When Brooklyn took over

In the 1960s-1970s there was a flood of Brooklyn mobsters who wound up being top men in their respective crime families. Most of these men were born around 1940 and they grew up around each other in the Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights area or south Brooklyn. Some gangsters were Sammy Gravano(along with his crew the Rampers), Anthony Casso, Vic Amuso, Michael Franzese, Frankie DeCicco, Roy DeMeo and more. Dominick Montiglio is someone who grew up with some of these guys. Was there more opportunity in Brooklyn during this time? Is that why this era of the mob was to an extent dominated by Brooklyn bred mobsters? Casso and Amuso in particular transferred the power of the lucchese family from Harlem to Brooklyn.

dyker/Bensonhurst had the highest population of Italians at one point back in the day. Black and Hispanics were slowing moving into older Italian and Irish neighborhoods in the Bronx and Harlem. But Bensonhurst was a close knit Italian community since the 50s-60s

Not much Genovese in Brooklyn though did they have crews over there?

Yes they did. Casso’s Godfather was a capo in the Geonvese family. The Genoveses and Luccheses were both historically more powerful in Manhattan though.

That is true. I think there were some New Jersey neighborhoods that may have had the highest population also. That could be why the Brooklyn crews were so tight with the Decavalcantes.

During the 90s to present a lot of the Italians from Brooklyn moved to jersey and Staten Island but your right north jersey did have a lot of Italians as well prior to the transition.

Half of newark was divided between black communities and Italian communities going back to the 40s and 50s which sparked the racial riots of the 60s

Some very tough crews were spawned in Brooklyn and jersey during this time as well. And not just tough, but smart. Many of the people I named were tremendous earners with both traditional blue collar rackets and more sophisticated white collar rackets.

Vito Genovese was originally from Brooklyn right?

Pretty sure he was on the upper west side in Manhattan

He was born in Italy but I think Johnny is right. He might have lived in Brooklyn at one point and moved though. He had some very upscale apartments on the upper Westside believe. Many mobsters like Genovese, Costello, Salerno and Luciano owned apartments in their day that you would probably have to be worth hundreds of millions to own today. Just a guess. All of them are from the same crime family too.

Gigantes townhouse is worth like 10-15 mill now if I’m not mistaken

The Napolis operated in Brooklyn according to this 1975 article. It's also the first time I read James Vincent Napoli was reputed boss of the family, how accurate was this? Frank Tieri was also a Brooklyn guy.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/08/...cy-ring-2-linked-to-mafia-9-held-in.html

I didn’t know much about Jimmy Napoli but after looking him up he was pretty big time. I read that his gambling empire had a gross profit of $150 million.

Another person from Brooklyn who was in the rampers with Sammy was a guy named Gerard Papa. He had quite the reputation as a tough guy.

That crew had a few guys who became top dogs, one who didn’t make it was James Emma, he was murdered by Dominick “Mimi” Scialo crew, they say when Emma was murdered, Gerard Papa became a psychotic murderer.

I read that actually. Gravano, Emma and Papa all in one crew is a tough trio to tango with. Out of the guys who we are talking about during this time period, what crew do you think was the toughest? Gotti’s ozone park crew was tough. But I think Casso’s and Gravano’s crews might have been tougher and smarter. Franzese’s crew might have made the most money but there could have been crews that out earned Franzese and his guys.

Brooklyn had the murder inc guys i thought they were always incharge. I will say this going off topic but the sencond most successful mob boss behind carlo gambino is definitely phill benny squint lombardo . He had a 10yr run. Must have made millions in the 70tys decade as boss and steps down and retires in florida probaly still getting money. Says he died in 87. He names chin boss 81ish

I guess phill was a harlem guy

He was more successful than Lucchese and Accardo? Salerno and Gigante were incredibly successful too but they both went to prison so that might not fit your criteria.

The whole powerhouse of the Luccheses in those days was from Brooklyn. Casso, Amuso, Lastorino and so on. Very feared crew.

19th hole crew

every family had a murderous crew or crews in it..my opinion nobody was more feared than the other..orders came from the top and guys got killed and were told in what manner or message to send.guys flipping made it public info on the crews, so for me they were all equel..

yaeh should have said nyc boss and basically any boss after gambino. cause luchese had a great run and died free. agree with bronx with what he said to. i think alot of guys didnt get to pick there captain to. so a brooklyn guy could be in a bronx capo's crew. didnt bosses always put like 1 stone cold killer in every guys crew to spread out the man power. im sure there were old quite capos who didnt want or need a hot head who was inducted when they open the books in the 70tys.

After ceremonies the new inductees were transferred to crews where their bread and butter was needed. For example if you were good at white collar crimes, they’ll throw you in a Manhattan/Brooklyn crew because those boroughs are the 2 richest boroughs.

Were Brooklyn crews known for white collar crimes? If so can anyone provide examples?

