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Truth be told, many of the guys who operated out of state in these smaller territories and crews did extremely well for themselves. Most of these towns and cities had little to no gangland killings over the years, and most of the guys operated unimpeded by arrests and prison.

With the exception of New England where there was always a bloodbath for one reason or another, and Philly that was much the same, smaller crews did well. (these two are still considered major cities in the scheme of things).

Not only the bosses and capos, but the soldiers and associates as well. Most lived long lives, good lives. Life-styles that were the envy of many regular folks too.

They made money, bought nice homes, had businesses and other assets. Raised their children successfully, and died in bed with their shoes off. Ya gotta remember that there was a lot less competition to rule the roost from competing gangs and families. There was usually only 1 borgata or a single "regime" in the area. Think "Tripodi" regime of Steubenville, Ohio. Or the "Bufalino" Family of Pittston-Scranton, PA., "Iaconi" regime of Worcester, MA., "Curari-Scibelli" crew of Springfield, MA., La Rocca Family of Pittsburgh, of "Lanza Family" in San Jose and San Francisco, CA., etc., etc.

Often times these fellas went decades without a single murder. All the while they earned; bookmaking, numbers, dice and cards, slots, shylock, a few shakedowns, tribute, etc, etc.

Most stayed away from hard narcotics, truck hijacking, or other serious heavy crimes that they knew the FNBI, FBN, or other agencies would make a priority of. So like the little engine that could, they just chugged along year after year, just doing whatever their thing was, and built up their financial reserves.

The end result was that most didn't go to prison, when they did it was for several years not several decades. And with only one family in their area there was much less conflict and violence, owing to 1 central command. etc.

All you need to do is look at a review of the lives of the average mafioso from these small, out of the way areas to prove my point out. They generally lived better, less stressful lives.

NOTE: To be fair about it, there were many, many NY/NJ based mafiosi who lived similar lives. But those are typically the goodfellas that you don't read or even know about, because they mostly flew under the radar. No big arrests, or shootings, or vendetta's, etc. They lived as quietly as they could. In between all the fireworks going off all around them within the five-boros. The only time guys like this got fucked up was when they had to follow orders and get involved in activities (shootings, killings, rackets) that they would not normally engage in, if not for a higher-up ordering them to do so.

I have actually written bios on many of these lesser known goodfellas and associates. They are sprinkled in between the pages of our TNYM website. They were not only some of the lesser known sleepers, but important rank and file the actually moved the mob machine the way it had to go. Truthfully, I find these type of guys often much more interesting to explore.