Nicky Scarfo
before him, the family of Philadelphia was the most stable, wafter Angelo Bruno, the Gentle Don was killed in 1980, began a bloody war that lasted for years, now the philly mob is the most dysfunctional family of la cosa nostra, and is about to become the new mickey mouse mafia.


John Gotti
came to power after killing his boss, he loved celebrities and fine clothes, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. after he was wiretrapped, the feds convinced sammy gravano to flip because Gotti would give him the blame for everything.



Anthony Casso
his paranoia and his bloody determination, to whack the jersey faction , convinced Peter Chiodo, Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco and others to flip .

All three are good choices, I consider Gotti the worst of this bunch though, because he inherited such a large and powerful organization, and when he was done with being the boss it was a shell of its former self. When Sammy the Bull was interviewed by the FBI (some of his 302's are on the Smoking Gun website) he listed 21 or 22 capos in the Gambino family. There was a bunch of big money makers among them too, like Patsy Conte, Tommy Gambino, and Jimmy Brown Failla. Gotti started making family members capo's like his son, and brother Pete, who weren't known for their smarts or money making abilities.

what about joe massino. He was the bonnano"s bouse until he flipped. A boss flipping thats as bad as it gets

good idea thebarber, i think victor orena that began, the third Colombo war, for this bloody war the commission kick off the colombo by the commission; Joe Massinothe first boss to wear a microphone and to embed its successor Vinni gorgeous Basciano, today the bonannos still not have a boss, Ralph Guarino a simple assocciate that almost led to extinction the DeCavalcante family.

Actually, Massino brought the Bonannos back to a much stronger point from where they were during the 1990's. Of course many of his top guys, and eventually Massino himself, later fell like dominoes.

Wasnt Massino also planning to change the families name to Massino instead of Bonanno? If he had continued unnoticed, he would have gotten the Bonannos back to the days when they were strong. Not a former shadow of itself

All good choices.

Yeah, he had started referring to the Family after himself. His reasoning was it shouldn't be called the Bonanno Family anymore since Joe Bonanno had written a book about his life. Ironically, Massino himself later went even further. I don't think the Massino name would have been taken on anyway. The five New York Families have been going by the same names for decades now.

Well, they blew up the chicken man in philly last night
Now, they blew up his house, too
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin ready for a fight
Gonna see what them racket boys can do

Bruce Springsteen Atlantic City



Little Nicky Scarfo Nicodemo led to ruin, the family of Philadelphia,gave permission to Gambinos and Genoveses ,

which according to some, acted in the shadows to kill Angelo Bruno, to operate in Atlantic City ,which was

previously the exclusive domain of philly mob.Start a war against Harry Riccobene which caused dozens of deaths and

injuries. because his family remained in the same size about 60 soldiers over thirty years, half still in jail,

making it the most dysfunctional family of the Mafia, close to become the mickey mouse LCN family of East Coast.


In front of sparks, body of Castellano
Block away watched by Gotti and Gravano
It's la Cosa Nostra, someone close approach you

Cam'ron Welcome To New York City



John Gotti aka The Dapper Don , aka the Teflon Don ruined the gambino, but not as Nicky Scarfo.When sammy gravano,

killed his boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Billotti in December 1985, Gambino was the most strong

family in New York with 350 men on the streets, after Gotti was convicted in 1992 it remained 150.When became the

new boss forced every made man and assocciate to pay tribute. Allowing the FBI to know the members of didn't knew

the existence, unlike Gambino and Castellano, made a lot of money through drugs, with his brother Gene,gotti was

jealous of he,because Gene become a man of honor before him. Gene was sentenced to 50 years for drug smuggling

heroin to be precise, inducted and promoted captains his son Junior who was acting boss from 1992 to 1999, and who

was a complet idiot. Gotti couldn't keep his mouth shut, so the feds convinced Gravano to testify because the

boss would fall all the blame on him . He was beaten in jail by a black and had promised $ 100,000 to the Aryan

Brotherhood to kill him but failed and died in prison of throat cancer in 2002, no high-rankin mobster went to his

funeral.

