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..
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.
Is Carl Sifakis Mafia Encyclopedia considered a reputable source?
Sorry to say, but it´s not.
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.
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?
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