Originally Posted By: IvyLeague
Originally Posted By: JackieAprile
I always figured it was the 70s-around 1982 due to the following:

-Low level of rats overall
-The move of the family toward white collar crime, with associates stretching as far as the Mid East
-Roughly 500 made guys and 26 crews in the 1970s-early 80s, thousands of associates all over the world
-Amazing grand schemes. Virtually controlling all construction in NYC. The car theft ring (DeMeo) which was an international operation.

I always figured 1983 - when the FBI began bugging Paul - was the beginning of the end, really. That from say, 1967 to 1983, it was their time to shine.


One thing is for sure, they didn't have 500 made members then or at any other time. The biggest estimate I've seen (from any credible source) was 400 at their peak and that was in the 1950s and early 1960s I believe.


I think 400 members even seem inflated. Perhaps the families had that amount of "muscle" around 1930, but it wouldn't suprise me if the Gambinos and Genoveses always had 250-300 members up until the 1990s, when attrition started to take its toll and their numbers went down to 200. As for the three smaller families, their numbers may have approached 200 in the 1950s, but their numbers in the 1970s had already go below 150 members.

"It was between the brothers Kay -- I had nothing to do with it."