In some ways the re-organization of the mob into the Five Families reminds me of post-WWI statecraft on the part of the allied powers, with the Mangano family as Iraq . . . .

If Mangano and Anastasia had no love for each other, why were they put into the same family? Was it a ploy by Luciano to keep South Brooklyn weak and divided?

And yet if there could be an independent Profaci family in South Brooklyn, why not also an independent Anastasia family and a small but cohesive Mangano family?

But instead, throughout its history, perhaps even into the present day, the Mangano-Anastasia-Gambino family would be polarized into two enduring factions.

What, then, was the reason for putting Anastasia and his docks into the Mangano family?

These families were riddled with Luciano allies, why I think the flow of power really should be examined by researchers, rank is a subjective thing during this time period, you got capos that would rate as super bosses today...

luciano learned from Daquila..placed loyal guys in families all over..

I am a firm believer that Anastasia and Luchesse were strategically placed by Luciano to ensure control of commission in future.

I think a lot of researchers realized this early on, which is why Luciano was often referred to as the "Head" of the Commission. He placed guys who were loyal to him in different families to keep an eye on the other bosses whom he may not have particularly trusted. The problem was when those guys rose to be the bosses of those families, they were more out for self and making themselves rich, than preserving Luciano's position. He still had some guys who would plot and scheme on others with him, like Lucchese & Gambino. But that was pretty much the extent of it.

Do you think Mangano was just a "figurehead" chairman of the commission, while the real power was with Luciano or was Mangano really a strong leader among other bosses?

Me personally, he may have been placed there to appease Bonanno & Profaci, and make them believe the "conservative" wing of the family actually had a say in anything.

There was no reorganization of the Mob into five Families. That's a myth. Each Family developed independently on its own. This idea of the chairman of the Commission being more powerful by virtue of him being the chairman is also false. Within the Commission, each person was, technically, equal. The chair set the agenda, made sure parliamentary procedures were followed, etc. The chairman wasn't superior to the other Commission members.

Yes, but was there not at least a re-organization "from above" of which people belonged to which family? Anastasia and Mangano may have both worked the Brooklyn waterfront, but surely they were not in the same family until after Maranzano or Luciano assigned them to the same family in 1931. Anastasia appears to have been closer to Costello and Luciano than to anyone in Brooklyn, though he of course had a great power-base in the ILA

Similarly, Gambino seems to have had stronger ties to Lucchese and Luciano than to people like Dellacroce or even perhaps Mangano. In fact, Gambino seems to have switched sides quite a bit during the Castellammarese War, and his ultimate landing spot in the Mangano family was perhaps more a matter of convenience than any true allegiance

So maybe the notion that Maranzano/Luciano was the "architect" of the Five Families is a myth, but was there nonetheless not a massive "re-assigning" of key personnel in 1931/32?

Maranzano and Luciano didn't go around reassigning people to different Families. Where are you getting this idea from that there was a reassigning of members?

Mangano was previously under Frank Scalise when he was the boss for a brief time, Manfredi Mineo before him, and Toto D'Aquila before him. We're not sure who Anastasia was with before Mineo, but he could have been with Mineo and stayed with him when Mineo took over the D'Aquila Family, or Anastasia could have been with D'Aquila before Mineo took over the Family (Mineo the boss of a separate Family in Brooklyn and made an arrangement with Joe Masseria to depose D'Aquila).

Very good question. I think that Mangano was very much a figurehead boss, particularly during the period right before Anastasia's rise. The reason is because the defacto Boss of Bosses was usually a Luciano Family boss or a Mangano Family boss, with immense power over narcotics importation on the NYC docks. But when you run the list of those bosses, Mangano is not ever on that list. So for what ever reason, he simply never wielded real power like a Luciano, Genovese, Carlo, Anastasia, Costello, Gigante, etc.

Was Anastasia 'placed' in that Family, or did he merely get inducted into the mafia like anyone else and simply ended up as a Mangano Family member? Someone else will need to chime in there recounting exactly how Albert ended up in the mafia.

I think a good question is asking why didn't Mangano nip the Albert situation in the bud. Here you have a Boss and an Underboss nearly coming to blows. Since when do you get up in your boss' face and not get whacked? A John Gotti would have killed Albert Anastasia himself.

There was no "Boss of Bosses" after 1931, and no "de facto" boss of bosses. That's just something made up by sensationalist writers. Some bosses are more powerful than others because they have larger crime families (the five Families of New York and Chicago), and two of those Families are especially large (Mangano/Gambino and Luciano/Genovese), giving them more influence.

Faith, you wouldn't call Carlo Gambino a defacto boss of bosses?

