it seems that, at least with the five families, that most of the official estimates have it averaged out to around 5 associates per made guy, i.e the colombos having about 100 made guys with roughly 500 associates and the gambinos and genoveses having around 200 made guys with roughly 1000 associates, but like you said its all about how an associate is defined.
I've said many times that I don't put much stock in associate estimates. But the latest member-to-associate ratios are 1:5 in New York and Chicago, 1:2 in New England and Philadelphia, and 1:1 in New Jersey.
at what point in time would you say "The Mafia" had all the money in the US? 1920?
The LCN never had "all the money," as in controlled all the crime in the country; though many old news reports almost made it sound like it did. However, it had about a 50 year window - from the 1930's to the 1980's - where it was more or less the sole national power in organized crime. The Irish and Jewish groups had largely gone by the wayside and the newer groups like the South Americans, Russians, Asians, etc. weren't a major factor yet.
