Boss of Bosses

What is that?

Joe Pistone called Big Paul Castellano the Boss of Bosses and the Boss of everything. Everyone knows Lucky Luciano outlawed that official position. Why was Paul called that? Why did Carlo Gambino dominate the Commission if he was only a coequal? I have a theory...

Maybe the Boss of Bosses in the post Maranzano age was the Boss who controlled the docks.

The harbors and docks is probably where most of the heroin from Sicily came into the United States. The Gambinos, formerly the Anastasias, formerly the Manganos, controlled the docks.

So the Boss who supervised the family that controlled the largest cash crop and who had the closest connections to the mafia families in Sicily was the "Big Boss". But the money made from that cash cow was poured into a pot to be evenly divided between the Bosses.

Cash cows like NY's garment center were supervised by the Lucchese's, but the money was shared between the administrations that made up the Commission.

Places like Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno Nevada, were evenly divided between the families. The idea always being to share in order to avoid conflict and war between bosses.

So Joe Bonanno was at odds with the Commission maybe because he wanted to dominate the Mafia's drug trade.

Carmine Galante was then whacked, because he didn't want to share the receipts of his drug pipeline with the other bosses, a drug pipeline he played an integral role in establishing.

When Joe Bonanno sicced Giuliani on the Commission, that was actually a drug war Bonanno was using law enforcement to fight on his behalf.

These are just theories on how the Commission might have actually functioned, the nuts and bolts of how they kept it together, and the principle that formed the basis of their secret discussions, that principle being that the Bosses shared in the big rackets equally. Maybe one Boss might be richer because his family had more bookmakers or pimps or loan sharks, or what have you. But the big rackets had to be split up evenly at the top....and then money laundered.

Joe Pistone said "Commission members come and go, but the Commission has it's own sources of money...The Vegas skim had been the Bosses biggest source of money since it didn't have to flow upstream. It already was upstream".

I think Boss of Bosses in the modern age was the Boss who controlled and supervised the docks/NY harbor.

I think Boss of Bosses was just an awful movie starring chaz palminteri

every boss has one vote..if the commission still exists…no boss of bosses..maranzano was the last to try. gotti thought he could set up the commission by having massino, arena in his pocket..then he could be the boss of commission..how did that work out for the megalomaniac.

Definitive answer. Close it up .

...plus, "Boss of Bosses" was the title of a rather mediocre book on Paul Castellano written by two ex-FBI agents who were on his case. They conferred that title on him because the Gambinos were the biggest family at the time, and because they wanted to sell their book. The reality was that Castellano could hardly have been the "boss of bosses" because he not only didn't have the respect of his fellow Dons, much less the respect of his own people. That's why Gotti got away with whacking him.

I agree. We don't know if there is even a Commission anymore. Probably not. But I think that today's historians haven't fully explained what the Commission actually was or how it actually functioned, it's principles. But being as the thing Lucky put together was so powerful, I think it is worthy of study.

But I want to know what people think of that. That Commission meetings weren't just about sit downs and keeping the peace, but actually about splitting up monies evenly between the Bosses, about setting up new joint ventures (the Windows scheme and the gas tax scheme comes to mind), and even discussing changes in the law with one another (RICO, drug laws, etc).

On a side note, Vincente Mangano was in fact named chairman of the Commission once upon a time. I don't know that it has any significance. Maybe the chairman title rotated. Maybe it didn't. Maybe Mangano holding that title had something to do with his supervision of the NY Harbor for the Mafia.

Gotti definitely didn't completely get away with it. They attempted to whack him but took out his number 2. Bobby manna was lifed off for conspiracy to murder him and gene right? Gigante the most powerful ordered the hit. Apparently due to all the media and people around him they couldn't get to him which seems right. The 2 most powerful families were out to get him for quite a whole before it seemed unfeesible and counterproductive. Then they had a sit down an moved on. Bobby manna was enough of a hit for him on a matter of another family.

AR, I understand that your theory is pure speculation from your part but naming the chairman of the Commission had NOTHING to do with who was in contol of the docks. The docks were shared by the Genovese and Gambino Families. And profits were never divided among the Commission members automatically just because they sat on the Commission.

well, I don't think Chicago was ruled by any commission, they had their own, Milwaukee, Kansas city, Los angeles, las vegas, and much more of the mid west answered to Chicago. and is any body sure that ALL families shared in las vegas skim. im sure Chicago, Kansas city, took the lions share.

They didn't share in the skim just because they were mafia families. They had to hold a secret ownership in the casinos in order to get a share of the skim. Plenty of families didn't get any of the skim.

mulberry, exactly, that's why all this sharing of wealth with all families is b,s.

This was a nice theory. Creative. But at the end of the day, boss of bosses hasn't meant anything except a really bad movie for a long long time.