No. The only person for whom there was a claim of wanting to bring back the title was Vito Genovese, and I even doubt that. The whole idea of the Capo dei Capi was rejected in 1931. Carlo Gambino, like the other members of the Commission, formed political alliances, just like politicians do in Congress if they want to get a bill passed. Gambino formed one with Lucchese and Colombo, but they were all equals when it came to votes. Later Colombo went against what Gambino wanted with the Italian-American Civil Rights League, so they didn't agree on everything. Gambino certainly didn't pull any more weight than Genovese, Catena or Lombardo. Do you think that Gambino would try to tell those guys what to do? Or take the "Bananas War" that split up the Bonanno Family. That was led by Magaddino. Later on Magaddino had legal troubles and lost his influence and by 1968, Gambino and Catena were okay with Bonanno returning. It was politics.

LOL!

Well, let's face it. Colombo was an appointee. Genovese was eliminated. Carlo and Tommy could be said to have an equal partnership. But then after Tommy passed away, that left Carlo as the senior member of the Commission.

I think towards the end of his career, Don Carlo was a defacto.

How do we define a defacto Capo dei Capi? I don't even think our definitions are the same. Mine is a boss who other bosses defer to on certain issues. It could also be a boss who has the greatest sway whenever the Commission had to decide a thing.

Some bosses were strong, maybe even stronger than all the rest, but never attained defacto status due to being politically isolated on the Commission. That would be Galante, Anastasia, and Genovese.

Why not just call him the most influential boss instead of using a label that was rejected over 30 years earlier?

LOL. MVB, Most Valuable Boss?

I can understand your concern. Use of the term boss of bosses, regardless to any qualifier preceding, may distort history for the uninitiated.

But we here are not uninitiated.

If you want to continue using it, that's up to you. I reject it because it's historically inaccurate after 1931, not just for the uninitiated, but objectively false. It's like saying Obama's the de facto king of the world, or Putin is, or Merkel, or any influential world leader.

Fascinating thread....

Great point Alfa, it's like Mangano couldn't kill Albert, and yet Albert could kill MAngano but he had to be kinda sneaky about it, lest not upset PRofaci and BOnnano, also Bonnanno, in his arrogance, seems to have believed Albert was deferential to him, why I think they swallowed it, plus like Alfa pointed out because Costello backed it, hitting Albert would have been an attack on Costello, and basically a declaration of war against LUciano by default...

Obviously all of that went through Mangano's head, but it didn't help him much did it? He should have just called Albert to a meeting with just him and his brother Phillip Mangano present. Then only Vincenzo and Phillip walk out of the room. What difference would it have made? Mangano's fear of Luciano and Costello did him no good.

How do you guys feel about the theory that it was actually Joe Adonis that had the power in the Mangano family? He controlled the politics in Brooklyn, for one, and he probably coulda kept the peace between the Manganos and Anastasia...

carlo came here under the castellano,, daquila umbrella.

cleveland was a big player early on, after daquila was killed. n.y. plus families from all over the country went to cleveland for a meet, this was only two months after daquila was killed, his family was very close to those guys.

Bonanno, by his own account, hadn't returned to the NYC LCN environment after the "Bananas Wars". In fact in his book, most of what he talks about post 60's is familial issues and how the feds were on him for what he claims were things he had done in his past. In fact, he chooses specifically not to speak on anything NY LCN related post-60's, because by his own admission, he wasn't there. He announced being "permanently" retired in '68, and Paul Sciacca took over on the NY front, then Rusty Rastelli. The most that's mentioned of Bonanno post 60's, is the "Bonanno Arizona Faction", in various articles related to casino gambling.

This is a straight rip-off from Bill Feather's blog, which I will quote in full as it speaks directly to concerns of this thread . . . .

"A Sicilian-Calabrian conflict in South Brooklyn, over control of the territory formerly dominated by Frankie Yale."

Yale, real name Ioele and a Calabrian, controlled the local docks until his murder in July 1928. There followed the murder of Michele Abbatemarco, a close Yale associate, as Salvatore D’Aquila, the NYC Mafia Boss, attempted to claim the territory for the Sicilians. Four days later D’Aquila was killed, possibly by Yale loyalists supported by Joseph Masseria. The area remained volatile, with Calabrians like Johnny Giustra, Carmelo Liconti and Albert Anastasia active on the docks. Among the Sicilians Giuseppe Peraino, AKA the Clutching Hand, controlled President street in the Red Hook district, and Joseph Profaci was a rising force in the Bay Ridge area. These last two were members of a faction led by Salvatore DiBella, which evolved into the future Colombo Family.

In March 1930 Peraino reportedly attended a meeting in Brooklyn, called to broker a solution. It seems to have been a failure, as Peraino was killed the same day. Arrested for the murder was Joseph Florino, a Calabrian and close associate of Albert Anastasia, with whom he had spent several months on “Death Row”. At this point Profaci may have assumed control of the local Sicilian group. Several killings followed throughout the rest of 1930, including 4 in May. Anastasia was a suspect in the June murder of Carlo Bonacurso. An ex-Yale associate Giuseppe Micello was murdered in July, followed by another, Michael Pietro, in August. In the Pietro incident, Ernest [Hoppy] Rossi was wounded.

