Who is the most influential mobster in history?

talking mainly the American Mob

I figured if i was to ask the question "who is the most influential American gangster" it would be Capone no question.

but since im asking mainly LCN...who would you choose as the most influential figure?

Anthony Scotto?

Carlo Gambino?

see i always thought it was Luciano with the help of Meyer Lansky that was truly the originator of the mob, but Gambino i hear was influential as well

I wanted to get your guys thoughts on this question

Without a doubt, it is Luciano who revolutionized the LCN (with the help of Lansky).

Not only did he introduce the Commission as a way to resolve disputes among the families, but he also was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate and believed that making money was the way to go (and not in turf wars), and had no qualms in working with other ethnic gangs such as with the Jewish mafia and the Irish mob, to name a few.

Without a doubt, it is Luciano who revolutionized the LCN (with the help of Lansky).

Not only did he introduce the Commission as a way to resolve disputes among the families, but he also was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate and believed that making money was the way to go (and not in turf wars), and had no qualms in working with other ethnic gangs such as with the Jewish mafia and the Irish mob, to name a few.

I think a good case could be made for Raymond Patriarca. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country but he pretty much ran that state for decades. He had so many influential people in his back pocket. Obviously there's no comparison for Rhode Island to New York but he had a good run.

Why do you think Al Capone was more famous than Luciano?

Frank Costello for sure. There was a time in NYC that no Judge could be appointed without his say so.

At the height of his power he certainly was, he was everywhere and very public, giving interviews to nationally-syndicated newspapers, opening soup kitchens for the poor, appearing in movie Newsreels (the TV news of the time), etc. Early mobster movies (like the original Scarface) were transparently based off of him.

Imagine if El Chapo today was giving interviews on Fox News or CNN every week, parading around downtown Hollywood and had blockbuster movies based on his life coming out every few months all the while running a huge criminal organization in public. That's how huge Capone's public visibility was at the time. He was very good in manipulating the press and popular culture until the Feds came down on him.

Luciano's public profile was rather low until Laguardia started to go after Costello's gambling business and Dewey's prostitution trials in the late '30s. What we know of Luciano and the castellammarese war comes from sources and accounts that were published after World War II, after Luciano had been deported and was in Italy. Newspaper accounts of Luciano's organization in the 1930s make it sound more like well-organized street gang of "hoodlum" racketeers, he earned didn't earn the reputation as the "grandfather of the mafia" until histories started to be published in the 1950-60s and Valachi and Gentile talked.

And I've seen no evidence that the Natonal Crime Syndicate was actually anything but another name for what we now know as Cosa Nostra and the Jewish mobsters who operated under them.

A lot of these concepts of the late 1930s and 1940s were made up by police organizations who didn't understand the criminal organizations they were dealing with and were doing a lot of guesswork-if they were interested in not taking a bribe that this. All of this was fed to the press who sensationalized it because there was a very competitive newspaper press at the time who were ready to print what lurid and wild story on crime that they could get thier hands on, the truth be damned. There was not a lot of what we would call today "investigative journalism" in to crime in those days. Just a lot of nieghborhood rumors and what the police stated publically.

valachi

Sammy the bull

If I had to pick somebody I'd pick Frank Costello because of his political power.

so do you think Capone was probably more eccentric which is why he is probably more well known?

I always try to make the point that the Chicago syndicate predates the formation of the Commision, people tend to forget this....

Here is an example of what I mean....

https://books.google.com/books?id=GnCn1u...tor&f=false

In this link it alludes to an 8 million dollar stock swindle, 160 million in today's money, right?


Luciano's gang was estimated to gross about 12 mil a year, I think 4 mil a year profits to split between like four, five guys I think? I think in today's money it's something like 240-50 mil gross, and like 80 mil net right? Now this is Luciano/Adonis Broadway mob, NOT the Masseria family, not yet....

Now Capones syndicate by like 1926 was said to be grossing 105 million dollars a year. This is like a 3 billion dollar gross. This was FANTASTIC WEALTH for a criminal organization back then. This is why they really did OWN the city.

The thing that gets me with Costello, how politically powerful was he really, exactly? Because all my research shows Joe Adonis first, in Brooklyn, and then later Tommy Luchesse were every bit as powerful politically. I even have a theory that Costello and Adonis were kinda silent rivals, and we know Luchesse was jockeying for all kinds of power, so I do think they competed in that same sphere of influence. I understand Costello had a lot of clout, but to me, he couldn't do anything with Dewey, he couldn't do anything with LaGuardia. Where as you got the Chicago machine, the even more potent Pendergast machine ( is this guy forgotten?) corrupt NO governor, and that thing where the Outfit GAVE a guy a Supreme Court spot. I just always found that statement, curious, to say the least, there seems to be a LOT of instances of naked corruption back then' all over...