I am wondering why pistone said that about castellano tho. Granted the other families he was around were smaller, but I couldn't imagine the genovese boss treating the gambino boss as a superior. Maybe it was just his perspective looking at things from a weaker family

Last one to try to become Boss of Bosses was Joe Masseria. After the Castellammarese War, that title was no longer used. Chairman of the Board is the one responsible for the security of commission meetings and to be able to be reached at all times by other commission members when they needed an urgent meeting. From my understanding, the Chairman of the Board position was elected to serve five years. The Commission rule was of peace, so there would be no more fighting between two or more families. The Commission came togather to take a life, or save a life. To go to war or not to go to war. Only to interfer in a family appointment of a boss if there was no strong contender to take the mantle, but this rule the Commission had broken more than once, due to some influencial members on the Commission. To settle territory disputes such as them making Las Vegas and Miami open to anyone.

Gambino and Genovese controls the docks, lets say Mike is a Gambino capo that controls the southern part of the docks in Brooklyn, but wants to control a little section in the northern part the docks that is known to be used for smuggling that is controlled by a Genovese capo named Tommy who get a cut of the action. Mike sends someone over to make a deal, but Tommy refuses the offer, which angers Mike, both are capos so they go to their families administration. If neither of those two families can not work it out, and it looks like it is going to get ugly, then the Commission steps in to avoid a mob war. For the record that is Tommy's territory and has a right to do as he wishes.
Frank and Vince are both Capos in the Bonanno family. Frank started to sake down union workers at company that he owns jointly with Vince, but is not sharing the profits with Vince, but is kicking up to the family boss. Vince finds out about this and reports it to the family administration. The Consigliere decides, but if it is sever enough he takes it to the boss. Because both members belong to the same family, it is a single family dispute where it should not reach Commission level.

As for profits being devided between them, that is only if there are members that have skims coming in from casinos, or union money that those members jointly share in. Example John and Peter are both bosses that have a joint venture in a Las Vegas casino, but Joe another boss does not have an interest in that casino, so John and Peter dived the profits between them, while Joe gets nothing cause he is not involved. Commission members make there own money, but are smart enough to bring in another member or two into a lucative deal so that there will be no hassles from the other families if it is a huge money maker.

I liked a story I read in one of the NY papers years back...It was a philly guy telling a story how a soldier in philly left a safe with $100,000 in it to his capo when he died...

He said a soldier with the gambino's stole it and there was a sit down with the Castelanno and his soldier and Scarfo and his captain...

He said the gambino soldier admitted that he stole the safe but when he opened it it was empty..

The captain in the philly family said something and Castelanno told Scarfo he didn't appreciate that guy raising his voice, and the sitdown was finished...Philly got nothing !!

The reporter asked the philly guy why Scarfo allowed such an obvious ripoff and he said ''The big fish eat the little fish''

Thanks for the input Giacomo.

I totally get that if a person did not invest, they didn't get a return. But there is a reason Joe Pistone said that Commission members come and go but the Commission has its own sources of money.

Let's say the Gambinos control a massive drug pipeline, from somewhere, anywhere. And that pipeline is under the supervision of a "Special Agent", a Capo or Captain with only a drug crew, a Capo who reports directly to the Gambino Boss. When a John Gotti comes along and engineers the ouster of a Castellano, or a Carlo comes along and engineers the ouster of an Anastasia, the tribute paid by that drug Capo gets kicked up to the new Boss. SO the money is unchanged. Operations are unchanged. The revenue is unchanged. Only the figurehead changes. A New Boss steps in and is all of a sudden commanding the drug Capo on pain of capital punishment to deliver the drug proceeds to him regularly.

In that sense an initial investment was not needed to get a return.

What I am proposing on this thread that is not proposed very often in mob lore is that the drug proceeds kicked up to the Boss from the drug Capo might in fact go into a pot that is shared equally with all the other bosses of the Commission. I could be wrong though. But then why was Carmine Galante whacked? Was it only because he appointed himself Boss? Why did Lefty say that Carmine Galante failed to "share" with his family? I think by family Lefty was not referring to the Bonannos, but to the Commission (the Bosses, Consiglieries, and Underbosses of all the major families). It is difficult to imagine that New York City was divided between 5 families and 5 Bosses and that the massive dock/harbor drug trade was hogged and monopolized by one or two bosses or three bosses and not shared.

That money was probably shared, split up 5 or 6 or 7 ways, and then laundered into Swiss bank accounts.

Evidently, the NY harbor was split up between the control of two families...

The Gambinos, and the Genovese.

The Anastasia family controlled the Brooklyn waterfront, and the Luciano Family controlled the Manhattan waterfront. Hope I didn't get that reversed.

It makes sense that those were the two biggest and most important families whose bosses have been called boss of bosses historically.

The biggest boss supervised the biggest cash crop (heroin) for the Commission. It must have been shared with the Commission to keep the peace and because each Boss must have made an investment of their own in the outsourced heroin trade the Sicilians helped them move.

That's correct. The Gambinos also had Staten Island while the Genovese had New Jersey.

That is a very intriguing idea Alfa... definitely food for thought.