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Funzi Tieri
#900619
12/04/16 01:59 PM
12/04/16 01:59 PM
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Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 377 UK
dsd
OP
Capo
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OP
Capo
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 377
UK
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Was F.Tieri ever the boss of the Genovese family? Official boss? Acting boss? Front boss? Admin? None of these?
Because I'm sure I've read many times that he was a boss
Last edited by dsd; 12/04/16 02:00 PM.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#900633
12/04/16 03:49 PM
12/04/16 03:49 PM
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Joined: May 2013
Posts: 653 Illinois
F_white
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 653
Illinois
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Front boss for Benny Squint
From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: AllDay27]
#900828
12/06/16 04:01 PM
12/06/16 04:01 PM
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 168
Regoparker100
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 168
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Bobby Manna would have had to give his okay around this time too, no?
And wasn't the Galante hit very internal as well? The Bonanno Broolyn, Littly Italy Canada and Zip Crews were all in on it.
Did it ultimately have more to do with his monopolizing the heroin trade and refusing to properly cut the other families in, or more to do with his greediness within his own family and the instability it created among Rusty loyalists? Could be several factors: refusing to give a cut of his heroin proceeds to the other families, trying to seize control of the Bonanno family from Phil Rastelli, killing off several Gambino or Genovese (which one, IDK) family members and muscling in on their rackets. Highly likely that it was both internal and external things that led to Galante's whacking. Rusty, via Big Joey Massino, sought to have Galante rubbed off. Plus with Funzi (with Benny Squint's approval), Tony Ducks, Big Paulie, Santo Trafficante, Joe Bananas and Gerry Catena okaying the hit.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#900874
12/07/16 01:05 AM
12/07/16 01:05 AM
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Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 226
Ryan98366
BANNED
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BANNED
Made Member
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 226
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With the Genovese family, all we can do is guess.......my guess is Front Boss or super powerful capo.
GangsterBB Snitches get stitches!
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#900882
12/07/16 06:27 AM
12/07/16 06:27 AM
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
SonnyD
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
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I've changed my view on this in recent years, I think the whole front boss thing is a bit of a blind by Law Enforcement. I believe Benny Squint was simply a guy who liked to operate behind the scenes and leave most of the traditional duties of the boss to his underboss, first Tommy Ryan, then Funzi and later, briefly, Fat Tony and because of this the feds were fooled into thinking these guys were the bosses, until Savino put them in the picture in 1981.
I think this is clearly shown when you look at the chart the feds drew up around 1985 showing Lombardo as Boss and, I think, Fat Tony or Chin as underboss. And this is despite convicting Salerno in the commission case. And, of course, by this time Lombardo had retired and left Gigante boss.
Last edited by SonnyD; 12/07/16 06:29 AM. Reason: Neatness :)
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: pmac]
#900940
12/07/16 08:28 PM
12/07/16 08:28 PM
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
SonnyD
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
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I think that if genovese left a official boss before he died tomy ryan doesnt die. Think after ryans death benny becomes official names funzi 2. 1974. I don't believe Vito was in any position to anoint anyone as boss by the time he died in prison in 1969, most of the family had long since stopped paying him anything but lip service by then. And Tommy Ryan as boss would seem to be contradicted my those Mary Ferrell documents where Ryan is talking about lining up support behind Benny Squint as boss with himself as Lombardo's underboss as early as 1965. But I never really bought the story of Gambino ordering the Ryan hit, because it seems unlikely that the Genovese's would just stand by while their boss get's whacked by another Family. Also because it seems the hit was carried out by Chin's crew. My guess is that Eboli did borrow big money from other mobsters, including Gambino, Tramunti, Evola and maybe Benny and Funzi among others, to fund a major drugs deal and couldn't pay it back when it went wrong. There are stories of Ryan getting hooked on pills and booze too and repeatedly shooting his mouth off. The scenario here is that Benny decided that his underboss, Ryan, was becoming a liability and had to go for the sake of the Family. Similar to the Willie Moore mercy killing in '53.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#901366
12/11/16 06:07 PM
12/11/16 06:07 PM
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 5,094
Moe_Tilden
ForeverBotheringIranians
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ForeverBotheringIranians
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 5,094
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In the late 80's Vincent Cafaro gave a subcommittee the history of the Genovese family leadership. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/125163NCJRS.pdfPage 230: The boss of the Genovese family is Vincent Gigante, also known as "Chin." Bobby Manna-Louis Manna-is the consigliere. Until his death in Apri1 1987, Sammy Santora was the underboss of our brugad. Beginning in the early 1980's, Fat Tony Salerno was generally recognized on the streets as the boss of the Genovese family. In fact for years Fat Tony reported back to Phillip Lombardo, also known as Ben or Benny Squint. In the 1960's, when Vito Genovese went to jail, he had turned over control of our brugad to Lombardo. Lombardo wanted to stay in the background and keep the heat off himself. So over the years, Tommy Ryan, then Eli Zaccardi, then Funzi Tieri, and finally Fat Tony, fronted as the bosses of the family while Lombardo con-trolled things from the background. In 1981, Fat Tony had a stroke and was "pulled down" by Lom-bardo, Vincent "Chin~' Gigante, Manna, and Santora. Lombardo was also in poor health and retired.
