War ? Gambino vs Genovese after big paulie hit.

Which family would have won any war if it escalated 1985-86.

What was the manpower, firepower, at each family's disposal.

Genovese

Make a good movie plot. Not much else.

Short answer, it never would have happened. Not in a million years. Both families were making way too much fucking money in 1985 to bring it to a halt with a so-called "all out war."

Honestly if it came down to an all out war, i think it would be ended by a boss getting killed by his own guys who see a war as an opportunity to take the reigns themselves, while being heros for ending the bloodshed. Just imo....

*IF* we had to come up with an answer, I'd say the Genoveses would win simply because the other families were pissed about the Castellano hit so they most likely would of sided with the Genoveses to get rid of Gotti, but like everyone else has said, it wouldn't happen because there was too much money to lose.

Even without the IF! The Genovese Family would have CRUSHED all four other families. They had the guys, stomach and strategists to win. No sweat! Plus Chin was a ruthless mother fucker!

Point about Chin, you don't think he could have one of his own guys make a bomb? He had two guys willing to do his dirty work for him. They did all the work and Chin could play dumb. If there was backlash it would have been at Amuso and Casso.

Another case in point is when they played that sucker from Philly to kill his own boss. Chin let that idiot do the work and then the Genovese guys went in and make a fortune.

The guy was ruthless and very smart! Dangerous combination. Throw in his balls and cast iron will.

Columbo Family: they would have shot each other- scratch them
Lucchese family: good adversary, not enough experience and brains
Bonanno Family: just didnt have the personnel
Gambino Family: lots of food press, not much in the brains or organization department

Genovese Family membership 1985-6 ?.

Guessing, close to 500. But remember they were always quality of quantity. However add the thousand or so fringe guys who would have jumped in firing all over to score some brownie points!

Carlo Gambino, Famliy would have had 500 in 1976 ?

Gabino Famliy membership in 1985-6 ?

No idea, there all inbreeds, who could keep track!

Yes i know it is hard to keep track.

Don Carlo Gambino, Famliy was said to be main ones in 1976.

Just thinking did the Genovese take over from them in the ten years to 1985-6 or Genovese Famliy had always more men.

Take over? Your asking if they had more guys?

According to the feds they were around 200 or so. Gambinos were around 250.

Take over ? more guys in the ten years from Don Carlo passed away.

You see to people outside USA people think the Gambino were the main guys in New York not only in 1976 but 1985-6 to John Gotti because of the press reports of Gotti trail.

According to the feds they were around 200 or so. Gambinos were around 250.

Show your cards! I dont buy it! That was the tail end of it all. If they said it, pull your file and prove me wrong.

First, would I be wrong to assume you won't care how many cards I show you?

Second, I don't think either the Genovese or Gambino families ever had as many as 500 members. The highest I've seen was 450 and 400, respectively, and those were the numbers Joe Bonanno cited. And this was back in the 1950's and 1960's when the same close tabs weren't keep on the families.

In 1988, the "25 years after Valachi" report cited approximately 200 members for both the Genovese and Gambino families.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/125163NCJRS.pdf


In 1989, the New Jersey OC report cited 300 members for the Genovese family and 250 for the Gambinos.
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/annual21.pdf


Even the rather inflated figures Selwyn Raab cited for that time period in his otherwise very good book, Five Families, weren't that high - 400 for the Gambinos and at least 300 for the Genovese.


If you look back, the NY families seem to have had a set amount of members each of them can have. For, say, the last 25 years or so the average estimates have been relatively consistent. Of course, there were always be extreme estimates one way or the other. But one thing is for sure, neither family had anywhere close to 500 made members in the 1980's; if ever.

Nice post Ivy.

Boy what a suck up

The guy went off and came back with some facts for the thread he may have went to North Jersey but he did not get the facts of you if he went there.

"Remember your the Gambino Family, and dont think for a second that anybody, anywhere will EVER...EVER fuck with us" - Gotti Sr

Gotti said a lot of things, most never came true. Go back and read about the FBI on his doorstep telling him the "Westside" was coming for him. Agents reports states the fear in Gotti's demeanor. He knew his balls were bigger than his brains and was screwed one way or another

I think Gotti just said that to instill confidence in his troops. Sure Gotti had balls but he was far from fearless if you go by certain accounts. In the balls department, I think it's always been hard to outdo the Gambinos, but brains? Hands down the Genovese with all their old-timers and hardly no rats. It's safe to agree though that during Carlo's reign, the two families were probably inseperable in terms of power. In my view the Genovese were always the true Cosa Nostra gangsters.

LCN, some of the fearless or stupid Gotti traits I was speaking of we're the McBratney killing in front of fifty people! The killing Castellano plot and execution, regardless if Paul was hated he was still the boss of a top family. And truth be told just his behaviorto flaunt who he was when out day to day! We can define any of these as fearless, stupid etc I suppose.

Actually the FBI estimated the membership totals during that time of the Genoveses to be 275 and the Gambinos 300.

I'm even skeptical they ever had as many as 400. I think that at their height both families probably had closer to 300 made members. In the 1970s there were mass ceremonies to fill up the ranks of members that had died since 1957. So it is reasonable to assume that the numbers in the 1970s would be comparable to the numbers in the 1950s.

Ok, let me ask this. Today we are told the Genovese Family has between 275- 300 memebers? You doubt there was much more back in the golden days of the 30's thru the late 60's? Also the FBI estimates back in the 60's and 70's are not accurate in the least. The FBI by thier own admission was chasing ghosts and had no clue who was who back then. You don't think hundreds of guys slipped under the radar? Just some food for thought.

It was actually Armand Assante who said that, Dap .

Although I don't doubt that Gotti said many similar things over the years .