If someone were to ask me who I thought the most ruthless and murderous of all mob bosses was, my answer would most definitely be Nicodemo Scarfo, aka "Little Nicky" Scarfo of the Philadelphia crime family. He was Boss of the Philly Mob in the eighties, and was a far cry from the former long-time Boss in Philly, Angelo Bruno. Scarfo was well known for his hot temper and his quickness to resolve any problem with violence, including having his own men killed. His former crew members admitted that they all feared him because he was so unpredictable and violent. A well known case of Scarfo's extreme violent side was when he had Salvatore Testa, his right-hand man, murdered because he felt Testa was becoming too much of a star within the family, and he felt Testa would be a threat to his position.

I can't think of another Boss in Mob history where their crime family was so dysfunctional because the wiseguys in the family never knew which one of them the boss was going to order to have killed, no matter their position in the family. Scarfo was paranoid and would have a man killed for the slightest infraction.

Scarfo was eventually arrested, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. He's still alive, in his 80's I believe. Albert Anastasia and Roy DeMeo may have been equally as murderous and cold-blooded, but Scarfo's reign as Boss nearly brought down his own family because of his extreme violence.

Have you ever heard of Gas and The Terminator?

Nicodemo Who?

Smaldone in Denver, Colorado OR
Caputo in Madison, Wisconsin were by far the most toothless.

OH! You meant ruthless. My bad.

Toto Reina.

Salvatore "The Beast" Riina would be my vote. Personally killing at least 40 people and ordering hundreds more...

Anastasia should be in this convo

Just watched an Italian tv mini series called "Il capo dei capi" on Riina. Six 90 minute episodes. Pretty good...just wish the english subtitles were a little better since i don't understand italian. It's also called "Corleone".

1. Anastasia
2. Capone
3. Accardo
4. Gambino
5. Scarfo

***I'm sure some guys from the Italian Mafia families in Italy are up there, but these guys wiped out a lot of people in America

On one of the tv documentaries Leonetti said Scarfo told him if the philly guys didn't follow his orders he was going to bring down guys from NY to kill all of them and start over from scratch.

The Vic and Gas show got pretty psychotic too. They were killing everyone and of course Casso gave the infamous order to "Whack New Jersey" meaning the entire NJ faction of the Lucchese's.

But IMO no american gangster killed like Toto Riina did in sicily. He killed everyone, women, children, cops, judges...everyone. I think he makes guys like Scarfo and Casso look pretty tame. "The Beast" killed like nobody else i can think of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db_9vzJDTJg&list=PL7E0B54BBA13FD103

In terms of the most ruthless in the American LCN (not familiar with Riina, but will check him out), it has to be Gaspipe/Casso. This is mostly due to their violence towards their own made guys. The Luccheses seemingly had a relatively long period of internal peace with Gagliano, Lucchese, and Corallo....which made the violence of Vic/Gas seem even worse, by comparison.

Has there ever been a family that whacked, or attempted to whack, so many of their own members- including capos and acting boss? Fat Pete, D'Arco, Facciola, Acceturo, Ricciardi (heck, the entire Jersey faction), Pappadio, etc....
According to Philip Carlo, Gaspipe arranged a scheme to bust out Vic from jail. At the last minute, Amuso changed his mind and decided to stay in jail because he thought he was going to be whacked. And he was the boss of the family!

When Gas/Vic weren't killing their own guys, they were hunting down John Gotti and his top guys. They even had NYC cops (Eppolito, Carracappa), and FBI agent (Doug McCane) and Suffolk County detectives on their payroll....which resulted in more guys being whacked.

Salvatore The Beast Riina And Luciano Liggio

During the 1980s and early 1990s Riina and his Mafia faction, the Corleonesi, waged a ruthless campaign of violence against both rival mobsters and the state, which culminated in the assassination of the antimafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. This caused widespread public revulsion against the Mafia and led to a major crackdown by the authorities,

+1 Riina.

No one comes close to the Italians.

Rizzuto for North America this century. Last century Anastasia was a pretty cruel barstard.

Vito Genovese.

Those guys seem more stupid than ruthless. Once you start killing guys for no reason, people will start to rat.

In America, I would go with Galante

Scarfo and Anastasia I can see...Why Accardo and Gambino..? They were more shrewd than ruthless.

I can't decide betweeb Pino Greco and Filippo Marchese. They make all American gangsters seem like gentlemen, even Casso, Scarfo and DeMeo aren't up to their standards in terms of sadism in my opinion. Only Sam DeStefano and the ones who did the Action Jackson murder can be compared to them in my opinion.

I don't know about Gambino, but Accardo showed his personality with what he did to the burglars who robbed his house. Accardo is really a strange combination of criminal genius and occasional psycho.

Sicily boss, hands down Salvatore Riina. North America boss, Vito Rizzuto. United States boss, tie between Anastasia, Casso, and Scarfo.

The 2 more recent books (Mob Boss and Mafia Prince) give Scarfo and Casso a pretty good reason to be on the list.

I think most mobsters would have taught them a lesson

Yes, but I think a bullet in the head would have been enough.

I disagree. Most mobsters would not have ordered six murders over a burglary.

Point taken but he was a boss as well, you cant rob a boss.

Joe Masseria.