Analyzing a Captain's power

I was just wondering; Has there ever been a Captain who wielded more power then let's say a Underboss, or Boss. I know it's a strange question to ask, but I'm curious. There's been people like Tony Ducks Corallo, who was a captain, and overstepped superiors. Then you had John Gotti, who was a captain who murdered Bilotti, and Castellano, then got support from most of the family. Who are other capo's who had enormous power?

Tino Fiumara was part of the Genovese family ruling panel until his death in 2010, while heading-up the family's New Jersey faction.

There's been several Genovese captains, not to mention ones from other families, who have been on a ruling panel. They essentially become an acting boss. But the original post is asking a different question, I think.

@IvyLeague, So is it possible for a captain to be on a ruling panel while an underboss is still in-place, but that captain has more power because he's on the ruling panel?

@Regoparker100, Tino Fiumaro def had alot of power. A captain, who was on the ruling panel, and some say he was set to be Boss? Or is that incorrect?

Well, for instance, the most recent information is Frank Cali is the Gambino underboss while Anthony Gurino, John Gambino, and Sonny Juliano are on the ruling panel.

As for who has more power, I suppose that's on a case by case basis



He was on the ruling panel but him becoming boss would have been a surprise since all the bosses or single acting bosses have been from the family's New York base.

It's on a case-by-case basis in each family. Alphonse D'Arco was promoted to acting boss of the Lucchese family in 1990 while Amuso and Gaspipe were on the lam, only to be "pulled down" or demoted when he bungled the hit on Chiodo in 1991.

Fiumara was on the Genovese ruling panel until his death in 2010, and was a possible candidate to be the boss after the Chin died in 2005, from what I saw. The family itself did have Jerry Catena (who was the head of the New Jersey faction in the 1950s, and was underboss to Vito Genovese) on the ruling panel in the 1960s and 1970s.

As far as Sicilian bosses like Gianni Nicchi were concerned, then acting capo Frank Cali was like a boss,to them.

Carmine Galante had outsized power as a capo, I think he bullied Marangelo, who was the underboss.

Scarfo as a soldier, I think rivaled anyone in that family for power back then.

Funzi? I'd put him on the list...


Sonny Red? Him too I guess...


Old school, Frank Coppola, I don't think technically he was ever higher than capo, but when he died he was considered possibly the powerful mobster in Italy..

I think Sonny Franzese has always kinda been considered a threat to the administration, after he got out, I could be wrong though..

Anyone come up with any others?

For some reason I feel like the captains of some of the jersey crews always hold a lot of power especially let's say Ralph perna. He pretty much runs all of northern jersey.. Feel like he's got a lot of shit to take care of and a lot under him.. As opposed to some skippers in let's say Brooklyn where there is like 3 other captains from the same family In the same general area. I dunno just a thought

same with Daniel Leo , he went from soldier to acting Genovese boss

Victor Colletti from the genovese, powerful soldier...

Scarfo was a nobody until casinos were allowed in Atlantic City. Even then, his power did not rival othrrs. He was more violent, but not more powerful

You should read what Leonetti says about Scarfo, he says when it came to murder, Scarfo was in charge. He said in that family,Nicky was the most powerful guy, and he clearly was cause he had the relationship with New York, which is what mattered back then....

The thread was about POWER, not money. Money didn't keep Bruno alive, nor Simone, nor Narducci, and the casinos wouldn't have kept Scarfo alive either. I thought Scarfo was a nobody too, until I started to read a bit more about philly, I think he was always a member in good standing. The whole point of the turmoil in that family was that only a few guys were really getting rich.

I honestly don't see Bruno as being powerful. He was rich and successful, and benefited from being Carlos puppet boss. But his respect deteriorated so apswiftly after Carlo died, one had to wonder if it was there at all to begin with...

This one has my attention a little bit, Ima try to go a little more in depth to explain my thinking....


I read Machiavelli, I used to read it a LOT. ITS ALL ABOUT POWER.
Now, in this book, he talks about the different kinds of " principalities". Basically you have one where the Prince is the ABSOLUTE RULER, Like a tyrant.
This would be like the Profaci family, what Maranzano was TRYING to do, maybe the Chicago family under Capone, Toto Riina in Sicily, mafia Tyrants right?

Then you have the other, where the Prince is a figurehead, and he rules over powerful nobles who have their own armies, and or resources at their disposal,and pledge fealty to the prince, usually out of self interest. This is like the 50-60s genovese, the Bonnanos when Sonny Red was rebelling, consider him a powerful " noble" with his own army and resources. Basically families with lots of powerful capos, who have their own followings, and operate off the power of their own strength and abilities.

Now, as long as Carlo Gambino was ALIVE, Bruno was an absolute ruler. As SOON as Carlo died, he bacame a figurehead prince trying to reconcile the various factions that popped up. The factions, lead by " nobles" , ( guys like Scarfo, Caponigro, Narducci, Testa, Riccobene...)pledged fealty to whomever it was in their best interest, if they calculated it wasn't Bruno, they plotted to betray him. Riccobene is a good example of a " Noble" in this quasi feudal setup.

