But I'm wondering how Carlo Gambino's family could have surpassed the Genovese family at some point, without initiating new members from 1957 till 1972. How could they have got 300 made men back then?
Membership estimates that far back vary to one degree or another. The two families have always been close in terms of size. The two largest in both New York and the nation. Before Carlo Gambino took over, the Genovese Family was said to be about 450 members and the Gambino Family about 400 members. During Carlo's reign, it appears the Gambinos surpassed the Genovese slightly in size, with the Gambino Family at about 250 members and the Genovese Family at about 200 members by the late 1980's.
Multiple sources (including the Mafia Encyclopedia, Mafia dynasty, and even Jeri Capeci if I remember correctly) state that Carlo Gambino made his family one of the most if not the most powerful during his reign. John H. Davis, the writer of Mafia Dynasty, even writes that it's just a myth that the mob didn't initiate new members from 1957.
That's why I said the books were generally closed. There were some exceptions here and there. For example, Nino Gaggi was supposedly made in 1960.
Another example is Joe Massino, who reputedly made his Bonanno family almost rivaling the Gambinos in numbers of made men, when they were previously decimated during the 1980s trials.
When the Bonannos had their resurgence during the last decade, they
may have gotten as high as 150 members. Up from about 100 or so in the late 1990's. Meanwhile, the Gambinos remained at about 200 members during that time and now. The Bonannos are currently at somewhere between 115-125 members.