If I’m not mistaking, Michael Franzese’s crew was deep into white collar crimes

Michael franzese crew was based out of long island his father moved them out of brooklyn. I guess his russian gas guys would been more in bk. I remember his first book in the 90tys maybe he didnt want to talk about the brooklyn guys cause i dont remeber him mentioning any persico or any of there relatives . I mean he was letting sleeping dogs lay im assuming he been mentioning them alot in the last few videos hes made after carmine died

I still dont believe his bullshit about bringing carmine 2 million a week in the 1980tys. Thats crazy he says 100k a week which according to my math is 5.5 million a year that seems believable. 2 mill the persicos wouldnt even know were to put that much paper money. Thata like 100mill in 1 yrs get the fuck outta here. The whole 100 colombo family soldiers would have been killing each other over that much dough no way

Agreed I think that was a exaggerated number Franzese threw out there to sell his story, do I think he made millions yeah but not that much. Like you said if he brought that much they woulda been a war between alll the families not just the Colombo’s. Is perisco relatives even loaded like that? I know John gambinos family is loaded to the point his grand kids, grand kids, grand kids are set. They can wipe their ass with $100 bills and not hurt their pockets

i mean hes lying saying hes bringing his boss carmine 2 mill a week, that means hes making 4 and giving carmine half. no way. if he wants to say all the russians and italians circa 1981 were scamming the usa gov out of 2million a week in stolen gas taxes id find that a little more believable. but hes bringing carmine 2 milllion a week in tribute money is strait big nutcase case lies. paul castelanno would have had killed michael and his whole crew and like you said all 5 families would have went to war. the concrete club i think still made more money for the colombos mike just likes the light. i believe he made millions but that shit was cutt up 50 different ways then him and just carmine splitting a few mill everyweek profit

did michael even have a made guy under him or was he just protected by his dad huge crew of long island guys. kinda fell like he never propoed guys and carmine gave him a title as capo and just had him report direct to the bosses or carmine himself when hes not in jail. ive never heard mike prepose someone. i will give him credit geting made at like 24 25 yrs old and actualy going out and earning cause his dad sonny was always locked up so he didnt exactly ride the ccoat 100 percent

How much money do you think John Gambino made compared to what Franzese said that he made? Just as much? As for the 2 mill a week to Persico, I would guess that he means on a great week. It probably varied from 6 figures to 7 maybe but I think there is no doubt that Franzese was probably making millions a week himself along with his partner Larry Iorizzo. Franzese along with a few others were making that overseas Italian OC level of money. Maybe not like the top Italian guys who were close to billionaires but he sure lasted longer than most of them.

That family got to be in the 8-9 figures the gambinos/inzerillos, today. I’m sure franzese is a millionaire but he don’t got their money

John Gambino’s family is also in bed with high level politicians and businessmen aren’t they? And I’m sure their net worth just keeps growing. Maybe they’ll be a billionaire dynasty-like family. Would be very Godfather-esque. If Franzese was able to continue what he was doing and eventually legitimize his businesses then he might have that type of money/power that John Gambino’s family has now.

politicians being in bed with OC died in the 60s 70s. There’s too much money coming from corporate America for them to fool around with criminals. They’ll grease a union official before someone who sits on the senates seat

That’s how I look at it too. The American mob has really lost its way since then. It seems like the Gambinos(John and his family) are the only family that has really become a potential generational wealth family. Carlo’s, Paul’s and Gigante’s families as well actually. Tommy Gambino might have more money than everyone who was in that life.

Many crews were dominant in Harlem and the Bronx historically like the Genovese. I am not sure if a Brooklyn gangster ever took the top spot within the genovese family.

Frank Tieri was from Brooklyn although it is debatable wether he was the actual boss or just acting boss.

In south Brooklyn the first major modern boss was Frankie Yale. His funeral was the biggest mafia funeral in NY ever. He was one of a new breed of gangster who believed in putting business ahead of ego, but for some reason Yale is somewhat overlooked in crime histories.

I think because he was never really apart of the commission. He died right before what some could consider the golden age of the American mob. Also, I don’t think he belonged to a particular mafia family. Did he teach Luciano and others about putting business first?

I'm sure he dealt with the Camorra gangs and the Sicilians part of his territory was taken over by Profaci.

Historically have Manhattan bosses, captains been more business oriented while Brooklyn bosses been more "blue collar"? I know these are sweeping generalizations and I don't believe one area is more "sophisticated" than the other. There's just more money in Manhattan, that's obvious, and I'm wondering if that made a difference in how the mobsters came up.

That’s a good question. Lucchese was known as the white collar don. I can’t think of any big white collars schemes he had right now though. But nonetheless the power base for the family was in Manhattan. Same with the Genovese who were more white collar. Castellano was white collar and he was taken out by the Brooklyn powers that be in the gambino family who were more blue collar oriented.

Where do you think he would’ve fallen had he lived? Would he have been a boss in his own family or would his crew have been absorbed by one of the 5 families?

Another Brooklyn mobster was Alphonse Malangone of the Genovese family. Very powerful and rich member who was friends with Gotti among others. He had a large piece of the garbage hauling rackets.

Difficult to say because in the beginning many guys switched sides like Luciano from Masseria to Maranzano and later also turning on the latter. Yale became close to Maranzano though so maybe Bonannos.

allie shades must have had a powerfull crew he comes from under that guy mickey genoroso who was acting undeboss when chin put barney as the street boss and was said to be underbpss during the 2000"s up to his death a few years ago. but allie shades was the genoese garbage king he shared that with jimmy brown from the gambinos. ive read the famous nightclub in brooklyn pastels was allie shades and it seems just about every family hung out there even gotti.

PMAC i think allies guy was pete defeo

was that the guy petey pumps? i read about some guy petey pumps he was always with funzi tieri in brooklyn in the 70tys . greg scarpa was heavily informing on him

I bet Allie shades and Gotti didn’t hang out too often after he took out Castellano and Chin wanted to kill Gotti. I have been reading about Allie Shades though and you are right. Very powerful crew that made a ton of money with Romano and Rosario Gangi I think. I think Angelo Ponte was a member of the crew too and he had a carting business that was huge.