So to be in the U.S Mafia you have to be italian..

because as it goes families wanted to be able to trace you back to the old country? But I mean was their ever a recorded example of a family tracing a members heritage to Italy and doing something with their families over there? Or that never happened

in the last known meeting of the Commission in 2000, was decided that the made men had to be full-blood Italian.
about whether to track up to the old country, it was before when there were still completely Italian neighborhoods.

I don't know if it ever happened. I'm sure they probably checked to make sure your mother and father were both Italian. It was probably a line added to make Goodfellas more interesting.

They are gonna have to eventually end up mixing things up if they want "their thing" to stay around. The full blooded Italian gene pool is slowly shrinking (as is every caucasian gene pool) as interracial screwing is accepted more and more from the northeast as well as the rest of the country (minus we here in the south).

For instance, I am Half Italian, Half Cajun. If I were to be a criminal, why would I partner up with LCN if I knew they were going to make some borderline retarded person because he has more Italian blood in him than I do? LCN is losing a lot of power in that way in my opinion.

Better yet, how often does it even happen in the US when someone in LCN flips? Why would LCN murder distant relatives back in Italy, when immediate family members are here in the US?

Are family members of mobsters that flip considered fair game for retaliation? Were family members of Al D'Arco, Gaspipe Casso, Joe Bonanno, Sal Vitale, Sammy Gravano, Tommy Ricciardi, Phil Leonetti, Joe Valachi, etc... murdered?

Mobsters were upset when Anthony Gaspipe Casso had Fat Pete Chiodo's sister shot (She survived). So, I take it that male family members are fair game, while the women are supposed to be protected.

I don't think people in organized crime think like that. It's not a career you "choose" like being a dentist or something. Most people end up in OC because of short-time financial and other benefits it offers to them. They're often desperate people with no other future or simply don't want to bother with all the troubles of living a 'normal' life and look for a temporary shortcut to money. In other words, they don't join the organization thinking "it's a shitty job now, but someday I want to be a captain with a lucrative racket", they join because OC offers them something that very moment. If they get promoted fine, but there has to be something that offers them a better lifestyle than a legitimate job even without that. IMO that's why the LCN doesn't bother to change that rule, they can get non-Italian associates regardless and get from them what they want. I mean, would a 100% Italian-American work for the LCN because it's an Italian thing or because he's earning money with them? I doubt anyone joined the mafia because of "Italian pride" or something like that

Slava has a good point.

People commit to crime as a career for money, not for ethnic pride. If your ethnicity assists in career advancement then all the better, but as a general rule the mob is about $ first, 'Italian pride' second.

Joe Colombo included.

You've made this point before and, like before, it doesn't really hold up. The LCN benefits from having non-Italian associates without having to make them. The LCN doing away with one of the core rules that forms it's identity would only further ruin it's already crumbling hegemony.



Any family member, male or female, that isn't in the life is generally considered off limits as far the American mob is concerned.

Of course, it wasn't long ago that Bonanno acting boss Anthony Urso though it may be time to revisit that rule. In a taped conversation he talked about how the ever-growing number of turncoats had to stop and that one way to do it would be to "wipe out the family" of a defector.

In other words, the mob has no revenge against mobsters that flip, outside of whacking that particular rat or one of his connected male relatives? Maybe that's why so many mobsters have flipped.

So, the line in Goodfellas where Henry says you have to be 100% Italian so they can trace all of your relatives back to the old country.....that's not referring to a deterrent against someone flipping?

I know it's fiction, but isn't that what they did in GFII when Frank changed his mind about testifying against the family?

Micheal had nothing to do with it. "It was between the brothers"

I think there's still danger of a guy getting killed if he's suspected of being a rat, but before he fully flips and goes into government protection. However, as has been said before when this topic has come up, nowadays the risks of killing a mob turncoat (to say nothing of an innocent family member) outweighs the rewards. Especially if the damage is already done.



You're always going to find some truth mixed with error when it comes to mob cinema. But I think the basic jist is correct, i.e. they are going to want to know as much as possible about a guy's history, his family, his friends, where he's from, who he knows. I would assume much of this is common knowledge by the time a guy has been around long enough to where he's been proposed for membership. All that said, however, none of it is full proof. The mob can be as careful as possible about who it makes, and it does still work most of the time, but there's always going to be some guys who will flip regardless.

LOL good point Slava. I guess criminals don't look at it as a business standpoint as normal people like you and I would!

I am 25% Italian, 25% Finnish and 50% Irish/British by known ancestry. My grandfather on my father's side is 100% Italian. So even though I have an Italian surname I would never be able to become a ''Made'' guy in LCN or any other Italian OC group correct?

I'm sure you could slide under the radar if your last name was Italian. They hurting so bad right now they will make anyone

Yeah, back in the day somebody knew you or your family and could vouch for your ancestry but nowadays it's a lot more difficult. There are probably a lot of younger guys today who possess less than 100% Italian/Sicilian blood.

Hmmm interesting stuff thanks. In reality I actually legally have a double barrel surname. My mother who is of Irish/British descent wanted my brother and I to have her family surnames in addition to my father's