You know who I think deserves an honorable mention? Three fingers Coppola. The structure I see predominant on a global scale today, crime family clans, controlling vast intercontinental drug operations, that the Rizzutos and Gambinos, Ndrangheta families and the strongest of the Naples clans have perfected, the transatlantic mafia family? This setup was started by Three Fingers in like 1926!!-28!! Around in there, this guy was Sollozo.

I think Tommy Luchesse is underrated; He supposedly started the knockdown loans in the Garment Center, he opened up JFK, he was for most of the 40s and 50s THE narcotics guy in New York, was a feared killer, VERY politically connected, AND still very low key. And I'm sorry, all due respect to Gambino and Genovese' but they literally woulda never took over if not for Luchesse, he was Carlos mentor, like it seems...

And as big as Capone was in bootlegging George Remus was bigger, which is saying something....

Surprised no one agrees with Anthony Scotto as being someone of extreme influence. Wikipedia writes this about his influence:

"Scotto became one of the most powerful mafiosos in New York due to his powerful political connections. Scotto even became friends with the mob's most feared enemy, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In 1972, Scotto used his influence to get his lawyer, Bertram Perkel, appointed as a special counselor to Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy. Also in 1972, Scotto was named as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, but stepped down in protest over the actions of the Convention Credentials Committee. Scotto at one point claimed to have raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidate Hugh Carey's 1974 gubernatorial campaign in New York. Scotto had numerous dealings with Carey over political appointments and labor issues. In 1976, both Scotto and his wife Marion were selected as delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

When Democrat Mario Cuomo ran for mayor of New York in 1977, Scotto donated $50,000 to his campaign. President Jimmy Carter had named Scotto as a possible candidate for the position of U.S. Secretary of Labor. At the same time, Gambino planned to make Scotto president of the entire ILA in the United States; however, this ambition was derailed by criminal charges."

I really don't think Wikipedia should be considered as a source here.

I agree, but the wikipedia info I listed had footnotes that came from New York Times reporters articles.

Little known about Frank (Chick Wilson) Citrano, he wielded a lot of clout for the Luchesse Family and Three Finger Brown.

Are we talking about influence over criminal groups, or influence of legitimate industries and government?

Without a doubt, hands down, Salvatore Lucania aka Charles 'Lucky' Luciano..

Without him, there wouldn't be the framework there is now and the Italian mob would've gone the way of the Irish and Jewish gangs: DEAD

Lucky Luciano or Tony Accardo

Smartest and only real answer. Although...

Johnny Torrio allegedly had major input into The Commission set up,
along with Lansky, also set the Chicago Outfit up and was responsible
for bringing Capone to Chicago.

It depends on what you really mean by this question...

Which mobster was the most influential on the American mafia?, or

Which mobster was the most influential on history period.

The first question is easy to answer, Lucky Luciano. This because no one made man was responsible for bringing Cosa Nostra to the States, but one single made man was more integral to the transformation of the mafia in the United States than any other.

If you are asking the second question, that's a lot more controversial. If the question is expanded to which made man was the most influential on Cosa Nostra world wide, that's even more controversial.

Really it might have been Mussolini that drove mafiosi out of Italy into the United States where they then began to affect American culture and commerce...but Mussolini was not made.

Salvatore Maranzano figures in here somewhere, because it was he who might have created the American myth of the gentleman gangster versus the gang members they were before his attempt at unification. The gentleman gangster myth affected Hollywood movies and culture with the glorification of gangsterism eventually passing into the world of Hip Hop. This is just theoretical.

Johnny Torrio for sure, another really underrated guy, the criminal alliance thing really was his brainchild....

The thing with Luciano "creating the idea" for the Commision is a myth. He certainly was the main reason the US mafia adopted it, but according to Nicola Gentile, Mafiosi were conducting organizational meetings and business committees, basically since the mafia was formed in Sicily.

The thing I find goofy about this is, it was actually Maranzano who came up with the structure. He was the one obsessed with Julius Ceaser, and the military and ranks and honor and whatnot right? It's like Luciano went along with it because it was good business at the time... It buttressed his power, whereas before with Masseria and Maranzano it hindered him....

Tony Accardo & Murray Humphries

Carlo Gambino..Torrio..etc...Any Boss that can pass away of old age or a Heart attack at a older age..

was the National Crime Syndicate Torrio's idea?

i thought it was Lansky's?

I think Joe Masseria deserves some credit as well as Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano was a smart copycat.

Furthermore you can name Frank Costello, Joe Bonanno, Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, who have all been very influential in their own right. In more recent times it's probably the Chin. I think that if Massino didn't turn rat, he would be on this list as well.