How are the 5 NY families divided over NY...

The Genoveses are based in Manhattan, the Colombos and Bonannos are based in Brooklyn, the Gambinos in Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Luccheses in the Bronx....

But this isn't exactly so....I mean Paulie Vario's crew was in East New York, Brooklyn..

Can anyone tell me more about it???

Vario was under Luchesse.

The heads of the families didn't neccesarily only have control of a specific borough. They may have headquartered themselves in a specific borough, but it didn't neccesarily mean that the borough that they worked out of or had their headquarters in was exclusively their borough.

When Lucky Luciano formed The Commission, he and his members divided up the NEW YORK Turf, not specifically by borough, but by areas which included areas within the boroughs.


For instance the Lucchese family may have been centered in the Bronx, but one of their main businesses was trucking for the garment business. So it is very likely that he was given the trucking end of the garment district which was located in Manhatten.

Vincent Mangano ( eventually known as The Gambino Family ) controlled the Brooklyn waterfront, and The Bonannos owned the numbers rackets in brooklyn aka as the Italian lottery. So while Bonanno may have owned the numbers rackets, he did not have the right to put his bookies on the Brooklyn waterfronts to book bets without the consent of the Mangano/Gambino family. In all likelyhood any bookmaking operations owned by Bonanno that took place on the Mangano/Gambino controlled waterfront required that Mangano/Gambino got a piece, or a percentage of that action.

Then of course the Lucchese's who at the time had the rights to trucking probably worked with Mangano/Gambino where his trucks were used in the Brooklyn waterfront to move stuff to the Garment district where the Gambino's and the Lucchese's were partners in the Manhatten Garment district.

So basically the Boroughs themselves were not exclusively run by specific families. The territiories and businesses within those boroughs were divided up and distributed to the families.

Luciano and Lansky sort of formed a corporation, incorporating the five families, complete with a board of directors. And the businesses in the divided territories were like subsidiaries of this huge corporation. The idea was a brilliant one that worked for a very long time. But like anything else, eventually greed took over and slowly crumbled Luciano and Lansky's brilliant set up.


Don Cardi

Just to add to Don Cardi's excellent and informative post:
In New York City, the Five Families operate as a cartel, rather than a monopoly: they divide up activities rather than territories. Although greed and jealousy are the common denominators of Mafia life, they almost always try to avoid "turf wars," which are costly and destructive.

Very big rackets with citywide implications (such as airport hijacking, garment center trucking or controlling the price of concrete for construction) may have been founded by a single family. But that family usually finds it prudent to allow other families to participate. And even in neighborhoods where one family predominates, others may have some activities (like a few sports books or gambling dens) that were negotiated years or even decades earlier. In his book, "Underboss," Sammy Gravano describes such activites between the Columbo and Gambino families in his Brooklyn neighborhood, called Bensonhurst.
As for headquarters: It's where the Don lives. The Gambinos were headquartered in Brooklyn when Carlo was alive (he lived on Ocean Parkway); then Staten Island under Castellano (he lived on Todt Hill Road); then in Queens when Gotti lived there. Gotti actually had two headquarters "social clubs": one in Queens, the other in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan.

This might be off topic but this is one thing that annoys me about a lot of Mafia/Gangster movies, the families are always against each other. In almost every book I've read so far it always talks about Gambino being "in control" of all five families at some point, or families working together on certain rackets or splitting profits. From a strictly economic point of view, it would seem smart to have all families working together towards a common goal than constantly fighting and causing casualties and fed/police exposure.

And that is exactly what Luciano was able to achieve. By joining the major organized crime groups in New York, he formed what became known as a national crime syndicate. Luciano organized a decentralized structure in which the major crime families divided up territories and activities and met, when necessary, to work out and resolve differences between the various families. This governing body came to be known as "The Commission." This corporate type system was implemented in hopes to prevent all-out wars that had basically almost destroyed the Mafia in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Luciano's system allowed organized crime to grow even richer.

So my friend, you are correct.


Don Cardi

Yes, irritating, isn't it? They may badmouth each other, be jealous of each other--but they almost never wage war against each other.
In almost every book I've read so far it always talks about Gambino being "in control" of all five families at some point, or families working together on certain rackets or splitting profits. From a strictly economic point of view, it would seem smart to have all families working together towards a common goal than constantly fighting and causing casualties and fed/police exposure. [/QUOTE]
The Gambinos were never "in control" of all the families, even under Carlo--although the Gambinos may have been first among equals. They may not have split the profits, but they did divvy up the territories or share in the activities, which gave them equal shots at making profits.

TB- I thought at one point Gambino had blood relatives or very close allies in control of each family? I could be wrong obviously, I just like to check with others to see if I'm understanding things I'm reading or not.

Gambino's son married Tommy Lucchese's daughter, which helped cement their deal on garment center trucking. He also hand-picked Joe Columbo to run the former Profaci family after the Bonanno/Magliocco plot was exposed by Columbo. But, as far as I know, he had no ties with either the Bonnanos or the Genoveses.

Thanks for all your reactions

Gambino's son married Tommy Lucchese's daughter, which helped cement their deal on garment center trucking. He also hand-picked Joe Columbo to run the former Profaci family after the Bonanno/Magliocco plot was exposed by Columbo. But, as far as I know, he had no ties with either the Bonnanos or the Genoveses. [/b][/quote]Turnbull I read that Carlo was good friends with Tieri and was able to put him in control of the Genoveses.

Could well be. Gambino was the unofficial but acknowledged top boss in the city.