'Whack New Jersey'
Anthony ''gaspipe'' Casso



Anthony Casso with victor amuso heavily damaged the Lucchese family, becamed boss in 1987 amuso appointed Casso as

underboss.paranoid by nature, he killed anyone suspected of being a rat, new jersey faction led by michael Taccetta

gave an annual tribute of $ 50.000 to the family, Casso wanted more, but Taccetta refused. So casso with this

words 'whack New Jersey' ordered to kill all 40 members of the faction. Began a war that led to the death or

woundered men of both two factions.Many men like Peter Chiodo, Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco and others, agreed to

testify against casso and amuso.Both are serving a life sentence.


It soon rumored around the country that the Commission had played both sides during the Colombo War, not responding

to the questions asked by both Persico and Orena, of who would continue as the Boss of the Colombo crime family, in

an attempt to completely destroy the much wounded crime family by letting them fight each other.




Victor Orena

a powerful brooklyn capregime and in 1988 acting boss of the colombos, in 1991 after an the attempt on his life, On

June 20, 1991, a five-man hit team led by acting consigliere Carmine Sessa and John Pate and Hank Smurra (all men

controlled by Greg Scarpa) converged on Orena's home on Long Island planning to assassinate him. The plan failed

because Orena arrived home prematurely before the killers were ready. After the attempt on his life, he reached out

to the other families, asking the Mafia Commission's to legitimize his position, while Sessa appealed to the

Commission on behalf of Persico, portraying Orena as an upstart who was betraying his longtime boss, Orena already

had a strong reputation as an honorable man with the other crime families. The group acted without approval of

Carmine Persico, but Carmine Sessa and John Pate (said they did it to protect their lives from Orena. They claimed

they could not tell Theodore Persico, brother of Carmine for fear he would go to Orena. The general opinion was

that the attempted hit made made without approval from Carmine Persico because of Orena's strong stance against

narcotics,while Gregory Scarpa, John Pate and Carmine Sessa were involved in the sales of narcotics.Gregory "Greg

the Grim Reaper" Scarpa, Carmine Sessa and John Pate all became cooperators as informants for the F.B.I.
On November 18, 1991, Orena supporters began a war against the Persico faction, opening fire on Persico's top capo,

Gregory "Greg the Grim Reaper" Scarpa, Sr., it began the third colombo war.in 1993 after twenty and more murdered,

40 members of the persico faction was arrested,same thing happened to many members of orena faction,It was during

the "Colombo trials", that Greg Scarpa would be recognized as an informer and testify against dozens of members of

the Colombo crime family, including Vic Orena himself. In 4 federal cases there were acquittals including Victor

Orena's sons, William "Wild Bill"Cutolo and Alphonse" Allie Boy" Persico when revelations by several F.B.I. agents

exposed a 30-year relationship with the F.B.I. and interference to keep the murderous Scarpa on the street.

Addresses of murder targets were provided by agents and Scarpa was notified of informers in his vicinity. Carmine

Sessa testified that he saw agents visiting Scarpa in the hospital and was present when his wife said his "Friend"

a name for his F.B.I. handler, called and said that" he would not have to fear jail" for a crime he committed.This

fact did not stop Sessa from joining forces and remaining a follower of Scarpa.

In late 1992, Orena's most powerful caporegime, Pasquale "Patty" Amato, was arrested along with the remaining Orena

faction. Later, the imprisoned Carmine Persico and the remaining Persico faction claimed the victory of the Colombo

War.

It soon rumored around the country that the Commission had played both sides during the Colombo War, not responding

to the questions asked by both Persico and Orena, of who would continue as the Boss of the Colombo crime family, in

an attempt to completely destroy the much wounded crime family by letting them fight each other.

