I ran this poll for the past month on my blog www.fivefamiliesnyc.blogspot.com, the results are shown below, please weigh in on your thoughts.

Members absorbed by other families - 102 (21%)
The Persico's should relinquish power - 238 (50%)
Cut off all relations with other families - 41 (8%)
Let the FBI continue their onslaught - 93 (19%)

Total votes: 474


I voted for the second one and think the Persico's need to relinquish power. Easier said than done.

The Persico's should relinquish power i voted for that one too on your blog.They need someone on street.

For the Colombo's it would be best if the Persico's relinquished power. Carmine should've abdicated the throne 26 years ago. It would have saved a lot of informants and the third Colombo war. But its not going to happen until maybe when Carmine dies.

The Lucchese's got rid of Amuso recently as boss, but the Persico's still have a tight grip on their family.

A far as members being absorbed by other families: do they even want that? You'd get a guy in your crew you don't really know, and who comes from a family full of rats.

I'd say be absorbed.
In the long run there aren't enough Italian criminals to have 5 distinct families, especially as so many of the older guys are dying/getting locked up for life now.

Wait and see if in 20 or so years they don't merge more and more until for all intents and purposes they become a single family.

There are more Italians in New York than in Rome.Just a fact

idk about that, not in 20 or so years anyways, maybe in like 75/100...

aint there an option for them not to commit crime?

Wasnt there already members that were operating independantly from the family anyway. I think that they should adopt a system in which they operate separately but also can rely on each other for back up when needed. The strongest crew with the most numbers and money should take an authorative position settling disputes and also there should be a sort of bank for legal fees, weapons etc. Other than that the money and activities should stay within their own crews.

We can't know a thing,we don't know what will happen in next 20,30 years etc

Big economic crisis or the World War 3(i hope none of this happen) can lead to big mafia raise.

All five NY families will always have intersecting interests. But if you look at the cases involving two or more families over the past decade, the Colombos do have the least interaction with the rest.

true

last Colombo interaction with another family was in the big mob takedown indictments, when a gambino associate stabbed a colombo associate and the colombos wanted retribution/money to pay for his medical bills

There may be plenty of Italians left in NYC, but most are assimilated now.

It's always gonna be 1st and 2nd generation immigrants that will be criminals most of the time. once you get to the 4th generation like most Italians in NYC are now, they are Italian by surname only.

hit the nail right on the head

i personally know tons of italians who work on wall street, run nonprofits, work for the city, lawyers, doctors, etc

I think all the 5 families should merge.

Disbanding.

Doesn't teddy Persico get out of jail soon?

if they do make an official boss sometime soon i think its too late. they should of made new official beginning of this century. the colombos have had it now.

+1 for both posts.

Most Italian Americans don't need to resort to crime today. That's not something to lament (woe for the good old days when life was like a Scorsese film).

It's something to be proud of; and as a second generation Italian American, I am.

The merging thing never seemed like a possibility to me. At least not for the foreseeable future. These aren't legit corporations. A captain in one of the other families isn't going to want to suddenly become responsible for a bunch of Colombo guys that he doesn't know that well. While there may be some guys (associates) who drift over to other families, seems to me it would be more likely the other families would just let the Colombos continue to deteriorate and scoop up their rackets. Heck, the Genovese did that to the Gambinos in the 1990's. But again, we're a long way off from the Colombos fading out.

That's why you don't see the "industrialist" or "criminal mastermind" type of gangster too often anymore. These days I imagine guys like Al Capone or Angelo Bruno would just get MBAs or something.

It would be a hell of a lot easier for the feds to hammer away at one big "merged" family. Imagine if the five families merged, and then the boss of this new superfamily pulled a Massino.

Incidentally, I can't recall any examples of this "merger" thing actually being discussed by real mobsters. It's always been people on... crime message boards. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The last Commission meeting in 2000 was Bonanno family boss Joe Massino chaired the meeting, along with underboss Sal Vitale. Representing the Gambino family was captain Peter Gotti. Representing the Genovese family was captain Frank Giovanelli. Representing the Colombo family was consigliere Joel Cacace. And representing the Lucchese family was consigliere Louis Daidone. Among other things, those there changed the membership requirements back to 100% Italian blood for prospective members. Also discussed was breaking up the Colombo family, with it's members going to different families. But that was rejected because it wasn't realisitic and it was thought it would be disrespectful to Colombo boss Carmine Persico.

http://books.google.com/books?id=8pvyqAZ...ico&f=false

Didn't Joe Massino recently state that this wasn't a real Commission meeting?

It seems the idea to break up the Colombo family never got past the hypothetical stage. And that's when there was still a lot of tension from the Colombo war.

Again, I have to point out that the Colombos are nowhere near being the to the point where they're about to be extinct or could be merged with other families. It's almost like people have started thinking of it as the 4 NY families + the Colombos and that's not really the case, despite all the "sinking ship" jokes.

Incidentally, I've read from other sources that it was actually Larry Dentico that represented the Genovese family and not Fritzy.



Even though he chaired it, it seems Massino felt the real last legitimate Commission meeting was in the mid-1980's before the Commission case. Maybe that's because the meeting he held in 2000 didn't involve all 5 official bosses. And even before, that, it was only a few of the official bosses when the Genovese, Gambinos, and Luccheses met. Of course, others would go by even stricter definitions, and argue that, since the Commission originally also consisted of the Buffalo, Chicago, and later Philadelphia, and Detroit families, the 5 NY families alone can't properly be called the Commission. Though I'm not one of them.

Thank you Ivy for stating all that info which would have taken me too long to type lol

Below are two examples from the same paper; one saying the Colombos will be the first to become extinct, the other the Bonannos. And, let's not forget the state of the Luccheses back in the early-mid 1990's.

My point is, none of them are really that close to becoming extinct. And if you want to say the Colombos are, you have to say the other two NY families are too because it's not like the Luccheses or Bonannos are light years ahead of the Colombos.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/the_brutal_rise_and_bloody_fall_UZaDa6M0XwPiL68bCdBoTO/2

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/yes_we_have_no_bonannos_beqIqL1PSLA6O7jNCy4uzL

I would set the Luccheses ahead of both the Colombos and the Bonnanos at the moment. Not light years, but ahead. A decade of relative stability and leadership, especially compared to the other two smaller families.

But everybody was saying the same thing about the Luccheses 12 years ago as they are saying about the Colombos nowadays, true.

I thought most of the persico loyalist were in jail or dead. If they find new leadership they might throw the feds off the trail for a while anyway. Anyone that has the stink of persico and the 93 war and the fallout just seems to be cursed as the feds just seem to know too much about it and have garnered alot of informants from it.

I dont think they would go extinct. Someone who probably wasnt in the spotlight so much before will move his people in to the top of the family. It all depends upon whos got most allies, muscle and money.

When Kenji used to post on the RD, he said the Persicos still have a lot of extended family members on the street. Allie Boy getting the title after Carmine dies makes sense. The Persicos get to keep the big seat, and retain influence, but the day-to-day operations are run by other guys in the family, and the official boss is already behind bars.

Amen paisan... Second generation Italo-Americano here.

Did you ever correspond with Kenji on RD?

I go to University where Kenny's from.