I read somewhere that the Gambinos under Carlo Gambino didn't initiate new members until Carlo's death and Paul Castellano became the new boss. This had something to do with Albert Anastasia, who appearantly sold membership into his family. After Anastasia was killed, Vito Genovese and the other bosses therefore decided to stop initiating new members for a period of time.

It was said that Carlo Gambino had at some point 300 soldiers in his family. So we were to believe he made his family the biggest, without initiating new members? This suggests that the Gambinos already had that number of men before Don Carlo came to power. If this is true, it means that by the 1970s the families only had old men left as soldiers.

Something tells me this does not fit. Please enlighten me.