Victor Orena was tried on several counts of racketeering, murder and conspiracy to commit murder in New York City,

receiving life imprisonment

I wouldnt be surprised that the Commission would indeed let them fight out, but it is not a smart thing. It will draw more heat towards the mafia. Unless they were thinking that they could take over whatever is left of the Colombos. But its highly unlikely that a family that big would be destroyed by internal fighting. Sooner or later it will calm down and someone oldschool will take over the reigns.

Interseting;) thanks for sharing

Not trying to defend Casso,'cause he is a Machiavellian,sociopathic scumbag,but from a Cosa Nostra point of view,I always felt he was at least partly justified in his actions regarding the Jersey Crew.

Casso was the boss(well,underboss,but it was a power behind the throne situation),the rules were always that whatever the boss says,that's the way it is.The Jersey Crew were making millions,maybe tens of millions,and what they were kicking up(50 thousand a year) was,to put it simply,an insult.They should have expected it.

Also,him trying to "whack Jersey" was always a bit overstated.I may be wrong,but I always believed that he mainly tried to kill the Accetturos and a couple of other people,not the entire Jersey crew,which had 40 made guys and probably hundreds of associates

Justified? Come on, if Carlo Gambino, Tony Accardo, Lucky Luciano, hell even Angelo Bruno, those guys i would call justified. Not the likes of Casso, or Amuso, not even Gotti. Even though they were bosses, killing a whole crew cuz of that, no way.

The same could be said about Scarfo. Once he became the boss, he technically had the right to demand tribute and obedience from guys like Riccobene and others who balked at following the new leadership. Especially since Scarfo was backed as boss by New York.

Of course one could argue that, practically speaking, guys like Scarfo and Casso went about it too heavy-handed. They were too quick to kill and didn't really care how many bodies piled up. That doesn't exactly help with loyalty in the ranks.

You have to give credit to the Riccobenes, they were standup guys. How they managed to fight back against Scarfo. I always have some kind of respect towards them. What a wonderful movie it would be about the Riccobene wars.

Starz Planning to Remake 'Underbelly'
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/06/22/starz-planning-to-remake-underbelly/

would be really funny if, starz decided to do a remake of underbelly, focusing on the Scarfo-Riccobene war .
Little Nicky''Scarfo a violent mobster, who rose to prominence after his boss, was killed by his own men, with the consent of New York Families.

Harry Riccobene, a old school mobster, for him the loyalty and honor are everything in life.
neither of them wanted to die, neither wanted to give up power.
It would be war. A war that would upset Philadelphia, and brought to ruin the Philly mob''

I agree but to a lesser extent.From my understanding Riccobene was always more of an independent guy,he didn't really work together with the rest of the family even under Bruno.Where as the Jersey Crew I imagine were trading on the Lucchese family name.


Agreed.
But it's a double-edged sword.Casso demands more money,Accetturo tells him to go fuck himself,Casso sits still and takes it.How does that look?Makes Casso look weak,the Bronx faction starts getting ideas...

From my understanding,even though Casso was greatly respected for his earning potential,he wasn't really liked except by guys in his own inner circle because he made alot of enemies getting to the top.What was his saving grace was that basically 95 percent of the wiseguys across the five families were petrified of him.Especially after he got the two cops and the FBI guy on his payrol,no one knew the extent of his power,he was like a real life Keyser Soze.

The book "The Brotherhoods" which deals extensively with Casso and Al D'Arco in that documentary pretty much imply that when Gravano had bad dreams,they were of Casso :D,and Gravano was very high-up.

So I guess he had to keep the ball rolling...

Sollozzo said "..Blood is a BIG expense". All of the guys mentioned couldn't determine when someone had to go and it cost them and their organizations immensely.

I think that when you get rid of someone generally speaking it had better be for a reason that everyone else in the family could agree with and understand because otherwise you make a lot of very dangerous and greedy men more frightened and paranoid.

Also in a lot of these hits discussed there were quite a few people involved. It seems like one would want to limit the people directly involved. You can't inform on what you don't know about.

