It certainly isn't tough to tell. Without making ceremonies, it wouldn't be Mafia. It would simply be a group of criminals loosely correlating schemes.

When a guy gets made, lots of stuff is involved: He's given a crew, usually guys he's familiar with, sometimes not. He's assigned a designated territory, assigned specific rackets. It's a very precise, calculated, lengthy process. There isn't any Mafia group anywhere on earth that doesn't make members, otherwise it would just be a gang.

People came to that conclusion that the making ceremonies began during O'Brien's reign as top boss based upon three occurrences: the first was the giancana wiretap. The second was the Infelise wiretap. The third was the Calabrese testimony.

Speculators heard Infelise & Calabrese, but were already under the impression that the Outfit didn't make members (completely ridiculous), and they figured that O'Brien must have been the one that "started" it. Also completely ridiculous.