Remember in Leonettis book, when the family was in turmoil, he said Bruno came to see them. And basically tried to BUYthier loyalty. Contrast this to Scarfos crew, he could tell them to go shoot a biker in the stomach, and he had guys that would do it without hesitation, with total loyalty to HIM. Now one of the chief tenants of The Prince is a man with his own loyal army is ALWAYS POWERFUL, ALWAYS DANGEROUS. He also says basically if you have to pay your troops, if their loyalty is based of that ( remember Michaels convo with Tom Hagen ) they aren't ever going to be reliable. That's why I put Scarfo up there in the power department, NOT MONEY. It's also why Gotti was becoming so paranoid of Gravano, Sammy was building his own " army" within the family ( remember Gotti read Machavelli as well..), at the same time Gottis personal army was under siege, ( the Bergin indictments, Chin and Gas gunning for him), and he couldn't depend on the loyalty of the other " nobles" in the family to show absolute loyalty to him at that point.

Take the Genovese in the 60s; they were a bunch of rich "nobles" , with their own interest in various rackets.A lot of them were pretty autonomous. Chin changed all that, he became the Absolute ruler of that family, irregardless of ANY CAPOS RELATIVE POWER OR WEALTH. He let them have the money, but you better believe they better follow orders, or none of that money was going to save them. It's no coincidence he was close to and backed Scarfo, he had the SAME philosophy as far as power being more important than money, at least before he became boss.


I'll post a little, I need a typing break lol, any thoughts fellas?

Very interesting post Cabrini.

Though I would counter that power intrinsically lies in money. A guy who earns will nearly always outweigh a guy who's feared.
That is the rule, the opposite is the exception.
Nearly all powerful capos were huge earners.
This thing is a business first and foremost.

Plenty of guys out there that I'm sure don't have much of a rank but have a lot of say and power. This also goes for guys that aren't even made but bring in a lot of $$$.

Great post Carbini, but I have to agree with Sonny in that Scarfo was the exception to the rule. He knew how to play the Cosa Nostra politics at a time when that was of paramount importance and he of course was a cold blooded killer.

He had the time and circumstances on his side, otherwise he never would've been boss I think. His reign also turned out to be disastrous as we all know and according to George Anastasia this is in large part because Scarfo wasn't a wealthy man. He said: 'You should never make a poor man boss, because he gets greedy and he loses sight of what it's about. Bruno saw himself, I think, as the caretaker of an institution and he made plenty of money, but the idea was to insure the continuation of the institution. Scarfo was just about:''It's mine now, give me the money''. Bruno ruled with a iron fist covered with a velvet glove, Scarfo saw no need for the glove. Where for Bruno murder was a negotiating tool of last resort, for Scarfo murder was a calling card.'

Thanks for the replys, everyone!

@Dsbaloo. I feel the same way, Alot of New Jersey captains are very powerful I'm interested to know more about Richie Boots Biordo. He was a old-time Genovese captain, who controlled Newark NJ. What type of power did he have? Was he close with the administration during the 70's and 80's? @IvyLeague, Do you have any input?

Other powerful captains IMO were Dominick Napolitano, and Sal Catalano. Catalano. Both were captains, but seemed like they operated as Street-Bosses when things were hot in the Bonanno's Am I wrong?

This is my opinion. I believe a powerful captain with a legion of supporters can seriously threaten a Boss, or Underboss for power. Most would never try, such a move though.

The Boot is an interesting example when analyzing a captain's power. Starting in the 1920s, the guy had his own powerful crew, separate from the families. He wasn't made until the 1940s and seemed have a lot of autonomy. He was close with Mike Miranda. Check out "In the Godfather Garden" for more info.

Great post Carbini

I think Larry Zannino from Boston probably had more clout as a captain than Gerry Angiulo did as UB.

Those who want power usually get it. I believe most people would rather be in good standing with those in power than sit at the throne themselves, be it the mafia or the regular world. The 80's Gambino family is a good example because it illustrates both ends of the spectrum. You have Castellano who just sort of ended up boss, then you have Gotti who would accept nothing short of it. You tell me which of the two is the household name today. If it wasn't for Bill Curtis most Americans wouldn't even know who Paul Castellano is. You only needed to watch the nightly news in the early '90s to know who John Gotti was. This wasn't by accident. Gotti visualized this lasting effect. It's how he saw himself. A captain like John Gotti in any organization is more powerful than a boss/owner/CEO like Castellano, and if he's not, he will be.

Great examples with Catalano and Richie the Boot, Zannino too. Sonny Black as well...

@ Sonny &BillyBrizzi


I would agree with you guys in that money, resources are absolutely necessary for a guy to rule effectively. But Machiavelli has complex definitions for "Power" , "Fear", "Cruelty", it's not exactly black and white.


Here is an example, we will stay with Paul vs Chin;

Money is power right? Paul had a ton of money right? Yet 40-50 thousand dollars that he took off Gravano, might have got him killed. Think about it. That business deal he made to kill the Conneticiut guy, probably got him killed. This is because he put Money before Power, Money before Respect. Narducci was rich right? Like a multimillionaire, but what he wanted that he didn't have was POWER. Did Narducci take over? His money wasn't enough, put it a better way, he didn't have ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY OFF ALL THE GANGSTERS THAT WOULD HAVE LET HIM GET AWAY WITH KILLING HIS BOSS.



