leaving aside the specific question of why the corleonesi would defer to an outsider, there is the basic question of the "mechanism" of affiliation . . . .
that is, if there were in essence 3 main "fields" of ny mafia pre-1931, one Corleone, one Palermo, one Castellammarese, then did gangsters with ties to one of these areas "naturally" or "automatically" gravitate toward the respective field? or was the mechanism much looser?
obviously mobsters like Costello and Anastasia had nowhere to go other than to join a family from a different region than their own
but how to account for a mobster like Lucchese, born in Palermo, but a close associate of such Corleonesi figures as Gagliano, Reina, Luciano, etc?
The questions you pose here should keep this thread going a little further.
Very interesting. That Lucchese was a slippery snake wasn't he?
"For us, rubbin'out a Mustache was just like makin' way for a new building, like we was in the construction business."
