so the bonnano, columbo, and lucchese families each have a little over 100 members, gambinos about 200 and geneovese about 250, but i was looking for estimates of how many active members in each family(not in prison or retired)?

You can find such a list at the real deal forum.

Im sure you could find it in the archives here too.

well the colombos have around 40 to 50. does anyone know how many associates there are in the five families? becfause they say its around 1000 to 1500 for gambinos but other sources say something around 600?

How do u get on the real deal forum?I want to check it out but it wont let me.I think it would be in there intrests to let anyone view their forums because the more popular a website is the $$$ it makes in ad revenue.I could understand if u arnt allowed to post but anyone should be able to view

I've said before that I go with total members. And the reason is because the number of active guys on the street is constantly in flux. Guys going in prison, coming out of prison. Some guys more or less inactive and retired. And so on. So, while you can get accurate estimates in terms of total figures, guessing currently active is harder.

Figuring associates is much harder than figuring members. When it comes to members, a guy is made or he is not. But the definition of an associate can vary widely, which in turn makes the associate estimates go up or down. Even official estimates will range somewhere between 3 associates for every member to 10 associates for every member. For each family it's often up to the local FBI SAC.

And by the way, the Genovese are closer to 200. Not 250.

You have to be propOsed. Make friends on this board and someone will do it for you. A really good guy proposed me from here

I just remembered a couple articles in 2001 and 2004 in which they gave the FBI numbers for active members on the street at the time.

2001
Genovese - 152
Gambino - 130
Lucchese - 113
Colombo - 90
Bonanno - 85

DeCavalcante - 36


2004
Genovese - 142
Gambino - 168
Lucchese - 91
Colombo - 65
Bonanno - 146


You'll notice the big rise in numbers for the Bonannos by 2004. I think this was when Massino was making a lot of new guys, including ones based on made up names they found out of the phone book, and said there were deceased members that needed to be replaced. I remember reading how Sal Vitale and Jo Jo Corozzo accused each other of doing this.

Anyway, you can see that trying to figure current active members is especially tough, but the number fluctuates so much. I'm sure 2002 and 2003 figures were different, as well as today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1998026.stm
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/mob_wants_you_recruiting_drive_sends_2pQ9N4KbMlycThQrA8oIgL

you think its risen with gambino genovese and luccheses slightly? someone (not me) should use these figures to find out how many made men are on the street today!

Wow. It's been said before but the feds really dropped the bail by taking their focus off of the Bonanno's. You gotta wonder about the quality of all those new recruits though. Wasn't Peter Pellegrino of Kitchen Nightmares fame supposed to be made? I vaguely remember that law enforcement found out about the ceremony so it was cancelled.

http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com/2011/08/from-mobster-to-brokester-that-babylon.html

We'll only know the next time the feds release the numbers. You can get sort of a ballpark estimate by going with the total members a family has and looking at how many guys are currently in prison, under indictment, as well as the ones who are probably inactive due to age; both of which are on the charts.

And, of course, the families don't get to replace guys who have flipped. So, for instance, you can subtract 14 or 15 Bonanno rats from those numbers.

its interesting the rise of number in gambino's in the two charts ivy, I know we may not be able to put much stock into these but is it because the family was recovering from the Gotti and gravano mess?

Well I put stock in them because they're from the FBI. The rise in Gambino guys on the street was probably due to both the ones getting out of prison and new guys being made to replace ones who died.

i thought the genovese are the biggest now but appears not

Is it reasonable to think the Bonannos could still have 150 made men? It's not like 50 suddenly died within a few years?

In terms of total members, they are, though the Gambinos are not far behind. Who may have the most guys on the street at any one time varies from year to year.

Probably not. I think 150 was a max estimate before the defections started happening. So, if they actually did reach that high, they'd probably at least be down to 135 now because - as I said - they can't replace members who have flipped. In my opinion, I don't think any of the three smaller NY families have over 125 at this point.

Around 2000 the Bonannos were the third biggest family, so I imagine now, after ten years, they will still be slightly bigger than the Colombos and Luccheses, unless these families made a lot of new guys in recent years...

maybe for the Lucchese but def not for the Colombos

According to some recent estimates they are still slightly bigger. But you're talking a difference of maybe 15 or 20 members.

That's still a big crew.

Btw, when the Bonannos were estimated to have 150 made members a decade ago, did they include the members in Montreal or were these the numbers only in New York?