If the talent pool isn´t there, where would the smaller Families have found x amount of new recruits in order to double their size?. The larger the Family = the larger the group of associates. If the Colombos wanted to double their size in the 1950s, they would have had to bring in every Joe Blow standing on the corner they could find.



Sorry to say, but it´s not.



A crew´s new recriuts were very often born and raised in the same neighborhood controlled by that specific crew. If the neighborhood was controlled by a Profaci crew, the new soldier was recruited by them. If another recruit grew up in another neighborhood controlled by another Family, the new recruit ended up with that Family. I understand what you´re saying, but the new recruits had no choice which Family to join. And besides, why would the new recruit want to join a crew in a different neighborhood he´s not familiar with, led by someone he doesn´t know/been around with? And vice versa...Why would a crew leader take in someone who is virtually unkown to him, someone he can´t vouch for?