I understand what you're saying about Boardwalk Empire, but I think it does do a fairly good job of portraying actual figures, especially compared to Untouchables (Nitti) and Mobsters (95% of the movie). Torrio for example, I think is portrayed as having subtle cunning and he understands when to talk and when to listen. He reminds me very much of the way they talk about Carlo Gambino, who was very quiet and almost contemplative which other mobsters like Genovese mistook for weakness and cowardice. These guys arent Mensa members but they understand the situation, how to act, what to say, keeping friends close and enemies closer and other Art of Waresque stuff such as that. Torrio embodies that pretty well in BE I think and Rothstein is also portrayed very well (teaching young turks how to dress and how to talk and how to think). The only one that may be off is Luciano, but he was very young in that era and maybe he was closer to that potrayal than we realize. However, Luciano does seem adept at the importance of making alliances as well as knowing when to break alliances. It took him and Lansky 10 yrs from that show's time period to architech the modern mafia or combination. He probably learned a lot in that time and changed his attitude and how he carried himself. Just like Capone (who learned from Torrio, Guzik and Humphreys).