I invoke my right under the 5th amendment of the United States constitution and decline to answer the question.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: Moe_Tilden]
#901370
12/11/16 07:30 PM
12/11/16 07:30 PM
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
SonnyD
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 102
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In the late 80's Vincent Cafaro gave a subcommittee the history of the Genovese family leadership. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/125163NCJRS.pdfPage 230: The boss of the Genovese family is Vincent Gigante, also known as "Chin." Bobby Manna-Louis Manna-is the consigliere. Until his death in Apri1 1987, Sammy Santora was the underboss of our brugad. Beginning in the early 1980's, Fat Tony Salerno was generally recognized on the streets as the boss of the Genovese family. In fact for years Fat Tony reported back to Phillip Lombardo, also known as Ben or Benny Squint. In the 1960's, when Vito Genovese went to jail, he had turned over control of our brugad to Lombardo. Lombardo wanted to stay in the background and keep the heat off himself. So over the years, Tommy Ryan, then Eli Zaccardi, then Funzi Tieri, and finally Fat Tony, fronted as the bosses of the family while Lombardo con-trolled things from the background. In 1981, Fat Tony had a stroke and was "pulled down" by Lom-bardo, Vincent "Chin~' Gigante, Manna, and Santora. Lombardo was also in poor health and retired. Thanks. Yeah, I'm aware of that info. I think Vito made Lombardo acting Boss around 1965, there are some FBI docs that seem to support that. I believe Lombardo made Tommy Ryan his underboss and Catena pretty much retired to Florida by then. When Genovese died in prison in '69, I think the captains elected Lombardo official boss. Benny Squint seems to have been a reluctant boss, so let his underbosses take the limelight. I think some of the confusion is around titles. Lombardo was Boss in fact, if not name from 1965, Ryan, maybe Zeccardi, Tieri and Salerno were his underbosses. He just gave them more leeway than was usual, so they all caried out many of the usual bosses functions. Call then front bosses if you will, they were the number 2 guy under Benny Squint.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#901381
12/11/16 08:36 PM
12/11/16 08:36 PM
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,841
SinatraClub
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,841
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Eboli was acting for Genovese, so he really was acting boss. And there's some real circumstantial evidence supporting Carlo with other members of the Genovese administration being behind Tommy Ryans death. Guys answered to Eboli simply because he had Vito's ear and for a while into Genovese drug sentence, there was a belief that he'd be getting out and would be retaking the reigns, this was in '62-63. So at this point it was between Tommy Ryan & Gerry Catena whom was acting boss but whomever it was acted on a panel along with Mike Miranda, and the other person (Catena/Ryan). According to a chart, Catena was acting boss first, and then Tommy Ryan is actually made acting boss after him, either by Catena or Genovese himself. Anyway, at this point Ryan, Catena, Gyp De Carlo, Pete De Feo & Anthony Russo were loyal to Vito, while Richie Boiardo, Mike Miranda, Antonio "Tony The Sheik" Carillo and maybe Lombardo weren't. At some point Carlo Gambino is said to have stepped in some where and sided with Miranda & Lombardo. Idk though, I think the primary reason was a conspiracy within the Genovese. In '63, an informant has Gene Catena, Jerry's brother, reporting to Tommy Ryan about a beef involving Tony Pro & a Pete De Carlo, so seems like Ryan was still acting boss at this point. A pretty reliable chart made by some guys whose judgement I trust, have Lombardo completely out of the picture by the '70-'72. And there's conflicting reports as to if Lombardo was ever actually boss at any point prior to the 80's, even with the informant testimony. The FBI had Funzi Tieri as boss, but as of Sept, 7, 1972, an informant reported that Lombardo was the present boss at the time. Another informant in October of '72, merely a month later, says Lombardo is just a captain. Another informant reported around a close