When the Genovese family controlled the Fulton fish market and the garbage rackets with guys like Rosario Gangi, Carmine Romano, Allie shades, Angelo Ponte and others; were they the richest crime family in the country and possibly the world(I say world because this might have been the heyday of the American Mafia)? Of course they had other rackets like gambling, the gasoline scam and others that made a lot of money too but the families of some of the people I named are worth hundreds of millions presently because of their work with the Genovese family in those days. Specifically Ponte and Romano. Their families have very successful and legitimate businesses. The American Dream.

I updated the title of the post to better suit the contents of the post.

70tys seem to be a good run for them up untill rudy went after them all in 86 87 taking out the porno thearters and ther concrette club, even thou they kept it going in different forms

Are they really still the wealthiest and most powerful family? There was a pic of Barney on another site where he's walking down the street holding a pizza with his son. He doesn't really look like the king of an empire but then again he might just be that good at hiding it. I wonder if the dude really doesn't have that much money and that there's just some urban myth that the Genovese are the last of the big NY mob families. Again, I'm speculating. He could be worth millions. I enjoy the discussion about this intriguing family in particular.

Keep in mind also that Bellomo's predecessor wandered Greenwich Village in his pyjamas

Is Bellomo Sicilian? Costello was Calabrese, Genovese and Gigante were Napoli, I believe. What about Tieri?

Curious when outside of Luciano, a Sicilian has been the Boss of that Family?

Lol what does his appearance have to do with running the Genovese?

I wonder how far back they go Allie and Rosario probably late 40s/50s

Corleone, he's also fluent in sicilian.

Right on, thanks!

benny squint lombardo was sicilian, was not the boss in the 1970s? i thought costello was the consigliere

Nice, thanks. You could be right in that Costello was only consigliere. With Luciano, deported I thought Costello ran it, until the attempt on his life.

Did Luciano not give Genovese a beating once in front of the group in either Havana or Palermo. Basically, to ensure Costello was in charge?

What about chins kid with millions casually in the basement lol. These guys right now are rollinggggg in it. Maybe there’s a few average earner crews that ain’t as heavy as the rest - like the one Joey merlino got friendly with - that crew didn’t strike me a too heavy or massive earners especially with that soft rat associate that idolised Joey.. I may be wrong on the crew, if so please correct me.

Does anyone know about the Persicos current wealth? Are they set forever as a family now? Carmine put in a lot of work since the valachi days. I was reading the Valachi book the other day and there’s a page on perisco at the time of the book being a young up and coming force to be reckoned with and valachi was currently testifying against him on that silly gun rap that cost him yearsss back in the 60s/early 70s.

He put in so much work and kept control of one of the 5families in some capacity for like 4/5 decades. Surely they are insanely wealthy as a family forever otherwise what is the point lol

October 1957 was the peak. After that it was all down hill.

Think your talking about that guy patsy Parnell who was the capo close to .merlino and close to the boss. His restaurant must be worth a few million and is like a landmark that must piss the feds off and the guys been into loans and gambling forever so hes probably rolling on the dough to. Good gangland article from yes ago how he basically running his loan sharking from prison and his wife is kinda running messages. Someone on here awhile back said barney b has abunch of rental property and is loaded with money probably from the 70tys when he got made at like 21yrs old. He was a big heroin guy to. Probably only stopped after Vincent Camaro got him on tape selling a kilo of heroin back in 1986 but refused to testify and the case got dismissed. Chin made him the street boss a few yrs after

Lotta auto corrects sorrreyyyy

So much for the ban on drugs - “he was made street boss a few yrs after the drug charge”... by chin of all people

yaeh that correct. vincent cafaro had him and 2 old genovese guys at some pizza place in little italy buying a kilo or 2 of herion there some old new york times articles on it. he was dead to rites but since fish wouldnt testify they couldnt use the tapes. might have even been recorded at rays pizza the 2 guys were old old genovese guys. also think the lawyers said entrapment cause fish brokerd the herion deal and he was working for the government at the time i forgot but yes chin didnt give a fuck he made him the street boss like 3 4 yrs . chin sold herion to so he was also a hypocrite

Mad how fish still got witsec when he blatantly held stuff back eh. Isn’t that rule 1 of the ratting process?

I suppose fish was a brokester gofer of fat tony who had no bodies so it wasn’t like he was getting life was it..

I never understood why he flipped and lost all his family over some minor beef with fat Tony over a small amount of money where Tony said he’ll hit him with a stick or something- made no sense. He owed Tony his livelihood and button. No good deed eh...

A lot of guys got stung due to charity case projects like fish. Look at vinny gorgeous and that crazy junkie he made capo who ratted immediately - forgot his surname Dom something. He should’ve barely been on the peripherals let alone made.

Least Tony soprano got some bodies out of Chrissy and his loyalty for that charity case project that lasted 6 seasons lol.

fish had lucchese guys on wiretap buying those bricks with cop money, ralph tutino he made his fortune selling H, and another guy from the “purple gang”, or what was left of it of that old crew. barney was merely a guy who was handling sal larca sr’s old H pipeline

but then again this could be very much barney’s double cousin, who knows

I think Barney must be worth tens of millions. When you’re the boss you must have so much cash coming to you every day. That’s why Gotti could afford to lose millions in bets when he was the Don. He knew the money would just keep coming.

I can’t imagine Luciano ever doing that to Vito. He was tough as nails and I think he would kill anybody in a heartbeat if they did that to him. But I wasn’t there so I wouldn’t know.

Gambling was the biggest money maker for all families but for the Genovese family, it looks like the guys who made their money in garbage ended up being the most financially successful.

The following link tells the story of the Havana Conference, mentions that Costello was Acting Boss of Luciano Family, and the beating of Genovese. Three ribs were broken, I agree, I wasn’t there either, so who really knows what happened.

https://www.nationalcrimesyndicate.com/on-this-day-in-1946-the-havana-conference-was-held/

I never knew that. Interesting story surrounding that meeting in Havana. I’m surprised that Carlo Gambino wasn’t in attendance that day. We could say that during this time, the Genovese family was at its highest point of success.

Then the story goes that Genovese tipped the American government about Lucky's stay in Cuba. He then gets shipped back to Italy. Luciano and Costello have the last laugh when they have Genovese set up and taken away for narcotics. Him and Chin were either busted together or coincidentally ended up in the same prison.

That’s a great observation, I’m sure Gambino would of at least had representation during the conference. It appears that Luciano wanted back into the USA, as well as expansion and setting up business throughout the Islands.

There was another in Palermo 1957, which I believe Joe Bonanno organized.

If my memory works correctly, I believe it was the first time that the American and Southern Italian Mafiosi convened and began doing business. Maybe Gambino was at that one??

They could of been the wealthiest then, in and around that time. I believe they controlled Tammany Hall aka Democratic Party, I think Costello was huge in that.

It lead to the 5 Families/Commission getting access to NYC High Society type. Probably lead to Sinatra/Rat Pack and JFK, Giacanna was in a relationship with a famous actress.

When they had all those casinos around the world, Lansky and Alo.

How many casinos did they have? Alo is an interesting character. Some people say that he was really what people believed Meyer to be because he had money and big businesses just like Meyer and then some. Having the backing of the Luciano/Genovese family as a capo in the family also doesn’t hurt.