The carnage resumed in October when first Carmine Peraino, son of the “Clutch Hand”, was murdered. According to an informant called Sardini, the murder was committed by Profaci members at the request of Manfredi Mineo, a successor to Salvatore D’Aquila. On the 18th Giovanni Anselmo, a Sicilian and ex-associate of Giuseppe Peraino, was killed in Brooklyn. Revenge followed on the last day of the month as Nicholas Candido, a Calabrian was murdered. December brought an attempt on Cassandros [Tony the Chief] Bonasera, one of the men suspected in the Carmine Peraino murder and a known Profaci follower.

The new year [1931] started with an unsuccessful attempt to kill John Oddo, friend of Bonasera and future Profaci Capo. Both Bonasera and Oddo were wounded, but these incidents have never been claimed to be a part of the Masseria-Maranzano conflict. In fact Joseph Bonanno claims Profaci’s group was neutral during that conflict. In April Ernest [Hoppy] Rossi, the old Yale associate and survivor of the Pietro shooting, was killed. This was four days after Joe [the Boss] Masseria’s murder, and police thought it was connected. After Masseria’s death a truce was called in the “Castellammarese War “, and held until September.
During this period attempts were made to broker a peace deal between the Sicilian and Calabrian factions. Anastasia seems to have accepted a position in the new set-up, but at the price of betraying his old associates. Carmelo Liconti and John Giustra, fellow Calabrians, may have opposed the settlement. On their way to a meeting in Manhattan the pair had a puncture, and Liconti sent Giustra on to the meeting place whilst he stayed with the car. The meeting was a trap, and Giustra was killed on arrival there. Liconti booked himself into hospital, and sought to discover who had set him up. It seems he did not learn his lesson as two months later, in July, he attended another supposed meeting in a NYC hotel. The next morning his body was found stabbed in a hotel room. Anastasia took-over Giustra’s dock rackets, in association with Vincent Mangano. There remained one last loose end to clear-up, Peter Leone a brother-in-law of “Clutch Hand “ Peraino was killed 10 days later.

It must be remembered that all of the killings since April 1931 had occurred during the truce period in the “ Castellammarese War”. To understand the confusing reasons behind this series of murders it is important to look at its aftermath.

Anastasia and his Calabrian followers entered the old D’Aquila Family, soon to be headed by Vincent Mangano. He controlled the ILA Locals formerly under Giustra, and the Mangano Family took-over Liconti’s Coney Island territory. Meanwhile the Profaci Family retained a foothold on the docks, and absorbed several ex-Yale associates. Abbatemarco and Peraino relatives joined Profaci as Anastasia continued to be hostile to them.

In support of this interpretation, as well as my own research, I offer the following souces.

Dave Critchley on page 163 of his book The Origin of Organized Crime in America explains how some of Yale’s old group joined Masseria’s faction, while others went with Profaci. This split seemed to go along ethnic lines.
Anthony Carfano, Joe Adonis, Frank Galluccio, ect. all Neapolitans allied to Masseria, known to accept non-Sicilians into his Family. Sicilians like Peraino and his followers answered to D’Aquila’s successor, as NYC Mafia head. The exception to this being Frank Abbatemarco from Salerno, although he was related by marriage to the Fontana brothers, Sicilians and Profaci members.While as we have seen, the Calabrians remained independent and enemies of the Peraino-Profaci group.

In Alan Block’s book East Side / West Side he provides a list of Anastasia’s victims, including Peraino, Bonacurso, Barbieri, Martura and Simonelli. The source for this was Abe Reles. [Page 107]. On page 254 of the same book Seymour Magoon, a Jewish associate of Anastasia, states that Anastasia told him that he was an enemy of Harry Fontana. As previously shown, Fontana was a cousin of Michele and Frank Abbatemarco, and both he and Frank were future Profaci Capo’s.

Finally there was an article in the Los Angeles Times [13th June 1982] which stated that Anthony Peraino, son of Giuseppe “ Clutch Hand” and brother of Carmine, was ordered out of NYC by Anastasia. He only returned to Brooklyn after Anastasia’s murder in 1957. Anthony and his brother Joseph were members of the Profaci Family. Proof that Anastasia feared revenge as the man responsible for their father’s death.

That's the thing about Adonis. Wasn't he primarily a Luciano Family member? I think there might have been ambiguity about which family he worked for, or maybe there were supervisory duties on the docks that were shared by both families which somehow involved Joe Adonis. Not sure about this. Gotta check

i'll differ here, yale was close to daquila, not killed by him. i understanding was mass aria had capone guys clip yale.