time frame, that Mike Miranda was sick in Florida and that Funzi Tieri & Lombardo were the top guys in the family with Lombardo calling the shots. At most, we can determine that because of these conflicting reports the ruling panel did exist and was the actual leadership at the time, as it isn't until April of '74 were Tieri was recognized officially as boss with Eli Zeccardi under him. By the late '70s Tieri was sick and under indictment, another ruling panel was installed consisting of Underboss Eli Zeccardi, Dom Alongi & John Ardito. As of November 1980, an informant reports that Tieri is retired and another ruling panel heads the family consisting of Tony Salerno, Lombardo & Chin Gigante. In April of 81, an informant states again that Lombardo is boss with Tony Salerno as underboss & The Chin as consigliere. And that's pretty much it as far as succession goes through informant testimony. I got most of this info from the chart I mentioned earlier.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: SinatraClub]
#901409
12/12/16 01:19 AM
12/12/16 01:19 AM
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Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 202
JC
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 202
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The Mary Farrell transcripts show that Eboli was never the acting for Vito, Catena was. Eboli was the acting under boss for Catena and Catena left him alone to pretty much run the NY side of the family because he did not want to be bothered with the day to day machinations involving Gambino, Luchesese, etc. that Eboli complained to him about. Catena was possibly the richest gangster ever and wanted to stay boss in part so that he did not have to share his money with anyone other than Genovese. At the end of the day Eboli himself said in the transcripts that Catena told him that when he (Catena) said that something needed to be done it had to be done and Eboli didn't challenge him on that.
As for Lombardo being boss in 1965, in the Mary Farrell transcripts in which Eboli is puffing Lombardo up and telling him that he should be boss, Lombardo said that things had already been decided, which I have always took to mean that leadership was put in place the way that Vito wanted it,and he was not interested in challenging it. As for Catena, he did not retire full time to Florida until after he got out of jail in 1972, as he was in NJ enough of the time in 1969-1970 to get nailed with the subpoena to testify before the NJ commission on crime. He was not one of the many guys who had fled to Florida who the commission in NJ could never get. His refusal to testify is what got him thrown in jail. Maybe it's just me, but his still being in NJ at that time seems to indicate that he was still boss. I don't know why he would have stayed in NJ and not gone to Florida in the late 60's, where he spent the remainder of his life after he got out of jail in 72, if he was not still acting boss. We will never know but that is my thought.
The third guy in the triumvirate was Mike Miranda. It is hard to tell where he ranked in relation to Eboli, but if I remember correctly he was the one sitting at the head of the table, not Eboli, not Gambino, and not Colombo when the police crashed the meeting, which gives you an idea of the power and respect that he had.
As for the 70's, I think that the longest that Catena would have stayed boss was until 72 when he got out and moved to Florida, but I think that his being boss even that long is questionable. I think that after Eboli was killed and Catena retired that Lombardo and Tieri were the two most powerful guys in the family. As for who was boss, who knows. Some Mary Farrell transcripts indicated that the guys in Chicago recognized Tieri as boss, which is backed up by Jimmy Fratriano in his book. Other sources, including Carfaro, seem to indicate that Lombardo was actually #1, but I am not sure that it matters anymore than the question of who was the actual boss, Ricca, Accardo or Giancana, when Giancana seemed to be running things in Chicago. They were both very powerful and respected. They were also both very wealthy and at times very unhealthy, and they may have taken turns running things when one or the other felt up to it, with help from Fat Tony, Little Eli until he got hit, and others.