I would say the biggest was when Gotti ruined the Gambino with his own arrogance, flamboyance and vanity.
Gotti's knack of drawing heavy attention to cosa nostra had to have an adverse effect on the other 4 families!

Yeah we could add Casso and Gotti on a different list to, like Gary said. They destroyed much of the 5 families in those days.

The Mobster who ruined their Families official chart
1.Nicky Scarfo
2.John Gotti
3.Anthony Casso
4.Victor Orena
5.Joseph Massino
6.John Nardi
7.Ralph Guarino
8.Vincent Palermo
9.Anthony Pilotro
10.Carlos Marcello

This list is temporary, please give your suggestions

Seeing the current status of the Philadelphia family compared with their status in the 1970s, Scarfo definitely belongs on the top spot of the list. But he's not the only one who's responsible for their decline. If Bruno wasn't murdered by some idiot, it would not have been the same. Also, the war between Stanfa and Joey Merlino's thugs is what really brought down the family.

Vic Orena? That one is questionable to me, he wanted to take on the mantle from The Snake who was jailed for life at that time. He was extremely liked and a great earner by the family, and he had ordered Sessa to poll all the Captains together and vote on making him official Boss,thats when Sessa decided he didnt like that and carried out a Hit with some other guys and war started.

Maybe Carmine Persico should be on that list? What do you all think...

I agree with you on that DapperDon, i think that Vic Orena would have been a better boss, and perhaps even bring back glory to the Colombos. Carmine Persico still retaining the official title as Boss, is surely a signal of disorganization within the family. I would put Persico loyalists to the list also, not Orena.

And the Philly part, it all started with the killing of Bruno. So you could add Caponigro to the list also. It was the beginning of the end for the Philadelphia mob. Stanfa/ Merlino only added more heat to the fire allready started by the killing of Bruno.

Everything I've read about Vic Orena the opinion by the vast majority was he was a great guy and honorable man, considering the lifestyle he lived. I think Carmine Sessa did more to ruin the Colombo's then anyone from that period of time, and he basically got away unscathed, they say he flipped 10 minutes after being arrested.

Joe Messina really did mess the Bonanno's up after doing a great rebuilding them. I suppose his hand were tied though between all his inner circle flipping, and the dirty tactics of the government. It seems his innercircle was made up of mostly business type men who had a lot of money, and didn't want to spend the rest of their life in prison. The fact that the government wanted to take the homes of his mother and wife didn't help either.

But thats doesnt mean he can go and screw everyone else and destroy the thing that he worrked for years. His hands werent tied, cuz he still had the choice to do his time.

well its kind of hard to do your time when the govt threatens the death penalty against you but still he should have taken his medicine

'Massino was later charged with ordering the murders of Napolitano and Mirra. Massino was scheduled to go on trial for the second time for a separate murder trial, which he was also expected to lose. If convicted, he faced the death penalty. On February 4, 2005, the FBI revealed that Massino was the source for the graveyard. Hoping to save his life and his assets, Massino had begun to cooperate sometime in late September 2004 by recording conversations with his acting boss, Vincent Basciano."

I never said he shouldn't have just done his time. My point is the FBI can very vindictive and petty when they want to. They don't just go after the accused, they make it hell for the accused family too. That is not too mention all of the other dirty tactics they've participated in while investigating and prosecuting mafia figures. The entire witness protection program has become a joke, guys can live as a criminal for decades doing loads of devious things and get out of jail just for testifying against another criminal.

Thats exactly what i think of the FBI and the program, i agree with you on that. Most of the rats still contineu the criminal carreer.

New Chart

1.Nicky Scarfo
2.John Gotti
3.Anthony Casso
4.Greg Scarpa/Carmine Persico/Joseph Profaci
5.Joseph Massino
6.Joseph Gallo
7.John Nardi
8.Ralph Guarino
9.Vincent Palermo
10.Anthony Pilotro
11.Carlos Marcello

Joseph Profaci?