Again contrast with the Chin, let guys keep a lions share, and this gained him tremendous respect, which translates into power.





You gotta understand, WHY A GUY IS A GANGSTER, what makes a gangster loyal to another gangster. There is a great quote from BoardWalk Empire, where a prosecutor accused Nucky of ordering a murder. He, incredulously ask, " How the fuck do you order someone to commit murder?" It's a great question, actually....





You remember the scene from Carlitos Way, When Carlito talked about how his guy was worried he would die before he made him rich? And how the guy was willing to literally take a bullet for him, AS LONG AS HE THOUGHT IT WOULD GET HIM PAID DOWN THE LINE.... See his loyalty was based off that, Carlito was his meal ticket. You guys read Franzeses book? Remember the part where some guy was about to rat out his crew, and like six, seven guys volunteered to kill the guy immediately. Franzese said he could see that they were totally dependent on him for the lifestyle he was providing, and FEARED LOSING IT TO THE POINT THAT THEY WOULD KILL FOR HIM WITHOUT HESITATION.





So HE isn't exactly feared for violence, but the guys under him fear losing the windfall he provided.






In Machiavellis book there is the fear of death, but he also describes the fear of losing a potential windfall or source of revenue. Now awhile back, there was a thread where guys asked, " Where was Galantes feared army?" But I countered that the families feared losing his lucrative heroin connects. And sure he was a feared guy, yeah but as SinatraClub pointed out, once they found another heroin source, once the " fear" of losing that source disappeared that was it.Once the collective decision making body of the mob made up its mind, he was remarkably easy to kill. See they " feared" losing that potential source of revenue. This was a subtle nuance Chin understood. He wasn't just feared for being a real killer, a capo at that time would legitimately fear Chin being off the streets, because it would hurt him FINANCIALLY. Chin being in power was probably a key component of prosperity for a lot of guys. Now imagine how HARD it would be to get a majority of Genovese capos to go along with killing Chin. Him saying fuck the money made him effectively " Conspiracy proof" from inside his family. If your guys see you getting fat, and fatter, and fatter, and don't see their own prospects improving, they get VEEEERY JEALOUS. Profaci, Castellano, Genovese felt Costello held his crew back in favor of his own business deals, ect...





What did they say about Luchesse? He took VERY GOOD CARE OF HIS GUYS, and was a very popular boss as a result. Even cheap guys like Gambino and Genovese, had their own revenue sources' so they didn't have to constantly take from guys under them.






Another example; The Palermo Gambino click, the Inzerillos and all of them, these guys were so rich it was ridiculous. I mean the Gambino, Inzerillo, Bontade, Spatola, DiMaggio, Grado, these clans were VERY WEALTHY. But they weren't getting the rest of the mafia rich. Now the poor, Corleonesi mafia would do a kidnapping, get the ransom, and distribute the money amongst the struggling clans. This made clans indebted to them, brought them respect, and allies, and power. They eventually gained so many allies using methods like this that they gained control over a majority of the men that made the decisions for Cosa Nostra as a whole. Once they had control over the POWER APPARATUS of the mafia, once they controlled the mechanism that made and broke the rules, once they had the POWER, all the money in the world didn't save this clan from getting slaughtered, and this is all because they spent all their time worrying about their money and not the POWER THAT MADE THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE.

It's Michael Corleone in the second movie, he had to stop focusing on the business and focus on the " BUSINESS"' in order to get back to doing business, if that makes any sense... It's the idea that money is a byproduct of power....

Great examples Cabrini, very interesting.

Never read The Prince, I think I'm going to buy it soon, it should be mandatory reading for every mafia aficionado.

Salvie Testa was an actual streetboss,no one 'cept phil & nick (or maybe chickie) could rival him,had his own independent crew,& we all know that he was thought of as a threat..at least to his own asshole boss..poor guy got himself killed by no fault of his own.

@hoodlum

That's a FANTASTIC example... Salvie Testa, almost textbook...

In their heyday Tony and Vito Giacolone seemed to have a ton of power in Detroit.

Aniello Migliore? How much power as a captain did he have? I know he has served on a ruling panel several times, and has always mingled with the top brass in the Lucchese's. Some say he could have had an administration spot in the late 70's or 80's but he declined it.

Barney Bellomo's a good example, as he went from a street soldier in the 1980s, to becoming the Genovese family's street boss (while controlling the 116th Street crew) under Chin Gigante's rule. He's now the de facto boss of the family since the Chin's death in 2005.

Why, Thank you Cabrini sir..I appreciate your knowledge also..always liked ur posts.

Great analysis of the power dynamics in Cosa Nostra by CabriniGreen

Gotti was able to get up there so fast because of the mobs decline, if it were 30 years earlier or more he would never have moved up so fast. I think the answer lies in who had the biggest crews, or the best combination of killers and earners in their crew.