Just as an aside, I am not sure why so many posters seem to think that Vito Genovese was some mindless idiot. He was chosen by Luciano over all the others, including Costello, Adonis, etc. to be his underboss, and he was the acting boss for Luciano until he himself had to flee to Italy. Even when he was a captain and then underboss to Costello when he came back, he was always more powerful than his title would indicate, much like Carmine Galante was for the Bonannos. Genovese was an original, like Luciano and Bonanno, and he was respected by guys like Ricca and Patriarca. He was cunning and ruthless, which makes me think that it is bs that there was some kind of set up involving other mob guys like Gambino and Lansky to blow up Appalachian and then get him thrown in jail. Based on his history, I would think that if he even got a whiff of a set up by those guys he would have started hitting people left and right, which he was perfectly capable of doing as evidenced by hits that he called in while he was in jail such as Tony Bender. Also, by that point Lansky was not an independent power who worked with the Genovese, he was an associate who worked for the Genovese, and I don't think that he would have taken the risk to set up Genovese, but that is another story. Most likely, I think that if he was set up he was set up by the government alone. Anyway, those are my thoughts, feel free to poke holes.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#901410
12/12/16 01:26 AM
12/12/16 01:26 AM
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Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 202
JC
Made Member
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Made Member
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 202
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Some interesting facts on Funzi Tieri are that Sbarro's Pizza, the national chain, paid him protection money for many years. and Pat Henry, the Las Vegas comedian who was pals with Frank Sinatra, was his nephew. Also, Vito Genovese's first home in Monmouth County is now a very big and pretty park in Middletown: https://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/page.aspx?ID=2560
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: dsd]
#901411
12/12/16 02:11 AM
12/12/16 02:11 AM
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Joined: May 2015
Posts: 1,670 Chicago
CabriniGreen
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 1,670
Chicago
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@JC
Nice post....
The Mary Ferrell documents confirm it was Catena that had the final word in the family. One poster, I forget who, had a very interesting hypothesis. He said that Vito set up the ruling structure, kinda like a retroactive rebuke to Costello and Luciano, for putting Costello ahead of him. He had Eboli acting boss, but still answerable to the OFFICIAL underboss, Catena. Like he felt he should have been, when he came back from Italy, I guess.
I read an interesting quote from Vito Genovese once, I forget where, he said, (this was in the thirties I think...) " There are four guys who run Manhattan, Lucky Luciano, me, Dutch Schultz and Mike Miranda". At LaStella, maybe it was the most powerful guy in Manhattan, Miranda, the most powerful in Brooklyn, Gambino, with Colombo as Gambinos proxy vote, representing a quorum for the NY representation for the Commision. So even though Miranda was very powerful, Gambino maybe still had him outvoted. It would make since, some historians have speculated that the sit down was partially to figure out what would happen to Luchesses empire. That would have been a VERY key vote at the time, whoever could control that vote likely woulda been in control of New York.
(The Gambinos had the Bonnanos in disarray, still controlled the Philly vote, I think Patriarca was a Genovese loyalist, so these two votes were important. I think the New Orleans problems more affected Trafficante, and kinda by extension because of their ties to narcotics, the Luchesses, maybe they had some interest intwined? Almost seems like the NO problems were a battle ground to see who had the most juice at the table, but the cops broke it up too quick)
Edit: The main reason I think this, is in the Mary Ferrell documents, Eboli talks of how Gambino and Luchesse conspired to keep Miranda out of the loop in regards to Commision business. Yet Luchesse gets terminal cancer, and here is Miranda at LaStella, CHAIRING a Commision meeting....
I agree with you point on not just Genovese, but a lot of guys don't seem to respect Bonnano or Profaci either, who were MAJOR powers in their own right. Bonnano was I think YOUNGER than Luciano as boss even.
A couple questions.....
1. What do you think of that Sandino Pandolfo? Consigliere? I can't see it....
2. Why no administrative position for Adonis? Doesn't it seem wierd Morretti got it over Adonis AND Genovese?
3. Who was Costellos consigliere? WAS it this Pandolfo?
( okay, three questions, lol)
Last edited by CabriniGreen; 12/12/16 02:32 AM.
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Re: Funzi Tieri
[Re: JC]
#901442
12/12/16 10:23 AM
12/12/16 10:23 AM
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Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,841
SinatraClub
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,841
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The Mary Farrell transcripts show that Eboli was never the acting for Vito, Catena was. Eboli was the acting under boss for Catena and Catena left him alone to pretty much run the NY side of the family because he did not want to be bothered with the day to day machinations involving Gambino, Luchesese, etc. that Eboli complained to him about. Catena was possibly the richest gangster ever and wanted to stay boss in part so that he did not have to share his money with anyone other than Genovese. At the end of the day Eboli himself said in the transcripts that Catena told him that when he (Catena) said that something needed to be done it had to be done and Eboli didn't challenge him on that.
