I remember there were threads where we combined gangsters from different times and families to form a hypothetical "strongest", "most violent", "least violent" etc family, who would have been its members. While maybe rather naive, I have been thinking about making a chart of a hypothetical family which would be the least violent and especially funniest, not to be taken seriously. However, it's difficult to find gangsters in any way "likeable", I chose only 5 (I will explain below why I chose them). However, a boss with underboss and consigliere and 2 capos aren't enough: no soldiers, no associates. Maybe anyone has suggestions whom to put on the chart? The gangster has either be funny, relatively inoffensive, stupid or inept: to sum it up, the most far possible from the concept of "evil criminal mastermind". So I put this up:


hostare immagini

The reasons of the choice:

1) Ciro Terranova: I just can't take this guy seriously or as a "bad guy" character after watching the "Artichoke king" episode of the 1959-1962 series "The Untouchables". There, he is just a fat funny man continuously abused by underlings who never can get out of trouble with both them and the law enforcement. He is constantly pushed around, and if tries to react, gets himself into more trouble.

2) Carlo Caputo: no mafia wars on his turf, the only noticeable thing about him is having served 1 month for tax evasion.

3) Harry Riccobene: He is Santa Claus (at least physically appears to be him), and killed only to defend himself (Frank Monte and the attempt on Salvatore Testa).

4) Jimmy Fratianno: I included him just because he look inoffenisve and argued about Sinatra disrespecting him in a funny way in the documentary series "Crime Inc"

5) Willie Marfeo: not a gangster, but a bookmaker, an extremely stupid man but with BIG balls: told Patriarca to shit in his hat when asked to pay protection money, slapped Henry Tameleo and after that continued to walk around like a king who got immunity from bullets.

Uhm, Riccobene isn't to be taken seriously because he only killed to defend himself? Lol...The guy was made at the age of 18, was a huge earner in blue-collar traditional LCN rackets, like loan sharking & bookmaking, which in his day, sometimes required violence. Was a huge force in the methamphetamine trade in Philadelphia, another very violent business. Fought off Wayne Grande during an assassination attempt at the age of like, sixty eight. But he isn't to be taken seriously...

Untouchables was a television show, Terranova was long dead before that series even came into existence. Should we really believe that he was like that in real life?

Jimmy Fratianno is another guy who wouldn't think twice about putting two bullets in your head.


None of these guys were stupid, inept, or not dangerous.

You are right, but compared to guys like Casso, Anastasia, Scarfo and DeStefano they were almost harmless.
But anyway, you saw I titled it "Absurd thread", it's just to take a laugh. If we REALLY try to find a "genuinely likeable" guy in the mafia, there will be none.

I must have missed the last thread like this. I like the concept. We should do one for family most likely to kill themselves off within a year. Stick Galante, scarfo, spilotro, casso, and a few other psychos in a family and see who's the last one standing when the rest kill each other off