Hey Mulberry,

While I agree the age and attrition caught up with families like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Northeast PA as well as some others, federal statutes like RICO has dealt a major blow to these families. In Cleveland, James "Jack White" Licavoli was the first mafia boss convicted under the statute. Once he went to prison and Angelo Lonardo cooperated, it decimated the family and they never recovered because they did not properly replenish the ranks. In Pittsburgh, when it became known that underboss Chucky Porter was giving information from prison 2 years into his 28 year sentence for racketeering, it certainly gave the Feds enough info to decimate the entire Youngstown, OH operation as well as convicted a group of Pittsburgh mobsters for bribery of a public official to take control of the Rincon Indian Casino in San Diego. Porter's information also gave up Sonny Ciancutti's illegal gambling operation as well as John "Duffy" Conley's video poker operation. Sure, age and attrition caught up with Pittsburgh as well but the Feds have the RICO tool at their disposal and now that they know how to effectively use, it's not hard to wrap somebody up into a continuing criminal enterprise.

Also, my theory has been that when the first and second waves of Italian immigrants emigrated to the U.S., they brought with them their culture, traditions, beliefs, honor, codes and overall dedication to LCN. We are now in 2014, more than 100 years from that first major wave of Italian immigrants and the American Mafia is now inducting members who are not full blooded Italian, who have never set foot in Italy and who will never have those "old school" traditions that guys like Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Russell Bufalino, Anthony Milano, John Scalish, John LaRocca, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonanno and Angelo Bruno as well as many others. Also, the corruption of public officials still happens, but not nearly to the extent that it did even 30 years ago. People aren't afraid to run to the FBI any longer, hence the FBI extracts the information they need to tie somebody into a conspiracy and deal a major blow to a crime family. "Many" of the guys today that are under 55 years old grew up when the mafia was starting to decline. They got into this thing on the tail end of booming times and many of them like Joey Merlino, George Borgesi, Nicky Scarfo Jr., Jackie "The Kid" Giacalone, Frank Calabrese Jr and John Gotti Jr. to name a few were spoiled brats who rode the coat tails of their blue collar fathers who came up in the organization the old fashioned way...they earned their stripes based on their ability to produce solid revenue for the family and their uncanny ability to carry out a hit if needed. A lot of these young guys were handed things because of who their fathers were without having to put in a lot of the serious work of building their reputations.

There are many variables that are debatable but the fact of the matter is that the "many" of the guys today are soft and they realize that they will either spend the rest of their lives in the can or could take their ill gotten gains and move to another place without retribution. At this day in age, it's easier to run to the FBI than it is to do 15 years. One could also make the argument that drug trafficking and the stiff sentences make it much easier to roll over than to do 25-life.

I do not give all the credit to the FBI, but the fact of the matter is that the FBI has more informants (not all of them mobsters), more favorable laws and tools like RICO at their disposal. It has never been argued that if the U.S. government has a target on your back, they have more time and more money to bring you down. If anything, even if the Feds don't get a conviction all the time, they still accomplished ruining a mobster financially. A RICO trial now runs in the ball park of $500k-$1 million dollars...and a lot of the younger guys in today's mafia don't have the foresight to pack a parachute for a rainy day...because if there is one certainty in life is that rainy days happen, and sometimes they are devastating. And even the guys who pack a parachute and have that kind of cash laying around end up having to spend it all on their defense, they lose their homes and in some cases, they lose their families.

My two cents.