As for Lombardo being boss in 1965, in the Mary Farrell transcripts in which Eboli is puffing Lombardo up and telling him that he should be boss, Lombardo said that things had already been decided, which I have always took to mean that leadership was put in place the way that Vito wanted it,and he was not interested in challenging it. As for Catena, he did not retire full time to Florida until after he got out of jail in 1972, as he was in NJ enough of the time in 1969-1970 to get nailed with the subpoena to testify before the NJ commission on crime. He was not one of the many guys who had fled to Florida who the commission in NJ could never get. His refusal to testify is what got him thrown in jail. Maybe it's just me, but his still being in NJ at that time seems to indicate that he was still boss. I don't know why he would have stayed in NJ and not gone to Florida in the late 60's, where he spent the remainder of his life after he got out of jail in 72, if he was not still acting boss. We will never know but that is my thought.
The third guy in the triumvirate was Mike Miranda. It is hard to tell where he ranked in relation to Eboli, but if I remember correctly he was the one sitting at the head of the table, not Eboli, not Gambino, and not Colombo when the police crashed the meeting, which gives you an idea of the power and respect that he had.
As for the 70's, I think that the longest that Catena would have stayed boss was until 72 when he got out and moved to Florida, but I think that his being boss even that long is questionable. I think that after Eboli was killed and Catena retired that Lombardo and Tieri were the two most powerful guys in the family. As for who was boss, who knows. Some Mary Farrell transcripts indicated that the guys in Chicago recognized Tieri as boss, which is backed up by Jimmy Fratriano in his book. Other sources, including Carfaro, seem to indicate that Lombardo was actually #1, but I am not sure that it matters anymore than the question of who was the actual boss, Ricca, Accardo or Giancana, when Giancana seemed to be running things in Chicago. They were both very powerful and respected. They were also both very wealthy and at times very unhealthy, and they may have taken turns running things when one or the other felt up to it, with help from Fat Tony, Little Eli until he got hit, and others.
Just as an aside, I am not sure why so many posters seem to think that Vito Genovese was some mindless idiot. He was chosen by Luciano over all the others, including Costello, Adonis, etc. to be his underboss, and he was the acting boss for Luciano until he himself had to flee to Italy. Even when he was a captain and then underboss to Costello when he came back, he was always more powerful than his title would indicate, much like Carmine Galante was for the Bonannos. Genovese was an original, like Luciano and Bonanno, and he was respected by guys like Ricca and Patriarca. He was cunning and ruthless, which makes me think that it is bs that there was some kind of set up involving other mob guys like Gambino and Lansky to blow up Appalachian and then get him thrown in jail. Based on his history, I would think that if he even got a whiff of a set up by those guys he would have started hitting people left and right, which he was perfectly capable of doing as evidenced by hits that he called in while he was in jail such as Tony Bender. Also, by that point Lansky was not an independent power who worked with the Genovese, he was an associate who worked for the Genovese, and I don't think that he would have taken the risk to set up Genovese, but that is another story. Most likely, I think that if he was set up he was set up by the government alone. Anyway, those are my thoughts, feel free to poke holes.
Those Mary Ferrell transcripts simply show that there were informants reporting multiple things to be true. This Mary Ferrell document, has Catena being acting boss for Frank Costello, Costello appointing him, and guys not being satisfied with the appointment because some felt that Catena didn't go to bat for his men the way Vito Genovese did. As said before in my earlier post, I don't know who came first and who was acting for whom for certain, by any means. But at the very least, Mary Ferrell transcripts give conflicting information. (Credit to HK for first raising my attention by posting this on another forum) Also, according to some informers, Tommy Eboli & a Dominick Squantro, I think that was his name, were both present at the Costello hit with Vito Gigante but supposedly got spooked and fled and left Gigante to carry out the shooting himself. So I don't see Eboli acting for Costello. But who knows. There was also informer reports of Jimmy Alo being acting boss after Costello's imprisonment in '52-'53, and others that state he was taking over Joe Adonis' position and chosen at some meeting. That seemed to be an underworld rumor as later informants reported that Alo never had the standing to be acting boss in the Genovese, and another informant shortly after the first whom reported of the meeting, was supposedly high ranking, and he reports of being in NY on a trip from Miami and hearing nothing of the supposed "meeting" or Alo's appointment. http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?..._AND%20costelloOthers speak of a Joseph Schipani as taking over Adonis' rackets after his deportation. And others speak of members, Tony The Sheik Carillo, Tommy Eboli & Little Davie Petrillo of the Genovese going to Italy to meet with Adonis to appoint a successor to Vito Genovese who was seriously ill at the time. I don't know if I find that likely. http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=68896&relPageId=2&search=Joe_Adonis
Last edited by SinatraClub; 12/12/16 10:54 AM.
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