Patriarca Junior??? I can't see that being true. Can Furio or anyone from Prov/Boston confirm this? Being from Prov I'd never heard that being the case.

He's just some Russian fan boy. It really makes me laugh when these random kids go around on the internet, blabbering on how the Russians are the toughest and most feared and biggest and blah blah blah. Like you said ciment, there is no proof to show the Russians are so powerful. Sure they may be very powerful in Russia, but so are the Italians in Italy, the mexicans in Mexico, triads in China, and so on so forth, so a point can't be made there, you have to look outside the country of origin. Outside of Russia, the Russians may have some power in eastern Europe, and a few guys scattered here and there in spain and some other countries but not nearly to the extent of the Italians. You got huge families in Canada, clans in germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Venezuela, other parts of South America and of course the United States where they continue to make headlines year after year. Where are the Russians? And don't give the Bs excuse that they are so secretive they can't ever get caught, because that's bullshit. They are just small and low-key so nobody in law enforcement really gives a shit about them. There's no heirarchies or anything I can really find anywhere for Russian groups in Canada or the US. What do the Russians have in the us? A few gavone's in Brighton Beach, and some outposts in Florida and LA. You can't even begin to compare that to the lcn, even it's weakened state today, that still has thousands of guys. The five families still dominate organized crime in New York City, the largest and arguably most important city in the us, and I would also say they are still the most important players throughout the whole east coast, chicago and detroit. (And arguably some other cities too). So I would definitely say the Russians are second tier to the Italians. The only reason people make them out to be big are because they aren't Italian and just want to bust the Italians balls. The same argument can be made for the other oc groups. Sure they are powerful in their home countries, but worldwide they aren't nothing like the Italians. And you gotta remember, countries like Mexico and China are less developed and more corrupt than Italy in the present day, so it's easier to do crime in these places.

That's ridiculous and completely unfounded. The FBI love to publicly announced and brag when they bust organized crime rings, plus it makes the public know they are "doing something useful". I rarely if ever see them busting Russians, maybe one relatively smaller bust every few years, not even. Meanwhile there are multiple la Cosa nostra busts a year, a few small ones and usually one bigger one. And the lcn is a low key organization these days. If there were Russian mob busts in the us, people would likely be posting about them on this site, but there aren't because the Russian mob in the US mostly exists in the imagination of kids who don't know any better. Please stop trying to blow up these gavone's to be much bigger than what they really are, Russian OC in the United States is not that much.

It was very common back in the for Italians to change their names to try to fit in

I.E. I have a friend 100% Italian last name back in Italy was Oliveri his grandfather chaged it to Oliver to give their family a better chance at the American dream
That's what they thought at the time anyway

Was Frank Martines of philly mob fame a made guy? He was alledgedly Stanfa's underboss but his last name sounds Spanish or Mexican. Maybe his mother was Sicilian? Not much info out there on the guy.

in southern italy there are some spanish surnames, because south italy was under spain kingdom in the past
there are some people named martines, martinez, lopez etc.

The original rule of Cosa Nostra was that made members had to be 100% Sicilian. Naturally, I suppose, as it is the Sicilian Mafia. That being said, when the Moustached Petes consolidated power in New York during the early 20th century, masterminds like Lucky Luciano realized they could make far more money, gain far more power and influence, and really run a far more vast enterprise by doing business with non-Sicilians. Luciano was good friends with Meyer Lansky of course and many Jewish mobsters were close business associates with LCN members. Also during this time, the books were opened up to Italian-Americans, even if their ancestry was traced back to the mainland rather than Sicily. It was a controversial move. The mobsters back home didn't like this and some in the United States like Vito Genovese looked down upon working with men who were not Italian (although he himself was somewhat of an outsider in the organization as a Neapolitan). By mid-century, La Cosa Nostra members were instructed to "keep it within the family" and members married relatives of other members to ensure their blood was "pure." Associates could still be of other ethnicities (but always of European descent ) however nobody powerful would be a non-Italian. This became the norm through probably the seventies or the eighties when the mob was in disarray. At this point the rules were bent to the point where any man whose father was Italian could be initiated into the organization. Notable examples of this include the aforementioned "Cadillac Frank" Selemme whose mother was Irish, John Junior Gotti whose mother was a Russian Jew and Tommy Del whose mother was Polish. The former two were acting bosses of their respective families which would've been unheard of during the early days. They would've been whacked along with whoever sponsored and made them by the Sicilians the second their ancestry was discovered.

This rule remains more complicated to this day. It truly depends on the family. Some are stricter than others when it comes to "purity." These days its hard to find someone who is 100% Italian anyway. La Cosa Nostra could not realistically remain a force to be reckoned with had it not been for this rule change, however the most widely accepted agreement I've seen is that a person's father has to be Italian.

Now there have been a few examples of men being made who had zero Italian ancestry. John Veasey was made into the Philadelphia Crime Family by John Stanfa despite being a non-Italian. Vito Rizzuto was notoriously the most lenient in regards to ethnicity when he was the boss of Montreal. He has made members into his family who were not Italian at all. It is almost unfathamable, but the fact remains Juan Ramon Fernandez, a Spaniard, and Raynald Desjardins, a French Canadian, were made members of La Cosa Nostra and this caused quite a bit of friction between Rizzuto and the Sicilians. Fernandez was actually murdered in Italy.

So the question of whether or not someone has to be 100% Italian to be made is a complicated one, but the short answer is "no."

John Veasey's mother was from Sicily.

Also, wasn't Michael Franzese adopted by Sonny as a baby? Do we know if he was actually of Italian blood?

He looks reptilian. He's probably one of those lizard people that are related to the Bushes, the Rockefellers and the royal family.