"Not as powerful as the big familes?" Smaller families didn't "answer" to anybody. They were represented on the commission by the large families in NY and Chicago, but the bosses of these smaller families ran their own family how they wanted to. They didn't ask permission to do anything in their respected territories. Explain to me why Cleveland had more of the skimming of the Vegas casino's than most families? It's because they owned the Teamsters and Jackie Presser through Bill Presser (Jackie' Father) and one of the most powerful Teamster board members in history. Philly, New England and most of the NY families didn't have nearly what Cleveland had in Vegas. Explain why Pittsburgh had the casino's in Havana, Cuba through Gabriel "Kelly" Mannarino while Chicago, NY, Philly, New England, Detroit, Buffalo etc didn't have any of it. The point I have been trying to make is that smaller families had just as much power in their respected geographic territories as Chicago, Philly, New England, etc had in their area. Unions, truck hijacking, gambling, extortion, loansharking, prostitution, drugs, white collar crime, legitimate businesses etc.

I agree that Chicago had many "infamous" bosses and so did NY, but that doesn't mean that those infamous bosses were any better at their jobs than the bosses of smaller families. Cleveland through Bill Presser, Jackie Presser, Tony Milano, Moe Dalitz and Angelo Lonardo and John Scalish were nationally respected and in Milano's case, feared. The same with Frank Balistrieri in Milwaukee and Nick Civella in KC. Milano in Cleveland had rackets from Cleveland to Vegas to Los Angeles to Reggio Calabria, Italy and into Canada. Pittsburgh's John LaRocca ran four states and had significant pull in West Coast Operations in San Jose and San Francisco through Salvatore and Angelo Marino, both from the Pittsburgh area. Jack Tocco in Detroit "owned" Jimmy Hoffa and Frank Fitzsimmons, more so than Chicago. Further, my point is that the American La Cosa Nostra was made up of "mostly" smaller crime families with Chicago and NY the largest out of all of them. Outside of those two cities, most of the other small crime families prospered financially and without the headlines and headaches that both Chicago and NY had to endure. Elliot Ness came to Cleveland for a reason.

How do you define more powerful? By the size of the city? I'm not trying to argue with you Toodoped, but the American Mafia was made up of "mostly" smaller cities which is why I feel it is important to include them in the discussion because they ruled their cities for very long periods of time with minimal prison time because they owned everybody in the local and state sector of government.

Russell Bufalino was as powerful a mob boss as one could get. For you to minimize his wealth and influence is irresponsible. Where is your proof that Santo Traficante was not allowed to travel to Chicago without permission? That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Could you validate that statement or is that your opinion?